Tag: events

Laurel and Hardy accompanied by Spreckels Organ!

What a fun San Diego evening!

Laurel and Hardy entertained a huge crowd at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park during another very popular Silent Movie Night. (Appropriately renamed Not-So-Silent Movie Night!) The entertaining concert was part of the 37th San Diego International Summer Organ Festival.

The comedy duo starred in three silent films as San Diego organist extraordinaire Russ Peck added his own incomparable, equally humorous soundtrack!

Putting Pants on Philip, 1927, had the ladies chasing Stan Laurel, to the chagrin of Oliver Hardy. Two Tars, 1928, had Laurel and Hardy causing absolute havoc wherever they went. Liberty, 1929, saw the two bumbling heroes high up in the city sky balancing precariously on steel girders. All very silly, all hilarious!

As the San Diego evening sky darkened, Russ Peck played jaunty, sunny, nostalgic old tunes from the 1920s, getting the audience in the mood for silent films from the same decade. Then he joined “Stan Laurel” on stage for a fun little skit concerning hats.

Then the pavilion lights were dimmed and classic silent film antics commenced!

I can’t tell you just how wonderful it all was. Laughter all around!

After the films, I approached a table where I learned a big international Laurel and Hardy convention is coming to San Diego in 2026! The 24th International Sons Of The Desert Convention will be held on June 21-25, 2026 at The Legacy International Resort and Spa in Mission Valley.

Do you love Laurel and Hardy? Read all about the big event by clicking here!

San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez says hi before the start of Not-So-Silent Movie Night.
Raúl Prieto Ramírez gets the evening started.
Introducing Russ Peck, who is House Organist for the Balboa Theatre in San Diego.
Russ Peck with Spreckels Organ curator Dale Sorenson.
A fun Laurel and Hardy skit has the audience laughing.
Two Tars on the way to causing mayhem.
The 24th International Sons Of The Desert Convention is a big Laurel and Hardy event coming to San Diego in 2026!

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Beautiful shells return to Balboa Park!

Eight years ago I posted the blog Natural beauty at the West Coast Shell Show. Today, while walking through Balboa Park, I noticed the West Coast Shell Show was being held again in the Casa del Prado, so I checked it out!

Yes, there were hundreds of amazing shells. All types! I’m no expert when it comes to seashells or marine organisms–all I know is that these jewels from the ocean can be indescribably beautiful. I can see why people collect them.

Dealers had tables full of specimens and there were educational displays to read, too. I learned these shells were gathered from all around the world. One gentleman told me that collecting shells at protected San Diego beaches is illegal.

I must admit that while walking along the sand I’ve never seen anything that approaches these perfect specimens at the Shell Show. When lucky, I might observe very tiny polished shells underfoot, or an occasional sand dollar, or a broken abalone piece glinting in the sun.

Searching for what the vast ocean has churned up is instinctive, I suppose. The sudden discoveries–even shells that are broken–invite a closer look. They’re small hints of our planet’s immense magnificence.

I see the San Diego Shell Club would be happy to welcome new members!

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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.

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Unique art and ideas multiply at Zine event!

Individual free expression took center stage today at the Compressed Zine & Music Fair. The event, organized by Particle FM and Burn All Books, was held at Bread and Salt in Logan Heights.

Writers and artists (and dreamers who are doers) gathered from around the San Diego region to showcase hundreds of their uniquely created zines. (And other printed works of art!)

What is a zine? According to Wikipedia: A zine is a magazine that is a… noncommercial often homemade… publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter.

As you might imagine, individuals printing their own zines can be boundlessly creative. They aren’t limited by the “demands” of societal acceptance or mainstream publication. Anyone with access to a copy machine or modest printer (and perhaps a stapler) can create a zine. It’s a cool way to easily get ideas out there and create something tangible that others can share.

You know those revolutionary pamphlets created by our nation’s Founding Fathers? In essence, they were zines.

Today’s zines can range from philosophically serious or politically satirical, to just plain silly or art for the sake of art. Some zines are love letters to people, places or things by devoted fans. Some are critiques. Many titles include wry humor.

Titles I spied while walking around the Compressed Zine & Music Fair include Copy Machine Manifesto, Shotgun Seamstress, Respawn Archive, Typical Natural Disaster, We Miss Jerry Garcia, This is a Critique of the X-Files, and My Feelings Are Not Wrong.

It appeared to me that the best part about making a zine is the simple joy of creativity.

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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.

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Eduardo Chillida’s amazing sculptures in San Diego!

Fantastic public sculptures by world-renowned Spanish Basque artist Eduardo Chillida stand in cities around the globe. San Diego is fortunate that many Chillida sculptures–large and small–can now be experienced in an important exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art!

Eduardo Chillida: Convergence includes dozens of amazing abstract pieces that challenge museum visitors with their visual complexity.

Many of these sculptures combine sharp angles with sinuous curves, and are puzzle-like. They can make one wonder about the composition of reality–how space and matter interact.

As the San Diego Museum of Art web page explains: Each of these creations are points of convergence where myriad forces, including nature and culture, material and immaterial, form and void, all meet.

I like how many of the sculptures appear like paper cut in irregular ways with scissors then twisted impossibly every which way. Gazing at the sculptures from different angles, I wondered if their divergent parts could somehow be pieced together.

They somehow recall that three-dimensional puzzle cube I once played with as a boy. One docent at the museum told me a child called these sculptures Puzzles of the Gods. How appropriate!

The sculptures can be made of oak, iron, alabaster or other earthy materials. There are also works on paper. For very abstract works of art, they are strangely natural, weirdly familiar. Chillida liked to call himself a realist sculptor.

Visitors have the opportunity, for an additional five dollars, to experience a virtual reality flight around Comb of the Wind XV, Chillida’s famous installation that rises above the bluffs of La Concha Bay in San Sebastián, Spain.

This awesome exhibition continues through February 8, 2026 at the San Diego Museum of Art.

Stimulate your eyes and brain and go see it!

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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!

Concert celebrates The Beatles’ visit to San Diego!

Do you love The Beatles? Would you like to go a free concert that celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Beatles making their one and only appearance in San Diego?

On September 1, 2025 (Labor Day) at 7:30 pm, the Spreckels Organ Pavilion’s Classic Rock Band will be playing a huge selection of favorite hits by The Beatles. Have you ever heard classic rock played with drums, guitars and a gigantic outdoor pipe organ? Here’s your chance!

San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez will be joined by the Pavilion Rock Band Members to create a very cool and memorable experience. I caught a bit of the band’s rehearsal this afternoon.

The concert is part of the 37th San Diego International Summer Organ Festival. You can see the concert schedule here. (Next Monday evening is Not-So-Silent Movie Night!)

To learn more about the upcoming The Beatles 60th San Diego Anniversary concert, 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!

Pickleball on the streets of San Diego!

Perhaps you’ve seen stickball on the streets of Little Italy in downtown San Diego–but pickleball in the middle of the Gaslamp Quarter?

Yes!

Gaslamp Urban Pickleball is a new multi-week event where anyone can play pickleball on two blocks of Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter!

As the event website says: Be Part of History — San Diego’s First-Ever Urban Pickleball Courts!

Every Thursday until September 25th, after 4 pm and until sunset, you can play this super popular sport with friends and neighbors, while people cheer you on from the sidewalk, nearby restaurants and bars. Win a prize, too! This cool event has been brought to downtown San Diego by the Gaslamp Quarter Association.

Interested?

To learn all you need to know, and to register, check out the Gaslamp Urban Pickleball website!

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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!

Creating more beauty at Japanese Friendship Garden!

As I walked through the Lower Garden of the Japanese Friendship Garden today, I noticed a couple of guys creating this low wall by a footpath near the Inamori Pavilion.

Perhaps you recognize the spot. The garden’s Camphor Peace Tree with its plaque is a few feet away.

Is it possible? This extraordinary garden in Balboa Park continues to become even more beautiful!

Over the years the Japanese Friendship Garden has added trails, waterfalls, streams, shady structures and more to the incredible Lower Garden. The trees and plants have become so lush in the canyon now that moving down the paths is like a stroll through paradise.

One friendly worker told me that after this wall is completed, there is another project to come. Work will begin along the path that leads in switchbacks up the nearby hillside.

This garden will become even more beautiful?

Wow!

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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!

Daguerreotypes in San Diego on World Photography Day!

Today is World Photography Day. I didn’t realize that until I met a photographer in Balboa Park, aiming an interesting camera at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

What sort of camera is that? I asked. Anton told me he was using a daguerreotype camera. He was utilizing photographic technology that was revolutionary and popular in the mid-1800s!

Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, producing the black and white images you’ve probably seen in historical exhibits or documentaries.

Anton was using a silver plate and briefly described the process, all of which was far over my head. Here’s the Wikipedia page concerning daguerrotype photography.

If you’d like to check out Anton’s fascinating The Photo Palace blog, here it is. His site features a variety of cool photographs he has taken.

Anton explains in his blog: Working with analog photographic methods, with concentration on daguerreotype and wet plate collodion methods, Photo Palace offers original art, commissions on location and in studio, as well as workshops, magic lantern shows, and other interactive programs.

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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!

Free poetry parties, workshops in Balboa Park!

Poetry lovers! All sorts of activities await you in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park!

Free to the public and open to anyone at least 18 years old, these Balboa Park Poetic Programs celebrate creativity and the power of the written and spoken word. The three ongoing programs are: Poetry Party, Otherwise Improvise, and Poetic Legacy.

Poetry Party is a fun event held on the first Friday of every month from 3 to 5 pm in Balboa Park’s Santa Fe Room, at 2150 Pan American Road West (across from the International Cottages). The description on one flyer: Read your favorite poetry, listen, or make the scene. Be bold, adventurous, and experience the power of the spoken word.

Otherwise Improvise is held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month from 2:30 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge (located in the Casa Del Prado). Be creative! Have even more fun!

Poetic Legacy is a workshop that involves readings and discussions of contemporary and historic poets. Taking prompts from featured poets, participants are then encouraged to write their own poems. This program takes place on the last Friday of every month, from 3 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge.

The next Poetic Legacy workshop will be held August 29th and will feature poet Naomi Shibab Ney, recipient of numerous honors and awards for her work. In 2019 the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate for 2019–21.

Want more information concerning the Balboa Park Poetic Programs? Email SLemire@sandiego.gov.

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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!

Exhibit will find San Diego’s Lost Neighborhoods.

A new exhibition is coming to the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. It’s called San Diego’s Lost Neighborhoods.

The exhibit is now being installed in the museum, and will have its Opening Reception on September 25, 2025. The new exhibit is being produced in collaboration with the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art.

San Diego’s Lost Neighborhoods will concern communities in the city that have been substantially changed due to freeway construction, development and other causes. Over the years, these changes have forced some long-time residents and businesses to move.

Yesterday I peeked into the San Diego History Center gallery that will contain the displays.

Time sweeps us all along, and people who have the means like to reshape their world. Change happens for better, or for worse. That’s history.

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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!