This morning I walked beside poetry. I followed a bright stream of playful words that were written in 2008 by Quincy Troupe.
FOLLOWING THE WORDS is poetry inscribed along the top of a low concrete wall. The wall stretches between The New Children’s Museum and their garden and playground.
To learn a little more about Quincy Troupe, and to see more photos of this small, joyful refuge in downtown San Diego, click here.
WORDS WALK A PATHWAYINTO OUR MINDS, THEY JUMP QUICKBEHIND A HOPPINGFROG, GUIDING US LIKE A SCOUTINTO THE LANGUAGE WE BOP,WORDS POP BIG AS EYESOF FROGS, WHO HOP AND PLOP, BOPTHROUGH WORDS ZIG-ZAGGINGTHROUGH SENTENCES, HOT AND COOLAS FLIP-FLOPS KIDS ARE WEARING,THEY ARE COLORFUL,THESE WORDS THAT BLIP, BLOP AND PLOP,UP AND DOWN THEY GO,LIKE OUR SCOUT, THE HOPPING TOAD,THERE HE GOES, JUMPING LIKE WORDS,SOME HE TOTES INSIDEA SACK ON HIS BACK, BOUNCING,BROWN-GREEN AS HIS SKIN,THESE WORDS ARE HEAVYLOADS FOR TOADS SAME THING AS FROGSTO CARRY, THESE KNOTS, ZIG-ZAGGING, COOL, WORDS, BOPPING,SKIPPING ALONG, SKEEDADLINGALONG THIS PATHWAY,WE FOLLOW WORDS AS THEY HOPBEHIND OUR SCOUT-TOADOR FROG, IF YOU LIKE THAT WORD,FOLLOW THEM TO WHERE THEY ENDINSIDE THE MUSEUM,WHERE WORDS BECOME FREEDOM, ART,MUSIC AND KNOWLEDGE,POETRY, DANCING, BIG FUN,HIP AS FLIP-FLOPS KIDS HAVE ON
COOL RAP, FLIP-FLOPPING,WORDS THAT RATTAMATAT, JAZZZIG-ZAG THROUGH VOICES,CARRY CHOICES THROUGH TALKING,SENTENCES SKEEDADLING, WORDS,BRIGHT INSIDE KID’S MINDS,MADE NEWS, ABOVE THEIR FUTURE,A NEW SUN RISINGEACH MORNING NEW, AND WE CANTOUCH IT WHEN WE SPREAD OUR WINGSAND FLY LIKE A BIRDTHROUGH OUR OWN MINDS, THROUGH OUR OWNSKIES, INSIDE OUR MINDS,WE CAN TOUCH MAGIC INSIDEOUR OWN IMAGINATIONS,TOUCH IT, THE MAGIC,WATCH YOUR MIND GO FLYINGLIKE A BIRD, NOW, HIGHUP IN THE BLUE, WATCH YOURSELF,YOUR MIND SOAR, SKEEDADLING, NOW
SKEEDADLING VOICESSHIMMY SHIMMY SHANGLE, BOP,SASHAY, SKEEZOOZOOTHROUGH, HIP WORDS THEY HOP, POP,AS RAINBOW CHILDREN PLOP, SHINEIT’S PLAYTIME, SPARKLINGWITH LAUGHTER, SKEEDADLING LIKEOCEAN WAVES DRUMMING,A CHOIR OF BIRDS, SHOWERINGRAIN, SOFT AS CHILDREN’S FOOTSTEPSCHILDREN’S FACES BLOOMLIKE FLOWERS IN JUNE, DAZZLING,SPARKLE LIKE TINKLINGWATERFALLS, RINSING, PURE SOUNDS,BRIGHT ROSE PETALS ON THE GROUND,YOU ARE YOUR OWN SONGSINGING SWEET MUSIC, COLORS,NOTES INSIDE LAUGHTER,FREEDOM IS TIME, NOW,YOU ARE LIVING IN YOURSELFWHEN YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE,THEIR FACES AGAINSTWHITE WALLS, ARE FLOWER PETALSPOPPING INTO ROOMSOUT IN GREEN BUSHESFROGS SERENADE THE MOON, SKYAS CATS CHASE SHADOWSYOU CAN TOUCH IT, TOUCHIT, NOW, THROUGH YOUR POET’S PEN,YOUR PAINTER’S BRUSHSTROKE,THE SUN INSIDE YOUR MIND, TOO,REACH IN, TOUCH IT, TOUCH IT NOW
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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!
Texas Tractor, 2002, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.
A great new art exhibition has recently opened at the San Diego History Center!
Carol Lindemulder: Color Story features a collection of vibrant paintings by a local artist who loves to travel about the landscapes of Southern California and the American Southwest. In her paintings, deserts, fields, mountains and small towns are frequently defined by swaths of radiant color–like patches of bright sunshine before your eyes!
Carol Lindemulder, a San Diego native, is a founding member of the Save Our Heritage Organization. She was responsible for the restoration of the Giant Dipper roller coaster in Mission Beach. Her paintings are informed by a deep knowledge of our region’s history, its backroads and lesser known spaces.
Head over to the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park and see these amazing paintings for yourself!
Photograph of Carol Lindemulder painting.Most of my paintings have a path–a road, a street, a river–a place from which we start the adventure.The Road Less Traveled, 2003, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.Fish Creek Afternoon, 2012, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.Stonebridge Canyon, 2016, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.October, Canyon de Chelly, 2002, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.When Shadow’s Fall, 1996, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.Ocotillo, 2010, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.Storm from Temecula, 2001, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.Henshaw After the Storm, 2007, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.Just Around the Corner from the Stop Sign, 2013, Carol Lindemulder. Oil on linen.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Patrick Block, long-time Disney comics artist, draws the famous face of Donald Duck. A beloved character comes to life during the Creating a Comics Story event at the future home of the Comic-Con Museum.
This afternoon I attended one of the coolest events EVER!
I and other spellbound people sat in the auditorium of the future Comic-Con Museum, watching as veteran Disney comics artists Patrick and Shelley Block brought Donald Duck to life! With the help of the audience, right before our eyes, they created an absolutely original, hilarious and brilliant comic book story! The penciled five page story was about Donald Duck working as janitor at a comic book convention, and much of the story’s essential plot came spontaneously from the audience!
It was pure magic. Patrick sketched with practiced ease while sharing his thought process, and Shelley Block contributed humorous banter and brilliant inspiration. From the tip of a number 7 mechanical pencil, Donald Duck emerged into our world–reminding readers that much in life is inherently funny, and that a cartoon about a zany “everyperson” duck can reinforce a sense of our own humanity.
During the event all sorts of questions were asked by the smart audience, and I wish I had taken notes. But the entire experience was simply too mesmerizing.
If this is a preview of coming events at the Comic-Con Museum, which we learned is slated to open in May of 2021, it’s going to be one of the most amazing museums in the world. That’s no exaggeration.
I can’t wait!
Art and writing team Patrick and Shelly Block, Disney comics creators for 26 years, talk about the creative process.Three pages of the five page Donald Duck comic are nearly done. Through an odd series of funny events, Donald has become janitor at a comic book convention!Donald Duck wants to see the masquerade ball, and after many gags and catastrophes ends up winning it!Original Donald Duck artwork created by Patrick and Shelly Block for the Comic-Con Museum. Don’t forget us funny animal comics!
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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!
During my walk around downtown yesterday morning, I wandered past The New Children’s Museum. My camera immediately took aim at the 1950s Dodge pickup Flower Truck out on the Paint Patio. Kids have applied so many coats of paint to the museum’s current Painted Object that the vintage truck appears to be covered with dripped candle wax!
I also enjoyed looking at the long, rainbow-like SMILE mural on the museum’s entrance bridge, painted by street artist Paola Villaseñor, who signs her work PANCA. Her urban artwork, which is usually more “adult” and grotesque, can be found in both Tijuana and San Diego.
Those words on a low wall bordering the museum’s playground and The Garden Project are part of FOLLOWING THE WORDS, poetry by Quincy Troupe, professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.
In late 2014 I posted photos of the small garden and other lines of the linguistically lip-lively poem here.
Perhaps one day I’ll photograph the entire long poem!
Section of SMILE, by artist PANCA. The fun 48-foot-long mural decorates the bridge leading to the entrance of The New Children’s Museum.YOU ARE YOUR OWN SONGHIP AS FLIP-FLOPS KIDS HAVE 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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Right half of MMCXVIII/MDCCC, 2018, Emma Laraby. Digital painting.
A fascinating exhibition opened yesterday at the SDSU Downtown Gallery. It’s titled Futures Past and Present.
San Diego State University students and faculty from the School of Art + Design have creatively addressed human society and the passage of time. Unique works of art reflect how the future has been forecast in the past, and how our present informs what is yet to come.
Visions that are presented range from the utopian to the dystopian, and many aspects of human experience and its possibilities are mixed into the artwork. Technology, the environment, urban growth, cultural transformation, and philosophical points of view are some of the themes contained in four sections: Alternate Realities, Building the Future, Inventing the Future, and Personal Prophecies.
Curious minds will enjoy this exhibition. Those who love science fiction, art or futurism should definitely head downtown to check it out!
Futures Past and Present is a very cool exhibition now showing at the SDSU Downtown Gallery in San Diego.Pulp magazines in a display case recall early visions from science fiction. As human life and technology evolve, the genre also evolves.CareLink: transmitting internal data, 2017, Kelly Temple. Archival digital print and other materials.K-bots (10 robots), 2019, Andrew Blackwell. Beech, brass, plastic.BLDNG #6 two views 2008 (In and Out), 2018, David Fobes. Archival inkjet print.Time Capsules Project. SDSU art students created small time capsules and messages that speak to the future.Occupying one corner of the gallery are tools of the past and present. HARD_COPY – Unforgetting Futures Past – a temporary reading room and bindery.Bubble, 2018, Brandie Maddalena. Copper, felt, paracord, steel, human interaction.Washington Marbles, 2018, Tyler Young. Oil paint, acrylic paint, cardboard, dirt and plaster on canvas.The Same, 2018, Tamayo Muto. Archival digital print.The Drain, 2016, Vincent Cordelle. Cast bronze, steel, insulated pipe.Untitled (Potential 40 Units), 2018, Eleanor Greer. Oil and charcoal on canvas.Extravehicular Activity Kit #5, 2018, Zac Keane. Birch ply, hickory, steel, duct tape, nylon.Little Miss Sunshine, 2018, Melissa Salgado. Acrylic and oil on canvas.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
As I waited for a trolley at America Plaza early this afternoon, I thought I’d peer into a window of the Museum of Contemporary Arts San Diego. A gentleman inside saw and motioned for me to come on in!
I was welcomed by Max, a super nice Gallery Educator, who was applying ink to a silk screen. He was using screen printing to create bold messages in the Sanctuary Print Shop!
The project titled Sanctuary Print Shop is the brainchild of artists Sergio De La Torre and Chris Treggiari. The idea of this exhibition is to start conversations concerning the very topical and divisive issue of immigration. People are encouraged to write their thoughts about immigration, and messages are created to paper one wall.
Even though there’s a certain political bias to the exhibition, Max did agree that it’s a complex human issue. There are many different thoughts concerning it. And it’s an issue with many personal connections.
Human creativity and the written word fascinate me, so I enjoyed meeting Max, watching him at work, and reading what others have said!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Lots of cool sights await visitors to the free San Diego Air and Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex!
One of the coolest free attractions in San Diego is located in East County at Gillespie Field. That’s where you’ll find the annex of Balboa Park’s famous Air and Space Museum!
Yesterday morning I ventured east to El Cajon to visit the San Diego Air and Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex for the very first time. I’d read that they have a collection of old aircraft, but I really didn’t know what to expect.
I was absolutely blown away!
The annex is a treasure trove of restored and unrestored aircraft, plus old exhibits once housed by the museum in Balboa Park. Volunteers at the Gillespie Field Annex are happy to show families around. Excited kids can sit inside commercial airline cockpits, and adults can marvel at the development of aviation technology over the years.
There are so many amazing displays in the hangar and outside, it’s hard to describe. So I offer you these photos with informative captions!
If you happen to be in San Diego, go check it out for yourself! While admission to the annex is free, they’d appreciate a few bucks in their donation box!
An imposing Atlas missile stands in one corner of the annex’s parking lot!Cockpit exhibits and aircraft in various stages of restoration stand outside the museum annex hangar.Inside the hangar there’s a ton of cool stuff, including many old exhibits from the main San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park.Replica of the Smithsonian’s original Vin Fiz Flyer dangles from the ceiling. This one-of-a-kind Wright Brothers airplane was the first aircraft to fly coast-to-coast. The journey took almost three months!Ryan X-13 experimental vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jet created by the Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego. This particular aircraft was test flown in 1955 at Edwards Air Force Base.Looking past the Ryan X-13 Vertijet at other exhibits in the annex hangar, including a yellow Ryan Recruit military trainer.This particular Ryan X-13 was the result of a contract with the U.S. Air Force, as you can see by the markings.Ryan ST-3KR (PT-22) Recruit, an aircraft used to train thousands of pilots during World War II.In a glass display case nearby is a small model of a Ryan B-5 Brougham. (You might recall that Charles Lindbergh’s famous Spirit of St. Louis, first plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo nonstop, was built in San Diego by Ryan.)Numerous aircraft engines on display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex.Wright R-3350-B Duplex-Cyclone 1939 aircraft power plant, at the time the most powerful radial engine in the world at 2000 HP.Pratt and Whitney 1830-17 Twin Wasp, used in several World War II aircraft.Wright J65 turbojet engine, 1954. This engine powered many military aircraft in the mid 20th century, including the very successful A-4 Skyhawk.Marquardt RJ43-MA-9 ramjet engine used on Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc interceptor missiles during the 1960s. The ramjet produced speeds up to Mach 2.7, or about 1780 miles per hour.Rolls Royce Pegasus F402-RR-401 vectoring turbofan that powers the AV-8A Harrier short take-off and vertical landing aircraft.A long mural in the annex’s hangar shows a variety of modern aircraft.Bleriot XI dangles from the ceiling. The revolutionary 1908 aircraft had a new Anzani engine that could run for one whole hour, allowing it to fly across the English Channel.Sopwith Pup Craftsmen of the San Diego Aerospace Museum, a volunteer aircraft building project back in 2000-2003.Rearwin Cloudster 8135, once displayed on the museum floor in Balboa Park.One more look inside the hangar before I head outside to see lots more cool stuff.The aircraft in the foreground is a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. Mounted beyond it is a Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug jet-powered reconnaissance drone.Outside the hangar doors is the nose of an old Northwest Stratocruiser that once flew to Honolulu.Hundreds of switches, dials and gauges inside the amazing cockpit of a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. One can sit in the pilot’s seat and pretend to fly across the Pacific Ocean!Someone created this silly flying car named the Spirit of San Diego! I kind of doubt they ever got this contraption off the ground.Looking beyond a General Dynamics F-16N at a line of military aircraft displayed outside.North American F-86F Sabre from the Korean War period.Convair F-102A Delta Dagger built in San Diego 1956-1957.An old Neptune Aviation Services P2V-7 aerial firefighting plane–Tanker 43.I learned there are several restoration projects now underway at the museum annex at Gillespie Field. I believe this is an old Piasecki H-21 helicopter. Looks like it needs some work.Next to the San Diego Air and Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex parking lot stands a tall Atlas Missile 2-E! This missile was used for a static firing at Sycamore Canyon Test Facility east of MCAS Miramar. It used to stand at the entrance to Missile Park, beside the old General Dynamics complex in Kearny Mesa.National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark Atlas Space Booster Family – San Diego, California – 1957. Developed by General Dynamics Convair and the U.S. Air Force.Visit the free San Diego Air and Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex and you’ll learn a whole lot about aviation history!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
A mazelike X by artist Bob Matheny. His works of Almost Anonymous, mind-teasing art can now be absorbed at the San Diego History Museum.
I took these unusual photographs yesterday during my afternoon walk through Balboa Park.
Each image seemed uniquely interesting to me for one reason or another. My eyes were drawn to lines, curves, contrasts and mysteries.
The passage of time glimpsed underfoot. Contrasted modes of decay.An elemental drama. Trees battle sky.In one photo nature subdues architecture.The iconic California Tower is swallowed by vertical distance.Looking through an arch of the California Quadrangle toward the original Administration Building, the first building completed for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.Simple lines and curves: a small place in the park to rest.Eyes are pulled in every direction in a nook beside the San Diego Museum of Art.Wild beauty is aesthetically arranged at the Japanese Friendship Garden.The Japanese Friendship Garden, where reflection becomes meditation.
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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!
Visitors to Balboa Park see a magical landscape from a window-like balcony high up in the California Tower.
Visit Balboa Park and you’ll discover many magic windows. They appear wherever you turn.
I looked through many magic windows today…
Windows at the Japanese Friendship Garden look out at the Karesansui Dry Stone Garden, where magic gradually appears for those who are still.A bamboo kakei spills droplets of magic into a liquid window.A rock window has been opened and polished, revealing the Earth’s inner magic at the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society building.Small windows to magical creativity delight the eye at the San Diego History Center. A current exhibition concerns the art of Bob Matheny.Good Question, Bob Matheny, wood and enamel paint, 1967. True magic will forever remain a mystery.A feathered subject in a magically rippling window appears for a photographer in Balboa Park.A delicate window to nature’s magic at the Botanical Building.Looking up toward a lath skylight full of green magic.The magical qualities of song become visible for a few minutes near the House of Ukraine at the International Cottages.This small window-like scene inside the House of China contains a fantastic, magical vision carved from cork!A magic window at Balboa Park’s House of Charm looks forward into the future. The Mingei International Museum is undergoing a major renovation and expansion.One of many fine sculptures in the Plaza de Panama, and a window of the San Diego Museum of Art. Beyond that window are galleries full of magic.Cloud reflections join magically together in two very different rear windows at the San Diego Museum of Art.Beyond this magic lamp’s window one can see the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.Window panes contain old magic performed at the Old Globe Theatre.Another window into the future. This advanced art student is phenomenal. I didn’t get his name. I am one hundred percent certain he will produce great magic.Nature’s magic on Balboa Park’s West Mesa, in a window formed by my camera’s lens.A portal to the magic sky opens in a wall at the Spanish Village Art Center.
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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!
Donations are being gathered for homeless youth this Christmas at the SDSU Downtown Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
If you’d like to help homeless youth in San Diego this Christmas, donations of helpful items are being accepted by the SDSU Downtown Gallery, and the downtown location of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. School supplies, youth clothing and hygiene items would be very helpful.
Donations are welcome at both museums through December 20, 2018.
You can also join compassionate teens and big-hearted members of the community as care bags for homeless youth are hand assembled on December 20th from 5:00 – 7:30 pm.
Enlarge the above flyer for easy reading by clicking my photo. Feel free to share the flyer on social media.
You can also learn more details at the MCASD website by clicking here!
Cool San Diego Sights! 