Excerpt from "Resonance"

There were still quite a few westerns being broadcast at this time, and my first West Coast television appearance was a bit part on the longest running of them all, “Gunsmoke.” I played a nameless member of an outlaw gang with a couple of nondescript lines like, “I reckon so, Jeb,” and “We ride out at sun-up.” On “Bonanza,” my character competed for the affections of the girl Little Joe was in love with that week, and took a classic cowboy punch to the jaw during a saloon brawl. I also appeared as soldiers on several World War II-era dramas, as well as lots of guys in trouble with the law.

While none of this work was rewarding on an artistic level, it provided enough income to pay for a secondhand Ford Mustang and the rent on a small studio apartment above a storefront in West Hollywood. I started exploring the areas outside of the city when I was not working. At first, I spent a lot of time at the beach because I had never lived so close to the ocean before. I tried to get there either first thing in the morning or toward dusk, in order to avoid the crowds of surfers and beach bunnies who blocked the view and blasted their transistor radios all day. When the beach was empty, the sounds of the surf and the reflection of the sunlight on the waves were peaceful and relaxing. But the shore did not speak to me the way woodlands and mountains did, so I went looking for that kind of landscape. When I discovered the High Sierras, I felt like I was home again.