Tag: pop culture

Historic Coca-Cola mural found in Encinitas building!

Look what I saw today!

Inside the Queen Eileen’s Gift Baskets shop in Encinitas, one wall features a fantastic bit of history: a Coca-Cola mural likely dating from the 1940’s! The vintage artwork depicts Coke’s sparkly old advertising character Sprite Boy!

The owner of Queen Eileen’s discovered the mural during a remodel a few months ago. In the 1940’s the building served as a hardware store. The brightly smiling Sprite Boy appeared when slats covering the old wall were removed!

If you want to learn more about Sprite Boy, who often accompanied Santa Claus, and who originated decades before Coca-Cola’s lemon-lime soda that shares the same name, here’s a great web page to visit!

I saw this cool mural late this morning during an Encinitas Historical Society walking tour of Encinitas, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Stand by for several more blogs and many more photographs from this epic walking tour!

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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!

Star Wars photos for May the Fourth!

May the Fourth be with you this fine Tuesday!

For your enjoyment, I’ve assembled a bunch of fun Star Wars photos that I’ve taken over many years of blogging in San Diego.

You’ll see cosplay and street art. You’ll see cool Star Wars figures, fan art and funny advertisements. Most of these photos are from past Comic-Cons.

To see even more Star Wars stuff on Cool San Diego Sights, perform a search on my blog’s sidebar or click a tag.

Enjoy!

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Monument to historic radio station KCBQ in Santee.

I remember listening to KCBQ 1170 as a youth. For decades it was one of San Diego’s leading radio stations, featuring radio personalities that are legendary, including “Shotgun Tom” Kelly and Charlie Tuna.

This groundbreaking AM radio station has had a complicated history, its many different owners moving the studio about from time to time and playing everything from contemporary music to country music. A detailed Wikipedia article can be found here.

A monument to the original KCBQ, which was influential in popularizing the Top 40 music format for the rest of the nation, now stands at the radio station’s old Santee transmitter site. It was dedicated on August 28, 2010. You can find the monument on Mission Gorge Road just east of Carlton Hills Boulevard, in front of an In-N-Out Burger fast food restaurant.

Scan the list of past on-air personalities and you’ll see names that have been well known in San Diego radio for decades. Personally, I easily recall the unique voices of Frank Anthony, Gene Knight and Gary Kelley, not to mention “Shotgun Tom” Kelly.

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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!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

El Chavo and La Chilindrina appear in City Heights!

Look at the characters I spotted during a recent walk through City Heights. El Chavo and La Chilindrina!

The two were hanging out early in the morning near the corner of University Avenue and 37th Street!

Many murals have been painted along this corridor of City Heights–which has become a very colorful outdoor art gallery–but these two I hadn’t seen previously. It appears they were another fun project of Love City Heights and #theavenuemuralproject!

El Chavo pops out of a barrel on a door in City Heights!
La Chilindrina licks a lollipop in a City Heights mural!

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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!

Famous house from movie Top Gun is restored!

The famous Top Gun House, where Maverick ate dinner with Charlie in the popular 1980’s movie Top Gun, has been restored!

I passed the iconic house today during a long walk through Oceanside, and the beachfront cottage appears completely changed from a few years ago. When I last took a look at the Top Gun House, back in 2018, the color scheme and porch were quite different, as you can see in today’s photos and my old blog post here.

The beautiful little 1887 Queen Anne Cottage has been restored to its original appearance. Learn about the Graves House’s historical importance in Oceanside and see a photo of how it looked when built over a century ago by clicking here.

The house has not only been restored, but it has been relocated a short distance up North Pacific Street, to a spot in front of the newly built Oceanside Beach Resort, which is scheduled to open later this year.

The following photo is one that I took in August of 2018…

UPDATE!

When I walked past on Labor Day, 2021, the famous Top Gun House had been painted once again! This time the color scheme is lighter, and much more attractive in my opinion…

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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!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Super cool Batman painted on a van!

OMG! Check this out!

I timed this shot just perfectly!

An amazing van painted with a super cool Batman and other colorful images flashed past me as I was photographing the sculpture at the corner of Highway 101 and Plaza Street in Solana Beach.

I aimed my camera a little ahead of the Caped Crusader and hoped for the best as he whizzed by!

Yes!

Then the Dark Knight (striding heroically near rockets, palm trees and sea creatures) came back around setting up a second, more distant photo.

Hey, dude. That’s one awesome van!

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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!

Punk rockers hang out at Fall Brewing Company!

The Fall Brewing Company seems to attract a rather interesting crowd!

I took these photographs a little over a month ago during a walk up 30th Street in North Park. A mural teeming with punk rockers adds character to a wall by the brewery’s front patio!

I didn’t realize punk rockers like chugging craft beer!

You live and you learn.

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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!

Justice League heroes wear face masks!

I noticed a cool graphic on the side of an AT&T truck parked downtown. DC Comic’s powerful Justice League superheroes are all wearing face masks!

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman want you to be a hero!

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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!

Halloween costumes and cosplay in Balboa Park!

Superman, Loki and Catwoman cosplay during Halloween in Balboa Park!

I walked through Balboa Park late this Halloween afternoon and spotted a number of people and pooches dressed up for the occasion!

I saw creative costumes, superhero (and villain) cosplay, and lots of people simply walking about the park enjoying the day. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no park-wide event scheduled this year for Halloween.

But people still couldn’t resist having a bit of fun!

Does that skull belong to Yorick? Where’s the gravedigger?
The Little Mermaid poses outside the House of Hospitality.
It’s a plague doctor! Unfortunately, this year the costume seems less preposterous.
A nice skeleton family was walking down El Prado.
A pumpkin pooch and one with a mounted cowboy!
This dog just got his Bad Pet mug shot. Now it’s off to the pet-itentiary.
I didn’t quite catch the name of this group cosplay at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, but it’s bloody good!

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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!

Very scary, spooky photos for Halloween!

Two weeks ’til Halloween!

The deadly creatures are creeping closer, closer… Ghouls, vampires, zombies, demons… Before you know it they’ll be gathered at your door… The approaching horror is inescapable!

Most of these very scary, spooky photographs were taken in past years around Halloween. Ghosts, grim reapers, demons and bloodthirsty monsters were encountered in Balboa Park on the Haunted Trail. The deformed zombies? I took those photos during Comic-Con! An elegantly dressed skeleton couple materialized in front of my camera in Old Town on Dia de los Muertos. Other frightening faces appeared just before Halloween in shop windows!

Are some of the images vaguely familiar? I changed these color photographs to grayscale, then darkened many, blurred a few slightly. So that you might be properly terrified!

Trick or treat!

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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!