The Watts Towers are surrounded by a high gate, protecting them from the neighborhood, the neighborhood that has significantly changed since they were built, fifty years ago. And so you can only see the interior during the Watts Tower Tour, which runs every half hour.
Which is where we met Syni, who...man, she was awesome. Vivacious, spirited, giving us the "secret history" of the Towers, we had a ball listening to every word coming out of her mouth. And at the end of the tour she performed, that's right, performed a poem inspired by the Towers, which of course at first seemed ridiculous, but hell if I wasn't completely into it by the time she finished.
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I won't give you the whole long rundown on the Towers, you'll have to come down to LA yourself for that, but I'll tell you this: an old Italian guy moved to LA, spent thirty years building them out of parts he found in the trash, mortar, and tiles he stole from work. All by himself. THIRTY YEARS. And not too long after he finished, he up and moved away, never to return. The Towers have withstood earthquakes, fire, the neighborhood, city planners, vampires, godzilla, ennui, and much much more. And they are magnificent.
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Not much for "in the car" shots, but was able to catch this quasi-spontaneous moment. "quasi" in that, once I saw she had this expression, i gave her the old "don't move!" while i set up.
Watts is nowhere near me, or Kim, or where Tod & Andrea were staying. Which meant a nice freeway ride there, and a nice freeway ride back, Sunday being the only day of the week where the LA freeways do what they were intended, and work as planned.
Explanation of this look: a)hunger, b)regret at not staying at the Watts Towers and watching the kids who were being filmed to hula hoop, c)sadness at the crazy old italian man who made the Watts Towers then just up and left without any explanation, or d)despair at the sorry state of the U.S. ghettos.
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Did I happen to mention, that in addition to my art show and burning down the city w/ Tod Brilliant, I also did a photo shoot last week?
Did I mention that I will, in all likelihood, have done at least one photo shoot for every weekend in June by the end of this crazy ass month?
Did I mention I'm dog tired? What with the Polaroid Nerd Out: San Francisco a little more than two weeks away, I realize that in the month of June I will have used up more than 70 packs of Polaroid film.
I think it's time for a break. I think I'm gonna take the month of July off. Not that you all will ever know it, I'll have so many shots from this month. I could probably go another two months without shooting, and still be able to post every day.
But, before all that, Tiffany!
Tiffany works with Tash over at Tarina Tarantino. Heh, lots of Ts.
Tiffany's moving at the end of the month, gonna hang out in Florida for awhile, do a bit of her own battery recharge. In a lot of ways, she reminds me of myself from a few years ago, with a lot of interests, but no clear goal. So she's gonna take a sabbatical from her life, see if she can't find a focus.
We should all get that, a Summer Break from our lives, to take stock, make sure we're on the right path, or find that path if we're just "walking" around.
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Stairs are all well and good, but me, I'm a people person. What I need to do is paint people in the Polaroid colors. Now THAT'S a shot.
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