Lifestyle
Newcastle Walk the Dog Day Event
It’s no secret that we love Newcastle around here, so we’re all fired up about an event that we have planned with Newcastle on Saturday, September 24 at Finn McCool’s in Santa Monica. This weekend, Newcastle is celebrating Walk the Dog Day all across LA, and we’re proud to be a part of the festivities.
What does it mean to Walk the Dog? Glad you asked! Basically the phrase “Walk the Dog” is a classic excuse that British dudes give when they want to duck out and enjoy a pint with their mates. So instead of telling your lady that you’re heading down to the pub to put back a few rounds with your bros, you just say that you’re going to Walk the Dog (even if, you know, you don’t even have one).
So this Walk the Dog Day event is going to be pretty sweet. The Walk the Dog Day celebrations are taking place in five different spots around Los Angeles, but the MANjr event will be held on the Westside.
Date: Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011
Time: 11AM – 3PM
Locations: Five Walk the Dog Day events will take place simultaneously at Finn McCool’s (Santa Monica), Villains Tavern (Downtown LA), Alex’s Bar (Long Beach), 2nd Floor (Orange County), The Echo (Silver Lake)
We’ll be posting up at Finn McCool’s, a “painstakingly dismantled” Irish pub that was brought over from the Old World in 2002. The owner, Geraldine Gilliland, packed up the entire contents of her late step-father’s pub in Ireland and reconstructed it on Main Street in Santa Monica. Finn McCool’s features 18 craft beers, over 200 whiskeys and some pretty decent grub.
But Saturday, September 24 will be a day for Newcastle lovers. Sure, there will be food served as well, but if you love Newkie Brown, you won’t want to miss this. The entry for the event is $1, a small price to pay for drinking a bunch of free Newcastles. That dollar is going to charity as well, so your low-low entry fee is actually going to support the Los Angeles Art Association).
The event will take place from 11am to 3pm and will feature live music by Hanni El Khatib, original art by Ron English, tons of t-shirts and giveaway opportunities and of course, delicious Newkie Brown Ale.
Guests will need to RSVP by sending their name and location preference (yea Finn McCool’s in Santa Monica) to WalktheDogDay@gmail.com. Make sure to get your name on the list cause they’re not letting just any old walk-in riffraff into the event. This is strictly for Newcastle lovers in the know.
We’re ramping things up this week in anticipation of the event, and that means tons of giveaway opportunities for you, loyal reader. Every day this week we’ll be giving away one Newcastle Cooler Bag and a Newcastle Barstool.
We’ll have more info on the giveaways and the original art that you can score from Ron English. Just remember to RSVP and stay tuned for more details!
Sep 19th
Tony Parker Shows Off the New Tissot T-Touch II
Tissot’s been making sick watches since 1853. The new Tissot T-Touch II is a luxury watch with some crazy touchscreen features. Here’s a video of Tony Parker showing off all the stuff you can do with the newest model from Tissot:
Sep 16th
Jim Beam Bold Choice
We’re partnering up with Jim Beam on a really cool initiative called the Jim Beam Bold Choice Campaign. Basically, MANjr was selected by Jim Beam to act as a Bold Choice blog partner. As part of the campaign, Jim Beam is providing me with the means to make my Bold Choice dreams a reality. I should disclose that the opinions expressed on this site are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Jim Beam is just hooking me up with the chance to make a Bold Choice and write about it.
Here’s a well-put take on the whole Bold Choice idea, courtesy of Willem Dafoe:
So what sort of Bold Choice am I going to make? Well, I narrowed it down to three options which I’ll outline below. It’s up to you, loyal readers, to decide which Bold Choice I end up going with. Here’s what’s on the table:
Diving in the Great Barrier Reef
I’ve always wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef up close. The world’s largest reef system is a World Heritage Site and it’s visible all the way in outer space, man. There are nearly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands that make up the 130,000-mile plus Great Barrier Reef system. It’s off the coast of Queensland and pretty much any photo you take can be licensed as a default desktop background. With coral bleaching, climate change, overfishing, pollution and such, this natural wonder of the world isn’t going to be around forever. I’d like to check it out before it’s gone.
Hiking a Volcano in Hawaii
I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I hear it’s awesome. Trekking up a volcano or checking out some massive craters created by Mother Nature’s fury sounds like a damn good time to me. Plus, a little bit of beach time and relaxation never hurt anybody.
Skydiving in Austria and Attending Oktoberfest
Austria’s a good-looking country. You got the old imperial center of Vienna and panoramic Alpine views all rolled up into a country that’s slightly smaller than the state of Maine. I think it’d be fun as hell to jump out of a plane and check out the view at 10,000 feet or so. If I survive that, it’s off to Oktoberfest to enjoy some celebratory brats and brews with red-faced folks in lederhosen.
These are the Bold Choice candidates that I have to work with, but the decision is up to you, MANjr fans. Drop us an email below and let me know which Bold Choice you’d like me to make. I promise to write all about it with photos and good stories.
Thanks again to Jim Beam for including us in this sweet campaign. I have a chance to try out some once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and I can’t wait to see which one I end up enjoying. I’ll keep the voting open for a couple of weeks and let you guys know which Bold Choice wins out on September 30.
Sep 16th
JT Holmes – Hotel Booked in Freefall
A few weeks ago, I had a fantastic time in Tahoe. Hotels.com sent me on a trip where I got to try skydiving and find out about the new mobile booking app that just launched. The app, which is available for iPhone and Android, lets you book reservations at nearly 140,000 hotels across the globe. The app also offers over 20,000 last minute deals. It’s available in more than 30 languages in over 70 countries, so no matter where you are, you can book hotel reservations on the go with ease.
To prove this point, Hotels.com enlisted the help of world-renowned stuntman and extreme athlete JT Holmes. They dropped him out of a plane at 15,000 feet and told him to use the app to book a reservation at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe while freefalling over 115 miles an hour in the air. Here’s the video:
Pretty impressive stuff. After the jump, we asked JT Holmes some follow up questions. Here’s the interview:
MJ: What’s the craziest place you’ve ever jumped from?
JT: Probably the Willis Tower in Chicago — particularly when we jumped from the corner of the building above Franklin Street. In this case, after 90 feet of freefall we’re engulfed in the architecture of the building, a 90 degree section of windows. Then, we were in a must-fly situation in order to reach the landing zone at the corner of Wacker Drive and Van Buren. The flight involved a couple of soft turns and was insanely visual.
MJ: My buddy, Richard Schneider, wants to know what wing suit do you use and why?
JT: I choose S Fly Expert because it has the fastest cutaway system for the wings, provides a ton of performance per square footage of wing, and allows me to run off of cliffs and run on landing without unzipping my legs. Further, I prefer to fly hands free and palms down, just for my own pleasure/fun. With the Expert you do not have to hold any wing extension batons.
MJ: What was it like working with Michael Bay?
JT: It was great. Michael is daring, bold, loyal, talented and commands a lot of respect. Not sure anyone else in the world could unlock the city of Chicago like him.
MJ: How did you feel right before you jumped off that first building in Chicago?
JT: Tired. I was unable to sleep the night before. I was really out of it. I knew that once I stepped off, instinct would take over and the flight would recharge my batteries.
MJ: I tried skydiving for the first time and found it to be a surprisingly calming experience. Do you feel peaceful and at ease when your skydiving?
JT: Absolutely.
Sep 2nd
AXE Hold+Touch Giveaway
We’re teaming up with our friends at AXE for another great giveaway. Summer’s almost over but there’s still time for one more summer season short haircut. If you’re rocking the trim look, you’re going to need to put some product on your dome to give it a bit of style. AXE just rolled out three new Hold+Touch products that’ll help you get the job done:
- AXE Hold+Touch Spiking Glue for normal hair
- AXE Hold+Touch Cream Wax for thick hair
- AXE Hold+Touch Paste for fine hair
The AXE Hold+Touch styling products give you that strong styled hold with no crunchy side effects. So you can still get the look you want without having to go all plastic cement style. Your summer fling can run her fingers through your hair and she won’t need to wash her hands afterwards.
Aug 31st
PowerSquid Surge Protector Review
Power cords suck. You need ‘em for everything and you have to put ‘em everywhere. Left your phone charger at work? Time to get another one for home. Need a laptop charger in the living room? Well you probably have another one for the home office, too. From Mp3 players to computers and laptops, tablets, phones and external hard drives, we all have way too much crap that needs charging. More often than not, this leads to super-messy piles of daisy-chained surge protector jungles.
Keeping your cords in check is annoying as hell, but the PowerSquid Surge Protector and Power Conditioner from Accell can help you get organized. We received a PowerSquid to review and it’s a pretty convenient solution to the crazy cord mess.
Now I’m no electrician, but I’m pretty sure that my current setup (outlet-extender to extension cord to surge protector 1 to surge protector 2) is less than ideal. It’s likely a fire waiting to happen. For people who know more about electrical currents than I do, the PowerSquid offers 1080 Joules of surge protection, a 15 Amp circuit breaker, five transformer friendly outlets and a built-in noise reduction filter.
The thing that I like the most about it is that I can plug in 5 monster-chargers without worrying about covering up spots on the surge protector. Bulky computer charges and other device power cables can take up way too much space when you’re dealing with a strip of vertically positioned outlets. The PowerSquid gives you all kinds of flexibility while also reducing the line noise and electrical static caused by radio frequency and electromagnetic interference.
Technical details aside, you can plug in more stuff without having to worry about power surges and fire hazards. That sure beats the inflexible, potentially-dangerous extension cord/surge protector setup I’m rolling with right now.
Aug 31st
iPad ePillow Review
iPad owners usually have a hard time putting down their beloved tablet-champion. They travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it, watch TV with it, take smoke breaks with the thing, you get the idea. If you have an iPad then you know what I’m talking about. It’s hard to disconnect yourself. Loved ones get bitter that you spend so much time with the damn thing. Well these loved ones aren’t going to be too fond of the iPad ePillow by Veyl.
The ePillow is an ergonomic, iPad holder that is available in chocolate brown or deep black. It’s basically a pillow that holds your iPad. The holding mechanism isn’t complex. You just slip the iPad in a vinyl ledge, place the pillow on your lap or on a table, and sit back and relax.
The ePillow costs $29.95. It doubles as an actual pillow, so if you fly a lot, this is a good thing to pack. The pillow rests comfortably on an airplane tray table so you can enjoy some hands-free iPadding when you fly.
The iPad ePillow isn’t for power users. This isn’t going to replace your current case or whatever default setup you have. The ePillow is for loungers who like to view things on their iPad with minimal device interaction.
If you need to type, play games or use the bottom button to cycle through programs, you’re probably better off just holding your iPad with two hands. If you like to stream videos or read with your iPad (especially in bed), the ePillow is pretty sweet.
Aug 31st
JT Holmes, Skydiving, and the Hotels.com Mobile Booking App
Last week, I went on a trip to Lake Tahoe, courtesy of Hotels.com. I got to hang out with some really cool people and I even got to try skydiving for the first time (more on that in a second). Hotels.com put me up at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa & Casino, and I totally enjoyed myself.
The trip featured a skydiving shoot with extreme sports athlete JT Holmes. If you haven’t heard of Holmes, he’s a guy whose idea of a thrilling weekend is like 10 times more hardcore than whatever you or I do with our spare time. Holmes is a skydiver, free skier and base jumper. He’s appeared in multiple skiing films, 60 Minutes did a pretty sweet piece on him and his wing suit jumping skills were featured in Transformers 3. So yea, this guy knows how to have some fun.
Holmes partnered up with Hotels.com as part of a larger effort to promote the brand’s entry in to mobile apps. Hotels.com is launching a high-speed mobile booking app next month. In addition to giving travelers the ability to book a hotel in under a minute, the Extreme Mobile Booking App will also feature 20,000 last minute deals at over 140,000 hotels across the world.
Users will be able to access previous and future reservation info online or offline, and the app makes use of your mobile’s GPS features so that you can locate the closest hotels with the best deals while you’re on the go.
The app will also support Welcome Rewards loyalty points. You can track your points and redeem them right from your phone. For every 10 nights that you accumulate in hotel stays, you get an extra night for free.
So in Tahoe, JT Holmes proved just how easy it is to use the new app when he took a 15,000 ft plunge out of the sky and booked his own hotel reservation in less than 60 seconds. Here are some photos from the shoot:
I got to experience tandem skydiving for the first time during the trip, and it was unreal. I mean, I thought I’d be freaking out or just so full of adrenaline that I’d yak or piss or lose my mind, but that’s not how it went down. I’m kinda afraid of heights so I thought I’d be trippin’ out a whole lot more, but the experience was surprisingly tranquil and calming.
The freakiest part of the whole thing was sitting in a closed room by myself watching an instructional video from this freaky, monotone-voiced dude who was telling me that tandem skydiving was awesome but I could die doing it:
Before I got in the air, I jokingly asked my tandem skydiving instructor if anyone had ever met the crazy bearded dude from the video. In a very serious face, the guy turned to me and said, “That’s Bill Booth, man. He invented all the equipment that makes tandem skydiving possible.” Whoa, my bad!
But back to the jump. Like I said I really thought I’d be freaking out at the whole thing. I did a 9,000 ft jump (I totally went with the bunny slope entry package) that featured 30 seconds of freefall and five minutes of floating. As soon as we spilled out of the plane, I was just in a total meditative state. It was just so serene and peaceful. After I landed, I felt like I had just been meditating for a week. Just super clear headed and borderline spiritually cleansed. I totally expected it to be a fear-filled exercise in extremeness, but it was kinda the opposite. And I really liked it.
Thanks again to Hotels.com for a great trip and good app. When this thing out when it comes out next month, give it a try. If an extreme athlete can book a reservation while skydiving, you can probably find a pretty sweet deal on a hotel while you’re on the road.
Aug 17th
LA Beard and Mustache Competition
The MANjr crew stopped by the first annual Los Angeles Beard and Mustache Competition at the Federal Bar in North Hollywood on Sunday. Leading up to the event, the competition was featured in the LA Times, UrbanDaddy.com and LAist.com, I mean this was the inaugural LA beard and stache bash, so we had to check it out.
The place was packed and there was a really open, festive vibe at the event. The competition featured five categories: Mustache, Partial beard, Business Beard, Full Beard Natural and Freestyle. Those who didn’t compete came to marvel at the bearding prowess of the contestants. And without a doubt, there were tons of sweet staches on display. And some seriously impressive beards that took years of effort to create.
Shawn Hasson took home the stache trophy and Jack Passion was awarded top beard honors. No controversy there. Both those guys looked like heavy favorites going into the finals. Take a look at some photos of the event and make sure to check out the video to see how the competition went down:
Check out the full list of winners at BeardTeamUSA.org.
Aug 16th
Marc Ecko Bedding Collection Giveaway
Fashion designer Marc Ekco founded eckō unltd. in 1993 when he was just 20 years old. The serial entrepreneur now oversees a billion dollar empire that includes top fashion brands like Ecko, Zoo York and Eckored (the flagship brand’s female counterpart) as well as Complex Media (which published Complex Magazine) and the guy even got into the video game space, teaming with Atari to develop a video game based on the Showtime series Dexter.
Now Marc Ecko is getting into the bedroom and home decor business with the launch of his new comforter and duvet collections. The bedroom collections are now available at Bed Bath & Beyond. Here’s a look at the complete collection:
Painted Love Duvet
Undercover Duvet
Platinum Links Duvet
Kickback Denim Comforter
Popover Hoodie Comforter
Zip It Comforter
To help promote the launch of Ecko’s new home décor collection, we’re giving away a Painted Love full/queen duvet cover (the first one pictured above) to one lucky reader.
Aug 4th
