(When I'm asked, I recommend an even trade with Hawaii. Hawaiian needs more consonants
and fewer vowels and Welsh more vowels and fewer consonants. An even one-for-one swap
would improve both. And they both need a space-bar to break up those words -- They're
worse than Germans.)
We continued on, puzzling about the Welsh names. Perhaps Wales was shipping coal to the Spanish Missions and a bunch of Welshmen jumped ship (which makes sense -- Wales: gloom, rain, cold and coal mines. California: sun, no rain, warm and gold mines)
-- (Don Pueblos Cyn Road, Montecito Cyn, and Simi Cyn). --
Then dw said: "I think 'Cyn' is an abbreviation for 'Canyon'." Of course she was correct even if it was a disappointment. Wales fit so well. Spanish Missions: a lot of singing, and Welshmen sing up a storm. --- Spanish without the singing Welsh: castanets, guitars and a lot of stomping around with tap shoes. I think the Welsh should have been there singing and naming things.
(An irrelevant comment regarding Spanish Missions and singing: Catholics really need to
hire some Southern Baptists to come to mass and teach the congregation how to sing. I
don't think every hymn needs to sound like an atonal dirge.)
dw had located a modest but nice motel in downtown Santa Monica, just two blocks from the beach. We arrived about noon, signed in, unloaded the car, then crossed the street and walked through the Best Farmers Market In the U.S. -- I'm not sure who voted it the Best, and though it was good (and we each had a tasty lunch of sausage dogs) it wasn't the Best Farmers Market In The World, so it actually didn't count for much.
It was still early enough so we drove to Watts to see the Watts Towers. More correctly the Rodia Towers in Watts. Working strictly by himself Sabato (Simon) Rodia built the towers between 1921 and 1955. In 1955 he deeded the land and project to a neighbor and moved to Martinez, CA where he died in 1965.
The towers are built of rebar, wrought iron and scrap steel, encased in concrete embedded with broken bottles, dishes, tiles, pottery, rocks and etc. It's on a triangular lot and refers to a sailing ship with the obvious masts and a prow and stern. Rodia built the thing without any help (he was proud of that fact) and without any scaffolding. He just climbed the towers as they got higher, carrying the iron and buckets of cement and pieces of crockery -- one hand for himself, and one hand for the job. For dw and I the Rodia Towers are one of the most amazing pieces of outsider art, or folk art works ever done anywhere. They really are a Best In The World.
A little side note: Art Tatum* was a kid in the neighborhood when Rodia was building the towers and Tatum helped collect some of the pieces of broken pottery that Simon used -- in one case raiding his (Tatum's) mother's kitchen and breaking some plates to give to Rodia. Adjacent to the Towers, and a Towers museum, is an Art Tatum Museum.
After Watts, we drove to Wilshire Blvd, parked and walked around a bit -- Including Rodeo (and why can't those people pronounce it correctly?) Drive where we lived large with a Rodeo Drive Ice Cream Cone. (which was good, but definitely not the Best In the World).
Back to the motel, dinner and an after-dark walk along Venice Beach boardwalk.
We discussed it and decided to take the bus for the rest of our stay. Driving (including the freeways) wasn't as bad as horror stories would make it, but we didn't want to struggle to find parking. So the bus it was. L.A.'s public transportation is supposed to be awful but it worked fine for us. Our motel in Santa Monica was on a connecting bus line, but we walked about a mile and got a direct bus to downtown. It was so easy at one point we helped young woman who only spoke Spanish to find the bus she needed. --- There's a good chance we aided and abetted an illegal alien, tsk, tsk. ---
One passenger on our way downtown had a box knife in a belt holster. At first I thought: "What a jerk." but I reconsidered. LA is a very big city and I have no doubt that many people need to have cardboard boxes opened. There easily could have been several on that very bus. The young man, all tatted up and pierced, might have been a helpful citizen ready, willing and eager to help with troublesome cardboard boxes.
In any event, we visited LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) Which has a new and very impressive building complex with three wonderful outside installations: The floating rock, the hanging "spaghetti" and the lampposts. The collections inside the building were nice but a smaller assortment than we expected.
We went into the Craft And Folk Art Museum -- a small place with some things of interest, and one exhibit (out of several) that featured a New England artist -- I don't remember her name -- who attempted to combine weather reports, storms, sea reports, ship wrecks, small towns and written music into each of her works. Each piece was large, busy, and, well, dw and I agreed, they were busy. And they seemed to have movable parts. And they were busy. And colorful.Another work to all appearances was a few up-ended trash cans. But the artists statement assured any viewer that it actually was a statement about "re-purposing", and "found art" and the "state of the ocean" and our "throw-away society". Despite appearances the work is a trenchant comment on society. OK then.
We returned to Rodeo Drive and walked around (alas, no stars or even wannabes) looking at absurd shoes, unwearable clothes (at least we wouldn't wear them) and each store seemed to have a large collection of watches in their window. Apparently wrist watches were the gift of the season. I commented to dw about all of the ugly $5000 to $10,000 watches. She said: "Ha, more like $20,000 to $50,000." and she was probably right. There were some attractive ones. But most reminded me of the old wind-up Big Ben alarm clocks. There were about that size and about that subtle. --- Appealing to the "I just spent $50,000 on this MF and By God, people are going to notice it." crowd.
And at the last of the day we went to Hollywood Blvd -- The walk of Stars, Grauman's Chinese Theater (matched our feet and hands with past notables -- I'm bigger, sometimes by a fair margin, than most movie notables) Walked by, but didn't stay for the premier of "Frozen" (Hollywood Blvd was blocked off, a Styrofoam iceberg was erected (with a spot for photos) a bunch of white crap was spread over the street) and all we would have had to do was wait for the voice performers, who were sitting in limos waiting for their entrance cue.--- Didn't seem worth it.
--- And we watched a few street performers: A Marilyn Monroe dressed in the famous air-vent blown white dress --- this Marilyn was blond, pretty and about a foot and a half too tall. -- A pocket sized Darth Vader about a foot and a half too short. -- Two Wolverines, one with a Freddy Kruger mask. -- A Minnie Mouse. -- A short pudgy Spiderman. --- The magic of Hollywood. (if you take their picture, they expect money -- they weren't that interesting)We walked through a Hollywood Blvd mall (seeking a restroom -- found one) Walking through the mall -- A sales person to dw: "Oh, you're so pretty!" (actually I have to agree)
dw with a smile: "Thank you. I still don't want your tour."
At another spot a sales person gave dw a hand lotion sample, and then lured her into the store to try some under-eye wrinkle lotion (with real powdered diamonds) and offered more samples which dw declined with a smile and a polite no, and we really didn't have more time.
Clerk: "You don't even have five seconds?"
dw with a smile: "No."
The bus back to our motel went down Santa Monica Blvd. Despite the glamorous name Santa Monica Blvd reminded me of Portland's own Sandy Blvd -- SMB is just longer and bigger.
Finally we went to Santa Monica Pier where we rode the Ferris Wheel. SM Pier is a largish standard amusement park -- actually on a pier. Certainly pleasant and well maintained, but not particularly remarkable.We walked Venice Boardwalk. Again a large, but standard type of place. A typical two mile long beach boardwalk (It probably would be more interesting in warmer weather -- there were plenty of people walking but no bikini babes or other unusual local (or tourist) fauna.) All of the sidewalk vendors had their own numbered space -- some of the art work was interesting, and a few of the buskers were good enough that we gave them money. The shops were common seaside t-shirt, beads, feathered crap, hats and sun glasses. (with one very good new/used book store) Over priced stale hot-dogs and coke shops. Expensive beer. Etc.
(I don't mean to be overly cynical or blase' I'm glad we walked the Boardwalk and if or when we return, we would walk it again -- but it's not the exciting happening place that movies make it to be)
While we walked, I noticed several young men and women, clad in chartreuse safety vests, mixing with the walkers, talking, being sociable. I thought they were private security people walking around, "How you doin'" keeping a lid on things -- until one of them approached me and gave me a card for the Beach Side Collective. (MarijuanaVenice, etc) "The Best Deals In Town" "Sour Diesel, Girl's Scout, Fire Og and Platinum Og." Become an Official Medical Marijuana Card carrying patient and first time patients receive a free joint or free edible! I declined, but it was interesting. There were four or five stores "Serving certified patients and caregivers under CA Prop 215" in the two miles we walked. We never imagined there were so many ambulatory patients needing MJ walking the Boardwalk. Land Of The Lotus Eaters indeed.
And we stopped at Muscle Beach which was also pretty quiet. We briefly watched some sort of commercial, or promo with some sort of boxer being filmed. Nobody we knew. Watched a few people working out -- they looked pretty much like I do. Except for one guy who was doing handstands, and walking around on his hands. He obviously spent a LOT of time working out and keeping his body fat below 5%. Actually that guy looked different from me. Finally we drove home. Enjoying a nice view of Mt. Shasta on the way. And so it goes. DJA
