December 15, 2024 • 32 mins
Michael kicks off the hour breaking down the big rezoning decision in LA with guest M. Nolan Gray from California YIMBY, exploring its impact on housing, equity, and the city's future. Plus, an update on the Malibu fire containment efforts and a dive into the most cringe-worthy Christmas songs—do they make your list? All this and more on a full moon Saturday night in LA.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News here with you on
this full moon Saturday night in LA.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Will be together until nine o'clock tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Lots to get to, including something that you may not
pay enough attention to when it comes to government policy.
I know there are things coming out of city hall,
whether you live in LA or any other city in
southern California, where you're talking about it with your neighbors
or you're listening to John Colevelt and you're frustrated and
you're angry. But there's a major issue that local governments
(00:44):
deal with all the time that gets kind of deep
into the weeds, but it affects your lives in ways.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That you might not be aware of.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And it is something called zoning, and it can be
boring and laborious, and the words are difficult to understand.
My goodness sat through many zoning meetings. But there was
a big rezoning decision in the City of l eight
this week, and we're gonna break it down.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We're going to figure out what it means for the future.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Of populating this city, of building housing in the city,
and why it matters to you because inevitably it spills
over out of La into the surrounding communities. So get
ready for an exciting Saturday night conversation about zoning. Where
else would you rather be on the weekend, And I'm
telling you it really is important. We'll also have an
(01:36):
update on the fire in Malibu. The La County Fire
Department did just give an update, and it must be
getting much better in Malibu, because they did say it
was going to be their last live update on YouTube.
This was a live form they had about an hour
ago where they updated the community and they say they're
not going to have to do it again. The fire
(01:58):
is contained, it's surrounded by about thirty eight percent at
this point, it's still at about four thousand acres though,
so the firefighters are still unseen. We will hear from
an assistant fire chief on the current conditions on the ground.
He says that it's better, but there are still risks,
particularly to those firefighters who are on the ground. So
(02:20):
we'll hear from him coming up a little bit later.
It's also, of course the Christmas season, and maybe you're
in the spirit. Maybe you're not in the spirit, but
you cannot escape the Christmas music. Maybe you love it.
Maybe you're listening to our sister Station Coast while you're
at work all Christmas all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Maybe you have your favorites.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But are there some Christmas songs that bug you, some
that kind of get under your skin and put you
in a bad state of mind? Because that is true
for me, and I don't know what that means for
my holiday spirit. How can a Christmas song that is
(03:04):
designed to cheer me up put me in such a
bad mood?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Do you have one of those?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And conversely, what are the Christmas songs you can't live without?
If you were to google right now worst Christmas songs,
you would see, just from this week alone, about a
dozen fresh articles from large media outlets counting down the
best and the worst of the Christmas songs. And you'll
(03:32):
see some pretty typical crossover on those lists, especially on
the worst list.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
So it's pretty typical.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But for your convenience, I have compiled a list based
on my own interest, and I'm gonna tell you why
three Christmas songs are the absolute worst Christmas songs. And
I'd like to stop hearing them, and then in our
next hour we'll hear the best ones. And these are
(04:01):
not the same ones that you will find, for the
most part on those googleable list. It's Kim six forty
I Michael Monk's with you until nine o'clock tonight. Loving
that full moon that I saw on the freeway today,
it is time to make a wish on it a
Christmas wish. So if you've been naughty and you need
(04:22):
a little bit of help to recover, so that Santa
brings you what you want. I believe in making a
big wish on the night of the full moon. I'm
making a big wish that we have a good program
today and that you join our conversation on the iHeartRadio app.
You can click on the talkback button and leave us
a message. We're going to play some throughout the next
two hours. What are your opinions about what we're talking about,
(04:44):
whether it's the impact of zoning on the community, how
is the Malibu fire looking out in your neck of
the woods, or what is the worst Christmas song?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
What song can you not stand when it comes on?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I want to hear that especially, So let's be polite
Grench today and talk about the Christmas songs that we
don't really like, and we'll do that for the next
couple of hours. I had a great day, did some
shopping in downtown La. I live in downtown LA. I
know if you listen, if you've listened to me for
the past four or five weeks that I've had the
great opportunity to spend Saturday nights with you, you can
(05:19):
probably start taking shots when I say downtown La or
covering up a bingo slot.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Every time I say Downtown La. I love it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It's full of problems, of course it is. I love
Downtown La. I love it. And today is just one
of those days that reminds me why, because I went
to have a nice breakfast at a nice restaurant and
then I did a whole bunch of my Christmas shopping,
knocked out a huge chunk of the Christmas shopping just
(05:50):
today in a few hours. And I didn't need any transportation.
I didn't have to take a car, I didn't even
need public transportation. I could walk do all of it.
And that that is one of the main reasons that
I love downtown LA. And I also love being closed
to Santi Alle because I love my family, and I
(06:12):
love my family so much that I am willing to
go and find the very best fashioned knockoffs to give
them for Christmas. And I know that they are going
to be thrilled when these arrive in the mail back
home in Kentucky, fresh from Santi Alle. But downtown LA
is one of those places that is zoned in a
(06:33):
lot of ways and the way you want a community
to be zoned. It is walkable. It is densely populated.
You know, we're all stacked on top of each other
down there. There's not a single family home really in
downtown LA. You're not going to find a house to
live in. You're going to find a building with an
(06:54):
elevator and neighbors and maybe there's something cool, like a
rooftop that you can all get on.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I have a rooftop.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It's great. We have a basketball court and a pool
on the roof. And again you go downstairs and the
streets are designed in a way that you can walk
to the restaurants that you can walk to the shops.
Traffic's a messy thing still, of course, because it's La.
(07:22):
But downtown in La is the epitome as it relates
to Los Angeles in general, I think of good zoning.
So what does that mean. I don't want to bore
you today about zoning. I'm begging you to listen to this.
You get angry all the time about what your local
government is doing, but this is one of those in
(07:45):
the weeds policies that you gotta pay attention to because
it has a lasting impact in ways that are sometimes
difficult to fully predict or understand. And yes it's wonky,
and yes it can be dense, but it's important. And
a very big decision was made this week in Los
(08:05):
Angeles related to zoning and frankly, to the future of
the population of this city. So what does it mean.
We're going to talk about that with an expert.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Next, you're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks. Little sports news out this afternoon. Former
USC starting quarterback Miller Moss has committed to Louisville. So
Southern California's loss is Kentucky's gain. But forever, every Southern
Californian who heads off to Kentucky, we will replace them
(08:42):
with two Kentuckians. And that's what you've got right now,
me Michael Monks from Kentucky. I'm also joined by M.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Nolan Gray.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
He's senior director at California YIMB, a statewide advocacy organization
working to pass legislation to end California's housing shortage by
quote empowering and growing the YIMB move. He's also the
author of Arbitrary Lines, How Zoning Broke the American City
and How to Fix It.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Nolan, do I call you M Nolan or Nolan? Nolan
is just fine, all right, Nolan? It is.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You're Kentucky nice like me, so it will be Nolan.
I told our audience that zoning is one of those
very important things that local governments do that's difficult to
pay attention to because it's dense, it's wonky. There are
a lot of terms that you have to understand, usually
with like abbreviation, some letters, some numbers. You don't know
what it means, but it can impact your life for
(09:32):
a very long time. And something happened at La City
Hall this week. I want to get to because you
use some pretty harsh language to describe what it was.
The city had to rezone itself to allow for the
building of about what two hundred and twenty five thousand
new units, but they did not allow those new units
(09:52):
by the zoning policy, to go into certain parts of
the city.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Can you help us understand what happened? Absolutely? Yeah, So
let's start from the beginning here. What is zoning.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Zoning is essentially saying here's what you're allowed to build
on every single parcel in the city. And as you mentioned, superficially,
it's really really boring. But the more you understand about this,
the more you can understand why your community looks the
way it does, why a city like Los Angeles, for example,
has a debilitating housing shortage. So in recent year, state
law has changed requiring cities like Los Angeles, every single
city in the state to come up with a plan
to reform zoning and allow for more housing to get
(10:23):
built variety of housing types and in the right places,
and so the city has an obligation to adopt this plan.
This week, the city adopted a plan that I think
didn't go nearly far enough as it would need to.
And you know, we're going to see what happens next.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Okay, this is something that you said, Los Angeles City Council.
This is a quote from your Twitter, your x feed
voted this week to maintain segregation. Segregation now, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever remains the official policy of a Los Angeles
run by a group of people who identify as progressives.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
What did you mean by that? Yeah, well, it's strong.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Language, but I think it was a historically, you know,
deeply flawed decision. So in Los Angeles, has in many
cities in California, the vast majority of residential areas are
restricted to a detached single family home.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
That's the only thing you can legally build.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So you can't build townhouses, you can't build small multifamily buildings,
and in many cases, you can't even build detached single
family homes on smaller lots. So what this does is
it essentially writes housing on affordability into law. But in
the case of Los Angeles, has in so many other cities,
it also leaves many of the highest opportunity, most jobs rich,
in some cases, most transit rich, part of the city's
off limits to new housing development. And so what this
(11:32):
does is it actually writes into law historic patterns of
inequities that in many cases were tied up with zoning
policies that were designed to segregate our cities and single
families owning is an example of that. By banning more
affordable forms of housing in the vast majority of Los Angeles,
we effectively allocate working in lower class Los Angeles Angelinos
to a handful of neighborhoods where we do allow that housing.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
What type of neighborhoods have been excluded from this type
of multi family housing development?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
So huge portions of West Los Angeles where I live,
for example, one of the most expensive parts of the city,
parts of the city that are often served by transit
and near major job centers like Century City and UCLA.
Many cases, the only legal form of housing that you
can build anywhere near those job centers is a detachaingle
family home.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
And when they don't allow multi family housing to be
built in those communities, what happens to the communities where
it is allowed to be built?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Is it too much? It's a great question.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Essentially, what ends up happening is all of the new
pressure for new housing development falls on a handful of
neighborhoods where we do allow additional housing to be built,
and in many cases, those are lower opportunity areas where
the existing renters might be at risk of potentially displacement. Now,
I tend to think we need to be building more
housing and every single neighborhood in Los Angeles if we're
going to build our way out of this crisis.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I mean, you mentioned this.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
The state has run the numbers and they've said, look,
Los Angeles needs to be building about one hundred and
seventy thousand or so units a year to get ourselves
out of this housing shortage. And we're not even close
to that. And we're definitely not going to be able
to hit that target. If we're saying seventy five to
eighty percent of the city's off limits to new house development.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
We're talking to m Nolan Gray, senior director at California YIMB.
I want to point out that YIMB stands for yes
in my backyard. I think nimby became a term probably
first not in my backyard. And you would hear folks,
maybe folks who understand, yeah, we need a gas station
in our neighborhood, but I'd rather not have it next
to my home are Yeah, we do need a prison
in the city, but it'd be nice not to be
(13:21):
in the residential communities. Yes in my backyard is a
statement that yes, you want what in your backyard more housing.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
So you know, of course, people have totally understandable concerns
about heavy industries, even gas stations right drive through these
things of that nature. But what Los Angeles is stuck
in right now is a paradigm where oh, okay, the
only form of housing that can be built in the
vast majority of the city is a detacha single family home.
So we've locked housing affordability, We've locked ourselves out of
housing affordabilit as a matter of law, and we've put
(13:50):
all of the pressure for affordable housing on a handful
of neighborhoods. So the concept of MB is to say, well,
rather than opposing every single new housing development, we support
new housing development, and in fact, we think that this
enriches our communities. It makes sure that our neighbors have
housing stability, that we have populations to support things like
a corner grocery or a corner coffee shop, and that
our city can remain this engine of opportunity that historically
has been.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So when we think about Nimbi's what is the argument
against the more dense housing opportunities in seventy five percent
of Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
I think there are understandable arguments. The first is folks
who are concerned, Hey, make sure that we're scaling up
public services. Make sure that we're scaling up things like
transit so not every single person has to have a car.
Make sure that we're managing the on street parking so
that people don't lose their onn street parking. Totally valid concerns,
but concerns that we should address by actually addressing those
concerns rather than saying, well, we're just not going to
allow any new housing to be built. And worst cases,
(14:42):
I would say in many cases, people are just explicitly like, yeah,
I don't want lower income people or anybody who earns
less than me living anywhere near me. And I would
just say that, you know, certainly, as I mentioned in
that tweet, in a city that identifies as progressive as
a place where we would like for everyone to be
able to come and find affordable and decent housing, I
think that's not acceptable answer.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I want to touch on that next, but I want
to note I hinted that we're a couple of Kentucky
guys even in cities in Kentucky. I come from Covington,
you hail from Lexington. In Covington, when there were new
apartments being built, you would hear from homeowners that renters
aren't as invested in the community. They're more transient, and
you know, they may cause some damage that they don't care.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
About in the communities.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I mean that is a widespread viewpoint of people
who have perhaps more money and have had more opportunities
to be against this type of development.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yes, it's widespread.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But you know, this is a city council that is
almost entirely democratic, one independent who used to be a Republican,
and they are pretty progressive oriented. There are folks who
have passed ordinances recently strengthening progression protections for renters. But
then you take a position fifteen to nothing, by the way,
(15:50):
in support of this zoning. What is the contradiction there
for them to be pro renter, pro housing by word
by spoken word, and then to vote to allow these
bans on the types of developments that many think are
necessary in certain parts of the city.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
It's a good question.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
I think a lot of people don't realize the tension
between the values that they claim to hold and the
actual policies that they support. So I think if you
ask the members of La City Council, hey, do you
support Los Angeles being segregated on the basis of income
and then of course directly on the basis of race,
they would say, well, of course, not right. And you
can imagine a parallel world where we don't have policies
like this, and if you propose them today, people would
think you're crazy. And yet we have these policies today
(16:31):
and there's just no movement away from them. And I
would say this is not an unusual thing, right. I mean,
city all across the country are rolling back these rules.
Sacramento and San Francisco here in California, and then many
dozens more cities across the country is saying, look, if
we're going to reckon with historic patterns of equity, and
if we're going to make sure that we're allowing enough
new housing to meet our housing need, we're going to
have to get rid of these policies that ban housing
as a matter of law in three quarters of our cities.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
M Nolan Gray is senior director at California Yimbie, a
statewide advocacy organization working to pass legislation and to end
what they see is California's housing shortage by empowering and
growing the Yes in My Backyard YIMBI movement. He's also
the author of Arbitrary Lines, How Zoning Broke the American
City and How to Fix It. Folks can follow you
on X What is your handle?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
There? M Nolan Gray and Ola n g r A Y.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Absolutely a lot of hot takes, but I learned a
lot at least some perspective to consider by checking you out.
And I'm so glad she took some time to come
out and talk to Hope you'll do it again, my pleasure.
All right, thanks a lot.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Up.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Next, we'll get an update on the Malibu fire. The
La County Fire Department spoke about it and it looks
like it's good news. That's going to be their last
live update on YouTube for a while. And auction of
Hollywood items just wrapped up will tell you wish things
went the for the most money. Some may surprise you
at least the most expensive item. And then at the
end of the hour, what I think are the worst
(17:48):
Christmas songs ever.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
KFIAM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm
Michael Monks from KFI News here with you night till
nine o'clock. And the weather outside it's a little frightful.
It's a little chilly out there. We got the full
moon beating down on us. Hope you make a Christmas wish.
The Only County Fire Department reports that the fire in
Malibu is now thirty eight percent surrounded. It's burned over
(18:16):
four thousand acres. There are more than one thousand, seven
hundred firefighter personnel assigned to that fire. Even today. Let's
hear from Assistant Chief Drew Smith on the latest out
of Malibu.
Speaker 6 (18:29):
We've had highly successful weather to take advantage of some opportunity.
But with that opportunity once again, I'm going to talk
to risk. As we have a perimeter of this fire
that we're trying to control, that we're keeping within the
containment lines. That gives our firefighters an opportunity to engage
and extinguish. And as we do that, we go deeper
(18:52):
and deeper into this fire to extinguish those smokes, which
gives our firefighters the possibility and put tent truthfully for
injury because they're digging in deeper and deeper to extinguish
all those smokes through the technology we have through line
of sight of seeing where the heat signatures are, so
(19:12):
we're engaged in that. So I know that you see
there may be not any smoke production, but there is
heat that's still within that firefootprint. So walking around the
fire here, we have everything that's established along Payuma Road
that goes down with handline through very steep and rugged
train that we continue to engage our hand crews and
(19:33):
our engines plumbing that with water to extinguish any of
those heat signatures so it doesn't pose a threat to
the line. As we walk or go around the front
side through the community and along Pacificoast Highway. We have
our engine companies that are engaged extinguishing those hot heat
signatures and also engage in community interaction to help the
(19:54):
residents in answering questions. And once again, i'd like to
thank you for that interaction that you've had.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And that was Drew Smith, the Assistant chief of the
La County Fire Department, talking about the latest out of Malibu.
One thing they said that was from tonight that was
a live YouTube update at about six o'clock this evening.
They said that's going to be their last one, that
they're not going to do any more of those, So
that must be a good sign. And it looks like
now the focus is on the safety of the firefighters
who are out there taking care of the rest of this.
(20:23):
This was a fire that broke out on Monday, and
at the height of it all about twenty thousand people
were under either evacuation orders or evacuation warnings, but as
of yesterday afternoon, Malibu Citi spokesman Matt Meyerhoff announced that
all the evacuation orders had been reduced to just warnings,
allowing all residents to return to their homes. That was
a crazy scene. I did go out there this week
(20:44):
during the fire to cover it for KFI News. The
scenes that came out of Pepperdine University with the students
there in a couple of the buildings on campus. Obviously,
Pepperdine knows what it's doing, They are prepared for this
sort of thing, but they had their students stay on
campus and come into a couple of the buildings.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
But the scenes were nuts. How close those flames looked
to be to those windows. Very strategically landscaped up there, though,
and they seem to be pretty confident that they could
wait it out, and they were right.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
I'll tell you from my perspective as a reporter covering it.
You know, you go out to Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway,
and you've got just the pure southern California vibe of
businesses on the ocean. You've got sunshine, you've got the beach,
you've got the ocean waves crashing into the sand. You've
(21:37):
got the silhouettes of the palm trees and the seabirds
that are sitting atop it. And then right on the
other side of it, the city's on fire. And that
is the quintessential image of life in Southern California in
the twenty first century. So we hope that everybody out
in Malibu is doing well getting through this and somehow
(22:02):
managed to enjoy the Christmas holiday in light of this
devastating fire that erupted this week, we had a significant
auction of Hollywood items, and the black leather motorcycle jacket
worn by Olivia Newton John in nineteen seventy eight Blockbuster
musical Grease was the top selling item at this four
(22:26):
day auction of memorabilia from Hollywood films. How much did
that thing go? For the jacket Olivia Newton John wore
at the end of Grease when she says what tell
me about it? Stud four hundred and seventy six thousand
dollars for that jacket, nearly six times its original estimate
(22:46):
of eighty thousand dollars. This was a end of year
auction called a Week of Hollywood Legends. It happened Tuesday
through Friday at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills by
Julian's Auctions and Turner Classics Movies Turner Classic Movies that
brought in a total four and a half million dollars.
Over one thousand of artifacts were sold, So the biggest
(23:10):
thing was that jacket from Olivia Newton John and the
movie Grease. Can you imagine that price tag? Here we
are talking about people not being able to rent their
apartment in la and somebody dropping half a million dollars
on a jacket. A pair of ruby slippers, excuse me.
A pair of ruby slippers that commemorated the fiftieth anniversary
(23:31):
of the Wizard of Oz went for one hundred and
four thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
So think about that. That's not from the movie.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Judy Garland was long dead before these slippers were even
brought out. This commemorated the fiftieth anniversary. So what are
we looking at nineteen eighty nine for these shoes one
hundred and four thousand dollars. But the dress, the blue
and white Gingham pattern pinafore that Judy Garland wore in
a nineteen thirty eight wardrobe test for her role as Dorothy,
(23:58):
that went for sixty five grand. Sir Lawrence Olivier's nineteen
forty eight Venice Biennial Hamlet Golden Lion Award went for
more than thirty five thousand dollars. Dame Jones Plowwrights Best
Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for her role in nineteen
ninety two Stalin went for a little over sixteen one
thousand dollars. Marilyn Monroe's nineteen sixty Actors Studio notebook went
(24:22):
for twenty six grand, while her nineteen sixty two armchair
went for over nineteen thousand dollars. Her mascara and her
purple eyeshadow went for sixty five hundred dollars each. I
wonder if kfi's Regita Diagasino has that kind of money
to drop on makeup. Let's find out over in the
KFI twenty four hour news rooms.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
You're not.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Mean KFI AM six forty and live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News keeping you company,
and you're keeping me company until nine Hey, want to
hear from you on the iHeartRadio app talkback button. You
might play some of your messages throughout the night. I
specifically want to know, of course, your opinion on any
(25:10):
of the topics we talk about, or anything else that's
on your mind. But what's the worst Christmas song? What's
one that just sends the bad shivers up your spine.
You have to flip the radio station, or you have
to leave the party, you can't stand it. On the
other hand, what's your favorite What's one that when you
hear it for the first time every season, you feel good?
(25:31):
It is up on the iHeartRadio app and click that
talk back button and we'll play some of those. Because
I'm going to play some of what I think are
the worst Christmas songs that I can stand. But first,
if you're out there driving, I want you to know
there are some Christmas songs that are apparently dangerous to
listen to while driving. This is out of the New
York Post. The study comes from South China University of
(25:57):
Technology or SCUT. Sounds like an insult that's been hurled
in my direction.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
More than once.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Researchers there found songs with a beats per minute greater
than one hundred and twenty guilty of encouraging dangerous driving habits,
and after evaluating a lengthy list said to include every
class at Christmas tune nineteen fifties Frosty the Snowman, first
recorded by Gene Autry, was named by a website called
(26:25):
Insurance Sopedia, which sounds trustworthy as quote the most dangerous
to drive to. It's skidded to number one with a
potentially crazy making one hundred and seventy two beats per minute.
And the song All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey,
that ubiquitous tune that's another offender, as is Faele's Navidad.
(26:48):
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town is another one that
just beats too fast and could cause some dangerous driving.
I'll tell you what drives me to drink. When it
comes to Christmas songs though, the worst Christmas songs, I'll
tell you right now, I just made this up. This
is my own opinion. I pulled the song the Christmas
(27:09):
Shoes not eligible on the list. People pick on that song,
I think, rightfully, it's a little cheesy, but I'm not
mad at it. But it's not eligible for this list.
And I'm not gonna pick on the novelty songs like
Grandma got run over by a reindeer or.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
If a least Navidad instead.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
These are just some songs that irritate me this time
of year. Raoul Cortees working the board tonight, Why don't
you roll that file for me, buddy?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
These That's not it, That is not it.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I hope you have the file called worst Christmas Songs.
It's all right, Raoul, it's Saturday night. There we go. Okay,
do you recognize that? Okay, a lot of people do,
and I has to take to say something bad about
Sir Paul.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But I hear those notes and I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
It does to me.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I can't do this song.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
See Pgita you feel.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Me has been changed it. Today when we were making breakfast,
he was like, next, like you thing is so we
just laughed. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I don't know what it is about this now today
to pull this audio. I did watch the video and
it's a vibe like it's vented sort of seventies eighties,
Like that looks like a party I would like to
go to.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
I think it's just so out play. I think it's
just one of those songs that you've just heard it
so many times, you just cantata for your entire life,
your parents' whole life.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
See, it's the only one I like.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
This is the only thing.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
This is the only one you like.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
No, I can't do this when it just there's something
about it that the tone of it, the pacing of it,
this part, this part, I'm pouring a little more whiskey
in the eggnog at this point because I just I
can't stand it.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Oh what is happening? You know what I mean?
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Like?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
What is that? Okay, Now, don't get mad at me
about this one.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Because this is Last Christmas by Wham George Michael. I
actually love this song and hate that it's a Christmas song.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
This is a song that I want to enjoy all year.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
That's a great beat, you know, listen to George Michael's voice.
My problem with this is that it's a song that
should be available all year long.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
But why does it have to be a Christmas song?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Minor tweaks to the lyrics is all we would need,
and we would have this doll baby of a tune
about unrequited love available to us in the summer.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
I'd like to hear your remix.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I you know, I'm not going to sing for the people,
but I'll tell you the lyrics are simple enough. I mean,
last Christmas, I gave gave you my heart, but the
very next day you gave it away. I mean that
last Monday, I gave you my heart, but the very
next thing, you know, like that, that immediately makes it.
You know, there's a reference to Christmas. At one point,
I wrapped it up into Christmas, you know, Happy Christmas.
(30:14):
I wrapped it up and sent it with the notes
saying I love you.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
I mint it just change that you heard it here first. Yeah,
this is.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
The worst one, and I'm sorry because this is southern California.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I like this, and this is the beach. Well, okay, again,
I don't even like the Beach Boys.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I love the Beach Boys, and this song, this is
quintessential Beach Boys. It's got the rhythm, it's got the beat,
the harmonies. Everything musically is so right. The vine is good.
But what the hell is a little Saint Nick? You know,
this is not a song about like a shrunken Santa.
(30:52):
It comes out of nowhere. I mean when you read
the lyrics to this song, it's a way up north
where the ar gets cold. There's a tale about Christmas
that you've all been told. And a real famous cat,
all dressed up and read and he spends the whole
year working out on his sled. Okay, first of all,
he doesn't work all year. He's famous for working one
(31:13):
day of the year. But then it goes right into
it's the Little Saint Nick.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
There's no explanation for why it's the Little Saint Nick.
Santa is notoriously fat. I mean, you know that they
were on a lot of drugs back there, I know
they were. But listen again, you hear the harmonies and
all that. Oh, that's great. I just wish they were
singing something else. I wish they could take the melody
and the vocal quality and put some.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Different lyrics to this. It's it's not their best.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I mean, so many Beach Boys songs I could just
sit and listen to over and over again, but this
one just a.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Honestly, if it's that.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
They try to be too cute, here a little sat
If you had an interesting mystery Christmas song about why
Santa Claus had shunk, I'm listen. I'm listening to the
Beach Boys explain that to me in those perfect harmonies,
you know. Or if Sanna was surfing, you know that
sort of thing, the surfing Santa. But little Saint Nick,
this was just phoned in cash grab. I don't appreciate it.
(32:15):
Coming up in the next hour, though, I'm gonna tell
you the best Christmas songs and why they are the
best Christmas songs, So stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News here with you on
this full moon Saturday night in LA.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Will be together until nine o'clock tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Lots to get to, including something that you may not
pay enough attention to when it comes to government policy.
I know there are things coming out of city hall,
whether you live in LA or any other city in
southern California, where you're talking about it with your neighbors
or you're listening to John Colevelt and you're frustrated and
you're angry. But there's a major issue that local governments
(00:44):
deal with all the time that gets kind of deep
into the weeds, but it affects your lives in ways.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That you might not be aware of.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And it is something called zoning, and it can be
boring and laborious, and the words are difficult to understand.
My goodness sat through many zoning meetings. But there was
a big rezoning decision in the City of l eight
this week, and we're gonna break it down.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We're going to figure out what it means for the future.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Of populating this city, of building housing in the city,
and why it matters to you because inevitably it spills
over out of La into the surrounding communities. So get
ready for an exciting Saturday night conversation about zoning. Where
else would you rather be on the weekend, And I'm
telling you it really is important. We'll also have an
(01:36):
update on the fire in Malibu. The La County Fire
Department did just give an update, and it must be
getting much better in Malibu, because they did say it
was going to be their last live update on YouTube.
This was a live form they had about an hour
ago where they updated the community and they say they're
not going to have to do it again. The fire
(01:58):
is contained, it's surrounded by about thirty eight percent at
this point, it's still at about four thousand acres though,
so the firefighters are still unseen. We will hear from
an assistant fire chief on the current conditions on the ground.
He says that it's better, but there are still risks,
particularly to those firefighters who are on the ground. So
(02:20):
we'll hear from him coming up a little bit later.
It's also, of course the Christmas season, and maybe you're
in the spirit. Maybe you're not in the spirit, but
you cannot escape the Christmas music. Maybe you love it.
Maybe you're listening to our sister Station Coast while you're
at work all Christmas all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Maybe you have your favorites.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But are there some Christmas songs that bug you, some
that kind of get under your skin and put you
in a bad state of mind? Because that is true
for me, and I don't know what that means for
my holiday spirit. How can a Christmas song that is
(03:04):
designed to cheer me up put me in such a
bad mood?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Do you have one of those?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And conversely, what are the Christmas songs you can't live without?
If you were to google right now worst Christmas songs,
you would see, just from this week alone, about a
dozen fresh articles from large media outlets counting down the
best and the worst of the Christmas songs. And you'll
(03:32):
see some pretty typical crossover on those lists, especially on
the worst list.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
So it's pretty typical.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But for your convenience, I have compiled a list based
on my own interest, and I'm gonna tell you why
three Christmas songs are the absolute worst Christmas songs. And
I'd like to stop hearing them, and then in our
next hour we'll hear the best ones. And these are
(04:01):
not the same ones that you will find, for the
most part on those googleable list. It's Kim six forty
I Michael Monk's with you until nine o'clock tonight. Loving
that full moon that I saw on the freeway today,
it is time to make a wish on it a
Christmas wish. So if you've been naughty and you need
(04:22):
a little bit of help to recover, so that Santa
brings you what you want. I believe in making a
big wish on the night of the full moon. I'm
making a big wish that we have a good program
today and that you join our conversation on the iHeartRadio app.
You can click on the talkback button and leave us
a message. We're going to play some throughout the next
two hours. What are your opinions about what we're talking about,
(04:44):
whether it's the impact of zoning on the community, how
is the Malibu fire looking out in your neck of
the woods, or what is the worst Christmas song?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
What song can you not stand when it comes on?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I want to hear that especially, So let's be polite
Grench today and talk about the Christmas songs that we
don't really like, and we'll do that for the next
couple of hours. I had a great day, did some
shopping in downtown La. I live in downtown LA. I
know if you listen, if you've listened to me for
the past four or five weeks that I've had the
great opportunity to spend Saturday nights with you, you can
(05:19):
probably start taking shots when I say downtown La or
covering up a bingo slot.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Every time I say Downtown La. I love it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It's full of problems, of course it is. I love
Downtown La. I love it. And today is just one
of those days that reminds me why, because I went
to have a nice breakfast at a nice restaurant and
then I did a whole bunch of my Christmas shopping,
knocked out a huge chunk of the Christmas shopping just
(05:50):
today in a few hours. And I didn't need any transportation.
I didn't have to take a car, I didn't even
need public transportation. I could walk do all of it.
And that that is one of the main reasons that
I love downtown LA. And I also love being closed
to Santi Alle because I love my family, and I
(06:12):
love my family so much that I am willing to
go and find the very best fashioned knockoffs to give
them for Christmas. And I know that they are going
to be thrilled when these arrive in the mail back
home in Kentucky, fresh from Santi Alle. But downtown LA
is one of those places that is zoned in a
(06:33):
lot of ways and the way you want a community
to be zoned. It is walkable. It is densely populated.
You know, we're all stacked on top of each other
down there. There's not a single family home really in
downtown LA. You're not going to find a house to
live in. You're going to find a building with an
(06:54):
elevator and neighbors and maybe there's something cool, like a
rooftop that you can all get on.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I have a rooftop.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It's great. We have a basketball court and a pool
on the roof. And again you go downstairs and the
streets are designed in a way that you can walk
to the restaurants that you can walk to the shops.
Traffic's a messy thing still, of course, because it's La.
(07:22):
But downtown in La is the epitome as it relates
to Los Angeles in general, I think of good zoning.
So what does that mean. I don't want to bore
you today about zoning. I'm begging you to listen to this.
You get angry all the time about what your local
government is doing, but this is one of those in
(07:45):
the weeds policies that you gotta pay attention to because
it has a lasting impact in ways that are sometimes
difficult to fully predict or understand. And yes it's wonky,
and yes it can be dense, but it's important. And
a very big decision was made this week in Los
(08:05):
Angeles related to zoning and frankly, to the future of
the population of this city. So what does it mean.
We're going to talk about that with an expert.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Next, you're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks. Little sports news out this afternoon. Former
USC starting quarterback Miller Moss has committed to Louisville. So
Southern California's loss is Kentucky's gain. But forever, every Southern
Californian who heads off to Kentucky, we will replace them
(08:42):
with two Kentuckians. And that's what you've got right now,
me Michael Monks from Kentucky. I'm also joined by M.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Nolan Gray.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
He's senior director at California YIMB, a statewide advocacy organization
working to pass legislation to end California's housing shortage by
quote empowering and growing the YIMB move. He's also the
author of Arbitrary Lines, How Zoning Broke the American City
and How to Fix It.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Nolan, do I call you M Nolan or Nolan? Nolan
is just fine, all right, Nolan? It is.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You're Kentucky nice like me, so it will be Nolan.
I told our audience that zoning is one of those
very important things that local governments do that's difficult to
pay attention to because it's dense, it's wonky. There are
a lot of terms that you have to understand, usually
with like abbreviation, some letters, some numbers. You don't know
what it means, but it can impact your life for
(09:32):
a very long time. And something happened at La City
Hall this week. I want to get to because you
use some pretty harsh language to describe what it was.
The city had to rezone itself to allow for the
building of about what two hundred and twenty five thousand
new units, but they did not allow those new units
(09:52):
by the zoning policy, to go into certain parts of
the city.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Can you help us understand what happened? Absolutely? Yeah, So
let's start from the beginning here. What is zoning.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Zoning is essentially saying here's what you're allowed to build
on every single parcel in the city. And as you mentioned, superficially,
it's really really boring. But the more you understand about this,
the more you can understand why your community looks the
way it does, why a city like Los Angeles, for example,
has a debilitating housing shortage. So in recent year, state
law has changed requiring cities like Los Angeles, every single
city in the state to come up with a plan
to reform zoning and allow for more housing to get
(10:23):
built variety of housing types and in the right places,
and so the city has an obligation to adopt this plan.
This week, the city adopted a plan that I think
didn't go nearly far enough as it would need to.
And you know, we're going to see what happens next.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Okay, this is something that you said, Los Angeles City Council.
This is a quote from your Twitter, your x feed
voted this week to maintain segregation. Segregation now, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever remains the official policy of a Los Angeles
run by a group of people who identify as progressives.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
What did you mean by that? Yeah, well, it's strong.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Language, but I think it was a historically, you know,
deeply flawed decision. So in Los Angeles, has in many
cities in California, the vast majority of residential areas are
restricted to a detached single family home.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
That's the only thing you can legally build.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So you can't build townhouses, you can't build small multifamily buildings,
and in many cases, you can't even build detached single
family homes on smaller lots. So what this does is
it essentially writes housing on affordability into law. But in
the case of Los Angeles, has in so many other cities,
it also leaves many of the highest opportunity, most jobs rich,
in some cases, most transit rich, part of the city's
off limits to new housing development. And so what this
(11:32):
does is it actually writes into law historic patterns of
inequities that in many cases were tied up with zoning
policies that were designed to segregate our cities and single
families owning is an example of that. By banning more
affordable forms of housing in the vast majority of Los Angeles,
we effectively allocate working in lower class Los Angeles Angelinos
to a handful of neighborhoods where we do allow that housing.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
What type of neighborhoods have been excluded from this type
of multi family housing development?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
So huge portions of West Los Angeles where I live,
for example, one of the most expensive parts of the city,
parts of the city that are often served by transit
and near major job centers like Century City and UCLA.
Many cases, the only legal form of housing that you
can build anywhere near those job centers is a detachaingle
family home.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
And when they don't allow multi family housing to be
built in those communities, what happens to the communities where
it is allowed to be built?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Is it too much? It's a great question.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Essentially, what ends up happening is all of the new
pressure for new housing development falls on a handful of
neighborhoods where we do allow additional housing to be built,
and in many cases, those are lower opportunity areas where
the existing renters might be at risk of potentially displacement. Now,
I tend to think we need to be building more
housing and every single neighborhood in Los Angeles if we're
going to build our way out of this crisis.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I mean, you mentioned this.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
The state has run the numbers and they've said, look,
Los Angeles needs to be building about one hundred and
seventy thousand or so units a year to get ourselves
out of this housing shortage. And we're not even close
to that. And we're definitely not going to be able
to hit that target. If we're saying seventy five to
eighty percent of the city's off limits to new house development.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
We're talking to m Nolan Gray, senior director at California YIMB.
I want to point out that YIMB stands for yes
in my backyard. I think nimby became a term probably
first not in my backyard. And you would hear folks,
maybe folks who understand, yeah, we need a gas station
in our neighborhood, but I'd rather not have it next
to my home are Yeah, we do need a prison
in the city, but it'd be nice not to be
(13:21):
in the residential communities. Yes in my backyard is a
statement that yes, you want what in your backyard more housing.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
So you know, of course, people have totally understandable concerns
about heavy industries, even gas stations right drive through these
things of that nature. But what Los Angeles is stuck
in right now is a paradigm where oh, okay, the
only form of housing that can be built in the
vast majority of the city is a detacha single family home.
So we've locked housing affordability, We've locked ourselves out of
housing affordabilit as a matter of law, and we've put
(13:50):
all of the pressure for affordable housing on a handful
of neighborhoods. So the concept of MB is to say, well,
rather than opposing every single new housing development, we support
new housing development, and in fact, we think that this
enriches our communities. It makes sure that our neighbors have
housing stability, that we have populations to support things like
a corner grocery or a corner coffee shop, and that
our city can remain this engine of opportunity that historically
has been.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So when we think about Nimbi's what is the argument
against the more dense housing opportunities in seventy five percent
of Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
I think there are understandable arguments. The first is folks
who are concerned, Hey, make sure that we're scaling up
public services. Make sure that we're scaling up things like
transit so not every single person has to have a car.
Make sure that we're managing the on street parking so
that people don't lose their onn street parking. Totally valid concerns,
but concerns that we should address by actually addressing those
concerns rather than saying, well, we're just not going to
allow any new housing to be built. And worst cases,
(14:42):
I would say in many cases, people are just explicitly like, yeah,
I don't want lower income people or anybody who earns
less than me living anywhere near me. And I would
just say that, you know, certainly, as I mentioned in
that tweet, in a city that identifies as progressive as
a place where we would like for everyone to be
able to come and find affordable and decent housing, I
think that's not acceptable answer.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I want to touch on that next, but I want
to note I hinted that we're a couple of Kentucky
guys even in cities in Kentucky. I come from Covington,
you hail from Lexington. In Covington, when there were new
apartments being built, you would hear from homeowners that renters
aren't as invested in the community. They're more transient, and
you know, they may cause some damage that they don't care.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
About in the communities.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I mean that is a widespread viewpoint of people
who have perhaps more money and have had more opportunities
to be against this type of development.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yes, it's widespread.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But you know, this is a city council that is
almost entirely democratic, one independent who used to be a Republican,
and they are pretty progressive oriented. There are folks who
have passed ordinances recently strengthening progression protections for renters. But
then you take a position fifteen to nothing, by the way,
(15:50):
in support of this zoning. What is the contradiction there
for them to be pro renter, pro housing by word
by spoken word, and then to vote to allow these
bans on the types of developments that many think are
necessary in certain parts of the city.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
It's a good question.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
I think a lot of people don't realize the tension
between the values that they claim to hold and the
actual policies that they support. So I think if you
ask the members of La City Council, hey, do you
support Los Angeles being segregated on the basis of income
and then of course directly on the basis of race,
they would say, well, of course, not right. And you
can imagine a parallel world where we don't have policies
like this, and if you propose them today, people would
think you're crazy. And yet we have these policies today
(16:31):
and there's just no movement away from them. And I
would say this is not an unusual thing, right. I mean,
city all across the country are rolling back these rules.
Sacramento and San Francisco here in California, and then many
dozens more cities across the country is saying, look, if
we're going to reckon with historic patterns of equity, and
if we're going to make sure that we're allowing enough
new housing to meet our housing need, we're going to
have to get rid of these policies that ban housing
as a matter of law in three quarters of our cities.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
M Nolan Gray is senior director at California Yimbie, a
statewide advocacy organization working to pass legislation and to end
what they see is California's housing shortage by empowering and
growing the Yes in My Backyard YIMBI movement. He's also
the author of Arbitrary Lines, How Zoning Broke the American
City and How to Fix It. Folks can follow you
on X What is your handle?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
There? M Nolan Gray and Ola n g r A Y.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Absolutely a lot of hot takes, but I learned a
lot at least some perspective to consider by checking you out.
And I'm so glad she took some time to come
out and talk to Hope you'll do it again, my pleasure.
All right, thanks a lot.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Up.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Next, we'll get an update on the Malibu fire. The
La County Fire Department spoke about it and it looks
like it's good news. That's going to be their last
live update on YouTube for a while. And auction of
Hollywood items just wrapped up will tell you wish things
went the for the most money. Some may surprise you
at least the most expensive item. And then at the
end of the hour, what I think are the worst
(17:48):
Christmas songs ever.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
KFIAM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm
Michael Monks from KFI News here with you night till
nine o'clock. And the weather outside it's a little frightful.
It's a little chilly out there. We got the full
moon beating down on us. Hope you make a Christmas wish.
The Only County Fire Department reports that the fire in
Malibu is now thirty eight percent surrounded. It's burned over
(18:16):
four thousand acres. There are more than one thousand, seven
hundred firefighter personnel assigned to that fire. Even today. Let's
hear from Assistant Chief Drew Smith on the latest out
of Malibu.
Speaker 6 (18:29):
We've had highly successful weather to take advantage of some opportunity.
But with that opportunity once again, I'm going to talk
to risk. As we have a perimeter of this fire
that we're trying to control, that we're keeping within the
containment lines. That gives our firefighters an opportunity to engage
and extinguish. And as we do that, we go deeper
(18:52):
and deeper into this fire to extinguish those smokes, which
gives our firefighters the possibility and put tent truthfully for
injury because they're digging in deeper and deeper to extinguish
all those smokes through the technology we have through line
of sight of seeing where the heat signatures are, so
(19:12):
we're engaged in that. So I know that you see
there may be not any smoke production, but there is
heat that's still within that firefootprint. So walking around the
fire here, we have everything that's established along Payuma Road
that goes down with handline through very steep and rugged
train that we continue to engage our hand crews and
(19:33):
our engines plumbing that with water to extinguish any of
those heat signatures so it doesn't pose a threat to
the line. As we walk or go around the front
side through the community and along Pacificoast Highway. We have
our engine companies that are engaged extinguishing those hot heat
signatures and also engage in community interaction to help the
(19:54):
residents in answering questions. And once again, i'd like to
thank you for that interaction that you've had.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And that was Drew Smith, the Assistant chief of the
La County Fire Department, talking about the latest out of Malibu.
One thing they said that was from tonight that was
a live YouTube update at about six o'clock this evening.
They said that's going to be their last one, that
they're not going to do any more of those, So
that must be a good sign. And it looks like
now the focus is on the safety of the firefighters
who are out there taking care of the rest of this.
(20:23):
This was a fire that broke out on Monday, and
at the height of it all about twenty thousand people
were under either evacuation orders or evacuation warnings, but as
of yesterday afternoon, Malibu Citi spokesman Matt Meyerhoff announced that
all the evacuation orders had been reduced to just warnings,
allowing all residents to return to their homes. That was
a crazy scene. I did go out there this week
(20:44):
during the fire to cover it for KFI News. The
scenes that came out of Pepperdine University with the students
there in a couple of the buildings on campus. Obviously,
Pepperdine knows what it's doing, They are prepared for this
sort of thing, but they had their students stay on
campus and come into a couple of the buildings.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
But the scenes were nuts. How close those flames looked
to be to those windows. Very strategically landscaped up there, though,
and they seem to be pretty confident that they could
wait it out, and they were right.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
I'll tell you from my perspective as a reporter covering it.
You know, you go out to Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway,
and you've got just the pure southern California vibe of
businesses on the ocean. You've got sunshine, you've got the beach,
you've got the ocean waves crashing into the sand. You've
(21:37):
got the silhouettes of the palm trees and the seabirds
that are sitting atop it. And then right on the
other side of it, the city's on fire. And that
is the quintessential image of life in Southern California in
the twenty first century. So we hope that everybody out
in Malibu is doing well getting through this and somehow
(22:02):
managed to enjoy the Christmas holiday in light of this
devastating fire that erupted this week, we had a significant
auction of Hollywood items, and the black leather motorcycle jacket
worn by Olivia Newton John in nineteen seventy eight Blockbuster
musical Grease was the top selling item at this four
(22:26):
day auction of memorabilia from Hollywood films. How much did
that thing go? For the jacket Olivia Newton John wore
at the end of Grease when she says what tell
me about it? Stud four hundred and seventy six thousand
dollars for that jacket, nearly six times its original estimate
(22:46):
of eighty thousand dollars. This was a end of year
auction called a Week of Hollywood Legends. It happened Tuesday
through Friday at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills by
Julian's Auctions and Turner Classics Movies Turner Classic Movies that
brought in a total four and a half million dollars.
Over one thousand of artifacts were sold, So the biggest
(23:10):
thing was that jacket from Olivia Newton John and the
movie Grease. Can you imagine that price tag? Here we
are talking about people not being able to rent their
apartment in la and somebody dropping half a million dollars
on a jacket. A pair of ruby slippers, excuse me.
A pair of ruby slippers that commemorated the fiftieth anniversary
(23:31):
of the Wizard of Oz went for one hundred and
four thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
So think about that. That's not from the movie.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Judy Garland was long dead before these slippers were even
brought out. This commemorated the fiftieth anniversary. So what are
we looking at nineteen eighty nine for these shoes one
hundred and four thousand dollars. But the dress, the blue
and white Gingham pattern pinafore that Judy Garland wore in
a nineteen thirty eight wardrobe test for her role as Dorothy,
(23:58):
that went for sixty five grand. Sir Lawrence Olivier's nineteen
forty eight Venice Biennial Hamlet Golden Lion Award went for
more than thirty five thousand dollars. Dame Jones Plowwrights Best
Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for her role in nineteen
ninety two Stalin went for a little over sixteen one
thousand dollars. Marilyn Monroe's nineteen sixty Actors Studio notebook went
(24:22):
for twenty six grand, while her nineteen sixty two armchair
went for over nineteen thousand dollars. Her mascara and her
purple eyeshadow went for sixty five hundred dollars each. I
wonder if kfi's Regita Diagasino has that kind of money
to drop on makeup. Let's find out over in the
KFI twenty four hour news rooms.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
You're not.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Mean KFI AM six forty and live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News keeping you company,
and you're keeping me company until nine Hey, want to
hear from you on the iHeartRadio app talkback button. You
might play some of your messages throughout the night. I
specifically want to know, of course, your opinion on any
(25:10):
of the topics we talk about, or anything else that's
on your mind. But what's the worst Christmas song? What's
one that just sends the bad shivers up your spine.
You have to flip the radio station, or you have
to leave the party, you can't stand it. On the
other hand, what's your favorite What's one that when you
hear it for the first time every season, you feel good?
(25:31):
It is up on the iHeartRadio app and click that
talk back button and we'll play some of those. Because
I'm going to play some of what I think are
the worst Christmas songs that I can stand. But first,
if you're out there driving, I want you to know
there are some Christmas songs that are apparently dangerous to
listen to while driving. This is out of the New
York Post. The study comes from South China University of
(25:57):
Technology or SCUT. Sounds like an insult that's been hurled
in my direction.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
More than once.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Researchers there found songs with a beats per minute greater
than one hundred and twenty guilty of encouraging dangerous driving habits,
and after evaluating a lengthy list said to include every
class at Christmas tune nineteen fifties Frosty the Snowman, first
recorded by Gene Autry, was named by a website called
(26:25):
Insurance Sopedia, which sounds trustworthy as quote the most dangerous
to drive to. It's skidded to number one with a
potentially crazy making one hundred and seventy two beats per minute.
And the song All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey,
that ubiquitous tune that's another offender, as is Faele's Navidad.
(26:48):
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town is another one that
just beats too fast and could cause some dangerous driving.
I'll tell you what drives me to drink. When it
comes to Christmas songs though, the worst Christmas songs, I'll
tell you right now, I just made this up. This
is my own opinion. I pulled the song the Christmas
(27:09):
Shoes not eligible on the list. People pick on that song,
I think, rightfully, it's a little cheesy, but I'm not
mad at it. But it's not eligible for this list.
And I'm not gonna pick on the novelty songs like
Grandma got run over by a reindeer or.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
If a least Navidad instead.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
These are just some songs that irritate me this time
of year. Raoul Cortees working the board tonight, Why don't
you roll that file for me, buddy?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
These That's not it, That is not it.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I hope you have the file called worst Christmas Songs.
It's all right, Raoul, it's Saturday night. There we go. Okay,
do you recognize that? Okay, a lot of people do,
and I has to take to say something bad about
Sir Paul.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But I hear those notes and I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
It does to me.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I can't do this song.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
See Pgita you feel.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Me has been changed it. Today when we were making breakfast,
he was like, next, like you thing is so we
just laughed. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I don't know what it is about this now today
to pull this audio. I did watch the video and
it's a vibe like it's vented sort of seventies eighties,
Like that looks like a party I would like to
go to.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
I think it's just so out play. I think it's
just one of those songs that you've just heard it
so many times, you just cantata for your entire life,
your parents' whole life.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
See, it's the only one I like.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
This is the only thing.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
This is the only one you like.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
No, I can't do this when it just there's something
about it that the tone of it, the pacing of it,
this part, this part, I'm pouring a little more whiskey
in the eggnog at this point because I just I
can't stand it.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Oh what is happening? You know what I mean?
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Like?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
What is that? Okay, Now, don't get mad at me
about this one.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Because this is Last Christmas by Wham George Michael. I
actually love this song and hate that it's a Christmas song.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
This is a song that I want to enjoy all year.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
That's a great beat, you know, listen to George Michael's voice.
My problem with this is that it's a song that
should be available all year long.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
But why does it have to be a Christmas song?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Minor tweaks to the lyrics is all we would need,
and we would have this doll baby of a tune
about unrequited love available to us in the summer.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
I'd like to hear your remix.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I you know, I'm not going to sing for the people,
but I'll tell you the lyrics are simple enough. I mean,
last Christmas, I gave gave you my heart, but the
very next day you gave it away. I mean that
last Monday, I gave you my heart, but the very
next thing, you know, like that, that immediately makes it.
You know, there's a reference to Christmas. At one point,
I wrapped it up into Christmas, you know, Happy Christmas.
(30:14):
I wrapped it up and sent it with the notes
saying I love you.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
I mint it just change that you heard it here first. Yeah,
this is.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
The worst one, and I'm sorry because this is southern California.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I like this, and this is the beach. Well, okay, again,
I don't even like the Beach Boys.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I love the Beach Boys, and this song, this is
quintessential Beach Boys. It's got the rhythm, it's got the beat,
the harmonies. Everything musically is so right. The vine is good.
But what the hell is a little Saint Nick? You know,
this is not a song about like a shrunken Santa.
(30:52):
It comes out of nowhere. I mean when you read
the lyrics to this song, it's a way up north
where the ar gets cold. There's a tale about Christmas
that you've all been told. And a real famous cat,
all dressed up and read and he spends the whole
year working out on his sled. Okay, first of all,
he doesn't work all year. He's famous for working one
(31:13):
day of the year. But then it goes right into
it's the Little Saint Nick.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
There's no explanation for why it's the Little Saint Nick.
Santa is notoriously fat. I mean, you know that they
were on a lot of drugs back there, I know
they were. But listen again, you hear the harmonies and
all that. Oh, that's great. I just wish they were
singing something else. I wish they could take the melody
and the vocal quality and put some.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Different lyrics to this. It's it's not their best.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I mean, so many Beach Boys songs I could just
sit and listen to over and over again, but this
one just a.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Honestly, if it's that.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
They try to be too cute, here a little sat
If you had an interesting mystery Christmas song about why
Santa Claus had shunk, I'm listen. I'm listening to the
Beach Boys explain that to me in those perfect harmonies,
you know. Or if Sanna was surfing, you know that
sort of thing, the surfing Santa. But little Saint Nick,
this was just phoned in cash grab. I don't appreciate it.
(32:15):
Coming up in the next hour, though, I'm gonna tell
you the best Christmas songs and why they are the
best Christmas songs, So stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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