BONUS An Update from Marc's Home
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Fire bonus.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, it's Monday.
Guest:It's almost noon there.
Guest:What's the situation?
Marc:Well, the winds are picking up out there and the arc of my situation currently, because, you know, it's hard to unsee a lot of these images that are happening as a result of the fires east of me and west of me.
Marc:It seems like the ones northeast of me and northwest of me are relatively under control.
Marc:And also it's just, you know, talking to people and, you know, everything that's coming in in terms of, are you okay?
Marc:And then talking to people who know people that lost houses.
Marc:And I talked to my contractor today.
Marc:I had a guy in here.
Marc:that needed to paint the ceiling where the leak happened.
Marc:And there was part of me that's like, I don't know if I can deal with any of this.
Marc:The idea of home maintenance, it just seems futile because my brain is just seeing my house burn down over and over again.
Marc:It's intrusive thoughts from the ongoing traumatic situation that I'm living in.
Marc:So what's going on now is that the winds are picking up.
Marc:The fire west of me is, you know, not a threat that I can see as a professional meteorologist.
Marc:It's moving in another direction.
Marc:But the one east of me, you know, if that thing changes course and loops around, you know, who the fuck knows?
Marc:And then really it's just about...
Marc:I don't know that people understand that, you know, last week, you know, we all had to download these fire apps and it was just the the amount of fires that were just popping up everywhere is, you know, traumatizing.
Marc:And the realization that that happens and can happen and, you know, is on some level expected to happen is just a horrendous place to be living in terms of, you know, like, is one going to pop up up the street?
Marc:How fast that's going to move?
Marc:Do I have time?
Marc:Will I have time?
Marc:So the idea that something could pop up in the hills above where I live,
Marc:isn't by, by no means a stretch of the imagination.
Guest:It's, it seems like a bombardment style mentality.
Guest:It's a ever present mark on your psyche.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But, but even with that, I mean, even with, if you had an app for, you know, how far out the planes were, you know, you've got more time than you might have in this situation.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And, you know, usually there are targets and,
Marc:So, you know, unless we had a beat on these lunatics that may or may not be setting fires, there's no, you know, there's no target other than the entire...
Marc:L.A.
Marc:County and expanding beyond that are red flagged right now.
Guest:Well, I don't think people understand that about that the entire county.
Guest:And when I'm saying that, I mean, like I live in Brooklyn.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I don't know these things until I talk to people like you.
Guest:And then I read very closely the reporting of.
Guest:the actual firefighting situation there.
Guest:And, you know, it's, it's really as simple as when you see those videos of the fires burning and these embers flying around, like any one of those embers can start an equal or greater fire somewhere else.
Guest:That's the truth of it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So the flagged it's, you know, it, it,
Marc:It's flagged all the way west to, you know, almost Palm Desert.
Marc:It's just, you know, the red flag zone is, you know, coming up on Palm Springs in the west and, you know, Sky Valley.
Marc:So that entire swath.
Marc:You know, from all the way, you know, dude, it's, they expanded it.
Marc:It's gone up to, it's all the way up into, you know, beyond Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Santa Maria, and all the way down to the Mexican border is red flagged right now.
Marc:And it's going west, you know, a good, you know, 20, 30 miles, this zone of flagged possibility.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And Kit pointed out, she's like, well, that's not there to, you know, to cause panic.
Marc:It's there as a, you know, a be alert thing.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:But, you know, that's not, my brain doesn't work like that.
Guest:Well, be alert is just a step over from be panicked, right?
Marc:Like, I mean, there's a very fine line.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:So, you know, like, as I talked to you last night, you know, I'm like, I don't know if I can take it, you know, like, I don't know if I can go to sleep, you know, wondering if that alert's going to wake me up because it's menacing and it's real.
Marc:And if I have to evacuate, I have to think about the cat.
Marc:So, you know, last night when I was talking to you, I was like, you know, I, I'm, I just, you know, don't know if I should just go.
Marc:And it's not a matter of moving, which is, you know, that's definitely been moved up and becomes imminent, uh,
Marc:But it's a matter of like, you know, how do I get to a place where, you know, I have no control whether something's going to burn my house down.
Marc:And I have no control over, you know, that part of it.
Marc:But I don't have to be here for it.
Marc:And even if it doesn't, you know, if checking this app every five minutes and the stress of living in that, I can get out of that.
Marc:For, you know, through this wind period anyways, or even until they, you know, get these other fires under control, that could be weeks.
Marc:So right now, right now, you know, after I talk to you, I'm going to go to Petco and I'm going to basically, you know, complete a go bag situation for the cats, you know, because when I self evacuated the other day.
Marc:You know, I just scrambled out.
Marc:You know, I was in a panic and, you know, I got them in the boxes and I left.
Marc:And then I had to go to Petco and get, you know, disposable litter boxes.
Marc:I had to buy some, you know, litter, some dry food.
Marc:I brought some canned food.
Marc:But, you know, I'm going to go over to Petco after I talk to you and get like travel bowls, you know, disposable litter boxes, that kind of thing to just have in the trunk of my car.
Marc:I didn't really unpack from Sacramento and Napa.
Marc:You know, I put some new clothes in the bag.
Marc:I got my
Marc:passport and my birth certificate together.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It's so funny because people are like, what about your social security card?
Marc:I'm like, I don't think I've seen my social security card in a decade.
Marc:I don't even know where it is or it exists anymore, but I think I'm okay with those other two documents.
Guest:Well, what do you think it's been in the past that has kind of allowed you to tamp down the panic around this?
Guest:I mean, there've been fires, there've been traumatic fires in the area, and it's only in light of this one, and I wonder what you think it is, that has seemed to kind of really snap the reality of this for you.
Guest:And as a person who doesn't live there, I must say, I kind of fully agree with your level of
Guest:concern heightened alertness um a sense of proactivity and getting something done now rather than waiting for something to happen you've explained this stuff to me and i've seen it with my own eyes and i think you're spot on like i i don't sit here as a person on the outside thinking boy mark's overreacting but i do think there probably are people who wonder what's the difference now versus in the past
Marc:I have always, you know, tried to manage the panic, you know, by making jokes about it.
Marc:And I always have the panic.
Marc:I remember the last, you know, major fires, you know, during COVID, you know, when it was just, you know, raining ash and it was orange everywhere.
Marc:You know, like, I'm like, where are they?
Marc:And I think that.
Marc:You know, it's a very simple difference is that, you know, in the past, you know, clearly they were somewhere else.
Marc:They were over there.
Marc:They were burning into the mountains.
Marc:They were in Malibu, which was tragic.
Marc:But, you know, it still seemed far enough away.
Marc:And, you know, most of the time with these fires, you know, it would be like, you know, I'm not even sure where that is.
Marc:You know, that that's burning.
Guest:And a lot of it seemed to be burning, you know, in heavy brush areas, lots of predominant vegetation.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But then you realize that, you know, L.A.
Marc:is completely surrounded by that.
Marc:So but I always was afraid of these hills, you know, a few blocks up from me.
Marc:And I don't know.
Marc:I don't think it's assumed that whatever happened last week with that very specific type of atmospheric event, that that's what they think is going to happen here.
Marc:I think in the next few days, it's just going to be the...
Marc:You know, standard Santa Ana wind situation.
Marc:But now there's, you know, very active, very large fires on either side of me.
Marc:And, you know, like you said, you don't know where this where they're going to pop up.
Marc:I mean, that was always the case.
Marc:But, you know, you just I was always vigilant, but obviously not vigilant enough to have a crate for each of my cats, you know, which I do now.
Marc:I was not vigilant enough to be ready to go or know where my papers are.
Marc:I always knew where my passport was.
Marc:I was not vigilant to think like I'm thinking today to go get stuff to make sure if I do split with the cats that I have stuff for them.
Marc:And also I was not in the place where
Marc:That might have been, though, in the past where I thought, like, well, I could just go to Vegas, you know, and park for two days, you know, at least until this wind event, you know, passes.
Marc:But, you know, we talked about last week.
Marc:Well, I guess you better be ready for that all the fucking time.
Marc:And, yeah, I mean, you always kind of are.
Marc:But, you know, there are massive active fires happening.
Marc:you know, nearby.
Marc:Uh, so that does change the, the dynamic a bit.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Cause I was trying to think of what is this similar to, and I guess it's the closest to people living in like Southern Florida, Miami, that kind of area where they know they're dealing with, right.
Guest:The hurricanes and the, and the rising sea level all the time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's just a matter of like the kind of hope that the worst case scenario won't play out, but it does remain just a hope.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I mean, and I think, you know, when you look at the literature and like, you know, what I talked to you about, I mean, you know, you read that stuff that Joan Didion wrote in the 60s.
Marc:I mean, this and we talked about it last week that this was always part of the agreement you make with living here.
Marc:You know, whether it be earthquakes or this, that these Santa Ana winds have been a reality for centuries.
Marc:And, you know, this was always a possibility.
Marc:And there was always fires every year all along the California vegetation all the way up north.
Marc:You know, I was in San Francisco earlier.
Marc:you know, decades ago where, you know, Point Reyes and, you know, a big chunk of massive acreage burned.
Marc:And I was in Napa the other night and that place burned down a couple of years ago.
Marc:And, you know, it's just reality and you can rationalize it however you want.
Marc:It's like, yeah, well, the earth does this and sometimes burning's good and yada, yada.
Marc:But, you know, the menace of human loss and, you know,
Marc:um tragic loss of property and and um you know possessions you know it's it's it's a reality on a major scale it actually got me thinking about like the dust bowl and it's like there was no ambiguity people knew they had to leave yeah and
Guest:And I think there's a kind of flaw in the structure out there where you are of enough modernity and enough luxury.
Guest:And by luxury, I don't mean luxurious.
Guest:I just mean to live in comfort, right?
Guest:There's enough of that going on that it serves, I think, a little bit as a rejecter of this, the mentality that when you see a dangerous situation, you should probably not stay there.
Yeah.
Marc:That's true.
Marc:I mean, like, I'm sort of amazed a bit that, you know, like, you know, I'm getting a text from my manager that, you know, they want me to record some ADR for the golf show on Thursday.
Marc:And I'm like, I don't know, man.
Marc:You know, there is this sort of natural, modern and human response to get back to business as usual.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Obviously, the city is functioning, though there's very little of it that's not in a flag zone.
Marc:And the stuff that isn't in a flag zone is heavily built up, you know, like downtown and stuff, non-foliage areas.
Marc:But there is no safe haven from Red Flag right now other than, you know, a small swath of territory that is, you know, densely developed.
Marc:So, like, even looking at this...
Marc:You know, if something were to happen, then, you know, like how many people are going to leave?
Marc:Like, that's the other thing in thinking about leaving.
Marc:It's like, and the reason I did the other day, why not get ahead of it?
Marc:I mean, there's plenty of roads south out of Glendale, you know, but that, you know, I mean, like theoretically, you know, honestly.
Marc:You know, I could evacuate, you know, half a mile from here and go sit in a parking garage and I probably be OK.
Guest:Well, and it all kind of, to me, comes around to something you've been bringing up in your material for the last couple of years, really, and not really so much related to this phenomenon.
Guest:fire situation but you have brought it up in relation to climate catastrophe in general but also fascism and and in general the the dissolution of our structures and our institutions yeah is this idea that like in the end we're just probably no help like nobody's coming and that is not to undercut the amazing work of the firefighters and the people involved in the
Guest:rescue effort it's like they are miraculous like i mean just it's like i watch i've been watching videos like you watch sports highlights of these guys dropping the water on these on these fires it's amazing yeah yeah well i mean look you know at you
Marc:When you have, I think, a situation where all resources are tapped and you're up against something that, you know, you cannot control because of elements and problems that are out of your control, that, you know, who's left?
Marc:You know, you've got neighbors, you've got the goodwill of other people.
Marc:But, you know, when people are panicked and, you know, and you got to get out or whatever.
Marc:I mean, it speaks to, you know, what we're up against environmentally and, you know, governmentally, you know, that's that's a whole other thing, because, you know, so many people have mutated their.
Marc:minds to no longer process empathy or unity or common issue with people in other states.
Marc:And that becomes a problem, you know, when you have a president that, you know, there's no telling that he could just say, California, go fuck yourself.
Marc:Good luck.
Marc:That can happen.
Marc:We don't need you.
Marc:So, you know, yeah, all that stuff kind of funnels down to you're on your own, buddy.
Marc:Make sure you have, you know, enough cat crates and, you know, food and water.
Guest:Well, the thing that haunted me that was stuck in my head, and I sent it to you last week, and I think, you know, it was one of those things that kind of was a jumping off point for you and I talking about, like, okay...
Guest:Let's start making plans around this like it's just this is the serious reality of this.
Guest:Like, well, let's not pretend like something's going to just blow over.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was this quote from Eric Garcetti from six years ago when he was the mayor of L.A.,
Guest:And he said, you know, they're talking about the Malibu fires that had happened back then.
Guest:And he said, there's no amount of helicopters or trucks that we can buy, no number of firefighters that we can have, no amount of brush that we can clear that will stop this.
Guest:The only thing that will stop this is when the Earth, probably long after we're gone, relaxes into a more predictable weather state.
Guest:And like, that was the mayor.
Guest:Like, it's not like a TV pundit.
Guest:That was a guy that was there speaking honestly about the fact that there's really nothing you can do.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Look, it's, you know, I believe...
Marc:You know, and there's no saying that, you know, this will relax back to, you know, another state of being.
Marc:But I believe that it is untenable for me to stay here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:for you know practical reasons but also for my you know my mental health um because i don't you know i i i don't my brain is is constantly catastrophizing about things that i self-generate but this is not self-generated so as we talked about like you know i have to start you know getting a plan in place to relocate and this is what
Marc:environmental disaster does.
Marc:And it's done it for, you know, as long as history has existed.
Marc:If there's famine or drought, you know, you go to where the food and water is, you know, if you can.
Marc:You know, if there's fire and floods, you go inland, dude.
Marc:You go to where, you know, it just, I'm sure it's been responsible for mass migration, you know, since the beginning of civilization.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And there's going to, I mean, it's, it's, there's going to be climate refugees all over this planet in, you know, the near future.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What does your brain do though now?
Guest:Like in relation to this, your brain is reacting to it in a certain way.
Guest:I have seen you throughout knowing you.
Guest:react in a heightened way toward things that, you know, don't necessarily rise to that occasion.
Guest:But that's kind of how you center your anxieties or your your insecurity about something.
Guest:You'll funnel it toward a direct goal that you can kind of panic over.
Guest:Like, I mean, people who listen to the show have heard it
Guest:time and time again with, you know, whether it's your ice maker and your fruit in your freezer or, you know, the, the rats shitting in your basement or something having to do with the cats.
Guest:Like you, you're, you always, you just mentioned self generating this stuff in your head, but,
Guest:But when I talk to you about this and you keep saying things to me that are heightened and I say to you, yeah, that's reasonable.
Guest:Like, do you, does your brain actually know to differentiate this from those times or does it feel the same as any other panic for you?
Marc:Oh, no, no.
Marc:Yeah, it differentiates it because like, you know, despite whatever people say about me, whether it's neurotic or whatever, yeah, I'm just, you know, I have this, this is the way my anxiety works.
Marc:In every situation that I've gone over in my life, in my head, when something is out of my control and it does fuck me, I generally do what needs to be done.
Marc:Like the other day, whether that was real or not, it was real in the context of, look, this looks like it's getting close.
Marc:I've got animals to take care of.
Marc:And even though I'm not mandated to evacuate, I'm going to do it.
Marc:And I did it.
Guest:And as a person who lives 3,000 miles away from you, I observed you doing it and thought 100% you were doing the right thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, I was watching the evacuation zones and I told myself, well, if it gets down to the next zone, which would have been two blocks from me, even a pre-evacuation color that, you know, I would have to, you know,
Marc:go.
Marc:And I was also watching that fire, you know, without seeing details being managed.
Marc:So I was able to sit there and wait and make, you know, reasonable decisions in that moment without just going like, no, and, you know, throwing the cats back in the car and getting out.
Marc:You know, and even when I checked out the next morning, because it felt like I could go home because I still wasn't in a
Marc:pre-evacuation zone or a mandatory evacuation zone.
Marc:You know, I told the hotel, look, you know, keep that room for me until I tell you I'm going to cancel it.
Marc:So, yeah, I can differentiate.
Marc:But it's this sort of gray area of, look, it would be
Marc:More relaxing for me to, you know, be out of the flag zone.
Marc:And that's something I can do.
Marc:So that up against like, well, do you want to do you want to.
Marc:Put the animals in distress, you know, get all the shit in order and do that.
Marc:Or do you want to, you know, you know, take a beat and wait it out.
Marc:But, you know, I also realize, well, that's going to be two days of that.
Marc:So I right now I'm on the precipice of trying to decide.
Marc:whether to go.
Marc:And what do you think will, what do you think will tip that decision?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Right now it's all in my head.
Marc:So, you know, I, I guess it's just a, the intensity of the panic and, you know, whether or not I can handle, uh, you know, an, you know, two nights of this, you know, because in my mind it's, it's inevitable.
Marc:So, um,
Guest:that's not exactly true so that's really what i'm fighting against it's not inevitable that your house will burn down right it is it is inevitable that this ongoing concern about wildfires will continue i mean that's just a given oh yeah that's oh that's that's a totally different thing than it was you know two weeks ago
Guest:Yeah, it's funny because I was thinking about the material you did about this in End Times Fun.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And if you remember, like the interesting thing about that is like the idea around the joke was like, you know, your mom calling you and being like, you know, are you okay?
Guest:I heard about the fires.
Guest:And you being like, oh, yeah, yeah, they're not by me.
Marc:Are you watching it on the news?
Marc:Can you tell me where they are?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:But then the beat after that is...
Guest:Oh, that is by me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So, so even in that kind of construction of it for you, which was a joke, you know, the, the sort of Damocles of the whole thing hanging there was, was present, you know?
Marc:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:For sure, dude.
Marc:You know, it's, it's, it's definitely present.
Marc:And, but now like, you know, the, the vibe here, especially in the area I'm in and,
Marc:I imagine everywhere is, you know, high trauma.
Guest:Well, I know exactly what you're talking about when you said it felt like that post 9-11 vibe.
Guest:You said that and I felt it in my soul.
Marc:Yeah, they're just, you know, people are walking around half zombie-ish, you know, doing their life.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But, you know, not in any way, you know, grounded in any feeling of safety.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Remember that when, you know, the week after, anytime a plane went over a commercial airliner, you were just like, what the fuck is that?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Why is that right there?
Guest:That's how the wind probably feels to you right now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's happening as we speak.
Guest:Well, another thing you said that kind of shook me because I hadn't really considered this.
Guest:And I definitely think it plays into the idea of, you know, when you're looking toward helping in this situation, sending money or sending help of any kind, you know, probably the best thing is like immediate human relief, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Animal relief too.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But the idea of helping toward...
Guest:getting back to the way it was, you know, which is always what happens when there's hurricanes or when there's a tornado or whatever, there's always, okay, we're going to rebuild.
Guest:You said to me the other day, like that area over in the Palisades, you're like, that's done forever.
Guest:There's no rebuilding that.
Guest:And you were very definitive about it.
Marc:I just don't know.
Marc:But then again, I, you know, I am not, you know, I underestimate, you know, people's persistence and denial and whatnot, but I just don't see
Marc:You know, who knows how long it's going to take them to, you know, kind of like assess the rubble and damage over there.
Marc:But, you know, who the fuck would rebuild?
Guest:Well, I think that's what I took more away from it was like what's gone is the idea of that as a kind of hub or epicenter of the industry.
Marc:Well, yeah, I mean, that community was, you know...
Marc:A wealthy community of a lot of people that were, you know, in the upper echelon of entertainment.
Marc:And I'm sure there are other people there as well, different businesses.
Marc:But it was a, you know, a little insulated community of wealthy people that thought they were living in paradise over there.
Guest:Well, and also an insulated and kind of protected legacy version of show business that mostly still existed and still had a power center because of the roots that had been put down, right?
Guest:Because otherwise, if it didn't have those roots, if you didn't have people for kind of multi-generations...
Guest:living and passing along their, either their direct line to their family or industry connections to others, uh, that kind of make up Hollywood and what it is.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It would just have years ago, probably kind of been ceded to the, uh, tech industry.
Guest:um hierarchy and and move into kind of more software based uh product and i think the the idea that it has remained a uh what we kind of know even though even though it's very fractured and very different than it was even 10 15 years ago it still remained what we know as show business yeah really because of the town you live in like that town and that structure and
Marc:Yeah, and we've talked before about the sort of diminishing of that business and that structure and being sort of most of the work being subcontracted out to other places to shoot.
Marc:Studios are very specific now, and a lot of them are out of use.
Marc:So Hollywood is contracted immensely, and I just feel that whatever people were able to
Marc:deny uh in terms of uh you know seeking to live here because of southern california or whatever i i have to assume that shit is over and you know inevitably you know i was probably going to end up there anyways i was going to go home to new mexico which oddly i believe is going to uh be a huge show business hub and that's not the reason i'm going i just grew up there
Marc:But, you know, it's just, you know, people, you know, it's just untenable to live with this.
Marc:You know, I'm going in and out of real terror, you know, that is both rational and, you know, exacerbated because of my brain, you know, every few minutes here.
Marc:And, you know, I'm fortunate.
Marc:I'm grateful.
Marc:I'm lucky right now.
Marc:But it's a fluid situation.
Marc:And so in terms of, look, I don't want my house to burn down.
Marc:The possibility is not imminent, but it's reasonable to think it could happen.
Marc:But barring that, you know, I don't see, you know, selling my place or, you know, taking down the studio or whatever.
Marc:But I do see the possibility and probability of relocating permanently as being real.
Marc:So, you know, if I do that sooner than I anticipated...
Marc:You know, as I said, I would probably go home to New Mexico, which is not that difficult a journey.
Marc:And, you know, theoretically, you know, if we book guests properly, if anybody is still going to come here to do that kind of stuff in the near future, you know, I could get back, you know, to, you know, like, okay, we've set up this week for bookings.
Marc:And, you know, I fly back and, you know, I have this house and, you know, do the job.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I think people should be aware of that, too.
Guest:Like, we're not sure of how this is going to shake out in terms of people actually doing shows like this.
Guest:You know, like we lost all our bookings last week.
Guest:We might have we we salvaged two of them.
Guest:We were able to reschedule and get two of them back on the books.
Guest:But but we've had, you know, quite a number of people who are just like not coming to L.A.
Guest:anymore until this year.
Guest:blows over so um you know that is a reality that we're facing too and we'll we'll adapt we'll adjust like that's the least of the concerns of things that are going on but by far but uh but yeah just just you know keep that in mind this isn't just any this isn't one of those things where everything goes back to normal this is a persistent threat
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And, you know, we're going now, you know, it's week to week here with with guests in the way that we are accustomed to doing it.
Guest:Yeah, well, we will still stay on that.
Guest:And I guess we'll also just obviously keep everybody updated on how things go, you know, on each intro.
Guest:And if we have to do another one of these to give you further information, we will.
Guest:But yeah, just know we're taking it very seriously here.
Guest:It's not a frivolous thing for us.
Guest:It's Mark's lived reality right now.
Guest:And we're not removed from it.
Guest:We're fully engaged.
Guest:Yeah, definitely.
Guest:All right, man, you take care of your cats and yourself.
Guest:Get some cat boxes.
Marc:Yeah, that's what I'm going to do.
Marc:I'm going to go to Petco and make a go bag for my cats.