Podcasts about watts towers

This week Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán blesses the podcast with his experience and wisdom! We obviously talk about cats. We also explore bipolar disorder, Watts Towers, grad school, PAINTING, agave in Tepatitlán (which Kate struggles to pronounce), regrets, perseverance, and so much more.The music in this episode is by aivi & surasshuHéctor Muñoz-Guzmán: Brown Eyes from Russell StreetCreative GrowthWatts Towers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1921, artist Sam Rodia began construction on his Watts Towers. Thirty-three years later seventeen sculptures rose as high as thirty meters over Los Angeles. Musician Jerry Garcia was dismissive of Rodia’s lifework. “That’s the payoff,” said Garcia. “That thing that exists after you’re dead.” Then he said, “Wow, that’s not it for me.” So what was the payoff for him? His bandmate Bob Weir summed up their philosophy: “In eternity, nothing will be remembered of you. So why not just have fun?” A wealthy, wise man once tried to find the “payoff” by doing everything he possibly could. He wrote, “I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good’ ” (Ecclesiastes 2:1). But he noted, “The wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered” (v. 16). He concluded, “The work that is done under the sun was grievous to me” (v. 17). The life and message of Jesus radically counter such shortsighted living. Jesus came to give us “life to the full” (John 10:10) and taught us to live this life with the next one in view. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,” He said. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20). Then He summed it up: “Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (v. 33). That’s the payoff—both under the sun and beyond.

SABATO RODIA SPENT 34 YEARS BUILDING 100 FOOT HIGH TOWERS OF ART IN HIS BACKYARD. WHAT IS YOUR MISSION?

Ultra Silk Gallery 3808 Lancaster Avenue Philadelphia Pa 1904 Links:https://www.pbssocal.org/arts-culture/ramsess-portraits-honor-historic-figures-in-black- historyhttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jul-26-cl-58975-story.html RAMSESS Biography:Chance encounters often produce wondrous results. As a young man, Ramsess watched a documentary on the life of Paul Robeson and in that instant, an artist emerged. With his newfound interest and God-given talent, Ramsess studied art with assistance from the L.A. Times Art Department.  A quiet self-effacing man with unassuming ways, a ready wit, and a loud booming laugh that takes one by surprise, Ramsess prefers to let his work speak for itself. On rare occasions when he speaks of his work, a serious turn of mind is revealed.For almost 30 years, Los Angeles-based Ramsess has been an artist working in various media – pen and ink, acrylics, oils, watercolors, stained and etched glass, sculpture, mosaics, and textiles. His mastery is displayed in portraiture, abstract, and caricature. He began quilting in 2010, producing a wide range of quilts and wall hangings. He produces Jazz and African-American historical calendars, note cards, and wearable art. In addition to illustrating his own series of coloring books, he recently illustrated a book authored by drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.Ramsess has participated in regional exhibitions in California including but not limited to, The Skirball Cultural Center, Art and Practice, The Brockman Gallery, The Watts Towers, Sargent Gallery, First African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival. Nationally at the Colorado Art Jazz Festival, Telluride Jazz Fest, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Jacksonville and Clearwater Jazz Festivals, Association of Jazz Educators, WGBO radio, and the famed St. Peter's Church in NYC. His work has appeared on numerous television shows and films, most recently Issa Rae's Insecure. Globally in South Africa, Tokyo, Leningrad, Frankfurt, Paris, Montreal, and Barcelona and Montreal.The collections of Anna Marie Horsford, Samuel L. Jackson, Dianne Reeves, Baltimore Museum of Art, Glynn Turman,  Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Clifford Brown Jr., Marshall Allen (Sun Ra), Santana, Cindy Blackman, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Meshell Ndegeocello,Although the list of collectors and exhibits is impressive, Ramsess is equally grateful and humbled by the everyday customer who purchases his cards, calendars, coloring books, and wearable art. He sees their appreciation for his work on par with and as esteemed as the collectors of note. Ultra Silk Gallery Series featuring RamsessJust giving you the list of acknowledgments that were involved in this exhibition1. Ms. Rashida Watson and Ms. Kenya ( of Ultra Silk Gallery)2. Ramesess (Artist)3. Asake Denise Jones (whatever title she gave)These are organizations present that should be Acknowledged: The Colored Girls Museum, Tanner House, Chris Roger's

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 968, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: On Ice 1: Put this letter on "ice" and you get what Mickey and Minnie are. M (mice). 2: Put this letter on "ice" and you get gaming material that may be loaded. D (dice). 3: Put this letter on "ice" and you get the kind of "guys" who "finish last". N (nice). 4: Put this letter on "ice" and you get the type of crime Crockett and Tubbs fought. V (vice). 5: Put this letter on "ice" and you get a grain grown in paddies. R (rice). Round 2. Category: Classic Monopoly Tokens 1: You wear one of these to protect your fingers when sewing. a thimble. 2: The one Lincoln wore to Ford's Theatre is in the Smithsonian. a top hat. 3: Awaiting the inevitable is like "waiting for the other" this "to drop". the shoe. 4: On May 30, 2010 Dario Franchitti claimed a big victory in one. a racecar. 5: It's also a classic combat game from Milton Bradley. the battleship. Round 3. Category: Althing 1: Formed in 930 A.D., the Althing of this country is one of the oldest legislative assemblies in the world. Iceland. 2: There are this many members of the Althing--they'll always fall one short of filling an entire checkerboard. sixty-three. 3: This position that has the country's real power (and the cabinet) is appointed by the president with the Althing's approval. the prime minister. 4: In 1874 the king of this nearby Scandinavian country vested the Althing with legislative power in internal affairs. Denmark. 5: The Althing had an upper and lower house until 1991; now it's this type of legislature, meaning "one chamber". unicameral. Round 4. Category: Capitals At Statehood 1: Augusta. Georgia. 2: San Jose. California. 3: Huntsville. Alabama. 4: Guthrie. Oklahoma. 5: Wheeling. West Virginia. Round 5. Category: Mayor Garcetti'S Los Angeles 1: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) Just north of Hollywood and Vine, the studios at Capitol Records have been used by Frank Sinatra, Green Day, Sam Smith and this band, who recorded their "Surfin' Safari" album in the tower. the Beach Boys. 2: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) The Hollywood Sign was originally the Hollywoodland Sign, a $21,000 billboard in 1923, for this 2-word type of development owned by the publisher of the L.A. Times. real estate. 3: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) Using the term "California romanza" to mean "freedom to make one's own form", this 3-named architect's first L.A. project, Hollyhock House, was completed in 1921. Frank Lloyd Wright. 4: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) At L.A.'s Griffith Observatory, the Astronomers Monument features 6 giants of the field: Hipparchus, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Herschel and this Italian genius. Galileo. 5: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) Between 1921 and 1955 Italian immigrant Simon Rodia constructed a collection of 17 structures he called Nuestro Pueblo or "Our Town"; today, it's a National Historic Landmark known as this. the Watts Towers. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

0:00 - Intro & Summary2:00 - Movie Discussion53:01- Cast & Crew59:38 - Pop Culture 1:05:47 -  Rankings & Ratings To see a full list of movies we will be watching and shows notes, please follow our website: https://www.1991movierewind.com/Follow us!https://linktr.ee/1991movierewind Theme: "sunrise-cardio," Jeremy Dinegan (via Storyblocks)Don't forget to rate/review/subscribe/tell your friends to listen to us!

L.A.s first external resource for water was drained dry 100 years ago... well... they have water again... how?!  Watts Towers.  3 decades in the making.  

Tomorrow Is The Problem PodcastWelcome to the ICA Miami Podcast. Each season, we'll explore familiar concepts from everyday life that we often take for granted.We'll expand these concepts to understand their critical historical and cultural underpinnings and forever change the way you view them.The Art of RitualSeason 3 focuses on ancestral ritual practices that find resonance in today's art and culture.We explore the practices of artists as they birth new meanings from ancient rituals, linking past, present, and future.Rituals of Transformation: Betye Saar and Black Feminist ArtFrom a young age, Betye Saar collected objects as a form of ritual, to hone their energy and activate their spirit. To protect and potentialize them.Today's episode explores ritual as a methodology for healing and power. From the ritualization of Betye Saar's installation sites to the reclamation of the black body by Krista Franklin we follow, and deconstruct the Brookes Ship.Time stamps[0:00] Young eyes watch as Simon Rodia builds his Watts Towers.[3:10] Sampada Aranke describes The Liberation of Aunt Jemima.[5:49] Black radical aesthetic existed outside the confines of the Black Panthers political Party, and some artists engaged in it have been collecting overdue on their work in the past 15 years.[7:34] The sacred magic of everyday objects as conduits of transformative energy for Saar.[10:26] Stephanie Seidel explains that while remaining political, Saar's work shifts to a more spiritual way of making art.[11:39] House of Fortune Saar brings in aspects of Haïtian Voodoo and so aspects of ritual become part and parcel of her art.[12:35] The ritual: Imprint, Search, Recycle and Transform, and finally, Release.[15:17] The altar — and the invitation to an offering — in The Wings of Morning.[16:50] Krista Franklin speaks of the altar as a tended space, a place of discipline and surrender.[18:08] The ritual aspect of Saar's work — of any art practice — is rightfully formidable, beautiful, troubling even.[19:15] Voyage Whose Chartings are Unlove was to be a thoughtful piece about literacy and the echoes of the middle passage. Krista speaks of the trauma the creation of the piece activated in her and what it became as it took life.[23:04] Art as a ritual for understanding will be a double-edged sword: it can summon terrifying emotions and ancestral communal memories.[24:51] Troubled Waters, the Brookes Slave Ship, and Saar's poetic use of hope to broaden the Black life violence narrative.[28:17] Reclaiming the wholeness of the black body and using the power latent in objects to create healing and understanding through ritual.[31:32] Rituals as an hommage to the past and a projection into the future. [32:48] Episode 3 is next: A Lightning Stroke: The Poetic Vision of Etel Adnan.Contributors + GuestsSampada Aranke / Researcher and Assistant Professor.Stephanie Seidel / Curator at ICA Miami.Krista Franklin / Writer and Contemporary Artist.Donna Honarpisheh / Assistant Curator and Host.Links + LearnICA MIAMIPodflyBetye SaarSimon RodiaBrookes Slave ShipQuotes + Social“It was actually surprising how quickly this kind of offering grew over the course of the exhibition and how many people brought really specific little items that might remind them of people. I saw buttons, little pearls, and cards. And I think that is something Betye encourages and intends in the work.” — Stephanie Seidel“I reassembled the book and I was going to submerge it in the tank of water, thinking very much about the bodies who were thrown overboard on the slave ships.” — Krista Franklin“I feel like this is exactly the poetic kind of mysticism and energy that Saar is working with. How do we think about the violences that form us, that form the experience of everyday life without merely reducing Black life to those violences by suggesting another way, another set of sensations.” — Sampada Aranke

Antonio Villaraigosa is the 41st mayor of Los Angeles and arguably the most impactful Latino elected official in American history. In this conversation, he talks his roots as blue-collar kid in East LA, how public schools offered him a second chance after early struggles, cutting his teeth as a union organizer and in the civil rights and farm workers' movements, his rapid ascent from freshman legislator to California Assembly Speaker over three years, how his 2001 mayoral loss set the stage for a 2005 win and two successful mayoral terms, the 2018 race for Governor, his current role as Infrastructure Advisor to the state and Governor Newsom, and much more from one of the most unique stories in American politics.(To donate to support The Pro Politics Podcast, you may use this venmo link or inquire by email at mccrary.zachary@gmail.com) IN THIS EPISODE…Overcoming struggles growing up in East LA…The issues and political struggles that first engaged him…Cutting his teeth in union organizing and the civil rights, anti-war, and farm workers' movements…His path from activism to running for office himself in 1994…His path from a freshman legislator to Assembly Speaker in 3 short years…Lessons from his mentor, iconic CA Speaker Willie Brown…Highlights of his time as Assembly Speaker…The decision to run for mayor in 2001…The difference in his 2001 mayoral loss and 2005 blowout win…The 4 core areas of his focus as mayor…His leadership style that led to not losing a single vote to the city council in 8 years…On whether the job of mayor has become harder over the last few years…Looking back of the 2018 Governors' race and why Southern California Democrats have a hard time winning statewide…Other positions and races he's considered from US Senate to President Obama's Transportation Secretary…How mayors across the country network and share ideas…His approach on tackling big issues facing American cities…His current role as an Infrastructure Advisor to Governor Newsom… AND 7th & Broadway, 224 languages, the ACLU, a million trees, Actum, affirmative action, America Fast Forward, Aztlan, Xavier Becerra, Tom Bradley, Boston Consulting, Cathedral High, Cesar Chavez, cheap red wine, Richard M. Daley, Manny Diaz, dog whistles, finding the bathroom, firebrands, freshman football, the Griffith Observatory, Jim Hahn, Kamala Harris, the Hollywood sign, Delores Huerta, Herman Katz, Martin Luther King Jr, the LA Times, the MEChA movement, Measure R, Mt. Baldy, Gavin Newsom, Rosa Parks, quixotic efforts, Simon Rodia, Roosevelt High,  Edward Roybal, SEIU, the Santa Monica Freeway, streamlined permitting, United Teachers of LA, the US Conference of Mayors, the USEOC, the Watts Towers, Pete Wilson…& more!

In this episode, Eric speaks with artist, gallerist, teacher & advocate Alonzo Davis; where they discuss Davis' childhood; growing up in a community of educators near Tuskeege University campus in Alabama, to moving to Los Angeles as a teen… his education in the arts and a life changing road trip that he took with is brother, Dale where they visited with various artists of color around the United States.. which eventually inspired them to open the iconic Brockman Gallery in Leimert park with a mission of spotlighting artists that had been overlooked. They discuss the challenges the Davis brothers faced in making the gallery a reality, the artwork that they displayed, famous visitors and the impact that it had on the community. They discuss Davis' journey as a teacher, mentor and his commitment to his art practice.. his most recent works and upcoming shows. For more visit: www.ericsperspective.comGuest Bio: Alonzo J. Davis' career as an artist spans four decades. A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, Davis moved with his family to Los Angeles in his early teens.  After acquiring an undergraduate degree at Pepperdine College he earned an MFA in Printmaking and Design at Otis Art Institute.  Influenced early on by the assemblagists, Davis soon took wing and began to experiment with a variety of mediums, techniques and themes. At the suggestion of artist and former professor, Charles White, Davis began to produce prints and paintings in series.While he was inspired by travel to Africa, the Caribbean and American Southwest—the colors and patterns of the Pacific Rim cultures also seeped into Davis' artwork.  During the ‘70's and early ‘80's, Davis' involvement in the California mural movement culminated with the 1984 Olympic Murals project.  His Eye on '84 is one of ten murals on the walls of the downtown Los Angeles Harbor Freeway.About Eric's Perspective: A podcast series on African American art with Eric Hanks — African American art specialist, owner of the renowned M. Hanks Gallery and commissioner on the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; offers his perspective on African American art through in-depth conversations with fellow art enthusiasts where they discuss the past, present & future of African American art.For more on Eric's Perspective, visit www.ericsperspective.com#ERICSPERSPECTIVE #AFRICANAMERICAN #ART SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/2vVJkDn LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2B6wB3USpotify: https://spoti.fi/3j6QRmWGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fNNgrYiHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/2KtYGXv Pandora: https://pdora.co/38pFWAmConnect with us ONLINE: Visit Eric's Perspective website: https://bit.ly/2ZQ41x1Facebook: https://bit.ly/3jq5fXPInstagram: https://bit.ly/39jFZxGTwitter: https://bit.ly/2OMRx33 www.mhanksgallery.comAbout Eric Hanks: African American art specialist and owner of the renowned M. Hanks Gallery, Eric Hanks is one of the leading representatives of Black artists, promoting and selling their works nationally to individual and museum collections, publishing exhibition catalogues, teaching art appreciation classes, and writing articles and essays appearing in prestigious art books and various other publications. 

One of the United State's most famous pieces of self-built architecture consists of seventeen interconnected towers that rise like inverted ice cream cones from the ground - the tallest reaching over 100 feet. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/watts-towers

This episode is inspired by the beauty of the Watts Towers and the poverty which surrounds them. The unequal distribution of resources erupts in every square inch of this community and every community like it across this nation. plantmypoetry.com/

I'm super happy to have Elisabetta Covizzi as my guest today! She is an amazing art conservator who is currently in Los Angeles working - among many other museums and institutions - for the Getty Museum and LACMA. Betta will share with us the truly incredible story of Sam Rodia and the Watts Towers. Enjoy! [ITALIAN]

In Episode 13 of The Great Women Artists Podcast, Katy Hessel interviews one of the most important and groundbreaking curators working today, Dr Zoe Whitley on BETYE SAAR!! And WOW was it incredible to record with Zoe at London's Hayward Gallery – where she is senior curator – to discuss the life and work of the now 93 year-old Betye, who featured in Zoe's 2017 Tate Modern (and now touring) exhibition, SOUL OF A NATION!  Betye Saar is one of the most important artists in contemporary art, and currently has solo exhibitions on right now at both MoMA and LACMA! Known for her political collages and assemblages of found objects that mix surreal symbolic imagery with a folk art aesthetic, Saar has contributed enormously to the history of art from her involvement with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s, right up to the present day. Growing up in the 30s and 40s in Los Angeles, Saar was inspired by Joseph Cornell’s assemblages and Simon Rodia’s “Watts Towers” nearby to where she grew up made from found scrap materials.   Raised by strong women who always encouraged her creativity, as well as identity as a black woman, Saar’s work predominately critiques American racism toward blacks. It was in the 1960s that she began collecting images of stereotypes African-American figures from folk culture and advertising of the Jim Crow era, which she transformed into figures of political protest.   A work we discuss in depth is “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” which remains one of her most important works from this era (also exhibited at Zoe's incredible “Soul of a Nation”), a mixed-media assemblage which uses the stereotypical figure of the ‘mammy’ to subvert traditions of race and gender.   Speaking about the work she said: “I feel that The Liberation of Aunt Jemima is my iconic art piece. I had no idea she would become so important to so many. The reason I created her was to combat bigotry and racism and today she stills serves as my warrior against those ills of our society.” She is INCREDIBLE, and a force. And Zoe's enthusiasm, personal approach and expertise in Betye Saar is SO inspiring!!!   If you want to see more then DO NOT miss Zoe's co-curated "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983" currently on view at San Francisco's de Young Museum (https://deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions/soul-of-a-nation); and for those in LA and NYC don't miss her show at MoMA (https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5060) and LACMA (https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/betye-saar-call-and-response). . GO BETYE! Works discussed in this episode/ Further reading Black Girls Window (1969) https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/302The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972) http://revolution.berkeley.edu/liberation-aunt-jemima/ Soul of a Nation at Tate Modern https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/soul-nation-art-age-black-power Here is also an incredible essay recently published in the NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/arts/design/betye-saar.html Thank you for listening!! This episode is sponsored by the National Art Pass and the Affordable Art Fair! @artfund: https://bit.ly/32HJVDk To receive a free tote bag with your National Art Pass, enter the code GREAT at checkout!  @affordableartfairuk: https://affordableartfair.com/ Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Recorded by Joel Price Sound editing by @_ellieclifford Artwork by @thisisaliceskinner Music by Ben Wetherfield https://www.thegreatwomenartists.com/

Explore how the intersectionality of art and science can spark cultural change with Neil deGrasse Tyson, actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, comic co-host Eugene Mirman, contemporary scholar Dorothy Roberts, primatologist Natalia Reagan, linguist Renée Blake, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Thanks to this week's Patrons for supporting us: Erica Thoits, Edward Mann. Dan Cowden, John Yonosh, Peter Kronenberg, and Jane Tanner. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/art-and-science-for-change-with-anna-deavere-smith/ Photo Credit: Brandon Royal

I have heard them described as ugly or an eyesore. I have also heard them described as a feat of human artistic ingenuity. Whatever you may think of their aesthetics, you cannot but marvel at the feat of creation that you will find when you travel deep into the southern end of Los Angeles to a community known as Watts - where an Italian immigrant who was known locally as Simon decided to build something that took over 33 years to construct. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this 38-minute podcast, Joe Lewis shares with listeners Noah Purifoy (1917-2004) the man, the social worker, the Director of the Watts Towers and pioneering arts advocate and activist. Known for his work with the vernacular, read “junk”, which started in 1965 using debris leftover from the Watts Rebellion, Purifoy worked steadily out of Los Angeles, spending the last 15 years of his life in Joshua Tree. Purifoy took debris, mixed it with the vernacular and social issues, and created unique and powerful works, reverberating far beyond the desert.  Lewis describes the influence that the Watts Rebellion had on Purifoy (min. 2), his standout pieces (min. 4), starting of the Foundation and his “studio” (min. 9) and the role of the natural elements in composing (and decomposing) his work. Joe then continues with how it worked in a “proper” museum, surround by white walls (min. 18), special memories (min. 22), his need to go out to Joshua Tree (min. 29) and how the Foundation deals with the elements to preserve his work and legacy.  Feted by the art world, including at LACMA, Purifoy's art transcends what has been termed “Junk Dada” - there is something intensely relevant in our times about inequality, mass consumption and polarization. Feed your soul. Keep listening.   

 From the Watts Towers in Los Angeles to the Forbidden City in Beijing, Geoff Dyer’s newest collection of essays, White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World, explores what defines place: where do we come from, what are we, where are we going? The elegant, witty, and always inquisitive Dyer returns to ALOUD to reflect on his unexpected findings with Jonathan Lethem — celebrated for his novels, essays, and short stories — to illuminate the questions we ask when we step outside ourselves.Click here for photos from the program. 

Join us this week as we focus on the Watts Towers, a unique folk art environment in south Los Angeles. We’ll visit with conservator SylviaContinue Reading

Colin Marshall sits down in Silver Lake, Los Angeles with Vincent Brook, teacher at UCLA, USC, Cal State Los Angeles, and Pierce College, and author of books on Jewish émigré directors and the Jewish sitcom as well as the new Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles. They discuss the difference between Los Angeles obsession and Los Angeles chauvinism; his time in Berkeley, when Los Angeles became the enemy; the Christopher Dorner incident and the old racial wounds it has re-opened; Gangster Squad and the cinematic abuse of Los Angeles history; the city's tendency to repurpose rhetoric about it, no matter how negative, and Reyner Banham's role in that; Los Angeles as Sodom, Gomorrah, and whipping boy; what the German word Stadtbild means, and how Los Angeles lacks it; the great power ascribed to the city by its criticism; whether or not we only use twenty percent of brains, or of cities; hidden places, including but not limited to Barnsdall Park; the work Los Angeles requires from you to master it, and whether that counts as a desirable quality; how technology enables you to watch Sunset Boulevard as you cruise down Sunset Boulevard; Watts Towers as the key to Los Angeles; the city's far-flung museums, and their 21st-century tendency to roll large objects through the streets; how he came to teach a Rhetoric of Los Angeles class, and what his students have taught him; the truth of most local legends, even when contradictory; and how best to see the Los Angeles palimpsest.

He seems to have been crazy. Seems to have been. Bubbling, babbling in bits of broken English, Sam was a cantankerously crazy old man. But what he left behind was beautiful. He worked on it alone from 1921 to 1954, then signed the deed over to a neighbor and disappeared. Never came back. The Beatles put his face next to Bob Dylan's on the album cover of http://mondaymemo.wpengine.com/sam-rodia-sgtpepper (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) in 1967. The surreal structure Sam left behind was declared a National Historic Monument in 1990. He was crazy like Leonardo Da Vinci. Crazy like Buckminster Fuller. Crazy like Antoni Gaudi.  If Sam could illustrate what he saw, he would have been crazy like Dr. Seuss. But his paints were not liquid. They were broken bits of glazed pottery and colored glass embedded in concrete over wire-covered steel. AIn Sam's fingers a shattered 7-Up bottle became a splash of sparkling green in the sky above Los Angeles. Milk of Magnesia bottles offered Sam the riches of cobalt blue. The sea placed at his feet the whitewashed shells of underwater creatures and the dumpster of a pottery factory gave him the Sunflowers yellow of Vincent Van Gogh and the red blood of an Italian saint. Spain's Antoni Gaudi began the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona in 1883. America's Sam Rodia began Watts Towers in south central L.A. in 1921. He finished and vanished before I was born. Sam made bas relief murals in colored cement by pressing his tools into the mix when it was still young and impressionable.  He made an impression on me as well and I am no longer young. Three weeks ago I asked http://mondaymemo.wpengine.com/paulsherman (Paul Sherman) for the money to build a winding sidewalk from Wizard Academy's tower down to where the chapel path meets the Garden of Joy. Paul granted us the cash because Paul is a generous man who appreciates what he has learned during his visits to the Academy and the difference this knowledge has made in his business.  And now I'm asking you to help build an archway, a portal on Paul's sidewalk, in the manner of Sam Rodia. This archway, this portal to adventure, will be built by Pennie and me from the objects you send us along with the fifty dollars or more you donate to Wizard Academy.  Sam's style and method of building from found objects has been called naïve art, outsider art, folk art and junkitecture. I call it enchanting, inspiring and crazy. http://mondaymemo.wpengine.com/portalplace1 (Are you in?) Roy H. Williams

"Rosie Lee Hooks: A Multi-Faceted Career Phenomenon" Dr. Arlene's guest is Rosie Lee Hooks, Director of the Watts Towers Arts Center, the Tour Program for Watts Towers and the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center. Digging deeper, Ms. Hooks is an award-winning actress who won the prestigious NAACP "Image Award" for Best Supporting Actress; she toured the US and Europe with the Mark Taper Forum. At the Smithsonian Institution, she served as a Diplomatic Liason and Director of Field Research. And then...

"Independent Film-Maker Edward Landler: 'I Build the Tower'" 'A heartfelt and fascinating film... a real discovery, entertaining and illuminating...'-Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight. Dr. Arlene’s guest is Yale-educated Edward Landler independent producer, writer and director whose feature documentary film on the Watts Towers was showcased at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art and Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art. Passionate about the power of telling stories with pictures, Landler has worked in movies on three continents and was a founding member and one-time President of Film Independent which created the Independent Spirit Awards.