Culture Report: New Angles on Parks and Musicals

We always have a fabulous time at our arts and culture illumination events, “A Meeting of the Minds.” Next week brings our next installment, featuring sides of Balboa Park you might’ve missed. Join us and some of your most interesting neighbors next Wednesday, Nov. 28, after-hours at the San Diego Natural History Museum. You can read more details about our speakers and the event here, and let us know you’re coming here.

Then, grab your camera and head to the park next Saturday, Dec. 1. What if you could see all of the corners of the city’s urban park at once? We’re going to try and make it happen. Take a photo somewhere in Balboa Park at 3 p.m. that day and share it, adding #balboaparkphoto on Twitter or Instagram. Or just email your photo to me. More info here.

We got things started with a portrait of park maven Betty Peabody on a bench near the Botanical Building named for her and her late husband.

You’re reading the Culture Report, our weekly compilation of the region’s arts and culture news.

Public Art and Heart

• The city’s potential plan to de-install street sign sculptures along Park Boulevard caught the eye of our television news partners at NBC 7 San Diego. I was interviewed for the segment and included it here, along with a wide mix of your thoughts about the sculptures and the city’s plan. In letters, your reactions differ, too.

• The new Martin Luther King Jr., mural on a freeway wall on State Route 94 was originally proposed as a much different, more involved artwork. Kinsee Morlan followed the saga for years at San Diego CityBeat and now explores how the mural differs from its original proposal and what the teams who weren’t selected have to say about it.

• An exhibit of artwork and activism at the UC San Diego art gallery centers on the intersection of art and social engagement. Says a curator from the show, “It’s closer to real-life experience than regular art and often has a protest or politic aspect to it.” (La Jolla Light)

• A Bay Area blog visits the studio of electronic artist Jim Campbell, who’s working on a 500-foot light installation for the revamped airport in San Diego. (7×7)

Local Roots

• San Diego’s jammer-in-chief Gil Castellanos ran his last free Wednesday night jazz jam at El Camino, the Mexican food spot in Little Italy, on Halloween. But he’s not closing down the jam forever; the trumpeter wants to find a new all-ages venue where the jazz ecosystem can continue thriving. (San Diego Reader)

• Diane Sinor, the longtime education director for The Old Globe died earlier this month at age 83. “If you come across a young San Diegan with an appreciation for Shakespeare, chances are Diane Sinor had something to do with it,” wrote the U-T.

• A leading researcher who studies the impact of the digital world on culture and art is leaving UC San Diego for a university in New York. (U-T)

• It’s the 15th year for the popular Dr. Seuss-inspired musical at The Old Globe, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” Two local kids from University City and Poway alternate performances for the Cindy Lou Who role. There’s an autism-friendly performance on Dec. 15. (U-T)

• Generations of San Diego and Tijuana artists will be featured in a new show at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego opening next week. (U-T)

• “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” opened officially at La Jolla Playhouse last weekend. U-T theater critic James Hebert gave the show a resounding thumbs-up in his review. But Los Angeles Times critic Charles McNulty found imbalance, even as he praised the Playhouse’s penchant for experimentation.

“La Jolla Playhouse is getting a reputation for developing musicals that don’t act like musicals,” he wrote. “Thinking in an untraditional way is precisely what’s needed at a time when the American musical has reverted to cheesy movie adaptations and jejune jukebox contraptions. But the literary sensibility behind ‘Pink Robots’ is markedly inferior to its visual imagination.”

• Wednesday, check out sound effects master Scott Paulson’s annual “Turkey Calling” old-timey live radio show happening at the Geisel Library at UC San Diego. (La Jolla Light)

• The arts, culture and nonprofits district at the former Naval Training Center is growing by eight newly renovated buildings and 14 tenants, the NTC Foundation announced last week. (U-T)

• Local arts collective So Say We All put out a prompt to contributors: Imagine it’s the last day on Earth. How do you spend your last 24 hours? The Rumpus highlights the group’s collaborative novel.

• Peter Holslin tracks down the reclusive drumming crew Dirty Drums, who’s responsible for “some of the hardest, grimiest, most unbelievably dope beats ever to come out of San Diego.” And where does he find them? Writes Holslin, for CityBeat:

In a hulking church in Bankers Hill, down a hallway, past the altar, behind a small door and up a narrow staircase, there’s a cozy little recording studio unknown to the world. This is where the men of Dirty Drums play.

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Kelly Bennett is the arts editor for VOSD. You can reach her directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531. Or you can keep up with her on Twitter @kellyrbennett or on Facebook.