Tag: crazy

AI experiment: Martians arrive in San Diego!

I had a fun idea for a new AI experiment!

Last night I was rereading H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, when suddenly I wondered… What crazy images would the AI Drawing Assist function of my Samsung Galaxy smartphone create, should I use the text prompt: “Martians arrive in San Diego” and tap Generate.

I had my phone create the images in Pop Art style. That explains why words are sometimes splashed as if in a comic book. In many instances, the AI misspelled San Diego or produced absurd words.

I selected the best, most diverse images out of many that were produced.

Most had boats in a bay and flying saucers descending above a city that resembles San Diego. Certain skyscrapers like those of the Manchester Grand Hyatt are recognizable, even if oddly drawn or positioned.

A few surprising images had the green Martians themselves!

This is the third time I’ve experimented with the AI Drawing Assist on my phone. Would you like to see some more bizarre results?

Strange images of “Balboa Park at sunset” are here.

Eye-popping images of “San Diego 100 years in the future” are here!

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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.

Feel free to share!

San Diego becomes center of the cosplay universe!

There’s no denying that, at this moment, San Diego, California is the center of the entire cosplay universe!

Hundreds of cosplays can be seen everywhere in the city, mostly around the San Diego Convention Center. That’s because it’s the Saturday of Comic-Con 2025!

How does one convey the wild and crazy atmosphere? Take a look at some photos! Most of these were taken in the Gaslamp Quarter on Fifth Avenue. Now multiply it!

Every fandom imaginable is represented by creative cosplayers. There are traditional superheroes and a whole array of anime characters. There are colorful characters from television, movies, video games…

There are often-seen cosplays and esoteric cosplays. Some costumes are simple, others are incredibly elaborate. Young and old participate. There are even cosplaying pets!

I took these photos while navigating through the dense crowd this afternoon. Cosplayers were excited to strike poses for passersby. Much humor! Lots of smiles!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

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.

Feel free to share!

Fun, craziness, cosplay: it’s Comic-Con!

Just another collection of fun photos. I took these on the second day of Comic-Con 2025. Walking around San Diego during Comic-Con is like moving through a fantastic, improbable dream.

Imagination, creativity, cosplay, sudden surprises at every turn! As they say in one movie, Everything Is AWESOME!!!

I feel like a wide-eyed child again. Comic-Con never gets old!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

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.

Feel free to share!

A crazy bar mural in Mission Hills!

Question:

In San Diego, what do beer chuggers, extraterrestrials, an octopus, a drunk Swinging Friar and other Bad Friends have in common?

Answer:

They occupy a crazy mural tucked in an alley beside CJ’s Lounge in Mission Hills!

I don’t know who painted the mural or when, but it must illustrate the crazy, good times inside the BEST BAR IN THE WORLD! Because it says so!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Crazy, creative dresses in a fun fashion show!

An unusual fashion show took place today in San Diego. Whimsical dresses made of upcycled materials were a highlight of a Philippines Independence Day celebration. The cultural “lawn program” was held outdoors among Balboa Park’s International Cottages.

Local fashion designer Elsie Clavin used everything from newspapers to plastic straws to playing cards to bubble wrap to create these crazy dresses!

I don’t pretend to know anything about fashion, but I did enjoy this very colorful, very fun show!

I’m sure many of you will enjoy these photographs, too. I tried to write down some information as I took the pictures, but I fumbled around with camera and pen and fell well short of decent journalism. Again. Sorry.

Photo time…

First up, a dress made with playing cards and poker chips. Perfect for a visit to the casino!

Next, a dress made of old newspapers! Good news, I hope.

Here’s a skirt made of those color match samples you use to select paint! I did say these dresses are colorful!

Here’s a creative use of upcycled plastic straws and bubble wrap…

There are all sorts of upcycled materials in this next dress. I failed to write any of them down.

More playing card casino action with this couple…

Yes, plastic spoons, forks, and coffee filters can make an exquisitely elegant dress…

Burlap works, too…

I believe I heard that batik is an important part of the next incredible outfit! I’m probably wrong. (I welcome corrections in the comments.)

And finally here’s the fashion designer, Elsie Clavin herself, wearing a fun bubble wrap design!

I bet you’ve never seen a fashion show quite like this!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Crazy circus comes to UC San Diego!

The circus has come to UC San Diego!

La Jolla Playhouse’s annual WOW (Without Walls) Festival is taking place this weekend at several venues on the UCSD campus. FLIP Fabrique, a circus group based in Quebec, Canada, has drawn crowds to the Warren Mall, which is the central gathering place for the 2025 WOW Festival.

FLIP Fabrique’s performance is titled Summer Break–and it’s no usual circus act. It’s more like playful, energetic theatre with amazing acrobatics and breathtaking circus stunts! It’s crazy fun!

From the windows of the vacation bus excited summer campers wave. They’ve arrived and adventures await!

There’s laughter, a camp counselor, a water fight, kayaking, roasting marshmallows, falling down from a high place while inside a sleeping bag (and thankfully bouncing), and an epic pillow fight!

Don’t believe me? I’ve got the photos!

This super fun, highly original performance returns tomorrow, Sunday, at 2:30 pm. To see the entire WOW Festival schedule, click here.

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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.

Feel free to share!

An insane Halloween display in San Diego!

This front yard Halloween display has no equal in San Diego!

A wonderfully insane scene erected beside a sidewalk greets those passing through Serra Mesa. If you’ve driven down Murray Ridge Road, you’ve probably seen it.

This particular front yard has a history of immense displays that are jammed full of characters. The hand made figures are grimly humorous and madly inventive. The popular culture is often referenced, the San Diego Padres are rooted on, and our military is saluted. There’s politics mixed in too with a good helping of sarcasm.

Seeing all the bloody mayhem, one might develop goosebumps, or cringe, or laugh!

I’ve briefly spotted these crazy displays in years past. Because Halloween is approaching, I wanted a close look.

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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.

Another wild and crazy Saturday at Comic-Con!

Huge crowds–crowds so humungous and dense that a body can barely move! Sudden celebrity sightings! Amazing cosplay absolutely everywhere! Uninhibited creativity run amok! It must be another Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con!

Comic-Con 2024 has come roaring back after several difficult years due to COVID and a writers strike. This year it seems like nothing had happened at all. Practically everyone loves Comic-Con and San Diego is fortunate to host such a wildly popular and simply wonderful international event.

As someone who traveled to San Diego from out-of-state told me (after asking for directions to the convention center): this is nerd heaven!

Yes, I had to walk outside Comic-Con a couple times today, to experience the wild and crazy atmosphere. I took some photos of what I happened to run across, including one very famous actress out in the crowd!

Enjoy!

Wall to wall humanity behind the San Diego Convention Center.

Here comes Emilia Clarke off the IMDb Boat, leading actress in Game of Thrones!

Just walking along…

Looks like they’re taking a break.

Ranch dressing cosplay. You don’t see this every day.

Yes, if you don’t like crowds, this might not be for you!

The Incredible Hulk flexes for a photo!

A street musician.

Looks like the chef has emerged from Tacos El Gordo.

Spidey.

I can’t recognize about half the cosplays, sadly. Perhaps you can help me with this one.

A typical sight in the Gaslamp on the Saturday of Comic-Con.

Chainsaw Man cools down in the shade.

An arrival from a galaxy far, far away…

Those MTS workers at the trolley station have a front row seat to the Comic-Con craziness!

Happily promoting Grim Death.

Cosplay of Lucifer Morningstar from Hazbin Hotel.

Sword and shield at the ready!

Don’t ask me. I’m keeping my distance.

Oh, nooo! A mutant-seeking Sentinel has arrived. All those Wolverines now in San Diego better watch their back!

Phew! Doctor Strange has sent the Sentinel away using powerful magic.

These crazed Psycho guys have been hanging around Comic-Con all week. Someone should send them back to the Borderlands.

How sweet!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

A fun Friday stroll around Comic-Con!

If a traveler had arrived in San Diego today, not knowing our city is in the middle of Comic-Con, and if they were to walk anywhere downtown or near the San Diego Convention Center, they’d conclude people have gone completely nuts. And to a certain extent they’d be right! Nuts can be good!

Check out these photographs I took while strolling outside Comic-Con today. The crowds were enormous. Super creative cosplay was everywhere. Some silly, bizarre sights designed to attract attention certainly attracted my camera!

A throng of Deadpools riding unicorns? Marketing genius! Funny, too!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

How an Adult Swim(s) into a Pirate Parrrty!

Is this how a pirate parrrties? If you’re at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024, the answer is yes!

The Adult Swim Pirate Parrrty on the Green is a big, happening offsite activation that the public can freely enjoy behind the San Diego Convention Center. It starts each day at 1 pm and goes late into the night until 10 pm, through Saturday.

I swam into the piratical fun this mid-afternoon after a practically nonexistent wait in line. The first 1000 people to enter each day get free merch. I missed that.

But I did get to observe lots of would-be pirates having a blast, peering into silly porthole peepholes, taking their aim at a dunk tank, climbing an inflatable shipwreck and into the jaws of an alien monster, seesawing on a shark, beanbag tossing into the mouth of an friendly alien, riding a dinosaur…

Um, a dinosaur among pirates? It’s Adult Swim. When Rick and Morty are present, anything weird is possible.

Later in the evening there would be entertainment (on Thursday, Battle For the Booty wrestling) plus raffle prizes and DJ laser sets. You know pirates can get pretty wild.

Find more details about the Adult Swim Pirate Parrrty on the Green by clicking here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!