A very cool street mural in North Park depicts icons from three decades: the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Check out this super cool street mural in North Park, on the side of a building near the corner of 30th Street and Adams Avenue! It’s titled “Remembering… 50’s 60’s 70’s” and was painted by the artist Kerry A. Moore in 2008. The mural depicts small, iconic scenes from what many might call the good old days! I searched like crazy but could find absolutely nothing about this fun street art on the internet.
How many entertainment legends and famous people from those three decades can you spot? Among others, I recognize Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, the I Love Lucy show, the Rat Pack, Martin Luther King, Jr., Neil Armstrong, the Beatles, JFK, Easy Rider, Jimi Hendrix, the original Star Wars, The Godfather, Happy Days, John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, and, of course, Rocky Balboa. I was a kid in the 70’s and remember many good times. Movies I remember fondly include Star Wars, Rocky and Superman. But most of my best old memories are probably from the 80’s, experiencing life and this great big world as a young adult. Wow, the years have gone by quickly.
I have a dream. Make love, not war. Happy Days. Revolutionary music, cool cars, sports heroes, and a space opera that changed entertainment forever. Bits of history and popular culture from America’s past. Now that is one jam-packed mural!
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On the set of Tonight in San Diego, taped with a live studio audience in The Raw Space at the Spreckels Theatre. Host Jesse Egan talks to comedian Erik Knowles.
Are you looking for some cool entertainment? There’s a live television talk show debuting in San Diego modeled after those popular late night variety shows which millions of people love. It’s called Tonight in San Diego.
Anyone can attend a live taping of new shows in The Raw Space, a small venue that is part of the downtown Spreckels Theatre. Like those well-known national shows filmed in Los Angeles, San Diego audience members participate in the live taping: clapping and cheering on cue, while enjoying comedy acts, live music and interviews of local celebrities. Of course there’s a house band and opportunities for the most enthusiastic audience members to win prizes. There’s also a bar serving wine and beer that people can visit during breaks.
I was invited to the most recent taping–which was last night! It was the last episode of the show to be featured exclusively on YouTube. From this point forward, Tonight in San Diego will air on KSDY Channel 50!
So what did I think?
The show is fairly witty, fun and quite well-produced. The host Jesse Egan, who hails from Ocean Beach, is a naturally funny guy. The monologue was a bit silly. The music was great. The opportunity to watch a live television show being produced is what intrigued me most–I was surprised at the number of people involved and impressed by how smoothly the entire process went.
The night I attended, the guests were standup comedian Erik Knowles, San Diego Rugby’s Phil MacKenzie (aka The Dragon) and a fantastic musician Mike Pinto, who I considered to be the highlight of the evening. The atmosphere was casual and many jokes were off-color. Laughter was provoked with quips about open pants, alcohol and smoking weed. This will obviously narrow the show’s appeal. I got the impression the show was directed more toward party people and hipsters than a more general audience.
Tonight in San Diego has incredible potential. At this point, seemingly few know about it. If this is your cup of tea, head to their website and get a ticket. As a member of the live studio audience, you’ll certainly be entertained for an hour and a half, and you’ll have the opportunity to be a part of history. Because I think this might be the beginning of something big!
The Raw Space is a small venue on First Avenue just south of Broadway in downtown San Diego.A comedy act by Erik Knowles, who explains with a wink that being a stoned Dad can be surprisingly beneficial.Tonight in San Diego host Jesse Egan discusses our city’s new pro rugby team with guest Phil MacKenzie.Photograph of the house band’s drummer. Three other great musicians were concealed by cameras. Yours truly, a mere blogger, was considered media and given a front row seat! I still can’t believe it!A quick change on the set. Getting ready for a musical act by talented guest Mike Pinto, who brought the house down.A video screen off to one side shows what actually appears on television. Here Jesse Egan is having a laugh with musician Mike Pinto.
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Visitors to Seaport Village in San Diego rock out to the Bayou Brothers!
I walked quite a bit today. As I passed through Seaport Village, my ears caught some music coming from the East Plaza Gazebo.
The Bayou Brothers were rocking, and people were dancing to cool Zydeco music like crazy! It felt like a slice of Mardi Gras! I love it!
As I walked along San Diego’s Embarcadero today, I noted a lot of energy around Seaport Village’s East Plaza Gazebo.Look at all the happy people dancing! It’s hard to keep still when an awesome Zydeco band is playing!The Bayou Brothers, based in El Cajon, is a well known local band. Their infectious, toe-tapping music features accordion, keyboards, guitar, bass, and even a fun rubboard!It’s hard to stand still! The Bayou Brothers add wonderful vitality to a Sunday afternoon in Seaport Village.
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The San Diego Opera has performances scheduled for April and May 2016: Madama Butterfly and Great Scott.
Yesterday evening I attended a recital by Ferruccio Furlanetto at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego. The concert was a collaboration between the San Diego Opera and the San Diego Symphony.
Simply: it was a powerful and deeply moving experience. The combination of a full symphony orchestra and one of the world’s great opera stars stirred my soul and mind in a way that very, very few things can–not unlike the world’s greatest literature or poetry.
Both the quiet moments and the thunder seemed the very elements of human life, but exquisitely condensed, made poignant. During the diverse program, Ferruccio’s voice rose through the hall with sadness, memory and yearning. It was a performance that lifted me as I listened, and as I watched.
And I didn’t understand most of the words that he sang!
A voice that can express high passion with minute subtlety is a rare thing, indeed. Ferruccio was brilliant, and now I want to experience more of the opera.
It was a shame that I saw very few youthful faces in the audience. I suppose the opera is a medium that relies largely on reverence to tradition. But the opera could easily speak to modern, younger audiences. Much of human experience is universal. We all have those same feelings that are expressed in the opera: the same passions and tensions that result from human interaction. I challenge writers and composers to renew the opera and make it less stuffy, less repetitive, less beholden to the past. Our present world is full of great issues and movements. Make these part of a living art, one that moves boldly and experimentally forward into the future.
Because art is ultimately about life. Our lives.
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Murrugun the Mystic prepares to swallow a real sword. He currently holds the world record for longest sword swallow. He has starred on AMC’s Freakshow and many other television shows!
Wow, what a day! Where do I begin? How about with this weekend’s awesome Seaport Village Spring Busker Festival!
This is the third year in a row I’ve attended the fantastic event. It’s as good as ever! Here are some photos from today to prove it!
If you’re in San Diego tomorrow, head on over to Seaport Village to check out the busker action! On Sunday the various acts will be performing from 12pm – 6pm.
The 2016 Seaport Village Spring Busker Festival features many of the world’s best street performers on several stages.I saw a few world-class jugglers, including the UniProShow’s amazing Jamey Mossengren, a seven-time World Unicycle Champion!A performing duo called Her Majesty’s Secret Circus Show had a funny act that included juggling, silliness and lots of bad jokes.A wicked-looking knife getting readied at the Seaport Village Spring Busker Festival!A secret agent with a bow and plunger prepares to shoot at a bullseye held by another secret agent on a unicycle.CREW was providing crazy good percussive beats using old garbage cans and other odd household objects.Fantastic break dancing and acrobatics were the specialty of the super entertaining Flying Tortillas!Audience members are readied for a rare stunt. A member of the Flying Tortillas will run and launch himself bodily over six people! Can he make it? You’ll have to go see for yourself!Murrugun the Mystic breathes fire. He is keeping the old circus sideshow traditions alive.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can enjoy more Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
A fairy puppet and smiling puppeteer pose for my camera in San Diego’s wonder-filled Balboa Park.
I made a magical discovery today during my walk through wonder-filled Balboa Park!
This nice lady was passing by the House of Hospitality with a large fairy puppet, testing it for reactions from kids! I learned her daughter, Julie Otto, creator of Julie’s Puppet Creations, is going to have experimental, larger-than-life puppets featured at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater!
The production is called Whispers of the Forest, and it will be showing at the theater for a two week span, beginning the week before Earth Day. Fun marionettes will be featured, in addition to a 9-foot-tall talking tree, and it sounded to me as if it’s going to be great!
San Diego’s Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park has showtimes at 11, 1 and 2:30, Wednesday through Sunday.The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater is a place of magic and fun for kids and warmhearted adults alike!
This friendly music instructor would teach lots of kids how to play the piano at Hands On Community Day at the San Diego Symphony!
Today I enjoyed a beautiful hour at the San Diego Symphony. I arrived at noon to listen to a free public concert, which was just the first part of the five hour Hands On Community Day event. Later on, after I left for my walk, there were additional performances, and kids were taught how to play the piano by world-class musicians!
The San Diego Symphony is celebrating the piano during an ongoing Upright and Grand festival, which continues through February 8. If you haven’t been to a concert at Copley Symphony Hall, I assure you it’s a magical, wonderful experience!
Please enjoy a few photos and read the captions for explanations…
The San Diego Symphony’s Upright and Grand festival is a month-long event that celebrates the piano.Fantastic mural in lobby of Symphony Towers depicts an orchestra, including a pianist.Some bicyclists stopped by to play the public upright piano in the lobby of Symphony Towers near the box office.A vintage photo in the lobby shows the Fox Theatre, built in 1929, now Copley Symphony Hall. A modern skyscraper called Symphony Towers was built over and around the old theatre in 1989.Inside the elegant, historic Copley Symphony Hall. I arrived early to the Hands On Community Day, so there are few people in this photo.One table had samples of a piano key’s inner workings. Later on I saw lots of families and kids examining these with interest.A representative for the San Diego International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs had a table outside the concert hall.Six grand pianos were set up on the stage. I enjoyed the first hour of the event, which featured The Carnival of the Animals by composer Camille Saint-Saens, with poems by Ogden Nash.Looking up inside the concert hall. A friendly usher told me there’s a winding staircase in the huge chandelier! Girls used to toss rose petals onto the audience, once upon a time long ago.People are arriving for the big San Diego Symphony free event, part of their Upright and Grand festival!After the first hour’s concert is over, the audience applauds narrator Dave Scott and amazing pianists Jessie Chang and Bryan Verhoye!
Three magic benches are visible in this photo. Can you spot them?
I discovered three magic benches during my walk through Balboa Park this afternoon! All three are situated in front of the Old Globe Theatre, one of San Diego’s great cultural treasures.
How do I know these benches are magic? It’s very easy to see! Just examine the following photos, and read the captions!
The first bench is dedicated to that magical playwright Shakespeare! As you might recall, the Bard is associated with the original Globe Theatre, which was in London.The iconic face of William Shakespeare on the side of a fantastic public bench in Balboa Park’s Old Globe Courtyard. Sit here and be inspired!A jolly character from the Shakespeare comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor.A famous scene from Hamlet. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy…The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego is where you want to see Shakespeare’s famous plays, including the tragedy Julius Caesar.Here’s the second magic bench. Looks ordinary? Don’t be deceived! Sit or lie here, and you might mysteriously be transported far away!And finally, the magic piano bench. Anybody can sit here and play music through January, courtesy of the San Diego Symphony’s PLAY ME: Pianos In Public Spaces event!
To learn more about the ten public pianos that have been placed around San Diego, check out my previous blog post!
To experience magic in wonderful Balboa Park, head over to the courtyard in front of the world famous Old Globe Theatre!The Old Globe has another great lineup for 2016. World-class entertainment in amazing Balboa Park!
Ordinary people from San Diego and around the world gather in Balboa Park to sing Christmas carols at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.
Today a special event was held in Balboa Park–at the outdoor Spreckels Organ Pavilion, to be exact. The public was invited to get up on the stage and participate in the singing of traditional Christmas carols! Along with San Diego’s world-famous organ, of course!
Carols included White Christmas, What Child Is This, Silent Night, Joy To The World, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Deck the Halls, The Twelve Days of Christmas, O Holy Night, It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, Silver Bells, and many more.
Young and old sang their hearts out. Dr. Carol Williams, San Diego’s official Civic Organist, was outstanding as usual. The Spreckels Organ Society’s energetic Ross Porter dashed about the stage as he led the singing. It’s feeling a lot like Christmas!
Halfway through Sunday’s free two o’clock concert, audience members were invited onto the stage to sing along with the Spreckels Organ.A good crowd was enjoying a nice day in December, the weekend before Christmas.Lots of singers have filed onto the stage in front of the pipe organ. Now it’s time to sing lots of joyful carols like musical superstars!Dr. Carol Williams is one of the world’s finest concert organists, and a great composer. Originally from Great Britain, she now makes San Diego her home.Ross Porter leads everybody in song. What a ham!Folks at the rear of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion relax and listen. A few people check out the manger scenes left over from December Nights.Lots of people had Santa hats and festive holiday clothing. Some dogs did, too.Members of the audience head up toward the stage. It was just too much fun!Even the Spreckels Organ Society volunteers were singing along!
A group of old-fashioned Christmas carolers in Victorian costumes brings holiday cheer to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
Look what I stumbled upon yesterday during an afternoon walk through San Diego’s history-filled Old Town. Folks in Victorian costumes were roaming about, singing Christmas carols!
I learned this group is composed of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park staff and volunteers. They were having a great time spreading Christmas cheer, pausing to sing at the various museums, restaurants and shops around old San Diego’s picturesque central plaza.
I was even given a cool little book filled with Christmas carol lyrics. Thank you guys!
Merry Christmas!
Carolers smile, laugh and enjoy the day in front of a reconstructed building at Old Town San Diego’s central plaza.I was given this Caroling Lyrics Booklet. Songs include Jingle Bells, The First Noel, We Three Kings, The 12 Days of Christmas, Deck the Halls and Silent Night.The colorful group of Old Town roving carolers heads to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which is decked out with festive wreaths.After entertaining some surprised diners, the group heads through the Cosmopolitan Hotel, much to the delight of one server!Singing traditional Christmas carols around the old fountain in the outdoor courtyard of Casa de Estudillo.Now the Christmas carolers are in the Wells Fargo History Museum next to the original 1867 Concord stagecoach! Several people listened outside the nearby door and applauded.A crowd gathered as Christmas carols were heard outside the Threads of the Past Living History Activity Center. One quilter joined in the public singing!Joyful, uplifting Christmas carols are sung as customers leave Toby’s Candle and Soap Shop.
Cool San Diego Sights! 