The pursuit of optimal health and wellness has been hardwired into human nature long before Herodotus mused about the Fountain of Youth. And while people have been tinkering with their bodies for centuries—mixing potions, creating elixirs, and testing the limits of longevity—modern biohacking takes this to a whole new level. A term first coined in the ’80s, biohacking offers a way to rewrite the biology rulebook, whether you want to lose fat, boost immunity, or recover faster. Why accept the cards you were dealt when you can reshuffle the hand? Here’s how and where to hack your biology in San Diego:
San Diegans are unapologetic warm-weather junkies, and even a one-degree drop under 65 will send parkas flying off hangers and make sun-bathers pack up shop. So the idea of climbing into a cryo-chamber that’s four times colder than an ice bath may not sound appealing at first to a city full of open-toed heliophiles. Nonetheless, cryotherapy has gained immense popularity over the last few decades as a way for athletes to recover from pain and inflammation and improve physical performance, as well as lighten mood, tighten skin, prevent diseases, and more.
Located just north of the 8 near SDSU, San Diego Cryotherapy offers everything from full-body treatments between -200 to -250 degrees Fahrenheit and localized cryo (or spot treatment) to Cryofacials. The center also offers treatments such as an infrared sauna, Rena EMSculpt, and celluma light therapy.
All My Cryo first began when founder Michelle Mendez sought holistic alternatives to modern medications for her rheumatoid arthritis and took a deep dive to find alternative methods of treatment. With her new knowledge of healing modalities, she opened All My Cryo which offers countless cryotherapy options to help anything from injury recovery, improved sleep and libido to slimming to sculpting the face and body. It also offers limited-time specials, such as four sessions for only $60.
Livkraft
Set up as a luxury wellness clinic in the heart of La Jolla, Livkraft offers monthly, quarterly, or annual memberships for wellness services such as whole body cryotherapy or cryotherapy facials, or longevity medical services like IV therapy, restorative massages, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). The latter involves being placed in a pressurized chamber to increase oxygen intake to the body.
FIT Athletic
Voted Best Gym by our readers for the 2024 Best Of San Diego awards, Fit Athletic is a gym that does it all: fitness and pilates classes, personal training, stretch therapy, and even fun member-only events like comedy nights or nightclub parties. Its three locations in Little Italy, East Village and Mission Beach also offer whole-body and facial cryotherapy treatments, so you can achieve your fitness and recovery goals without an extra commute.
Chiltonic
For North County San Diegans, Chiltonic is an Encinitas-based cold-therapy center that uses the Cryobuilt Everest Peak electric cryotherapy chamber—a reportedly safer and more effective chamber than other nitrogen gas chambers. Treatments only last between 3 and 20 minutes.
Courtesy of Livkraft
Infrared Spa Therapy in San Diego
Gone are the days where saunas were just steamy rooms at country clubs filled with wrinkly, half-dressed golfers. Now, infrared spas use infrared light to heat the body directly using radiation, rather than heating the air around you, for a more effective and detoxifying sweat sesh. Not only this, but due to its long wavelengths, the infrared light penetrates through to the muscles and nerve system, helping with joint and muscle pain.
Pure Infrared Sauna Studio
Pure, with locations in Solana Beach and Bankers Hill, features a True Wave full-spectrum infrared sauna designed to maximize detoxification, with an optional 30-minute salt therapy or red-light session add-on for only $10. The spa also offers plenty of other treatments, including contrast therapy, compression therapy, PEMF, halotherapy, chromotherapy, and mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy for a full-body reset.
Not only does Livkraft in La Jolla offer several cryotherapy services, it also has individual infrared sauna suites for releasing 20 percent of toxins and 80 percent of water held in the body. In fact, Livkraft recommends an infrared sauna right after cryotherapy for increased blood circulation. Each sauna is also equipped with temperature control, Bluetooth, and an iPad so you can catch up on your favorite show while detoxing.
We’re sorry to report you won’t find any animal fries at Chill N Out. What this cryotherapy studio does have, however, are state-of-the-art infrared saunas, with reported benefits like improved skin clarity, increased metabolism and circulation, weight-loss, and immune system support. Either drop in for a $30 session, or bundle your infrared sauna experience in a package or monthly membership with other biohacking services.
Engel Health & Wellness Center
If you’re looking to reap the benefits of infrared light without sitting in a sauna—or need targeted relief of joint and muscle pain—Engel Health & Wellness Center offers Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) using a precision hand-held infrared device. The wellness center, located near Mission Bay, also offers spinal manipulation and custom orthotics.
Hifai Chiropractic
At the halfway point between Del Mar and Poway, you’ll find woman-owned Hifai Chiropractic, your one-stop-shop for all things pain-relief. Similar to Engel Health and Wellness, this clinic uses a hand-held infrared device to increase blood flow and help with nerve rehabilitation and inflammation.
Courtesy of Livkraft
Red-Light Therapy in San Diego
Similar to infrared spa therapy, red-light treatments use phototherapy to heal your body. Since red-light waves are shorter than infrared, this modality is used more for healing and rejuvenating the skin, rather than penetrating deep into the muscles. This is done by energizing the cells and boosting their production, as well as stimulating blood circulation and collagen production.
Real Deal Wellness
Just minutes from the heart of San Diego’s Asian food scene in Convoy, Real Deal Wellness offers its first red light therapy session—20 minutes of combined red light therapy and halotherapy (dry salt therapy)—free of charge. Perfect for recovering after indulging in one too many bao buns. The wellness center also offers unlimited access to all their services for only $99/month.
Deep Wave
A midday nap that reduces wrinkles and soothes pain? Sign me up. Deep Wave uses a StimLight Red LED Bed and anti-aging face panel for a relaxing session that leaves your skin glowing, your body relaxed, and you wondering why you didn’t try this sooner.
Art of Skin MD
A Solana Beach-based dermatology clinic, Art of Skin MD uses the Healite II phototherapy device, delivering target LED light therapy for rejuvenated skin. Opt for either the red light to boost collagen and reduce fine lines, or blue light to help with acne.
Pure Infrared Sauna Studio
If you want the most red-light exposure possible, PURE offers a 360 red light bed with a lid that you pull down over your body for complete body repair. Thanks to the machine’s efficiency (complete with 2,400 LED lights), the treatment only lasts 10 minutes, so you can squeeze in some self-care on your lunch break.
Courtesy of Revitalize Wellness PB
PEMF Therapy in San Diego
If you’ve been reading this list and thinking to yourself: a little cold plunge and some red lights? I need something stronger…a mini corporal earthquake, perhaps. Allow us to introduce you to PEMF Therapy, or Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy. This sends small pulses of energy to targeted areas of pain, supporting cell function for pain and inflammation relief, as well as aiding immunity, metabolism, sleep, depression, and anxiety.
Revitalize Wellness PB
Similar to most other biohacking services, all you have to do during a PEMF therapy session at Revitalize Wellness PB is sit back and relax in a comfortable seat while the machine does all the healing work. One session is only $40, and you can even add on PEMF SPaw therapy for your furry friend.
BioMed Health Center
If you’re unsure if PEMF therapy is right for you, BioMed Health Center in La Jolla takes the guesswork out of holistic care by offering consultation, blood tests, and tailored treatment plans to find what path is best for each patient. If not PEMF, the health center offers 23 other services to help your body recover and thrive.
San Diego Personal Training
Just a stone’s throw from the Torrey Pines Golf Course, San Diego Personal Training offers a full suite of training and recovery services. After a strenuous workout (or golf sesh), their PEMF therapy machine can help recharge your cells, speed up muscle recovery, and keep aches and pains at bay.
Courtesy of Cryo Republic
Compression Therapy in San Diego
There’s a lot of unwanted pressure to balance all of life’s stresses, from challenging work days to keeping your cool in I-5 traffic. But the pressure from compression therapy is one that your body will actually thank you for. By using compression boots and sleeves reminiscent of RoboCop, this unique therapy uses air pulses to promote blood and fluid movement, reducing swelling from chronic issues or minimizing soreness and injury from hard workouts.
Recovery Science Inc.
Located in Chula Vista, Recovery Science Inc. offers both Normatec and Air Relax compression stations, with a range of leg, feet, arm, shoulder, and even hip compression. Sit back in its zero-gravity chair, sip on some tea and catch up on your TV shows while the boots do their magic.
Cryo Republic
In addition to Cryo Republic’s Cryotherapy and Red Light therapy services, you can level up your recovery with the SLS3 Compression Boots for just $15. Whether you’re recovering from a surgery or simply a long run, you can customize the pressure settings to suit your specific needs.
Elevate Performance
Coronado is best explored by bike, with locals and tourists alike pedaling around the island. After a ride, head over to Elevate Performance—located at the heart of the island—for Normatec compression therapy, available by the session or at a discount with multi-session packs to help minimize post-pedal pain.
Courtesy of Yu Spa
Halotherapy/Salt Therapy in San Diego
For some, salt therapy means devouring a double bacon, crispy potato, and cheese breakfast sandwich after a late night-out. For others, it’s halotherapy: a bio-hacking practice where inhaling microscopic salt particles released in a “salt cave” are believed to aid respiratory and skin conditions. Many swear by halotherapy’s ability to decrease inflammation, thin mucus, and improve breathing despite research on the subject still being limited. Then again, there’s no Mayo Clinic studies on a salty breakfast sandwich curing hangovers either—but we all know it works.
Omni La Costa Resort & Spa
Following a multi-million dollar renovation in 2024, Carlsbad’s Omni La Costa Resort & Spaunveiled a new golf course, hundreds of updated guest rooms, and… salt rooms. These tranquil spaces, lined with golden, salt-bedded walls, offer guests a rejuvenating escape, leaving skin glowing and breathing effortless.
The Healing Room
The Healing Room is a little haven of peace located centrally in the Bay Ho neighborhood, offering massage therapy, an infrared sauna, and a halotherapy booth. Respiratory relief can be achieved in only one 20-minute session of relaxing and deep breathing in… and… out.
Revitalize Wellness PB
Blasting saline up your nose? Miserable. Breathing in healing salt in a spa? Much better. At Revitalize Wellness PB, the salt room fits four, so you can bring friends, kids, or a partner to turn wellness into a family affair.
All My Cryo
All My Cryo’s halotherapy booth may be no bigger than a classic London phone booth, but size doesn’t matter when you’re soaking up salty air. A single-session runs $39, or save $100 when you purchase a bundle of 10 sessions.
Yu Spa
Yu Spa in Convoy has a room for every need: a Korean red clay sauna to help lymphatics, an ice room to tighten skin, and an even a yoni steam room for women (yes, those yonis). Its salt room, with floor-to-ceiling walls of glowing red and gold salt stones, feels like stepping inside of a giant Himalayan salt lamp.
Courtesy of SDBotox
Body Sculpting in San Diego
No matter how many crunches you do or how many times you order your Hodad’s burger with lettuce instead of a bun, some bits of stubborn fat just won’t budge. And while every body is a beach body, body sculpting offers a confidence boost by reshaping, removing fat cells, or tightening skin, without having to undergo painful surgery.
Cryo Republic
With a mix of Instasculpting (radio frequency toning) and Cryo Slimming (ultra-cold fat freezing), Cryo Republic helps you lose 2-3 inches in one session without any pain or sweat. Use the treatments to slim your waist, arms, neck, or legs, or opt for their skin-tightening facial that turns back the clock, à la Benjamin Button.
SDBotox
There are several body sculpting options at SDBotox, including CoolSculpting, Exilis (radiofrequency and ultrasound), EMO SculptNeo (electromagnetic energy), and Bodytite, a treatment offered exclusively at SD Botox using radio-frequency assisted lipolysis. In other words, there’s something for everyone looking to achieve their dream bod.
San Diego Body Sculpting
It’s no wonder that some of the best body sculpting in San Diego can be found at San Diego Body Sculpting, right off University Ave in Hillcrest. The clinic offers services such as laser lipo to eliminate fat deposits, followed by a full-body vibration and infrared sauna session. Also available are Sculpsure WarmSculpting, Cellutone for cellulite, and EMSELLA for pelvic muscle strengthening, to name a few.
San Diego Aesthetics and Med Spa
San Diego Aesthetics and Med Spa in La Mesa uses EvolveX for their body sculpting sessions to tighten, tone, and transform. If you’re looking for a little extra glow-up, their team of aestheticians and registered nurses likewise perform injectables (like Botox), laser, chemical peels, and more.
Lili Kim is a content coordinator and writer for San Diego Magazine, with experience highlighting local businesses and communities. When not writing or shooting film, she is likely brewing her seventh cup of tea of the day or strolling along Sunset Cliffs.
San Diego has always worshipped at the altar of good skin. Equal parts surf town, biotech hub, and wellness capital, it’s a city where lunch breaks become beach walks and sunscreen sits beside car keys by the front door. The products that get used here earn their place. With 266 sunny days a year and one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the country, we take skincare seriously. Dr. Bronner’s has been making soap in North County since the 1960s. Sun Bum was born in Encinitas and is now on shelves in over 70 countries. The tradition runs deep.
“Living in San Diego means your skin is exposed to sun almost every day of the year,” says Sue Zhang, M.D., a San Diego physician specializing in aesthetic medicine. “The products that tend to succeed here are the ones that can keep up with daily life, UV exposure, sweat, and movement, while still supporting long-term skin health.”
From a mineral powder that solves the sunscreen-over-makeup problem to an acorn oil serum rooted in Indigenous plant medicine, the local San Diego shelf is more diverse, and comprehensive, than most of us realize.
Courtesy of Kopari
Kopari
Sun Shield Body Glow SPF
A hydrating gel-oil hybrid that applies like a body treatment and leaves skin with a sheen that reads as healthy rather than oily. La Jolla–founded Kopari built its reputation on cold-pressed coconut oil sourced from family farms in the Philippines, and the Sun Shield Body Glow SPF is exactly that in summer form: coverage that doubles as skincare.
4-Skin
Morning Rub
The name is intentional. The founder got a basal cell carcinoma diagnosis that his dermatologist caught—she’s now his business partner. The question he couldn’t shake was why the skincare industry hadn’t yet figured out how to talk to men, and 4-Skin is the answer: a premium sunscreen and skincare line built around the kind of blunt, self-aware humor that gets guys to pay attention. Men’s skincare has needed this for a long time, and the formulas are serious enough to deliver.
Courtesy of Coola
Coola
Classic Face Sunscreen SPF 50
Carlsbad-based Coola was formulating organic SPF before “clean sunscreen” was a marketing category, and the Classic Face Sunscreen is the brand’s thesis: protection that disappears into skin and layers cleanly under makeup. Sheer and lightly hydrating, it makes sunscreen easy to reapply before an afternoon walk at Torrey Pines.
Saffron and Sage
Glow Finishing Oil
Squalane, argan, jojoba, and CoQ10: a short ingredient list that does a lot. The Glow Finishing Oil from Mission Hills wellness sanctuary Saffron and Sage is plant-based, scientifically grounded, and formulated to absorb rather than sit on the skin. The brand started as an integrative health practice where acupuncture, naturopathic care, and functional medicine share a roof, and the skincare line runs on the same philosophy.
Courtesy of Alastin
Alastin
Restorative Skin Complex with TriHex+
The Restorative Skin Complex is powered by TriHex+, a patented peptide blend developed by Carlsbad-based Alastin’s team of SkinMedica veterans. It promises to clear out damaged collagen and elastin while supporting new production, the kind of gradual improvement that makes a product hard to quit.
Beldi is a multi-functional cleansing tradition rooted in Moroccan hammam culture, dating back over 12 centuries. Alia Jouj is the brand’s flagship product, and San Diego–based founder Dr. Mia Chae Reddy built a brand around it. Alia Jouj uses 100 percent organic, cold-pressed argan oil and the same ancient saponification method to produce a honey-thick liquid cleanser that softens skin without stripping it.
Courtesy of N8iV Beauty
N8iV Beauty
Móyla Moon Polish
Acorn oil has been used by California’s Indigenous communities as plant medicine for generations. Ruth-Ann Thorn, an enrolled member of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, built N8iV around it as the first Native American–owned skincare brand to reach the national mainstream. The Móyla Moon Polish, named for the Luiseño word for moon, is an exfoliant centered on acorn oil Thorn gathers herself each year from the La Jolla reservation. Find it at the Gaslamp Quarter store Thorn owns at the historic Yuma Building.
Courtesy of Colorescience
Colorescience
Sunforgettable Total Protection Brush-On Shield SPF 50
This product solved the reapplication problem. As a brush applicator, this mineral SPF goes over makeup without disturbing it, which is why it has been on derm-office retail shelves in Carlsbad and beyond for over two decades. The tinted version doubles as foundation.
Courtesy of Tubby Todd
Tubby Todd
All Over Ointment
This steroid-free, petroleum-free eczema treatment was built specifically for babies and toddlers (although grown-ups can use it, too). It’s centered on FDA-approved 1 percent colloidal oatmeal with a base of sunflower seed oil, beeswax, and jojoba. The “linoleic-acid-rich sunflower oil is helpful for atopic, eczema-prone skin that is often deficient in that fatty acid,” says Dr. Zhang. Gentle enough for newborns, safe for daily use, and tested by both pediatricians and dermatologists.
Korej
The Mandelic Night Serum
The Mandelic Night Serum pairs mandelic acid, an AHA derived from almonds and gentler than glycolic acid on sensitive skin, with lactic acid, niacinamide, and urea to brighten, smooth texture, and reduce breakouts overnight. Fragrance-free, vegan, cruelty-free. The brand name is the initials of the founder’s five daughters, pronounced like courage. Dr. Zhang also says she “really value[s] [the founder’s] mission to create pregnancy-safe skincare products that are both effective and wallet-friendly.”
Ingrid Yang, M.D., J.D. is a hospital-based physician in San Diego, CA, certified yoga therapist, and longevity specialist. She loves *double hearts* San Diego and spends her days helping people fully engage in long, healthy lives through evidence-based lifestyle medicine. Her books include Adaptive Yoga, Zen Mindfulness, and Hatha Yoga Asanas. When she’s not leading international wellness retreats, she is chasing sunsets, handstanding in nature, or geeking out over mitochondria.
How Scrojo Became One of Rock’s Most Prolific Poster Artists
The San Diego designer has created more than 3,000 concert posters over nearly 40 years for artists including the Rolling Stones and the Red Hot Chili Peppers
When he was in high school, he and his friends were trying to come up with the perfect name for their punk band that would encapsulate all their personas. Nicaragua. The Freds.
One of his friends said he was going to go by Jimmy Stacks and called it “the perfect rock and roll name.” Their names changed so much that Haskett erupted: “Fine, I’m f—ing Scrotum Joe, the true defender of the Open West.”
Their response: Wow, that’s a great name.
As a teenager, he drew chalkboards for Del Mar’s Pannikin coffee shop and would design T-shirts for surf/skate brand Life’s a Beach. He signed the shirts with his moniker, but even in punk rebellion, who wants a shirt with the words Scrotum Joe on it? “They just cut out the ‘t-u-m,’ and the next thing you know, a client referred to me as that, and it stuck,” he says.
Courtesy of Scrojo
Scrojo could have been part of a band as iconic as The Misfits—had he been able to learn the famously cumbersome bassline to The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.” Becoming one of the most renowned concert poster designers—someone who quite literally designed the cover of Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion—is a pretty good Plan B.
“To my knowledge, he’s done more rock posters than anybody else alive,” says Dennis King, whose D. King Gallery in Berkeley, California, serves as one of the largest private rock poster collections in the world. “He’s the hardest-working guy in the poster business.”
King not only co-authored the sequel to music historian Paul Grushkin’s The Art of Rock, but he also handles distribution and sales for all of Scrojo’s work. That’s more than 3,000 different posters over nearly 40 years. (That’s over one poster each week. For four decades straight.)
For anything from boxing matches to rodeos, posters have long been used as promotional items. Toulouse-Lautrec’s famous lithographs advertised Moulin Rouge in the late 1800s. Around the same time, Hatch Show Print in Nashville was making handbills for the Grand Ole Opry.
“I propose this: Cave paintings are the first poster art,” Scrojo says.
Courtesy of Scrojo
Rock and roll posters took off in the 1960s, when the hippie counterculture era replaced conformity and suburbia. Artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead used their vibrant, psychedelic prints as a form of rebellion from the mainstream. Posters were promotional, commemorative, collectible, and especially expressive.
If the name Scrojo is any indication, he doesn’t shy away from imagery that toes the line of being too provocative. He focused more on what inspired him instead of trying to be offensive for the sake of getting attention.
“Didn’t want to show it to my grandmother, but my parents were fine with it,” Scrojo says with a laugh.
“We’ve had to ask him to put a Band-Aid over a nipple every now and then,” says Chris Goldsmith, president of Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, where Scrojo started out and hundreds of his posters currently line the walls.
Scrojo spent six weeks at Otis College of Art and Design for a summer semester before drugs, alcohol, and a self-described lack of discipline prevented him from enrolling full time. Still, he taught himself concepts like text hierarchy and later found his niche at the Belly Up and in the surfing and skating world, working with brands like Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Scorpion Bay, and DGK.
His first concert poster was for North County band Borracho y Loco, of which Goldsmith was bass guitarist. Scrojo drew an abstract version of the Belly Up’s iconic shark with colorful calypso and tiki themes.
Early on, he would craft using a pencil, pen, non-reproduction blue pencil, X-Acto knife, rubber knife, and proportion scale to create each poster, and the finished product could take a week or even longer.
Courtesy of Scrojo
“I recommend every artist coming up to do that for like six weeks,” Scrojo says. “It forces you to think about every design decision as you’re going along.”
He has since mastered vector imagery through Adobe Illustrator to the point where, depending on the level of detail needed, he could finish two projects in a day. Still, he fills sketchbook after sketchbook to blueprint.
“I liked his line in particular, and he knows how to draw, which a lot of people don’t really know how to do these days,” King says.
Scrojo would research what each musician’s merchandise looks like to get a feel for each artist’s tone and voice. Once he has his central image in mind, he focuses on what and where to place the text.
He doesn’t have one specific style, ranging his talents from art deco to psychedelic and everything in between (and outside the lines). Want a pop surrealist comic book cartoon devil with splattered paint textures, halftone dot patterns, and pure chaos? Red Hot Chili Peppers, February 1986. Want a minimalist graphic portrait with bold strokes and graffiti text? P!nk, October 2023. Want a carnival sideshow style piece with a tasteful caricature of Jeff Bridges? The Big Lebowski, August 2011.
Scrojo calls himself a jack of all trades because he can create posters for all music genres. King calls him a chameleon for his ability to adapt his voice to new eras.
Courtesy of Scrojo
“The variety of his skillset makes it possible for us to put 50 of his posters on a wall next to each other and have it look compelling, not just a bunch of the same thing over and over,” Goldsmith says.
Some of Scrojo’s favorite posters are when he feels a personal connection to the artist or the album. He has a vivid memory as a child of being trapped in a closet filled with marijuana leaves while playing hide and seek and staring at Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” LP. “For whatever reason, as a kid, that sparked a desire to do graphic design,” Scrojo says.
Fast forward to February 2012, Cliff is performing at Belly Up. Scrojo decided to modify Cliff’s original album cover from rainbow gradient fills to classic reggae psychedelia while preserving Cliff’s striped pants and bold hat. Cliff’s manager called him and said they wanted to use it for the rest of their tour.
“We always get artists requesting that he does their posters,” Goldsmith says. “A lot of artists don’t want venues to go all rogue because they want to control how they’re being presented. With him, they’re like, ‘Let him go nuts.’”
Matt Eisenberg is an award-winning writer and photographer based in San Diego. A former ESPN editor, his work has also been published by CNN, Bleacher Report and the New York Daily News.
Before, during, and after the Fourth of July, San Diegans can commemorate America’s 250th anniversary with an abundance of stars, stripes and local celebrations. America The Beautiful: 250 at The Rady Shell and Lamb’s Players Theatre’s revival of American Rhythm will look back at the many songs which define our country. Liberty Station’s Anchored in Freedom celebration and the Independence Day Carnival offer community-centered fun and loads of family-friendly activities. And who can possibly forget the Big Bay Boom, which will resume its reign over San Diego Bay as the state’s biggest fireworks show. Outside of the holiday festivities, this week brings the yearly return of Little Italy’s Summer Sera and the Athenaeum Summer Festival, as well as a slate of championship matches for All Elite Wrestling.
Sip on refreshing beverages and savor a panoramic rooftop view this Friday from 6-8 p.m. during the 21-plus Sunset & Spritz at Margaritaville Hotel San Diego Gaslamp Quarter’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar. There will be a live DJ (until 9 p.m.), appetizers, pool and cabana access, a photo booth, and a cash bar (until 11 p.m.). To accentuate the summer theme, guests are invited to dress in white, pink, and orange attire. Tickets are $29 and come with a welcome aperol spritz.
616 J Street, Gaslamp
The 250 Grand Tasting Menu at Amaya
July 3 & 4
Bring a patriotic palette to the Fairmont Grand Del Mar for The 250 Grand Tasting Menu at Amaya this Friday and Saturday from 5-8:30 p.m. Patrons will be treated to a five-course tasting menu, curated to exhibit a selection of standout regional flavors and culinary concepts that have shaped our country’s distinct food heritage. The meal will also include beverage pairings with each course, such as wine, cocktails, and artisanal drinks. Reservations are $330 per person (with tax and 20% gratuity) on OpenTable.
Don Toliver thrives at being the life of the party (and the “After Party”). His fifth album Octane, released in February, is indicative of his thrill-seeking nature. As with his earlier releases, Octane sees Toliver operating in the space between hip-hop and R&B, with warbling vocals and blaring beats that are best heard at a high volume. This Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., Toliver will play at Pechanga Arena, with rappers SoFaygo, Chase B and SahBabii—who had a guest verse on Octane standout “K9”—as special guests. Tickets start at $156 for this concert.
What makes musicals like Wicked, Cats, Chicago, and Jersey Boys so timeless is the legion of excellent songs that makes fans out of those who’ve never even watched the show. This Friday at 7:30 p.m. during Blockbuster Broadway! at The Rady Shell, conductor Evan Roider, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and veteran vocalists Alex Getlin, Jessica Hendy, Scott Coulter, and John Boswell (also on piano) will perform an all-star theater soundtrack. In addition to the shows named above, audiences can expect songs from A Chorus Line, The Phantom of the Opera, Annie,and more. Tickets range from $57 to $129 for this concert.
222 Marina Park Way, Embarcadero
America The Beautiful: 250 at The Rady Shell
July 4
One night after recognizing the brilliance of Broadway, The Rady Shell will ring in the United States’ landmark anniversary with America The Beautiful: 250 this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Conductor Byron Stripling, joined by a five-performer ensemble and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, will lead a night of ballads that best resemble the red, white, and blue, including songs sourced from the Great American Songbook. After the show, concertgoers are invited to watch the nearby Big Bay Boom from their seats. Tickets range from $71 to $139 for this concert.
222 Marina Park Way, Embarcadero
Athenaeum Summer Festival at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
Kelly H. Harfouche, founder of KQ Aesthetic Society, knows firsthand that cosmetic treatments like fillers, neurotoxins, and microneedling, can not only enhance a person’s appearance and restore confidence, they have the power to truly change a person’s life. An expert injector has the ability to tailor treatments to each individual patient’s anatomy and goals for personalized results. Harfouche, a board-certified nurse practitioner, has spent nearly a decade perfecting her craft as an aesthetic injector and integrating her multifaceted artistic skills with precision patient care. Her commitment to continual education and training, plus a passion for helping people look—and feel—their best, set KQ Aesthetic Society apart in a sea of local medspas.
For many people considering nonsurgical treatments, the intent is to look refreshed and refined. KQ Aesthetic Society’s philosophy eschews a cookie cutter approach that bases treatments around units, instead working to understand each person’s unique goals, then curating a treatment plan to fit that vision. Harfouche focuses on “inclusive luxury,” the belief that everyone deserves access to aesthetic treatments, respective of budget restrictions. She develops long-standing trusted relationships with her patients, and works with each one to achieve their aesthetic objectives and address the underlying causes of their concerns.
“For me, forming an honest and open relationship with every patient who walks through the door is essential. This means understanding them on a deeper level and meeting them where they are to define and achieve their individual goals,” she says.
Drawing on her artistic background, which inspired her transition into medical aesthetics, Harfouche sees each client as a “unique canvas.” Rather than relying on standardized procedures, the practitioner’s distinctive approach combines her profound understanding of the physiological and anatomical changes associated with aging with an unwavering commitment to ongoing education about the newest products and their mechanisms of action. Her goal is to make each patient feel beautiful in their own skin and to embrace their individuality.
She has also pioneered a way to combine her talent for aesthetic artistry with her philanthropic nature. Harfouche is one of only a handful of providers using dermal fillers to treat patients with lip asymmetry and scarring resulting from cleft lip surgery. Patients travel from around the country for this transformative treatment, noting increased confidence and a restored identity. She hopes to eventually launch a training program to help fill the void in this space.
“My passion has always been connecting with people and giving back in any capacity that I can,” she says. In the rapidly advancing landscape of aesthetic medicine, you can place your confidence in Harfouche and KQ Aesthetic Society to deliver exceptional care. To learn more or book a consultation, please visit kqaestheticsociety.com.
“This is insane!” the guy filming it seems to proclaim. “It’s the best fireworks show ever!” a companion confirms, inspiring a debate lasting over a decade.
All told, 7,000 fireworks exploded in the span of 25 seconds over San Diego Bay on July 4, 2012. A Michael Bay amount of unison. $125,000 worth of shells, cakes, Roman candles, and skyrockets had been placed on a barge—enough for 17 minutes of decorative sky flares—and…
Boom.
The sky looked like someone had set a giant Rorschach test on fire. Or as if whatever we all see in our Rorschachs—butterflies, clowns, tongue kissing, dads—was being electrocuted and lifted heavenward, amen. It was shocking how bright it was, how much it sizzled the local cosmos. Could’ve been one of those sci-fi films where a hole is ripped open between warring universes. But angstier, more metal—the work of some methy creator in a sleeveless concert tee.
The sound?
Lou Reed once released an entire album that contained 64 minutes of mindflaying guitar screeches and machine noises. No regular songs, just a fascinating amount of ear distress. His record label reps no doubt heard the melodic outro of their careers, but everyone else was in pain and stumped. That album still sounded better than the bay did that night. The bay sounded like a god who struggled with emotional regulation had blown his speakers and was working through the anger stage of AV grief.
In the left frame of the video, a middle-aged woman is attempting to drag her husband off by the hand. In no way does he want to go, possibly because he had missed the time Roseanne Barr sung the national anthem at a Padres game, simultaneously disemboweling and amusing America through the power of song. He would not willingly abandon an equally worthy San Diego trainwreck.
Another woman in the video appears to have just filled her beer, rushing to sit down for the show. She pauses mid-sit and returns to the full and upright position to properly bear witness. What was supposed to be prolonged entertainment has been so radically shortened that she will have to find another reason to drink. Lucky for her, drinking will be the only way to adequately process.
Locals remember the conspiracy theories. People wondered if the fuses had been tripped by a saboteur who was sympathetic to dogs, fish, or the growing suspicion that late-stage capitalism is a gorgeously branded but impossible dream sustained by remarkably efficient top-tier wealth retention and the soft compliance of fireworks-watchers who can no longer afford a house, a beer, or the personal impacts of human reproduction.
Speaking of being terrified of babies, babies were terrified. The children who witnessed it probably still can’t go near a candle store. But those kids will be tougher, perfectly scarred kids. They’ll write better songs.
That night helped us absolutely dominate the national news cycle. For a hot minute, we became America’s water-skiing squirrel. Now, years later, when you Google “fireworks gone wrong,” San Diego is always a top contender, along with that poor Nebraska family who nearly wiped out a couple generations in their front yard, their minivan somehow turning into a howitzer of recreational TNT.
There is still debate as to whether Big Bay Boom 2012 is the worst or greatest fireworks show of all time. But the advanced parts of civilization arrived at the truth as quickly as the women in the video did. It was undeniably amazing.
First of all, the point of Fourth of July fireworks isn’t “the intricate choreography of sky fire over a guaranteed amount of show time.” It’s about creating a vivid memory shared with some people you like, love, or would like to love.
BBB2012 used large-scale chemical fire to create the ultimate memory.
Sure, some people who iron their jeans subjected their family to a sermon about how San Diego managed to botch America’s birthday like a Disney princess-for-hire who smelled of quite a few Sauvignons.
The rest of us saw how perfectly it nailed the actual feeling of being an American. Because only a miniscule percentage of us bake postcard apple pies where every inch of crust is perfectly laminated like the wood in an Irish bar. Very few of us can paint on par with Picasso. The rest of us—despite truly believing in our America-activated abilities to achieve greatness in almost any field of our choosing—burn pies. We try to paint only to realize it looks like our fine motor skills have entered active death.
That’s why BBB2012 was the most perfectly American fireworks show ever: A wildly ambitious idea galvanized thousands upon thousands of people to both work on it and come to hold a beer and gawk at it, only to have it fail in the most glorious TMZ-level spectacle.
America isn’t about immaculate, storyless wins. It’s about how the framework of a country is solid enough that we can accidentally detonate our entire lives—a few times—and still probably be OK.
No one has America’d quite like San Diego did on that day. It was performance art. Lou Reed’s heart slow-clapped. Any brief municipal embarrassment quickly became a pride of our people. I can only hope the same for the Nebraskan yard family whose Dodge Aerostar became a hyperactive Death Star.
P.S. Local writer Maya Kroth compiled a quite great oral history of that night for Thrillist. The bottom lines for me were—it took nine months to prepare, no one was hurt, and even though the pyrotechnics company tried to zero out the bill, Big Bay Boom founder H. P. “Sandy” Purdon refused and paid them in full. This year will mark the 25th Anniversary of the yearly Big Bay Boom.
Troy Johnson is the magazine’s award-winning food writer and humorist, and a long-standing expert on Food Network. His work has been featured on NatGeo, Travel Channel, NPR, and in Food Matters, a textbook of the best American food writing.
Summer has officially kicked off, and San Diego is celebrating the sunny season with a myriad of fun events. From San Diego Pride week and a fairytale performance at Civic Theatre to a Santigold concert and Comic-Con, there are dozens of opportunities to make memories worth adding to your scrapbook. Here are all the best things to do in San Diego this July:
Divine inspirations, operatic ballads, and symphonic pop production elevate Rosalía’s Lux to heavenly levels. Hear angelic vocals ascend—in up to 13 languages—during her performance at Pechanga Arena.
Enjoy a night of feel-good indie rock and sing-along anthems at the Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre courtesy of Young the Giant and special guest Cold War Kids.
29
Santigold collects genres like gold stars: musical accouterments that brighten her uniquely alternative sound. See her live in concert with dancehall producer Troy Baker Sound at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay.
Two male government workers pursue a secret romance amid the Lavender Scare in the San Diego Opera’s production of “Fellow Travelers” at the Balboa Theatre.
Audrey Hepburn. Marlon Brando. Salvador Dalí. What do these icons have in common? Each was the enigmatic focus of a Cecil Beaton portrait. Step inside Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World, an alluring showcase of 20th-century style at San Diego Museum of Art.
Courtesy of San Diego Pride
More Fun Things to Do in San Diego This Month
1
The Little Italy Mercato will trade morning rays for golden-hour glow through its free Summer Sera, an expansion of the neighborhood’s farmers market with live music, artisanal finds, and a fetching amount of pet activities.
11–19
San Diego Pride week starts with a Dyke March and ends with the two-day “Pride Shines On” festival. The days in between? Run a 5K, march in the parade, visit the rainbow-lit St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, and more.
19
Dress up for a Mediterranean-themed tea time at the Estancia La Jolla, a laid-back yet refined afternoon planned for the resort’s monthly Tea in the Garden series.
23–26
Nerd culture’s biggest gathering returns to the Convention Center. San Diego Comic-Con welcomes fans of everything from comic book cinema to ultra-rare collectibles for panels, exhibits, sneak peeks, and much more.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
AVRP Studios’ tradition for Design Excellence and Innovation began in 1976 with Doug Austin, FAIA, in Solana Beach, California. The firm has since grown to complete major projects throughout the United States and Canada. We think of ourselves as a family and we care deeply about people. We want to inspire, help make their lives richer and more complete through our efforts. We believe that architecture is one of the most important art forms because of the impact it can have on the lives of those it touches. We’re delighted to have been recognized with over 150 awards for design excellence.
703 16th Street, Suite 200, San Diego, California 92101 | 619-704-2700 | avrpstudios.com
