FIRE SALE/ LA RELIEF/ NATE DENVER
Like everyone reading this, I’ve spent the past few days in utter disbelief watching the wildfires rip through LA. It’s so unbelievable that you can’t take it in. The scope of the loss here is hard to fathom.
And I have friends there. Maybe you do too. Or maybe you don’t, and just give a shit about human beings and their lives.
When I first saw it show up, I texted my friend Nate. He’s a firefighter with the L.A County Fire Department. Has been for a while now, and I knew he’d be in the thick of this; and I just said stay safe, thinking about you. He got back to me last night. He’s on 1 hour of sleep and…I can’t even tell you, everyone. I feel bad sharing this without asking him, (but I think it’s ok and don’t want to bug him at the moment) he texted me back last night “Hectic night in Altadena. We managed to save a few houses AND the Girl Scout Camp. That was a major win”.
Superheroes are bullshit, because they are fake. Nate Denver is not. He’s the real thing.
So, here’s the deal. I published one of Nate’s books on La Mano, some years back. Then I helped him/co-published his 2nd book, and I still have some. They have been sitting in my garage. It is called HAUNTED ARMOR.
Read on for more about Nate, but this post is mostly this: IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE SOME DOUGH TO SOME LA WILDFIRE RELIEF/ FIRST RESPONDER FUNDS, YOU GET NATE’S AWESOME BOOK FOR FREE. Just go to the SHOP page above.
Look, this is not about Nate. And he’s very, very busy right now, but he’d absolutely agree that this is about the thousands of people whose lives have been impacted, and will be for a long time. At the same time, he’s part of a group of people who are actively putting their lives in danger to try to manage this.
So, whatever is raised here (be it $50 or $5000) will be split between a generalized Wildfire Relief Fund and the LA First Responders (I’m still vetting which ones exactly are the most appropriate/ effective).
OK? Ok.
I met Nate when I was the bass payer for The Dirty Three For a month-long US tour. Nate opened for the whole run of shows (I think? Most of them, anyway). His band was called Nate Denver’s Neck (but it was just Nate). He’d come out on stage every night in full cowl and scary plastic death mask (and a bloody cardboard axe head taped to the end of his guitar) with Wagner playing loud on the PA. Then the music would swell and he’d dramatically pull off his death mask to reveal…his face painted like a death mask. Then Wagner would stop and he’d play metal songs about his childhood Teddy Bear and how much he loves people for a half hour. He does 100 pull ups a day.
Nate and I became friends during that tour; he liked the books and comics I put out on my little press, La Mano. At the final show of the tour (and whoooooo boy is there a good story there), we said goodbye and vowed to stay in touch.
We did. That doesn’t always happen. I think at some point later we were sitting and watching hummingbirds on his porch and he said “you know, I wrote 50 stories of exactly 50 words each.” I said “really?” He said yes, really. So I said “well, I would really like to see those”, and he said I sort of hoped you’d say that.
Long story short, the 50/50 words stories (with illustrations) were funny, beautiful, sad, and more wildly entertaining than I can really describe. It was called WAIT, YOU’RE NOT A CENTAUR. I printed the whole book up on the offset press I’d got for $250 that I barely knew how to use (it was the first La Mano book where EVERYTHING was done in my little shop, except the binding), and Nate (because he’s Nate) got an intro from the guitar player from TOOL, and hand-drew an elephant on the paper sleeve for the cd of his songs that came with every copy. We sold out of the run. I’ve got like 10 left, and you can’t have one, sorry. (HAUNTED ARMOR is the sequel to that book, and it is equally great).
Some time later we did a rat-ass string of shows together at book stores up the west coast for a week. Just the 2 of us. It remains some of my fondest tour memories ever.
When he said he was going to paramedic school, to be fireman, I thought “well, of course you are. That makes perfect sense.”
Look, I know— people’s homes and lives are being burned to the ground as I write this. And I’m telling you about my buddy. But I'm telling you about him because he’s serving people, helping them…it is at the core of this person. It’s his JOB, but he chose this job because that’s what he wanted to do.
Helping people, in this moment, is the thing to do. Fire Department or not. Things are HAIRY. Nate texted me that the amount of helping he’s seeing in L.A right now is “humbling”. Man, I love that guy.
So, not enough people bought HAUNTED ARMOR when it came out. When I sell them at shows I can’t shut up about how great it is. It’s a win-win; you get this wildly funny and beautiful book by someone who has been putting his life on the line to contain this thing, AND you get to contribute to the recovery.
(He signed off on this, by the way. Just to be clear)
How much is the book? Well, the cover price is $17, but it came out ages ago, so given the circumstances, I’m calling it $20. I wish there was a “pay what you want” button, but there isn’t and it wreaks havoc. So I also put in a $50, if you want to give more. (Shipping is $4.90).
I’ve got 250. Get on it.
Look, given the devastation, here, whatever I/ we can raise is a drop in the bucket. I know that. But if there’s a better analogy for “we need as many drops in the bucket as possible”, I’d like to see it.
Or rather, I wouldn’t.
Obviously— if you are there, or your people are there…take care, and stay safe as best you can.