Three Hours in Balboa Park

Makes 21 in dog-hours.

Went to Balboa Park (in San Diego) ostensibly to visit the Museum of Photographic Arts there. They had some nice photos inside and, naturally, you’re not allowed to take any photographs yourself while there. Hypocrites.

I don’t think I’d ever been to Balboa Park before, though, aside from going to the zoo. Here are some pictures because I haven’t posted anything in a long time:

The top of some building + sky.

Stupid Balboa, thinks he's better than me just because he has a horse. Hate Balboa.

The Measure of a Museum of a Man -- it looks taller than that from a distance.

View of the park through a colonnade.

I noted names of a couple of photographers I want to look up some day into my Blackberry. Haven’t looked at it again since. Meh.

Then I went home.

bkd

Big Wave Day in La Jolla

Couple weeks ago SoCal had all these big storms. Big storms resulted in big waves, so I tagged along on a trip out to the beach to look at the big waves. Unfortunately didn’t bring my real camera, so all I had was the cell phone, but it was kind of cool out there, especially with the big waves, birds, and out-hanging seals. Not navy seals, just regular ones.

La Jolla Cove with waves and palm tree shadow.

My brother chooses not to look while his wife and kids decide whether or not they want to jump off the cliff.

It's your legal right to use this beach regardless of the presence of seals, no matter what the seal rights people's signs tell you..

There were also birds like this there.

And when they fly, they look like this.

Would’ve been better with my real camera. I was sort of just getting sick that day also, which — well, it’s a nice, all-encompassing fall-back excuse.

bkd

Sea World: The Corporate Religion Experience!

It’s either okay to train killer whales to be in shows or it’s not. If it’s okay, it’s because the whales like it, not because they have decided that it’s the right thing to do for the betterment of their kind. And if they like it, then there’s no reason not to have ’em jumping through hoops as red-white-and-blue fireworks go off with the song “Danger Zone” going on in the background. If the whales are 5% as sentient as Anheuser-Busch’s advertising firm wants you to think they are, the whales would probably *prefer* the Kenny Loggins version. I know I would have.

Went to Sea World back in December. I’m now an annual member (because it cost the same as a day pass, that’s why)! The killer whale show is called “Believe!”. Right, so I *believed* in killer whales *before* even having to go to the show. May as well have encouraged folks to believe in lighthouses — they’re closer to extinction and at least *they* sort of do something good for people.

My favorite line: “…and she honors us by allowing us to work with her children.” If it *isn’t* okay to train killer whales to take part in for-profit public spectacles, then pretending that they’ve given you permission to do so might not make it all right. Maybe we should pray to Shamu and see if she’ll honor us by verifying.

To be fair, the show wasn’t *actually* about witnessing to the fact that killer whales exist — although the orca-as-God idea did seem to be its most forceful message. And it wasn’t like they were resorting to logic to explain their theme, which technically was about how if you dream of one day growing up to swim with killer whales, then it must happen!

Such an insidiously Gen Y sentiment. Good luck, kids. There are only likely to be about 50 whale trainers in your entire generation and you probably won’t be one of them. Not even if you pray to Obama like a good little boy/girl.

 

On the other hand, if only I had the faith of a whale-trainer, then the world would bow to my will!

Ugh. Sea World. If I were a drinker, I’d boycott Anheuser-Busch. And their shadowy Belgian parent company.

bkd