Wattstowers

I spent yesterday eating BBQ at the Watts Jazz Festival right next to the historic Watts Towers.

What the h-e-double sticks are the Watts Towers, you ask? Well, they are these freaky towers made out of scrap rebar and other materials such as seashells and Canada Dry bottles, and they sit right in the middle of Watts. They were built by this badass eccentric named Simon Rodia, who worked on them all by himself, and did other things like bury his car when the police came looking for it.

In the usual fashion, a careless and indifferent city was about to raze the towers when two smart dudes came along and realized that they were looking at a completely unique piece of LA history. So they fought the man and won, and now a whole new group of artists and neighbors are rallying to revitalize the area around them.

But enough history - the jazz fest was super mellow. The hats were good, the ribs were fantastic, and the music was even better. And except for the ribs it was fo' free. So get thee out of your usual fifteen-mile radius and go check out something new in this fantastic city of ours.