Sometimes the emails that we get from our readers tell the stories way better than we ever could. We had just read the sad news over at LA Observed that filmmaker, writer, and blogger Theresa Duncan had committed suicide, when we got this email:

Tony,

I'm a long time fan of your blog and LAist. I'm also a huge fan of Theresa Duncan's blog, Wit of the Staircase. LAist did an interview with her awhile back.

Many fans of her blog probably don't know, she committed suicide July 10. This was initially reported on LA Observed last night, and there's a number of updates from somebody who knew her at a perfume forum.

There's a small obit for her on the web site of the funeral home where her funeral will be held Saturday in Michigan where she grew up and her family is located.

Her partner, the well known artist Jeremy Blake, is now also missing and may also be dead.

This is such a tragedy, and given your wide reach, I'm sure people who knew her in Venice Beach, where they lived, and around the world would like to know.

mike in seattle

If you were to make a perfume that embodied the essence of Los Angeles, what would it smell like?

My cologne is called Santa Ana after the powerful winds that bring desert heat and faraway smell into the city.

It smells like: Celluloid and sand, coyote fur and car exhaust, contrail cloud and chlorine, bitter orange and stage blood and one bushel of ghostly, shivery night-blooming jasmine flowers like blown kisses from the phantoms of the ten thousand screen beauties who still haunt our hills every full moon because they think it's a stage light.