Balboa Park news & stories
“In the past, if we had a French exhibition, we’d show French films,” says Golda Akhgarnia, public relations coordinator for the San Diego Museum of Art. “This year we’re celebrating a ‘summer of women’ theme …
Asilk thread seams together the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, the tarot, feminism, and Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer whose impresario activities in the early 20th Century promoted American modernism and the careers of Charles Demuth, …
“The jaboticaba comes from Brazil; in South America they call it the black cherry,” says José Gallego, San Diego chapter chair for the California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc. “They’re expensive because they can take several …
Standing at the tee pad of hole 15, a Frisbee player on Morley Field’s Disc Golf Course can’t see the basket he’s aiming for. It’s hidden in a thicket of trees 246 feet away. Players …
“I see people all the time spraying Windex on their countertop and then slapping down a sandwich — they don’t realize all the chemicals that are left on the counter from the Windex, like petroleum …
Phil Bateman holds a yardstick up to his bumper to show off the clearance of his low-rider, 1959. The previous year, San Diego hosted its first Custom and Hot Rod Show in Balboa Park. About …
The ride arrived in the West from New York in 1910. The operator of Coronado's seasonal Tent City bought it from an L.A. owner soon after. Some say the carousel was moved between the Tent …
It only looked like car trouble on SR 163, near the Laurel Street bridge, in July of 1958. A newspaper reporter was dispatched to the site to pretend her car conked out. "Sixty cars passed …
On the morning after one of those record-breaking cold nights this past January, Mike Rasmusson checked on his charges. Rasmusson supervises the Kate O. Sessions Balboa Park Nursery -- the city facility where many of …
From the daily paper: "[The] president of Young Republican club doesn't appear to be getting unduly roiled at this picture of Adolf Hitler in the German bungalow, House of Pacific Relations, Balboa Park. "When San …
Balboa Park has plenty of "tame" places to walk, such as landscaped sidewalks on the grassy west side, paved trails inside the San Diego Zoo, and a number of semiwild trails in canyon bottoms near …
I had taken eight or nine guided tours of San Diego in two weeks when a friend asked if I was tired of sightseeing. I had to say no. Being out on buses and boats …
'It's a Budweiser and badminton bash," Brandon said when he invited me to his son's birthday party at Balboa Park. I had plans that day but had to know what people called a "shuttlecock" after …
Local paper Word San Diego invited me to their 3rd Annual Anti-Social Writers Party. I was told the $10 cover at the door was to keep the publication running. I threw in the cash and …
I went to two parties in one day that tested my crashing ability. The first was a luncheon at Balboa Park. The ticket was $40, but I weaseled in without paying. I did feel guilty, …
“Descriptions of her say her clothes were rarely pressed and always dusty. This was someone who wasn’t into ‘fussy doodles,’ as she called any kind of societal finery. She was a straight shooter, unimpressed with titles."
"They told us if we have over 75 people, we would be fined $300 since we didn't get a permit. I pointed to those benches over there and said that was a different party, even though it's not.”
Casa de Balboa, Balboa Park www.sandiegohistory.org/bpbuildings/casabalb.htm You can't touch them and you won't see any suckling infant, but there they are -- big, pendulous breasts -- out in the open for the whole world to …
San Diego Rose Society's Annual Hands-On Demonstration, Balboa Park www.sdrosesociety.org 619-235-0004 Come January, it's possible to find a half-dozen sources of rose-pruning instruction throughout the county. But none provide as much inspiration as the free …
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center www.sdaa.org 619-238-1233, x6 Oceanside Photo and Telescope I-5 and Mission, Oceanside www.optcorp.com 800-483-6287 On the first Wednesday of each month, the San Diego Astronomy Association sponsors free evening star parties …
Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park www.mopa.org/film.html 619-238-7559 Not only is MoPA the only film house in town that regularly offers double features (for a mere $7), but curator Scott Marks …
Prado Restaurant House of Hospitality, Balboa Park www.pradobalboa.com 619-557-9441 There's a new drink in town, kiddies. The mojito. It's a Cuban hottie that sailed into San Diego a few years ago and is giving the …
San Diego Historical Society Research Archives Casa de Balboa, Balboa Park www.sandiegohistory.org 619-232-6203, x127 Hunting for an early San Diego picture of whaling ships in the bay, the neighborhood your family grew up in, or …
Foraging in San Diego's Canyons Balboa Park Could you live off Mother Nature in San Diego? Maybe, says Jon Rebman, curator of botany at San Diego's Natural History Museum, but only if you know what …
C Note Sale San Diego Art Institute 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park 619-236-0011 This semiannual event (June and December) features paintings, photographs, and sculptures created by local San Diego artists, many of whom are in …
Believe it or not, the 800-pound gorilla may not sit down exactly where it pleases. In the middle of last week, there was a sudden consensus shift indicating that the gorilla -- the San Diego …
Hey, Matt: Is it true that Balboa Park was designed by the same dude that designed Central Park in New York? -- Paul Broadway, San Diego Common misconception. Well, maybe not common, since most people …
WorldBeat Center 2100 Park Boulevard, Balboa Park 619-230-1190 The WorldBeat Center is shaped like a drum, which is appropriate because it uses music (lots of reggae) to advance its primary mission -- to present and …
House of Pacific Relations, Balboa Park 619-234-0739 If you've ever craved Hungarian goulash followed by Norwegian abelskiver and Ukrainian pierogi, once a year you can have that meal -- and follow it with genuine French …
Balboa Park Municipal Golf Course Clubhouse 2600 Golf Course Drive, East Balboa Park 619-239-1660 There are two courses at Balboa: an 18-hole course that ranks as one of the most challenging in the county and …
Morley Field Disc Golf Course Corner of Pershing Drive and Redwood Street, Balboa Park 619-692-3607 It costs $1 to play here weekdays (when it's open from 8:00 a.m. to dusk); $1.50 on weekends (when it …
The Prado, Balboa Park Big Brother is everywhere, so even street performers have to be licensed by the city. On any summer day, along the walkways of Balboa Park, throngs of diverse show-biz startups compete …
Barrio Logan Some people admire the elaborate mural-sized geometric designs of former guerrilla tagger Saki, others prefer the primitive kinetic power of a simple bathroom-wall limerick. Sponsored graffiti -- wall paintings commissioned by civic groups …
Morley Field Balboa Park (858) 488-6710 It's your call: You can play bowls the English way, on manicured greens wearing formal whites; like the Italians, with wood-hearted bocce bowls in long sand pits; or like …
Cassius Carter Centre Stage Balboa Park (619) 239-2255 (Box Office) This is "theatre in the round," a sunken stage no larger than a small dance floor, ringed by a mere 225 seats. A sigh of …
San Diego Model Railroad Museum Casa de Balboa, lower level, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park (619) 696-0199 One of the world's largest running train displays is chugging along right in the middle of Balboa Park. …
Old Globe Theatre Balboa Park (619) 231-1941 The play's the thing, all right; but you want more. Intermission's discussion leads to postplay plot analysis, and it's still not enough. If you haven't the stomach to …
San Diego Comic Opera Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park (619) 239-8836 The Casa del Prado Theatre is an intimate 19-row theater housed in a mission-style building on Village Place in Balboa Park. When their …
The Timken Museum of Art 1500 El Prado, Balboa Park (619) 239-5548 www.gort.ucsd.edu/sj/timken The product of the Putnam sisters' taste and generosity, the museum's works are organized by "national schools." Half the space is dedicated …
Balboa Park Railroad Balboa Park, next to the carousel and the zoo Runs weekends and holidays (619) 239-4748 Balboa Park Railroad is a fun, inexpensive cure to childhood boredom. The scaled-down version of a Santa …
The Challenge Court, Balboa Tennis Club 2221 Morley Field Drive, Balboa Park (619) 295-9278 This is for the brave, the blusterers, the big-mouths. Go to Balboa Tennis Club's reservations desk, hand over $5, and say …
“I told you before that we were the big experiment in pay-for-play disc golf courses. Well, the experiment was successful. Now there are tons of pay courses, and the sport has gone nuts.”
Matt: Would you do a favor for all us bike riders and make a list of the steepest streets in San Diego? -- A. Rider, San Diego Dear Matthew Alice: What are the steepest street …
Dear Matthew Alice: Am I the only person in Balboa Park who ever looks up? Otherwise, how is it that we have dozens of statues of bare-breasted, buxom ladies overhead and no one ever mentions …
1. The Vault If a photograph dies and goes to heaven, it might end up here in the breathable vault at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. The prospect for immortality is good, …
Aller traced Kate’s early palms (including those on Horton Plaza, Sixth Avenue, and Orange Avenue in Coronado) to seeds acquired by a nurseryman from a South African conservatory 40 years earlier. That would have dated them to 1892.
The sign on the gate tells you all about it. Annual plot fees, $10. Six months’ water charge, $6 per plot. Safe chemicals to use: beer for snails, wood shavings, mint-water soap, garlic-onion soap for …
The decorator who installed the Fortuny drapes came and went. His son remembers the mansion as dark, crepuscular, and gloomy. He recalls the ladies as plain women, wearing Victorian lace collars high at the throat.erry
He was charged with planting and maintaining the parkland trees. Most of the trees in Balboa Park, and many of those in other public places — Old Town, for one — were planted by Jerabek.