By Johnny McDonald | Downtown News

A horse is a horse

The horse is a remarkable animal, trained for speed, agility, roughness or to be patient for commands.

As a one-time turf writer at three racetracks and a publicist at the Brawley Cattle Call, we learned just how diverse they can be.  They can be finely tuned for swiftness while others can give cowboys a tumble or two.

What would a parade be without these magnificently groomed, strutting animals, or those that charge over hurdles at shows?  And what would a western movie be without those wild chases through creeks and brush?
San Diego’s Natural History Museum explores The Horse with a comprehensive exhibition, explaining the enduring bond between the horse and humanity.  This outstanding show will run though January.

We recently toured the corridors to learn how these animals have  influenced civilization through warfare, trade, transportation, agriculture and sports.

“The Horse coming to the west is special; the horse, we should all remember, is how we got here,” said Joe Harper, CEO, president and general manager of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. “Horses are at the very core of what America is all about. They are a large part of our history and they live on with us today as both symbol and reality of all the things that are good and true and strong in our society.”

The exhibition showcases spectacular fossils, models, dioramas and cultural objects from around the world. Visitors entering the exhibition can view a high-definition video projection of a thoroughbred horse moving across a giant screen. A large-scale video and a computer kiosk with an interactive video screen allow visitors to peek inside a life-sized, moving horse, to learn about its anatomy and biology.

A 220-square-foot diorama depicts horse species that existed 10 million years ago and representations of the horse in art from the Paleolithic to the present.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Del Mar Racetrack, Blenheim EquiSports, Del Mar National Horse Show, the Walter J. and Betty C. Zable Foundation, WWW Foundation, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

Deep Sea extended

Deep Sea’s popular summer IMAX film at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center has been extended into the fall. This award-winning project was created by a local couple.

Whenever film producer Michele Hall walks along La Jolla Cove, she thinks back to the mid-1970s when she learned to deep-sea dive and got her first intoxicating look at the underwater world.

“There is this amazing wildlife that is below the surface, and to all these other people who are walking around, it’s just water and it’s just waves,” Hall said.

Her diving instructor was Howard Hall, a San Diego State zoology graduate who was setting out on a career in underwater moviemaking. Howard, now a cinematographer, and Michele married in 1981. A decade later, Michele traded in her nursing career to produce films full-time.

In 2006, the Del Mar couple released “Deep Sea,” one of the highest-grossing IMAX films of all time, at more than $90 million. To make the undersea adventure, the Halls and their crew spent 120 days in the field over 10 months — shooting 73 miles of film in the process.

Keeping panda pace

A newborn Panda cub is another plus in the San Diego Zoo’s global wildlife conservation program. Only 1,600 giant pandas are believed to exist.

The species has been challenged by habitat destruction, low reproduction rates and bamboo shortages.

Painful past revisited

The Old Globe will brighten a dark part of United States history with an epic musical story of family, love and patriotism during Japanese American internment of World War II.

The world premiere of Allegiance – A New American Musical, will run on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, Sept. 7 – Oct. 21.   Opening night is Sept. 19 at 7 p.m.  Tickets are currently available by subscription only.

Television and film icon George Takei, Tony Award-winning actress, Lea Salonga and Broadway favorite Telly Leung head the cast. Takei plays Sam Kimura, a former internee who revisits the ghosts of his past, and Ojii-san, the grandfather and pillar of strength of the Kimura family.

Takei might best be remembered for portraying Mr. Sulu in the “Star Trek” series, his acting career has spanned more than five decades with over 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles.

In real life, Takei and his family, along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans, were incarcerated behind the barbed-wire enclosures of United States internment camps. He spent part of his childhood at Camp Rohwer in Arkansas and at Camp Tule Lake in Northern California.  Meeting Takei and hearing his personal story inspired Allegiance creators Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione to bring the story to the stage.

Directed by Stafford Arima, with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo and book by Marc Acito, Kuo and Lorenzo Thione, the production features choreography by Andrew Palermo and music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Lynne Shankel.

On the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, a meeting with a young journalist forces WWII veteran Sam Kimura to remember his family’s relocation from their California farm to the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming.

As they struggle to adjust to their new home, young Sam and his sister Kei find themselves torn between loyalty to their family and allegiance to their country.

Salonga will appear as Kei Kimura, a young internee who falls in with a group of activists, and Hana Suzuki, the interviewer who impels Sam to delve into his memories. Salonga originated the role of Kim in the West End and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon, winning the Tony and Olivier Awards.

The Old Globe will also present artist Wendy Maruyama’s large-scale sculptural installation, “The Tag Project,” in conjunction with the premiere. It memorializes the imprisoned Japanese Americans.

Plaza de Panama

While a lawsuit swirls overhead, the Plaza de Panama committee reports that it is going ahead with its four phase reconstruction plan for Balboa Park.

“The Plaza de Panama project team has made great progress with preparations to move into the construction phase,” the committee’s latest newsletter indicated.  “Phase one will involve utility relocation to accommodate the new Organ Pavilion parking structure.  Overall construction on the project is scheduled to conclude in advance of the 2015 Centennial Celebration in Balboa Park.”

The newsletter ensured that two-way vehicle traffic through the park will not be interrupted.

On Aug. 13, the Save Our Heritage Organization filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego’s July 9 approval of the project.

“While disappointing, we are not surprised that SOHO has resorted to litigation once again in a final attempt to impede the project,” the newsletter stated. “The Plaza de Panama project was approved after a two-year democratic process and has been studied more than any project in Balboa Park history. … Despite SOHO’s lawsuit, we are committed to moving forward to reclaim the park from cars and returning it to the people.”

Mayor Jerry Sanders issued the following statement in response to the lawsuit filing: “Once again, SOHO is threatening to harm Balboa Park if it didn’t get its way, by delaying long-needed improvements and holding our 2015 celebration hostage. All San Diegans should be extremely disappointed, as I am, by this narrow-minded special-interest group for trying to kill a project that will only further beautify this great park.”

Under the agreement, a Centennial Bridge and road will be constructed to provide an alternate route for vehicles that bypasses the core of the park and leads directly to parking areas.  A new 797-space subterranean parking structure will be constructed behind the Spreckels Organ Pavilion and will be toped by a two-acre park.

The Plaza de California is referred to as the “California Quadrangle,” one of the most historically significant elements of Balboa Park, designed by Bertram Goodhue for the 1915 Panama-California Exhibition.