Two weeks to go until 2015 San Diego Comic-Con! Signs and omens of the super popular event’s coming are popping up around downtown, especially in the Gaslamp Quarter. Here’s what I spotted in the past couple days…
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I spotted another 2015 San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap in the past couple days! This one promotes Conan O’Brien’s television show on TBS. He’ll be hosting his talk show live from Comic-Con July 8-12. I’ve read that he’ll also be moderating two panels in Hall H: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and The Last Witch Hunter.
The images on the trolley wrap seem to show Conan turned into several Funko POP! toy figures! Cool!
Stay tuned for a ton more cool Comic-Con stuff in the coming few weeks!
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I finally got pics of the very first trolley wrap for the upcoming 2015 San Diego Comic-Con. The bold graphics promote Scream Queens, an American horror-comedy television series, which is having its world premiere at Comic-Con. The series will be televised on Fox starting in September.
I spoke to a super friendly trolley driver on Thursday (she always smiles and waves at me!) and I learned that more trolley wraps are in the process of being readied for Comic-Con. What they are, I don’t know. We’ll find out together! Stay tuned!
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Here’s another branch of San Diego’s strange and whimsical Bart Club! This example of Bart Simpson street art decorates a single utility box, located in North Park at the intersection of 30th and Adams Avenue.
More zany, bizarre Bart Club street art can be found in downtown San Diego’s East village at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and G Street, and at SILO.
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Today I witnessed the grittiest performance I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a few.
I went to the Seaport Village Spring Busker Festival today and enjoyed a number of excellent, very entertaining acts. But the one that really stood out was performed by Murrugun the Mystic. He’s one of the stars of the AMC television reality show Freakshow.
While in a great deal of pain, Murrugun was first in the world to shoot a flaming arrow out of his throat! Let me describe his entire act…
Unfortunately, I filled up my camera’s memory card midway through his fire eating, just before he got to the really big stuff. At the end of some more conventional (but great) fire eating tricks, he really wowed the crowd. He filled his throat with a large quantity of kerosene combined with light gasoline, then produced two MASSIVE fireballs from his mouth. You had to see it to believe it! These balls of flame must’ve measured 6 feet in diameter. Oh, man! It was a bummer my camera ran out of memory! Afterward, he promptly rinsed his throat out with mouthwash and then water, because the flammable mixture is highly carcinogenic.
Next Murrugun balanced his entire body weight on a demonstrably sharp samurai sword. He leaned over the horizontal blade and supported himself on his stomach, lifting arms and legs from the ground.
Next came the bed of nails. I was volunteered, along with five other guys in the crowd, to help Murrugun wow the gathered audience. Each of us tested the nails, and while they weren’t sharp as pins, they were definitely pointed. Murrugun lay on the bed of nails, placed a board over his torso, and four of the guys, weighing a total of about 910 pounds, stepped up onto the board! I and another fellow helped to balance the four. Ouch! While this sort of thing has been performed for thousands of years, and the many nails effectively support a whole lot of weight, I wouldn’t want to be sandwiched between them and the combined mass of four guys!
Now the show got interesting in an alarming way. Murrugun used a very long pole to support “The Knives of Death”. I believe that’s what he called them. These five long knives faced downward from a ring, and should they topple down from the top of the pole, they’d probably impale poor Murrugun. I’m not sure how his act was supposed to proceed. The knives were balanced atop the pole. Suddenly down came the knives from on high and Murrugun lay flat on his back. The knives mostly missed him. But one sliced his leg. A good three inch gash was visible, and blood. He seemed stunned. He very gingerly hobbled to the back of the stage area, checked himself, and it looked to me like he then decided to tough it out. The audience didn’t seem to know how to react. Like them I just watched, astonished.
He was obviously hesitant and in pain. He told us he’d now perform a world’s first. He’d shoot a flaming arrow from his throat.
I could see his hands visibly trembling while he tried for a few seconds to piece two slender hollow rods together, which formed the shaft of the arrow. He gradually composed himself. He lubricated the long shaft, which was possibly two to three feet long, lit the pointed end, then proceeded to swallow the unique arrow. He bent over, and after attaching the arrow end to a slingshot-like device, shot the arrow out of his throat and through the air! He missed the balloon in the bullseye, perhaps 10 or 15 feet away, but not by much!
I know that street performers–and circus and carnival sideshow performers–have a difficult profession and can endure a lot of hardship. But what I witnessed this afternoon was truly heart-rending and impressive. It seemed no amount of pain could slow down Murrugun’s showmanship and passion for his art.
Murrugun the Mystic noted that because Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus have decided to eliminate elephants from their show (the news just out), perhaps there’s a chance the circus sideshow will make a comeback. That is Murrugun’s wish and personal mission. Can you help make that happen? Here’s his Facebook page.
Thanks, Murrugun, for privileging me to be a tiny part of busker history! Good luck!
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If you’re driving about San Diego County today and you see a fireman standing at an intersection holding up a boot, throw lots of money in!
Today a small army of San Diego firefighters are volunteering to collect donations for the Burn Institute. The Burn Institute’s mission is to help the victims of severe burns recover from a devastating and very difficult situation. The organization has a strong focus on children. Be generous!
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Early this morning the Padres began their move to Peoria, Arizona for 2015 Spring Training. An absolutely huge amount of baseball equipment was loaded onto several trucks, and fans, the Pad Squad and television reporters gathered to witness the send-off.
Petco Park, where the Padres play and are headquartered, is not far from where I live, so I walked by to take some photos before catching the trolley to work! Glad I did!
The Padres have loaded up on talent this year, and the coming season looks extremely promising!
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Today I randomly walked past SILO in Makers Quarter in East Village. This downtown San Diego special events venue is chock full of super cool street art murals, as you might have seen in this blog post. Well, I was just walking along, peering through the fence, and… WHAM! More crazy Bart Club street art! It seems to have popped up in various different locations!
Perhaps you’ll recall seeing my first Bart Club discovery here.
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Early this morning, before going to work, I headed down to the Embarcadero to check out preparations for two big events that are coming this Labor Day weekend. One of those events is the 2014 U.S. Sand Sculpting Challenge, which will be held on the pier by the cruise ship terminal!
I noticed those sculptures that I took pictures of on Sunday are now completed. I also observed that the mounds of loose sand that the World Masters will sculpt this weekend have been enclosed in very mysterious-looking wooden frames.
As I took pics down the pier, a gentleman came striding along with some tools. I asked if he was a sculptor. He said yes. His name was Chris.
I spoke for a bit and learned he’d been creating sand sculptures since he was a kid on the beach, and that one could make a full-time living in such work. These unique works of art are popular at corporate events, public events, weddings and special occasions.
Chris said that some of the best sand artists would be competing from around the world, from places like the Netherlands, Singapore and Italy. He affirmed that this competition was one of the best in the world. I asked him about his own sculpture, and he said it’s a secret!
I didn’t know it at the time, but I learned with a little research that I had spoken with Chris Guinto, of Key West, Florida, a world class sand sculptor who has starred in several acclaimed television shows! His work has been a central feature of ‘Sand Masters’, ‘Sand Wars’ and ‘Sand Blasters’ on the Travel and Discovery Channels! All I can say is he was super friendly and very cool!
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A couple blocks from downtown’s Gaslamp Quarter, a huge painted mural on the side of a building depicts actor Sean Bean holding a gun and the Twitter hashtag #DontKillSeanBean. This eye-catching public artwork was created during the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con to promote the upcoming TNT television spy thriller LEGENDS.
Poor Sean Bean never seems to survive his roles. Many of his fans are hoping he makes it through this series. He has died over twenty times onscreen.
Some of his more notable deaths?
Shot through with Uruk-hai orc arrows as Boromir in Lord of the Rings.
Falling from and then crushed by a huge antenna structure as Agent 006 in Goldeneye.
Impaled by an anchor and then blown up during a boat chase in Patriot Games.
Chased off a cliff by a rampaging herd of cows in The Field.
Shot through the neck by a grappling hook and then hung in The Island.
Beheaded as Eddard Stark in the first season of Game of Thrones.
Better luck this time around, Mr. Bean!
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Cool San Diego Sights! 