Tourist on a Segway passes a disabled Santa in a wheelchair.
Life contains mingled joy and sadness. These feeling intensify as Christmas nears.
Christmas is a season brimming with generosity and hope. But the difficulties we all face persist. And for some, those difficulties are extreme.
During my walk this afternoon beneath dark, dramatic storm clouds, I captured a few images of human sadness, joy . . . and hope.
Storm clouds above downtown San Diego. Christmas is coming, but so is winter.Palm trees in a row buffeted by a strong chilly wind on a late November day.Someone camped against the San Diego County Courthouse. The number of homeless people downtown continues to grow.Using spice as a drug is a recipe for disaster. Drug use by the many homeless in downtown has become alarming. Lives are being visibly destroyed.The relatively new Horton Plaza Park now attracts homeless people seeking a comfortable place. A deeply sad situation with no easy solution.But there is also hope, and the potential for joy. A child is shown the dancing fountain at the center of Horton Plaza Park.Youthful eyes peer into a fountain hopefully. What is it they possibly see? Dreams filled with light?There is much one can do to brighten this world. I saw this example as I walked. Be the voice of a foster child. Provide hope, and a smile.Will it be a white Christmas in San Diego? Probably not. But perhaps Christmas is something more than mere dreams.I spotted a typical Christmas tree in a shopping center. But this one is special. It’s a giving tree.USO San Diego needs your help to bring holiday cheer to active military families. (Please click the image to read details.)The sun breaks through storm clouds and shines upon downtown San Diego. There is much we can do. A faint rainbow appears like magic above.
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If you’d like to read an inspiring tale about human generosity, you might enjoy a favorite short story that I’ve written, An Unexpected Sunflower.
Two different buildings are reflected in the glass windows of 101 W. Broadway. On the left is the Spreckels Theater Building; on the right is the Sofia Hotel.
I confess that I love reflections. They often seem magical, like a glowing vision of intermingled dimensions. So I had to take more photos today of windows reflected in glass windows.
Walking down Broadway in downtown San Diego is like moving through a funhouse maze. Left and right, the mirrors rise into the sky. One passes through an otherworldly geometry of reflected forms; light dances like the spinning sun upon bright buildings.
Strangely distorted reflections in the windows of a San Diego high-rise.The old Armed Services YMCA building is reflected in the glass windows above the entrance of 501 W. Broadway.One America Plaza, San Diego’s tallest building, seen in a grid of windows across Broadway.San Diego’s distinctive Emerald Plaza reflected in the windows of 501 W. Broadway.The Westgate Hotel building gleams in the windows of 225 Broadway, the former NBC building.Unusual geometry caused by multiple reflections observed from street level.
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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!
Check out some photos of cool, creative door handles that I’ve spotted while walking around San Diego. I snapped a couple of these photographs months ago, and unfortunately I’ve forgotten where I took them. I guess I’m not terribly organized! Or perhaps I’m just lazy and took no notes.
Electric guitar door handle at Hard Rock Cafe in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.Two door handles made of artistically bent rebar.These door handles at the Yard House don’t contain beer. One must step inside.Interesting door handles together form a disk and raised leaf.One very ornate door handle in San Diego.A lion’s head handle on a rusty gate.
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Pottery pumpkins smile outside a gift shop in San Diego’s festive Old Town.
I see pumpkins! Everywhere! It must be mid-October in San Diego!
Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! Big ones and little ones! Grocery stores are overflowing. It must be mid-October.A fun display of pumpkins and Autumn characters on a street corner in Little Italy. Halloween is on the way! Boo!A beautiful arrangement of flowers, pumpkins and gourds graces a rustic Old Town boardwalk.More golden Autumn colors suggest it’s time to harvest the good things in life.A pumpkin and warm flowers on an antique cart in Old Town San Diego.
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A beautiful face comes alive on a Little Italy street. Amazing chalk art will be a central attraction at the annual Festa celebration in San Diego.
Tomorrow Festa will be enjoyed by thousands of people in Little Italy. One of the annual festival’s biggest attraction is the amazing chalk art, which is also known as Gesso Italiano. Today the chalk artists began creating their masterpieces. Their unusual canvas is two blocks of asphalt along Beech Street.
I walked this afternoon from Cortez Hill down to Little Italy, to see how far the artwork has progressed. Most of the artists had already made a good start.
I looked with wonder at many colorful chalk art faces that have gradually come to life. The artists, when drawing a human form, often begin with the face. So many beautiful faces were gazing up from the asphalt.
Festa begins tomorrow, Sunday, at 10 o’clock. Thousands will enjoy the finished chalk masterpieces. I will definitely be there!
Chalk artists line two blocks of Beech Street. It’s a very special October weekend in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood.This chalk artist uses a grid to form his emerging creation.Another face mysteriously materializes on the street. Many different colors of chalk can be used to create subtle effects.Elaborate chalk artwork, also known as Gesso Italiano, is being created the day before 2016 Festa begins in Little Italy.Chalk can be used to produce truly sensational images.Another chalk artist at work creating a bold face in the middle of the street.Many classical images borrowed from Italy’s rich history and culture will appear tomorrow on Beech Street for 2016 Festa.Chalk and asphalt. Passion and skill. A human face is born.Eyes peer up from the street, patiently regarding a skilled chalk artist.A colorful chalk angel almost ready to take flight in Little Italy.A beautiful face beneath a halo.Flying purple hair, and a glowing face in the sunlight.These eyes have been infused with life. Chalk artists have converged to create beautiful art in Little Italy for 2016 Festa!
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Almost any day in San Diego is a fine day. A fine day to open eyes and experience life.
When I walk about, I often take photos of everything and anything. Photography helps one to see the surrounding world: a fascinating world in constant motion.
Here are some photos that I’ve taken on different walks around San Diego. Every walk is a fine walk. There is so much to see.
Saturday morning on the pier near the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market.A bicyclist with a daring spirit at the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge.A standup paddleboarder off Coronado, with sailboats and the San Diego skyline in the background.Bagpipes and a smile outside Petco Park.Early morning produce is ready to deliver in East Village.A boy and a kite at Embarcadero Marina Park North.Someone seeks attention in Seaport Village.Pigeons on Broadway.A smiling face.Rolling down the Gaslamp.A big wheel in Balboa Park.A handstand on a bench. Just another fine day in San Diego.A scene of ordinary city life near the Fifth Avenue trolley station.Entertainer wears a horse head at the Little Italy Farmers’ Market.A slow Sunday in downtown San Diego.
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Part of a spray paint street mural in North Park by artists Maxx Moses and Glow.
Here are even more photos of random street art that I’ve encountered during walks through North Park!
I’ve already covered many amazing street murals in the neighborhood. You can find those by surfing around my blog, clicking related articles, tags or performing a search in the sidebar. Cool San Diego Sights contains hundreds of San Diego street art photos that you might enjoy!
North Park utility box depicts meditating figure.Many utility boxes in North Park (like other San Diego neighborhoods) have been enlivened with colorful street art. This box has the word SOAK and some tentacles.Lightning inside a deadhead skull separates night from day. Urban art on a shop located on North Park’s University Avenue.Huge glowing crystals grow from a North Park sidewalk!More creatively decorated utility boxes along University Avenue in North Park.Unusual artwork near a building’s rooftop features alien-like creatures with three eyes.A cool sun with mustache above some prickly pear cacti.A young person holding binoculars seems to watch the people of North Park.These artistic cubes are fun seats for people waiting for the bus.One unique utility box has four sides featuring subterranean slices. West shows where land meets Pacific Ocean.Bienvenidos! South shows the border with nearby Mexico.East shows the desert, which lies beyond our mountains.North depicts a small, happy home in North Park.Just walking along the sidewalk, past a creatively decorated transformer box.Turning a corner past pink and yellow cats.Utility box on 30th Street has tropical palm trees, flowers, fish and a skull.Newspaper box covered top to bottom with decals.Graffiti near shop door includes a sexy lady.A typical scene on one sidewalk that stretches down 30th Street in North Park.Street art in North Park shows a woman walking through the city.In easy-going, laid-back North Park, an appropriate slogan: r.i.p. bullshit
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Unusual signs near America Plaza contain quotes from famous modern artists. This thought-provoking art was installed by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, which is located across the street.
Look what I discovered this evening! I had disembarked from the trolley at the Santa Fe Depot and was making my way to America Plaza when my eyes were ensnared by a very cool sight.
At first glance I thought it was a cluster of directional signs that point every which way to cities around the world. Then I realized these signs were far more interesting!
On one side each sign contains a thought-provoking quote from a modern artist. The cities shown on the reverse side are those associated with the artists.
The modern artists quoted are: Pablo Picasso, Jeff Wall, Jackson Pollock, John Baldessari, Jose Clemente Orozco, Edward Ruscha, Joseph Beuys, Richard Diebenkorn, Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp and Eleanor Antin.
I walked back across Kettner Boulevard to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and learned that these unusual signs were installed by the museum about two weeks ago!
People walk down the sidewalk along Kettner Boulevard. A few glance up at what appears to be a cluster of strangely colorful directional street signs.Quotes from ten notable modern artists are featured on the MCASD signs. The reverse side of each directional sign contains a city associated with the artist.Provocative public art rises from a downtown sidewalk, across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
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San Diego Police Headquarters’ Wall of Honor. The wall is inscribed with the names of police officers killed in the line of duty since 1913.
Almost everyone in San Diego, and many across the country, know the heartbreaking news. Two San Diego gang-unit officers were shot in the Southcrest neighborhood late last night. One, Jonathan DeGuzman, has passed away. The second, Wade Irwin, remains in serious condition.
As an ordinary citizen, would you like to help the San Diego Police Department? It’s an extremely difficult job they do, and a noble one. Their task is to protect our communities. They risk their own lives every single day to save others, to protect and assist law-abiding citizens, and to keep the peace. Unfortunately, in some important areas our local police department is underfunded.
Please visit the San Diego Police Foundation website to learn how you can directly help, and consider giving a donation. Thank you.
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