McIntyre in our morning

Just to point out some of the pieces now in the queue at Native Intelligence, the LA Observed blog where the subjects can range wherever the contributors want to go:

Doug McIntyre: Bob Baker discovers the KABC morning talker and finds him an island of decency in a sea of Limbaughs, Hannitys and whoever Air America puts up against them on KTLK.

My car�s radio buttons are set to talk stations. I can�t find a music station I like, and my CD player won�t work and I�ve been too cheap to fix it. So I subject myself to the only emotions that seem to be permitted on talk radio: anger, hatred, self-righteousness...

McIntyre can play populist-ranter with the best of them; his anger at President Bush�s inaction on immigration is unmistakably real. (McIntyre, who says he voted for Bush twice, issued a profuse apology for his vote in May, suggesting historians will view Bush as one of the worst presidents ever.) He has also been feuding with the concept of ethnic-oriented charter schools, speaking harshly enough to generate charges of being a �hater.�

But McIntyre also has the ability to be civil, humble and amused by life, and to acknowledge its complexity.

Manson 37 years ago today: From time to time I will join the mix at Native Intelligence. Today is one of those times. I look back at the fear and carnage wrought by Charles Manson and the young suburban baby boomers who, for reasons I still can't comprehend, followed him without question.

No one picked up the clue reported unwittingly in the Los Angeles Times the following Sunday. On the same page as stories on the murder scenes and the LaBianca funerals, a brief story reported a Sheriff's raid on a car theft ring at the Spahn Ranch, a decrepit movie location near Chatsworth. Most of the twenty-six heavily armed suspects arrested were young women dressed like hippies.

Learning to let her drive: Judy Graeme talks about her own rite of passage as her daughter takes the wheel.

Not since I rode with my grandmother have I been such a nervous passenger. When I was sixteen I was already driving over Laurel Canyon to hang out at the Troubador and patronize Pickwick Books on Hollywood Boulevard. Now, Los Angeles traffic has become frightening to me all over again.

Marilyn and Jack: Deanne Stillman can't help but wonder about the first time John F. Kennedy knocked on Marilyn Monroe's door.

�Hi, there,� Marilyn whispered in a tone that was familiar to JFK, for his wife Jacqueline used it as well.

�Won�t you come in?� she said.

JFK entered and she closed the door.

�I was just rereading Lincoln,� said Southern California. �May I get you a drink?�

No culture clashing: Denise Hamilton drives down to the Taper for a performance of "Water and Power" and doesn't regret it a bit.

There's something quintessentially L.A. about going to see live theater at the Music Center. It's a ritual that moves me deeply, that makes me feel part of something bigger, something exalted. And that's important in a big city like ours that has no real central beating heart.

o o o o

Elsewhere on LA Observed today:
David Neiman visits with the admired painter of sports scenes, Stanley Silver.
Mark Lacter ticks off the local companies where stock option practices have come in for questions.
At The Valley Observed, a carnival of films set in the 818 area code.