An amazing time-lapse display of smoke billowing up into the blue skies of the LA basin as the LA Station Fire rages on in the Angeles National Forest just East of downtown LA.

LA Station Fire – 2009

Time lapse photographic "movie" of LA fire by Brandon Riza - Click To Watch

As a lifelong guitar player, music lover and student of a good blues riff, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the passing of the father of the solid body electric guitar – the original axe man – Les Paul. Les was the consummate tinkerer. His first cut at a solid body electric guitar became known as the “Log” – a bare bones prototype built out of a 4 x 4 piece of lumber. Things got a bit snazier after that. Maybe somebody else would have eventually invented the electric guitar but Les Paul did it first. He was also the first to use multi-track recording techniques which revolutionized the music recording industry. Stop and imagine a world without the electric guitar and multi-track recording – no Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no….the list would be endless. Thank you Les. You made all of our lives richer and more interesting. I think I’ll listen to some Eric Clapton tonight and toast to your very cool life. Rest in peace man.