Tag: strange

A story about a strange, bright world.

You might remember a few photographs I took of buildings reflected in puddles. I posted those last month, after downtown San Diego had experienced a night of rain.

Looking into those silver puddles was almost like peering into a strange, bright world just beyond our own. To see those photos again, you can click here.

Well, during my walk among those magic puddles a seed was planted.

That seed germinated, grew, broke through, has blossomed.

If you’d like to read my newly completed short story, which I titled The Shining World, click here.

A teddy bear and a broken heart.

I saw this on Sunday. Valentine’s Day.

I was walking past a bus stop in North Park when my attention was arrested by a large teddy bear. The bear was sitting alone at the end of the bench. I looked around. Absolutely nobody was nearby.

I had to pause to take in this strange sight. Then it occurred to me: either this cute, very loveable teddy bear had been accidentally left behind, or it had been left there intentionally.

Either scenario meant heartbreak.

It’s one small story in the city that you and I will never know.

What made my discovery really weird–almost eerie–is that for weeks I had been working on a short story concerning a similar teddy bear on the streets of a city.

Even though the story is very short, it had persistently troubled me. I knew it had potential. But I couldn’t seem to get it right.

Seeing that mysterious bear inspired me to work on the story with renewed purpose.

I published The Teddy Bear yesterday. Since then I’ve made a number of changes. But I think it might be finished. It remains painful. Like many of my little stories it has a surprise ending.

If you’d like, you can read it here.

Revisiting some strange, weird, bizarre stuff!

Over the years, I’ve shared photographs of some really weird stuff!

Given how I just blogged about a yellow bison on a Golden Hill rooftop, and how I recently posted photos of that goofy Wienerschnitzel street art in Imperial Beach, I thought I’d revisit other examples of strange, weird, wonderfully bizarre stuff that have appeared on Cool San Diego Sights!

In addition to viewing artwork that’s highly unusual, by clicking the following links you’ll feast your eyeballs on crazy cosplay, bizarre cars, flamethrowing bagpipes, a cattle drive through downtown San Diego, and other wacky stuff!

Click the following links to see these oddities!

Architecture inspired by nature . . . and UFOs!

Strange, bizarre cars of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Cleverly designed furniture is surprising, playful art!

Amazing, fantastic, crazy cosplay everywhere!

Street musician plays flamethrower bagpipes!

Photos of cattle drive through downtown San Diego!

The fantastic, amazing Harper’s Topiary Garden!

A (strange) Method for Reaching Extreme Altitudes!

World’s most amazing car, displayed in San Diego!

Bart Club street art on a San Diego corner.

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This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!

Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts.  If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!

To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Yellow bison on Golden Hill rooftop!

Why is there a big yellow bison standing on the roof of an apartment building in Golden Hill?

You can see this very odd sight on the southeast corner of Broadway and 21st Street.

I spoke to some folks walking across the street. They’ve lived in the neighborhood for ten years. They told me the big yellow bison has been standing up on that rooftop for at least a decade. They guess the building owner must really like bison!

Seems as good an explanation as any!

Does anyone out there know anything about this peculiar sculpture? Leave a comment!

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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!

Perplexing photos from various walks!

During my walks around the city, I sometimes will blink my eyes with astonishment.

Because what they see is strange and unexpected, and occasionally bizarre!

These photos were all taken in the past couple of weeks…

This isn’t a beacon of Freedom. It’s a burrito of Freedom!
The alphabet must actually contain 27 letters.
I wouldn’t pass through this gate if I were you!
A cairn to locate lost socks.
Snow, in San Diego?
It’s quite easy to attain Nirvana when you have no nervous system.
Now that’s a lot of holiday ribbons!

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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!

Nesting cormorants above La Jolla Cove!

It must be breeding season already, because hundreds of Brandt’s cormorants are showing their blue throat patches and building nests on the cliffs above La Jolla Cove!

Today I stood and watched peculiar bird behaviors from the roadside above the cliffs. I saw amorous flirtations and angry squabbles and seaweed tug-of-wars. Cormorants in nests would occasionally angle their heads and wings way back, staring straight up. I’m not sure if that’s a natural behavior, or if they were merely gaping at all the tourists above them!

I tried to select my best photographs. In some the cormorants appear very beautiful; in others a bit strange and primitive–almost monstrous.

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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!

Squares, circles, rectangles on a pier!

If you’ve followed Cool San Diego Sights for a few years, you probably know I love to walk out on the G Street Pier. One can take fantastic photos of downtown San Diego, Coronado, and sailboats passing across the sparkling water. But my favorite thing to photograph is the pier’s crazy clutter!

Along one edge of the G Street Pier one can always find stacked lobster traps, colorful floats, tangled ropes, and piles of weathered objects used on commercial fishing boats.

Today as I walked along the Embarcadero I noticed the G Street Pier was open. So I walked out on it.

Look at all the squares, circles and rectangles my camera found! (Some triangles and a starfish, too!)

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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!

More odd photos that make you look twice!

Here’s another batch of odd photographs that might make you look twice!

I captured all of these images in the past couple weeks during walks around San Diego.

Some of these are so strange and mysterious even I’m perplexed!

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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!

An odd little story about dreams.

Looking roughly northeast as color creeps over the desert below.

A moment ago I published an odd little story. It concerns the nature of dreams.

This tiny work of fiction is titled Their Dream.

Sometimes it seems the world we live in is one never-ending dream. An implausible dream that has somehow turned real.

Read my strange, humorous story by clicking here and decide for yourself!

Meanwhile, have a great weekend!

Richard

Reflection, movement, life.

I was standing in front of the Santa Fe Depot waiting for a bus, gazing across the street at America Plaza and its trolley station, watching people and their movement, seeing strange reflections on nearby buildings–life and light dancing mysteriously–when I lifted my camera…

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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!