Youth Speak Truth in San Diego.

This afternoon youth were speaking truths at the San Diego Central Library. An event presented by DREAMS+DUCATS brought together young people for a discussion panel. The subject was Journey To Impact.

Speakers told inspirational stories, sharing their personal dreams and efforts to influence a world that is largely managed by older people. The frustrations of idealistic youth were evident, as they confronted a world that often seems cold and hopelessly unchangeable.

One speaker shared her practical idea of how to make schools safer from potential shooters, and explained how that very simple idea (locking classroom doors on the inside rather than the outside) was resisted and dismissed by the powers that be. Another spoke of her experience of being homeless, and how it was very difficult to have basic needs met.

The young speakers sought to have a greater voice in government and decision-making, but felt they were ignored and not respected. To this I would say, don’t give up. Keep speaking. Hopeful idealism still lurks in the minds of many who are older.

Greet this complex world with a smile. Don’t frown upon all “grown-ups” as hostile adversaries. Life goes by very quickly. Too quickly. You’ll be one of those grown-up humans in the blink of an eye.

I happened to run across the event today as I walked into San Diego’s downtown Central Library. It made me think. Wasn’t that the purpose, really?

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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!

Amusing sayings outside Rockin’ Baja!

Worrying works! 90% of the things I worry about never happen.

Here’s are a few photographs that might amuse you!

I was walking through the Gaslamp Quarter past Rockin’ Baja Lobster this morning when I noticed a number of funny sayings posted around their outdoor street dining area.

Some of these sayings almost seem wise. Others–not so much…

If it weren’t for the last minute nothing would get done.
Two wrongs…are only the beginning.
It’s bad luck to be superstitious.
I can resist everything but temptation.
Laws of gravity strictly enforced.
Friends may come and go but enemies accumulate.

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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!

A short story about how we are made of stars.

I finished writing another short story. This once has the simple title Twinkle.

Once upon a time I studied physics in college. Back then I learned that the elements composing you and I and the entire world were forged in the furnaces of stars. (Mostly, that is.)

A month or so ago I was out on one of my walks, moving through a poorer neighborhood, when I saw flowering weeds in the bare dirt of a front yard. And the seed for a philosophical story entered my mind.

The short story that finally grew and matured you can read here.

Strange geometries on the G Street Pier.

The crazy tangle of fishing nets, lobster traps, rusty chains, floats, pallets and miscellaneous junk on the G Street Pier is wonderful beyond description.

The pier was open today, so I walked out on it.

Not only did I stride over the beautiful bay, with fishing boats floating before the San Diego skyline, and gulls wheeling overhead, but I felt I was moving through a fundamental Truth of this world made visible. Mathematical truth. Divine truth.

Were great philosophers walking with me, what would they conclude?

To help bring out some of the geometry–the ordered symmetry and fractured chaos–I’ve added a whole lot of contrast to these photographs.

IMG_6820z

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!

Exhibit illuminates intersection of art and science.

More, 2019, by Sheena Rae Dowling. Luminous sculpture in a darkened space depicts the scan of a healthy brain with normal rhythmic functions.
More, 2019, by Sheena Rae Dowling. Luminous sculpture in a darkened space depicts the scan of a healthy brain with normal rhythmic functions.

Art and science have much in common. Both explore deep mysteries and seek essential truths. Both often take paths that are complex. Both produce results that are often surprising.

A new exhibition at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park explores the intersection of art and science. Illumination, 21st Century Interactions With Art and Science and Technology features thought-provoking pieces by 26 artists, many of whom were inspired by personal interactions with local scientists and technologists. Themes explored include Global Health and Discovery, Climate Change and Sustainability, and Technology and the Touch Screen.

Many of the pieces concern biology and biotechnology. That isn’t surprising. San Diego is a world center of biotech research. Many of the scientists who’ve inspired this artwork are making breakthrough discoveries at local institutions, like UC San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

If you want to be stimulated, step through the door of the San Diego Art Institute. Bop about this exhibition like a particle undergoing Brownian motion or a dawning Artificial Intelligence. You’ll encounter illuminating artwork that really opens your eyes and mind.

Don’t be left in the dark! Illumination turns off after May 3, 2020.

Illumination, 21st Century Interactions With Art and Science and Technology, lights up the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park.
Illumination, 21st Century Interactions With Art and Science and Technology, lights up the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park.

Moving through a gallery full of strangeness. Complex mysteries and unseen realities surround and penetrate each of us.
Moving through a gallery full of strangeness. Complex mysteries and unseen realities surround and penetrate us all.

Nucleus 1, 2019, by Anne Mudge. Artistic wire representation of folded strands of DNA, which in reality are about 6.5 feet long and packed inside a cell's microscopic nucleus.
Nucleus 1, 2019, by Anne Mudge. Artistic wire representation of folded strands of DNA, which in reality are about 6.5 feet long and packed inside a cell’s microscopic nucleus.

Leap of Faith, 2019, by Becky Robbins. Art, like science, begins with an idea that leads to questions. Links between considered elements appear. Some connections are obvious, others are vague.
Leap of Faith, 2019, by Becky Robbins. Art, like science, begins with an idea that leads to questions. Links between considered elements appear. Some connections are obvious, others are vague.

building, 2019, by Beliz Iristay. Deaf adults without a linguistic foundation early in life have altered neural structure, with long-term effects on mastery of complex grammar.
building, 2019, by Beliz Iristay. Deaf adults without a linguistic foundation early in life have altered neural structure, with long-term effects on mastery of complex grammar.

Chromosome 22, 2020, by Cy Kuckenbaker. The artwork includes a book-like printout of some 10,000 pages of a data sequence in the smallest of 23 human chromosomes.
Chromosome 22, 2020, by Cy Kuckenbaker. The artwork includes a book-like printout of some 10,000 pages of a data sequence in the smallest of 23 human chromosomes.

Shining Palimpsest, by Young Joon Kwak. I, you, she, he, they, we, it--tangled, twisted, uncertain. Who we are and how we are viewed depends on perspective.
Shining Palimpsest, by Young Joon Kwak. I, you, she, he, they, we, it–words that are tangled, twisted, sometimes uncertain. Who we are and how we are viewed depends on perspective.

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!

Faces painted with words of confusion, revelation.

There’s a very cool mural painted on the side of Lhooq Books & The Exrealism Nonprofit Project in Carlsbad, which occupies a small barn that was built in 1941. I happened to notice the artwork as I was walking down Carlsbad Village Drive. The artist, I learned, is professional skateboarder Kris Markovich.

Lhooq Books & The Exrealism Nonprofit Project, according to their website, is a vintage bookstore, espresso bar and underground venue, as well as the headquarters & a compound for “The Exrealism Project.”

Many phrases are written inside the mural’s abstract human faces. The words–which together read like a two dimensional poem or stream of consciousness–are raw and very real.

The words are disturbing and inspiring. They are disjointed and profound. They are expressions of doubt, and frustration, and confusion, and revelation.

The words tumble directly from a personal experience of life.

It is a mural painted with life.

DO THESE THOUGHTS SCARE YOU . . . THESE WORDS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD
DO THESE THOUGHTS SCARE YOU . . . THESE WORDS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD

EXREALISM MY REDEMPTION
EXREALISM MY REDEMPTION

the thawing of your heart
the thawing of your heart

STUCK ONE PLACE BEHIND
STUCK ONE PLACE BEHIND

OPEN YOUR EYES YOU MIGHT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
OPEN YOUR EYES YOU MIGHT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND

EGO KILLER
EGO KILLER

We're all mad here.
We’re all mad here.

YOUR WORRIES ARE JUSTIFIED . . . BROKEN PROMISE
YOUR WORRIES ARE JUSTIFIED . . . BROKEN PROMISE

WORDS . . .OPEN FOR THE TAKING
WORDS . . .OPEN FOR THE TAKING . . . MEANING

THE LURK IN THE BUSHES KIND OF WEIRD
THE LURK IN THE BUSHES KIND OF WEIRD

i don't know
i don’t know

BLEED FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS
BLEED FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS

YOU WANT THE BEAUTIFUL
YOU WANT THE BEAUTIFUL

What someone thinks of you is NONE of your business.
What someone thinks of you is NONE of your business.

I USED TO THINK I WAS AN ARTIST BUT I NO LONGER THINK ABOUT IT . . . I AM.
I USED TO THINK I WAS AN ARTIST BUT I NO LONGER THINK ABOUT IT . . . I AM.

We ALL suffer.
We ALL suffer.

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!

Inspired to BE TRUE in East Village!

BE TRUE mural in San Diego's East Village by @allikdesign.
BE TRUE mural in San Diego’s East Village by @allikdesign.

Those seeking inspiration in downtown San Diego’s East Village will find it at the corner of Market Street and Tenth Avenue. That’s where a beautiful new mural reminds everyone to BE TRUE!

East Village continues to receive colorful new street art, thanks in large part to @ladieswhopaint!

A very colorful mural in San Diego's East Village by @TierneyMilne of @ladieswhopaint.
A very colorful mural in San Diego’s East Village by @TierneyMilne of @ladieswhopaint.

Above all things, BE TRUE.
Above all things, BE TRUE.

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!

Two short stories about caging wild things.

My writing website Short Stories by Richard keeps expanding.

This weekend I’ve published two unusual short stories.

Both tiny works of fiction concern the difficulty of caging wild, undefinable things. Things like divine beauty and absolute truth.

Aviary Observations is about art, capturing beauty and our human limitations.

Soul to Soul is about putting into words deeper truths that cannot be adequately expressed.

Both quirky stories contain humor! We’re human after all.

You can click the above links if you’re curious.

Positive messages observed during one walk.

Long Live the Creatives.
Long Live the Creatives.

During my early morning walk through Little Italy, I observed all sorts of positive messages–in windows, on tiles, on banners and signs. Many of these messages concern creativity, one of my favorite topics!

To lovers of beer, one of the following photos contains a VERY positive message!

Creativity in one window.
Creativity in a window.

Little Italy San Diego Celebrates Italian Heritage Month and the contributions Italians have made to the world.
Little Italy San Diego Celebrates Italian Heritage Month and the contributions Italians have made to the world.

Candido Jacuzzi, inventor.
Candido Jacuzzi, inventor.

Our destiny is together I pray you so select. Let's find the strength for the family we do protect.
Our destiny is together I pray you so select. Let’s find the strength for the family we do protect.

TRUCKLOAD OF BEER.
TRUCKLOAD OF BEER.

I am bright-eyed. I am connected. I am love...
I am bright-eyed. I am connected. I am love…

What's Your Love Story-
What’s Your Love Story?

Lux, Veritas . . . Light, Truth.
Lux, Veritas . . . Light, Truth.

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!

Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

An insightful quote by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. can be seen in North Park. The few words are powerful and true.

This inspiring street art is painted on three sidewalk electrical boxes on 30th Street, just north of Redwood Street.

Only in the Darkness
Only in the Darkness

Can you See the
Can you See the

Stars
Stars

Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

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!