Have you seen this very cool mural in Hillcrest? It’s painted around a corner of the California Bank & Trust building at 3737 5th Avenue, a bit away from the street. I hadn’t noticed it until my most recent walk through the neighborhood, about a week ago.
The artwork celebrates San Diego!
Images in the mural include the downtown San Diego skyline (including the El Cortez and Coronado Bay Bridge), Balboa Park’s iconic California Tower and Cabrillo Bridge, the San Diego Zoo, Mission San Diego de Alcala, and the Hillcrest landmark sign!
The art was created by @AustinGosswiller and @JackStrickerArt. Looking at the latter’s Instagram page, it appears to have been painted in 2023.
Awesome!
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The new Paleo Center had its soft opening today at the San Diego Natural History Museum!
The Tom Deméré Paleontology Center has opened in the museum’s basement, where visitors can view a huge number of fossils behind glass windows and scientists at work in their processing lab! The new Paleo Center is a state-of-the-art facility that provides adequate room for the museum’s extensive fossil collection and frees up space in the museum for other collections and exhibits.
Visitors this morning could enter The NAT for free as the museum celebrated its 150 year anniversary with a “block party” in Balboa Park. (I’ll be posting a blog about the big event shortly!)
I walked down stairs to the Natural History Museum’s basement not knowing what to expect, and look what I discovered!
In addition to the processing lab and fossil storage space, museum volunteers and scientists had assembled several puzzles and displays for both young and old.
The Paleo Center is still being worked on and is scheduled to fully open in Spring 2025. Visitors were asked for suggestions for the center’s name. I suggested The Paleo Vault!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
“One’s home is one’s castle” is a literal reality in San Diego’s Serra Mesa neighborhood!
I’d heard this castle-house was under construction earlier this year, so today I took a walk in Serra Mesa to see it. It’s on a residential street among more ordinary looking homes. Can you imagine living here? How cool would that be!
It’s a private residence, so I’ll not provide an address. Just keep your eyes peeled if you happen to be driving in Serra Mesa. Out of the blue you might stumble upon a medieval castle!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
A very cool exhibit opened recently at the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park. The Myth of Superheroes celebrates the history of comic book heroes, and examines how many were inspired by the deities and heroes of ancient mythology.
It’s no coincidence. Flash is extremely fast like Roman god Mercury. Superman is super strong like Hercules. Aquaman is ruler of the oceans like Neptune. Some superheroes even take the names and characteristics of mythological characters: Thor, Odin and Loki from Norse mythology . . .Greek Zeus, Aries, Apollo, the Amazons…
Many of the writers and artists who created comic book superheroes have stated mythology was a direct inspiration.
Inspiration has also come from unique cultures and religious traditions around the world. The legend of King Arthur, Mesoamerican gods, the Great Spirit of Native Americans, the mysticism of Hinduism, the mysteries of ancient Egypt . . . and more. Superheroes (and supervillains) whose amazing powers are innate or magical can likely trace their origin to supernaturally gifted characters imagined long ago.
The Myth of Superheroes compares ancient myth with modern superheroes by displaying hundreds of objects including original comics, hand drawings, modern statues, action figures, and more. The images and information in the exhibition will excite anyone who loves comic books and their huge influence in the popular culture.
After viewing so many superheroes, and recalling my own youth (collecting Legion of Super-Heroes comic books), it occurred to me that what is common between ancient gods and superheroes is the idea of superhuman power. Supernatural power in ancient times explained the workings of a mysterious world; in our modern world, great power is a dream of youth and those who fantasize about exceeding an ordinary existence.
What do you think?
The Myth of Superheroes is definitely fun! Bring the kids! You can view it all at San Diego’s awesome Comic-Con Museum until February 15, 2025.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Whenever a new month comes around, it’s my custom to revisit interesting blog posts from five years ago.
Cool San Diego Sights, back in October 2019, featured a variety of photographs from around San Diego County. I shared photos taken in Leucadia, Escondido, Poway, Normal Heights, South Park, downtown . . . from a mountain man rendezvous to a tree climbing competition to the hidden treasures of the San Diego City Clerk Archives!
You might enjoy clicking on the following links!
To see lots of fun photographs, click the following links…
On the streets outside Petco Park, before today’s Postseason game, not only did I see dozens of different shirts that root for the Padres, but some of the designs were created by the fans themselves! For example, the Crone Zone shirt (and sign) above!
I also spotted fans with homemade signs to hold up in the ballpark during the game. Lots of creative swag chains, too!
Do you have a favorite Padres player: past or present? A favorite season? A favorite baseball memory or meme?
What you wear makes a statement!
That includes the smile you wear on your face!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Thousands of video live streamers and fans will soon be converging on the San Diego Convention Center. San Diego is getting ready for TwitchCon 2024!
This year, TwitchCon will be bigger than ever, and evidence of its popularity has begun to pop up around downtown–in particular the Gaslamp Quarter.
TwitchCon 2024 will run this weekend from September 20 to September 22. The San Diego Convention Center is already decorated for the event, as you can see from these photos taken Tuesday afternoon.
The TwitchCon Block Party will be held in the Gaslamp Quarter near the convention center on Fifth Avenue this Saturday, September 21, beginning at 7:00 pm. Head on down for three hours of food vendors, live music options, themed photo ops, plenty of spots to chill with friends, and more.
A bunch of advertisements concerning TwitchCon have appeared up and down Fifth Avenue. Here are two “glitchy” ones…
And check this one out. Find five marbleverse marbles and get free loot!
Gamers! This is really cool.
Bards & Cards at 936 Fifth Avenue will be hosting a free event. On Saturday, September 21, from 11 am to 4 pm, you can meet Briana White, the voice of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII Remake! Get her autograph and photos!
Briana White is also a Twitch streamer. She’s known as TheStrangeRebel.
Finally, if you’re a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, go check out the Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café at 910 J Street, just north of Petco Park. They debuted before Comic-Con and will remain open to the public until early November.
Inside they’ve got fun graphics for photo-ops, all sorts of Sonic merch, and really great fast food. Tonight I took home one of their Knuckles chicken sandwiches and it was tasty good!
UPDATE!
Next day, street lamp banners were appearing in the Gaslamp…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
It looks like a huge, three-dimensional blue squiggle, doesn’t it?
This twisty sculpture, by artist Ken Kelleher, is called Hand Drawn Sculpture. It’s located at the new Research and Development District (RaDD) complex on downtown San Diego’s waterfront.
Among RaDD’s five buildings, one can glimpse all sorts of public art: both sculptures and murals. I took some photos of the art that wasn’t fenced off during construction earlier this year, but I knew next to nothing about any of it.
Well, plaques have appeared near some artworks that are currently accessible to the public. Interesting information is provided about both art and artist.
I took these photographs this morning.
The abstract Hand Drawn Sculpture, according to its plaque, was created in 2023. It blurs the lines between two and three-dimensional art forms by merging the fluid, gestural lines of drawing with the tangible presence of sculpture…
Pretend the blue lines have no depth and were drawn on flat paper. Seen from different angles, the sculpture assumes different forms.
What do you see?
Very cool!
Look for more photos and descriptions of public art at RaDD in future blog posts!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Two very cool new murals were recently painted at the Grossmont Transit Center in La Mesa. One mural, titled Float On, faces the trolley tracks, and the other, titled Succession, can be found on the opposite side of the same wall, facing nearby bus stops.
San Diego artist Hugo Fernando Fierro (@hoyote) was spray painting a wall in City Heights today. He’s finishing off a huge, super cool mural on the side of Inscriptu: Custom Printing and Laser Engraving Services, at the corner of University Boulevard the 42nd Street.
I learned about this project from Carlos Quezada of Love City Heights, who told me that hopefully more great murals will be appearing in this east San Diego community’s future.
When I arrived to check out the artwork this afternoon, Hugo was taking a break and we struck up a conversation. Not only is he a great muralist (see other City Heights murals painted by Hugo here and here), but he’s an illustrator, video producer and animator.
Check out the artwork’s neon colors, crazy characters and complex, dynamic composition! When I asked for the title of this mural, he said he hadn’t decided yet.
Hugo then stepped onto the lift and began adding black spray paint to the mural, to resemble dripping printer’s ink. The touches of black make the colorful graphics pop even more.
If you look closely at the mural, you’ll see elements that pertain to Inscriptu, a print shop that specializes in large format.
One day local firefighters driving down the street paused to admire the developing artwork. They suggested that a reference to San Diego Fire Station 17 be added. Do you see it?
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Cool San Diego Sights! 