Have A Nice Week.

5 Things to get your week started off right.

1.) New Music by Palma Violets, Vitamin String Quartet, Classixx, Cayucas and Mikal Cronin. HERE

2.) You’re not this guy.

3.) You can still get in on a pair of Gustin denim for $81! HERE

4.) There’s a new Petrolicious video and as usual, it’s awesome. HERE

5.) Memorial Day Weekend is this weekend, that means it’s officially summerpartytimeexcellent season. Hope you have your essentials. No? Hit the links below and get kitted from the feet up.

On Your Feet: Vans Authentics & Richer Poorer No-Sho Socks.

Covering Lower: Katin Beach Short

Covering Upper: 3pk Burton Slim Tees (a Beeracuda goes with everything)

Domepiece: Poler Cyclops Hat

Timepiece: Fat Wizard by Komono

Sunnies: Sylas by RAEN Optics

On Your Back: Little America by Herschel

In Your Hand: Stiegl Goldbrau

Cheers!

Imbibeable: Rhum Refresher

Nothing fancy here, just a simple, refreshing cocktail well suited to take you through the warmer months of the year. Though I love whiskey, I’m not a fan of drinking it as much once the mercury begins to rise(mercury was in these things called thermometers back in the olden days young bucks). What this means is once it’s warmer out comes the rum(distilled from molasses) or rhum(distilled from sugar cane). I prefer rhum because of the taste and lately I’ve been enjoying Rhum Barbancourt(pictured above) which is one of Hati’s oldest distillers of the pirate’s drink of choice. There are many well written articles about rhum and it’s place in history but this isn’t of of them. This is a simple cocktail recommendation that I think just about anyone will enjoy. No specific measurements(this ain’t Mr.Boston’s), no craft ingredients(not your local “speakeasy”). Just the stuff I grabbed from the corner store and what was already laying around. I like Fentiman’s ginger beer but Bundabergs or Cock N’ Bull would be suitable as well, maybe even better, I’ve yet to try it. You’ll want a since tart lemonade, not one of the overly sugary one you’re likely to find in Whole Foods being sold as “healthy”. I’d never seen Cabana brand until I stopped into the corner store but it was there, I grabbed it and I like it. Wish to hell Snapple still made it’s lemonade like it used to, that stuff was killer. So start with as much rhum as you think you should have and then half that amount of lemonade. Squeeze in half a lime, muddle two or three sprigs of mint leaves, toss em in a shaker with ice and have at it. While you’re shaking away, slowly realizing how out of shape your arms are, think about what type of glass you want to put this concoction in. According to mixologist types, the drink is only as good as the vessel from which it’s served. I call bullshit on this unless of course it’s whiskey in which case an old fashioned tumbler is the only acceptable option. In this instance I’ve opted to go with my large Tervis tumbler because I can fill it to the brim with ice and still get plenty of drink in there. Also they’re just big plastic cups so it doesn’t matter if you over serve yourself and drop it. As always I encourage you all to experiment with ratios, ingredients and see what you come up with. The worst that happens is you have a beverage that doesn’t taste very good but you still get a buzz. At that point you’ll know how it feels to drink at The Cheesecake Factory.

Cheers!

Partyboarding @ Northstar

For the past four years I’ve headed to Lake Tahoe around the end of March or early April to get in some spring time snowboarding and for the past four years I’ve been met by a late season blizzard. Don’t get me wrong, I love surfing the powder but that’s more of a January/February type of thing for me. This year, mother nature was on the same page with me and that meant it was game on for one of my favorite pastimes, PARTYBOARDING! Click the pic and enjoy our edit which will probably make you wish you’d rode more this winter and/or have you counting the days until you can get to Mt.Hood this summer.

Cheers!

Today’s Most Wanted

The Raleigh Vest allows for full range of motion and provides excellent core warmth. Two vital components of a proper spring blizzard cleanup outfit or in my case, enjoying spring snowboarding outfit.

 

What you see above is just one of the many fine pieces that you’ll find at a discount over on the Carhartt WIP site. If you’re not familiar with the Work in Progress division of Carhartt I humbly suggest you change that straight away. You’ll find familiar looking pieces from Carhartt’s past have been slimmed down and toughened up in the right places. Currently the deals department is really on point. There’s a whole lot to go through, especially since most items still have full size runs but here’s what you really consider picking up.

Not just A chore coat, THE Chore Coat.

A wise man from Peru,VT once said “extra pockets, extra beers”. 

No it ain’t a hoodie, it’s the Active Jacket and it’s a no excuses piece. As in, “I know it’s hailing but the wood needs chopping, grab the Active Jacket or perhaps more appropriately, “I know it’s drizzling but I need my fresh pressed juice honey.”

No snarky comments here, these pants fit absolutely perfectly. Slim, not skinny with a straight leg. At $45 a pair you should consider grabbing a few while you can.

Just because you play golf, doesn’t mean you have to dress like an asshole. However if that’s your thing, the Duck Polo does come in “go fuck yourself Orange” or Cadmium Heather as Carhartt calls it.

Ok, it’s not on sale but it’s too cool to ignore. If you’ve got $50 to blow, this is a good way to do so.

Make sure to browse the rest of the WIP site and try not to fall down the “camo” rabbit hole. Odds are that you’ll just look like a jackass wearing it around whatever trendy neighborhood you live in.

CHEERS!

Hard Hitting Investigative Journalism: 31st Annual Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships

Welcome To Vail!

In 1982 a group of friends, passionate about riding a surfboard-shaped plank of wood down a steep snow-covered hill, decided they wanted to know who was the best at this new winter activity. Thirty-one years later one of those friends is standing in front of me with his wife, one of his three sons and a big ol’ grin on his face. You’d be happy too if the sport you helped grow from backyard pastime to international obsession finally had a venue that was perfect for its most prestigious competition. Yes, Jake Burton Carpenter has done right by snowboarding and if you think otherwise then you’re a fool.

Out & About

While driving up to a friend’s house in Hancock Park for a cookout I realized I’d forgotten to pick up beer. Not knowing the area I stopped at the first place I spotted, a rundown looking supermarket called Galco’s. I figured they’d probably have something decent to bring, worst case scenario I’d end up with some Modelo Especial(everywhere has that in Hancock Park.) It didn’t immediately hit me when I walked in that Galco’s was a special place. It looked kind of bare, stark and uninviting. Then I noticed something odd, the place was full of people carrying boxes of sodas and beers. Again, not all that unusual if you’re at Costco but these people were carrying flats of various beverages all lumped together. I started to explore and soon found myself overwhelmed by the selection of hard to find drinks. I’ve always kind of prided myself in finding craft beers and sodas that most people haven’t heard of but in Galco’s I quickly found myself thinking “damn, I’m an amateur.”

Today’s Most Wanted

What the heck is that? I’ll tell you what it is, the coolest thing to happen to mobile beverage cooling since Burton dropped the beeracuda. What you see above is Wisconsin Products’ “Stump Cooler”. This beauty holds a dozen cold ones plus ice and it’ll keep your chosen refreshments cold for up to 5 days. 5 days, that’s like 4.5 more days than how long the average cooler will keep your stuff cold! Pop on over to Made Collection to get yours and while you’re at it, check out all the other made in the U.S.A. products they have to offer, you’ll be glad ya did.

Cheers.

Now Hear This!

Polica is a collaborative project featuring an insanely talented group of individuals based of out Minneapolis, MN. Give You The Ghost is over a year old but I’ve only just discovered it, better late than never I guess. Channy Leanagh’s beautiful voice is a perfect match for producer Ryan Olson’s wild electro-pop soundscapes. Throw in some excellent drumming, a Bon Iver collaborator and have Jim Eno mix it all up, yeah I’d say that’s a recipe for a solid album.

Today’s Most Wanted: Burton 2013 Softgoods

This past Monday Burton’s 2013 site launched and with it the desire to be on the hill crept to the forefront of my mind. As I made evident in the Hardgoods post, Burton has once again come out with a very impressive line of goods for the 2013 season. The best pieces in the men’s line are clean and understated. Jackets that will look just as good on the street as they do on the mountain.  Yes many of these styles have been experimented with before by other smaller companies and many of them draw from classic looks but the difference is Burton’s resources. The technical fabrics, details and cuts are what separates Burton outerwear from the rest of the pack. Perhaps it’s that snowboarding is coming of age, gaining a certain level of maturity(for the most part) but I for one am very glad to see the continued refinement of outerwear. Sure there are wild patterns and prints to be found in the line but hey, there’s gotta be gear for kooks(Kook (n) an eccentric or foolish person) as well. I mean if there wasn’t, how else would you identify them as kooks? I mean besides watching them grabbing tindy and Zeaching boxes. Enjoy the gear after the jump and remember, shop local.

Today’s Most Wanted: Burton 2013 Hardgoods

When I was just a little grom I would always get excited when I got my hands on the new Burton catalog. I’d sit down and carefully flip through all the pages reading about what new technology they’d come up with for that year(remember Super Fly Core II?) and all the new outerwear I’d seen pros rocking the season before. I suppose now that I’m an old man(by industry standards) I shouldn’t get as excited as I do for their website launch each year. I suppose I should be jaded like many of my friends who dismiss the new technology as unnecessary and the graphics as unimaginative. Many of them say Burton has lost touch with it’s roots and become too commercial. Bullshit. All you have to do is take a good look at the product for this year to see that now more than ever(and for the past 4-5 years in my opinion) Burton is doing an exceptional job of representing core snowboarding values while turning out killer product. This is not to say that I don’t have my issues with some of their choices(U.S. Open moving to Vail for example) but I can tell you that the gear I have is on a quality level all it’s own. So here, in the dogs days of summer, in the middle of this “heat wave” as Southern Californians call it(no humidity so who cares) I thought I’d put together a piece with the hard goods you should be most excited about putting to good use on the mountain this season. Burton says 2013 is an iconic year, I’d like think that’ll be the case. After all, scientists say that it’s gonna be a La Nina winter and getting skunked on a good season two years in a row, that’s just unheard of. Cheers.