Visit to Los Angeles

This weekend I traveled to Los Angeles to visit my Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Julie, Grandma Elise, cousins Rivkah, Dvorah, Hannah, and Akiva. And my dad, step-mom, and brother Alex drove down from Sacramento as well. We visited the Watts Towers, constructed over a period of decades by Simon Rodia, an uneducated Italian immigrant who moved to Watts in 1921. Rodia was a laborer by day and in the evenings and weekends he would work on the towers, which are made of rebar covered in concrete. Rodia covered the concrete with shards of glass soda bottles, broken plates, tiles, sea shells, and other found objects like a boot. He used only simple tools like a hammer and chisel and bent the rebar on the nearby railroad track to make the curved structural elemets. He didn't use any scaffolding either so climbed up the towers to work, until he finished in his late 70s. At one time the city tried to tear down the towers, claiming they were an eyesore and not structurally sound. A truck pulled cables attached to the tops of the towers, but the cables snapped and the demolition effort was abandoned. The towers have not wavered despite many earthquakes and being exposed to the elements. They are truly an amazing piece of artwork.

We also visited the University of Southern California campus; USC has graduated the most Olympians of any university in the country. And we ate dinner at Shiloh, the best Kosher restaurant I've ever been to.

The family, minus Dad.

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