Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, July 30-Wednesday, August 5, 2026: Ghee | The Paranoyds | Zach Bryan & Ryan Bingham | St. Vincent | Black Moth Super Rainbow | Tortoise | Sarah McLachlan | Eagles of Death Metal | Death Cab For Cutie |

Morning Yoga with Turtles at SeaWorld (7.26.26)

First of all, I wanna say that it was fun seeing everyone's Comic-Con adventures on socials, but I have never been so proud of myself for making the call that it was just no longer for me. I had a very low-key, (mostly) stress-free, week and weekend. I even made it on time for SeaWorld morning Yoga with Turtles. I've also been really feeling the itch for a roadtrip, so I've been bingeing camping, gear, hiking, and all related videos. I'm not actually going anywhere when the weather is this gross, but I'm gonna make it happen sooner or later. I'm considering tagging along when my niece goes back to school in NorCal so we'll see how that planning goes or maybe if I just leave on a whim. 

Meanwhile, as I was putting together these listings, it became apparent that we're moving out of the lull of summer and the touring bands are coming in full-force. My nieces can't stop talking about Zach Bryan, who plays two shows at Snapdragon, St. Vincent is playing the Shell with the San Diego Symphony (though I've seen BOGO offers on tickets because any ticket where you might actually see her are like $117, and the Port has made sure that FREELOADERS are no longer welcome. WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING!!??? So much for Public-Private Partnerships), and then Sarah McLachlan plays the same venue on Sunday. We've also got Death Cab coming back on Tuesday, and the sold out Modest Mouse show at The Sound, and then more of our indie niche bands like Tortoise, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tortoise, among others. I'm at the stage of life where if I can't be near an a/c or shade and a bathroom, I'm probably not gonna do it. I haven't shot a show in so long that now I'm getting rejected because my entire feed is orangutans and hippos. But you go on with your bad selves. 

I will give a warning that late hours at both the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld come to an end on August 9 (and I'm already freaking out about it), but maybe it will mean that I set out to intentionally explore more parts of San Diego that I haven't before. We'll see. In the meantime, stay cool, stay safe, and nolite te bastardes carborundorum. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, July 23- Wednesday, July 29, 2026: COMIC-CON 2026! | Monophonics | What's Golden | Guantanamo Baywatch | Rainbow Kitten Surprise | Howard Jones | dashboard confessional | The Stray Cats | santigold

This week took extra long to do the listings because of course, Comic-Con is here. While I'm not putting activations and off-site pop-ups in this list, I will have a separate post once I get myself together to do it. 

What I did wanna say this week was that I did merch for DakhaBrakha on Sunday and it's always so rad to get to work for a band that is just lovely in every way. Their merch was organized, they treated me great, their show was AMAZING, and the proceeds from their merch goes to help organizations that work to bring aid directly to Ukraine. It was a beautiful night. After work, I drove up to La Jolla Cove and watched the baby sea lions for awhile before calling it a night. I'm already an insomniac, and now that I'm in a particular age of womanhood and San Diego decided to turn hot and humid on me, I'm enjoying the hours after the sun sets until it rises again even more than ever. Which also means that after a marathon Monday and Tuesday night working on listings, on Wednesday I went downtown and walked 6000 steps after midnight to see what activations I could find, either built or in the process of being built. Not gonna lie, I can already predict the spots that are gonna have crazy lines, but even a Prize Pig like me, who LOVES free shit, cannot imagine waiting in this week's heat for any of it. I'm not knocking anyone who lives for the Con and is truly excited by this week, but I'm not regretting my retirement from the press pass pool...hopefully some young person with influencer stars in their eyes gets to break in and provide coverage. More on that in another post. For now, here are the regular listings, with Con specific events indicated by SDCC. If you wanna see my full list of Comic-Con related events, go to my COMIC-CON PAGE HERE. As for me...I'll be keeping my vampire hours or sitting in the shade at the zoo or hiding in by the a/c vents in Wild Arctic at SeaWorld...as I do. 

Stay safe out there. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. 

Comic-Con International 2026 Is Here!

Okay. So I've updated my Comic-Con 2026 PAGE  with all the activations and events I could muster the energy to gather. But more fun than that, I went downtown on Wednesday night around 11pm and drove/walked the majority of the footprint. I was done by 1:30am and even more crews were rolling out, so I'm certain many worked through the night after the bars closed. I got about 6000 steps on my little path, but that was with no sun, no people, no traffic, and no time constraints. Photos and such below. After the jump. 

Rosey's Diary & Newsy Things: Driverless Waymo To Bring Chaos To SD Streets | Street Junk Vendors Return in Full Force | SD Closes Beach Bathrooms | SD to Emerald Hills: Whoopsie!

SeaWorld Beluga Up-Close Interaction (Taken 8.25.25)

The longer I make this post, the longer we're still being told that Mitch McConnell is still alive. What a fucking farce. I'm not much of a history buff and don't know a whole lot of world history and dynamics, so maybe this is hyperbolic, but it just feels like never in the history of the world has an entire country (and thereby the world) been gaslit so hard by our own government. In the day and age where EVERYTHING is on camera/video, SHOW US THE MAN or shut the fuck up. 

We also got to enjoy soccer, yet hate-watch FIFA and the corrupt ass-kissing organization, which literally has an office in T Tower in NYC, over the past few weeks. There is some sweet justice in Spain winning the Cup, since they have very publicly butted heads with TFG over the Israel-Palestine situation. 

So yeah, it's been a couple too-hot weeks in San Diego and I've had to buy camisoles for pajamas, but I guess it's par for the course, as I think of Comic-Cons past and remember several times when it was excessively hot, with the local news racing downtown to interview Stormtroopers and other Cos-players to ask about the weather and surviving the week. As I mentioned before, I did not renew my standing as Press for Comic-Con, which means I might have some slight FOMO this week, but my inbox is grateful not to have the additional dozens of emails every day for the past several weeks. I might try to go down and shoot all the pop-ups and such as I did last year, as I found it really enjoyable to do in the middle of the night. We'll see how I do with actual work and listings before I commit. 

In the meantime, stay cool and safe out there. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. May Mitch and Lindsey be toasting smores over their eternal hellfire that they deserve. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, July 16-Wednesday, July 22, 2026: San Diego PRIDE | Evanescence | Friendship | Mohama Saz | Low Cut Connie | Starcrawler | Alex Lahey | DakhaBrakha | Wic Whitney | San Diego Comic-Con |

Denny manspreading while trying to keep cool (Taken 7.15.26)

I really should've done these listings sooner, because it has been a week. I'm ready for a mid-summer rainstorm if I'm being honest. And not that little weak rain we got on Saturday (while Darren and I were birding in South Bay)-- I mean like sky-clearing, jacket-requiring cold rain. You would think I would just find a public Cool Zone and go work from there, but I'm stubborn and you should've seen my laptop, backpack, shade umbrella and supplies that I carried around on Tuesday to watch World Cup with the Orcas at Seaworld. It was comedic, if I'm being honest, but definitely a unique way to watch a soccer game and I'm glad I did it. 

As for this weekend, I tried to track down Pride stuff for the weekend, but obviously a lot of events spring up at bars and venues that don't otherwise host events year round, so I only checked a couple obvious spots. The same thing is gonna happen next week for Comic-Con. This is the first year I didn't request a press pass after more than a decade of going, so I'm not on all the lists and whatnot for events, parties, and activations, so I'll just have to dig around. I will say that other local guides do a pretty good job of making lists, but you can sometimes tell they have to reach a certain word count, so I'll extract the info into the easiest morsels that I can. 

And lastly, if you still subscribe to DoSD, good for you. I haven't been a part of the org for a very long time, and the people running the local part seem to do a good job, but Faye, yours is not the first live music event DoSD is hosting, Young Lady. Back in my day...

well, let's just say Marjy and I busted our asses to launch that site for a whole lot of people who weren't us to make bank. So yeah. Good luck with that. 

Stay safe this weekend. The MAGA fucks will certainly be out to harass and oppress the LGBTQIA+ communities this weekend, so be a good ally and if you see something, say something. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, July 9-Wednesday, July 15, 2026: Kurt Vile | 5SOS | Fresh Veggies Micro Brass | Chris Stapleton | Jim Rao Fan Club | The Farmers & Friends | Wynonna Judd & Melissa Etheridge | Dylan Leblanc | Afroman | Jack Botts | The Spits | Babe Rainbow |

6 year old Ama always loves to mug for the camera (7.6.26)

I was thinking this would be a chill week...I did most of my listings overnight on Monday thinking it would give me the free time to get more zoo time in since I didn't get much in the week leading up to Independence Day. But no. Not a chance. On Tuesday I had a whole situation where I found a dog in the alley and it became a whole episode, and then Wednesday I was up early for plumbers who have now found a gas leak and ended up working three hours longer than I expected. So. Here are listings. I probably missed a couple things, but I am jonesing for some zoo time and might actually still have time to see my gorilla boys. Stay safe out there. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, July 2-Wednesday, July 8, 2026: Squid Pisser | The McCharmleys | Gothic Summer Dance Party | Band Argument | Dance Dance To The Radio | Independence Day!! |

The Belugas were so happy to show off their new barrel toy (Taken 6.29.26)

I had gotten pretty good about starting my listings on Monday nights, so then I wouldn't have it bearing on my mind all week, but with it being Independence Day and also the beginning of a new month, I'm pretty checked out for the week. Like, I know I still have to work, but running ads this week is just a waste of money and effort because everyone else seems pretty checked out, too, and honestly, it's just too nice in San Diego right now to sit on a laptop for hours on end. Plus, it's just such a weird time in general right now...like 250 years is kind of amazing, and then it's black-clouded by the POS in office. I can't even buy a renewal for my Parks Pass without his ugly bloated face on it. So gross. So yeah. Enjoy World Cup wins, laugh at Country Fair fails, and enjoy your 4th of July, however you choose to spend it. And ffs, lock your pets in your house because losing them is a heartbreak that never really goes away. 

Stay safe out there. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. RIP, KD.