Tag: events

San Diego gets ready for 2022 Comic-Con!

It’s now only one week until 2022 Comic-Con!

Look at all the cool stuff appearing in downtown San Diego as everyone prepares for the huge event!

All along Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade, banners have been hung promoting The CW superhero shows The Flash and Superman & Lois.

Dozens of trolley cars have been wrapped and are now seen cruising all over San Diego.

Here’s one that looks like a school bus. This was the first design to appear a few weeks ago. It promotes ABC television’s show Abbott Elementary.

Special trolley service will be offered by MTS during Comic-Con.

A Special Event Line will run between the Balboa Avenue station and 12th and Imperial. Needless to say, all the trolley lines will be quite busy! Read the notice. They can be obtained on the trolleys.

Fences now surround areas along MLK Promenade where offsite activations will be.

I was told by someone who appeared knowledgable that FOX will have an offsite near The New Children’s Museum. (I’m assuming it will be where FOX had their Ferris wheel one year.)

Childrens Park with its fountains is presently being renovated and won’t be used this year for Comic-Con.

The next photo is the grassy area by the Hilton Gaslamp. I look forward to seeing what pops up here!

On the convention center side of the Hard Rock Hotel, a wrap is being applied that promotes Apple TV+ show Severance.

San Diego artist and muralist Shirish Villaseñor (@shirishtheartist) has been adding color to her figures on the windows of Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront…

That huge Teen Wolf the Movie wrap on the Park 12 high-rise now has a second side! The pack is back!

And look what I spotted from the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge. Another new trolley wrap! This one promotes The Gray Man in select theaters from NETFLIX.

I was then able to get a quick ground level photo as it went by…

Check out these super cool wraps in the Gaslamp Quarter that went up today. They promote Amazon Prime Video’s new series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Awesome! Looks like a third wrap is still going up…

Finally, the Fifth Avenue side of the Pendry San Diego hotel is almost done being wrapped. It promotes AMC’s new show Interview With The Vampire.

The friendly workers who were nearby gave my camera a thumbs up!

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

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Vampire and werewolf spotted in San Diego!

A vampire and a werewolf were spotted today in downtown San Diego!

The building wraps for 2022 Comic-Con are now going up, with a little over a week to go until Wednesday’s Preview Night. Multiple cherry pickers used by workers to apply the promotional wraps are now stationed around the Gaslamp Quarter!

This afternoon I noticed a new wrap that advertises AMC’s upcoming show Interview With The Vampire, based on the popular novels by Anne Rice…

Also, the very first wrap up, that I first noticed yesterday, is now finished. It promotes the Paramount+ upcoming werewolf feature Teen Wolf the Movie, as I surmised…

Preparations for Comic-Con are picking up, even as the big Esri User Conference occupies the convention center. Stay tuned!

UPDATE!

I figured I’d post a photograph of the finished vampire wrap that I took several days later, as seen from Fifth Avenue…

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

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

More Comic-Con trolleys and buses appear!

More and more trolleys and buses are appearing around San Diego that are wrapped for 2022 Comic-Con.

Check it out!

This morning I spotted two new Amazon Prime Video trolley wraps that state Elves Welcome and All Fankind Welcome.

Two new MTS bus wraps promote Crunchyroll’s SPY x FAMILY and Attack on Titan!

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

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

First huge building wrap for Comic-Con goes up!

A 20-story tall building wrap is now going up for 2022 Comic-Con!

This afternoon I spotted workers applying the enormous wrap on the Park 12 high-rise apartment building, which is near the parking lot where the Petco Park Interactive Zone will be located.

The building wrap appears to promote Teen Wolf the Movie, an upcoming feature film that will be streaming on Paramount+. At least, that’s my guess right now!

This will no doubt be the first of many gigantic building wraps to appear all around the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con. That gives you an idea of how big this epic international event is!

I’ve also noted three large Disney banners hung a week or so ago on the parking garage of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. They promote a very different sort of entertainment: the Disney Cruise Line. The Disney Wonder cruise ship is homeported in San Diego!

(Fun fact! The ship HMS Surprise, of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, was used in the filming of the Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides!)

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

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Comic-Con materializes by the Convention Center!

What’s this? It looks like 2022 Comic-Con has begun to slowly materialize by the San Diego Convention Center!

Local artist and muralist Shirish Villaseñor (@shirishtheartist) has begun painting the windows of Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. She’ll be working to complete the fun artwork in the coming days.

I’ll swing by to take more photos as these many painted characters assume color and life.

Meanwhile, for the next two weeks Cool San Diego Sights is in full Comic-Con mode! I live downtown, an easy walk from the huge international pop culture event.

Fear not! I’ll return to more “normal” San Diego sights once Comic-Con concludes!

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

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Street Legacy urban art exhibit in Escondido.

If you like excellent examples of urban art, you need to visit the museum exhibit now showing at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Street Legacy: SoCal Style Masters features artwork representing diverse subcultures found in Southern California.

Artists have filled the museum galleries with paintings, murals, sculptures and other works inspired by graffiti, street art, skateboarding, surfing, tattoos, lowriders and more. In many works you’ll see the pride of heritage. Many pieces are bold and sensual.

If you travel around San Diego, you’ll probably recognize some of the local street artists. Each has a unique style. I’ve photographed much of their fine mural work during my walks through the city. I generally, however, do not photograph vandalism.

Visitors to the exhibition might be taken aback by images of guns and implied gang violence, and one piece depicting police officers as pigs. The artwork reflects the viewpoint of many on the streets. These images exist side-by-side with images promoting peace and love.

Together we live in a complex, often difficult world with differing personal experiences and perspectives.

Street Legacy: SoCal Style Masters runs through August 28, 2022.

Get Out the Kitchen, Carly Ealey and Chris Konecki, 2022. Aerosol.

Mighty Fine ’69, Vanessa Torrez, 2021. Oil on canvas.

City of 9 Lives, Mike Rios, 2022. Acrylic.

Are We There Yet?, Persue, 2021. Acrylic.

Mad Surfer, Robbie Conal, 2014. Mixed media.

La Mujer Dormida, Cisco Santiago. 100% custom motorcycle, garage-built from scratch.

Catrin y Siren, OG Abel, 2015. Acrylic.

Watching Time Fly, Mr B Baby, 2022. Acrylic and airbrush on wood.

Tribal Ahuevo Wobbles, Ricardo Islas, 2022. Acrylic on wood.

Dawning of a New Age, MEAR ONE, 2012. Oil on canvas.

Various works on display by Shepard Fairey.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Star Wars donuts and more for Comic-Con!

Star Wars donuts for 2022 Comic-Con? Absolutely!

The world-famous Donut Bar will create a tasty pop-up in the Gaslamp Quarter during all of Comic-Con week! Different pop culture themed donuts will tempt passersby in front of the Pendry hotel.

Including donuts decorated with Star Wars designs!

I learned this today from my awesome friends at the Donut Bar!

Will you be able to sink your teeth into Darth Vader? We shall see!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Have fun Mega Merching at Comic-Con!

Will you be “mega merching” at 2022 Comic-Con?

This new San Diego Trolley wrap, promoting Amazon Prime Video, suggests mega merching might be a fun activity. (As long as it doesn’t “take you” to a maxed out credit card!)

I’m assuming mega merchers are buyers, not sellers, though I suppose the term might refer to either or both. I did a Google search of this odd term, and found 5 results. That will change pretty soon!

All I know is that I’ll be a “mega swagger” when I walk around downtown and the convention center with my swag bag in a couple of weeks. Another new word combination!

So far, Amazon Prime Video has wrapped several other trolley cars with another slightly unusual saying, which you can see here. They seem to be going the route of Syfy, which decorated trolleys during past Comic-Cons with all sorts of fun nerdy quotes.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Giant sea monster suddenly attacks tall ship!

Historic tall ship Star of India is now under attack by a gigantic sea monster!

Menacing red tentacles rose from the depths of San Diego Bay yesterday, penetrating the iron hull of the world-famous ship. The monster has wrapped its enormous appendages around the masts of the ship, threatening to drag it down to Davy Jones’ locker.

Is it the dread Kraken? Is it the Giant Squid from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Or The Watcher in the Water that lives in the stagnant pool outside the West-gate of Moria? Is it a terrifying Lovecraftian creature from your worst nightmares?

Star of India volunteers climbed into the rigging to wrestle with the mysterious creature, but what hope is there?

As it turns out, this huge tentacled sea monster on the Embarcadero is part of an upcoming attraction that visitors (kids in particular!) will enjoy down in the hold of Star of India.

Sea Monsters: Delving Into The Deep Myth will include animatronic monsters sure to bring screams of delight! I had a little glimpse recently!

The fun exhibit opens on Saturday, July 9, 2022!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

An early Fourth of July in Balboa Park!

Should one celebrate Independence Day on the Third of July?

Why not!

Today’s Sunday lawn program at the International Cottages in Balboa Park was presented by the House of USA. It was a patriotic event for the Fourth of July–one day early!

Before the program began at 2 o’clock, I walked around and visited friendly members of two groups: Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution. One DAR member, I learned, is a descendant of Elihu Hickok, a soldier who served in the United States Revolutionary War.

The lawn program commenced with the presentation of colors and a beautiful, soaring rendition of the National Anthem sung by Ms. Helen Oh. She was followed by young pianist, Colton, who skillfully played America the Beautiful.

The Queen and Princess of the House of USA gave short speeches, then, after the main speaker, everyone enjoyed a performance of Western line dancing by the San Diego Coasters!

Then everyone was invited onto the stage to learn how to line dance!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!