Tag: literature

House of England celebrates Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday!

The House of England in Balboa Park celebrated the 250th birthday of Jane Austen today!

Dressed in Regency attire, members of the Jane Austen Society of North America San Diego Region assembled outside the House of England cottage and listened to beautiful music performed by Amanda Fagan. Many of the ladies were wearing bonnets!

Jane Austen was a major literary figure who wrote such famous novels as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Songwriter and prolific creator Amanda Fagan (@amandafaganofficial) entertained everyone with original compositions inspired by Jane Austen novels!

I learned that Amanda Fagan is writing a screenplay for a musical based on Austen’s satirical novel Northanger Abbey. I suspect it will include a good deal of humor! See her YouTube page here.

Inside the House of England cottage they were serving Victoria sponge cupcakes and scones with proper British jam and cream, and, of course, a cup of tea. I noticed that a few displays in the cottage pay tribute to Jane Austen and her importance to world literature.

Heading into the cottage…

Back outside. (Did they have smartphones at the turn of the 19th century?)

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Waka poems as art at Japanese Friendship Garden.

Waka poems are a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. A waka poem is unique in that it consists of 31 syllables.

An exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park contains examples of waka from Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1185) written in kana script. Each composition is beautiful, not merely as a poem, but as a visual work of art.

The exhibition is titled Love Letters from the Heian Period — Emotions in 31 Syllables.

A sign in the garden’s Exhibit Hall explains: “Among the aristocracy of the time, romantic relationships often began through the exchange of waka… Since men and women had limited opportunities to meet in person, emotions were conveyed through poetry…”

Learn more about this exhibition at the JFG website here.

I was completely unaware of this type of poetry before visiting the garden today. Spellbound, I stood before the examples on display and read translations of each Japanese poem.

The English translations do not contain 31 syllables, obviously, but they definitely convey feelings indicative of romance. I noticed these wakas often employ metaphors taken from nature.

Here are a few of the translations:

There are many villages where the cuckoo bird sings. It’s a bird that I find attractive, but I don’t feel close to it. I like it, but it’s not mine, so I feel a bit jealous. Poet: The Tales of Ise

I won’t allow you to meet me, even if you imitate the crow of a rooster before dawn. Poet: Sei Shōnagon

I was dying to see you, but after I met you I want to live forever. Poet: Fujiwara no Yoshitaka

Should my heart waver and betray our love, then even the impassable waves of a tsunami would cross over the mountains. In other words, I would never be unfaithful. Poet: Author unknown.

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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!

Literature comes to life at the Cervantes Festival!

The annual Cervantes Festival was held today in San Diego!

Families, students and lovers of literature came together at the International Cottages in Balboa Park to enjoy food, culture, art, and most importantly, the public reading of author Miguel de Cervantes’ world classic Don Quijote de La Mancha!

When I arrived around noon, foreign language students from El Capitan High School were reading excerpts from the novel in Mandarin Chinese! I noted that students from San Diego High School were also participating in the event, which lasted from 11 am to 4 pm.

The unique cultural festival, which I was told is in its eleventh year, was organized by the San Diego/Alcalá Sister Cities Society and Balboa Park’s own House of Spain. (Yes, food representing Cervantes’ native Spain included delicious paella.)

I took some photographs as I wandered about…

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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!

World’s most famous fishing boat to visit San Diego!

Western Flyer, the world’s most famous fishing boat, will be visiting San Diego on March 26, 2025, and you have the opportunity to tour it!

If you’ve read John Steinbeck‘s famous book Sea of Cortez, you’ll recognize the name of this fishing boat. In 1940, Steinbeck and his friend Ed Ricketts explored the Gulf of California in this very boat.

For decades the boat was lost, then it was found and restored by the Western Flyer Foundation. It now operates as a floating classroom, educating youth about the intersection of science and literature.

With a General Admission ticket, visitors to the Maritime Museum of San Diego will be able to step aboard and tour the legendary fishing boat as it makes its visit to our city!

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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!

San Diego artist James Watts and 100 Paintings!

Have you visited the downtown studio of San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso)? The experience will blow your mind!

I’m personally inspired by James Watts. Like a perpetual motion machine, he happily creates, creates and creates. His studio is so jam-packed with creative genius that you don’t know in which direction to turn your eyes.

That’s going to be more true than ever, because he’s now in the middle of a new project. He’s creating 100 Paintings!

James showed me his work yesterday when I happened to walk by the open door of his magical studio. He has finished 18 of the 100 paintings so far.

His paintings are in groups of five; each group includes a still life, a nude, a portrait, a cityscape, and a symbolic or literary painting. He intentionally emulates the styles of different famous painters.

Gazing about his studio, you’ll notice that many works of art–paintings and sculptures–depict characters from classic novels, history or mythology. When he was a kid, James loved to sit in the library and read comic books and magazines. Today, as an accomplished visual artist, he brings the written word to life in new, fantastic ways.

For some reason, James reminds me of science fiction and fantasy author Ray Bradbury. His energetic love of life. His love of everything–from pop culture to the classics. His smile and enthusiasm.

Up next is a painting showing James Watts’ studio. Do you recognize it? Look for the art-filled windows (and his cats) in downtown San Diego on 7th Avenue between C Street and Broadway.

A couple of photos of new paintings inside the studio…

The next photo shows a painting inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis! (Lying next to it is a lamppost just outside the studio.)

James loves to use wood and other materials for his myriad projects. The next photo shows wood block finger puppets painted with images from the Epic of Gilgamesh!

Endless wonders fill the downtown studio of San Diego artist James Watts!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Big Brother is watching you at Comic-Con!

In San Diego, during Comic-Con 2024, you can run but you cannot hide from Big Brother! That’s because he’ll be watching you from the latest Comic-Con trolley wrap that promotes Audible originals: George Orwell’s 1984 and The Safe Man!

Both popular adaptations offer Audible listeners top voice talent, such as Andrew Garfield, Tom Hardy, and Jack Quaid.

Who isn’t familiar with the dystopian, authoritarian future presented in the classic novel 1984? In our current age of digital surveillance, the story’s chilling warning seems more pertinent than ever. The nicely timed photograph above is thought-provoking, don’t you think?

The Safe Man is an eerie supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly. Dare you listen?

I captured these photographs this afternoon after a visit to San Diego’s very cool Comic-Con Museum. Comic-Con 2024 is coming up in a few weeks! Stay tuned!

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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!

Blue Door Bookstore exhibit at Central Library.

Readers who fondly remember the old Blue Door Bookstore in Hillcrest will enjoy viewing a new exhibit at the San Diego Central Library.

Several glass display cases contain photographs, store flyers, art, a newspaper clipping . . . even one of the bookstore’s bags with its image of an ugly, scrunched-up face!

The Blue Door Bookstore once stood in the heart of Hillcrest at 3823 Fifth Avenue. Founded in 1961 and first owned an operated by Bill and Mary Peccolo, the store was purchased in 1988 by retired high school English teach Tom Stoup. Working hard, he grew the business, doubling its clientele and inventory in just four years.

The Blue Door Bookstore would become a favorite destination in San Diego for lovers of literature, culture and progressive politics. It would host up to 80 authors a year at a series of Wednesday and Friday poetry and literature readings and book signings. New authors were included with those who had achieved international fame. In one of my photographs, you can see Tom Stoup standing next to Gore Vidal.

The store with its blue door would finally close in 2001, largely due to the advent of e-commerce.

The Blue Door Bookstore exhibit can be viewed on the San Diego Central Library’s First Floor, in the wide area in front of the building elevators.

Are you both a San Diego resident and lover of books? To one side of these display cases you’ll find shelves of books by local authors!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde debut in San Diego!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have made their official debut in San Diego!

The famous character with two personas and two names, originally created by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, has been recreated in downtown San Diego. His two halves–the good and the evil–occupy a mysterious cabinet inside the studio of artist James Watts (@jewattso)!

Early this year I found James Watts working on his inspired Jekyll and Hyde cabinet in his utterly fantastic studio, and I posted photos and a little explanation here. This afternoon I beheld the finished creation!

Like any work of true art, the cabinet and its contents ignite mind, emotions and imagination. What does it all mean? A few suggestive words were provided by the artist.

On the rear of the cabinet is the image of a baby, symbolic of innocence, before choices are made in life…

Here’s the front of the mysterious cabinet with its sliding door. The cloud designs are influenced by Japanese art. Which side of the cabinet do you dare open first?

Here we have Dr. Jekyll, made of sailcloth sewn by hand. He’s wrapped up in tidy fashion, sitting politely and civilized.

On the opposite side lurks violent Mr. Hyde. He appears inhuman, hard and boney, and he has a hole in his head and heart!

James Watts then showed me how he’s working on a cool finger project now. He’s whittling lots of different fingers.

One can use one’s own fingers to pick among fingers…

James Watts works on new fingers on the sidewalk outside his downtown San Diego studio!

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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 Twitter!

Dance and food at the Cervantes Festival!

The Cervantes Festival was held today in San Diego!

The House of Spain hosted the fun cultural event in Balboa Park, with visitors enjoying entertainment, authentic Spanish food, a kids art table and more. I’m told the festival kicked off in the morning with young people reading from Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote.

When I arrived, people were watching flamenco dance on the International Cottages lawn and devouring tasty Spanish paella, jamón serrano, Manchego cheese (made in the La Mancha region of Spain) and other gastronomic goodies.

I walked about for a bit, looking for sights related to the great Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. I found small sculptures of the timeless character Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza in a display case inside the House of Spain cottage!

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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 Twitter!

Mark Twain and friends visit San Diego!

Famous author Mark Twain and several literary friends visited San Diego today. They arrived at Heritage County Park for a very special event.

TwainFest 2022 welcomed some of the world’s most celebrated writers, delighting everyone who attended the outdoor festival. The free, family-friendly event is put on every year by Write Out Loud.

Mark Twain himself greeted visitors who wandered about…

I don’t know whether Twain realized he was standing only a block away from the house where humorist Squibob lived while in San Diego.

When I asked him, Mark Twain wouldn’t clearly acknowledge that he was inspired by Squibob. Historians say he probably was.

But we can all agree Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic of American Literature. The esteemed author must’ve been pleased when TwainFest visitors cheerfully whitewashed a fence, much to the consternation of Aunt Polly.

Soon Twain was joined by three other notable writers. Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Emily Dickinson.

Yes, a fine summer day filled with imagination–another chapter in our own never-ending stories…

Out of the blue, a friendly Charles Dickens came strolling along through Heritage Park. The author confessed that one of his favorite works was A Christmas Carol.

In another area of the park, the Red Queen of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was playing croquet. I didn’t see Lewis Carroll, but he must’ve been nearby.

In the sunny Author’s Salon, Edgar Allan Poe was talking about his life–what he remembered of it.

Then Poe began his emotional recital of The Raven.

A few steps away, what were these smiling TwainFest visitors observing?

Tinker Bell and Peter Pan!

And that scoundrel, Captain Hook!

And what was going on over here?

Alice, the White Rabbit, the (Mad) Hatter and smiling guests had assembled for a quite unique tea party!

The Dormouse made a surprise appearance at the Mad Tea-Party as well!

And who is this fine fellow over here reading a story about gallant knights and noble acts of chivalry?

Don Quixote! (And his squire Sancho Panza.)

For his first big adventure, Don Quixote encountered a terrifying number of large fearsome giants who looked strangely like windmills…

Thank you, Mr. Twain, for the twinkle in your eye and your timeless humor.

And for bringing so many literary friends to San Diego!

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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!