Tag: crazy

Dinosaurs, clowns and a dragon in East Village!

I frequently walk down Ninth Avenue past Modern Times Coffee in San Diego’s East Village. Whenever I do, I have to turn my head and glance inside.

Why?

Because the unusual coffee shop contains dinosaurs, clowns, a dragon and other wild, crazy sights!

The Modern Times Coffee website describes what patrons encounter as retro-future decor. Whatever you might call the outlandish assemblage, it’s a lot of fun!

Where else can you find Ronald McDonald sitting happily under a flying pterodactyl and disco ball?

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Sense of Wonder: creative fun in Oceanside!

This might be the most fun interactive art exhibition you’ll experience all year! It’s showing for one more week at the Oceanside Museum of Art, and it’s titled Aaron Kramer: Sense of Wonder.

Do you love crazy, clever, fun-loving inventions? Upstairs at the museum you’ll find loads of them! Playful artist Aaron Kramer likes to tinker and make mechanical wonders using found objects.

Visitors to the Oceanside Museum of Art can turn cranks and press buttons that activate wacky kinetic creations. Wires, old springs, bottles and tin cans, cardboard, odd pieces of wood, broken things–magically become spinning whirligigs, dipping hummingbirds, dancing figures . . . even contraptions that trace images on paper!

I’ve always loved these sort of whimsical creations. Remember that scene near the beginning of the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang–that crazy, elaborate Rube Goldberg-style contraption that automatically made breakfast? These small works of art are just as fun!

If you’re young at heart, you’ll be pressing every button and turning every crank! Through August 23, 2026, that is, when this super cool exhibition wraps up.

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To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)

Crazy creative fun on Saturday at Comic-Con 2026!

Saturday is the craziest, wildest, most creatively exciting day every year during San Diego Comic-Con. 2026 is no exception!

Look at what you might encounter by simply walking around downtown San Diego.

The Gaslamp Quarter in particular is absolutely jam packed with people, engaged in cosplay, enjoying the experience, coming and going to the convention center, offsites, restaurants, hotels…

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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!

The cosplay during SDCC will blow your mind!

Don’t head down to San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter during Comic-Con unless you want to blow your mind!

Amazing cosplay is everywhere! You’ll see every conceivable pop culture character!

It’s wonderful chaos!

Here comes yet another batch of photographs. It’s SDCC 2026. These were taken on Friday late afternoon…

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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!

Meeting the unexpected at San Diego Comic-Con!

Perhaps the best part of San Diego Comic-Con?

Suddenly meeting the unexpected!

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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!

AI creates bizarre San Diego weirdly!

Just a fun post.

I thought I’d activate Galaxy AI Drawing Assist on my Samsung smartphone and have it create crazy images of San Diego!

Using the text “bizarre San Diego weirdly” and the pop art setting generated some wild results!

Lots of big surfboards, waves, tacos, hot air balloons, lighthouses, and strange structures, some of which kind of look like San Diego buildings!

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!