Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Marking Time

Breathe, Leah, breathe. This time next week you will be in the airport waiting to board your plane to begin your (ugh) 15ish hour journey to Hawaii.  Even though it ain't the prettiest set up of traveling, you'll still be on your way! And one can never complain when I am traversing across an ocean to a tiny island by way of FLIGHT.

In the meantime, I am trying my darnedest to enjoy the here and now.  Which means that I am trying to do "L.A. things" that I've been meaning to do.  On Monday, Marshall and I hopped on the train and rode it North several stops to the city of Watts.  The historic Watts riots happened here, after the Rodney King shooting, so there is a history of racial tension, as well as poverty.  It's improved since then, but still remains as a predominately non-white, lower income neighborhood.


On our way to our destination, Marshall and I saw this rad staircase and as we stopped to take pictures, we definitely got heckled at by some middle school kids.  I laughed cuz I was skeered.  Kids are so mean!

We moseyed on over to the Watts Towers, which was our final destination, and my final "L.A. thing" to see.  The Watts Towers boils down to being beautiful folk art.  The story goes that a man named Simon Rosia, in 1921, began to build these cement sculptures/towers (ordained with reclaimed materials like glass, tile, bottles, rocks, etc.) in his backyard and continued to work on it for 34 years.





He did it all by hand and after he sold the property to a neighbor and it got lost in the shuffle of property exchange, it finally got into the hands of a preservation council and is now considered a historic site!  Pretty badass, huh?

If you ever come to L.A., GO HERE.  Make sure you take a friend, cuz it's kind of sketch, but GO!

4 comments:

  1. Kids are mean. Be brave, Leah G and enjoy your time. Seems like you're making the most of it, boo thang.

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    1. SO MEAN. it's pay back for all the times i was a little jerk. hey boo thang yourself, come visit us in hawaii!

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  2. wow, watts seems cool. i want to go to there.
    also-- there is a guy in rome, georgia (of all places) who has built/is still building lots of sculptures out of recycled materials on his property and it really reminds me of this place. his house (a tiny little cottage surrounded by his art) is covered in mosaics like the pics your posted above. folk art is so beautiful and humble i love it.

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    1. oooo, that sounds awesome! love you, mare mare.

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