we made it!

We are at the University of Redlands now, for the Aleph Kallah, the bi-annual gathering of Jewish Renewal.  About 500 people from all over the world are here for the week, doing cool Jewish stuff.
I will post some things later in the week about the last few days of our  week journey.  Last night, at the 5 star Langham-Huntington in Pasadena; tonight, a college dorm.  How the mighty have fallen.....

Taliesin West

Imagine that it’s the depression, you are a great architect  with a big ego and with no clients, and you have a vision of organic architecture and you want to create it in the Arizona desert.  Frank Lloyd Wright did something brilliant—he started a school, an apprenticeship or fellowship at Taliesin West.  Students came and learned and they did ALL OF THE WORK for no pay!  No electricity, no bathrooms, no housing except for tents for many years.  The fellows (men and women) made cement from the river sand, used the huge boulders to make walls, they did everything.  The woman who did most of the landscape architecture there is still alive, and she still lives there.  The place is spectacular.

We went on a three hour tour, “Behind the Scenes,” which was great.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and we also met with two men who had been fellows at Taliesin—one man, Arnold Roy, is on the board and was a fellow under Wright, told us about the early days at Taliesin as he had experienced them.   Pretty amazing!

It was about 115 degrees when our tour ended at noon.  Dry heat.  Yes.

Students who come to study at Taliesin West nowadays have it a bit easier.  They pay $30,000 a year, which includes everything, including food and a place to live.  Well, they live in a tent the first year.  It’s not SO bad.  The whole school moves to Taliesin East, in Wisconsin, for the summer.  Sophomore year, you can build your own shelter to live in—you design it, and they give you $1000 to spend on materials.  People spend 4-6 years studying there, for a bachelor’s or a master’s degree.  They can’t really stay for the next 50 years, like some of the old folks have done.  They have to actually get a job….

Birds in the cactus

Petroglyphs shlepped into place by fellows, years ago

FLW was not at environmentalist

Lots of these Japanese pieces that FLW bought in a Tokyo department store!

I love this fountain!

Too hot and too tired to enjoy Joshua Tree National Park

Great rock formations

Ocotilla tree in the HOT sun

Cholo garden

Mojave desert rocks

Joshua trees in Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Forest is where the Colorado and Mojave Deserts meet.  There are lots of very cool boulders and rocks.  The rock part reminded us of Israel.  The Joshua Tree itself is very beautiful.  It was just too hot for us to be motivated to get up and walk around, especially after driving 4 hours through the desert off Arizona…..We will have to come back in the winter.

Simple needs....

We enjoyed a lovely Shabbat dinner with Rabbi Sarah Leah (Ayla) Grafstein and her husband, Steve, and a friend, Tiferet, in very very hot Scottsdale.  As they said, "We hardly ever have visitors for Shabbat in the summer!"  Perhaps people are tiring of me saying it, but it is SO HOT in the Scottsdale-Phoenix area!
For me, I like 4 definable seasons which required different wardrobes.  I love autumn (my friend Rebecca HATES autumn).  I love some snow.  I love the spring.  I tolerate the hot and humid winter.
One thing I can say about Phoenix, they have cheap gas.

Shabbat dinner was delicious and such good conversation.  We had chicken, which was the first meat I /have eaten since the eco-glatt ranch two weeks before--not much kosher meat in Utah, on the Navajo reservation, etc.  Anyway, we stopped at Trader Joe before making the long trek through the desert to Joshua Tree National Park/Twentynine Palms.  I stared longingly at the organic kosher meat and chicken at Trader Joe......

We drove through Joshua Tree (pictures later) but it was really too unbearably hot to get out of the car much.  Definitely a winter visit will be better.

We get to our hotel, and the clerk is so nice, he's telling us everything about the place.  He says, "Oh, if you want to grill, we have two gas grills out by the pool."  If only I had known this BEFORE passing by those steaks at Trader Joe....Kenny wondered if the supermarket across the street might have Hebrew National Hot Dogs.  I wasn't too optimistic......but they had a wonderful selection!  And they sell beer in supermarkets in California!

We answer to a higher authority

Straight from the supermarket

Happiness is a hot dog and a PBR 32 ouncer (don't worry--we shared)

Rules are made to be broken

I have a certain idea about museums.  I have about a two hour maximum, after which I need to leave—had enough—overload—that sort of thing.  Call me shallow, it's just the way it usually is.

Broke the rule twice in one day.  This morning, a “three hour tour” called “Behind the Scenes” at Taliesin West.  I will write about that later.

After that, we went to the new Musical Instrument Museum.  I bet some of you wondered what we did with all of the instruments we did not take from 901….actually, none of our instruments are in this museum….but we did identify some of the origins of some of ours that were a mystery.

Lots to say about the museum.  We looked around for 4 1/2 hours.  The only reason we left is that our feet started to hurt, and it was FREEZING in there!

The last section was a huge space were you could try lots of instruments.  Here is Kenny, a regular busman’s holiday!

theremin--the instrument that makes those creepy scary movie sounds, invented in the 1920s

"it's a dry heat"

so's a blowtorch!

do you know what ARCOLOGY is?

Elyse on top of the ceramics production area

Kenny chilling on the star-viewing steps (before the stars are out)

Arcology is a concept that merges architecture and ecology, and was developed by Dr. Paolo Soleri, an architect who came from Italy to Arizona in the 1940s, to intern with Frank Lloyd Wright.  He is opposed to urban sprawl and the automobile culture of suburban America.
He developed the concept and began building an arcology, called Arcosanti, in the Arizona desert, in 1970.  It is described as a building experiment, and has elements of intentional community and co-housing.  Dr. Soleri, who is 92 years old, does not accept corporate sponsorship and much of the work has been done by volunteers who come to 5 week workshops.  Some of these folks stay on, with a minimum of a 6 month commitment.  Last night in Jerome, we met someone who had lived here for 10 years, from 1970-1980.
Much of the money comes from the bronze and ceramic Soleri bells, which are beautiful and quite famous around the world.

massive Soleri bells in the cafe

We are staying overnight at Arcosanti in one of the 12 guest rooms.  Lots of good circulation, in a concrete building, with a fan--but it is 101 degrees outside.  It should go down to 70 tonight......Arcosanti

Dr. Soleri brought over cypress and olive trees from Italy.  All the rest of the trees are local.

ceiling of a work area

ceramics production area.
the cement was cast in place.