Tag: ideas

Ideas needed for new Civic Center mural design!

San Diego Theatres and ArtReach are partnering to create a new community-driven mural in Civic Center Plaza. And they want to hear from you!

Do you have any ideas?

I noticed the above sign in a window of San Diego’s City Administration Building.

The mural will be on three Concourse exit doors facing Civic Center Plaza. The plaza’s overall architecture is mid-century modern. (I once blogged about how sculptor and architectural designer Malcolm Leland created modernist elements of the plaza and nearby parking garage. See that here.)

If you’d like to provide your own input on the future Civic Center Plaza mural, here’s the form where you can make suggestions. The link also leads to more information about this project.

Once the design is finalized, members of the community will help paint the mural!

UPDATE!

The following day, during a San Diego Civic Theatre open house event, I met Isabel Halpern, ArtReach’s Mural Program Manager. She had a display concerning the Civic Center murals.

Included was a graphic showing early mural design concepts. The leading artists are Regan Russell and Donald Gould.

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City of San Diego honors Constitution Week.

Kathleen Winchester holds City of San Diego Proclamation that recognizes and honors Constitution Week.

It’s Constitution Day and Citizenship Day!

Today is the 238th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States. September 17th was the date in 1787 when delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the historic document in Philadelphia.

The City of San Diego has issued an official Proclamation that celebrates Constitution Week. I was fortunate to see it close up!

The City of San Diego Proclamation, signed by Mayor Todd Gloria, includes the following words:

…celebrating Constitution Week serves as an important reminder of the historic rights, privileges and responsibilities the Constitution affords us…

…Constitution Week commemorates the week the Constitution was signed and delivered to the Continental Congress. It laid the foundation for the birth of a new nation and became one of the most significant chapters in United States history…

…the Constitution lays out liberties like freedom, opportunity, and rule of law…

As a writer and individual who loves to create, I cherish freedom.

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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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Listening Project embraces our common humanity.

During my walk through Balboa Park today, I came upon a quietly smiling gentleman in a lawn chair with a poster in front of him. I had stumbled upon the Listening Project.

Joshua was very welcoming as I asked him about his Listening Project. He said his only intention was to listen to people if they decide to engage. He’ll listen politely to absolutely anything you might say.

Joshua believes everybody needs to be heard, and that listening is a gift we give to other people. Our listening lets people know that they matter.

Our listening also helps us to grow as human beings.

Actually hearing and considering the thoughts of other people, I have to agree, is an essential part of being thoughtful ourselves–no matter what that other person might say. Nobody is exactly alike. We are all fallible, complex and have our own unique life experiences.

In these days of social media, which seems to reward division, deceit, name calling and unabashed rudeness, polite, thoughtful one-on-one listening seems more important than ever.

Sadly, it also seems we human beings can be a bit self-absorbed. Sometimes when we converse we are more concerned about what we will say, rather than what the other person is saying. We talk over each other. I can be guilty of this, myself.

Joshua listens confidentially and doesn’t judge. As his website explains: The idea for the Listening Project first came to me around three years ago. The idea was very simple: set up a couple of chairs in public places and offer people the opportunity to speak uninterrupted about anything they wished for five or ten minutes, with the promise that if they did so I would really listen.

Does he have some ulterior motive or hidden agenda? Merely this: I believe that through listening and connecting we can: shed fears or anxieties we hold about reaching out to ‘strangers’; cast off the stereotypes we live with; build bridges across the boundaries that we have created and which divide us; reduce the loneliness that many of us feel; and gain insight into what it might take to create broader ‘communities’ in our lives.

Yes, Joshua is out of the ordinary. In a very, very good way!

He wouldn’t mind if others followed in his footsteps, but he’s very humble about his “experiment” and wishes only that people choose their own path.

Are you curious about the Listening Project? I urge you to check out its 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!

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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Nine short stories during Comic-Con.

Comic-Con is magic.

Dreams gather, take shape, become tangible. Fantasies launch into the world as seeds in the wind.

Comic-Con is also a hotbed of self-promotion. So please excuse me. Here I go…

Do you love to read works of fiction that contain unexpected twists?

Here are nine very short stories I’ve written over the years. You can find them on my website Short Stories by Richard.

These seeds in the wind await your click:

One Strange, Shimmering Dream

Father’s Paintbrush

A Distant Place

Their Dream

Unheard Words

One Magic Bubble

The Bone Artists

A Secret Junkyard

Final Real Magic

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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.

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Dog Stick Library open in North Park!

What’s more fun than borrowing a book from a little lending library? Borrowing a stick from a Dog Stick Library!

Canines have the opportunity to borrow a stick to carry in their mouths while walking with their human companions in North Park. An innovative Dog Stick Library is open on the sidewalk near the intersection of Upas Street and 29th Street!

Is this clever, or what?

The absurdity–and sheer originality–had me stop in my tracks the other day. I love it!

How many dogs take advantage of this little lending library box? It was stocked up with a fine selection of sticks. Whether your four-legged best friend is a large Great Dane or a little Pomeranian, there appeared to be a stick perfectly sized for any mouth.

Now, the question must be asked: Do responsible dogs return the sticks? In good condition?

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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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How to improve César Chávez Park in Barrio Logan?

The Port of San Diego is seeking public feedback concerning César Chávez Park in Barrio Logan. Port representatives were at the Day at the Park event today held in the bayside public park.

Have you ever visited César Chávez Park? What ideas for improvement might you have? Click here to take a community input survey being conducted by the Port of San Diego.

Would it be great to have a beach? Pier improvements? More community events? More shade trees? A water feature? An expanded playground? Exercise equipment? More signage? More interactive art? More security features? Something else?

Let the Port of San Diego know! 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.

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READ, WRITE, THINK and DREAM at UC San Diego!

Why does a person enter a library? To read, write, think and dream.

That’s certainly what students do after walking through the doors of the Geisel Library at UC San Diego in La Jolla!

Indeed, the front entrance of the Geisel Library celebrates human thought and creativity with its four word proclamation: READ WRITE THINK DREAM.

I was surprised to learn that these words, together with the colorful glass doors and images of students at the library’s entrance, were the creation of an internationally important artist: John Baldessari!

Born locally in National City, John Baldessari would go on to become one of the world’s most recognized conceptual artists. His work would be featured in over 200 solo shows and 1,000 group shows in his six-decade career. His awards and the museums that have collected his pieces are numerous.

READ/WRITE/THINK/DREAM debuted in 2001 and is included in UCSD’s Stuart Collection of public art. Visit the webpage that provides a detailed description by clicking here.

Baldessari liked to provoke thought with his art. His works are described as open-ended puzzles.

With outside sunlight shining through, the primary colors of the transparent doors create new colors when they slide open and overlap. Combining basic elements into something that is different and new–that’s the essence of dreaming, creativity and discovery–isn’t it?

Perhaps you’ve seen another work of John Baldessari in La Jolla. I photographed his Brain/Cloud outdoor mural a few years ago and posted the images 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.

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Bringing a Survival Piece to life in La Jolla!

Why are there 12 hexagonal planters containing citrus trees in front of the La Jolla Historical Society‘s Wisteria Cottage? That’s what I wondered when I paid a visit to the society’s museum yesterday, to view their new exhibition about the history of surfing in La Jolla. (I’ll be blogging about that shortly.)

It turns out the dozen redwood planters with citrus trees is a 2024 project titled Exterior Orchard, A Conversation with Survival Piece V. The uniquely designed orchard examines the necessity of ecologically focused and sustainable food systems in a future where farming practices may become obsolete.

The installation was inspired by the La Jolla Historical Society’s recent exhibition Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work. The Harrisons, founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, were visionary thinkers and designers who developed fascinating Ecological Art. They created plans for a Portable Orchard such as this in 1972.

The hexagonal redwood planters were built by students from High Tech High Mesa. The trees and planters, I was told, can be adopted. Funds raised will help support the La Jolla Historical Society’s work.

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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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Autonomous cars test on San Diego streets!

In the past few days, I’ve spotted autonomous Waymo cars navigating streets in San Diego. Bankers Hill is where I saw two of the cars, to be exact. Both had drivers behind the steering wheel. I had my camera at the ready this afternoon to capture the above photo. Yes, there is a driver in there.

Waymo is the company that has those driverless autonomous taxis operating up in San Francisco. You hail them with your phone and input the destination.

Here in San Diego, and other test cities, Waymo cars are being driven through certain neighborhoods in order to gather data, refine maps, and learn about the peculiarities of different places. Here’s an article that thoroughly describes the Waymo tests in San Diego. They began very recently.

I can see how many people are wary of driverless cars. The concept is revolutionary and still pretty new. One hears of glitches.

I suppose, however, that at some point in the future, driverless cars will be ubiquitous in every city around the world and taken for granted, just as other groundbreaking technologies eventually become the norm. I grew up with a rotary dial telephone . . . and an astounding invention: the electronic push button calculator!

We live in exciting, uncertain times when technology is taking gigantic leaps forward. Artificial intelligence, chips in heads, advancing robotics, virtual reality worlds… Where will all of this take us? How will this change us?

I wonder. Will the automation of practically everything make life more fulfilling?

I guess humanity will take the journey and find out…

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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 this!