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Saturday night. It's 89 degrees in the shadows and traffic on the West Side has come to a near standstill.

On one avenue, fire engines scream at the gridlock, demanding to be let through to douse a burning building and snatch the people trapped in it.

Farther south, a battalion of taxi drivers slams their horns in frustration as police reroute all cars that dare approach with late evening revelers beginning a night out.

Everywhere people venture forth looking for the R&R the angry sun, the smothering humidity stole from them during the day.

The evening begins at Highline in the no longer fashionable but still-frequented Meatpacking District. Highline, with its ground and lower levels, is described as a "Cornell bar." (If you can't get into Harvard, Yale or Princeton, you go to Cornell.)

From there, it takes a detour to Alphabet City before going to "some place near the bridge" on the Lower East Side. The names no longer matter. What's important is the scene.

But the scene tonight is slightly off kilter. On the first night after the first day of what will be an extended heat wave, DJs are off their groove and the bartenders are off their mark. One drink served tastes like too-sweet cough syrup laced with the bitter kick of bile, warning of what's to come.

"You'll be sick if you finish that."

"No wounded soldiers."

Machismo and indifference at its finest.

By 3:30 in the morning, the river of traffic has reversed its flow, running uptown instead of down and having a much easier time of it.

The magic hour approaches...

I watched a soundstage blaze devour nearly two city blocks worth of the Universal Studios backlot today. It was hard being so far away from the place where I'd spent my first significant gig in Los Angeles.

I found myself trying to identify the buildings, trying to remember every street and every highlight of the tour I used to give seven times a day, up to five days a week (it was a part-time job).

As the fire broke out, there was little information available online. I was tempted to call the fire station on the lot as I dug through my memory, trying desperately to recall the facts, routes and history I'd crammed into my head during tour guide training so many years ago.

Photos from the L.A. Fire Department Flickr feed.

It was no use. I helplessly watched the blaze take out facades I'd walked past and buildings I'd walked through. I worried that Stage 28, where Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" was filmed, and where my friends and I spent an evening as "atmosphere" for a Hollywood mogul's birthday party, might burn down too.

As futile as it might have been, and has maligned as the backlot might be, I couldn't help but think: I should have been there.

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A few weeks ago, 700 people gathered on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York to create an Improv Everywhere happening. The idea was to create a camera flash "wave" back and forth across the span. In theory, it should have worked. But the cold, rainy, noisy reality cause the project to morph just a bit.

Nevertheless, the edited version of the mission turned out pretty well. The full description of the project is on the website. As Improv Everywhere picks up notoriety — and as the weather gets better — these gigs are probably going to get bigger.

"Iron Man" rocked. Totally. So much so that I'm tempted to see it again.

It's part of my procrastination strategy. Really, I should be writing, shooting, recording and studying, but hey, there's always Sunday.

There is a 6 o'clock deadline today for dinner with a dozen strangers, but give me two hours and there'll be no problems. Fortunately, I'm only responsible for appetizers.

So as has become my Saturday morning habit, I've been doing some computer reading. Which brings me back to "Iron Man" and this fantastic review by Mark Kermode from BBC Radio 5:

This lecture was posted to YouTube last year and was quite the sensation then. Now, because Prof. Randy Pausch has published an accompanying book, the video has surfaced again.

It's known informally as "The Last Lecture" — and in this case, it's almost literal. Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006. In August last year, his doctors told him his situation was terminal and estimated six more months of good health. Since then, he's been fighting a battle against time.

A devoted husband and father of three young children, he has said he wanted to focus on making the most of what's left of his life by focusing on his wife and his kids. Meanwhile, because of an outpouring of public interest and support, he has chronicled his progress.

I sometimes have to wonder how it is that fate often steals away the good while they have so much potential, and how it is that those people are able to burn more brightly when life slips away from them.

In any case, here's the video.

A terrible nightmare shocked me awake this morning and left a lingering shadow on the rest of the day.

To banish the gloom, I went out for a walk and then sat down to read. A duo on guitar and muted trumpet were playing jazz at 'wichcraft near NYU. The location didn't seem right but the guys strung together standards that got my mind and ear wandering between sets.

Running through my head were some of my favorite versions of Tin Pan Alley hits and crooner classics: "Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra, "Soon" by Sammy Davis Jr., and probably the hottest 90 seconds in a movie about down and out piano bar players, Michelle Pfeiffer singing "More Than You Know."

The New York that inspired so many of these songs is long gone now, but the music lives on.

Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald perform the complete piece, written by Vincent Youmans, with lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu for the musical "Great Day!"

From The Economist, the English take on preparing for business meetings in New York (what to wear, how to use money, how to get around). The narrator sounds like he's about to fall asleep.

Haven't been writing 'cause I've been feeling the need to produce things people can touch and taste.

This weekend, I was invited to a "welcoming spring" party. With the pending vernal equinox, it seemed like macaroons were the right thing to bring.

The hosts made tea sandwiches and cracked open homemade infused vodkas. (The vodka was store-bought but the infusions were done at home.)

It was a lovely evening — one where many of us discovered that we liked horseradish mixed into cream cheese and spread onto baby carrots sliced lengthwise.

To top off the evening, the hosts held a bookswap. I gave away "Subwayland" by Randy Kennedy (Amazon|BN|Powell's) and in return picked out "More Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin (Amazon|BN|Powell's) and "Talk Talk" by T.C. Boyle (Amazon|BN|Powell's).

Meanwhile, the knitting bug has bitten again.