08.31.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:34 pm by JHaines
No pics right now as you wouldn’t see anything but haze and smoke. It was thick enough this morning that I couldn’t see if the fire has moved further down the ridge or not.
I won’t bother to go over the same stuff you can read in the news. My deepest sympathies to the families of Captain Tedmund Hall and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Quinones.
I do want to let everyone know that me, my roommate and all my pets are okay. My friend (the one whose family was evacuated) is now back home. My house isn’t in the mandatory evac zone. As of this morning, the fire is still on the other side of the main thoroughfare and up on the ridge above the residential area of my part of Tujunga. Unless the winds change drastically, it should pass my place by.
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08.30.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:18 pm by JHaines
Spoke too soon.
All those pretty yellow/red lights you see over the wall are flames on the ridge. Once again, this is a view from my front door:
Compared to the pics from yesterday, you can’t see it very well, but the fire in this part of town has come up over the edge of the hills.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 7:54 pm by JHaines
This is a view from the 405 freeway, looking towards Lake View Terrace and Sylmar:
On the 118, just a bit past the 405:
This one was taken on the 210. The hills in Lake View Terrace are pretty scorched, but it looks like the firefighters were able to keep it on the other side of the mountains (away from the homes).
Back at the ranch — er, close to home, you can see the fire has moved along over towards the Alpine Village portion of Sunland/Tujunga:
This is the view from a few blocks away from my house:
Looks like we’re getting passed by this time around (thank God). I’ll update again if anything else comes up. You can catch more news about this and the other affected areas on the LA Times website.
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08.29.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:53 pm by JHaines
I count myself lucky. At this point, I’m not one of the many people who have been evacuated from their homes in this area.
If you haven’t heard about it, see here and here for more info. Evacuation areas and specific locations of the fire can be found here.
To sum up, a fire that started in La Canada a couple days ago has now steadily spread over to parts of Tujunga, Sunland and Lake View Terrace. The news and maps don’t say, but it may have drifted all the way to Sylmar by now (from what I could see driving along the 405->118->210 freeways). It’s raging through the Angeles Crest National Forest. Very little of it is contained, and if you live in Southern California, there are a few shelters out here that could really use your help if you want to volunteer. Or, conversely, if you’re one of those being evacuated and need assistance, go to the La Canada High School at 4463 Oak Grove Drive. The Red Cross is on hand to help.
To give you an idea of where this is in relation to me, this was the view from my front door this morning:
(Please excuse my thumb wandering into the shot here, I was in something of a hurry at the time.)
This was the view tonight as of around 10:30PM:
From a different location (note: that teeny little bright spot next to the Shell Station sign — where there should be hundreds of lights at this time of night — is actually a HUGE FREAKING LINE OF FIRE creeping through the evacuated area):
Needless to say, I’m worried right now. One of my friends was evacuated earlier today. Please join me in keeping your fingers crossed/hoping/praying her family’s home gets passed by — along with the homes of some of my other friends and family who live in these hills.
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08.21.09
Posted in Books at 12:54 pm by JHaines
Hot damn, is this book good!
This is a science fiction novel that follows the adventures of Wilf Brim, a young lieutenant who has fought his way through poverty and oppression to reach the lofty status of helmsman to an Imperial Fleet starship.
At first, I wasn’t interested. Sci-Fi is not my first choice of genre to read (though I’ll take me a little ENDER’S GAME or BATTLEFIELD EARTH any day of the week). My friend Bennie kept remarking how good this book was, and how much I needed to read it.
I bitched and moaned and found other stuff to read until he pressed a well and truly battered copy into my hands that looks like it may have been through a few clashes between Imperial and Cloud League battalions itself. Seriously, this thing is held together with tape and love, and that’s about it. The cover has been handled so much, you can barely read Baldwin’s name on the title or see what I think is supposed to be our hero, Brim, on it. Anyway, point is, I had no more excuses not to read it.
It’s amazing. The first chapter would’ve turned me off immediately; it’s heavily spiced with words that are never really defined. It’s full of description of things in foreign/made-up and/or extremely technical terminology (ex., “iral,” “metacycle,” “trilon,” etc). However, at Bennie’s insistence, I persevered, and my God, this book is fabulous. Adventure, romance, piracy, intrigue — in space. My recommendation is read it, press on and just get past that first chapter. A wealth of adventure awaits beyond those first few tough to navigate pages.
Apparently, there’s a whole series of these books. I shall have to investigate further. To the bookstore — away!
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08.17.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:58 pm by JHaines
My desktop, bless its mechanical heart, up and died on me a couple months ago. I’ve been making do with my handy ol’ Acer 19″ widescreen monster that weighs about a thousand pounds and is as easy to carry around as a bag of bricks. Sadly, a couple of weeks ago, it too bit the dust.
But fear not, gentle readers! For a new savior has come into my hands, one I shall lovingly dub…
The Most Sexy Piece of Machinery I’ve Ever Laid Eyes On (sorry, Handy Cell Phone of Awesome and Might, but you’ve just been replaced).
Pardon me, must go cosset my little darling some more.
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08.06.09
Posted in Books, Friends, Writing at 12:52 pm by JHaines
I’ve had the good fortune to meet a fellow scribe who not only has opened my eyes to new ways of viewing the art of writing (thanks again for introducing me to Fernando Pessoa!), but has also been kind enough to let me share some of his work here on this blog.
This is the first poem by Russell Salamon I have had the pleasure of reading. Or, rather, had read to me by the artist himself. If you have the opportunity to go to a poetry reading by Russell, jump on it. He’s amazing.
POOL OF RESURRECTION
You take my face into your hands
and twist it this way; wind carves
my hair into thickets of hazelnut
bushes. I kiss you with my receding
high mountains. You press against
me your blue black sea meadows;
mirrors of sunset light, darkening
a bed of dreams.
I would settle for timeless kisses
your honeyed meadows, woman
with no mind on, a voiceless
embrace that keeps saying
now and now—skiffs and barges
floating between us.
I enter you through the pool
of resurrection. You rise through
me like a gust of wind shivering
through branches. A wind rocks
singly the whole grove. We hear
hammers pound mountains into
the ground. Desire builds solid
this slow time in our veins, skins.
December 28, 2008
Russell Salamon
You can purchase Russell’s books of poetry on Amazon. ASCENT FROM CLEVELAND: WILD HEART STEEL PHOENIX is also available from, preferably, Bottom Dog Press, the publisher (ISBN: 978-1-933964-19-5).
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