The North County Cinco de Mayo Festival brought exuberant life to Grape Day Park in Escondido today. The annual event, produced by USA Multicultural, was said to be bigger than ever. And I believe it!
Those arriving from around San Diego’s North County enjoyed Mariachis, different groups of colorful folklórico dancers, great singers, and other (mostly) Mexican cultural entertainment.
And tons of food, of every description, everywhere! (I succumbed to the temptation of a scrumptious carne asada quesadilla.)
Nonprofit community organizations were also on hand, and more than a few artists were showing their work. Beautify Escondido was present, too. I’ll be blogging about their efforts next.
Enjoy this collection of photographs!
The 2024 North County Cinco de Mayo Festival gets started on a late Sunday afternoon at Escondido’s Grape Day Park.The National Anthems of both Mexico and the United States begin the Cinco de Mayo program.Mariachi Del Mar/Rio kick off the main stage entertainment.Mariachis perform at a second, smaller stage across the grass.The crowd grows as the Cinco de Mayo event continues.The House of Mexico had a smiling representative at the festival!Colorful art from Mexico’s state of Nayarit.Ms. USA Multicultural poses for a photo.Lots of cool art could be enjoyed courtesy of Beautify Escondido.Irma Gogova (@irmagogovatattoo_art) smiles near a cosmic work of art she created!Lots of diverse food to eat at the event.Loteria aprons! Awesome!Young people perform up on the festive stage.Young vaqueros dance on the main stage.
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In Balboa Park last weekend, a large group of families and children gathered around Jim Coffee and his extraordinary street organ. I joined them.
As Jim turned a crank to produce cheerful organ music, we all watched as automata brought small magical scenes to life in front of the organ. The street organ and its lively automata were all hand made!
I first met Jim in Balboa Park seven years ago. See those photos on my dormant Beautiful Balboa Park blog by clicking here. Back then he entertained passersby simply with the music of his 20 pipe “Misty” street organ. Today eight motors activate incredible small scenes mounted to the same organ–a carnival with turning Ferris wheel and merry-go-round, a flying helicopter with waving people, musicians playing instruments, and more!
With the addition of this fun automata, everyone who gathers around to listen and watch is even more enchanted!
If you want to learn more about Jim and his wonderful creations, visit his website 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!
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Looking for something fun to do in San Diego this weekend? Head over to City Heights both Saturday and Sunday for the premier of Jokes, Jazz, and Razzmatazz!
The Jokes, Jazz and Razzmatazz multimedia art installation is opening at the City Heights Culture Atelier. The Atelier is a new cultural center in City Heights where local artists collaborate in the development of personal and collective works. (Perhaps you recall seeing my photos of their Beyond the Anthropocene installation last year.)
The event includes an artist reception, stand-up comedy show and live Jazz! The art, music, and comedy experience will be spontaneous and unpredictable . . . a razzle-dazzle razzmatazz!
The Atelier is located at 4425 Home Avenue, at the intersection of Home Avenue and Fairmount Avenue (the Columbus Club of San Diego building).
The free event welcomes the public both today and tomorrow starting at 2 pm. See the graphic above for the schedule!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
A good sized crowd came out today to Balboa Park’s WorldBeat Cultural Center. The public was invited to take part in the 32nd Annual Multi-Cultural Earth Day!
Visitors to this unique Earth Day festival were not only treated to colorful multi-cultural entertainment, but had the opportunity to learn about two issues in particular: the changing climate and food accessibility. Visitors could also support organizations and local businesses that are trying in their own unique way to improve education, sustainability, and protect the environment. Artists and more ordinary vendors were present, too.
Special activities included a seed swap, a lesson on how to create and maintain a worm farm, and compost workshops. Kids could color fun artwork, too!
For the hungry crowd gathered outside in the San Diego sunshine, ethnic and vegetarian food vendors offered their special menus to choose from.
As you can see from my photos, I watched Azteca dancers perform for the crowd. They followed an impassioned speech by a holy man who once met the Dalai Lama. We need to raise our consciousness was his message.
Inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center I watched and listened to the joyful music of San Diego Taiko. I personally love energetic taiko drumming!
Other performances during the event would include Middle Eastern belly dance, West African drum and dance, Brazilian samba, and Native American drumming.
There were also tours of the center’s lush garden. I’ll have to do that next time.
I loved these Hopi Kachina dolls, made of cottonwood. They were hand carved by Arizona-based artist Elroy Kewanyama…
The following two ladies explained how Green Pocket Forest has partnered with the WorldBeat Cultural Center to create a 320 square meters Children’s Nature Zone, designed with the innovative Miyawaki method to spotlight 1000 native plants, providing habitat for 20+ species of birds and insects. Wow!
The San Diego Audubon Society table had tons of information about their current activities, plus beautiful bird artwork and a mural coloring station. (I learned their Bird Festival this year was a big success!)
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
A pen full of vulnerable sheep was attacked today in La Jolla. A wolf somehow infiltrated the UC San Diego campus and made its way to the small sheep pen at Revelle Plaza, where the terrified, trembling sheep were saved by a shepherd, who chased the wolf away.
Onlookers clapped as the wolf slinked away. That’s because they’d just witnessed a unique, often funny performance of Les moutons by Canadian company CORPUS. The strange act was part of this weekend’s La Jolla Playhouse 2024 WOW Festival!
The sheep might have been sheepish, but they did entertain the crowd with their dull stares, herd mentality, their shearing, milking and feeding sessions, and a couple of natural but unspeakable animal behaviors!
Here comes a ram through the astonished crowd? What does it want?
A howl was heard in the distance. Then…
Panic! Chaos! (My camera wasn’t fast enough.)
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
This coming Thursday–March 28, 2024–the Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego will have been opened for 100 years!
Those walking down the sidewalk past the historic building might notice some intriguing graphics that celebrate the big anniversary.
Look at my first photograph, taken this morning. Beside the stage door on Fourth Avenue you can see promotional material from 1924.
The Opening Night of San Diego’s Newest Motion Picture House Finished at Cost of $800,000 would feature Lilies of the Field. The film’s stars, Conway Tearle and Corinne Griffith, would also make a personal appearance.
Over the course of a century, the Balboa Theatre has undergone many changes, all the while remaining an important part of life in downtown San Diego.
Additional graphics along the sidewalk tell more of the Balboa Theatre’s unique story:
The Balboa Theatre’s Famous Morton Organ
…The organ has more than 1400 keys and is connected to a series of 2,000 pipes that produce the sounds of a range of musical instruments, including drums, trumpets, and a xylophone!
Because of its unusually ornate “wedding cake” console carvings and unique details, the Balboa ‘s is believe to be the first of only five Wonder Morton Organs ever built and one of only four that survive today…
Balboa Theatre organist Edward Swan, who provides organ accompaniment for up to 12 hours every day, claimed that the Morton organ was the finest he had ever played.
In 1929, the original Balboa Theatre organ was relocated to the Fox Theatre, now Copley Symphony Hall.
The 4-manual, 23-rank Wonder Morton Organ currently installed at the Balboa was constructed in 1929 for the Loew’s Valencia Theatre on Jamaica Avenue in Queens…
There will be a special showing at the Balboa Theatre this Friday to celebrate the big 100 year anniversary. The Flying Fleet, a 1929 silent movie that features scenes in San Diego, will be accompanied by the current Wonder Morton theatre pipe organ.
You can learn more about the event by clicking 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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Several walls inside the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park now feature an exhibit that chronicles the fight for women’s equality, highlighting successes by women in music, entertainment, art, and society at large. The exhibit makes use of informative displays that originally appeared in 2015 at the Women’s Museum of California.
Stories of trailblazers in the popular culture are told. In the 1960s and 70s, Helen Ready, Aretha Franklin, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Carole King and others filled the airwaves with music that related the experience of women and furthered their empowerment. In television, the advancement of women could be followed in shows like That Girl and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. With the 1968 television show Julia,Diahann Carroll become the first African-American leading actor on a sitcom.
As one sign explains: During the resurgence of the larger women’s movement in the 1960s and 70s, women artists, writers, choreographers, actors, filmmakers and playwrights sought to create a new dialogue between the viewer and their art through the inclusion of women’s perspective.
Other displays in the History Center concern the historic struggle for equal rights, including the women’s right to vote, as you can see in my photographs.
A couple years ago the Women’s Museum of California moved their archives and administrative offices from their old museum at Liberty Station into the San Diego History Center. Their presence has been online.
I’m told that in the future, a special gallery inside the History Center will be set aside for Women’s Museum of California exhibits.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
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A big celebration of St. Patrick’s Day was held this afternoon in San Diego. The House of Ireland presented their annual lawn program in Balboa Park, complete with Irish food, Irish music, Irish dancing, and Irish dogs!
A huge crowd gathered for the event. The lawn at the International Cottages was filled with humanity and a sea of green!
As the cultural entertainment began, traditionally dressed performers arrived in a festive procession. Soon thereafter, the Cameron Highlanders turned up the energy with their stirring bagpipes and booming drums.
Performances by several groups would follow. Sprightly Irish dancing earned tremendous applause. Musicians played Irish tunes. Several friendly Irish Wolfhounds took the stage, and we learned about their history in Ireland–the wolves didn’t stand a chance. Then more colorful Irish dancing by young people…
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
The Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego is celebrating its centennial. The old vaudeville/movie theatre opened in 1924, survived a threatened demolition, and has experienced a beautiful restoration. Today the Balboa Theatre is a popular concert and event venue whose splendid interior and pipe organ recalls what entertainment was like in San Diego a century ago.
I’ve learned a special event is coming on Friday, March 29, that honors both the historic theater’s centennial and San Diego’s military. The Flying Fleet, a silent movie released in 1929, will be returning to life, accompanied by the Wonder Morton theatre pipe organ played by Ken Double.
Much of The Flying Fleet was filmed in San Diego. Scenes depict two love smitten pilots training at Naval Air Station North Island. The romantic drama includes action from the United States Navy’s first aircraft carrier USS Langley! You might consider The Flying Fleet a melodramatic prequel to Top Gun!
Is your budget feeling stressed? Tickets are a whopping $3.50!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
San Diego’s future MLS soccer team, San Diego FC, brought its Chrome Ball Tour to Santee today!
A huge crowd turned out at the Town Center Park East recreational fields to watch and play in a big multi-team soccer tournament. In addition to the games, there were opportunities to learn about San Diego FC, meet sports fans and enthusiastic booster clubs, obtain team merchandise, and generally have a good time. The party continued even when the rain began!
The fun included the big, shiny Chrome Ball, which features the names of tour cities throughout San Diego County. The Chrome Ball Tour will continue through the end of 2024 and stop in 18 cities! You can see which cities are coming up by clicking here.
As I walked around and spoke to participants, I learned that the Star Wars group 18th Battalion supports San Diego Football Club, and that the Riptides are super passionate fans who also perform community service. And there were others–click here to see many diverse supporters of San Diego FC.
Are you excited that Major League Soccer is coming to San Diego? I absolutely saw that many people are!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 