Tag: television

More signs San Diego Comic-Con is coming!

Walking around downtown San Diego, I’ve noticed more and more signs that Comic-Con 2025 is fast approaching. Less than two weeks to go!

First, a bunch of banners promoting shows on STARZ have been hung at the Gaslamp Quarter trolley station and along Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade. Shows include Spartacus and Outlander: Blood of My Blood.

Next, I was shown this online flyer from Exclusive Collections in the Gaslamp.

On July 18, the week before Comic-Con, they will be offering over 70 original and rare animation cels for purchase! Art includes that of Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. and Chuck Jones.

The Chuck Jones Gallery in Seaport Village will present The Art Side of Comic-Con 2025. Appearing artists include Fabio Napoleoni and Ben Olson.

American Comedy Co. San Diego will present Comic-Con related shows, including Natasha Leggero w/Moshe Kasher & Dana Gould, and Doctor Z & Friends.

The Music Box will host some Comic-Con related parties, including Mosh Eisley (The Best Party in the Galaxy), and One More Time (A Tribute To Daft Punk) the Comic Tron Comic Con After Party.

The recently installed electronic kiosks around downtown San Diego list Comic-Con as an upcoming event, but sadly provide very little elaboration.

The Pac-Man Cafe Pop-Up appears at 323 Seventh Avenue during Comic-Con! Free arcade games and merch giveaway included!

Excited yet?

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Hulu Animayhem rolls back into San Diego!

Hulu Animayhem has rolled back into San Diego–on the trolley!

Anyone who’s been to Comic-Con the last few years knows Hulu has had a major presence, particularly with its elaborate offsite activation behind the San Diego Convention Center. Looks like they’ll be back for 2025 in a big way!

The Hulu Animayhem trolley wrap shows many popular characters in Hulu’s streaming cartoons–you certainly recognize a few of them! Comic-Con fans should eat this wrap up.

I love the fun, bold graphics and how they pop. There’s no doubt what is being promoted: Your Animation Destination!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Gachiakuta trolley appears for Comic-Con 2025!

Another new trolley wrap has appeared for San Diego Comic-Con 2025! This one promotes Gachiakuta, a Japanese anime television series that will premiere on Crunchyroll on July 6.

Here’s a trailer for Gachiakuta.

Back in 2022 during Comic-Con, Crunchyroll wrapped San Diego city buses with all sorts of cool graphics from their shows. You can find those photos here!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

The amazing Doctor Who exhibit in San Diego!

How do I convey how awesome the Doctor Who exhibition is at the Comic-Con Museum?

If you’re a Doctor Who fan or anyone in San Diego who loves science fiction, it’s an absolute, positive must see!

I haven’t been a regular watcher of the long-running BBC show, but when I visited the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park today, I was blown away. The museum has hosted epic exhibitions in the past, but this one, Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction, might have the most wow moments.

The exhibition celebrates all fifteen Doctors and displays their distinctive costumes. A variety of props can be viewed up close. Best of all, visitors come face to face with dozens of life-size robots and creatures that have been used in the making of Doctor Who!

Most of the alien creatures are utterly bizarre. Some appear to have been hatched in a nightmare. (See my previous blog post about the exhibition’s awesome Monster Vault by clicking here.)

As fans know, scary-looking creatures in the show can actually be allies of the Doctor. When you travel by TARDIS across time and space, you never know who or what you’ll meet!

The exhibition, like the show, is mostly about wonder. Displays explain how Doctor Who story ideas are often based on actual scientific and technological advancements. Concepts like artificial intelligence, evolution and multidimensional reality are utilized in fantastic ways. Indeed, the show began in 1963 as an educational program. Curiosity is an essential element of Doctor Who.

I took a few sample photos. There’s so much to see, you could spend a good hour exploring Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction.

Visitors begin by stepping through a TARDIS…

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Deadly monsters of Doctor Who in San Diego!

Should we all be worried? Many of Doctor Who’s most dangerous adversaries have materialized in San Diego!

Fortunately, most are confined inside the Monster Vault at the Comic-Con Museum. People can safely observe the deadly creatures and robots while moving through the museum’s epic exhibition Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction.

A huge collection of props from Doctor Who, the world’s longest running science fiction television show, is possibly the coolest part of the exhibition.

Today, as I visited the Comic-Con Museum, I noticed many Doctor Who fans entering the Monster Vault and remembering some of the show’s most terrifying episodes. Some of the detailed, life-size props are super scary. I wouldn’t care to meet real-life versions!

There are menacing Daleks–the Doctor’s arch-enemy: a hateful, genetically-modified species bent on conquest. There is mad scientist Davros, creator of the Daleks. There are different versions of the deadly cyborg Cybermen.

There is a mutated Dreg, a Sea Devil and a Silurian (both evolved reptiles), an armored Sontaran warrior, an Ice Warrior, a parasitic Weeping Angel that moves when you’re not looking, a bug-eyed Wrath Warrior, and more!

As a nearby sign explains: When designing monsters, sometimes the show’s creators explore different options that don’t make it to the screen… The possibilities of alien life are only as limited as our imagination.

The Monster Vault is one of my favorite parts of Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction. But there’s a lot more to see!

I’ll be blogging more about the Comic-Con Museum’s fantastic (and educational) Doctor Who exhibit in my next post!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

San Diego radio legend Shotgun Tom’s model train!

San Diego’s legendary radio and television personality “Shotgun Tom” Kelly has created many fond memories. I remember listening to him on B100 back in the 1980s. Other San Diegans I’ve spoken to remember him introducing cartoons on The KUSI Kids Club. Over the years, he worked at KDEO, KPRI, KGB, KCBQ, KOGO, KBZS and KFMB-FM and Los Angeles oldies station KRTH-FM (K-Earth 101).

During my recent visit to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park, I was surprised to see an exhibit concerning Shotgun Tom. Did you know he’s a big fan of model trains? He even has his own cool model train layout! I was told he often visits the museum, operating trains of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern HO layout on Wednesdays!

According to the exhibit, the layout at his home is 10 by 7 feet and includes a radio and television station and a mountain for the TV station’s tower!

(I recall seeing a tiny “Shot Gun” Tom billboard in the Old Town Model Railroad Depot’s big model city, which sadly no longer exists. You can see photos of that incredible layout here.)

“Shot Gun” Tom’s real name is Thomas Joseph Irwin. The museum exhibit includes an old photo of his father J. G. Irwin Sr., a Santa Fe railroad engineer, on the 2357 switch engine in 1955.

Curious about the unusual nickname Shot Gun? It resulted from Tom liking to sit in the front of the family car beside his dad.

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Enormous soccer ball in San Diego’s Gaslamp!

Am I hallucinating? There’s an enormous soccer ball in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Square!

I spoke to a security guard in Gaslamp Square who indicated the gargantuan soccer ball appeared Thursday and will vanish tomorrow. The gigantic inflatable promotes the MLS 2025 soccer season kicking off yesterday on Apple TV.

Gaslamp Square, located conveniently between popular Petco Park, the bustling San Diego Convention Center, and the iconic Gaslamp Quarter archway sign, seems to have become our city’s small version of Times Square. It’s overlooked by the nearby Hard Rock Hotel. There’s the big MTS video board installed last year. There’s the history of Gaslamp Square being a center of exciting outdoor activities during Comic-Con.

Come to think of it, I remember how, in 2017, a small aircraft was mounted here on a pedestal to promote a Red Bull Air Race over San Diego Bay.

…

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.

Feel free to share this!

Meet a Hollywood legend in San Diego!

You can meet Erik Betts, a Hollywood legend, in San Diego this weekend!

Erik, a self-taught gymnast and martial artist, has acted and performed stunts in so many movies and television shows that it would take forever to list them all.

He’ll be hanging out at Black Comix Day in Balboa Park, inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center, signing collectibles, comics, posters, action figures, t-shirts and more on Sunday, February 16, 2025, from 10 am to 6 pm.

You’ve almost certainly seen Erik (without possibly knowing it) all over entertainment. He was the Red Power Ranger! He has acted, been a crew member and performed amazing stunts in countless Hollywood movies, including Avatar, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Batman Begins, Mission: Impossible III, and Ant-Man. He has worked in dozens of television shows, such as Westworld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Heroes, CSI: Miami, even the Young and the Restless, and many, many more! He has also contributed to video games!

Here’s his IMDb page with all of his credits and a full biography. Here’s his Instagram page.

Want to know the coolest thing about Erik? His huge smile and infectious enthusiasm. I was so excited just meeting him, absorbing his incredible energy. At Erik’s table you can watch a video of him creating jaw-dropping action in many of Hollywood’s most popular movies!

Make sure to swing by Black Comix Day on Sunday, February 16, 2025. It’s absolutely overflowing with talented creators–writers, artists, animators, publishers… Here’s the event website!

…

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.

Feel free to share this!

Doctor Who exhibition coming to San Diego!

Doctor Who and science fiction fans, take note! The exhibition Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction is coming soon to San Diego!

Both fun and educational, the world-class exhibit will open at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park on March 15, 2025.

The museum will be overflowing with iconic props, sets, and behind-the-scenes materials from Doctor Who, the world’s longest-running science fiction television show!

BBC Studios and scientific advisors will help produce an interactive experience that will inspire Comic-Con Museum visitors, as they learn about scientific topics touched upon in episodes of Doctor Who. As a promotional flyer explains: It is a must-see for families, school groups, Doctor Who fans, curious minds and future scientists, whether or not they have seen the TV show.

People I spoke to at the museum today are super excited to be hosting this epic exhibition.

Mark it down on your calendars! I can’t wait!

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

Discover secrets of the Grinch at Seaport Village!

Did you know that the holiday season television animated classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas received a censored edit due to “inappropriate” language? And that the Grinch’s green color was likely inspired by a rental car?

Those are just two of many fun facts you’ll learn about the Grinch should you visit The Chuck Jones Gallery, which recently relocated to San Diego’s Seaport Village!

The surprising “Did You Know?” display stands next to works of collectible Grinch art created by Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as beloved children’s author and cartoonist Dr. Seuss.

I happened by the gallery today and enjoyed viewing a wide variety of classic pop culture art, and learning some surprising Grinch history!

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!