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California
- May 2002 (Page 2)
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On May 22nd, I flew down to Los Angeles, staying at Patsy Carter's bed & breakfast, The Inn at 657 (657 West 23rd Street) - convenient to downtown and the University of Southern California, and Patsy makes a swell breakfast.
I had this sitting room to myself, along with a diningroom and full kitchen.
The first thing I noticed - from the airport shuttle - were these marvelous blue-flowered trees. Colleague Judy Issokson calls them Acacia. A close look at the flowers suggests that they're in the Bignoniaceae. Whatever else you call them, they're magnificent.
Trees made a big impression on this trip. This monster towers over the entrance to the California Automobile Club's beautiful headquarters on Figueroa.
And this gnarly tree was on the USC campus.
Arthur Rackham would approve.
And here is the inflorescence, showing red fruits that smelled like bell peppers.
A royal palm. Note the "cone" - any doubt that this is an ancient plant?
Architecture was a close second to trees and flowers. The USC campus was superb, as was this church.
I think this was the church rectory.
I can't avoid sharing some flower photos. My father would have enjoyed this Bird of Paradise. He managed to get one to bloom in our NY home - after eigth years trying.
These Iris were in Patsy's front yard.
And this Passion Flower was blooming on a chain-link fence across the street. With it was a shrub Judy called Pepper Bush. I believe it is a form of Privet; it certainly was fragrant as a Privet would be.
Across from the USC campus, on Exposition Blvd., is a huge public Rose Garden
And now for something completely different... After
work on May 23rd, I paid a much-anticipated visit to the It's housed in an unassuming building in Culver City...
...but the contents are marvelous. My favorite exhibit was several microminiature sculptures by Hagop Sandaldjian. These samples, and many more, are reproduced in a book titled, "The Eye of the Needle" by Ralph Rugoff, available through the museum store (310-836-6131).
Another favorite was a description of Geoffrey Sonnabend's "Oblescence: Theories of Forgetting and the Problems of Matter." Sonnabend, who may or may not have ever existed, "departed from all previous memory research with the premise that memory is an illusion. Forgetting, he believed, not remembering, is the inevitable outcome of all experience." Here is a wonderful diagram explaining Sonnabend's theory.
(What wonderful terminology!) Megan, at "RoadTrip America", says this about the Museum of Jurassic Technology: "We wandered and listened and peered, and I kept wondering. What is this place? What's true? What's false? My mind, caught off guard by images from a world I never knew existed, struggled to label and evaluate and categorize and... finally, I gave up. I suspended judgment. I let go and slid down the rabbit hole. Like Alice, I found myself in an unexpected wonderland." I couldn't have said it better myself. Lawrence Weschler did an audio piece about the MJT for NPR several years ago. Here's a brief quote: "At first glance, his (David Wilson's) museum may seem like any other, although almost immediately you begin to experience the slight sense of slippage. For instance, the very first display you encounter is an exhibit entitled "Protective Auditory Mimicry." Together, encased under glass, are displayed a luminous iridescent beetle and next to it a similarly tiny iridescent pebble. The wall placard to the side asserts that over the eons this beetle has adapted to make precisely the same sound when threatened that this pebble makes at rest." Isn't that great? "Slippage" - I can see myself adopting the term Weschler has published a book about the MJT called, "Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders." Available from Amazon.com for under $10. For a review, see: http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/perlscript/review.pl?1973. Oh, and lest you think the MJT's founder isn't serious, David Wilson was recently awarded a $500k "Genius Grant" from the MacArthur Foundation. |
