Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

Keeping Calm + Carrying On

I’ve lived in California for more than half my life. Natural disasters are part and parcel of living here. Mother Nature provides us with good weather, but the price can be far too high to bear.

When I wrote yesterday morning’s newsletter, the sky outside my studio window looked like Mars, glowing orange with soot and ash from the fires ravaging across Southern California.

I didn’t write about it because I was in denial. The show must go on, right?

But I spent most of yesterday and last night doing something I rarely do: watching the “news.” I saw entire neighborhoods I once loved burned to the ground and leveled.

This morning, after a very sleepless night, I’ve moved from denial into rotating between three other stages of grief: anger, bargaining, and depression.

I’m angry at the media and politicians for turning tragedy into an opportunity.
I’m bargaining with a God I don’t always believe exists to end this destruction.
I’m depressed because I can’t do more to help those who have already lost so much.

The good news is that my loved ones and I are safe—for now. The winds are calm—for now. But I know better than to take any of this for granted. Calm winds and safety can change…quickly.

It’s hard not to feel helpless in a world so big and so broken. But I know despair doesn’t help anyone—not me, not you, not the people who’ve lost everything, and not the firefighters risking their lives to save what’s left.

So, I’ll focus on what I can do:

• Donate to organizations that make a real difference.

• Spotlight resources for evacuees and first responders.

• Continue checking in with friends and family in the fire zones.

• And keep going, even when it feels too small to make a difference.

FIREFIGHTERS IN ALTADENA (JASON ARMOND / LOS ANGELES TIMES)

If you are able and would like to help, here are a few reliable sources to start:

• SoCal Wildfires: How You Can Help (KABC)

• How To Help People Impacted By The California Fires (TODAY)

• Here’s How To Help SoCal Wildfire Victims (Los Angeles Daily News)

Wherever you are, please be safe and hold your nears, dears, and queers close.

Thanks for reading…
Clint

P.S. Amid this devastation, former POTUS Jimmy Carter is being laid to rest today. He’s the best former president I can think of—a man of quiet dignity and service.

P.P.S. What’s former-and-future POtuS Donald Trump doing? Besides sharing a joke with Obama—who was unlucky enough to be seated next to him? Typical dick-tater shit like trying to buy or invade Greenland, rename the Gulf of Mexico, and threatening to take control of the Panama Canal. Just another so-real-it’s-surreal day in ‘Murica. Bless this mess.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• On Leaving The Gay Community (Jaks Attacks) 📺

• How Rickie from My So-Called Life Changed TV Forever (Matt Baume) 📺

• The Art Market Is A Scam…And Rich People Run It (Wendover Productions) 📺

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ON THIS DAY

BIRTHDAYS = HIGHLIGHTS

• 1823 = William Johnson Cory = English classical scholar and poet 🌈

• 1915 = Fernando Lamas = Argentinian-American actor, singer, and director

• 1935 = Bob Denver = American actor

• 1944 = Jimmy Page = English guitarist, songwriter, and producer

• 1955 = J. K. Simmons = American actor

• 1967 = Dave Matthews = South African-American singer-songwriter

EVENTS = HIGHLIGHTS

• 1793 = Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.

• 1839 = Louis Daguerre privately demonstrates the daguerreotype photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences.

• 1959 = Rawhide with Clint Eastwood premieres on CBS.

• 1978 = Sir John Gielgud, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and 26 other international celebrities take out a full-page ad in Time magazine to protest the recent series of political backlashes against gays in the US.

• 2007 = Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone.

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PHOTO + QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I may not believe in myself, but I believe in what I'm doing.”
Jimmy Page

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