Reed Richards and Johnny Storm on a Comic-Con street lamp banner in San Diego.
Banners promoting Marvel’s popular superhero team Fantastic Four and their upcoming movie (due to open in 2025), have appeared in San Diego for Comic-Con 2024!
The news that Marvel will have a panel in Hall H this year probably means they’ll be promoting Deadpool & Wolverine, which opens during Comic-Con, plus the highly anticipated The Fantastic Four.
I personally look forward to the movie. The Fantastic Four is one of my favorite teams. Cosmic enemies and super science and a warm family dynamic usually result in stirring, highly imaginative stories.
Hopefully the Reed Richards in the upcoming film is a wee bit smarter than the one who got himself turned into spaghetti by the Scarlet Witch!
Sue Storm and Ben Grimm.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Five years ago, during the month of July, there was a whole lot of excitement in San Diego!
The two biggest, most exciting events that Cool San Diego Sights documented back in July 2019 were the 250th Anniversary of San Diego and, of course, San Diego Comic-Con!
I shared hundreds of photographs that month. Please enjoy links to just a few of those past blog posts.
I’ll be covering Comic-Con again this year. I live in downtown San Diego and will take the week off from work. So stay tuned for more adventures!
Click the following links for loads of fun photographs…
A very fun and informative Garden Fair was held today outside the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. The event coincides with the recent opening of the nature trail that now encircles the museum.
The interpretive nature trail, which leads visitors past a wide variety of native Southern California plants, is a cornerstone of the San Diego Natural History Museum’s 150 year anniversary celebration!
All sorts of booths were set up on both the south and north sides of the museum. Organizations who care about protecting our natural environment provided information for curious passersby. I took these photographs…
Smiles from Forever Balboa Park. They are working to revitalize Balboa Park’s Botanical Building and gardens.The California Native Plant Society was educating the public about conserving our local flora.Activity at the Master Gardener table.Poster provides suggestions for native plants in your garden.Lots of sunshine and smiles today in Balboa Park!Table features seeds for native plants.Kids learn about bees and other pollinators.
Balboa Park Alive! has a cool app in the beta stage, developed by smiling folks from the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego.
The augmented reality mobile app transforms Balboa Park into an interactive biodiversity adventure. On your smartphone, you can plant virtual flora, release butterflies, and simulate pollinator behavior. I was told that so far you can explore Balboa Park’s Zoro Garden and the Natural History Museum’s new nature trail. Very cool!
Learn more about Balboa Park Alive! by clicking here.
Technology helps bring nature in Balboa Park to life.More booths for the Garden Fair, along the new nature trail on the north side of the San Diego Natural History Museum.Member of the NAT Garden Corps tells me various facts concerning the cactus wren and prickly pear. While she spoke a hummingbird came by.How cool! Moth Week 2024 has a night party outside the museum on Friday, July 26, after 8 pm. A naturalist will attract moths near the Moreton Bay Fig for photography.San Diego Canyonlands focuses on the canyons in City Heights around Azalea Park. They support youth education and environmental job training in underserved communities. They also have an urban hike-a-thon event.Smiles from some San Diego Natural History Museum Canyoneers. They offer free guided hikes throughout the county. Enjoy nature and become a citizen scientist!The San Diego Habitat Conservancy currently manages 33 open space preserves in Southern California.The Climate Science Alliance mission is to safeguard natural and human communities in the face of a changing climate.
…
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.
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!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
The Granger Building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter is undergoing a very big change. The historic downtown office building, erected in 1904, is being converted into an elegant hotel.
Those who walk past the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue can view the construction now in progress. Surprising graphics along the sidewalk advertising the soon-to-open Granger Hotel really catch one’s attention, however. Why are there old-fashioned images of a monkey, tiger and giraffe?
Because the basement of the Granger Building once held zoo animals!
Before I get to the unusual explanation, you might wonder: why is it called the Granger Building?
This web page explains how Ralph Granger made his initial fortune from the Last Chance Silver Mine in Colorado. When he came to San Diego in 1891, he settled in National City, where, in a addition to a mansion, he built the architecturally important Granger Music Hall. (Those who drive down Interstate 805 can easily see the notable but dilapidated building. I once blogged about the Granger Music Hall here.)
Granger would then hire renowned architect William Quayle to design an office building in downtown San Diego: the Granger Building. The Romanesque style structure, built for $125,000, was steel framed and constructed of pressed bricks. It is five stories high and features embossed metal ceilings, gas lights and a manually operated elevator. The first floor would be home to the Merchant’s National Bank, with the son of President U.S. Grant the initial Director. In 1924, the bank became the Bank of Italy, the forerunner of the Bank of America.
But what about those zoo animals in the building’s basement?
Well, Dr. Harry Wegeforth was a physician who happened to have his practice in the Granger Building. He was also founder of the Zoological Society of San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. You might recall how he was inspired to start the zoo when he passed animals that had been displayed during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park and heard a lion roar.
In the early days of the expanding San Diego Zoo, as Dr. Harry Wegeforth acquired new animals, he kept some of them in the basement of the Granger Building!
Guests of the new Granger Hotel will be staying in a property that is full of surprising history. Past tenants of the old office building have also included C. Arnholt Smith, owner of the Pacific Coast minor league Padres, and Joseph Jessop, our city’s most famous jeweler.
…
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.
This mural in Little Italy, whose paint is gradually peeling away, is strangely appealing to my eye. The beautifully conceived face has obtained more texture–and beneath the blue and violet painted color there’s a layer that appears in hue like natural skin.
The mural was painted by Kelcey Fisher (@kfishla) about a year and a half ago. You can see it on a parking lot wall at LUCE on Kettner, just south of the now closed Little Italy’s Loading Dock bar and event venue.
As paint continues to flake away, the remaining beauty will sadly vanish.
…
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.
Several awesome murals can be viewed at the Lemon Grove Academy Middle School, also known as the Lemon Grove Academy for the Sciences and Humanities. They’re located just around the corner from the Lemon Grove Library, whose new mural I blogged about yesterday.
The school’s mascot is the Wolf, and their core values are: Persistent, Authentic, Courageous and Kind. Get it? Wolf Pack.
I was told by the librarian about these school murals so I had to walk over to check them out. She indicated they are also by ArtReach–the folks responsible for the new library mural.
I really love that blue howling wolf!
…
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.
Weather and the elements are damaging to any ship. That’s especially true when the ship is made of wood.
If you’ve been by the Maritime Museum of San Diego lately, you’ve probably seen how one side of their tall ship HMS Surprise is being repaired. The starboard side, which for many years faced south toward the harsh sun, had seriously deteriorated.
Fortunately, the world-famous Maritime Museum of San Diego has the expertise required to undertake complicated projects such as this, as shown by the beautiful deck restoration of HMS Surprise. But funds are also required, which can be a challenge for any nonprofit organization.
Would you like to help?
Perhaps you love the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which starred Russell Crowe and beautiful HMS Surprise. As I did a little research this morning, I noticed that author Michael Eging, who also loves the critically acclaimed movie and the Patrick O’Brian novels it’s based on, has created a GoFundMe fundraiser for the restoration of HMS Surprise. A fair amount of money has already been raised, but there’s more to go.
To learn about this effort, and perhaps make a contribution, click here!
…
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.
This very beautiful new mural was painted in April near the main entrance to the Lemon Grove Library. It’s titled Today for Tomorrow.
Positive messages conveyed by the mural include a love for family, the natural environment and reading. The extraordinary mural is the product of a partnership between the ArtReach Mural Program and the Lemon Grove Public Library. The lead mural artist was Mexican-American artist and designer Josué Baltézar.
A handout available inside the library explains: The ArtReach Mural Program Team led over 50 community members in design ideation and painting through out design-input workshops and Community Paint Day…This piece highlights the library as an uplifting and beautiful community space, welcoming and accepting of all people. Books are featured predominantly to mark the importance of learning, reading, curiosity, and imagination. The focal point of the lemon tree represents the community of Lemon Grove while also signifying growth and new beginnings. The figures placed in the books show that we all have our own stories to tell and create while also touching on family resilience, hope, kindness, caregiving and neighborhood unity…
…
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.
Do you live in Lemon Grove? Do you love to create original art or take photographs? The Lemon Grove Art & Photo Contest is now accepting entries at the Lemon Grove Library!
I learned today that the free contest has just opened. So you’re hearing about it early. The public is invited to submit entries to the library by mid-August. The theme of the contest is What does Lemon Grove mean to you?
Entered works of art and photographs will be displayed inside San Diego County’s Lemon Grove Branch Library through August 31, 2024, and winners will receive a valuable gift card! I was told there will likely be multiple winners!
Whether you’re young or old, why not go for it? You can learn more and get your entry forms at the library’s front desk, where friendly staff members will be glad to help you. Do you know families that lives in Lemon Grove? Pass the word!
(By the way, the beautiful graphic on the above flyer is from a mural that was painted recently by the library’s entrance. I’ll be posting photos of this colorful new mural next!)
…
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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 