San Diego's Balboa Park - Timken v. ComicCon Museum

Balboa Park, the jewel of San Diego, has over a dozen museums. Today we saw the newest (Comic Con Museum, opened 2021) and a mid-century classic, the Timken (opened 1965). The Timken, filled with treasures from the Putnam family, has a Rubens, a Van Dyck, a Brueghel, and even a Rembrandt. Comic Con has a time capsule of 1983, when (gasp), no one had smart phones. Timken is free (though donations appreciated); Comic Con charges $25 per adult. Comic Con is fun, but Timken is a must see. What bridges these two museums? Kehinde Wiley. If you haven't heard of him, he's the artist who painted Barak Obama's presidential portrait. Here he bridges the gap between the 17th Century and the 21st century using a technique he calls "street casting." Above he's reinterpreted Anthony Van Dyck's (1599-1641) portrait of Italian military leader Tommaso Francesco. I'm a big fan. (See previous post on SF MOMA for another work of art by Wiley.)

But back to 1983 and that display at Comic Con Museum. Yes, I was alive back then. I don't remember it being a bad time, but apparently, life was hard. Why? No smartphone. You had to order from print catalogs. You had to use rolodexes and maps (that tore because they were made of PAPER). You called people on a phone attached to a wall. You watched schmaltzy ads on a tiny TV, and you couldn't fast forward them. At least it was a color TV. It was eye opening to learn how deprived my younger years were. Luckily, I escaped posting something stupid on social media that would haunt me for the rest of my life, so there is that.

What else at Comic Con? Well, they have a makerspace where you can make your own comic book. They have massive cardboard statues of cartoon characters, made by two young brothers . (Really, remarkable, see above of Groot.) There is a Stan Lee exhibit.

And there is the worl'ds first 3D printed car, the Strati. My car has 20,000 parts, the Strati has 40. The Strati took 44 hours to print, two days to assemble, and is fully electric. That's cool. I don't mind telling you I gave it a good tap and it does seem very solid.

We also did some green screen photography, though poorly. Here you can see us in the Popnology exhibit, overwhelmed by the future of technology. If it gets to be too much, there is always the Timken.