Posting has been a tad light today due to the intrusion of life and preoccupation with the changes around here. This makes it worth it, though. I'm pleased to announce the newest member of the LA Observed blog family — Native Intelligence. It's sort of the home port for contributors on the LA Observed masthead, a place for posts about anything loosely Los Angeles-related that they feel like talking about. Traffic, a stirring new book, takes on Hollywood and media, neighborhood impressions, advice for visitors — personalized pieces by long-time Angelenos who know the region and who write well. Long-winded rants and personal crusades are discouraged — there are plenty of blogs in the world for that — but the entries at Native Intelligence will go up unedited and unfiltered. We hope you enjoy the watching the site's personality evolve.

First up, seasoned television writer Eric Estrin writes about joining the picket line in support of writers who toil for "America's Next Top Model." Here's a sample:

"Cops," the series that Fox put on the air as a direct result of the 1988 strike and that is still running 18 years later?

Never seen it.

"American Idol," Nielsen’s top-rated primetime program for the past two years?

Maybe 10 minutes.

Still, when the WGA asked members to walk a picket line this week to help bring "America’s Next Top Model" under guild control, I wanted to help. The writers of that show work long hours without earning residuals or other benefits, while the startup CW network and the show’s production company, Anisa Productions, reap huge rewards from having a runaway hit on the schedule.

Not only that, but I see the issue of whether or not these courageous writers can unionize a tentpole hit like ANTM as a key test of my guild’s viability. Which means I consider it very important for the sake of future creators of TV content, not to mention my own pension plan.

Novelist Denise Hamilton helps inaugurate Native Intelligence with a rumination on driving across the Valley in this heat to Santa Monica in search of the perfect apricot for jam.

The traffic was so bad, especially at the 101/405 connector, that I jotted down one-third of a new short story while inching along and managed to plot out the entire thing in my head. I always keep a notepad and pencil in the car. I don't think I was being reckless, certainly not any more so than a cell phone user. OK, so maybe that's not a good analogy. But the traffic was just plain stalled.

Why do I drive all the way out to SanMo? It's because Cirone Farms is at the market now, with cases of the best apricots in the city. They come down from See Canyon in San Luis Obispo County. I've given Michael Cirone more than a hundred bucks for 'cots in the last couple of weeks. That buys me three boxes.

I'll have the RSS feed activated shortly. In the meantime, bookmark Native Intelligence at www.laobserved.com/intell.