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.

Imbibeable: Summer Beers

There are so many things that I enjoy about going back east to Vermont during the summer. Jumping into quarries (filled with water), the hum of a box fan in the window on a humid night, backyard campfires with old friends…horse flies . However one of the best things about going back for a summer visit every year is the many beers you can’t get out here in Southern California.

Check Out

The photography of Edward Burtynsky and in particular his project “Oil”. Circumnavigating the globe Burtynsky captured the effects that our precious resource has, on not only our home but on our lives. Ranging from a Kiss concert in Sturgis to a ship-breaking yard in Bangladesh, these photographs capture a strange sort of beauty, one we don’t often notice. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to, maybe it’s just because we aren’t looking. Whether we remain dependent on oil for the remainder of humanity’s time on earth or not, we’ll certainly leave an interesting legacy of what was accomplished with the internal combustion engine and black gold.

Also make sure to check out the “Quarries” project, especially the Vermont section.

Cheers!

U.S. Open Bash @ The Red Fox Inn

Yup, we’re doing it again. Grab you dancin shoes(or more likely boots) and git yourself on down to The Red Fox Inn a week from today. Gold Town will once again be kicking out the bluegrass jams(with a few surprise guests) and there will of course be drink specials going all night. A $8 suggested donation at the door gets you a raffle ticket and additional tickets will be on sale throughout the night for $5. All the proceeds go to the Jeff Charbonneau Memorial Fund. There’ll be raffle prizes from local businesses and restaurants in addition to those from industry sponsors, Burton, Frends and Vew-Do. Hope to see you out there, gonna be a night to remember…or try very hard to.

Cheers.

Now In Stock

That John Denver is full of shit man.

Life's about shiftin gears, poundin beers and killin deers.

Land of the free home of the brave.

Excuse me while I kiss the sky.

At home in the woods.

Get em while they last!

Eat Like A Manchild

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.

Off The Grid.

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).

Through The Lens: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a holiday that for some is the same thing every year. A gathering of the extended family, a game of touch football, a turkey induced coma, that drunk uncle who undoes his pants at the table. For me Thanksgiving has always been a holiday that was more about friends than family, new experiences rather than tradition. Sure I still like to be somewhere cold and end up eating far more than I should, but it’s always really cool to see firsthand how different people spend the day. This year I ate with my friends’ family while he worked and the dinner was one of the most interesting I’ve ever had. If there’s one thing that’s truly great about Thanksgiving it’s that it’s that a person can share a table with a group of people they don’t know and by the end of the night have made a genuine connection with them. If that’s not the true spirit of Thanksgiving, I don’t know what is. So prior to last week’s national eating contest I asked a few friends to document their Thanksgiving experiences as I knew they we’re going to be unique. Laura Austin went back to the homeland(VT) and Ali Kaukas has been down in Costa Rica for the month at a surf camp. Needless to say I knew there would be an interesting contrast there. Check out their shots after the jump. There’s a few of my own in there as well, though they pale in comparison to the ladies. If you had a particularly interesting Thanksgiving and shot some photos, leave a link, I’d love to see them.

Way Out East: Part 3

Kitsch at it's best.

When we awoke Sunday morning it was to a clear blue sky and a crisp breeze coming off the lake, that didn’t last long. By the time we’d gotten ourselves together in order to fetch breakfast it had clouded up and was threatening to rain. Having had our previous attempts to skate thwarted by weather or ridiculous skatepark mandates(full pads at my age that I have to pay to rent? Don’t think so.) we made quick work of a mountain of food at The Skinny Pancake and headed to Burton HQ. For those of you who don’t know, Burton has long had skate facilities for their employees and they’re nice enough to let just about anybody skate so long as your respectful(should go without saying). I used to be fortunate enough to skate the bowl everyday when I lived in Burlington and I jumped back into it with the notion that all the lines would come back to me within a few runs.