Imagine a country where more people vote for a pop idol than for their next president.

This weekend was a lovely mix of Fiona Apple and NASCAR, both live!

I went to (Nikon) Jones Beach on Saturday night with my sister and Kaleigh to see Fiona Apple (awesome live!) with openers David Garza (who?) and Damien Rice (sucked live).

Despite the intermittent drizzle during the first two acts, the weather held up and we were able to watch Fiona Apple singing, playing piano, talking to herself off-mic, and doing that characteristic writhing and random arm-and-leg-flailing thing she is known for. She is always passionate in her delivery, which makes for a great live show. And, on an unrelated note, she is physically very short.

Thumbs down to Jones Beach for not using the two giant white screens during the concert, however. What exactly are they there for, if not for two camermen to shoot the event live?

On Sunday, I attended my first live NASCAR event, the Pennsylvania 500, at Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, PA. It’s the closest NASCAR Nextel Cup track to New York City and Long Island and the 3-hour drive (the what? the 3-hour drive!) was pretty much painless — just a quick jaunt west on I80.

Cars going speeds upwards of 170 MPH are really loud! And the exhaust and burnt tire rubber clouds are exceptionally smelly. All part of the NASCAR experience, I presume. It was like me and my closest 76,812 (friendly redneck NASCAR fan) friends cheering on our favorite racecar drivers.

This year I started watching NASCAR regularly (all but 3 races so far) and I really enjoyed the drama (and the crashes), so I decided to actually go to an event. The only other car racing I’ve seen live was at a local track on Long Island, which is probably only a 1/4 mile track or something.

I went with my dad and everything about the event was amazing — the thrill of cars going 200 MPH, the crowd booing Tony Stewart (my favorite driver, who finished 7th) after he seemed to intentionally cause a wreck, and the sheer magnitude of the event.

Everything, that is, until we tried to leave. For you see, PA is one of those states with areas so rural that they are not equipped to handle large scale events. Sensing that we would be sitting in traffic for at least 2 hours, we decided to wait that long until the (endless) line of cars started moving. Here’s the thing — there was only one long, curving, one-laned road (Long Pond Road) for tens of thousands of cars to get to Interstate 80! It was ridiculous: thousands of cars, trucks, and RVs on a long line for several hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic. It didn’t help that my dad forgot to get gas and we only had less than a quarter tank left!

So after two hours and traveling a grand total of 4 miles, we got on some sort of multiple merging-laned on-ramp to I80, where we found another massive amount of race fans going about 5 MPH. This time, with an equal amount of 18-wheelers merging into the mess. Another hour later and we finally got moving. It was ridiculous and made me wish I was one of the lucky people leaving from the raceway via helicopter (there were quite a few leaving that way).

All in all, it was a great experience. I’ll go to another NASCAR Nextel Cup event for sure, but next time I’ll be sure to get seats higher up to see the whole racetrack (not just the straight-away and turns 1 and 4) and work out some sort of plan to avoid the 3 hour line of exiting vehicles (if possible).

Live music and car racing — the perfect weekend.

President Bush attended the G8 Conference this past week to discuss strategies to combat world problems, like poverty, the Middle East crisis, and trade issues.

Here’s a two-video summary of what he accomplished:

And a bonus video to show what he has accomplished here at home in combating illegal immigration:

Wow, 100 degree days (115 with the Heat Index) in New York aren’t that much fun. Just a lot of sweating, really.

I found this clip of a CNN article about the heat wave hitting the nation and it reminded me of my days at NYU:

In Washington Square Park in Manhattan, sweaty residents cheered when a large fountain shot on, and they started wading in the ankle-deep water. No one worried about whether it was dirty.

“It’s too hot to care about that stuff right now,” said Alex Glowacki of Brooklyn. “And anyway, it doesn’t look all green and slimy like it usually does, so I feel OK without shoes on.”

Ah, Washington Square Park.

President Bush was unknowingly caught cursing on tape having a casual conversation about the Middle East with Tony Blair at at a closing luncheon at the G8 summit.

President Bush, to British Prime Minister Tony Blair:

“See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.”

Yeah, this is really going to help improve America’s image in the Arab world…

Digg is a cool social networking bookmarking site that allows members to “digg” or “bury” news stories they find online.

Digg started off, as most new technology online does, targeting tech-savvy surfers. With Digg version 3.0, however, users can now digg stories in the new categories of World & Business, Entertainment, Science, and Gaming, potentially increasing its usefulness.

Digg isn’t The New York Times, as some have recently suggested, but it just occurred to me what it is:

Digg is the Web 2.0 version of Metafilter.

What I mean by that is that both are filters — they both separate out good content from the chaff of the Internet.

Metafilter employs traditional manual posting to offer good stories, which may or may not be actually good content in most users’ views.

Digg is the newest incarnation of a filter website, where the process is semi-automated to select and share a story and, once shared, the story is judged on its usefulness by the community of users through voting. Stories can be auto-filled by just clicking on a “Digg this” link, which allows them to be added much more quickly than on Metafilter, etc.

As Digg expands even further, look for it to include sections like politics, reviews, and maybe even purchasing recommendations (like epinions.com).

A reader of this site recently asked me what type of birds I own.

They would include parakeets, finches, a Bourke’s parakeet, and white ringneck doves:

Happy 230th Birthday, America!

We may be going through tough times as a nation in the world view of things,
with wars and oil and soldiers dying,
but all Americans have to agree,
we can come to together on this,
that its great to be free.

So this Independence Day,
remember what this day truly means,
not just hot dogs and fireworks,
and family barbeque gatherings,

Its about our country’s beginnings,
our founding fathers and liberty,
and doing whatever you want to,
that’s what it means to be free.

Happy 4th of July! I’m going to my first Long Island Ducks game with the family for Fireworks Night! Should be a blast.

Have fun and stay safe everybody!

My good friend Jessica Wells over at the NY Hamster House has a writing section on her personal website and I thought I’d share an excerpt from one of her poems called “Suppose” (1988):

Suppose there was no gravity,
The world would be a wreck.
Suppose we didn’t have a head,
Would we have a neck?

Something for everyone to ponder, indeed. Thanks for sharing that, Jessica.

Happy Birthday to me! That is correct — today is my 25th birthday!

One quarter of a century ago, I was born in an undisclosed location in New York. Little did I know the many twists and turns my life would take through the first 2.5 decades.

In some ways I feel like I still don’t know what happened: all of a sudden I’m 25.

I have to admit that the 24th year didn’t shape up exactly the way I thought it would. It was an okay year with a couple of key milestones, but it was less than stellar. But then that’s life, I suppose.

At least it looks like my friends will be throwing a birthday party this year. Imagine that!

If you feel so inclined, Paypal me a delightful birthday gift now and you will receive all that you desire. Try it, it really works.

Before you celebrate your freedom, celebrate me! But seriously, a simple birthday wish from you via email, snail mail, in person, or by text message or cellphone (new this year!) would be a great present, too.

Here’s to 25!!!

UPDATE: Thanks Evan, Danielle, Melissa, Katelyn, Krystyna, and Courtney for your birthday wishes!