But today, we’re talking about what it’s like to have…

This nice police cruiser had some questions for the boys as they come close to winning their leg of the marathon. After a couple of questions regarding the odd car, the decals, and the taped-seams they were on their way and back to dominating the fuel-economy race. Averaging almost 30mpg in an SUV ain’t easy… especially when the cops want to know WHY you’re driving 10mph UNDER the speed limit?

Yikes.

In the way that Albie makes everything a hit, he’s built World Wide Fido in to a great pet-video community and franchise that’s become Nick-at-Nite’s newest award show. It’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos for Dogs” and it tapes this Friday in Santa Monica at the Barker Hangar. Yes, Barker Hangar. Ha!

Here’s a small teaser with the host, “Best in Show” star Fred Willard.

If you’re around Friday, please feel free to RSVP and come to the taping. All the details, including RSVP instructions are on the invite below. Feel free to pass this along if you know any other dog-crazy folks that might want to come… And if you cannot make it, tune in Sunday night at 8:00pm to Nickelodeon.

Ok, maybe that’s not the most accurate statement ever. After all, the team busts their ass when they’re shooting on location so it’s hardly a play-date with free cars. It’s stressful, on-the-fly thinking coupled with back-breaking labor and creative energy that’s top-notch under the watchful eye of scrutinizing, nervous parents.

Regardless, it sucks that I don’t go out in the field more often.

Thanks, guys, for being great. All of you. Even the ones not in the pic who are back at the office turning it out, all day, every day…

The Fast Lane Daily Team

Of course, I could always make tomorrow International Talk Like Peter Kolb day…

Click to View the Invitation

I’m thinking about rolling down in the Scuderia.  Think he’ll mind?  :)

Thanks to GoGo Inflight Wireless

F1 News: Hamilton penalised, Massa handed win.

Revised Race Results:

1. Massa, Ferrari
2. Heidfeld, BMW Sauber
3. Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes
4. Alonso, Renault
5. Vettel, Toro Rosso-Ferrari
6. Kubica, BMW Sauber
7. Bourdais, Toro Rosso-Ferrari
8. Webber, Red Bull-Renault
9. Glock, Toyota
10. Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes
11. Coulthard, Red Bull-Renault
12. Rosberg, Williams-Toyota
13. Sutil, Force India-Ferrari
14. Nakajima, Williams-Toyota
15. Button, Honda
16. Trulli, Toyota
17. Fisichella, Force India-Ferrari
18. Raikkonen, Ferrari

World Championship Standings:

Drivers:
1. Hamilton, 76 points
2. Massa, 74 points
3. Kubica, 58 points
4. Raikkonen, 57 points
5. Heidfeld, 49 points
6. Kovalainen, 43 points
7. Trulli, 26 points
8. Alonso, 23 points
9. Webber, 19 points
10. Glock, 16 points
11. Vettel, 13 points
12. Piquet, 13 points
13. Barrichello, 11 points
14. Rosberg, 9 points
15. Nakajima, 8 points
16. Coulthard, 6 points
17. Bourdais, 4 points
18. Button, 3 points

Constructors:
1. Ferrari, 131 points
2. McLaren-Mercedes, 119 points
3. BMW Sauber, 107 points
4. Toyota, 41 points
5. Renault, 36 points
6. Red Bull-Renault, 25 points
7. Williams-Toyota, 17 points
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 17 points
9. Honda, 14 points

So I did it. Check it out.

It’s very basic. With a lot of logging under the hood. Let’s see if it gets picked up and what people are searching for… then we’ll make it better!

I love the videos in the Electronic music world…

Thanks to the folks on the Dusty McBackward’s list, I found an old, small database of race-gas locations in Southern California.  I dropped the addresses in to a database and mapped them on to this map.

Got an addition, suggestion or change?  Let me know.

If not, check out the map of Race Gas in Los Angeles and Southern California.

Yeah. Let’s just leave it at that.

For more, head over to Yo! Venice!

Porsche LOVES to test cars in Venice. I’ve seen loads of Panameras in the ‘hood. Loads of ‘em.

Tuesday, coming back from lunch, I spotted these 2 beauties:

Not bad, right?

The best part is that the chase car was a Nissan GT-R…

There, I said it.

I’m not against the notion of International athletic competition. I’m against NBC pre-empting my TV-viewing summer with hours and hours and hours of sporting events that I don’t give a crap about. I’d rather watch a rerun of “The Office” than diving, the new “American Gladiator” than gymnastics, and “Chris Hansen on Dateline NBC” than… well… whatever the hell else is an olympic sport these days. Thankfully, the great thing about digital media choice is that not only can I watch what I want when I want… I can also completely and totally avoid what I don’t want. I’ve not seen a single second of Olympic coverage. Not even a frame.

While I’m bitching, I’m also tired of all the anti-Chinese sentiment. Frankly, I really love China. I’ve been a few times and think it’s an amazing place, as you can see from these photos of Shanghai.

There was a great comment on Digg that I think is an important, if somewhat snarky, thing to keep in mind:

I’m so fed up of the whole China bashing thing. What most westerners fail to realise is that just 50 years ago food was a real issue and people were starving to death in China. There’s been so much progress made in the country by the government over recent decades that the general population doesn’t really care about issues of censorship. Now you have a bunch of ‘we know best’ westerners protesting for their human rights and freedom. I’m not Chinese, but I think the protesters should stick to their own failing governments… human rights? Guantanamo, censorship? CCTV… it just seems fashionable to be anti-China right now.

True, the Chinese government may have a more deplorable human rights record than others, but it must not be that bad as the IOC decided to have their games there. And while the media still seems to get off by showcasing some of the more krass tactics employed by China to “hide the poverty of the people”…

Let’s not forget the things that other governments do to keep poverty out of the sights of the tourists. Painting slums in Brazil, Greece, and Argentina. Building resort towns with no-roads to the rest of the country in Mexico. Creating art in New York…

No one is perfect, so let’s get our act together at home.

One of our most favourite places in the neighborhood was Grace “Bar • Restaurant • Ritual” on Franklin Street. Grace was a warm and welcoming place. Excellent food. Wonderful cocktails. …and very reasonably priced. Plus, the kitchen was open until 2:00am. The folks that worked there were wonderful. From the sweater-wearing-JJ to the appropriately-dressed-Danielle to the short-lived-dominatrix-hostess everyone always exuded that chill vibe that’s so hard to explain, much less develop as into a brand promise at a local restaurant and bar.

Yesterday, Grace closed.

It wasn’t that much of a surprise. Rumour had been swirling for some time that the doors would be closing last winter. But still, I cannot help but feel sad by the news. Keri and I spent many a night in our “living room down the street”. We created our own rituals between it’s crimson walls and vaulted ceilings: Awaiting the first snow in the back room under the greenhouse glass. Ringing in the New Year on more than one occasion. Cooling off after a walk through SoHo on a Sunday. Trying to get the guys from Highway 1 inside for a beer. Seeing how long it would take to get ejected after walking behind the bar. Trying to discover the french-fry recipe…

Things never really bounced back for Grace after September 11th. Despite my own personal attempts to single-handedly revitalize the business (mostly by ordering lots and lots of Jameson) the business was seized. Pad locked.

It makes me sad that it ended this way. Even living across the country, I always manged to find time for a Spicy Tomato or a Burger each and every trip to New York… But, in a way this is probably a good thing. The never-give-up owner probably needed this. He always struck me as the kind of guy never to take no for an answer. If the customer base wasn’t there in the post-9/11 Tribeca to support Grace, he would not have ever quit… until he had to.

And that’s just what happened.

Keep going until you can’t.

Thanks for fighting the good fight, guys. I enjoyed every minute at Grace over the 6 years I’ve known of the place. I can’t wait to see what you do next…

Can a $12.99 iPhone application really best the standard?

For more, check out Auto Blog Green

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Nice…

There’s a few reasons why, but the most important is this:

I can now publish “on the go”. That’s right. I migrated the site a few hours ago and I’m now en route to SoHo… And posting from the back of a cab.

Don’t believe me? Check out this picture:

Thanks to the folks at The Unlimited Class for the snap!

Thanks, Autoblog!

You Rick Roll Times Square.

If you see this in your rearview, don’t slow down. Speed up to get out of the way!

Thanks, Jackie, for hooking all this up!

See you there!

But we did have some fun with the torch while shooting some stuff for Fast Lane Daily and Garage 419.

Everything will be fine…

Great party. The hot tub is still draining.