Tag: words

A mystery behind the San Diego Convention Center!

These metal benches line the boardwalk behind the San Diego Convention Center. They face San Diego Bay. They were commissioned in 2008 and created by noted artist Nance O’Banion.

As her website explains: Nance produced 13 original designs, each of which was fabricated, once in its original form and once as a ‘mirror image’, in plasma-cut powder-coated steel. The installation of 26 art benches was titled Reverie.

I took these photos yesterday…

Today, a plaque can be seen embedded in the boardwalk near the benches, very close to the entrance to the Fifth Avenue Landing Superyacht Marina. It resembles the Reverie plaque shown in the gallery on Nance O’Banion’s website. The plaque includes her name and the same 2008 year.

But the title of the current plaque is different!

Why is the title Caesure, and not the original Reverie?

At some point, was the name of the installation changed to Caesure? The Latin word caesūra means “a cutting” or “a separation,” which might apply to the mirrored bench designs, or possibly how these benches were made.

Or . . . does Caesure concern another work of public art somewhere nearby? If so, what and where?

It’s a mystery with no solution that I can find!

If you know more about the history of this art bench installation, and why there have been different plaques with two different titles, please leave a comment!

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San Diego Library’s local author exhibit.

The annual Local Author Showcase of the San Diego Library is now on display on the first floor of downtown’s Central Library!

It’s exciting to see dozens of newly published books every year by diverse authors. Our city has so many creative and talented people! The Central Library is an ideal place to showcase their achievements.

Today I moseyed past the glass display cases and peered at different titles and covers.

A few examples…

At one end of the exhibit, I found a colorful work of art by Judith Parenio! It’s titled Words.

Books are portals to open minds…

Love endures at old Oceanside cemetery.

Beloved Wife and Mother

Beloved Husband and Father

In Loving Memory

Gone, But Not Forgotten

In Memory, From Daughters & Sons

Our Little Angel

Her Love Lingers

These are a few of the loving inscriptions on stone that linger in Oceanside’s old Oceanview Cemetery.

During a recent walk down South Coast Highway, I redirected my feet and wandered through the 3-acre resting place, originally called the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, established in 1895.

As a blogger who’s always searching for interesting sights, I was wondering if some “famous” person might be buried here.

Shame on me for thinking that way. I had missed the central message of a cemetery. It’s that we all might be mortal, but loves lives on.

Are you curious about the history of this old cemetery? A State of California resource document includes:

From its inception in 1895 until about 1950, when Eternal Hills Memorial Park opened in Oceanside, Oceanview was the primary non-denominational cemetery in Oceanside. During its heyday in the 1920s, 30s and 40s there were well over 1000 burials at Oceanview… over 1100 obituaries have been compiled, by the Oceanside Historical Society, of people interred at Oceanview… Oceanview contains the remains of veterans involved in every war or conflict from the Civil War to World War II, inclusive. Those interred at Oceanview range in age from just a few hours old to Agapita Soliz whose family claimed she was 110 years old at the time of her death in 1941. Many of Oceanside’s pioneers and merchants, dating back to the 1880s, are interred at Oceanview.

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Under the Same Sun sculpture in San Ysidro!

UNDER THE SAME SUN – BAJO EL MISMO SOL

These unifying words–in English and Spanish–are suspended in the sky above San Ysidro.

During my last walk up San Ysidro’s Cultural Corridor, I noticed this public art for the first time. According to a plaque, the painted steel sculpture is dated 2023. It’s by artist Janelle Iglesias, who lives in San Diego. It was commissioned for the residents of San Diego by the Commission for Arts and Culture.

Where is the Cultural Corridor you might ask?

San Ysidro’s alley-like Cultural Corridor extends north along Cypress Drive from San Ysidro Boulevard to the trolley tracks near the Beyer Avenue station. Walk up it and you’ll see many colorful murals.

At the north end you’ll pass under these words. They remind us that we all live under the same life-giving sun.

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Words of San Diego Poet Laureate at Civic Center.

In San Diego’s Civic Center Plaza, near the Civic Theatre Ticket Office, you’ll find these words:

Blooming is the wild body unmarred by the limits of this world

Its petals temporary but you’d never know it

The two lines were written by Paola Capó-García, San Diego Poet Laureate 2025-2027. A special City of San Diego webpage provides her biography.

Paola Capó-García lives in North Park. Her accomplishments and accolades as educator, author and journalist are numerous.

The thought-provoking words in Civic Center Plaza are actually the conclusion of her poem Wild, which you can read here. Her poem explains the difference between blooming and blossoming.

Are you blooming?

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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 X.

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100 Scrolls and artist James Watts!

San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso), whose fantastic studio is located downtown, is a creative dynamo. Even as he continues to work on his 100 Paintings project, he has begun to produce 100 Scrolls!

His scrolls are painted on fabric and utilize wood sticks he’s found, cut to size and sanded smooth. Unroll the scrolls and you’ll likely find something mysterious, symbolic, humorous or wise. (Possibly all four!) The art of James Watts often concerns aspects of mythology, religion or literature.

The scroll in my first photograph refers to two other works he has created, the Portal to Heaven and the Gates of Hell. Apple and cloud are accompanied by the words: It was not always like this. Seems everything changed with one bite of the forbidden fruit.

The next scroll in unrolled:

If only they knew.

The next scroll, filled with writing, was used by the artist for practice:

…we laughed and cried Oh what a night Who is to know the reason, the whys, the whats, the meaning of it all. To Love is to Love well…

As you can see, some images are created using sumi-e, which is Japanese ink painting.

We are all Broken. We must mend Ourselves.

What is understood Does not need to Be Explained.

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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.

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Waka poems as art at Japanese Friendship Garden.

Waka poems are a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. A waka poem is unique in that it consists of 31 syllables.

An exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park contains examples of waka from Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1185) written in kana script. Each composition is beautiful, not merely as a poem, but as a visual work of art.

The exhibition is titled Love Letters from the Heian Period — Emotions in 31 Syllables.

A sign in the garden’s Exhibit Hall explains: “Among the aristocracy of the time, romantic relationships often began through the exchange of waka… Since men and women had limited opportunities to meet in person, emotions were conveyed through poetry…”

Learn more about this exhibition at the JFG website here.

I was completely unaware of this type of poetry before visiting the garden today. Spellbound, I stood before the examples on display and read translations of each Japanese poem.

The English translations do not contain 31 syllables, obviously, but they definitely convey feelings indicative of romance. I noticed these wakas often employ metaphors taken from nature.

Here are a few of the translations:

There are many villages where the cuckoo bird sings. It’s a bird that I find attractive, but I don’t feel close to it. I like it, but it’s not mine, so I feel a bit jealous. Poet: The Tales of Ise

I won’t allow you to meet me, even if you imitate the crow of a rooster before dawn. Poet: Sei Shōnagon

I was dying to see you, but after I met you I want to live forever. Poet: Fujiwara no Yoshitaka

Should my heart waver and betray our love, then even the impassable waves of a tsunami would cross over the mountains. In other words, I would never be unfaithful. Poet: Author unknown.

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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.

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Free poetry parties, workshops in Balboa Park!

Poetry lovers! All sorts of activities await you in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park!

Free to the public and open to anyone at least 18 years old, these Balboa Park Poetic Programs celebrate creativity and the power of the written and spoken word. The three ongoing programs are: Poetry Party, Otherwise Improvise, and Poetic Legacy.

Poetry Party is a fun event held on the first Friday of every month from 3 to 5 pm in Balboa Park’s Santa Fe Room, at 2150 Pan American Road West (across from the International Cottages). The description on one flyer: Read your favorite poetry, listen, or make the scene. Be bold, adventurous, and experience the power of the spoken word.

Otherwise Improvise is held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month from 2:30 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge (located in the Casa Del Prado). Be creative! Have even more fun!

Poetic Legacy is a workshop that involves readings and discussions of contemporary and historic poets. Taking prompts from featured poets, participants are then encouraged to write their own poems. This program takes place on the last Friday of every month, from 3 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge.

The next Poetic Legacy workshop will be held August 29th and will feature poet Naomi Shibab Ney, recipient of numerous honors and awards for her work. In 2019 the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate for 2019–21.

Want more information concerning the Balboa Park Poetic Programs? Email SLemire@sandiego.gov.

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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!

Nine short stories during Comic-Con.

Comic-Con is magic.

Dreams gather, take shape, become tangible. Fantasies launch into the world as seeds in the wind.

Comic-Con is also a hotbed of self-promotion. So please excuse me. Here I go…

Do you love to read works of fiction that contain unexpected twists?

Here are nine very short stories I’ve written over the years. You can find them on my website Short Stories by Richard.

These seeds in the wind await your click:

One Strange, Shimmering Dream

Father’s Paintbrush

A Distant Place

Their Dream

Unheard Words

One Magic Bubble

The Bone Artists

A Secret Junkyard

Final Real Magic

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

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.

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Inspiration at West Otay Mesa bus stop!

Inspiration has been painted on a fence near a bus stop in San Diego’s southern West Otay Mesa neighborhood.

A beautiful mural containing a butterfly, flowers and words of wisdom can be found above the bus bench on Del Sol Boulevard directly across from the Del Sol Market. It was painted by @msrosi619.

You can’t change your situation, the only thing you can change is how you choose to Deal with it!!!

Stand together and love one another.

Spread your wings and dare to fly!!!

Just in case you have forgotten today– You matter, You are loved, You are worthy, You are magical.

Be the change you want to to see in the world. Smile always. Love, MS. ROSI

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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!