Mitchell, an incredible musician, plays one of his didgeridoos in Balboa Park on a beautiful San Diego day.
Please meet Mitchell, the self-named Didgeridude! For many years I’ve seen him playing his collection of cool didgeridoos in public around San Diego. I’ve often walked past him performing in Balboa Park or Seaport Village, and have paused to listen to his incredible, resonating music. But I’d never spoken to him at length until last weekend.
Mitchell is not only a really great musician, but he’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever be pleased to meet. His spirit is a big as the universe; perhaps that’s why his music sounds like emanations and echoes from a place deep in the heart of the cosmos.
It brought a smile to my face when I heard he first took an interest in the didgeridoo after watching the movie Crocodile Dundee. This ancient musical instrument of the Australian Aborigines requires a special circular breathing technique, and it’s plain to see that playing the didgeridoo continuously is a labor of love that requires dedication and great effort. Mitchell told me he loses about a pound on those days he comes out to perform in public.
Check out his cool website, which is called Didjetellus. “Did I tell you” that his website has cool samples of didgeridoo music and MP3 files you can download? Mitchell does school presentations and can be booked for private concerts.
Mitchell has given me so much pleasure over the years, I feel privileged to have finally met him. If you want to hear something really cool and unusual, click the many MP3 samples on his website!
The Didgeridude is one very cool dude!This didgeridoo features a snake! Mitchell told me it would be fun if he could somehow devise a way to make a mechanical tongue come out of the snake.
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This friendly music instructor would teach lots of kids how to play the piano at Hands On Community Day at the San Diego Symphony!
Today I enjoyed a beautiful hour at the San Diego Symphony. I arrived at noon to listen to a free public concert, which was just the first part of the five hour Hands On Community Day event. Later on, after I left for my walk, there were additional performances, and kids were taught how to play the piano by world-class musicians!
The San Diego Symphony is celebrating the piano during an ongoing Upright and Grand festival, which continues through February 8. If you haven’t been to a concert at Copley Symphony Hall, I assure you it’s a magical, wonderful experience!
Please enjoy a few photos and read the captions for explanations…
The San Diego Symphony’s Upright and Grand festival is a month-long event that celebrates the piano.Fantastic mural in lobby of Symphony Towers depicts an orchestra, including a pianist.Some bicyclists stopped by to play the public upright piano in the lobby of Symphony Towers near the box office.A vintage photo in the lobby shows the Fox Theatre, built in 1929, now Copley Symphony Hall. A modern skyscraper called Symphony Towers was built over and around the old theatre in 1989.Inside the elegant, historic Copley Symphony Hall. I arrived early to the Hands On Community Day, so there are few people in this photo.One table had samples of a piano key’s inner workings. Later on I saw lots of families and kids examining these with interest.A representative for the San Diego International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs had a table outside the concert hall.Six grand pianos were set up on the stage. I enjoyed the first hour of the event, which featured The Carnival of the Animals by composer Camille Saint-Saens, with poems by Ogden Nash.Looking up inside the concert hall. A friendly usher told me there’s a winding staircase in the huge chandelier! Girls used to toss rose petals onto the audience, once upon a time long ago.People are arriving for the big San Diego Symphony free event, part of their Upright and Grand festival!After the first hour’s concert is over, the audience applauds narrator Dave Scott and amazing pianists Jessie Chang and Bryan Verhoye!
This super nice lady posed while blowing some bubbles! And I got photobombed! What fun!
Lots of photos today!
Let’s start out with the fun San Diego Multicultural Festival, which was held in sunny Ruocco Park, downtown near Tuna Harbor. I always enjoy walking through the annual event, taking in the cool, happy vibe and listening to some great live music. Here are a few pics!
Remember–tomorrow is the big MLK parade which goes down Harbor Drive along the Embarcadero! It begins at 2 o’clock!
Folks were at the San Diego Multicultural Festival in Ruocco Park listening to lots of great live music.This smiling lady representing the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park had a table full of beautiful crafts. They’ll be having a Let Freedom Ring event on MLK Day.Super colorful art and wares at the WorldBeat table. Celebrating life, diversity and Martin Luther King Jr. Day in San Diego!People were enjoying drumming on the grass in Ruocco Park, near Seaport Village.This cool musician on the stage saw me taking a photo! Hello!
Three magic benches are visible in this photo. Can you spot them?
I discovered three magic benches during my walk through Balboa Park this afternoon! All three are situated in front of the Old Globe Theatre, one of San Diego’s great cultural treasures.
How do I know these benches are magic? It’s very easy to see! Just examine the following photos, and read the captions!
The first bench is dedicated to that magical playwright Shakespeare! As you might recall, the Bard is associated with the original Globe Theatre, which was in London.The iconic face of William Shakespeare on the side of a fantastic public bench in Balboa Park’s Old Globe Courtyard. Sit here and be inspired!A jolly character from the Shakespeare comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor.A famous scene from Hamlet. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy…The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego is where you want to see Shakespeare’s famous plays, including the tragedy Julius Caesar.Here’s the second magic bench. Looks ordinary? Don’t be deceived! Sit or lie here, and you might mysteriously be transported far away!And finally, the magic piano bench. Anybody can sit here and play music through January, courtesy of the San Diego Symphony’s PLAY ME: Pianos In Public Spaces event!
To learn more about the ten public pianos that have been placed around San Diego, check out my previous blog post!
To experience magic in wonderful Balboa Park, head over to the courtyard in front of the world famous Old Globe Theatre!The Old Globe has another great lineup for 2016. World-class entertainment in amazing Balboa Park!
Gentleman who saw this fun piano in the middle of Horton Plaza sat down and started playing. The San Diego Symphony is spreading music around the city!
Ten pianos have been placed around San Diego for the public to play! Any ordinary person passing by can just sit down and perform music to their heart’s content!
This very cool and unique “event” is being put on by the San Diego Symphony. Their PLAY ME: Pianos In Public Spaces installation is part of this month’s Upright and Grand Piano Festival, and will continue through February 8.
Feeling inspired? Feeling musical? Feeling like a maestro? Would you like to play some wonderful piano selections for your admiring fans? Then head on over to one of the ten public locations! They are: the Symphony Towers lobby, the Quartyard, the downtown Central Library, Horton Plaza, The Headquarters, the Coronado Ferry Landing, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (downtown location), Liberty Station, Balboa Park (by the Old Globe Theatre) and the California Center for the Arts Escondido!
The San Diego Symphony’s PLAY ME: Pianos In Public Spaces program has placed ten pianos around the city for ordinary people to enjoy!A colorfully painted piano in the lobby of Symphony Towers in downtown San Diego. I swung by here in the very early morning when few people were around.A cool guy plays this public piano at the Central Public Library in downtown San Diego. He heard about this very unique event and came on down to tickle the ivories.One of ten pianos placed around San Diego for the public to enjoy. Many library patrons coming through the front door were treated to unexpected music!This piano has a big cyclops eye. It sits outside in the Quartyard in San Diego’s East Village.Few people were about the Quartyard on Saturday morning. It’s a cool eating and event venue that’s fairly new in this hip neighborhood.Amazing talent takes a seat in Horton Plaza. This gentleman was walking through the shopping mall and saw the piano. He sounded like a professional musician!This fellow enjoyed playing another public piano, which has been placed at The Headquarters, near Seaport Village.All ten pianos have unique artwork, painted by various local organizations. The instruments were tuned by experts at the San Diego Symphony–and they sound amazing!Kids twirl to piano music in the wide courtyard of The Headquarters, which is located in San Diego’s old police headquarters.Finally, I saw this piano in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s downtown location, which is next to the Santa Fe Depot.Sign says that we are proud to present this piano painted by Combat Arts as part of the San Diego Symphony’s Upright and Grand Piano Festival’s city-wide installation. We invite you to play!Piano in public for any random passerby to enjoy. Veterans who painted this instrument are part of an art-based museum program to help combat troops recover from PTSD.
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Ordinary people from San Diego and around the world gather in Balboa Park to sing Christmas carols at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.
Today a special event was held in Balboa Park–at the outdoor Spreckels Organ Pavilion, to be exact. The public was invited to get up on the stage and participate in the singing of traditional Christmas carols! Along with San Diego’s world-famous organ, of course!
Carols included White Christmas, What Child Is This, Silent Night, Joy To The World, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Deck the Halls, The Twelve Days of Christmas, O Holy Night, It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, Silver Bells, and many more.
Young and old sang their hearts out. Dr. Carol Williams, San Diego’s official Civic Organist, was outstanding as usual. The Spreckels Organ Society’s energetic Ross Porter dashed about the stage as he led the singing. It’s feeling a lot like Christmas!
Halfway through Sunday’s free two o’clock concert, audience members were invited onto the stage to sing along with the Spreckels Organ.A good crowd was enjoying a nice day in December, the weekend before Christmas.Lots of singers have filed onto the stage in front of the pipe organ. Now it’s time to sing lots of joyful carols like musical superstars!Dr. Carol Williams is one of the world’s finest concert organists, and a great composer. Originally from Great Britain, she now makes San Diego her home.Ross Porter leads everybody in song. What a ham!Folks at the rear of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion relax and listen. A few people check out the manger scenes left over from December Nights.Lots of people had Santa hats and festive holiday clothing. Some dogs did, too.Members of the audience head up toward the stage. It was just too much fun!Even the Spreckels Organ Society volunteers were singing along!
A group of old-fashioned Christmas carolers in Victorian costumes brings holiday cheer to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
Look what I stumbled upon yesterday during an afternoon walk through San Diego’s history-filled Old Town. Folks in Victorian costumes were roaming about, singing Christmas carols!
I learned this group is composed of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park staff and volunteers. They were having a great time spreading Christmas cheer, pausing to sing at the various museums, restaurants and shops around old San Diego’s picturesque central plaza.
I was even given a cool little book filled with Christmas carol lyrics. Thank you guys!
Merry Christmas!
Carolers smile, laugh and enjoy the day in front of a reconstructed building at Old Town San Diego’s central plaza.I was given this Caroling Lyrics Booklet. Songs include Jingle Bells, The First Noel, We Three Kings, The 12 Days of Christmas, Deck the Halls and Silent Night.The colorful group of Old Town roving carolers heads to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which is decked out with festive wreaths.After entertaining some surprised diners, the group heads through the Cosmopolitan Hotel, much to the delight of one server!Singing traditional Christmas carols around the old fountain in the outdoor courtyard of Casa de Estudillo.Now the Christmas carolers are in the Wells Fargo History Museum next to the original 1867 Concord stagecoach! Several people listened outside the nearby door and applauded.A crowd gathered as Christmas carols were heard outside the Threads of the Past Living History Activity Center. One quilter joined in the public singing!Joyful, uplifting Christmas carols are sung as customers leave Toby’s Candle and Soap Shop.
The Art of Music is a cool exhibition “now playing” at the San Diego Museum of Art. Depicted in this poster is Fernando Botero’s painting Dancing in Columbia, 1980.
Do you love beautiful music? Do you appreciate fine art?
Answer yes to both questions, and you have two compelling reasons to visit an exhibition “now playing” at the San Diego Museum of Art!
The Art of Music explores the intersection of art and music throughout world history, from ancient times to the present. Visitors to the San Diego Museum of Art will experience a large variety of paintings, posters, sculptures and film, depicting musicians, dancers and various aspects of life that are splashed with the colors of music. Visitors will also enjoy seeing many extraordinarily beautiful musical instruments, historical objects related to music, and encounter surprising sounds at every turn.
My museum docent friend Catherine recently provided another great tour! There was so much to absorb, so many cool sights and sounds, that I hardly know how to translate my feelings into words. I could’ve spent many hours just lingering. The experience was almost like standing on stage during a symphony orchestra’s performance, and turning slowly around with eyes and ears wide open.
I was absolutely floored by the impressive sweep of this exhibit, and the number of pieces by important artists. I noted works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Salvador Dalí, William Hogarth, Toulouse-Lautrec, Jasper Johns and John Baldessari, a highly regarded artist who grew up in National City in San Diego’s South Bay.
The very first piece visitors encounter is Baldessari’s Beethoven’s Trumpet (with Ear) Opus #127, a fun sculpture which perfectly captures the essence of what is to come. Press your own ear against the ear trumpet and you’ll hear musical notes penned centuries ago by Beethoven, as if they’re emerging from the famous composer’s brain!
In other rooms, visitors can listen to a statuette of a satyr playing the pipes of Pan, a qin from China dating from the 19th century, or an absolutely gorgeous 18th century harpsichord that was converted to a piano.
One amazing room in the exhibit contains the Microtonal Wall, created by Tristan Perich in 2011. A large section of wall contains 1,500 small speakers, which are tuned individually to create a complex and interesting continuum of pitch. The interactive experience was so fascinating, I ended up walking with my ear close to the wall bobbing up and down like a mesmerized chicken!
Another dazzling room is filled to the brim with psychedelic concert posters from the 1960s! Aficionados of this type of artwork will find themselves in heaven!
The Art of Music features so much cool stuff, and such variety, I couldn’t possibly describe it all here. You really have to go see for yourself. I’m no expert when it comes to either art or music, but I found myself completely enthralled!
Here are a few samples of what you’ll experience…
People head up steps from Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama to visit the wonderful San Diego Museum of Art.Neck-Amphora with Apollo Playing the Cithara, and Hermes, Athena and Dionysus. Greece, Attica, circa 510 B.C. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.Shiv Chand, Madhumadhavi Ragini of Bhairav, ca. 1690. The San Diego Museum of Art.Lyre Guitar, early 19th century. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Childe Hassam, The Sonata, 1893. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s first poster, Moulin Rouge – La Goulue, which introduced into poster design a bold simplification of form, space and composition learned from Japanese woodblock prints.Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson, 1965. J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art. Depicts renowned singer who was the first African American artist to perform at the White House, in 1936.Hans Burkhardt, Sex Pistols, 1981. Courtesy Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation.John Baldessari, Beethoven’s Trumpet (with Ear) Opus #127, 2007. Beyer Projects.
The Art of Music lives in San Diego!
Go check it out! The Art of Music, at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park, runs through February 7, 2016.
Getting ready for the Veteran’s Day Memorial Program at the House of USA Cottage in Balboa Park.
Today I enjoyed a special Veteran’s Day program in Balboa Park. It was held on the lawn at the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages. The City Guard Band of San Diego played some great music, including a composition titled San Diego Exposition March, written by Gunner Tolbert for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition held in Balboa Park. Some other pieces I heard were selections from South Pacific, Victory at Sea, and, of course, the Star Spangled Banner.
I took a number of photos, and ventured into the House of USA Cottage to absorb some of the atmosphere. I thought you’d might like to have a look. Please read the captions for some more interesting information.
The band is ready to play as people gather around the stage in the lawn area of the International Cottages. It’s a Sunday afternoon in San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park.City Guard Band of San Diego plays during a special Veteran’s Day program. The band originated in 1880, when members were part of a local volunteer militia.Old plaque at base of large tree near the center of the surrounding cottages. Dedicated in honor of Arthur E. Vest, Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.A relaxed Veteran’s Day gathering at Balboa Park’s peaceful House of Pacific Relations International Cottages.Folks at a table in front of the House of USA Cottage listen to the band play patriotic and other popular tunes.These fine ladies smiled for my camera! Those treats on the table are well known to this blogger!American flag and a Welcome at the front door of the USA cottage in Balboa Park.Inside the USA cottage. Welcome home all the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces.Famous portraits and memorabilia from American history cover walls and fill shelves in the House of USA Cottage.Playing the piano for anyone who wanders in on another perfect sunny San Diego day. Someone was whistling nearby.The Stars and Stripes and various books celebrating Americana.Playing sparkling music, from marches to musicals, celebrating those who’ve served to protect our freedom.
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Friendly guy at Pacific Islander Festival representing Tokelau shows how skirts are fashioned using natural fibers.
Today I went to San Diego’s annual Pacific Islander Festival. Wow!
The awesome event was held at Ski Beach Park on Vacation Isle, at the center of Mission Bay–and it was much, much bigger than I had expected. Thousands sitting in lawn chairs or walking among dozens of colorful tents enjoyed music, dance, food, fascinating crafts and a huge variety of cool sights.
Here’s some of what I saw. I’ll let the photo captions tell the story…
Miss Pacific Islander of San Diego greeted me with a warm smile!The popular annual festival attracts thousands, who enjoy lots of music and dance on a big main stage.The theme for 2015 was Heroes of the Pacific, honoring military veterans from Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.Youthful dancers on stage were a favorite of the crowd.Many tents contained interesting artistic and cultural exhibits from different Pacific islands. Here we see Guam.Native arts and crafts fascinated visitors to the festival.Lots of super nice people were enjoying the day at Ski Beach Park in Mission Bay, and many wore colorful costumes!Glass floats are incredibly beautiful, like solid bubbles of light.Tivaevae Polynesian quilting from the Cook Islands, finely made fans, and other handcrafted works on display.Those are two very cool ukuleles!Chamorro outrigger canoe (proa) Sakman could be boarded by curious festival visitors at Ski Beach.An exotic boat in genuine blue Pacific Ocean water on a glorious San Diego day.This lively juggler simply had to be photographed.Drummers create rhythmic beats for event performers rehearsing behind the stage under some shady trees.The Heiva San Diego tent contained colorful Tahitian sights.Typical foods one might find on a South Pacific Ocean island.A sea turtle is swimming above the grass!Artist representing Samoa creates Siapo, also known as tapa, using ink made from native seeds and tree bark.A funny octopus and dancing knife on display at the Samoa tent.Books include Myths and Legends of Samoa.A beautiful wooden bowl was among many cultural artifacts from American Samoa.Palau’s tent had many interesting photos and unique objects for everyone to enjoy.Lots of life and energy at the Pacific Islander Festival!
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