I walked into a bar and two women who live here but are from LA were talking about the fires. They’d both just been back there for the holidays. One was playing scrabble a few days ago with Ricki Lake — did I know who Ricki Lake was? — now Ricki Lake’s house where they’d been playing scrabble just a few days ago is gone.
I went to a gallery dinner and sat across from friends who’d gone to LA for New Years then stayed the week. They knew something was going on when people started canceling on them for dinner. They still managed to dine with a member of BLACKPINK.
I relayed a news clip of a woman accosting Gavin Newsom. In the video, he keeps putting his cell phone to his ear, trying to call the president. It’s like a Verizon commercial, “Hey Joe, can you hear me now?” The woman accosting Gavin Newsom says: “Some families lost two homes. They were building one and living in another and both burned down.” They’re doubly victimized, is her point? Gavin Newsom has aviators on.
My friend’s parents were in Lahaina for those fires and moved back to LA right before these ones. Her dad feels guilty, like he brought the fire with him.
Gary Indiana’s personal library arrived in LA the day before it was consumed by flames.
Paris Hilton gave a tour of the rubble that was once her Malibu home.
How much it looks like Gaza someone at dinner said.
Born in L.A. There have always been wildfires. They have always been isolated: 1 at a time in the hills or canyons. There have never been hurricane-force winds (100 mph!) pushing sparks into high-density hoods during a winter with record zero rainfall. Result: Multiple urban fires at once. No fire department can adequately respond. The public sector scapegoated for almost unimaginable climate-change calamities as oligarchs "disaster capitalize" us, aggregating property, water, excessive wealth, leading to new spirals of disasters.