Flags are already out up and down San Diego’s Embarcadero the day before the Fourth of July. This gentleman was taking a break near the fishing pier behind the convention center.
I noticed today that folks are already in the Fourth of July spirit. During my walk along the Embarcadero, I saw flags everywhere. Tomorrow the waterfront will be jammed with hundreds of thousands of San Diegans and tourists, especially during the Big Bay Boom fireworks show which takes place at 9 o’clock. I’ll be watching, too! Don’t expect any photos of fireworks, however, because my modest camera isn’t quite up to that task!
Should you happen to stroll through Seaport Village on Saturday, Alamo Flags will be handing out 1000 actual American flags for free! I was once honored to receive one, and they’re great! Giving away flags is a tradition carried on by the owner, Mike Ismail. Because of his personal experiences, he’s very grateful to live in the Land of the Free.
Port of San Diego’s Big Bay Boom, an Independence Day Spectacular, will take place at 9 o’clock July 4. Several barges on the bay will launch synchronized fireworks.American flag on a pedicab. The driver is waiting for passengers on the Embarcadero, near the USS Midway Museum.Flagship’s Patriot speed boat is about to take folks on a thrill ride! Get ready to be splashed!A street performer wears the Stars and Stripes. Looks like he’s ready to go this Fourth of July weekend.Window at Alamo Flags in Seaport Village has a patriotic display. Mike Ismail, the owner, is proud and grateful to be a free American.Banners near front of Alamo Flags. The shop will give away 1000 actual United States flags on the Fourth of July!Tourists wearing Old Glory have disembarked at Seaport Village from a San Diego SEAL Tours cool Hydra-Terra vehicle, after taking a bay cruise.
A huge new San Diego Comic-Con building wrap going up on the Hilton Bayfront today is a bit of a mystery.
Less than six days to go until 2015 San Diego Comic-Con kicks off!
I walked all around downtown today, looking for signs of preparation. Nothing much has popped up in the Gaslamp yet, but a brand new huge building wrap is now being installed on the Hilton Bayfront near the San Diego Convention Center. After talking to some people, I’ve concluded the wrap will promote The Strain on FX. This would make sense, as the large grassy area in front of the Hilton will be the site of FX’s cool-sounding Fearless Arena Experience.
Stay tuned for more pics of Comic-Con stuff!
Baristas at hotel’s Starbucks and a tourist info guy in the Hilton seem to think this graphic will promote The Strain on FX.Several Game of Thrones banners were hung on trolley track fences near the Gaslamp a few days ago.Game of Thrones banners on trolley electrical poles along Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade in San Diego.The huge Conan Live from Comic-Con wrap on the Marriott Marquis is nearly finished.Swirl Girl has amazing rainbow powers of sweetness, it seems. She appears on the door of Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt.San Diego Symphony ticket booth at Embarcadero Marina Park South advertises the upcoming Pokeman and Star Trek movie Summer Pops concerts.The American Comedy Co. in the Gaslamp has a funny lineup set for Comic-Con, including Jay and Silent Bob.Crown Books in Horton Plaza is where you can buy Chewbacca at a nice discount!
USS Midway visitor takes photograph with selfie stick next to aircraft-launching Shooter mannequin.
I hope you enjoy a few photos I took recently of planes and people (and helicopters) on the flight deck of San Diego’s USS Midway Museum. The historic aircraft carrier served longer than any other American carrier in the 20th century, spanning five decades from 1945 to 1992. Countless amazing stories have been lived by thousands serving aboard the USS Midway, and many of those stories continue today as docents and volunteers relate their personal shipboard experiences to visitors from around the world. San Diego’s unique aircraft carrier museum, now over ten years old, hosts over a million visitors a year.
Midway’s large flight deck, enlarged from 2.8 to 4 acres in 1966, today features a couple dozen restored aircraft that represent different eras of modern military history. The internet is jammed with pages showing and describing these aircraft in detail, so I thought I’d just provide a quick flavor of what it’s like to walk out on the flight deck on a typical San Diego day. If you’d like to take the cool self-guided tour of the ship, which I highly recommend, plan to spend at least an hour!
Lady walks past F-14 Tomcat fighter jet on USS Midway aircraft carrier’s flight deck.Tourists at USS Midway Museum walk out onto one of the two horns that project over San Diego Bay.Sign describes how to read Navy flag signals.Man lingers near F-8 Crusader, the US Navy’s first supersonic fighter.People sit on benches listening to a docent talk about launching airplanes from Midway’s two steam-powered catapults.Guy checks out A-7 Corsair positioned to be launched from powerful catapult, which accelerated aircraft to 170 mph in about 3 seconds!Young couple takes a look at E-2 Hawkeye, an Airborne Early Warning aircraft.Looking south from atop the flight deck. Seen are the Unconditional Surrender statue, Tuna Harbor, and the Coronado Bay Bridge.USS Midway visitors enjoy a sunny San Diego day near EKA-3 Skywarrior.Visitors find out what it’s like inside a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter.Peering through cockpit of HO3S utility helicopter at the nearby HUP Retriever.This HO3S Dragonfly, first helicopter aboard the USS Midway in 1948, is undergoing restoration.Docent veteran talks about how aircraft landed on the flight deck using a tailhook and multiple arresting cables.Exhibit on Midway’s LSO Platform shows how Navy pilots landed in difficult conditions, relying on optical guidance.Navy pilot mannequin in flight suit stands near FA-18 Hornet, painted as a TOPGUN enemy aircraft.A-6 Intruder bomber on display near USS Midway’s superstructure.Volunteers work to restore SH-2 Seasprite, beyond orange nose of H-34 Seabat.The huge flight deck of the USS Midway Museum hosts visitors from around the world, special military-related events, decades of history, and never-ending activity on San Diego Bay.
Several huge Minority Report banners have been hung on the Hilton parking garage for the upcoming 2015 San Diego Comic-Con.
I got off work early today, so I took the trolley down to the San Diego Convention Center and walked around looking to photograph cool 2015 Comic-Con preparations. The main thing I noticed was that several gigantic building wraps and banners are being installed at this very moment! One week to go until Comic-Con, and things should soon start getting interesting!
A gigantic orange Conan O’Brien building wrap is being applied to the side of the Marriott Hotel facing the San Diego Convention Center.A suspended platform is used to adhere panels of The Last Ship building wrap to shining windows of the Marriott Marquis.Major preparations have begun the week before 2015 San Diego Comic-Con!
Cool skateboard bench by the 36th Annual Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off Festival on Newport Avenue.
Late this morning I spent a little time at one of the coolest summer events in Southern California!
The 36th Annual Ocean Beach Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival was being held along Newport Avenue, drawing a huge crowd from all around San Diego. Many consider OB their favorite beach community. Once you see these photos, you might understand why!
A masked street performer shakes hands with a kid on a scooter. The Ocean Beach Municipal Pier stretches in the background.San Diegans and Obetians check out a street vendor selling colorful t-shirts.Fun, unusual art all over the place. Lots to see at this legendary summer street festival in a laid-back, funky Southern California beach community.Creative people had cool stuff on display and for sale in the Artists’ Alley.Kids were invited to express themselves with pottery, painting and chalk art.Young artists use their imaginations as they work behind a utility box decorated with parrots in Ocean Beach.Public art mural on one wall depicts the annual Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off.Just a typical scene from this awesome street festival.Someone checks out large works of colorful art in OB.One booth had all sorts of awesome, unique decorative surfboards!And, of course, food was everywhere!Ocean Beach is the scene of many different happy lifestyles and diverse, life-affirming interests.It wasn’t even lunchtime and some folks were ready to chow down.If these cookies don’t make you drool, nothing will!All sorts of cool surf shops line Newport Avenue, where the festival was held.Rock and Roll San Diego was teaching kids how to play drums, electric guitar and more!A young man is training to be a rock superstar!Street musicians in OB next to a storefront on a summer day.Young and old were practicing maintaining balance on a board that simulates surfing.Yeah, another photo of food getting ready…Ocean Beach is jam-packed with amazing urban art, almost anywhere you walk!People were just getting started with the community mural project!Anyone could participate in painting a small square in this large mural!Another street mural on a wall above a station where people could park their bikes.Surfboards on top, cool decals plastered around. Let’s walk past the Hodadmobile and check out something amazing…Burgers are famous at Hodad’s, and so is the skateboarding demonstration beside their restaurant.Skater catches huge air as he performs trick from a ramp, wowing everybody watching!Lots of skilled skateboarders were taking turns on this small half-pipe.Oh, man–lots of very cool action!Legendary Hodad’s had a burger-eating competition!Some guys walking along near porta-potties by the beer garden.Guy chills with a Starbucks by funky sculptures on Newport Avenue near the beach. He’s listening to a really great concert.The local band Markland performs on the Main Stage at the 2015 Ocean Beach Street Fair.Justin Markland peers at me over drums while Randy Jones entertains the Ocean Beach crowd with irrepressible vocal and physical energy.Just a pic to provide some flavor of what I saw this morning.Surfers come up across the beach while a guy relaxes on the sea wall.People walk behind the Main Stage along the beach, toward the Ocean Beach lifeguard station. An overcast day with a few sprinkles, but it didn’t matter!People buy tickets to sample special concoctions at the famous chili contest!This tent featured one of the chili cook-off contestant teams.Stirring and scooping from one big pot of hot chili!Unfortunately, this poor dog can’t participate without a ticket. And it seems like he knows it.Perhaps this chili was the winner. Looks tasty, if you don’t mind that it’s served from a toilet!
Large blue female face looks out from SILO wall at passing traffic on F Street.
SILO in Makers Quarter keeps evolving. New murals are painted over old, and once-blank walls fill up with life. This unique event venue in East Village was pretty cool when I photographed it over a year ago, but now it’s simply awesome. (I did observe, sadly, the funny Bart Club art I documented here has vanished.)
A hummingbird seems attracted to a jogger coming down the 15th Street sidewalk.A bather, a turtle, a frog and KAABOO, an upcoming major music festival to be held in Del Mar up the coast.Graffiti faces are all squished up on the wall between SILO in Makers Quarter and F Street in East Village.Various street art designs where a branch of the Bart Club used to reside.Napping white female outline and some geometric crystals.A wall just inside SILO is jammed with cool urban art.This hip event venue has benches, tables and other items scattered about a wide open space.Endless Bummer, big cat, third eye in purple face, fantastic creature, and a ton of other awesome stuff.Super colorful artwork jammed onto this low wall almost appears like panels in a comic book or graphic novel.Want to book an event? Here’s the info!Two more faces which materialized since I last walked past SILO.Latino lovers and a guy who looks like an elf.A totally fun, funky place in San Diego’s happening East Village!
The other day I walked down 11th Avenue through East Village. For a few moments I paused to again enjoy The Power of Collective Thought urban art tile mosaic. I took a few photos of individual tiles hand-painted by creative San Diego neighbors. Many caught my eye…
Robert and his mom hold hands beneath trees.I large open eye gazes at people passing down the sidewalk.Another eye on a fiery, dazzling art tile.A sun painted on a tinted sky.Smiling sun and blue moon fused into one.Cool cat dances under a crescent moon.A dinosaur among dots.Ghostly figures rise like swirls of color.Cool painted tile in The Power of Collective Thought.A blue peacock and two fruit trees.A fun dragonfly with human-like face.Female head with curly hair and yellow flowers.A kimono and umbrella.Two people connect on a purple tile.A mysterious monster rises from the deep!A colorful abstract design.A sailboat and shell in San Diego.A smiling face peers back at you!
Local artists put the finishing touches on the 20 foot long 1915 Centennial Mural in Balboa Park.
My Sunday walk around Balboa Park took me through the Spanish Village Art Center. Not only were local artists painting live Flamenco dancers, but they were completing a fantastic 20 foot mural celebrating Balboa Park’s centennial. (Today I was also introduced by a couple of super friendly people, including a resident artist, to the history of Spanish Village. I will blog about that shortly, after a little additional research…and when I have the time!)
I hope you enjoy my photographs of this awesome mural. Titled “1915 Balboa Park”, it’s an imaginative composite of historical images painted by eleven talented artists. Each image occupies a 2 by 6 foot panel, and depicts locations from the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, and people in early 20th century dress.
Spanish Village is home to some of San Diego’s very finest artists. Wherever you turn, you’ll find painters, potters, sculptors, photographers, glassblowers, you name it! It’s fun to just stroll through the colorful courtyard and visit the charming studios. If you want to purchase fine artwork for yourself or as a gift, this is an excellent place to go!
This weekend the public could watch as artists painted a historical mural in Spanish Village.Spanish Village is like San Diego sunlight passed through a prism, with rainbow splashes everywhere.Bios of artists Carol Foster, Joan Boyer, Joan Nies, Laurie Carlock, Don Knapp, Michelle Gonzalez, Sonia Rumzi, Linda Lepeirs, Lucy Wang, Edward Juarez, Dot Renshaw.Ladies in period dresses occupy the left part of the cool mural.Now we’re working our photographic way to the right, along the base of the Cabrillo Bridge. A hundred years ago there was an artificial lake beneath the bridge! (Where Highway 163 is today.)Two different styles (one with bright colors, the other with shades of gray) are fused together to depict the California Building with its iconic bell tower.There were many lush gardens around Balboa Park a hundred years ago, planted specifically for the Panama-California Exposition.An artist studies the right end of the 20 foot long mural. That golden tree looks like it could be transplanted right into Spanish Village!
People enter the Art of Comic-Con exhibit, opening today at the downtown San Diego Public Library.
Today a very special exhibition opened at the downtown library’s 9th floor gallery. The Art of Comic-Con, developed by Comic-Con International and the San Diego Public Library, contains a huge collection of original artwork used throughout the 45 year history of San Diego Comic-Con.
The exhibition runs through August 30 and should draw a crowd during Comic-Con week. During today’s two hour opening reception, super popular cartoonist Sergio Aragones was on hand to talk with fans and sign copies of his 40th anniversary Comic-Con cover. He was very friendly and spoke with everyone in line for a minute or two, always smiling and laughing and posing for the camera. He’s into his fourth decade of writing and drawing the adventures of the hilarious and very successful Groo the Wanderer!
Here are a bunch of photos! My small camera did its best in the dim light of the gallery…
Someone heading in to check out the gallery is wearing a 1997 Comic-Con International shirt.The Art of Comic-Con is a first ever museum exhibition consisting of original artwork used for past comic conventions.A cool mural composed of covers from past San Diego Comic-Con programs, plus other affiliated conventions.Past souvenir program covers feature many different superheroes and pop culture characters.A riot of fun images dazzled many visitors to the opening of this special exhibit.Close photo of part of the Comic-Con program book mural.I see Bart Simpson, a bunch of Marvel heroes, Star Wars characters, Balboa Park and much more.This part of the exhibit traces the history of the Comic-Con International logo and the development of the popular toucan mascot.Fun artwork that was used during the 40th anniversary of San Diego Comic-Con.The toucan is flapping around anticipating another Comic-Con!Someone checks out a display case containing an example of an Inkpot Award. These are presented to outstanding authors, artists and other creative luminaries every year during Comic-Con.I spotted Krypto the Superdog taking a nap among more enthusiastic human Comic-Con fans.Visitors check out original comic book art created for Comic-Con souvenir program books over the past 45 years.The Art of Comic-Con special exhibit contains original work from more than 60 notable cartoon and comic book artistsAll kinds of animals hang out in San Diego!Space alien asks Marmaduke for directions to Comics Con. It will be mere blocks from the Central Library! In a few weeks, I expect to see a few aliens walking around San Diego, too!I guess Jimmy Carter was having troubles during a past Comic-Con.Cartoonists of every stripe have contributed greetings for the Comic-Con souvenir book over the years.I spotted Conan the Librarian in downtown San Diego’s incredible new library!Commander Spock of Vulcan visited Earth back in 1974. Comic-Con then was held in the El Cortez Hotel, a couple blocks from where I’m preparing this blog!Mickey Mouse headed down to San Diego one year. I’m willing to bet he’ll be here again this year!In 1981, Peter Parker lost a game of strip poker with Mary Jane Watson!This guy is probably still looking for the San Diago Convention Center.Kid checks out a hands on exhibit showing how comic books are produced and printed.A penciled panel featuring Batgirl in action. Part of a cool display which demonstrates the processes involved in creating a comic book.Inked and finished cover of the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con souvenir book. The art celebrates the 75th Anniversary of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, by artist Michael Cho.Visitors to the San Diego’s Art of Comic-Con museum exhibit enjoy a huge mural from a 2008 book cover created by legendary cartoonist Sergio Aragones.Check this out! The mural by Sergio Aragones, of Groo the Wanderer fame, contains hundreds of characters romping about San Diego during Comic-Con!Everyone is heading toward San Diego! I bet they’ll crowd into the Gaslamp for an enormous cosplay and pop culture party!Gazillions of fans and cosplayers are assembled in front of the San Diego Convention Center!Superheroes are swinging and flying all over the place!The silly Sergio Aragones characters have materialized in San Diego from a fertile imagination.One wall in the Central Library museum contained original art used to create past Comic-Con souvenir book covers.Artwork used for the 1989 program book cover.1993 cover artwork from the legendary comic book and graphic novel artist Frank Miller.The Justice League flies into action in this original 2011 cover art from fan favorite Jim Lee.John Romita, Jr. drew some of Marvel’s Avengers for the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con souvenir book.Dave McKean cover artwork for 2013 Comic-Con.Jim Lee drew Superman for this WonderCon program book cover in 2013.Cliff Chiang’s Wonder Woman graced the cover of WonderCon’s program book in 2014.Sergio Aragones signed his covers from the 2008 book “Comic-Con 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans and Friends”. He’s a super friendly guy!If you’re going to 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, head to the 9th floor of the downtown library. The gallery is up there, along with some great views of the city!
A new San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap features Conan O’Brien turned into what appear to be Funko POP! toy figures. Here he’s a blank-eyed zombie, plus his own ordinary bland self.
I spotted another 2015 San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap in the past couple days! This one promotes Conan O’Brien’s television show on TBS. He’ll be hosting his talk show live from Comic-Con July 8-12. I’ve read that he’ll also be moderating two panels in Hall H: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and The Last Witch Hunter.
The images on the trolley wrap seem to show Conan turned into several Funko POP! toy figures! Cool!
Here Conan O’Brien has been transformed into Batman and a green Frankenstein monster.Here’s a wrap on an older version San Diego trolley at America Plaza. Conan will be live from Comic-Con July 8-11.Finally, here we have a commuter who’s entirely unconcerned that Frankenstein Conan is threatening him with scary outstretched monster arms.
Stay tuned for a ton more cool Comic-Con stuff in the coming few weeks!
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