Tag: pop culture

Star Wars Book Night at Ronald McDonald House!

Star Wars Book Night was held this evening at the Ronald McDonald House in San Diego!

An epic group of Star Wars cosplayers gathered for this “May the Fourth” event, and it all was for an extremely good cause. Children at the Ronald McDonald House got to take photos with favorite Star Wars characters, grab a bunch of books, and even enjoy stories read aloud by assorted Mandalorians and friends! Grogu was there, too!

The Ronald McDonald House San Diego operates as a home away from home for families of seriously ill children who are being treated at nearby Rady Children’s Hospital.

This super fun charitable event was brought to life by costumed members of the Legacy Cosplay Society, and by the good people of Char Car.

You might remember I blogged about Char Car back during the Holiday Bowl Parade. Dr. Elizabeth and Ron Valles have dedicated themselves to promoting literacy and spreading happiness by distributing and reading books to kids.

Char Car, to acquire books, engages in special fundraisers–for example with the San Diego Gulls hockey team. Here’s their Instagram page if you’d like to learn more and follow them!

Okay! This is what I saw as I arrived at Ronald McDonald House…

Star Wars cosplayers gathered for a very good cause. They stood behind a long table full of books and toys that kids at Ronald McDonald House could take and enjoy!

Lots of super cool Star Wars cosplay by young and old alike!

Dr. Elizabeth Valles (the Grammylorian) and Ron Valles with Char Car helpers. Thank you for being on the compassionate Light Side of The Force and making the world a better place!

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Star Wars Day(s) at the San Diego library!

Star Wars fans will soon be gathering at the San Diego Central Library. Fun, creative activities will be available in the IDEA Maker Lab on May the Fourth (be with you) and (revenge of the) Fifth!

You’ll have the opportunity to paint mini lightsabers, 3D print droids, make Star Wars buttons, participate in a scavenger hunt (and win prizes), and more. All ages welcome.

Registration is encouraged but not required.

To learn more about this cool event, click here and here!

AI creates bizarre San Diego weirdly!

Just a fun post.

I thought I’d activate Galaxy AI Drawing Assist on my Samsung smartphone and have it create crazy images of San Diego!

Using the text “bizarre San Diego weirdly” and the pop art setting generated some wild results!

Lots of big surfboards, waves, tacos, hot air balloons, lighthouses, and strange structures, some of which kind of look like San Diego buildings!

Emojis, memes and emotion in Oceanside.

Much of social media is geared toward eliciting an emotional response. Much of art serves the same purpose. An exhibition of art in Oceanside fuses the simple emojis and memes of social media with framed artistic creation.

Neon Afterlife is the title of the exhibition. It can be freely viewed in the Oceanside Museum of Art’s annex gallery inside The Seabird Ocean Resort & Spa, a short walk from the beach and Oceanside Pier.

Pieces by Southern California artists Magz Yang, Jon Savage and Evyn Hewett utilize the “language” of Gen Z and today’s digital pop culture–an increasingly illiterate culture saturated with adrenaline fueled gaming and provocative short videos.

These works of art, like many of the images on one’s phone, might arrest shortened attention spans. They produce an emotional response by using simplistic symbols and bright colors. It’s as if the small screens people endlessly scroll have been splashed onto the gallery walls.

I do love the creativity. And I smiled when I noticed fun is made of the pretentiousness of much social media.

Does an emoji or meme suffice for life’s complexity?

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Captain America arrives in San Diego!

Captain America has arrived in San Diego. He was spotted in Bankers Hill this morning with his awesome Capmobile!

The Marvel superhero and Avenger would participate in St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival 2026!

This was too cool not to share right away. I’ll be posting photos of the parade coming up once I sort through them all.

I learned this gentleman who was engaged in Captain America cosplay is part of the Science Fiction Coalition. I’d never seen his car before because, he told me, it was wrapped with these cool graphics just recently.

Red Skull, Hydra and Baron Zemo, BEWARE!

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Six decades of Comic-Con celebrated at museum!

Lovers of Comic-Con in San Diego should head over to Balboa Park. The Comic-Con Museum recently opened a new exhibit called Cover Story: Six Decades of Comic-Con.

The lower level of the museum now features tons of artwork representing years of creativity and fun at the world’s biggest and best popular arts convention.

Visitors can look closely at original art used for the covers of Comic-Con souvenir books and other publications, beginning back in 1970 when the event was attended by only 300 fans. There are fine examples of interior art, too. You’ll see the work of legendary artists, from Jack Kirby to Frank Miller to Alex Ross.

Fans of DC and Marvel superheroes will love this exhibition. As will fans of fantasy, and science fiction, and comic strips, and cartoons . . . All things pop culture are celebrated!

Here are only a few examples…

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Comic-Con Museum celebrates Will Eisner Day!

Are you a fan of Comic-Con? You should know that Will Eisner Week is March 1-7, 2026. The theme this year is Dream Big: Read a Graphic Novel!

San Diego’s amazing Comic-Con Museum will be celebrating “Will Eisner Day” with a special event. Four panels will be held in the museum’s theater on March 4, from 12 pm to 4 pm. Participation is included with museum admission, and free for museum members.

The panels are: Cats vs. Dogs: Panelists’ Pet Comics; Will Eisner Hall of Fame 2026; Graphic Novel Adaptations from Literature; and Graphic Memoirs by Women.

Administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, Jackie Estrada, will be among the panelists!

If you’re a creator seeking inspiration, a lover of graphic novels, or simply curious about this certain-to-be-awesome, one-of-a-kind event, check out this webpage for more information!

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Black Comix Day this weekend in San Diego!

If you love San Diego Comic-Con, you’ll love Black Comix Day!

All this Valentine’s Day weekend, artists, writers and publishers of African descent will be showcasing their work at the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park. The annual event is free, and it will blow your mind!

The last two years at Black Comix Day I met dozens of friendly creators. This year I saw quite a few new participants.

Together they have produced fantastic comics, graphic novels, books, animation, films, figurines, posters and more. Much of the work is informed by their unique experiences as artists of African descent.

Many of the participants come from outside San Diego. Most are self-publishing entrepreneurs with big dreams. Some of the artists have worked professionally or won prestigious awards.

Everywhere you turn, both outside and inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center, there’s something new and very cool. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, Afro-futurism, superheroes, just about anything the human mind can imagine. It’s pop culture heaven!

Read the photo captions and click links to learn about some stuff I saw…

Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls is the Civil War story of a man who escaped enslavement. He’d go on to make a huge impact on American history. There’s a graphic novel, and a major motion picture is in development! Click here.
Buy some great books at this outdoor table and you’ll support the Malcolm X Library in Valencia Park!
Derek Johnson wrote the noir supernatural horror The Caretaker. He’s a Las Vegas filmmaker and comic creator! Click here to support his work!
Mike Haynes-Pitts created The Surge Series! It’s about Afrofuturistic, cyberpunk Africa hundreds of years in the future! His Instagram is here.
Smiles at the Wingless Entertainment table. They publish comic books, coloring books and more cool stuff. Click here!
The Agents of S.O.U.L. and creator David Phillips have many adventures! Check out the DP Comix website here.
New Creation Comics is an independent Christian Publisher. Look at all the cool superhero-like covers! Their website is here.
Vampires! Blade! Vampirella! Look at the cool pop culture images created by Attiba Royster at his website here!
Bryttney-Mischele Salvant was creating a beautiful surreal expressionist piece at her table. To see more, visit her Poetic Artistry website here!
More smiling creators! It’s cartoonist and printmaker Lyssette Williams, and Annika B., who wrote Current Objective and was busy creating a business card!
What would happen if you turned the Frankenstein monster into a werewolf? To find the answer, check out this website by Eisner Award winning editor, writer and producer Chris Robinson!

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Tokidoki trading event at Comic-Con Museum!

Have you seen the tokidoki exhibition at San Diego’s amazing Comic-Con Museum? If your answer is no, you have several weeks until the exhibition closes. TOKIDOKI: Twenty Years of Kawaii & Chaos goes away at the end of January.

Meanwhile, people who love tokidoki collectibles have the opportunity to attend a free trading event at the museum! The “kid-organized meetup” will be held on Saturday, January 24th, 2026 inside the Comic-Con Museum’s café! Everyone is welcome. Bring any tokidoki figures or merch you’d like to possibly trade!

I visited the museum today and saw the event announcement. As I wandered about the tokidoki exhibition, I “collected” a handful of cool photos…

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San Diego submersible in Star Trek: Enterprise!

The Maritime Museum of San Diego recently acquired DeepFlight I, a unique “flying” underwater submersible developed in the late 1990s. You can read more about this amazing, advanced submersible here.

Visitors to the San Diego museum might be astonished to learn that this one-of-a-kind prototype appears in every episode of Star Trek: Enterprise!

DeepFlight I can be seen momentarily in the Star Trek: Enterprise introductory sequence, which begins every episode. The sequence depicts the evolution of human technology and exploration. DeepFlight I appears at the 34 second mark here!

Super cool!

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