Well, I'm back from L.A., where I worked on a shoot for an MTV movie special on the stunts of Live Free or Die Hard. We flipped a car 100 feet off a pipe ramp, where it hit the ground and flipped over several times (with a stuntman inside), and also had a stuntman run away from a car moments before we blew it up, sending the car 15 feet in the air. To give an idea of how powerful the explosion was, our safety guy actually asked the stunt expert, "Is it possible that the earplugs [which everyone within 300 feet had to wear] the stuntman is wearing can melt in his ears, and if so, how will we get them out?" It was a unique experience, to say the least. I'll try to upload photos in the next couple days... just need to get pictures from other people who were there, as I was the idiot who forgot his camera.
I've always told people that I don't want to move to L.A., even though I've never really spent much time there. After staying there for 5 nights, I stand by that statement more than ever. True, I was staying in West Hollywood (right next to the Kodak Theater), which is like staying in a cross between Times Square and South Florida. But I just don't think that L.A. has any character. It's so filled with strip malls and donut shops.* And I developed a smoggers cough, which I wasn't too fond of. So New York City, I'm here to stay.
On the plus side, I got to hang out with one of my best friends from high school, along with his wife and their 3-year-old son. During dinner, the wife and son were looking at a book with educational exercises. One of them asked which of 4 items in a series does not belong. The first example had a hamburger, a sandwich, a hammer, and a hot dog. The son pointed to the hamburger. I shook my head, thinking "Uh-oh, the kid's a dummy." The wife asked why the hamburger is different, and the kid said "Because it has seeds." Sure enough, the burger's bun was the only item in the series with seeds. Turns out he's not a dummy; he's actually smarter than the test.
One last note... I took a car service home from Newark Airport last night (er, more like 1:00 this morning). I don't remember how the subject came up, but my driver explained to me that he used to be a member of the Israeli Mussad, and that when he moved to the U.S., the mafia hired him to "retrieve" money people owed. He actually said "I was a killer, is all I'll say. I can break your neck like that." Needless to say, when he called me a "health pansy" for not drinking coffee, or when he berated me for complaining that NYC is an expensive city to live in, I didn't feel the urge to disagree.

* Not only are there more donut shops per square foot in L.A. than anywhere else in the country, but a large percentage of them also sell Chinese food. What a strange combination.