The Roccia Vet part of Diemme’s impressive AW 2012 line. Click the pic to check out their current offerings. Made in Italy from the finest materials these don’t come cheap. That is of course assuming that you could find somewhere to buy them that isn’t sold out. I suggest Mr. Porter for those of you not living in New York City.

I’ll be flying out to Denver this afternoon for SIA trade show, then heading up to Aspen to check out the clusterfuck known as X-Games. For those of you unfamiliar with SIA it is the largest, longest running winter sport tradeshow. It was moved to Denver 3 years ago after a nice long run in Las Vegas(the good ol days). It’s not that Denver isn’t fun but when the snow sport industries gather together, it’s much more fun if there’s no snow in the immediate area(reminds people they’re there to work not party, no bueno.) So I’ll be roaming the Denver Convention Center all day tomorrow finding the best of next years snowboard gear, heckling uptight ski company exhibitors and hopefully scoring lots of free stuff I can give out to you, my loyal readers. Friday morning it’ll be time to head up to Aspen to join the circus. Like so many of my fellow winter-sports enthusiasts, I have a love hate relationship with X-Games. I love that it elevates the exposure of our sports. I love that it puts more money in my friends’ pockets for their tireless year round preparation to impress on a big stage. I love the parties. What I hate is the general attitude at X-Games and the insane people it somehow attracts. It’s like instead of water people in Aspen have been drinking a mix of Monster Energy and speed(I’m convinced crack not speed is the active ingredient in Monster). I will go no further in hating on X-Games, I think the photos I take this weekend will do the talking. Despite the extremely high kook factor, X-Games was incredibly fun last year and I’m looking forward to covering it as a self proclaimed gonzo-journalist this year. I’m envisioning something similar to my coverage of Outside Lands summer before last. In addition to the article coming next week I’ll be updating my Instagram and Twitter feeds regularly so if you’re not following those, better get on it. Hope you’ll all enjoy what I’ve got in store for you.

Cheers,

Andrew.

Van Halen, Mean Street, 1983. Happy Friday.

Progressive.

What you see above is a sad excuse for what can be a great sandwich. If you grew up eating enriched white bread slathered with Peter Pan and Grape Jelly, I’m sorry. I hope this post restores your faith in the great American sandwich, The Peanut Butter and JAM. There are many variations of the PB&J(Honey, Apples, Bananas, toasting the bread) but for this piece I’m sticking to the purest form. Like any sandwich the key to it being a cut above the rest is the bread. I suggest a thick 100% Whole Wheat bread such as Orowheat Master’s Best Winter Wheat.

Next you’ll want to select a quality peanut butter. I’m a fan of Laura Scudder Old Fashioned Smooth. It’s just the right amount of salty and it’s easy to spread.

Finally you’ll want to find yourself a top shelf jam. Not jelly, not preserves, JAM. If you don’t know the differences between the three I suggest you educate yourself on the subject before going any further. Now as with anything that comes in so many different flavors there will always be a debate about which is the best. Sure I like blueberry, blackberry and raspberry but when it comes to making a classic PB&J, strawberry jam is the only way to go. I suggest Vermont Country Store’s as it is incredibly tasty and from Vermont.

Once you’ve stirred the peanut butter(C’mon it’s worth the effort ya lazy sack of shit) use about a ping pong ball’s worth (or less) to cover once piece of bread. Then WITH A FRESH UTENSIL cover the other piece of bread with a thin layer of jam so you’ve got a 2:1 Peanut Butter to Jam ratio going on. Next take the jam piece of bread and place it on top of the peanut butter piece, cut it in half(or into triangles, I know you people are out there) and eat it. For the complete after school snack experience enjoy a glass of cold chocolate milk,

and some Cheddar Cheese flavor Goldfish.

Alright now go flip on on episode of Bill Nye The Science Guy or Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and you’ll really be Eating Like A Manchild.

There really is nothing quite like a real book. Animated by Sean Ohlenkamp and shot at Type Books in Toronto, “The Joy Of Books” is a great stop motion animation short about a bookstore that comes alive at night. Put down your Kindle, Nook, or whatever you have. Go to a library or bookstore and pick up a real book. Enjoy the feel of turing the pages, the musty smell, wonder who else has read the very same copy you’re holding. That’s reading, not staring at some screen and switching over to play games every 20 minutes. C’mon, you know you do it.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “what the hell is that?” Well besides being a lovely beige square it’s what’s going to make your homemade pizza worth the effort making. We did some pies the other night and though they all came out pretty damn good, one thing was missing, a nice crisp bottom.

That’s where the Old Stone Oven baking stone comes in. Never again be the victim of soggy bottom when the top looks so good. One of the best things about these is they’ll fit on most grills and that’s an awesome way to do a pizza(just ask my dad). If you wanna go a step further grab yourself a Kitchen Supply Aluminum Pizza Peel. You’ll never have trouble getting your pizza out of the oven and you’ll always have something to serve it on. Beyond on that the RSVP World Class Pizza Cutter is a great tool to have vs. your average dull rolling pizza cutter. Perfect slices the first time, every time(so long as you apply proper pressure). Now then, institute a homemade pizza night in your household and get creative. If you have the time to make the dough, great. If not find yourself a good organic crust(woodfired even better) and use some Cento tomato puree for sauce. Just remember so put spices in the sauce or it’ll be blander than an episode of Dr.Drew(BOOM! Roasted). Now you’ve stepped it up, you’re welcome.

Cheers,

The Management.

Gritty.

Well that was a nice little hiatus from the internet. To say I was on a living spree would be an understatement. The holidays back east we’re entertaining as they’ve ever been. Another year gone by, many lessons learned, much knowledge accrued. Pretty excited to see what 2012 holds for This Nice Life and Nice Life Apparel. For the clothing line, many new influences to channel and collaborators to work with. The expansion into accessories is going to be a fun one and I can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on with all of you. For this site that has become such a bigger part of what I do than I could have ever anticipated, can expect to see new features as well as upgraded versions of the old standbys. More voices will be coming to the site as well as the highest quality original content. One of my goals is to get more feedback from you. What do you like about This Nice Life? Where can we can improve? I’ve got big plans for the site and I can’t wait to start setting them in motion. As it says in the header, this site is about life “from mountains to metropolis.” A place where the best cultural aspects of rural life and city life meet. I believe it doesn’t have to be one or the other. You can live a city life in the country and live a rural life in the city. It’s about how you interact with the community you’re a part of. That’s how I’ve come to think of this site, a community. I hope you’ll continue to enjoy being a part of it and that in the coming year, it in some capacity makes your life just a bit nicer. Whether it be a product you didn’t know about before seeing it on Today’s Most Wanted or just laughing at a One Word Film Review, I hope you find what you’re looking for when you choose to spend some time here. That being said, there are some things I won’t be posting anymore. I’m not going to say right now what they’ll be, you’ll either notice their absence or you won’t. As I said before I really plan to have the site as original as possible and for that to happen some things have to go. However there is this thing called Tumblr and you can head on over to ThisNiceLife.Tumblr should you want pure visual stimulation without all these annoying word thingys. So I think that should about do it. You’re caught up, you know where I’ve been and what I’m planning. Truly hope you’ll come round to visit a bunch this year and that you’ll bring some friends with you. The door is always open and it’s always great to see you.

Cheers,

Andrew.

It’s been quite a whirl wind since leaving Los Angeles last Wednesday. After spending five days in NYC, I headed to Stowe, VT with nothing but the clothes on my back and my guitar. I finally arrived home in Pawlet yesterday but was at the ol homestead for all of an hour. It wasn’t until someone complimented me for my recent Thanksgiving post at a party last night that I even thought about the fact I hadn’t been on my laptop for over a week. Maybe it’s because it’s the holidays and  I tend to run around like a crazy person soaking up the country lifestyle while I can but I just don’t miss the internet while I’m here. So I will be on hiatus until I return to Los Angles after the new year. However, just because I’m not posting here doesn’t mean I’m giving up my tech tethers completely. Between Instagram & Twitter I will be generating plenty of content. So should you happen to want a little window into my holiday world you can follow me @nicelifeapparel (Twitter) and @amaness (instagram).