Today I finally got around to photographing this great public art in Hillcrest.
Back in January, I posted photos of a fun “champagne bubbles” mural on the east side of the Bubbles Market & Spirits building. It was painted in 2023. See those pics here.
In 2024, the same creator, San Diego artist Jeremy “Jermz” (@jm47art), painted a continuation of that mural, but on the north side of the building near the store’s front entrance. A beautiful woman appears to be blowing more bubbles! That’s what you’re looking at now!
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Thousands of video live streamers and fans will soon be converging on the San Diego Convention Center. San Diego is getting ready for TwitchCon 2024!
This year, TwitchCon will be bigger than ever, and evidence of its popularity has begun to pop up around downtown–in particular the Gaslamp Quarter.
TwitchCon 2024 will run this weekend from September 20 to September 22. The San Diego Convention Center is already decorated for the event, as you can see from these photos taken Tuesday afternoon.
The TwitchCon Block Party will be held in the Gaslamp Quarter near the convention center on Fifth Avenue this Saturday, September 21, beginning at 7:00 pm. Head on down for three hours of food vendors, live music options, themed photo ops, plenty of spots to chill with friends, and more.
A bunch of advertisements concerning TwitchCon have appeared up and down Fifth Avenue. Here are two “glitchy” ones…
And check this one out. Find five marbleverse marbles and get free loot!
Gamers! This is really cool.
Bards & Cards at 936 Fifth Avenue will be hosting a free event. On Saturday, September 21, from 11 am to 4 pm, you can meet Briana White, the voice of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII Remake! Get her autograph and photos!
Briana White is also a Twitch streamer. She’s known as TheStrangeRebel.
Finally, if you’re a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, go check out the Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café at 910 J Street, just north of Petco Park. They debuted before Comic-Con and will remain open to the public until early November.
Inside they’ve got fun graphics for photo-ops, all sorts of Sonic merch, and really great fast food. Tonight I took home one of their Knuckles chicken sandwiches and it was tasty good!
UPDATE!
Next day, street lamp banners were appearing in the Gaslamp…
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A very beautiful new mural is now being painted in Barrio Logan, on the side of Barrio Market at the corner of Cesar Chavez Parkway and National Avenue.
I met the friendly mural painter today, who goes by the artist name Andrea Border Baby. She’s a high school math teacher in South Bay. It’s her first ever public mural!
I learned Andrea has been one of the artists helping with the Chicano Park Mural Restoration project.
I also learned the left half of the new mural, depicting La Virgen de Guadalupe, memorializes a deceased loved one, and the right half celebrates the community of Barrio Logan.
The finished mural is set to debut in a couple weeks, on Saturday, September 14th!
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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 X.
The city of Oceanside is very lucky to have such a wonderful used book store. Jane and Evie’s Used Books is where you want to shop if you love to read, watch movies, listen to music . . . or solve jigsaw puzzles or view walls filled with art!
Whenever I’m in Oceanside I like to drop by, simply to look around and possibly add to my collection of books and digital media, including CDs and DVDs. That’s what I did today!
A cool thing about shopping at Jane and Evie’s Used Books is that all of the sales benefit The Friends of the Oceanside Public Library. When you enjoy a purchased book, others might enjoy a library book, too!
The store’s volunteers are all super friendly!
I asked about the history of the bookstore and was shown a photo of Evie Magana and Jane Cheadle, who were early members and officers of The Friends of the Oceanside Public Library. They were both known for their love of books and their dedication to the Oceanside community. The bookstore was named in their honor.
Unlike certain used book stores, it’s spacious and very well organized. Like a library! Linger, peruse the shelves, and talk to friendly people!
Jane and Evie’s Used Books is located at 323 North Coast Highway. Hours are Monday through Wednesday 11 am – 3 pm; Thursday through Saturday 10 am – 6 pm.
Procrastireading: The Art of Reading, instead of doing whatever else it is you should be doing.
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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 X.
A Comic-Con offsite in downtown San Diego has opened early! The Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery is already welcoming pop culture fans a week and a half before Comic-Con 2024 begins!
The Chuck Jones Gallery’s pop-up is always a big attraction during San Diego Comic-Con. You might recall that it has usually been found in the Gaslamp Quarter. But not in 2024!
This year’s location is inside Seaport Village, a short walk up the bayside boardwalk behind the San Diego Convention Center, five minutes past the Marriott Marquis, a few steps from the Seaport Village lighthouse.
I was told that before Comic-Con begins, they will be open seven days a week during ordinary business hours.
During my visit today, I saw lots of Looney Tunes and related artwork, produced by well-known artists including the legendary Chuck Jones. The walls are covered with cool collectibles, from affordable prints to original animation cells. If you love Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote, Taz, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian and the rest of the wacky crew, this is the place for you!
There’s also great DC and Marvel artwork by notable artists, including fan favorite Alex Ross.
In addition, during Comic-Con 2024, fans will have a chance to meet artists at the Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery. Here’s the lineup from their website:
Thursday, July 25
Meet & Greet with Chuck Jones artist, Ben Olson live from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Friday, July 26
Meet & Greet Simpsons artist, Stephen Reis from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday, July 27
Meet & Greet with artist, Fabio Napoleoni from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sunday, July 28
Meet & Greet with artist, Dan Bowden from 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Sounds pretty cool? It definitely is! Take a look at a few examples of the artwork on view and for sale in the Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery…
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Comic-Con 2024 is less than three weeks away. Around San Diego there are more and more signs that the epic international event is fast approaching!
It seems that dozens of San Diego trolleys are now wrapped for Comic-Con–you can spot them all over the city. The fifth, latest Comic-Con related design I photographed this morning. It’s from Jack in the Box, and features Deadpool & Wolverine and new Mini Chimi Bang Bangs!
A couple days ago I saw Scarlett Johansson in a graphic on the big new video screen in Gaslamp Square. The video board will probably be busy during Comic-Con promoting upcoming movies and other popular entertainment. As I’ve walked around, I haven’t seen any offsite construction . . . yet. But I did see a guy with a cool shirt!
The Fantastic Four street lamp banners have expanded beyond the Gaslamp Quarter and can now be seen throughout downtown San Diego. Marvel appears to be going all out promoting the highly anticipated movie!
As usual, clever shops along Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp have displays in their windows that might appeal to pop culture fans.
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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!
Several detailed scale models at the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum show what life was like for the Chinese inhabitants of early San Diego. Visitors can peer at these meticulously constructed scenes and imagine walking through the city over a century ago. San Diego’s Chinatown is historically bounded by Second and Fourth Avenues.
After entering the museum, the first model I noticed was of a Chinese fishing village that once existed where today’s San Diego Convention Center stands. The fishing village included small shanties, drying racks and salting tanks. Here it is:
The next two photos show a model of San Diego’s old Chinatown along Third Avenue, between Island Avenue and J Street. This amazing model, which represents the years 1910 to 1920, is based on photos, documents and former residents’ descriptions.
A sign in the museum explains: Notice the red batik wall… That building was an opium den according to the 1890 city directory. The large building with an awning a few doors down were the Woo Chee Chong and Gim Wing stores. The two story building on the other side of the street was Chinatown patriarch Ah Quin’s house, where he and his wife raised 12 children.
Next is a model depicting the back of the Woo Chee Chong Company at 450 Third Avenue. Like other Chinese stores in early San Diego, groceries and various goods were sold downstairs, and the upstairs rooms were available for let.
Finally, visitors can peer down into a very detailed model of a Chinese laundry in San Diego.
Between 1886 and 1970, there were over 100 Chinese laundries in San Diego… Opening a laundry was the quickest way for Chinese immigrants to become their own boss without needing to speak much English or having much money. All it took was a little soap, water, and hard work.
Apart from the model, this exhibit includes artifacts like old irons. There is also a map of the known laundry locations and various historical descriptions.
Anyone interested in the important role the Chinese played in our city’s history, including aspects of their life, work and culture, really should visit the small but excellent San Diego Chinese Historical Museum!
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Meet an old-timer on the Oceanside Pier–a California Brown Pelican named Michael.
Michael has been hanging around the pier about twenty years, according to Jeff who works at the bait shop. Michael the pelican likes to gobble handouts from passing fishermen.
He likes to watch people walking along the Oceanside Pier, too.
Michael had a foot problem. Humans helped him out and now he’s much better. I could plainly see that he and Jeff were close buddies.
But he doesn’t like strangers to get too close.
How did the bird get its name? Jeff told me that Michael has a tendency to dance around–like Michael Jackson.
(Jeff also explained that Iggy the snowy egret will sometimes join him inside the bait shop. When I happened by today, Iggy, Ziggy and several other egrets were being shy, standing on the bait shop’s roof.)
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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Enormous champagne bubbles are flying up the wall of a Hillcrest liquor store!
Bubbles Market & Spirits had this huge mural created last year by San Diego artist Jeremy “Jermz” (@jm47art). Here’s his Instagram page.
It’s a bubbly work of art that definitely attracts the attention of passersby! I thought you might enjoy seeing it, too!
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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Readers who fondly remember the old Blue Door Bookstore in Hillcrest will enjoy viewing a new exhibit at the San Diego Central Library.
Several glass display cases contain photographs, store flyers, art, a newspaper clipping . . . even one of the bookstore’s bags with its image of an ugly, scrunched-up face!
The Blue Door Bookstore once stood in the heart of Hillcrest at 3823 Fifth Avenue. Founded in 1961 and first owned an operated by Bill and Mary Peccolo, the store was purchased in 1988 by retired high school English teach Tom Stoup. Working hard, he grew the business, doubling its clientele and inventory in just four years.
The Blue Door Bookstore would become a favorite destination in San Diego for lovers of literature, culture and progressive politics. It would host up to 80 authors a year at a series of Wednesday and Friday poetry and literature readings and book signings. New authors were included with those who had achieved international fame. In one of my photographs, you can see Tom Stoup standing next to Gore Vidal.
The store with its blue door would finally close in 2001, largely due to the advent of e-commerce.
The Blue Door Bookstore exhibit can be viewed on the San Diego Central Library’s First Floor, in the wide area in front of the building elevators.
Are you both a San Diego resident and lover of books? To one side of these display cases you’ll find shelves of books by local authors!
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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 