Sunday afternoon I took the trolley to East County to enjoy a quiet walk near Gillespie Field. I knew that along Marshall Avenue there’d be no traffic.
As I walked down the long, empty sidewalk I turned my eyes toward sleepy hangars across the street, burgeoning spring flowers at my feet and a large construction site abandoned for the day. All I heard was the whisper of the breeze, birds flitting here or there and small planes rising into the sky.
The time and place was perfect for a stretch of thinking. I’m struggling with a short story that is particularly difficult. It’s a story about the complexity of people and the small actions that help to define a life. I keep changing the words.
As I walked along in a state of abstraction I slowly became aware of surprising shapes and contrasts in the world all around me. Exactly like the complexity we find in ourselves.
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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!
Today I headed into Balboa Park to enjoy a special event celebrating Shakespeare’s 455th birthday!
Many activities were centered in sunny Copley Plaza, the hub of The Old Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. There was an outdoor performance of Shakespeare in Exile by Grossmont College Theatre Arts students. There was instrumental musical entertainment, a sonnet writing contest, and even an Elizabethan ruff-making station. Inside the lobby of The Old Globe, costumes from some of their past Shakespearean productions were on display.
A bit after noon high school students from all around San Diego gathered on the steps of the Timken Museum of Art. After a welcome speech, a fantastic parade featuring many Elizabethan costumes began along El Prado. Several students were presented with achievement awards at the foot of the Lily Pond as their classmates shouted approval, then the youth fanned out to perform scenes from Shakespeare and other famous plays on several stages along El Prado.
Here are photos that provide a flavor of this truly awesome annual event!
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In the one room Mason Street School in Old Town San Diego, younger and older children sat together before the teacher and learned their letters.
A cool theme developed during my walk through Old Town San Diego State Historic Park yesterday. First I wandered into the 1868 San Diego Union Building and observed ladies in 19th century dress practicing calligraphy. A short time later, as my eyes scanned the walls of the one room 1865 Mason Street Schoolhouse, I noticed a sheet on the wall titled First Lessons in Penmanship.
Turns out it was a great day to relearn the alphabet!
A super nice gentleman in the old print shop provided all sorts of tidbits of information concerning printing, publishing and life in early San Diego. I learned the original Washington hand press that was used by the San Diego Union newspaper is now in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. And that setting up the tiny type for a single page of the newspaper took a keen-eyed person about 12 hours!
I posted photos of the old print shop and editor’s office four years ago. I also wrote a little about the San Diego Union’s history. You can revisit that blog post by clicking here.
You can see much more inside the old Mason Street School building and learn more about San Diego’s first school teacher, Mary Chase Walker, by clicking here!
Additional information that I learned yesterday is in my photo captions!
A sheet on the schoolhouse wall contains First Lessons in Penmanship. THE ALPHABET.I’m given a small tour of the print shop inside the historic San Diego Union Building.Like wet laundry, hundreds of newspaper sheets would be strung up all around the print shop so that the freshly impressed ink would dry!A demonstration of assembled type and a finished impression.Part of a large plate in the massive Washington hand press. Today school students often visit the historic print shop to learn about publishing long before the digital age.Those students can rearrange these letters to spell words like SUPER.To proof newspaper sheets as type was assembled, this huge heavy roll would be used to make a quick impression.In the entrance of the San Diego Union Building, ladies sat at a desk practicing their penmanship.A sample of elegant Copperplate Calligraphy.This beautifully penned text is from Lewis Carroll’s humorous Lobster Quadrille in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.Showing how to write fancy letters with an old-fashioned pen and inkwell.
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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!
This morning I walked beside poetry. I followed a bright stream of playful words that were written in 2008 by Quincy Troupe.
FOLLOWING THE WORDS is poetry inscribed along the top of a low concrete wall. The wall stretches between The New Children’s Museum and their garden and playground.
To learn a little more about Quincy Troupe, and to see more photos of this small, joyful refuge in downtown San Diego, click here.
WORDS WALK A PATHWAYINTO OUR MINDS, THEY JUMP QUICKBEHIND A HOPPINGFROG, GUIDING US LIKE A SCOUTINTO THE LANGUAGE WE BOP,WORDS POP BIG AS EYESOF FROGS, WHO HOP AND PLOP, BOPTHROUGH WORDS ZIG-ZAGGINGTHROUGH SENTENCES, HOT AND COOLAS FLIP-FLOPS KIDS ARE WEARING,THEY ARE COLORFUL,THESE WORDS THAT BLIP, BLOP AND PLOP,UP AND DOWN THEY GO,LIKE OUR SCOUT, THE HOPPING TOAD,THERE HE GOES, JUMPING LIKE WORDS,SOME HE TOTES INSIDEA SACK ON HIS BACK, BOUNCING,BROWN-GREEN AS HIS SKIN,THESE WORDS ARE HEAVYLOADS FOR TOADS SAME THING AS FROGSTO CARRY, THESE KNOTS, ZIG-ZAGGING, COOL, WORDS, BOPPING,SKIPPING ALONG, SKEEDADLINGALONG THIS PATHWAY,WE FOLLOW WORDS AS THEY HOPBEHIND OUR SCOUT-TOADOR FROG, IF YOU LIKE THAT WORD,FOLLOW THEM TO WHERE THEY ENDINSIDE THE MUSEUM,WHERE WORDS BECOME FREEDOM, ART,MUSIC AND KNOWLEDGE,POETRY, DANCING, BIG FUN,HIP AS FLIP-FLOPS KIDS HAVE ON
COOL RAP, FLIP-FLOPPING,WORDS THAT RATTAMATAT, JAZZZIG-ZAG THROUGH VOICES,CARRY CHOICES THROUGH TALKING,SENTENCES SKEEDADLING, WORDS,BRIGHT INSIDE KID’S MINDS,MADE NEWS, ABOVE THEIR FUTURE,A NEW SUN RISINGEACH MORNING NEW, AND WE CANTOUCH IT WHEN WE SPREAD OUR WINGSAND FLY LIKE A BIRDTHROUGH OUR OWN MINDS, THROUGH OUR OWNSKIES, INSIDE OUR MINDS,WE CAN TOUCH MAGIC INSIDEOUR OWN IMAGINATIONS,TOUCH IT, THE MAGIC,WATCH YOUR MIND GO FLYINGLIKE A BIRD, NOW, HIGHUP IN THE BLUE, WATCH YOURSELF,YOUR MIND SOAR, SKEEDADLING, NOW
SKEEDADLING VOICESSHIMMY SHIMMY SHANGLE, BOP,SASHAY, SKEEZOOZOOTHROUGH, HIP WORDS THEY HOP, POP,AS RAINBOW CHILDREN PLOP, SHINEIT’S PLAYTIME, SPARKLINGWITH LAUGHTER, SKEEDADLING LIKEOCEAN WAVES DRUMMING,A CHOIR OF BIRDS, SHOWERINGRAIN, SOFT AS CHILDREN’S FOOTSTEPSCHILDREN’S FACES BLOOMLIKE FLOWERS IN JUNE, DAZZLING,SPARKLE LIKE TINKLINGWATERFALLS, RINSING, PURE SOUNDS,BRIGHT ROSE PETALS ON THE GROUND,YOU ARE YOUR OWN SONGSINGING SWEET MUSIC, COLORS,NOTES INSIDE LAUGHTER,FREEDOM IS TIME, NOW,YOU ARE LIVING IN YOURSELFWHEN YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE,THEIR FACES AGAINSTWHITE WALLS, ARE FLOWER PETALSPOPPING INTO ROOMSOUT IN GREEN BUSHESFROGS SERENADE THE MOON, SKYAS CATS CHASE SHADOWSYOU CAN TOUCH IT, TOUCHIT, NOW, THROUGH YOUR POET’S PEN,YOUR PAINTER’S BRUSHSTROKE,THE SUN INSIDE YOUR MIND, TOO,REACH IN, TOUCH IT, TOUCH IT NOW
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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!
If you’ve ever had a bad day, and thought it will never stop raining, there’s a new short story you might enjoy reading. It concerns sadness. It contains a tiny bit of wisdom.
