Lifestyle
Reebok Classic Shows Off Style With Furylite Jetsetter
Need a new pair of kicks for the summer? Why not look to Reebok for some help? From the streets of New York to the sandy beaches lining the coast, the location may change but one thing stays the same – you’re never done packing without your Furylite Jetsetters. A staple whether you’re trekking through the urban jungle or commandeering a crowded boardwalk, make sure you always standout in style with the newest Reebok Furylite Jetsetter looks.
Descended from the iconic Reebok Insta Pump Fury, this fashion-forward sneaker combines cutting edge looks with incredible comfort. Grab your pair of the Furylite Jetsetter, available now, at FinishLine.com, Jimmy Jazz, Eastbay, and Reebok.com for $75.
Jul 30th
Ford Still Tough, But Now Luxurious
For those who want a truck that is tough and dependable as well as tech savvy and luxurious your ship, well truck just came in. Ford has just announced their brand new Ford F-150 model. It is Ford’s most luxurious F-150 ever: the Ford F-150 Limited. The new Limited expands the F-150 model lineup with more standard technology and driver convenience features than any other light-duty pickup. The new F-150 Limited meets the growing, untapped needs of luxury customers looking for exclusivity, convenience and fine craftsmanship that’s differentiated from other high-series trucks. A 2016 model, the Limited goes on sale this winter.
Exclusive exterior and interior design elements include raised LIMITED lettering on the hood, unique custom satin-chrome grille and tailgate, 22-inch wheels, genuine fiddleback eucalyptus, Mojave leather seating surfaces, unique instrument cluster face and laser-engraved VIN plate with production number. Innovation also comes standard with new F-150 Limited – including SYNC® 3 with AppLink™, and class-exclusive features such as a 360-degree camera system, adaptive cruise control, quad-beam LED headlamps, remote tailgate release and multi-contour massaging front seats.
Jul 27th
These Reebok Classic Questions Lows Are Perfect For The Summer
Just in time for the summer’s home-stretch, Reebok Classic will be re-releasing the Question Low as the first of a three-color pack. This signature silhouette was originally displayed in 1996 as a nod to the renowned Philadelphia 76ers guard, Allen Iverson, whose passion for the game is perfectly represented in the original red/white colorway.
The Question Low incorporates some unique features including a premium nubuck toe cap, leather upper and an ice outsole and bottom. Whether you idolized Allen Iverson or wore the style as a kid, we can all agree that the Question Low’s are the perfect kicks for summer.
The Reebok Classic Question Low red/white will launch this Saturday, July 25th, exclusively at Finish Line for $115, and keep an eye out for the other two colorways to be released later this summer.
Jul 24th
Steelers Antonio Brown Pimps His Ride
It is been widely accepted fact that people who play at the wide receiver position like to be flashy at times. For Pittsburgh Steelers wide out Antonio Brown he wanted to upgrade his Rolls Royce. Brown,had his Rolls-Royce Phantom custom-wrapped with his signature adorning the back door panel to make the drive a lot easier. The league’s best receiver in 2014 and current Rolls-Royce owner commissioned the design specifically for 2015 training camp, which starts tomorrow. Graphics for the wrap were provided by 3M and installed by Big Splash Graphics in Freehold, NJ.
Jul 24th
V-MODA Crossfade M-100 Headphones Review
There’s been a lot written about the V-MODA Crossfade M-100 over-ear headphones, and most of the reviews have been glowingly positive. This review is no different. These headphones are fantastic. V-MODA is the number one brand of headphones on Amazon for a reason. These things don’t get the pop cultural attention that you see with Beats by Dre or other popular brands of over-ear headphones, but they have become a favorite for DJs and audiophiles all over the world.
The thing I like the most about the Crossfade M-100s is that they feel pretty much indestructible. When you have a pair of Beats by Dre headphones in your hands, you get the feeling that with a little bit of force, you could completely crush the plastic that makes up the overall structure. They’re not super flimsy, but they don’t feel completely study either. Not so with the Crossfade M-100s. These things were built to withstand a nuclear attack. You can drop, twist, stomp, smash, bite, punt, pass or kick these things and they’ll be just fine.
This superior durability has been tested to the max. The V-MODA Crossfade M-100 headphones have a STEELFLEX headband and steel frame with interchangeable aircraft grade metal shields. The headband can be bent flat 10 times over without an issue. Theese headphones can survive 70-plus drops on concrete from six feet up, which is 10 times the industry standard. The kevlar reinforced cable and 45-degree plug can bend over 1 million times, which is 100x the industry standard. The traveling case that comes with the Crossfade M-100 is equally sturdy, but more compact than the cases that come with other higher end over-ear headphones.
You get the idea. You can abuse the shit out of these headphones and they just keep on ticking. But anyone can make extra-military-grade durable headphones. Okay, not anyone, but most governments and corporations with means can get the job done. But V-MODA pairs the rugged construction of the Crossfade M-100s with some superior quality sound output.
The best way to describe the sound that these things put out is unmuddied. Highs, kids and lows are crisp and distinct. The lows come in like they’re supposed to, rich and warm, loud but not overbearing. Each area of the sound spectrum has room to exist where it should, like a well organized closet. It’s quite remarkable actually. I’m a big fan of the low end of the sound spectrum. I listen to music with boom boom and I want to hear that boom boom. But it’s refreshing for the boom to have a place that’s distinct with room to spare, where clear highs and easy to hear mids can co-exist in the same headphone sound party.
If you’ve had bad experiences with low quality materials housing what should be top-of-the-line headphones, the V-MODA Crossfade M-100 headphones will be a welcome addition to your personal sound situation. You get the sturdy structure without any compromise in sound quality. I highly recommend these.
And if you like gaming or podcasts or Skype calls or just super easy voice recording, you can pair these headphones with a $30 BoomPro mic that features a steel flex arm and plug and play simplicity. The mic got the the same rugged, battle-tested qualities that distinguish the headphones from other options in the market, with quick mute and volume controls built-in and easy to access. An all around good combination of quality sound and durability, just like the headphones themselves.
And if all this quality and function wasn’t enough, you can now take advantage of the world’s first 3D printed personalized wearable technology in the form of custom printed shields for your M-100s. Material options include stainless steel, plated raw and precious metals. These shields run anywhere from $200 on up to $40,000 so you got plenty of range to express yourself.
Jul 23rd
Get In Shape With Beachbody On Demand
One of the oldest excuses in the book about not exercising is that you couldn’t make it to the gym. Well that excuse if pretty much extinct with Beachbody on Demand. From the makers of P90X, Insanity, and many of the country’s most popular fitness DVDs over the past 12 years, Beachbody announced the official launch of Beachbody On Demand.
Now you have the ability to customize a workout, anytime, anywhere, and on any device right from the comforts of your own home. Beachbody On Demand is available to anyone with a connected device, from mobile phones and tablets to desktop and laptops, as well as on TV’s through streaming devices like Roku players, Amazon Fire TV and Google Chromecast.
You can actually test drive this program for free! Beachbody is inviting everyone to start the service’s free 30-day trial by joining in the “Beachbody Super Workout,” a one-hour live event led by some of the country’s most popular celebrity trainers. More than 20,000 people will be participating in the “Super Workout” held in the streets of Nashville, and streamed live at BeachbodyOnDemand.com this Saturday, July 18 at 6 a.m. CST. This event is part of the company’s annual “Coach Summit,” Beachbody’s yearly gathering to introduce its latest products and offerings.
While in its beta period the free trial give you the company’s extensive library of comprehensive programs and workouts, as well as a sampling of Beachbody’s newest fitness products. After the initial trial, you can sign-up for continued access to a member library valued at more than $3,000 at an introductory cost that equates to $2.99 a week. As part of the subscription, you will also have access to personalized meal plans, exclusive Q&A access to celebrity trainers, discounts on future purchases, and sneak previews of fitness programs as they are introduced.
If that doesn’t motivate you I don’t know what will. Check it out now at BeachbodyOnDemand.com
Jul 17th
Bud and Burger Championship Recap
Our pals at Budwesier shipped us to St Louis this past weekend to attend the Bud and Burger Championships held at the storied Budwesier brewery. We first told you about this competition back in April after we attended the launch event hosted by Chef David Chang. Since that time, amateur chefs have been competing at festivals around the country for the chance to battle it out in the finals.
Before the burger action kicked off, we got a grand tour of the Budweiser Brewery from our old friend Brewmaster George Reisch. I met George in LA and we talked for a long time about Kolsch, Austrian vs. German beer, yeast, beechwood aging, all kinds of stuff. George is a fifth-generation brewmaster. His family started brewing beer in the mid 1800s in Springfield Illinois. George also served as the President of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas from 2008-09. Believe me when I say you will never meet a guy who has more passion or knowledge for the art of making beer. Having this master craftsman lead the Budweiser Brewery tour with all his enthusiasm and wisdom was a real treat.
Back in the mid-1800s, German immigrants came pouring through St. Louis and they brought their tasty lager beer with them. Lager is a crafted brew that takes time to make. It needs to rest and chill out. Back in the days before refrigeration, that required a cool dark place to store beer. This is why many lager breweries had underground faults.
Sampling ice cold Budweiser straight from the source, visiting the Clydesdale stables and seeing beechwood aging and big beer science in action was cool, but I was really digging our visit to the vaults underneath the Budweiser Brewery. Just one of the many perks of having Brewmaster George as your tour guide. As George explained, German immigrants would seek out areas where they could carve vaults out of limestone. This area of the brewery hasn’t been used for ages and back in the day, there wouldn’t have been any pipes in fault. When I showed George the photo of the vault, he sent me anold advertising tin from the 1870s that shows the vaults as they were originally used.
The Bud and Burger Championship wouldn’t be complete without the burgers. The finalists and their food trucks lined up to get samples out to everybody and the folks who attended had some serious options to choose from. BBQ pulled pork with bacon in one corner. Smoked bacon with brat sausage in another. Ground veal with a special mesquite steak sauce next to a truck serving burgers with Portobello mushrooms, red onion relish and garlic herb aioli. You get the idea.
In the end though, the people voted and it was the Angie Burger that came out victorious. The creation of Angie Bos, the Angie Burger featured glazed bacon with provel cheese and caramelized onions. Here’s the recipe:
The Angie Burger
Glazed Bacon, Provel Cheese, Caramelized Onions.
Type of Bun: Onion Bun.
Prep time: 15 minutes.
Cooking time: 20 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
2 lbs. ground beef.
1 lb. ground pork sausage.
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese.
3 oz. crumbled bacon.
1 egg, beaten.
Seasoning salt: mix salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, minced garlic.
Slice of American cheese.
Slice of Provel cheese.
2 stripes glazed bacon (glaze is 1:1:1: ratio of brown sugar, maple syrup and honey).
Caramelized onion (1/6 of a sliced onion, cooked in 1 tbsp sugar and 2-3 oz. Budweiser).
Fresh spinach for topping.
Tomato slices.
METHOD
ONION
Head skillet to medium heat. Add in butter or oil, then sliced onion. Stir in sugar and Budweiser. Cook until the Budweiser is reduced and the onions are soft.
GLAZED BACON
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lay out bacon strips on parchment paper or greased rack on baking sheet. Combine brown sugar, maple syrup and honey in a bowl. Bake bacon for 15-20 minutes until it reaches desired crispness. Every 5 minutes, flip and glaze the bacon. (If using a rack, remove bacon to cook so it doesn’t stick.)
BURGER
Combine ground beef, ground pork sausage, shredded cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon, egg and seasoning mix. Shape into 8 oz. patty. Put a divot in the center of the patty. Cook patty in skillet over medium-high head. Add a little Budweiser. Flip and cook the other side (flip only once). Place slices of American and Provel cheese on the patty, then cover skillet so cheese melts.
BUN
Assemble the burger: bottom bun, patty with cheese, glazed bacon, caramelized onions, spinach, sliced tomato and top bun
Chef David Chang
Angie took home a check for $100K and will also get the chance to star in a new cooking show that will appear on Esquire. Chef David Chang helped judge the competition and he was also present for a few of the different festivals where amateur chefs battled it out to get the the championship. Part of the reason that Chang signed up was that he wanted to be inspired.
“It was enlightening in ways that I never thought it would be,” Chang told me. “I wanted to do it partly to get inspired. As a professional I sorta get stuck in my own ideas or the people I’m surrounded with. It’s like being stuck in high school with the same kids your entire life,” he said.
“I surround myself with the people I know and it doesn’t really change. It gets homogenized. More importantly, even as a professional you get stuck with the ideas that you think you already know. Sometimes wisdom isn’t necessarily the best thing,” Chang said.
Chang explained that some of the recipes he saw were things that he would never do, but that’s a good thing.
“You can learn from anything,” Chang said, “and it’s stupid to say that you can’t.”
True learning and growing as a chef comes from the mistakes you make as well as the wild ideas you see from others.
“The real discovery isn’t knowing how to do it. The discovery is in fucking it up. Fucking up so hard is something I do less and less and less, even though that’s how I know I’m going to learn,” Chang said.
All of us can relate to that, especially in the kitchen. So if you want some burger inspiration to get your creative culinary juices flowing, check out the full list of the final Bud and Burger Championship recipes at www.budweiser.com/recipes.html
Jul 16th
Audio-Technica Customizable SonicFuel Headphones Review
If you use headphones, and let’s face it who doesn’t, you got options. I’m not talking about brand or sound quality or color fashion statement options. I’m talking about the different types of headphones that are out there. Do you go in-ear buds or on-ear buds? If you go full phones, do you rock the on-ear, small on-ear or go full around-the-ear? What if you want more stability from ear clips or a neck wrap? You get the idea.
For me the choice usually boils down to small buds or big headphones. Earbuds are quick and easy, but sometimes you want that extra ear-enveloping music enjoyment experience. But if you’re working in the office or working out, you may not want to go full-on Colin Kaepernick with a massive set of over-ear headphones resting on your dome. There’s a time and place for each option.
Setting aside ear clips and neck wraps (because seriously why would you want to do that), there’s an interesting new addition to the headphone selection mix – Audio-Technica’s fully customizable SonicFuel Headphones. They’re not big, expensive headphones. But they’re not your run of the mill earbuds either. Sure, they’re in the ear bud family, but these things are made for maximum stay-in-place-ability without going clinging to your outer ear like some old school hearing aid device.
These buds do not budge. They derive their stability from an extra little rubber strip that follows the contours of your outer ear along the auricle, providing a subtle but sturdy flap that keeps the actual earbud firmly in your ear canal. That probably sounds less comfortable than you would expect, but these things rest nice in your ears without being to invasive. Jogging will not jar them loose. Nor will a hefty pat on the back from an over-eager coworker. When you put these on (or in?), you need to apply a small degree of force to get em out. Not a lot of force. Just a little, but tug nonetheless.
And most, importantly, these SonicFuel Headphones actually sound good. Solid lows, quality highs and the I’m-not-going-anywhere quality of the ear tip inserts provide a sort of design-based noise cancellation effect which is always nice. The headphones also feature in-line volume and mic controls so you can use em with your smartphone while your driving (if you’re into that sorta thing). I prefer speakerphone, personally. There’s also a bunch of different tip options so you can get a perfect fit for your specific ear type.
My one big knock on these is that despite the super sturdy construction of the ear tip and supporting c-tip that holds these things in place so nicely, the actual audio cord feels a bit weak. I haven’t had any issues with the review unit I received, but holding the cord in your hand or wrapping the headphones up for storage or transport, you just feel like the thin cord might not make it through conditions that come close to extreme. I haven’t abused mine so I haven’t had any issues, but I’m interested to see how the SonicFuel Headphones hold up over time.
Top of the line over-the-ear headphones these are not. They’re buds with benefits. If you value quality sound and in-ear stability over rugged durability, you’ll dig these.
Jul 15th
What Is Your Motto When It Comes To Wine?
Ever since my trip to Napa Valley back in 2009 I started to have an appreciation for wine. I found out that with wine there are many great ones to choose from. Recently I was able to check out a few dark wines from a new company called Motto. Each one has a bold flavor to them that you will not miss when enjoying them with your friends.
Their wines are a collection of distinct, dark, rich wines from California that deliver a definitively bold wine experience. The taste, aroma, and flavors were unlike any others. Motto wines try to see California winemaking from a new perspective. Yet they learned from the renowned winemaking team at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, known for producing some of the best-selling wines from Washington State. The Motto wines are available in three varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Red Blend.
“We wanted to put a Washington spin on California wines, so we implemented the same approach we use for our Washington wines, but with California grapes,” said Motto winemaker Reid Klei, who has worked in the Washington winemaking industry for Ste. Michelle Wines Estates for 10 years.
Here is the list of the three wines and what you can expect from each one.
The 2013 Backbone Cabernet Sauvignon has a strong, determined flavor with dark, concentrated notes of red plum, caramel and bright raspberry that explode out of the glass for a lasting finish.
The 2013 Unabashed Zinfandel boasts proud and striking scents of soft leather, revealing flavors of chocolate covered raspberries and a touch of spice.
The 2013 Gung Ho Red Blend excites the palate quickly, full of zealous and enthusiastic fruitful flavors of blueberry, pomegranate and spice.
Motto wines looks to set themselves apart from by keeping wine lots separate throughout fermentation and aging. They determine the final blends right before bottling, once the wines have evolved to reveal all their true character and complexities. The practice of fermenting at a higher temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit, for a shorter period of time of 6-7 days on skins. At this point the wine is moved off of the skins and the juice finishes fermenting without any skins present, therefore not extracting anything else. This helps the wines stay more balanced and lends a more elegant flavor profile. Oxygen is added at various points during fermentation to help create the fresh aromas and dark, rich color of Motto wines.
The Motto collection is now available nationwide and at www.MottoWines.com. They also are on social media at Facebook.com/MottoWines. #WhatsYourMotto
Jul 13th
Grilling With Guinness Blonde American Lager
The good folks over at Guinness gave me a challenge. They wanted me to see what summer grilling recipe I could come up with by pairing my dish with Guinness American Lager. Well technically it was called a challenge, but in my mind it was an invitation to find a tasty dish to serve my friends and I on picturesque summer night.
Doing some research I found that when it comes to a lager the best pairings are seafood, sushi; grilled pork, grilled chicken, some pasta dishes, Southeast Asian food, Latin food and Mexican food. I was thinking about making one of my favorite dishes which is a taco salad, but you really can’t grill taco beef. So I decided on making a chicken dish. I was looking to make a tangy chicken to go with the Guinness Blonde Lager.
My friends and I enjoyed the meal and the lager. To go along with the Guinness Blonde Lager and chicken I grilled asparagus and made some potato packets. I was glad to see everyone loving the dish, the lager, and the conversation at the dinner table. Thanks Guinness for the challenge. It was a great excuse to bring some friends to unwind and enjoy your Blonde American Lager responsibly. For more on the lager go to the Guinness website here!
Tangy Chicken
Ingredients:
4 bone in chicken breast halves
3 Tbsp of molasses
3 Tbsp of brown sugar
1 Tbsp dried mustard
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup water
Directions:
Combine the ketchup, cider vinegar, molasses, brown sugar, dried mustard, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, water, and kosher salt and pepper into a sauce pan. Simmer for 30 minutes. Get the grill to the medium-high on one side. Add some salt and pepper on the chicken breast halves. Grill over direct heat until golden and crisp on both sides. It should be done on each side for around 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and toss with 1 cup of the sauce. Place on the cooler side of the grill; cover and cook, basting once, until the meat is glazed and reaches 165, 25 to 30 minutes.
Jul 12th
