'Bleak, generic apartments with windows barred to keep its residents safe from The Night Stalker, The Manson Family, The Grim Sleeper, The Golden State Killer, or whomever the next devil in the City of Angeles may be.' - 'Earthquake Weather', the exhibit. They ran cables to 10ks, loaded film in cameras, and checked the audio levels when I began to make my own films. You had to exchange guarded information and draw that crucial line in the sand if you wanted to be an artist. Those outsiders became my friends and shared my sensibilities. The Internet did not yet serve up the top Criterion art house picks or the old Punk, Post-Punk, Britpop, Krautrock, 70s Dub Reggae, Garage Rock, or UK Indie-Rock obscurities that fed my soul. I drifted through endless gigs, dug in dusty, pretentious video stores, and met up with strange people (some from other countries) to take my place with the outsiders. I was also heavily into music, and it wasn't easy to find the kind of films or records I wanted. I was chasing cheap rent on the Eastside, and my life was unfolding like one of the neo-noir films I was studying. I didn't even own a computer then, nor did I care about owning one. Computers were replacing film splicers for editing at breakneck speed. Digital video had swept in overnight and threatened what had been the industry standard since the dawn of Hollywood. I was being trained in Super 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm film, which were in serious trouble. In 2001, I was studying film at an art school in Los Angeles.

' Earthquake Weather is very close to me. In his author's statement Ebeling explains his inspiration for writing the book, his first novel:

The manitou novel