Power walking, it turns out, is one of the hallmarks of the American civilization. I had seen plenty of it in Los Angeles: folks in groups of two and three, arms swinging with their strides while making their way slowly but determinedly through the hills of Griffith Park. I hadn’t paid much attention to these [...]
Last week, after many long hours exploring the desert , I spent the night in a tipi. It would be easy to say the tipi was in the middle of nowhere because the closest town, Tecopa, is 230 miles from Los Angeles and has a population of 99. But, in the middle of the Mojave, [...]
_____ A few days ago, after several long, hot hours of looking at buildings, my friends and I were thirsty. This was understandable. We had driven from Los Feliz to Watts in 95º heat and then from Watts to downtown in 100º heat. Viewing Simon Rodia’s towers meant total exposure, so the shadowy depth of [...]
___________ Driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles not long ago I headed inland and stopped off in Fresno. The state’s fifth largest city had not been on my list of must-see places, but Paul Groth at Berkeley had assured me it was worth the detour in order to walk the Fulton Mall. Fulton Street [...]
A friend gave me a book with this title for Christmas; a collection of short essays about miscellaneous, yet meaningful objects, it’s one part Roland Barthes and one part Antiques Roadshow. Passing through a whole country worth of significant stuff, and with plenty of rumination time behind the wheel, I have been taking things pretty [...]