Burn, Hollywood, Burn?

As I sit at my desk to write, the light shining through my office window is a distinct orange, and the sky outside is a murky, polluted shade of brown. The air quality is horrendous, and my eyes are dry and itchy. My throat is sore. Two major fires are still raging out of control in Los Angeles, the city I love, with little to no containment. Another has just erupted in Woodland Hills. Fortunately, we’re in a safe zone away from the infernos. Many more are not so lucky.

Scrolling through the latest fire updates on social media, I quickly read commenters who are cheering on the flames as if they’ve been ignited to smoke out the wealthy elites from their mansions. They seem gleeful. A few conspiracists I come across believe this is all a planned land grab (by whom I’m unsure), while others spread lies that the shadowy Deep State, the ones behind weather-altering chemtrails, is somehow responsible.  More

Roaming Charges: Hurricane of Fire

There’s nothing so terrifying as a nightmare come to life. The Santa Ana winds have haunted the dreams of southern Angelinos for decades. Like the Chinooks of the Rockies and the Mistrals of the Rhone Valley, these winds play on the mind. They tell you they’re coming for you. They whisper the dangers they bring with them. Van Gogh believed the mistral inflamed his madness. Another kind of madness seems to be inflicting LA, the madness of boundless consumption. More

The Children of Gaza Are Freezing to Death

From early December 2024 to early January 2025, the body temperature of eight babies fell below any acceptable amount and they froze to death. This condition is known as hypothermia. The most recent of these children to die, Yousef, was sleeping beside his mother because, as she told Al Jazeera, of the very cold weather. Temperatures in Gaza have fallen to just above freezing, which in the context of a lack of housing, blankets, and warm bedclothes is deadly. Body heat is the only protection, which is minimal for an infant. Yousef’s mother said, “He slept next to me and in the morning I found him frozen and dead. I don’t know what to say. No one can feel my misery. No one in the world can understand our catastrophic situation.” More

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Hands, Fingers, Nose and Throat: Re-Doing Dylan

On the last Sunday of this past October, a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest broke out in Washington Square Park in New York City. Dozens of participants and thousands of onlookers thronged to the event and when, in the midst of the proceedings, the famed actor himself appeared the throng went into paroxysms of ecstasy. Seemingly equipped with endless stores of good humor, good looks, and God-given talent, Chalamet made his way through the roiling sea of admirers and impersonators and let himself be photographed with the winner, Miles Mitchell, who had come costumed as Chalamet as Willy Wonka, the title role assumed by the actor in the latest movie remake devoted to the campy chocolatier. More