A cool pop-up concert was held today in Balboa Park. Live rock and roll music, played inside the entrance to the historic Starlight Bowl, attracted people like a magnet. The purpose of the concert was to help Save Starlight!
They’re the folks who’ve been working tirelessly for years to reactivate San Diego’s beloved old Starlight Bowl. Perhaps you have memories of performances in the outdoor amphitheater when it was active many years ago.
I’ve learned Save Starlight just needs a long-term lease from the city to get events at the venue started! They need you to raise your voice in support!
True art flows from an artist’s passion to create.
That passion is now being celebrated at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. The exhibition is called This is Our Story.
The artists in this exhibition were not professionally trained. Their works used to be called folk art. Today’s experts call it vernacular art. It is art by ordinary people.
The art of This is Our Story has personality. It is unashamed, happy, in no way conceited. It comes from personal experience, imagination, and hands that love to be moving. It is art that loves to be alive.
You won’t find a Rembrandt in this exhibition. But you will enjoy glimpses of many unique stories.
This is Our Story concludes on February 26, 2023.
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I spent a couple hours today reading by the water and strolling along San Diego’s sunny Embarcadero. When I reached Ruocco Park, I was entertained by the above Lone Sound Ranger and decided–what the heck–I’ll continue to take photographs.
Nothing too unusual here. Just a typical day along San Diego’s waterfront.
Bay views . . . boats . . . street entertainers . . . vendor carts . . . monuments . . . downtown buildings rising to one side. It’s mid-January, so no huge crowds.
These photos were taken as I continued my way north, past Tuna Harbor and the USS Midway. You’ll probably recognize the Embracing Peace “kiss” statue.
My final shots were taken out on Broadway Pier, and then a few steps north of it where another street musician was singing with a big smile.
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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!
Twenty five new oak trees were planted today in a very special place in Balboa Park!
Forever Balboa Park, trained Tree Stewards and dozens of volunteers gathered in the USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove to revitalize a historically important area of the park that’s a bit off the beaten path.
Perhaps you’ve driven down 26th Street from Golden Hill toward Naval Medical Center San Diego and seen many old oak trees off to your left. Those live oaks were planted in 1905 to memorialize 66 sailors who died in San Diego Bay when the boiler of the USS Bennington exploded.
As these coast live oaks have aged, some have died or approached the end of their life. Planting small new oak trees infuses new life and meaning into this truly special urban forest.
Walking along, camera in hand, I got “volunteered” to help plant three of the twenty five trees! Cool thing is, when I walk this way again, I’ll know that I and others have tangibly touched the future with these living trees. They will be growing more beautiful long after I’m gone.
If you’d like to become a volunteer Garden Steward or Tree Steward in beautiful Balboa Park, click here!
Before the planting of new trees, Kathleen Winchester tells everyone the history of the USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove.Some of the spots where new coast live oaks will be planted.Everyone learned the proper way to plant a tree so that it thrives.Here’s a tree my group planted.Using the shovel to make sure the tree is planted at the correct depth.
The planting of these 25 live oak trees in Balboa Park was the final phase of the 26th Street Trail park improvement project.
Last year members of the California Conservation Corps greatly improved the trail that leads up 26th Street to Golden Hill Park. The path, badly eroded in many places, was replaced with decomposed granite, and three new footbridges were built!
I walked up the trail to take some photos…
Lastly, thanks again to the Boy Scouts and sailors of the USS Theodore Roosevelt who made their mark improving and beautifying the oak grove five years ago. If you’d like to see what they did, click 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 Twitter!
Back in 2020, I posted photos of a long two-sided mural depicting sea life. The artwork was painted many years ago inside a pedestrian tunnel that passes under California State Route 75 at Silver Strand State Beach.
Today I went down to the Silver Strand for a walk and I noticed a new mural had been painted in 2021 at the west end of the same tunnel!
The mural presents images of boats, beach, ocean and birds. Both sides of the tunnel entrance were painted by Imperial Beach artist Esmeralda Robles.
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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!
Human creativity is limitless. That was apparent today when I stepped into the Inamori Pavilion at the Japanese Friendship Garden.
An exhibition in the pavilion is titled The Kimono Reimagined. Reimagined, indeed! The extent to which the traditional Japanese kimono can be transformed by fashion students into something completely new might surprise you!
Students from the San Diego Mesa College Fashion Program teamed up with the Visions Museum of Textile Arts in Liberty Station to create this brilliant clothing. They used upcycled kimonos and accessory garments that had been donated to Mesa College.
I don’t claim to know much about fashion, but my eyes beheld all this rampant creativity with wonder!
You can admire these inspired works of art at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park through February 24, 2023.
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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!
The Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park is always beautiful. Even between winter showers.
As I walked down into the Lower Garden today, I noticed great progress has been made on JFG’s big new waterfall.
I spied other construction, too! A special space is now being built where outdoor weddings can be held among all the natural beauty.
Expert, artistic pruning in the Upper Garden.Naked branches during winter. Grays among greens.Today is JFG’s “free entry for residents” third Tuesday. Several folks were setting up on the patio, including the garden’s long-time beekeeper! She showed me this wood home constructed for native bees.Heading into the Lower Garden a few minutes after the Japanese Friendship Garden opened.Looking across the canyon, I could see how the big new waterfall appears just about finished.Walking down one of the garden’s special paths.I was surprised to see a new area under construction. A worker told me this little plaza will be for outdoor weddings.This path leading up to the new waterfall is still closed.A structure near the new waterfall. I was told special events will be held up there.I can’t wait for the new waterfall to be activated!These stairs will allow visitors to climb toward the top of the waterfall.Beauty is abundant down in the Lower Garden.A rain chain at one corner of the Inamori Pavilion is dripping! After taking this photo, I hurriedly put my camera under my jacket.
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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!
The beautiful fountain splashing in the Oceanside Civic Center plaza has special symbolism that is revealed on a nearby plaque. The plaque, commemorating Andrew Jackson Myers, founder of Oceanside, can be found on a wall just north of the fountain, near the entrance to the Civic Center library.
As the plaque explains, not only was Andrew Jackson Myers the founder of Oceanside, but he created the Oceanside Water Company, critical to the city’s early development. And the fountain where water flows and splashes is the site of his homestead!
The colorful tiles leading down to the fountain represent the San Luis Rey River, which was the original source of Oceanside’s water supply.
(Here’s a great article concerning Oceanside’s water history.)
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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!
Look at all the smiles! They could be seen everywhere before the start of San Diego’s big 41st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade!
MLK Day is tomorrow, so today was a fine day to celebrate the legacy of the great civil rights leader. The rain even paused for the parade and a bit of sun peeked through!
But the sun couldn’t outshine the bright smiles I saw on Harbor Drive!
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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!
An exhibition by Filipino artists who reside in the South Bay is now on display in Chula Vista. Their works can be viewed inside Chula Vista’s two libraries and the City Hall lobby.
Yesterday I enjoyed looking at some of these pieces while visiting the Chula Vista Public Library Civic Center Branch.
I found the artwork on several library walls. Many of the beautiful creations seemed like glimpses of larger stories, emerging from an artist’s memory and heart.
Filipino Artists of South Bay continues through January 2023.
These photos provide an example of what you might see…
Family Dinner, Primo Gallanosa.the luckiest cat, Nadine Tan Saldaña.The Kiddos, Vince Alvendia.Pag-uwi (Returning Home), Clarissa Tong.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 