Normally, the summer season means time off from politics. People light up their barbecues, put on their bathing suits and forget about government for a few months. That would be an ordinary summer. This summer is anything but ordinary. From Washington, D.C., to Malibu, people are screaming about special prosecutors, who seem to have become all the rage.

In Maryland, they’re looking into whether or not to prosecute Linda Tripp for violating the Maryland wiretap law. It’s charged that when she was wired up for her little tte—tte with Monica Lewinsky, she may have broken a few of those Maryland laws. It seems the prosecutors in Maryland had originally agreed to wait until the Starr investigation was over before proceeding. Needless to say, a few legislators, Democrats I suspect, started screaming that if Starr or his people were part of that scheme to illegally wiretap you don’t make a deal with them. If they are involved, that could change their status. In Washington, D.C., they might be prosecutors, but in Maryland they could be something else altogether — accessories, perhaps unindicted co-conspirators and maybe even defendants.

I keep having this fantasy of Maryland police going to serve arrest warrants on Starr and company, while the federal cops hold them off at gunpoint. Silly it is, but we apparently are in the silly season. I think what’s also shocking to a lot of people is how politicized criminal prosecutions have become, particularly where there are political gains to be made or losses to be cut.

If this week’s City Council meeting was any example, the prosecutorial war is just beginning about alleged campaign violations in the last City Council election. The council was to consider the hiring of a special prosecutor to assist in the investigation. A string of speakers, a few of whom, I suspect, are just a mite worried they might end up as defendants, came down to rail against the hiring of a special prosecutor. Apparently, one person’s pursuit of justice can be another person’s witch-hunt, depending on whether or not you consider yourself a possible focus of the investigation. This council meeting ended without any decision on the special prosecutor. The city attorney withdrew her request, for now anyhow, and it’s not yet clear whether there were good reasons for this or whether she’s bowing to council or public pressure.

Maybe it’s time to step back and take a look at what’s involved here. The city of Malibu has a campaign ordinance with low dollar limits on contributions and all sorts of disclosure requirements. Its stated purpose is to keep big money out of Malibu campaigns. The state of California also has a campaign law similar to Malibu’s in some respects but different in many ways. The state does its own, independent investigation if it thinks its law is violated. What’s unique is violation of the Malibu ordinance is a crime, a misdemeanor for which one could, if convicted, be sentenced to jail.

It became apparent in this last election that a considerable amount of money was being spent. For example, the Jack Lemmon tape was not a cheap piece. It was a well-done political tape. It was professionally done by a highly successful political consulting firm, and several thousand copies were distributed. The same with the professional phone banks out of Oregon that called all the Malibu voters. That was a professional company, and they charge. It’s relatively easy to figure out what was spent. These are all campaign consultants, they all advertise and their price lists are well known. The receipts and the expenditures in the campaign filings have to match up with the costs of the services performed. It’s just that simple. If they don’t, then something is not kosher.

Allegations have been made that something doesn’t add up. The job of the prosecutor, in this instance the city attorney, is to investigate those allegations and decide whether or not to file a criminal complaint. That is her sworn duty, and neither council pressure nor orchestrated public pressure should nor legally can deter her.

The screaming, shouting and accusations are perfectly legitimate public responses. The council should listen to those comments. The prosecutor should not, otherwise the legitimacy of the entire process is called into question. No one should be able to intimidate an investigation.

When it’s over, whatever the results, we should all be able to feel that it was done fairly, impartially and served justice.

The City Council’s decision, on July 6, to abolish all Malibu City study groups in favor of commissions is another example of how far certain members of the council have gone to sanitize and depersonalize the “community” of Malibu in favor of the sterilized, institutionalized city they’d promised we’d never become, but which they now favor.

That night, the pleas from study group members to the council fell on the deaf, obdurate, unbending ears of council Siamese triplets (who think alike, act alike and vote alike), Van Horn, Keller and Hasse. Those of us who spoke before them wasted our time, energy and emotions, considering the fact that their minds had been made up long before the meeting began. And though Mayor House and Councilmember Barovsky tried to introduce fair and reasonable modifications to Councilmember Hasse’s motions, they were repeatedly met with an unyielding tunnel through which equity saw no light.

The genesis of the problem developed when the Transportation Study Group was invaded by Point Dume, pro-speed hump advocates who immobilized us by their sheer numbers (the group grew from nine members to 32). This made obtaining a quorum unachievable. But the council majority, instead of looking at the situation as an opportunity to establish effective and enforceable study group bylaws, instead used it as an opportunity to establish commissions.

In so doing, the council Siamese triplets, Van Horn, Keller and Hasse, can now have even more control at micro-managing the city of Malibu since they’ll have their own three puppets on each of the five-member commissions. Faithful, devoted and forthright community volunteer representation via study groups is dead, thanks to former volunteerism gurus Van Horn and Keller, whose actions have devastated the very heart of our community. This is not a democracy we live in. It’s a dictatorship!

Marlene Matlow

One might think the only link between classical music and horseback riding is the horsehair in string players’ bows.

Not so. Pianist and composer Carter Larsen will play a gala concert July 25 at Smothers Theatre to benefit the 25-year-old Pepperdine University Equestrian Education Center. “Those people are as serious about what they’re doing — and classical riding is an art — as I am about what I’m doing. They’re dedicated and enlightened people,” he says.

Larsen currently lives and works in Malibu, but his connection to the equestrian center arose in London, where he was studying piano with Ruth Nye, wife of Ross Nye, head of Pepperdine’s exchange program in London. Larsen was introduced to Cheryl Wyllie, head of the dressage program at the university. Jim Wyllie, Cheryl’s father, founded the center when Pepperdine moved to Malibu in 1972 — one of the first physical education programs available to the students.

Now, the center seeks to raise $150,000 to modernize the stables, tack room and ring at the 26-horse center, as well as to build an indoor arena. “We’re obviously not going to raise it in one night,” says Larsen, “but the concert will kick off the fund- raising drive.”

Silver tickets at $50 per person include a reception and silent auction prior to the concert; gold tickets at $100 include premium theater seating and a post-concert dessert party at Granita.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Larsen composed in his teens, then studied composition under John Adams at the San Francisco Conservatory. He was “keen” on piano when he was young, but says, “If you had asked me when I was 10, I would have said I wanted to be a scientist.” As the youngest composing student at the Aspen music festival, he says, “That’s when it started for me. That’s also when I got my taste for the mountains in the summer.” Larsen owns a home in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Post-conservatory, he studied piano with Peter Feuchtwanger in London, where required reading was “Zen and the Art of Archery” in order to unlearn bad musical habits.

Larsen found popularity in London, staying for 18 years. “They really appreciate all this music there,” he says. “But they don’t know anything about film.” The English say they like his music, Larsen notes, but once they are told the writing is contemporary, “they switch off.”

Larsen has performed as a soloist with The Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras and has recorded the classical repertoire, as well as his own works. He recently made his conducting debut with the Harrow Symphony Orchestra in “Swan Lake,” but modestly says, “An opera conductor is the real thing.” Larsen conducts by memory, a feat he claims only 20 percent of conductors care to attempt.

The London Philharmonic has played his film music, with Larsen soloing, to coincide with the release of his films and soundtrack albums. “I have no doubt that if Mozart were alive, he would be writing film music,” Larsen says. “His greatest music was his operas. That’s the nearest equivalent we have today.” He contends that contemporary film music relies on computers, thus requiring very little musicianship. He explains, “Music began with the voice. The piano is designed on the vibration of strings, which is the same as the vocal cords. When you get away from that, it’s not human.” He strives to write music that people want to listen to.

He composed, scored and served as music supervisor for the films “Scarecrow” and “Pierced Heart.” Currently, he is writing a score based on Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, which he hopes will establish Beethoven’s longevity over the century. “I see it as a way of reaching a larger audience with the music. I see that as a responsibility.

“If you’re to go back to the 19th century, all the pianists also were composers. So I’m a throwback to the last century. That tradition has been killed by the homogenization and the pigeonholing of 20th century musicians. The performer is separate from a composer, and the composer is separate from the audience and performer. There’s no direct link between the person composing the music and the audience.”

Larsen favors European concert halls. “American halls are dryer,” he claims. “The music can’t breathe, and that has an effect on you, but a seasoned performer can play in different halls and immediately change for the acoustics. The mistake musicians make is thinking, ‘It’s a big hall, I have to bang around.’ I’m from a school that delineates the voices, where subtlety is an important part of the music.”

The difference between American and European musicians is expression, according to Larsen. “American recordings are more concerned with the technical — striving for perfection.” He says he focuses on expression. “That’s from being a composer.”

His examples return to Liszt: “He was the equivalent of some huge rock star. He had the equivalent popularity of more than Princess Diana. The advent of pop culture blew classical out the window. But classical also did that itself by alienating audiences. Pop music was born because nobody wanted to listen to the stuff everyone else was writing.”

His Pepperdine program should include Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G sharp, Chopin’s Fantasia in f, Saint-Sans’ Mazurka in g (which Larsen says he rediscovered while researching through archives in Austria) and Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli, as well as a few of Larsen’s compositions.

Carter Larsen appears in recital July 25 to benefit the Pepperdine University Equestrian Education Center, reception and silent auction 6:30 p.m., concert at 8 p.m., at Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University; post-performance reception follows. Telephone 310/456-4546.

There’s a beach in western Malibu

Where the Law must not apply;

And where those who live adjacent,

Are disgusted — they decry!

For here, their children cannot play,

Nor walk along the beach;

Because of nudie bodies,

And contortions, none dare speak.

It seems a beach named Matador

Is plagued by those who come;

To romp and play, in other ways,

Than simply soaking sun.

And yet the Law seems not applied,

To end this perverse scene —

It’s been going on a long, long time,

With nothing done between.

We’ve lost a beach, that’s out of reach,

For our family and friends —

Is it because the Law does not apply?

Or just a local trend?

H. Emmett Finch

As a breast cancer survivor, I joined over 9,000 Southlanders at Griffith Park on June 14 to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer pledge walk. I was proud to be a member of the team from Reach to Recovery who joined the throngs raising over $800,000 for the fight against breast cancer.

I dream that we all see the day when no woman will ever have to face the horror of this disease.The groundswell of support on June 14 brought us closer to the realization of this dream. I feel a bond of gratitude to every single strider and all of the pledge supporters, and to all of my wonderful and caring sponsors who contributed over $15,000.

Everyone’s extraordinary commitment to the American Cancer Society’s groundbreaking breast cancer research and local education and patient service programs has made a difference. I urge anyone with outstanding pledges to send them in so that this critical work can continue. Together we have taken a giant step toward a world free from breast cancer.

Sandra Coopersmith