Fire Walk With Me

David Lynch, The Los Angeles Fires, and yours truly

If everything goes smoothly, I should be able to leave Facebook and Instagram, both owned by META. I’m doing a test run from January 19 to January 26 to see if my life will exist without the presence of a social platform. The only platform I want to stay with is Substack because that is where my artistic life lives. We don’t know how long this site will last, but it pays me for my writing. Or I should say thank you for that because of you, dear readers.

As of this date (January 16, 2025), Los Angeles is going through rough waters due to the fires. Because of the chemicals in the air from the fires burning, I have been staying home more often than not. Usually, I go on walks, but to do so now, I have to wear a mask, and having something over one’s face is uncomfortable. It’s like the COVID era, but the concern is to keep the elements from the smoke from entering one’s body. The oddness is that the weather in Los Angeles has been beautiful, with mostly blue skies, but mixed in with the beauty are ingredients that can harm you, especially if you have upper respiratory issues.

My wife and I planned to see Brady Corbet's film The Brutalist at the Vista Theater in our neighborhood this afternoon. However, we chose to stay home for the reasons I mentioned above. I also feel compelled to work on various projects and feel like I’m cheating on the day if I don’t. This doesn't sound very pleasant, but the work and the writing are fun. Nothing is more satisfying than finishing up a post or working on another aspect of another project.

There are specific steps or degrees of dread in Los Angeles. One is the first hearing of strong winds, usually the Santa Ana winds, famously known to be a good friend to forest and brush fires. Then, I realized that those fires now existed. And then being aware that you may be in danger of those flames. Then, recognize that you have friends who have lost everything. It takes a day or so to get used to the idea that the most horrible thing has happened, and then there are moments when you live with this tragedy or are aware that you must live with it.

I tip-toe when I’m walking in Los Angeles, and as I wrote that sentence, I heard that David Lynch passed away. I wished I was walking softer on the ground.

For me, David Lynch carried the grand tradition of the Surrealists, but he gave it that twist by Lynchizing his films, music, and visual art. In a funny manner, he reminds me of Dali in that, like the Spanish painter, he was the local weirdo for many who weren’t used to dealing with the weirdos of the arts. Lynch made being eccentric a positive thing, and also how he branched out to all the arts but put his individual stamp on everything. He is one of the few filmmakers whom I must see his film in a theater due to not only Lynch’s visuals but the sound design of his films, which are magnificent. Jean-Luc Godard was the other great sound-maker in cinema. Let us remember him for his work and for that creative spirit that sparked him and can easily spark us.