Sometimes it seems as if the helicopters never stop circling around our neighborhood in Van Nuys. The predominant sound in this neck of the San Fernando Valley is not birdsong, or dog barks, but the whirling blades and screaming sirens of a police car or ambulance.

I went down to Hollywood last night to attend a fashion show at some club on Cahuenga. I parked a few blocks away on Vine. There is still a menace in the air down there, a danger that one sees even crossing the street. People run red lights, they make illegal u-turns, and if you are a pedestrian, you risk your life walking.

There are lots of new clubs, and new places to get liquored, and I saw hordes of young people “dressed up”, but I don’t know what that expression means anymore. They were out for a night on the town in oversized shirts or undersized jeans and the ones who were doing the most partying were the parking lots that charged $10-$18 to park there.

We pulled into one lot, near the Pantages, where the attendant told us “This is for V.I.P’s” only.”

It’s been another week of violence in Van Nuys, in Los Angeles and across America.

• A car of four teens was stopped near Cedros and Valerio and one of the occupants emerged with a microphone stand and the cops shot him dead.

• People at a bus stop in Los Angeles were randomly shot with gunfire.

• A “36-year-old grandfather” was killed in Cypress Park.

• Some road rage on the Hollywood Freeway last night with one car firing on another.

Back in New York City, the NY Times reports that some wealthy people are suffering “art anxiety” because they cannot figure out how much art should be worth.

Even people who have been serious collectors in the past may suffer bouts of paralysis, particularly if they’re looking at a large investment. Melissa Fink and her husband, Steven Fink, live in Bedford, N.Y., in “a fabulous, contemporary, 6,000-square-foot house,” as Ms. Fink described it. “We just spent a fortune doing additions on this fabulous house, it’s huge and beautiful and kind of like we have all these empty spaces.”

They’ve worked with art consultants in the past, spending about $200,000, and are prepared to spend another $100,000, according to Ms. Fink.

And America needs to be terrified because some people in the caves of Afghanistan are planning bad things…….