It hit me yesterday as I was walking down Eighth Avenue in the 20s that during rush hour Manhattan is a kind of huge sprawling block party — a great communal happening with people talking and sharing about everything in twos, threes and groups on every block, everywhere you turn.  It’s a special current, and even if you’re alone you can’t help but feed off the energy, which hits you in successive waves. Then again I’m probably more receptive to this because of my out-of-town perspective. I think I like coming in for short visits more than living here. On top of which I really hate the weather here in July, August and half of September. I’m not entirely in synch with Werner Herzog’s views about Los Angeles but I’ve come to like it a bit more in recent years. If I had unlimited funds I’d live 25% of my life in L.A., 25% in New York, 25% in Italy and 25% in Belize. Or something like that. Actually, make that 33% in the first three and confine Belize to just three or four weeks.