#12: The Watts Towers

I would like you all to think that I learned about the Watts Towers because I am really plugged into the cultural folklore of Los Angeles, but I most likely learned about them from this amazing 2001 R&B masterpiece music video by Watts native, Tyrese Gibson.  Seriously, do yourself a favor and skip to the 2:20 mark for an epic dance breakdown in front of the towers.

So, 11 years ago when I first saw the Watts Towers all lit up in da club in that video, I didn't really have a clue what they were.  Seeing as they are in a city called "Watts," I kind of just assumed that they were unnecessarily fancy power lines or something of the sort (Watts, wattage, get it?).  It wasn't until many years later when I first moved to LA and was reading up on LA's ghetto's histories (it's really fascinating stuff) that I learned the Watts Towers are actually an art installation.  Huh.  Who knew.

The more I read about them, the more intrigued I was to see them in person.  They are, however, in Watts, which as any self-respecting hip hop fan could tell you, is in the heart of the South Central ghetto.  And I'm not talking ghetto like "omg this place is soooo ghetto, it only serves Coors Light."  I'm talking ghetto like "that building over there is a home-base for the Crips, which might explain the bullet holes all over its walls." Certainly not a place I would want to find myself after sundown, if you know what I mean.

My friend Kaio and I have been wanting to go to Watts for years (for the towers and also to try the legendarily amazing soul food at the Watts Coffee House) but every time we were about to go, we chickened out.  It really takes a lot to ignore the South Central reputation.  Many older LA locals refuse to go anywhere near Watts or South Central in general, because they still remember the Watts Riots of 1965, not to mention the "Rodney King Riots" of 1992 and all the crimes in-between glorified by hip hop artists since the '80s.  But after reading probably about 100 yelp reviews, many of which say "get your white ass down here, you'll be fine" we finally built up the cajones to just go.  And I must say, I am SO glad we did.

As we got off the freeway at Wilmington, it was very obvious that we weren't in "Kansas" anymore... or really anywhere slightly resembling our usual LA haunts.  There were lots of people walking around and all of the buildings looked very, very shabby, but no one bothered us or even paid attention.  We had a little bit of trouble finding the Coffee House, since it is literally in a building inside another building, and the exterior building is some sort of youth outreach organization.  Luckily we saw the little sign in the window and made our way through.  The place was tiny, with probably only about 10 tables, and only 2 were filled.  One table had a well-dressed black guy and his mom ("When you say well-dressed, do you mean he was wearing a sweet FUBU track suit?" - my racist boyfriend) and the other table had a bunch of white college kids.  I'm not gonna lie, I was a little upset that it had taken me so long to work the nerve up to go here, since it was completely harmless.

Our waitress, though, was the real deal.  Low-cut shirt with cleavage up to her chin, a permanent scowl on her face and popping gum, she took our order even though I'm sure she had better things to do.  We ordered chicken, waffles, biscuits, eggs, and I ordered a Diet Coke.  Was told there was only regular coke, which I said was fine, but then the waitress brought me a Sprite, with a look on her face like "I dare you to complain about this Sprite"... so I drank the Sprite.  The fried chicken wings were AMAZING.  Like, a thousand times better than Roscoes.  They were obviously freshly cooked, and to perfection.  I was sad when the meal was over.

Mmm... fried chicken.

After we worked up the energy to move, we quickly drove over to the Towers, which are less than a mile from the coffee house.  Anywhere else in LA, we would have walked.  But I didn't want to push our luck, since things were going well so far.  I also had to talk Kaio out of taking the "scenic" route, which would have taken us right through one of the most (in)famous projects in Watts, Jordan Downs. 

The thing about the Watts Towers, is that even though they are technically a state park, they are in the middle of a very unassuming neighborhood.  Describing the Watts Towers, or looking at pictures, doesn't really do them much justice.  They really are a sight to see in person.  Anyone can drive around the neighborhood where the towers are, and you can get pretty close to them if you get out of your car.  However, there is a (see-through) fence around the perimeter, and you can only go inside by paying $7 to take a tour (you can purchase your tour tickets from the visitor/art center which is right next to the towers).  The tour was extremely informative, and it was obvious that our guide had personal pride in these symbols of his hometown.

View from the street

The story of the towers is truly fascinating.  As I learned from our guide, as well as the 12-minute video they showed us in the visitors center, Simon Rodia was an Italian immigrant, who found himself in Southern California in the 1920s working construction.  He was a very small man (4'10"), and like many small men, he was determined to do something "big" with his life.  He began building the structures in his backyard, using only simple tools like hammers, pliers, mallets and nails.  He used scrap steel from the railroad for the rebar base of the structures, then wrapped chicken wire around the metal, and covered the wire in a cement sand mixture.  He then covered the cement with "garbage," mostly pieces of broken pottery or ceramics, soda bottles, and more scrap metal.  Over 32 years, he spent every moment of his free time building a total of nine towers, with the tallest standing at 99 feet. In order to get to the tops, he would just climb up, and use a basic window-washers belt to keep himself from falling.

As the story goes, Rodia was working on the towers one day in 1954 when he fell, and he says the fall was so bad that he knew that was his cue to stop.  He was in his 70s at the time, and was content with just stopping where he was.  It wasn't long though, that neighbors started hassling him, and defacing his masterpiece.  Throughout his time building, everyone had accused him of being crazy, of building the towers to communicate with the Japanese, or aliens, or that he was building a weapon.  One day, he had had enough, and just left.  He sold his property to a neighbor for $1, and moved to Northern California to never come back again.

Over the years, the city wanted to tear the towers down, convinced that they were unsafe and a hazard to people around them, especially during an earthquake.  A few local advocates, who wanted to preserve the towers (as they had very quickly become a local landmark) asked the city to do a stress-test before tearing them down.  The city sent out a crane to exert 10,000 lbs of force and the crane broke before any of the towers moved an inch!  The engineer hired to do the test said that it could cost the city more money to take them down than they would ever get out of the worth of the land, so the towers were allowed to stay.  Soon after, a trust was set up and the towers and the lot they stand on became a state park, and is currently curated by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Every single surface of these 9 towers, as well as archways and other fountains he built, are covered in colorful mosaics.  The intricate criss-crossing of the lines shows that he had a vision from the very beginning, and that at the end everything would come together.  I was truly amazed at the scope and vision of this artist.  He really did turn trash into treasure - a treasure that is really valued by locals as a sign of perseverance, hope, and success.

(Trivia Bonus! Simon Rodia is included in the big group picture on the cover of the Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band!)

Entry archway mosaic made from Sprite and Ginger Ale bottles.

Fountain with tallest tower behind it

Fountain mosaic detail

What looks like a bunch of random pieces from far away, are all symmetric and make sense up close

Rodia actually named his installation "Nuestra Pueblo" which means "Our Town."

These connected towers are supposed to represent the sail of a ship, based on a parade float Rodia saw in his childhood in Italy.

1930's Canada Dry ginger ale bottles - Canada Dry was Rodia's favorite drink so he featured these bottles prominently throughout the towers.

Rodia signed his work with a simple "S.R." and imprints of the tools he used

Me and Kaio in front of one of many archways

We saw THIS GUY on our way out of town.  It may be prejudicial, but we both felt like our South Central experience was a bit more authentic since we saw a bad ass pimp in a bright-green lo-lo.

#42: The Flower Fields

The blog posts have been (sadly) slowing down, because my real life has been speeding up! I am working more than ever, my little side crafting business has started to take off, and I hardly have had free time to myself!

I am still determined to get as close as possible to finishing this list, but sometimes nature just won't let me.   For two years, I have wanted to drive up to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, with promises of views like this:

Cue the zoom-in shot of me twirling in circles ala Julie Andrews

But of course, California has had two of its driest winters on record, and for the last two years they've gotten hardly any wildflower blooms.  Even after checking the Wildflower Hotline weekly (yes, I did) they never reported anything more than brown grasses and small patches of poppies.

Womp, womp.

But luckily for me, California has quite the growing climate, and when not relying on natural water resources, pretty much anything will grow here.  While sitting at home on a weekend crafting to blisters, I was watching some old reruns of The Millionaire Matchmaker (don't judge) and on one of the "dates," a matched couple went to this glorious place called The Flower Fields.  I was on my phone looking this place up faster than Patti Stanger could say "no sex before monogamy!!"

Turns out The Flower Fields is a ranunculus farm in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego.  A bit of a drive for me, but one of my best friends Nicole lives down in SD, and we made a plan to meet up.  I would drive, and she would bring lunch.

We went on the last weekend the fields were open to the public for the 2012 season.  We got there right around noon, and the weather couldn't have been better.  Sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky, with a nice ocean breeze.  We were, after all, in San Diego.  Nicole and I enjoyed lunch at the picnic tables right by the entrance, before slowly strolling through the Munchkinland-esque fields of ranunculus.   At the bottom of the hill the colors were all mixed together, but further up the hill they were separated by color, looking like a big floral rainbow.

Even my Nikon doesn't do the colors justice... but it gets close!

We skipped on the tractor ride, which was mostly filled with kids.

Right off the entrance was a wide path that was filled with people, so instead we went to the left and down a few fields to get away from the crowds.  We also realized that we were away from any park personnel, thus giving us the bravery to venture into the fields themselves for some great photo ops.  I made sure to take a picture in the orange section, as an homage to how I hope the poppy fields will be someday!

Today: Ranunculus, someday, POPPIES!

Nicole wanted to do a bunch of complex yoga poses, but sometimes you can't beat simplicity!

After we did a big loop around all the fields, we attempted the Sweet Pea maze (and failed), tried a lavender/strawberry sundae from the strawberry stand, and bought bunches of fresh cut ranunculus before heading back.  It was an incredible afternoon.  Flower fields on that scale are inspiring to say the least!

My fresh-cut flowers the next day!

#44: Joshua Tree National Park

I strongly believe that the National Park program really was "America's greatest idea." In my short life I have been lucky enough to see many of the natural splendors this country has to offer, mostly due in part to the two cross-country road trips my family has taken. However, I have only been to 2 of California's 8 national parks, and made a vow this year to change that.

The closest and most accessible National Park to Los Angeles is Joshua Tree. It's only about 2 hours east, in the desert near Palm Springs. Being born in the Mojave desert, I know to avoid all things "desert" from about May - September, unless I want to be really miserable. So when my boyfriend and I decided to road-trip to Phoenix for baseball season opening weekend in early April, I made sure to insist on a stop to Joshua Tree on our way back.

After about 4 hours of driving (from Phoenix) through nothing but desert, we rolled into the little town of Twentynine Palms and followed the signs for the park entrance. The entrance fee was $15, and our pass was good for 5 days (too bad we were just passing through!). We got to the park right after 5pm, so the heat had cooled and many of the day visitors had left. Throughout our time there, we probably saw no more than 20 other people. We drove in a loop around the northern portion of the park, and saw thousands of trees and truly breathtaking landscapes.

So a little education about the park itself. It is almost 800,000 acres big, is made up of two separate deserts and ecosystems, and hosts literally millions of indigenous plans and animals. Some of the species found inside the park, most notably the Joshua tree itself, can't be found anywhere else on earth. The park is also full of beautiful rock formations, and even allows rock climbing during daylight hours. There are several fault lines throughout the park, and even the famous San Andreas fault borders the southern end of the park, so many of the rock formations in view are the "raw" effects of earthquakes.

Some trivia: Joshua trees got their names from Mormon pioneers, who thought the spiky leaves resembled the outstretched arms of Joshua leading them to the promised land. Personally, I think the Mormons have imaginations on par with the ancient Romans who named constellations, because Joshua trees are really, really ugly.

I absolutely loved my time in the park. Desert landscapes have a special place in my heart and always make me nostalgic for my childhood, driving through miles and miles of desert wasteland with my family. The colors, the texture, the stillness, is so beautiful in its own way. And the trees themselves, are less beautiful and more impressive in their ability to survive and even thrive in the harshest environment. I highly recommend this park to anyone who loves nature and National Parks. There isn't much truly untouched land left in this country, and there is nothing more refreshing than a breath of real fresh air.

The sign at the entrance

A field of tumbleweeds and Joshua trees

This tree was so impressive - it was huge and looked more like a Live Oak than a Joshua tree!

Trees as far as you can see!

#4: The Queen Mary

My best friend used to bartend at a restaurant in the Long Beach Harbor, and whenever I needed hours of "discount" drinks, I would sit at her bar and look out at the regal Queen Mary ship, stationed in the Harbor. I had always wanted to take a tour, but as is the typical story, never really found the time. Well, at work we are re-releasing Titanic in 3D (which is going to be amazing, trust me) which also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the ship's fateful sinking. With big ships on the mind, I made a point of driving down to Long Beach a few weeks ago, excited to learn all of the interesting history of the Queen Mary.

We got to the ship after lunch, and it was perfect. The morning had been pretty overcast, and we got there right as the sun broke out. We explored on our own for about half an hour, then jumped on a "behind the scenes" tour. The tour cost an additional $8 on top of the admission price, but it was totally worth it. The ship is now a hotel and event space, and though it is technically a museum as well, there aren't many explanatory exhibits or placards to inform someone who just wants to walk around on their own.

The first thing the tour guide did was give us some facts comparing the Queen Mary to that "other famous ship" the Titanic. They were made by the same company (after the original company that started the QM was forced to merge with Titanic's company due to the Great Depression). Though the Titanic is always thought of as "the biggest ship of all time," the Queen Mary is actually twice the size (and was built 20 years later).

The Queen Mary was initially built to be a luxury cruise-liner for only about 1,000 patrons. I knew about that much going into the tour, but I had no idea of the true historic value of the ship. Since it was built to (literally) be the biggest and the fastest in the world, when World War II broke out the ship was commissioned into the British Army to transport troops from Australia, and then the United States, to Europe. They stripped out all the luxury furnishings and finery and put in barracks and painted the whole thing battleship grey. The trip from New York to England took about 5 days, and the ship consistently transported 10,000+ troops at a time. At one time, they crammed over 16,000 troops on one trip, and that still holds the record as the most people on a boat, ever. There weren't nearly enough beds for every man on board, so they had to actually sleep in shifts! The tour guide gave us the pretty amazing fact that experts estimate that the Queen Mary's service and ability to quickly transport troops to Europe when needed, shortened the length of the war by at least a year. Crazy!

Ok blah blah blah, trivia aside, the Queen Mary's story finishes like this: After WWII ended, the ship went back to being a luxury cruise liner for about 20 more years. But by the 1960's, air travel had become affordable and preferable and the trans-Atlantic cruise lines started to lose money. The owner of the Queen Mary decided to auction it off to the highest bidder, which happened to be the City of Long Beach. It was then "shipped" (hah hah) from England to California, but since it is way too big to fit through the Panama Canal, it had to go all the way around the horn of South America. The ship came, was anchored, completely re-vamped to its art-deco glory, and turned into a hotel, event space, museum and historical site.

After our tour, we passed up an opportunity to take a "Ghosts & Legends" tour, which takes people around the ship, pointing out all the sites of noted paranormal activity. I'm not a huge fan of ghosts and such, so instead we went to the bar at the bow of the ship (with all the original fixtures and decor!) and had a drink. After drinks, we took a quick tour of the engine room (mostly gutted of the boilers and propellers, but mocked up to show us what the actual controls looked like).

Our last stop was walking through the Soviet submarine Scorpion which is in the harbor right next to the QM. The submarine was crazy, so small and cramped and I can't even imagine someone living in one!

Overall, the experience was really, really interesting and a lot of fun. I am so glad we went on a beautiful day and enjoyed the harbor in the sunshine. I highly recommend it to those people (like me) that had seen the ship from afar but have never stepped foot inside. The tour was fascinating, but more than enough for me - I don't think I will stay aboard the haunted hotel anytime soon! But maybe I'll go back for Sunday brunch sometime.

The ship, with the entrance to the submarine in front and the hotel entrance in the background.

The port deck

An original shop, now turned into a gift shop, shows the ship's original art-deco beauty.

Not a great picture, but this illustrates that the ship has over 30 types of beautiful woods in it, some of which are now extinct!

The bow, with some mock WWII weapons on the deck.

The control room... I can't even describe how cramped and crazy and complicated this room was! Pretty incredible considering it powered the fastest ship in the world.

The missile compartment of the Soviet submarine Scorpion.

Enjoying a cocktail on the bow with the Long Beach harbor in the background.

#45: The Rose Bowl Flea Market

I have become a recent fan of flea markets, in particular the weekly one near my neighborhood called the Melrose Trading Post. I've been about 7 times and have always come home with new treasures. But you can't become a flea market fan without eventually hearing about the Mother of all the flea markets - the Rose Bowl Flea Market, held once a month in the giant parking lot of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Loyal and die hard flea marketers have been flocking there for over 40 years!

The market only comes around once a month on the 2nd Sunday, so Barbara, Lana, Dan and I planned a trip for February. Lana and Dan are getting married in May and wanted to find inspiring vintage accents for their wedding decor. Barb and I were looking for cowboy boots for our impending trip to Nashville, as well as a few other things. And of course, we were all open to uncovering any of the many treasures the flea market had to offer!

After suffering through 30 minutes of traffic just to park, we walked through the gates, paid the $8 entrance fee, and headed into the sea of vendors. There are over 2,500 vendors that come monthly to the market, and tens of thousands of patrons. It was overwhelming to say the least! We veered to the left as we had heard that was towards the vintage vendors. To the right was apparently all the new and hand-made crafts vendors, but we didn't have time to even peek at that side.

It took us a while to get going. The place was a maze of booth after booth of mostly overpriced vintage/used goods. As it is with any flea market, you have to hunt for the good stuff. I made the first purchase of the day when I saw a table covered in a massive tangle of gold jewelry, and some hipster girls digging through it trying on different bracelets. I noticed a very thin gold bangle, and fell in love. I began to dig through the pile and found 9 bangles, all about 2 millimeters thick, and all with different etchings in them. They are now my new favorite accessory, and all together cost $10. I had to hunt, but I found a treasure!

After my initial find, we were on a roll. Barbara found a berry-picking bucket (adorable), Lana and Dan found three fantastic shabby-chic frames (I'm going to help them make chalkboards), I found a gold-filegree mirrored tray for $5, then Barb and I found our biggest prize. We wanted to find the perfect vintage boot for our Nashville trip, so as to not look like tourist posers in brand new boots. After trying on boot after boot that didn't come close to fitting (apparently cowboy boot sizing is different than normal shoes and is completely incomprehensible) I found the perfect pair. A warm shade of reddish brown, with a slight heel, they fit like they were made for me! I was ready to drop some cash on the boots, and the seller told me they were $15. I could hardly believe it! Barb found her own camel colored beauties only a few minutes later, for $20.

By that time, the market had gotten super crowded, we were hungry, and our shopping bags were full. We meandered towards the exit, and were out of the Rose Bowl in minutes.

The Rose Bowl Flea Market was a BLAST. It was overwhelming, sensory overload, inspiration galore, and overall a fairly inexpensive way to find beautiful vintage found objects. I can't wait to go back - and to go earlier! Admission is more expensive in the morning, but the crowds will be lighter and the goods will be even better!

They give $2 bills as change!

Lana and me - showing off our flea market fashion!

#1 most over-priced items at the flea market - vintage books. You can find these at thrift shops for $1. The cheapest ones we found at the flea market were around $10. Ridiculous.

Lana perusing vintage books before she saw the price tags.

These jars were beautiful and inspiring, shining in the sunlight!

Perfectly worn shutters gave me lots of craft ideas.

Trying on my fab cowboy boots!

The flea market definitely had a carnie feel - complete with carnival music as we entered and exited!

#43: The Grammy Museum

You can't walk far in downtown's LA Live Plaza without seeing the huge grammy plaques inlaid in the sidewalk.

I figured they were the musical take on the Hollywood walk of fame, but only when I actually read the plaque did I realize that it was advertising the new Grammy Museum, tucked on the north-east corner of the LA Live complex.

Even though I work in the film industry (and LOVE to participate in our office Oscar prediction pools), I have always loved the Grammies the most of all the awards shows. I was never as interested in the winners as much as I was in the performances, the fashion, and the outrageous stage crashers... soy bomb, anyone?

We headed to downtown, found parking on the street (!!!) and paid the $12 admission fee. The museum is 4 floors, and they tell you to start on the top floor, which is dedicated to exploring and learning about all genres of music. As you could imagine, dedicating a single floor of a museum to all genres of music must have been a very overwhelming undertaking. However, they did a really good job. The majority of the exhibits were interactive, where you could read about a type of music and hear a clip of that genre through headphones. There were several stations with 5-minute videos on genres like classical, pop, gospel, and folk. The highlight was the station in the center of the room, which used touch technology to explore how all the different genres are connected. For instance, my station started on Rock n Roll. I read a paragraph about rock n roll, heard a few clips from famous artists (Elvis and Roy Orbison), and then had the option to select several other related genres - country, rockabilly or progressive rock. I selected country, then honkeytonk, then folk, then cowboy, then roots, then blues, then jazz, then freestyle jazz, then classical, etc etc etc. I stood at the station for at least 30 minutes, absolutely enthralled with all the visual and audio information.

For as much information as I was faced with on that single floor of the museum, it wasn't overwhelming. It was easy to absorb, and we headed down to the third floor with our heads spinning with musical knowledge.

The third floor is dedicated to the Grammies in general. There was a gallery of all the different Grammy trophies through the years, famous outfits worn at the Grammies -like JLo's green dress, Katy Perry's fruit outfit, etc (see below), and a small theater playing a loop of the best Grammy performances. It was fantastic! And definitely got me pumped for this year's Grammies.

There was another room dedicated to Michael Jackson, with videos of his several Grammy acceptance speeches and performances, and a row of all his fabulous, glittery military jackets. Up close, they were breathtaking. So fancy and fit for only a performer like MJ.

The 2nd floor, and a main reason why I wanted to go to the museum, is for the changing exhibits. Now through the end of March, the museum is featuring George Harrison: Living in the Material World. It featured artifacts from every phase of his career - handwritten lyrics, guitars, sitars, photos galore, and clothing. The most interesting thing I learned from that exhibit (since I already do know a lot about George) was how TINY he was. His suits were no taller than me, and the pants were the size of twigs! It's hard to imagine that such a larger-than-life person really was so small in "real" life.

Overall, the Grammy museum was a great experience. As a lover of music, I very much enjoyed seeing all the "greats" from over the years being recognized. Learning how all the different genres of music connect was fascinating, and I wouldn't mind going back just to explore the top floor again. Most of the time, interactive museums are exhausting, but this one was done really well, and the interaction was essential to the experience. I highly recommend spending about three hours and checking out this museum!

A 6-foot tall statue replica in the main lobby

THE Dress (which was absolutely stunning - even on a mannequin) from 2000

MJ's collection of sequined military jackets

Daft Punk tron outfit from 2008

Katy Perry's booby-licious fruit dress from 2009

A wall of George Harrison