posted by at 12:55 AM on May 09, 2007 It's 12:55 as I write this. Twenty minutes ago I went out on the deck of my house here in Beachwood Canyon and saw flames licking up over the hill towards Griffith Park. I grabbed MFMD (my fabulous man Dan) and we drove up the hill and then hiked up the ridge to check it out.

Awesome and surreal, the ridge on fire, a tree blowing up suddenly and the helicopters slowly circling the canyon with a synchronicity akin to a symphony. There seems to be a staging area up on the hill by the Hollywood sign where the choppers land, fill up with flame retardant, than circle back over the fire, dropping it down. There's an amazing military precision to the choppers, circling, landing, lighting the hillside with their massive lights, looking for sparks.

A beautiful music. I have to hand it to the fire department. They are on top of it.

Up there above the city in the night air, I wonder how all the deer and coyotes and snakes are doing. Where will they go? Dan says the snakes will die.

I know there's a possiblity I will have to evacuate, the second time in a month I've had to think of this. What would I take..

.. my computer, my cameras, but once again, I realize most of the 'stuff' just doesn't matter.

Maybe I won't have to worry about taking ANYTHING to the !

Just heard the sad news that Dante's View has been destroyed by the fire. This is the second time since 1990.

I was watching the fire (or rather the light and smoke from it) from atop a nearby parking garage here in NoHo. As of 12:30 am or so, the flames hadn't come over the crest, but they looked really close to doing so. The wind had died down a lot though, so hopefully that will help things.

Posted by: at May 9, 2007 01:07 AM MJS has that he took while driving round the city.