Bungalows Galore

Up to Mulholland Drive to gawk at the Beverly Hills mansions but to no avail. We drove into the clouds and saw nothing but gray. But down on the flats we saw many exquisite bungalows throughout the city. Here are a few of the gems.

"Love has conceived a house,

and out of its labor

brought forth its likeness

-the emblem of desire, continuing

though the flesh falls away."

-Wendell Berry

Arriving in L.A.

"...the house we were born in is physically inscribed in us. It is a group of organic habits. After twenty years, in spite of all the other anonymous stairways; we would recapture the reflexes of the 'first stairway,' we would not stumble on that rather high step. The house's entire being would open up, faithful to our own being. We would push the door that creaks with the same gesture, we would find our way in the dark to the distant attic. The feel of the tiniest latch has remained in our hands." Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics of Space

And it has been twenty years since I've been to Los Angeles. Shana and I are here to give an artist talk and scope out venues to develop a future project. But for me this is also a journey into the past. Today we will drive to Canyon Country, where I spent eight of my most formative years. I hear that our house has undergone a million dollar renovation, and that the suburb is much more densely populated. I go there in search of memories, but I know that the landscape will be very much altered. I hope to find some things that have not changed. The transition had already begun when I lived there. We had a hill in our back yard that we would climb up to the top and watch the landscape being inscribed with twisting mountain roads lined with innumerable houses. Everywhere the hills were being reconfigured by bulldozers, and these became our playgrounds. We would ride down the plateaus with our BMX bikes, steal lumber from job sites to build skateboard ramps and explore the drainage tunnels that went below the new roads. I know that what I will find is a very different place. But the train bridge where I dodged a train after egging cars in the middle of the night with Eric Close, buzzed on my first sips of alcohol, will still be there. The hill where we made makeshift snowboards out of skateboard decks and bike tires for bindings the one time it snowed will still be there. And maybe, maybe some of my neighbors will still be there. Maybe I will vaguely recognize a face or two, transformed, like mine, by twenty years of a different life.

Upon arriving in LA, the first thing that draws my attention is the foliage. Even though I grew up here, the palm trees and cactuses seem so foreign and exotic. It feels like another country. Then come the place names; Marina Del Rey, La Brea, Malibu. They are so musical and romantic. I remember reading these names on the freeway signs as a child and dreaming of these places. Some I visited and some I did not, but they all exuded a feeling of great leisure. And as I walk through the streets of Los Angeles, I feel that old slow step coming back, and my speech begins to become a little bit more drawn out. In Wisconsin, we are always in a hurry, because we know that even in the middle of summer, the bitter cold is right around the corner. Here summer lasts forever, and there's nowhere to go, because you are already there.

Sara Daleiden, our host and an old friend from Milwaukee, has put us up in fabulous penthouse designed by Viennese architect Rudolf Schindler. Schindler came to California on a job building furniture for some of Frank Lloyd Wright's California commissions, but soon established his own practice. He built the first examples of international style architecture in California, planting the seeds for the playful explorations of modernism that are so characteristic of the Los Angeles architectural landscape.

After settling in, we had a bit of free time so we drove down to Venice Beach, where I went many times as a child. Here's a quick photo tour:

Greeted by the Buddha

We ran across a classic beach house designed by the Greene Brothers. Later in the trip we will visit the Gamble House. (Correction; this house was built in the style of Greene and Greene, but by a different architect)

Some calisthenics at muscle beach

Reminders of home.

Dad and the Art of Wall Repair

Preparation;

Detritis;

Calisthenics;

and Color;

Thanks to Dad for coming down on my birthday to help with the painting and for babysitting the cat while we are away.

A Typical Contractor's Lunch

The Book of the Five Circuits

In a surprise development, Shana's brother Evan, who I had practically begged to come up and help me with the electrical work, decided he could spare a weekend and drove up from Iowa with his mother and fiance to lend a hand. We spent Mother's Day in a web of tangled wires and electrical circuits, tearing holes in walls and puzzling over the logic of several generations of electrical updates. I gained a new respect for the electrical trade as I saw first hand the amount of shear brain power it takes to decipher a system whose guts are hidden inside the walls.

At the tail end of our second fourteen hour day, I was relegated to the task of running up and down the stairs to flip circuits on and off, which was all right by me, because this was the one job that I was still mentally capable of performing by then. Somehow, even though we never touched the upstairs tenants' electrical system, their refrigerator had lost power and their freezer defrosted. Luckily, it was a frostless freezer so this did not result in a puddle of water on the floor. There were, however, some popsicles that were considered a total loss; a minor disaster compared to the one that was lying dormant in the adjacent outlet. Mysterious, inconsistent readings from the outlet that powered the fridge prompted Evan to investigate further. There was an outlet that the tenants had plugged up with plastic covers because they said that the one time they tried to use it, it sent sparks flying. On the other side of the same wall was an outlet/switch combo that the tenants claimed would shut the power off to the entire house. I was skeptical of this when we first bought the house, so I tried it and nothing happened. But some electrical work had been done since then. Apparently it had been many years since the incident. When we opened it up to investigate, one of the outlets looked like it had been struck by lightning. They each had separate supply lines and were on separate circuits, yet somebody had taken a short piece of Romex wire and connected the two. In theory this would mean that the outlet was receiving 240 volts of power and this would explain the fried outlet and the switch that shorted the power to the whole unit. I certainly would not want to be the poor soul who tries to plug a toaster into that outlet.

Between trips down to the breaker box, I chatted with Sarah and Michael, the upstairs tenants. Sarah handed me a book written by a Japanese Samurai called the 'Book of the Five Rings'. Apparently this book is popular amongst businessmen who are looking for more inspiration than their 'Successories" posters can provide. She said that she thought of me when she read the chapter entitled "Likening the Science of Martial Arts to Carpentry." So I read this while I waited in the stairwell for my next instruction from above.

From the text:

"When sorting out timber for building a house, that which is straight, free from knots, and of good appearance can be used for front pillars. That which has some knots but is straight and strong can be used for rear pillars. That which is somewhat weak yet has no knots and looks good is variously used for door sills, lintels, doors, and screens. That which is knotted and crooked but nevertheless strong is used thoughtfully in consideration of the strength of the various members of the house. Then the house will last a long time."

and:

"Efficiency and smooth progress, prudence in all matters, recognizing true courage, recognizing different levels of morale, instilling confidence, and realizing what can and cannot be reasonably expected - such are the matters on the mind of the master carpenter. The principle of martial arts is like this."

Reading this, I was feeling lofty about my trade, and I mused about the role of the electrician. Electricity was not yet discovered in 1645, so the Book of Five Rings contains no entry likening the samurai to the electrician. But if there was, it would certainly extol the virtues of patience, reason, and endurance.

Sisyphus Exonerated

Finished, finally!

Carbide Sisyphus

Scrape.. scrape... scrape... scrape... Take it in stages. A few feet at a time. Make it down to the door then I'll go home. Should have brought kneepads. Almost half way done. I'll do more tomorrow. A little bit at a time.