A few dead leaves cling to branches that frame a new skyscraper.
The days pass by.
Memories gather . . . slowly fade.
Whenever I walk downtown, I see visions right and left of what is old and what is new. It’s often hard to remember how and when those visions first appeared.
I suppose the passage of time makes every walk a completely new adventure. Always new surprises, new mysteries, new beauty to discover.
Here are a few photos of my walk through downtown San Diego this morning.
Every time I walk near Seaport Village, my eyes pass different buskers and an ever-changing gallery of art.A beautiful windblown feather and I meet for a moment.Removing what is discarded and unwanted.A fountain near the entrance of San Diego’s Old Police Headquarters, now a destination for shopping and dining. I visited this building decades ago. I suppose the fountain is original, but I cannot remember.A colorful bird painted on a utility box near Pantoja Park seems just as alive as when I first saw it years ago.Dying leaves turn to the same color as new paint.A sculpture titled Flame Flower stands in front of the Westin Gaslamp. Years ago an obelisk rose here–5 or 6 or 7 years ago. I can’t remember.These bricks of a Gaslamp building appear to have been patched long ago.A once fashionable car turns to rust.Every so often entrances to the Gaslamp’s subterranean clubs are painted with intriguing new artwork.The building on Broadway that was home to Superfly West Tattoos is being demolished to make room for a new downtown high-rise condo development.The front of the YWCA building on C Street has remained unchanged since its design in 1926. The ornate Spanish Colonial Revival architecture was made popular by the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.Shoveling weathered stones. Wheeling them about.Another walk through the city as time moves forward.
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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!
Friendly SDSU students perform a magic trick in Balboa Park. They demonstrate how high tuitions make money disappear!
In Balboa Park smiles are abundant, and magic awaits around every corner. I took some photos this afternoon.
Brandon Carpenter smiles from atop his cool, historic penny-farthing.Anointed Ali gets ready to head over to the Plaza de Panama for another amazing acrobatic performance.Resting among magical shadows and light with a camera.A sunlit Christmas pooch and an old man.Youthful excitement inside the Museum of Photographic Arts.Will recites Shakespeare on El Prado.Taking elegant photos in a beautiful park.Approaching the Dragon Bridge in the Japanese Friendship Garden.Scooters heading through the park.A helping hand while crossing the street.Walking near the Timken Museum of Art.People enjoy relaxing in the Plaza de Panama, in front of the San Diego Museum of Art.Playing guitar in a nook in the Alcazar Garden.A joyful dog jumps up to greet me as I walk from the Cabrillo Bridge past Nate’s Point Dog Park.A picnic on green grass on the West Mesa.
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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!
Here are seven posts from Cool San Diego Sights that might touch your heart. The following links contain powerful memories. You’ll find sadness, joy, hope, and much inspiration…
I’ve polished many of the stories (and now two poems) to such an extent that I feel comfortable launching a new domain and website.
Are you curious?
Many of these short stories might seem a bit different. Some are happy, some are sad . . . most are a shifting mixture. I try to arrive at essential truths in surprising and creative ways. Human life is illuminated using sudden revelations. All of these works of fiction are very quick reads.
The poem I just published, A Brief Note, sounds dire as you read it. But read to the final two lines.
Anyway, I truly appreciate all of you who follow my adventures in photography–and creative writing! Life is a continuing journey . . .
As I walked with my camera I tried to capture small scenes of real life. Some scenes evoked a sense of sadness, waiting, uncertainty; others contained glimmers of hope or subtle humor. In downtown San Diego thousands of lives mingle.
Mysteries around every corner.
Countless untold stories.
You might recognize that plaque.
Its exact origin was once was a mystery. But the plaque’s fascinating story was revealed here.
The Jessop’s clock fascinates many eyes.
After 125 years, Jessop’s jewelry store is closing. A chapter in San Diego’s history ends.
But the clock’s hands will will continue to mark time.
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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!
This afternoon I went on a long, chilly walk along San Diego Bay. The sky was mostly gray. I regretted not wearing a light jacket. But I pressed on.
You never know when the sun might burst through.
The winter ice rink is being set up in front of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. Anticipating warm holiday cheer.Few people are out walking under the gray clouds. But two can always hold hands.Pigeons swoop in long searching circles, before settling somewhere far away.The sun is up there. Somewhere.This person moving forward refuses to retreat.Time takes a toll. The Marriott Marina is slowly being refurbished. Pushing forward, looking ahead.A worker defies gravity near the Marriott Marquis.Surfing Santa is awaiting a perfect wave–it should arrive in Seaport Village before too long.Who is that lifting his hat? It’s Mitchell, the cool didgeridoo guy! I was reminded by Mitchell that Earth’s sun is a G-type main-sequence star. I had forgotten. Nuclear fusion is pretty warm!A smile like a ray of sunshine.
(And here I must make an apology.
While I sat on a rail speaking to Mitchell about life, the cosmos, and whatever, two smiling ladies came on by pushing a cart full of Noosa yogurt samples. Mitchell earned his sample by summoning deep magic with his didgeridoo. For my sample, I promised to post a photo of the smiling ladies on my blog–right here–where there is no photo.
Sorry. My camera beeped as if a photo were taken. But alas. My battery went dead and it turns out I don’t have that smiling photo.
I will say, however, that my Noosa yogurt was super creamy, yummy, and scrumdiddlyumptious. I really liked the bits of chocolate. I’m a sucker for chocolate.
There. Now will you forgive me?
Thank you ladies for helping to lift my spirits–it fits this theme perfectly!)
A distant kiteboarder, harnessing the wind, rises above San Diego Bay.Who cares about the weather? One can always make bubbles.Even during a gloomy spell, life can be very good! Just smile!
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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!
PostSecret is coming to the Museum of Man in Balboa Park on April 14, 2018.
How cool is this?
I was walking through the Fall Back Festival in the Gaslamp before it opened this morning and stumbled upon a fantastic community art project!
The project is called PostSecret, and it was begun in 2004 by an inspired gentleman named Frank Warren. People anonymously write down one of their deepest emotional secrets on a postcard and mail it in. The postcards are then displayed as public art! The project has already received over a million submissions!
The folks I met at the Fall Back Festival were representing the Museum of Man in Balboa Park. I learned the traveling PostSecret exhibition is coming to San Diego and will open at the museum on April 14, 2018! Residents of San Diego are encouraged to share their secrets!
How? Simply mail a creative postcard containing one of your written secrets to the Museum of Man address you see in one of my photos. Your secret can be absolutely anything–a regret, a fear, a desire, a confession–as long as it is true. You might make your postcard into a work of art, or simply write down a few brief words.
I’m mailing my postcard tomorrow.
You also have secrets to share, don’t you?
These friendly folks would like you to mail in one of your secrets anonymously!PostSecret is a project that was begun in 2004 by Frank Warren. Over a million secrets have been shared.That address on the right is where you need to mail your postcard! Mail as many secrets as you’d like!Perhaps by mailing your secret, you’ll help us humans better understand our inner selves. Or gain a personal sense of relief. Or simply enjoy a healthy laugh!
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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!
The names of loved ones. Spiritual bonds link the living with the dead during Dia de los Muertos.
Many generations came together in Old Town this evening during Dia de los Muertos.
Love and memory were written on so many smiling faces as people celebrated their departed loved ones. Chalk memorials and scattered marigolds lined San Diego Avenue. And the evening ended with a candlelight procession from Old Town San Diego State Historic Park to the small El Campo Santo cemetery. A walk of several blocks in the growing darkness . . . a short walk down a road brightly lit by love.
My poor camera failed to capture the candlelight procession as night descended. But your heart and mind might imagine it.
An abundance of music, humor and life on stage during the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Old Town San Diego!People could pose for photos with two giant skeleton puppets!An artist paints two large skulls–calaveras–in Old Town’s Plaza de las Armas during Dia de los Muertos.Children decorate traditional sugar skulls.Some around the park wore fancy dresses and hats for the day, recreating the iconic Mexican image of La Calavera Catrina. I saw many faces painted like fantastic skulls.Some of the shops in Old Town had a mix of decorations for both Halloween and Dia de los Muertos.A large, colorful calavera above a restaurant inside Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.Face painting and a youthful smile.Hundreds of tributes and sentiments for departed loved ones were written in chalk on a long stretch of San Diego Avenue, inside Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.Lanterns among the many Dia de los Muertos chalk memorials.Te amo–I love you–and a marigold.Love and memory connect many generations as the years roll on.
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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!
Day of the Dead altar created by the Old Globe Theatre contains photos of departed loved ones, roses, candles, and an image of Shakespeare.
For several hours today, visitors to Balboa Park could enjoy traditional Dia de los Muertos activities in Copley Plaza, at the entrance to the Old Globe’s theater complex. The event’s main attraction was two performances of a powerful new play called La Muerte Descansa en Paz (Death Rests in Peace). The first performance was in Spanish, the second mostly in English.
The brief but emotionally stirring play, directed and co-created by Daniel Jáquez, was presented for the very first time on Saturday during the SAY San Diego’s City Heights Day of the Dead Celebration. The production is the result of a collaboration between the Old Globe’s coLAB and AXIS programs and the San Diego community of City Heights.
Here are some photos of today’s event!
Day of the Dead–Dia de los Muertos–was celebrated today in Copley Plaza, outside the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in Balboa Park.A Dia de los Muertos altar remembers and celebrates those who’ve passed into the next world. Their spirits are enticed to return among the living.A loving tribute to relatives and loved ones, dearly missed.Kids have their faces painted like sugar skulls for Dia de los Muertos.The tools of a face painter.At one table creative kids could color Dia de los Muertos skulls.Shakespeare among Dia de los Muertos skulls. Perhaps that one in the center belonged to Yorick.A performance of La Muerte Descansa en Paz (Death Rests in Peace) begins. The dead enter in front of a living audience.The character Death takes the stage. Death sees both sides of the river. Death sees life’s joy, pain, dreams–and the souls of the departed.The dead dance. On Dia de los Muertos, when the church bells ring, Death permits the dead to return briefly as spirits among the living.A dead poet vaguely remembers the richness and brevity of life–the sharp joys and sorrows. Her voice was cut short, but her living words linger.The dead briefly take the stage. We, the living, experience a glimpse, a whisper, a moment of lost love.
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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!
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