On Seeing Black on Dark Sienna on Purple, Rothko, 1960

The three dark colors, at first glance, stand as independent blocks. But stand and stare into the painting. Scan it as if looking for something you lost like your keys, your cellphone, or meaning in your life. The colors shift and fade and take on varying shapes as the mind tries to create order and …

Friday Photo: July 12, 2019

Under a Gibbous Moon When left on my own, my daughtersabsent to friends or family,insomnia finds me 80 milesaway from home.Kneeling in the desertdirt, I frame my shot of tumbledand graffitied rock walls. The camera as steady on the tripod as my hand.I’m drinkingless these nights, but still findsleeping worse than sobriety.Like the first drink,though, …

Friday Photo: July 5, 2019

Dust and smog filter all but the sediment lightof the sun. Skyrockets explode before darknessto the delight of patriots on both sidesof the valley, and those who stand in between, under the fire, under the bright and shimmering colors where the shadows falland the ash and smoke curl away. In the foothills, a dog pulls …

Ice on Fire: Some Thoughts

The girls and I went to the U.S. premiere of HBO’s Ice on Fire. This documentary, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and directed by Leila Conners with cinematography by (full disclosure time) my friend Harun Mehmedinović. It begins with DiCaprio narrating our state of existence and the precipice of disaster we are racing towards. He does …

Things That Happened Before The Earthquake – Book Review Blurb

I first heard of Chiara Barzini’s novel, Things that Happened Before the Earthquake, on the Los Angeles Review of Books podcast. Like a trip through a foreign country the novel has some rough passages and its beautiful passages that makes you stop and linger at the stunning landscape of sentences. Sometimes it distorts time, place, …

The Trip to Totality – Michael Collins & The Photo

I was driving Maddie somewhere on one of those bright hot summer days that washed out the sky and the desert so wide you feel alone in all the space. We were talking about the moon and the up coming solar eclipse. I thought of Apollo 11, as it was July 21. When I was …

Writing, Fighting Fire, and Your Pal, Jerry

Dear Readers: I just read a review about my memoir, Ahead of the Flaming Front: A Life on Fire, which I quote as it appears: If you are going to read memoirs about fire fighters, here are the two you must start with: Young Men and Fire by Norman McLean and Ahead of the Flaming …