Slog - Comments on This Is a Weird Time of Year in Los Angeles http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange The first two weeks of October in Los Angeles--especially in the suburbs an hour north of Los Angeles, where nothing of importance has ever happened--are eerie, cinematic, softly baked, windy, loaded-with-the-faint-possibility-of-something-finally-happening (horror? crisis?) days. When you live there as a kid, you somehow think that faint whiff of horror/crisis/possibility is related to Halloween coming, to the pumpkins nestled in the curlicues of suburban excess, but when you reach, say, 11th grade, the age at which you are old enough to be assigned Joan Didion essays to read by your slightly magical English teacher, you realize it's just the wind. Not... Copyright 2008 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:06:52 -0800 Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:08:54 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by sw The Didon essay is one of the creepiest things I've ever read.

God, I love her.

]]> sw http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172462 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172462 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:21:32 -0800 Comment by Calpete Growing up in Southern California in the 1950's, I came to know the nerve-ending prickle of an approaching Santana intimately. A sort of itch that couldn't be scratched, which I later came to associate with a life-threatening attack of shingles. Not only the nerves -- the sinuses are alert to the approaching sandstorm, and the eyes perceive a peculiar clarity to the atmosphere before the first leaf rustles faintly in the newborn breeze. In North Africa, they call it the simoom, and it drives people mad, listening to the blasting of sand against stucco, the banging of shutters, and the tortured whip of palm fronds. Oh, yes. Southern California does have weather.

]]> Calpete http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172463 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172463 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:23:22 -0800 Comment by east coaster "To live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior."

That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

]]> east coaster http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172472 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172472 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:32:10 -0800 Comment by Non Did Savage offer to start paying you to Slog or something? Man o man you've gone from zero to 60 in the last few days.

]]> Non http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172478 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172478 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:34:31 -0800 Comment by idaho You captured the Santa Anas perfectly. I remember as a kid in Anaheim, standing outside in the hot dry winds of October. I felt invincible, but I could never put my finger on it like you did!

]]> idaho http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172480 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172480 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:34:53 -0800 Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball I hope that wasn't Rachel, The Adult-Onset Diabetes Squirrel...

]]> Jubilation T. Cornball http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172491 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172491 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:46:48 -0800 Comment by Justin J Unfortunately, US Forest Sevice practices in the last century have set us up to fight these monster fires every year. Allowing controlled burns of undergrowth would reduce the severity of the fire season. The "no burns, at any time, ever" policy has created a problem that results in fires that kill people and destroy property annually, in all parts of the West.

]]> Justin J http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172529 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172529 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:13:46 -0800 Comment by Mahtli69 In Southern California, Mother Nature does not start the fires. Man does.

Santa Ana winds are accompanied by clear skies. There are no lightning strikes. Nearly every wildfire that occurs near developed areas are caused by arson.

]]> Mahtli69 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172593 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172593 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:51:08 -0800 Comment by ragold Reading those excerpts reminds me of the way Ray Bradbury describes the night in Something Wicked This Way Comes, a story I first read as a boy living in Ventura County.

]]> ragold http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172652 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172652 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:40:42 -0800 Comment by Jeff Stevens @3,

You really do love to hate on West Coast writers, don't you? Joan Didion, splendidly literary child of California, is one of the best-ever chroniclers of that wonderfully strangest of the Western states. You'll never begin to understand her magic stuff unless you spend some time out here. Give it a try sometime.

Just stay away from Seattle.

Please. Honestly.

]]> Jeff Stevens http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172676 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172676 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:15:37 -0800 Comment by kerri harrop A fireball squirrel?! Jesus christ, that is a sign of the apocalypse for sure.

]]> kerri harrop http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172694 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172694 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:36:14 -0800 Comment by E "It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer in a cocktail lounge."
- Raymond Chandler, "Red Wind" (1935)

]]> E http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172703 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1172703 At Large Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:46:51 -0800 Comment by Nick And don't miss "Santa Ana Woman" by The Bobs:

"The next thing I knew, there was a pain in my head like my sinuses were cracking. The Santa Ana winds had come back, and the whole city of L.A. was acting like it had PMS."

]]> Nick http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1173005 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/10/this_is_a_weird_time_of_year_in_los_ange#c1173005 At Large Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:08:54 -0800