This afternoon, a special Youth Artist Showcase was enjoyed by the public in San Diego. The Ecologik Institute, in partnership with Forever Balboa Park, assembled talented young women in Balboa Park near the Bea Evenson Fountain to celebrate their achievements.
The mission of the Ecologik Institute is to empower young women to be champions for nature, innovators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, warriors for environmental stewardship, leaders in their communities, and changemakers who create a positive impact on the world around them.
The Youth Artist Showcase was part of a larger effort to brainstorm new ideas of how to bring art into Balboa Park in the future.
I was lucky to arrive at the Bea Evenson Fountain when I did. I observed a bustle of activity and learned this special event was soon to get underway.
Enjoy these photographs!
First up, Cindy was showing a project that included images of birds that can be observed in Balboa Park. She also keeps a sketch book.
Next, I enjoyed viewing some great artwork by young artists! Here are two samples…
Then came a wonderful performance of selected dances from The Nutcracker, by members of the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet!
As usual, they’ll be performing The Nutcracker at the Casa del Prado Theater in Balboa Park this holiday season!
This afternoon, the San Diego Youth Symphony took to the stage at Balboa Park’s Spreckels Organ Pavilion, to perform their traditional Halloween concert. And many of the young musicians were in costume!
I noticed cows, Harry Potter, the Riddler, a Super Mario mushroom . . . and two adult conductors who were quite evil-looking!
Spooky pieces played during the fun concert included Valse Diabolique, The Boogie Man Blues, Themes from Harry Potter, Waltz of the Wicked, and Curse of the Rosin Eating Zombies From Outer Space! Yes, that last one is a thing. I’m not kidding!
I took photos of a few fun costumes before and during the concert…
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A great event was held today at Liberty Station in San Diego. The San Diego Bird Alliance (formerly the San Diego Audubon Society) celebrated their 75th Anniversary! For 75 years they’ve been working to educate the public, protect birds and restore natural habitat!
The event brought in many community organizations that have worked with the San Diego Bird Alliance to make a brighter and birdier future!
The program began with Kumeyaay traditional Bird Songs performed by youth from the Barona Band of Mission Indians. Their songs were of birds and journeying, and respect for all Creation.
A presentation was then made by San Diego City Council President Pro Tem Joe LaCava.
Young kids in the audience would then became excited as they took center stage. Ms. Smarty Plants had them excitedly learning about the critically endangered California condor, protecting our environment, and singing!
A little later the Accipiter Dance Company performed. I posted photos of their beautiful dance here.
I left before the program was completed, so I missed more dancing and what promised to be a colorful Parade of the Species. But I did walk around, checking out the many participating organizations and learning more about this precious world we all live in.
Enjoy some random photos!
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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.
Lots of pumpkins were chucked off the roof of the San Diego Air and Space Museum today, to the delight of watching children! The event was part of the museum’s annual Halloween-themed Pumpkin Chunkin’ celebration!
Some pumpkins were frozen, some not. Some pumpkins were hollow, some not. Some had parachutes attached, some not. As they were dropped in pairs, curious onlookers could view and compare the results of each toss!
The pumpkin launching was just one family-friendly activity hosted at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. I photographed several of the outdoor drops during my walk through Balboa Park!
Inside the museum, kids (many wearing costumes) could construct a catapult and parachute to launch and safely land candy pumpkins, use 3D pens to make creepy sculptures, and drive robot ghouls!
Did you know October is Kid’s Free Month at the San Diego Air and Space Museum? It is!
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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.
About a thousand years ago, Viking explorer Leif Erikson was the first European to set foot on continental America. He established a Norse settlement in a place he called Vinland. Today he arrived in San Diego, California!
Leif greeted an enthusiastic crowd in Balboa Park. He extended a greeting and read an ancient Norse poem. Then he adjusted his beard, pocketed his phone and smiled for photographs!
Yes, this particular Leif Erikson was an impersonation. Jordan Jacobo, a personality on KPBS, did the honors!
As you might have guessed, the House of Norway hosted their cultural lawn program today in Balboa Park. In addition to meeting Leif, families could gobble authentic Norwegian waffles and Polse i lompe (hot dog in a lompe–I had mine with shrimp, sour cream, mayo, dill and lemon juice) and wash it down with Saft (blueberry juice).
Kids were running wild, enjoying axe throwing, fish toss and other lively competitions. They posed with a Viking longship and could have their names written in runes. At several tables adults could learn about Norse crafts, including rosemaling (decorative folk painting), smøyg (pattern darning), wood carving, Hardanger embroidery and knitting. There was accordion music, too!
A living history encampment showed how life might have been in Norway during the age of the Vikings. I will be blogging about that coming up!
Enjoy some photographs!
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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.
Before today’s free Sunday afternoon concert, I spotted a very young man sitting at the Spreckels Organ in Balboa Park. San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez, one of the world’s finest organists, was teaching young Aaron how to play!
Aaron is a frequent concert goer, I learned, who also likes sketching while sitting in the audience. You can see a pic of him posing with Raúl on the Spreckels Organ Society website here!
Will Aaron grow up to be a future San Diego Civic Organist? It wouldn’t surprise me!
I just want to say how fortunate San Diego is to have Raúl in our midst. Energetic, always smiling, enhancing our city’s culture, bringing beautiful music every week to one and all.
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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.
The Padres and Braves aren’t the only ones playing baseball today in San Diego. Firefighters from the Gaslamp Quarter’s Fire Station No. 4 took to the street just north of Petco Park to take a few swings of the bat!
Visiting firefighters from downtown’s big San Diego Fire Station No. 1 joined the action. I asked if batting in front of the Gaslamp fire station is a tradition. It is during big games, I learned. Well, there’s certainly a big game now underway: Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series! (And as I type this, the Padres have taken the lead!)
Now here came families down the sidewalk, and before you know it kids were trying their hand at hitting the wiffle balls. What fun!
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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.
The Day of Music was held today at the San Diego Symphony’s newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. Artists and musicians from communities in San Diego and Tijuana gathered for the free cultural event!
Out in the Box Office Lobby, live performances would take place throughout the day. I listened for a minute or two, but I was anxious to see the inside of greatly redesigned Copley Symphony Hall–now called Jacobs Music Center. (I frequently walk past Symphony Towers, and have observed construction workers coming and going for years it seems now!)
After craning my head this way and that to take in the renovated stage, seating and other features of the historic venue, I settled down to enjoy a very fine hour-long performance by the 1st Marine Division Band out of Camp Pendleton. San Diego Symphony President and Chief Executive Officer Martha Gilmer, in her introduction, stated that the group is one of the finest military bands in the United States.
The 1st Marine Division Band played a variety of symphonic pieces, including Let Freedom Ring by Ryan Nowlin, Colonial Song by Percy Grainger, and an amazing, very energetic Slava! by Leonard Bernstein.
San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare came on stage to conduct a simply exquisite Concertino for Flute by Cecile Chaminade, with Ana Paola Rincones masterful on flute.
Of course, there had to be Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa. A rousing performance received a standing ovation!
According to the program, many performing groups would follow, including the San Diego Children’s Choir and the Voices of Our City Choir.
As you can see from my photographs, the interior of the Jacobs Music Center is more magical than ever. The completed renovation also included measures taken to greatly improve the listening experience–the very softest of notes can be discerned with crystal clarity.
On the sidewalk outside Symphony Towers, performers from Animal Cracker Conspiracy welcome arriving guests.The Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra creates beautiful music inside the Box Office Lobby.A smile greets me at the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra table!The Coronado School of the Arts has a theatrical performance of The Addams Family coming up! I learned Lurch is one of the characters!Joey’s Wings performs, in an effort to fight childhood cancer. (See my previous blog post.)Actors from Project [BLANK] perform in one corner of the San Diego Symphony concessions area. You provide the subject matter and they act it out!Here I am walking into the breathtaking Jacobs Music Center.Gazing to one side. Long ago, the San Diego Symphony’s home was a luxurious FOX Theatre movie palace. The skyscraper Symphony Towers was built above and around it!The 1st Marine Division Band takes the stage.All stand for the Star Spangled Banner.An outstanding musical performance by our local Marines.Looking up toward the balcony seating when the performance ends. The Jacobs Music Center is like a splendid palace.I’m now on the upper level looking down between performances. The general lighting has turned from blue to purple.Another look toward the ceiling. Wow.Our Youth, the next segment of the day’s program, is about to begin. It’s a free community Day of Music inside the spectacular Jacobs Music Center!
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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.
Seven young musicians performed today at the San Diego Symphony’s downtown Jacobs Music Center. The musicians represented Joey’s Wings. The mission of Joey’s Wings is to fund research that focuses on kidney cancers affecting children and young adults, raise awareness and provide support to families affected by childhood cancer.
Joey’s Wings was one of many community groups performing during the San Diego Symphony’s special free Day of Music at the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. I spotted the young musicians around noon performing for a gathered crowd in the Box Office Lobby.
At a nearby table, Kathy Liu, President and Founder of the organization told me briefly about Joey, her son who passed away from cancer at age ten. Joey started to play violin when he was six. He loved music and painting. Learn more about Joey here.
Friends of her second son, David, who are members of the San Diego Youth Symphony and Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra, came together to today make beautiful music. And to make the lives of people better.
As I understand it, the crocheted figures you see on the table were created by the mother of one young musician. I think I see San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare!
If you weren’t at the event today, and wish to help out, visit the Joey’s Wings website by clicking here.
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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.
Are you a gamer with heart? Would you like to improve the lives of hospitalized kids? Gamers Outreach is a charity that would appreciate your help.
The two cool people in the above photo are raising money for Gamers Outreach during TwitchCon in San Diego. I spotted them today grilling hot dogs at a tent on Harbor Drive. Look for them near a dancing hot dog!
Their objective: help fund programs that brighten the day of sick kids in hospitals, including San Diego’s own Rady Children’s Hospital.
Let me share two paragraphs from Gamers Outreach literature:
WHO WE ARE
Gamers Outreach is a charity that empowers hospitalized families through play. Our goal is to build a world where activity is easily prioritized as part of care. Video games are our tools of choice.
WHY WE DO IT
Being in the hospital can be scary and isolating. Games give kids access to adventure and opportunities to socialize. Sometimes healthcare staff even use games to assist with treatment!
Gamers Outreach has several programs. Click here to check out their GO Karts (Gamers Outreach Karts), which are portable video game kiosks built specifically for hospitals. Kids stuck in bed can play!
The Player 2 program encourages volunteers to distribute, manage, and play games with hospitalized kids! This role is particularly great for college gamers!
The Save Point program provides hospitals with high-tech vending machines that distribute items such as toys, game codes, and fun swag to kids receiving care . . . as they progress through treatment. Make getting better a fun goal! Curious hospitals should check this out!
Gamers Outreach helps thousands of children per year in a multitude of hospitals. Interested in learning more, and perhaps helping this effort? Visit their website by clicking here!
If you’re in San Diego for TwitchCon, head over to the fundraising tent on Harbor Drive across from the convention center, near the Gaslamp trolley station. I spun their prize wheel and got a free hot dog!
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 