Watts Towers

WattsTowers_March2007 024
Originally uploaded by Minnaert.

We went to Watts Towers last weekend. Watts remains not the best neighborhood, but the towers are really quite cool. Reminds you a lot of Gaudi's buildings in Barcelona. The towers were built by Simon Rodia over 30 years, starting in 1921. Definitely worth seeing... the tour tries to make him seem more sane than he most likely was.

whomever visits us next is going to get the hard sell to visit them.

- Gary

updatin' the guest bedroom

The guest bedroom is a work in progress. it's never ending, as i guess most people's guest bedroom is. We had a pretty cluttery collection of things in an open storage wicker type shelves which basically drove Sarah crazy. So we got a new cabinet thingie from IKEA the other day.

Kinda nice, as always with IKEA, you can pick out all the different styles. We wanted something bright, since the walls are yellow in the room. So glossy red doors it was.



IKEA is always an adventure though. We go to the one in Burbank... and they have insane people working the parking lot there. The line of cars for the loading parking lot was around the block, yet not all the spaces in the lot were taken. The concepts of using the spaces in the lot efficiently was lost on those guys. I would hate to see their closet organization... it's probably a mess. Very un-scandinavian of them.

-Gary

Good weather & a turtle on the bike

It has been so much like summer here the last couple weeks, we have been trying to be outside on the weekends. We rode our cruiser bikes to the Hollywood Farmers Market over the weekend. Then we rode around town a bit, did some shopping. LA is nice in that it is mostly flat, so the cruiser bike does just fine with a single gear.



Anyway, Sarah got a new turtle horn for her bike, or 'turtle honker' as we call it some times.

We wear the helmets on the cruiser bikes, which makes us somewhat abnormal from the typical cruiser bike rider. But there are cars around here, piloted by actors and agents on cell phones. The best justification I have heard recently for wearing a helmet is "it's the difference between taking care of a few scrapes on your body to relearning the alphabet."

- Gary

the Uberorgan

We went to an opening at the Getty museum last week, Zoopsia: New Works by Tim Hawkinson. The part we thought was the best and most strange was this huge installation called the Uberorgan. It was basically a self playing organ which took up the entire 3 story entrance building of the museum. It looks like internal organs, and plays music. Madness! I want one in our house.

Acura LA bike tour 2007

Los Angeles has this great bike tour which is held before the LA Marathon each year. Riders get to essentially ride the marathon course before the runners have at it. It's a great tour of the city on closed streets. Gary rode it this year... and I took a couple photos.

Starting out at the LA Memorial Coliseum. It's a little packed here. Over 10,000 riders showed up.

Peace man.

Downtown view from Boyle Heights

I think these guys were Canadian. We are heading back into downtown.

Did you know the Scientologists had a cycling team? Only in LA.

And, of course, the Japanese drumming team welcomed us back. It was a round trip back to the Coliseum. About 23 miles in total.

- Gary