| September 2009 |
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In This Issue
Calendar of Events For Special Events on public property within the City of San Diego Click here. * Indicates that this event is covered in more detail in this publication. August
September
October
Three Old
Globe Summer Productions Annual Rock Concert Returns to Downtown Street Scene was created in 1984 as a semiannual event that occupied just one block of downtown San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, 5th Avenue between J & K Streets where it basically remained for 19 years. The Gaslamp Quarter had just received its official "National Register of Historic Places" designation in 1980, and Street Scene came along just as restoration and re-development efforts were getting into full swing. In 1987 Street Scene become an annual occurrence and a second block was added creating an L-shaped venue. The following year the floor plan mushroomed to several blocks. Before long Street Scene was exceeding its capacity and evolved into a multi-day festival in 1990 as a Friday night lineup was added creating two consecutive nights of partying. Then in 1995 a Sunday all ages day made Street Scene into a 3-day affair. Street Scene outgrew the streets of the Gaslamp Quarter and in 2004 moved to East Village next to Petco Park. Street Scene then moved to Qualcomm Stadium. It returned to the East Village of downtown in 2008. Now in 2009 Street Scene is celebrating its 25th anniversary year in Downtown San Diego on Friday and Saturday 28 & 29 August. For more information www.street-scene.com. Hostelling International USA, San Diego Council On Saturday 29 August the San Diego Council of Hostelling International USA will celebrate their 75th Anniversary with an Ice Cream Social at the William Heath Davis House, 401 Island Avenue corner of 4th Avenue. Island Avenue will be blocked off between 4th and 5th avenues for live music, a raffle, a silent auction and ice cream starting at 1pm and ending at 4pm. The party will include opportunities to learn about hostelling's past and to take a peek at hostelling's future plans. Information and registration hiusa75thanniversary.eventbrite.com. Art of Photography Show at the Lyceum
The Art of Photography Show is a world-class international exhibition featuring all forms of photographic art-- images shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, photograms, etc. The Art of Photography Show will take place at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery at Horton Plaza. This is the fifth year of this photographic exhibition. The opening gala will be held on Saturday 29 August from 6pm-9pm. For additional information www.artofphotographyshow.com. Bicycle Over the Coronado Bay Bridge This annual non-competitive, community bicycle ride for riders of all abilities will take riders on a scenic and primarily flat ride around San Diego Bay via the Bayshore Bikeway. Riders will start at 7am on Sunday 30 August in San Diego and then travel around the bay through the surrounding cities of Coronado, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and National City before finishing back at the start/finish line at Harbor Drive and Park Boulevard in downtown San Diego. Not only will the route travel through all five of the cities that surround the bay but it will also allow riders a rare opportunity to ride over the beautiful San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge along the scenic 25-mile route. All riders will be treated to a post-ride festival with food, beverage and entertainment back at Harbor Drive and Park Boulevard where the ride began. The entire route is essentially a level ride which should not give anybody trouble except for the climb up the bridge. For additional information www.bikethebay.net. Mod Swap Back in Little Italy A group of 15-20 mid-century collectors with too much stuff will bring their vintage modern furniture, art and various objects to sell and trade in an open market on Sunday 30 August from 10am-1pm in the parking lot at the corner of Kettner Boulevard and Kalmia Street in Little Italy. For additional information www.objectsusa.com. New Lunch & Learn Series to Begin The new Downtown Sound Bites Speaker Series will be held on the first Tuesday of each month from noon - 1pm at the Downtown Information Center (DIC) in Horton Plaza. The DIC is located just above the CVS drug store between Victoria's Secret and Sam Goody's. You are asked to bring your own brown bag lunch to this free event and then listen and learn from a variety of interesting speakers all of whom will approach issues that are important to downtown's future. A question and answer period will follow each presentation. The event sponsor is CCDC and further information can be found at www.ccdc.com. The opening speaker in the series will be City Council President Pro Tem Kevin Faulconer on Tuesday 1 September. The Tuesday 6 October speaker will be the Executive Director of the Gaslamp Historical Foundation Melissa Trew. Port to Host Dedication of Urban Trees Six The Port of San Diego will host a dedication ceremony for its sixth installment of the popular Urban Trees public art exhibit. It will be at 11:30am on 12 September in front of the B Street Cruise Ship Terminal at 1140 North Harbor Drive. The event will feature family activities and entertainment. Thirty new tree sculptures will be dedicated. Urban Trees One was dedicated in 2003 as a way for artists to showcase their artwork in the setting of the North Embarcadero right on the bay. For each installment of the urban trees 30 artists are selected to create their interpretation of what an urban tree should look like. The trees range from the fanciful to the elegant and are on exhibit for a period of about one year for a half mile along Harbor Drive from the Cruise Ship Terminal to Hawthorn Street. After that they are available for sale by the artists. The trees of Urban Trees 5 are presently on sale at prices that range for $5,000 to $90,000. For further information www.portofsandiego.org/public-art. Restaurant Week Returns For the weeks of Sunday 13 September through Friday 25 September more than 180 San Diego restaurants will feature fixed-priced menus at either $20, $30 or $40 for a full three-course meal. This is the fifth year of this popular event. For additional information and a list of all the participating restaurants www.sandiegorestaurantweek.com. Sixty Restaurants Participate in Taste of Downtown
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes to be Held in October Registration is now open for the second annual "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" fundraising event that will be held 15 October in Downtown San Diego. Men, women and children will walk in high-heeled shoes (provided by the YWCA) to bring awareness to domestic violence. The walk is sponsored by the YWCA of San Diego County which will use 100% of the proceeds to support its Becky’s House domestic violence programs. The event runs from 4pm to 7pm and starts at the park on 4th Avenue and K Street. For additional information or to register for the walk visit www.ywcasandiego.org or contact Michelle Power, Special Events and Volunteer Coordinator, at michelle@ywcasandiego.org / 239-0355, x 216. Cruise Ship Terminal Construction Underway On Tuesday morning 4 August at the Broadway Pier the Port of San Diego Board of Commissioners, representatives of Carnival Corporation and other officials from throughout the region broke ground for construction of a new cruise terminal. The group broke the ceremonial concrete slabs which marked the beginning of a project that should benefit the entire region. The Port and Carnival are investing about $22.4 million into this project. The modern terminal is the Port’s first “green” building and is designed to meet silver-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. This means it will use less water, less energy and produce fewer pollutants. On days when cruise ships are not docked at the pier, the facility can be used for community gatherings, special events and public viewing of San Diego Bay. Completion is anticipated in late 2010. The new terminal can accommodate 2,600 passengers and will include space for US Customs & Border Protection. Once this terminal is completed the Port plans to upgrade the neighboring B Street Pier Cruise Ship Terminal. That terminal can service two cruise ships at a time. Up until now, on days when three or four ships were in port, the Broadway Pier was used as a temporary terminal. Last year, there were 297 cruise ship calls to the Port of San Diego bringing nearly a million passengers. Each cruise ship that stops here has a regional economic impact of about $2 million. That number is calculated from passenger spending at local attractions and purchases of goods and services by the cruise lines. Businesses benefiting from the cruise ship calls include food suppliers, florists, linen companies, and bus and other transportation services. The 52,000-square-foot facility features a “saw-tooth” roofline and glass roll-up doors. The facade of the building will be all glass, giving the structure an "airy, open feel." To see what the new terminal will look like open this link blip.tv/play/godkgZaNJwI%2Em4v. Personal Computer Repair Not up to Par Although this is not a downtown item it should be of interest to virtually all readers of this publication since it is only delivered via computer. To test PC repair shops in London, PC Pro magazine and British TV's Sky News created a simple problem in a notebook computer by loosening a memory chip in it. They also placed software on the computer that could track what the technicians in the shops did to the machine. They then took the computer to six London PC repair shops. All six shops quickly discovered the loose chip but five of them told the customer that extensive repairs were necessary. In addition two of the six shops looked through vacation photos on the machine. These pictures included the female customer in a bikini. One shop tried to cover up what he had done and the other copied the snapshots through a USB port. This technician also tried to log onto a false online bank account that had been planted on the machine. This was reported to the police. Only one of the six shops promptly put the loose chip back in place and said that there would be no charge for the repair. Comic-Con Being Restaged for Filming
Free Downtown Bus
Tours Masthead & Disclaimer All items in this publication are the opinion of the writer of the piece. Any item without a named author is the responsibility of the editor. Any submissions for inclusion in this publication should be submitted to the editor. All telephone numbers are in the 619 area code unless otherwise noted.
Editor, Stan Marder, smarder1@alum.ups.edu
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One month after the ending
of Comic-Con, San Diego's largest annual convention, it happened again.
Well maybe not the actual convention but it just looked like it was. A
production crew was in town to film the major motion picture Paul.
It is a comedy about two comic book fans who travel across the US to
experience Comic-Con in San Diego. Paul stars Sigourney Weaver,
Jason Bateman and Seth Rogan. This is the second major motion picture to
be filmed on the San Diego bay front recently. The other was
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which contains many scenes set
against the military backdrop of San Diego.