altadena – notes from a chair

The six-hour Fire Aid benefit concert this week raised more than $60 million (and counting) in emergency funds to help those who lost their homes or suffered other incalculable losses as a result of the massive destruction from the recent L.A. wildfires. The money will be used to begin to rebuild, or at least help steady lives and communities, and begin to figure out ways to prevent future fires. The entire live event on Thursday is currently streaming on Netflix and Max – or can be watched in its entirety on YouTube.

Dozens of some of the most iconic names in music performed, many of whom now live, or have lived, in Los Angeles. Sure, it wasn’t everybody. But the cross-generational level of superstar talent mixed with personal stories of perseverance and survival by many of those who lost so much, was quite a singular evening. A somewhat unexpected musical event that is hard to describe in any other way than listing some of the talent.

Billie Eilish and Finneas, Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams, Dr. Dre, L’il Baby, Shiela E., Jellyroll and Anderson.Paak. Green Day, the Black Crowes, a Nirvana reunion of Dave Grohl and his two original bandmates, with the singers St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan Jett (!) and Grohl’s daughter, Violet, performing the bands’ songs.

There was P!nk, nearly stealing the show channeling her inner Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash reuniting, Stevie Wonder still wondrous and Joni Mitchell as the ultimate sixties survivor and sage.

Not to be outdone by Alanis Morisette, Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, Steve Nicks, John Fogerty and Rod Stewart.

Oh, and Katy Perry, Dawes, John Mayer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sting and for gosh sakes, Earth Wind and Fire.

Lady Gaga closed the show with a few of her hits and then performed an original tune she co-wrote for the event that she hoped would evoke hope – a bouncy late sixties/early seventies throwback called All I Need Is Time.

Speaking of hits, every artists’ mini-sets included at least one or two of the songs they are best known for. These performances most especially did NOT seem like an expectation or a chore, as is sometimes the case. But rather a gift being given to the survivors, the city and a national (Note: International?) audience, many of whom don’t live in Los Angeles but are nevertheless trying to survive a fairly bleak last few months and an uncertain future.

It was as if there was an unspoken message of, maybe we can feel better for a few minutes by at least sharing this again. It’s not a solution or a cure but at least it’s something more positive than crying or doom scrolling.

Not that the latter two don’t serve some function.

At least for me.

It’s easy to be cynical about the intentions of anyone in the entertainment industry but Fire Aid felt like one of those rare, almost non-existent events where sincerity was on the table across-the-board. I had heard it was happening days ago but with so much in the news to look forward to… NOT!… it had slipped my mind until my much more optimistic other-half texted me while I was teaching that evening to tell me it was incredible and he was DVRing it, which was followed by another text from my sister that simply read, P!NK! (Note: Yes, I’m a fan).

It’s true that $60 million is a relatively small number of the several billion estimate needed to rebuild what the fires have wrought.

And sure money is important.

But for me what the concert did better than anything I’ve seen or experienced recently, was to unite people and communities that might not ordinarily join together for a common cause. And make them feel a little less… devastated.

That doesn’t happen much anymore, if ever, and certainly not without a dash of vitriol directed at someone or some group.

Yet this is a fleeting example of what’s possible, albeit thus far improbable, more than a month in to 2025.

But I’m all in for more.

P!nk – Full Performance – FireAid

January 11, 2025

Greetings from fiery Los Angeles.

I am one of many thousands of people who had to evacuate their home with little notice and in mere minutes. To say it was shocking surreal, horrendous and many other adjectives I can’t think of at the moment, and probably wouldn’t do it justice at all, does not tell even a fraction of the story.

But I am also one of the lucky ones who survived, and whose home and immediate neighborhood stands pretty much untouched in comparison to what’s left of the Mad Max terrain in the former gorgeous towns of Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Altadena and others.

Thanks to the L.A. Fire Department, the response of local officials and the fact that the winds had died down enough for it to be tackled by air, the massive flames in the hills of Hollywood, aka the Sunset Fire, were contained relatively quickly. Though if you lost your home, or someone close to you, this doesn’t mean very much at all.

Over four decades, I have grown to love Los Angeles as much as my hometown of New York City and that’s really saying something. I can’t really tell you exactly why other than to say L.A. is part of California and that people have been coming to California for years for the freedom to be who they are and live the way they choose. It’s a mirage of sorts but not fully. There is something about the vastness of the state and what has become its melting pot of a population during the many years I’ve been here that has more and more made that mirage a bit more real. I mean, you might not get what you want but you have a ton of space to do it in and a vast number of tribes you can sample if you’re looking for a place where you can truly belong.

Also, if you don’t like it you can always leave. Literally no one will judge you for it. Out here most of us eventually learn that it’s up to an individual to make themselves happy. California won’t do it and especially L.A. won’t make it happen for you. You have to figure out how to make it happen.

This is one of the many reasons these L.A. fires have been so devastating for me. Watching it happen is like watching the beauty of all those dreams and all that stunning space get fried to a crisp in real time right before your eyes. Everything is ephemeral but the breadth and randomness of such mass destruction feels unusually, and most particularly, cruel.

Which does not mean we don’t feel that and more for all kinds of cruel destruction. No one has the market cornered on those type of regrettable feelings. In fact, maybe if there were more recognition of the latter, the world wouldn’t feel like the hateful place it all too often does these days.

Still, watching firefighters from neighboring states and countries flying in to help the people of L.A. has been quite something. Not to mention how quickly the American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen and dozens of other organizations and volunteers have opened outlets, service areas and phone lines to help us begin to cope and, eventually, recover.

But here is what is NOT helpful. Playing the Blame Game.

I get the country is divided and L.A. is an easy and often willing target (Note: Yes, we’re in on the joke. Duh). But you’d think an estimated $50 billion in damages from the largest city in a state that sends more money than any other to the federal government, would be enough to satiate the naysayers at this point.

Because I don’t trust myself to 1. Explain this properly and 2. Not go on a tangential, unhelpful and hysterical tirade in this sensitive moment, I want to instead share a very wise social media post from my friend Michael Colleary. This weekend he very smartly and very succinctly explained what happened in L.A. in an effort to offer some truth and reality to friends, family and acquaintances from out of state who have been hearing and reading all kinds of things. It goes as follows:

Dear FB Friends – I have received many messages and emails particularly from friends and family on the East Coast, asking after our safety. A million thanks for your care and concern. I would like to answer a few questions I have been asked repeatedly, particularly about fire hydrants and firefighting crews and LA’s overall response to the fires.

Let me try to provide a little perspective for those of you back East …

The Palisades fire began as a wilderness brush fire at 10:30AM on January 7th.

Driven by 80 MPH winds – hurricane-fast winds – within 24 hours it had burned 12,000 acres and hundreds of structures.

Any chance of LA fire crews – the best trained and most experienced in the world – containing it, let alone extinguishing it, drop to zero because air tankers and water-hauling helicopters can’t fly in 80mph winds.

So, to recap: 24 hours, 12,000 acres burned.

For my New York friends: Central Park is 850 acres. So, imagine a firestorm that incinerates 14 Central Parks in 24 hours. Or more to the point perhaps, imagine a firestorm that blows through Central Park, incinerating every blade of grass FOURTEEN TIMES in 24 hours.

For my NJ friends: our hometown of Montclair gets off a little better. At 4,000 acres, it would have been reduced to ash only THREE times in 24 hours. Imagine every single resident of Montclair becoming homeless on one night. Imagine the violent energy required for that to happen. Because it did, 3 times over.

And Palisades is only one of the massive fires burning here. The Eaton fire has burned 14,000 acres on the eastern edge of LA.

And it’s still going. As of this minute, the Palisades fire is closing in on 40,000 acres. That’s bigger than San Francisco (thankfully most of it is – for the moment – in remote canyons teeming with scrub foliage; yes, LA is that huge).

As shocking and overwhelming and devastating as this has been for so many thousands and thousands of people – my sister and brother-in-law lost their home; his niece and nephew both lost homes in separate fire areas – it is excruciating to hear these endless lies and blaming and gibberish about how DEI and budget cuts somehow caused or contributed to this absolute apocalyptic disaster.

No city, no county, no state, no country on the planet would or could be prepared and equipped to confront what’s happened here.

Because what has happened here is much closer to a volcanic eruption than a “brush fire.”

Our neighborhood is now within sight of the Palisades fire which overnight spread to Brentwood. Shan is packing her clothes. I have to go inside now and get my mother – already evacuated once with just the clothes on her back – up and ready to go should we be ordered to leave.

Friends, I know there’s not much you can do from far away – aside from donate to the Red Cross, etc.

But I humbly ask that – if you hear someone spreading the all-too prevalent lies being spewed for political score-settling – tell that person – from me – to STFU. Because they have no idea what’s really happening here.