I am from Birmingham, Michigan and I still love my hometown even if most of the downtown is now a string of fru fru botiques, kinda like an upscale Winesburg, Ohio. I follow the Gospel According to The New York Times. I usually ride a train or bus to get around Los Angeles but I'm endlessly fascinated by its car culture, described at its very best in The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby by Tom Wolfe. I tinker on an old Mopar but it's no No-Go Showboat.