Tag Archives: california

California v. II

… continued Metamorphosis About thirty million years ago, the trailing edge of the Farallon Plate began to disappear under North America in the shape of an inverted 90° wedge, beginning at the location of present-day Los Angeles, and proceeding northeast under the continent, leaving nothing but hot mantle where before was the cold, subducting oceanic [...]

California v. I

It’s common knowledge that water is the bane of fire, but the Earth tells us a different tale. Up to about 200 million years ago, at the dawn of the Jurassic Period, there was no California. It might be said that even North America didn’t exist. North America had then part of the supercontinent of [...]

What is California?

An enumeration of the elements of California might proceed as follows: The San Andreas Fault The California Current The Sierra Nevada The Central Valley Redwood Forests The San Andreas Fault The Pacific and North American Plates, two of the world’s largest, collide from the Gulf of California to Shelter Cove, just south of Cape Mendocino, [...]

Midnight in Paradise

The hound turned and ducked into the old Los Angeles depot near 7th & Main, and bottles rolled and rattled across the back once more, signaling arrival. Upon waking in his seat in downtown Los Angeles, Armen stepped into the city. He walked to the Republic Liquor Store, up to the Nickel, and then circled [...]

Pineapple Express

Soundtrack: Bob Dylan, High Water (for Charlie Patton) The fire burned down from heaven upon the vast, white wastes. When stone burns, it is like burning iron: it becomes a red and yellow liquid. So it was with the white wastes. They liquefied in the sun, but their lava was blue; a deep, absorbent blue. [...]