If possible, every man should have at least one well-made pair of wingtips. Dress 'em up or dress 'em down. They just work. Where women's shoes are in style today and out of style tomorrow, the wingtips you own today will be the ones you'll own as a grandfather.

Thoughts? Please, let me know in the comments below. We can also talk about it on Twitter at @EPayneTheDad.

As someone who began shaving my head a decade ago, my grooming needs are virtually non-existent. The most time I spend in the mirror is when I am wearing a tie and striving to make sure my half-Windsor knot is spot on. I shave my face and head in the shower and I am done with it. Time has made me proficient with any of the "36-blade and counting" razors that are currently on the market as well as the old-school safety razor of my father's generation. In fact I have both kinds and switch back and forth from using each from one week to the next depending on my mood.

But I do have a goatee and mustache and I like to keep mine neat and trimmed at all times. With my razors I am to shape my facial hair with a precision that makes the hair appear to be drawn on my face. But in the trimming department I will always have to fall back on a solid pair of clippers.

Enter the Braun cruZer Face:



And it's really that simple with the Braun cruZer Face. I liken it to the Beats (Headphones) of clippers. It's a stylish device that is ergonomically sound and gives you the array of shaving options required for facial grooming without having to go through the agony of picking and choosing different guard lengths.

I think this will make a great holiday item. It's too sexy to be contained in the category of the $19.99 - $29.99 nondescript, super-generic looking shavers and at $64.99 it's beyond that price point anyway. Bottom line, anyone receiving this is as a gift is going to know that you care.

Disclosure: I was provided with a complimentary Braun cruZer Face for the purposes of a eliciting a review. The opinions and expressions contained above are wholly my own.

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Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter at @EPayneTheDad.

I'm happy to present something for the guys who like being guys. Those of you who are fine with all this marriage and kids stuff but sometimes just want to sit down with a cold one, or two or few. There are also quite a few women out there with well developed palettes for a variety of brews. I'm happy to feature seasoned beer enthusiast and writer, Ale Sharpton. We've worked together on a number of projects at his magazine (www.jadoremag.com) where he is the executive editor. He is a homie from college and now that I've moved to his neck of the South, he is also a neighbor (across town somewhere). Without further ado...

Fall Beers That Make You Wanna Holler!
by Ale Sharpton

It’s autumn, baby! The hot months of summer have ended and so have the dominance of wheat beers served with citrus fruit slices and ice cold, low alcohol “light” pilsners that are slammed by the case to combat sweat-inducing summer afternoons.

Stores across the U.S. are making way for those slow-sipping, fragrant liquid masterpieces that encompass everything from nutty flavors to pumpkin and even grapefruit. I love this time of year for beer and so should you, so to help with the transition to the cooler months from October through the New Year, check these domestic lovelies that will surely broaden your horizons.

Cheers!


Pumpkin Ales

Pumpkins, the monstrous orange squash that’s popularly sacrificed, hollowed out and wasted for the sake of one night, get a lot more respect in the beer world. Brewers love the pumpkins’ semi-sweet properties and, when combined with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and other spices, they make some pretty tasty, complex beers with very little bitterness.Alcohol By Volume: Usually in the 5 to 6% area, but craft breweries are starting to make sweeter, more potent brews that reach up to the 8% level.

You gotta try…Dogfish Head’s Punkin out of Delaware gets a lot of love nationwide (7%), and Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale, the country’s leading craft brewer, is pretty decent (5.7%) for a beer that’s everywhere, but I recommend tasting the sweeter, stronger “imperial” pumpkin ales like Heavy Seas’ The Great Pumpkin (8%), and my favorite, Weyerbacher’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale (8%), to get the full range of what this style can deliver.


Amber, Red and Brown Ales

Their names come primarily from their color, and brown ales and ambers emulate the natural changes of the fall.). These styles usually have more emphasis on malt and also win tasters over with their flavors of lightly roasted nuts and slight sweetness. The red ales tend to be alittle more hoppy (floral, bitter and/or citrusy).

Alcohol By Volume: Mostly in the 4-7% range, although some imperials (stronger versions) are out there as well.

You gotta try…Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar out of Oregon is a flavorful goody (6.2%); Bell’s Best Brown Ale (5.8%), Brooklyn Brown Ale (5.5%), Anderson Valley’s Boont Amber (5.8%) and the Fat Tire Amber Ale (5.2 %) are very respectable; and Tampa Bay’s Cigar City Brewing flourishes on this style but they are hard to find, so if you do have a way to get the Maduro Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale (5.5%), get it!

On the red ale tip, Stone’s Levitation (4.4%) is light in alcohol but not in flavor; the Green Flash Hop Head Red (6%) continues to garner critical acclaim; and the Lagunitas Censored is excellently balanced (5.9%). Taking things to the extreme, Lagunitas’ Lucky 13 (8.56%) and Terrapin’s Big Hoppy Monster out of Georgia (8.3%) do it big in bold flavor, strength and aroma, the way I like ‘em!


India Pale Ales (IPAs)

American IPAs are typically the most bitter, impactful and aromatic of them all ranging from piney to citrus thanks to the concentration of hops. They are also extremely popular to the point that there is a cult of dedicated sippers called “Hop Heads.” I am one of them (as you can see from all of the choices I listed below) because of their complexity and ability to arouse all of the senses during consumption, but the key to a great IPA is balancing the sweet with bitter. Although they are now produced year-round to answer the demand, stronger versions including those that have been aged in oak barrels tend to surface during the last quarter. You gotta love it! Alcohol By Volume: Alcohol varies. In fact, like stouts, this style is one of the most broad in the alcohol range going from around the mid 5s all the way to the double digits in strength. The stronger IPAs (called “imperial” or “double”) are typically robust, maltier, sweeter and thicker. One of the best ways to illustrate these differences is with Dogfish Head’s IPAs. They have the big-selling 60 Minute (6%), 90 Minute (9%) and the hard-to-find (and illegal in some states due its whopping potency) 120 Minute (a whopping 18%) IPAs that range in ABV, texture, color and sweetness.

You gotta try…Way too many to list here, but regarding availability, I recommend easing your way into IPA land by tasting the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (not categorized as an IPA but it’s a great introduction before going for the more aggressive, official IPA styles) and following it up with their legit Torpedo IPA (7.2%). You can’t lose with Pennsylvania’s Victory Hop Devil (6.7%); the SweetWater IPA puts ATL on the map (6.7%); Avery’s Maharaja (10.3%) and Southern Tier’s Unearthly (10%) out of Lakewood. NY rock the house; Colorado’s Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA (10%) is strong in every way; anything by Lagunitas (one of my favorite breweries) including the Maximus (8.2) and Hop Stoopid (8%) are winners; the Heavy Seas Loose Cannon reppin’ Maryland (7.25%) does the job; Stone, who consistently takes hopping to the extreme, has the Ruination (7.7%); Michigan’s Founders Brewery always delivers so try their Double Trouble (9.4%); and one of the best beers, period, is the Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale (7.1%).

By the way, there is annually a race to the nearest store to get the extremely limited Bell’s HopSlam (10%) before they run out. It’s that good.

So folks, enjoy these brews, drink them cool instead of ice cold to truly appreciate all of their characteristics (especially aroma and taste), and raise them up as the leaves descend. I am sure there will be a few that will “make you wanna holler” once you get your sip on so find one…or two…or three that fit your palate. And yes, there are hundreds of others, but this is surely a great start on your way to beer-sipping bliss.

Ale says…

• Look for the bomber sizes (usually 22-ounce bottles) of the various beer styles because those are usually limited edition specialty brews that really demonstrate how good, creative and vast beer flavors can be.

• I strongly recommend you go to specialty beer bars with a lot of taps. That way, you can order a few “tastes” for free (usually) before purchasing a whole one. Since many of them are seasonal, get an idea of what your palate calls for before especially those “one-and-done” ales are gone!

Salud!

Got questions? Ale has the answers. Just hit him up in the comments below!


Dennis Malcolm Byron aka “Ale Sharpton” has been a beer enthusiast for more than two decades. A longtime imbiber, he’s taken his appreciation for beer to the next level, writing and educating consumers around the nation about the frosty beverage. To learn more visit his popular website, www.alesharpton.com, for more brew love.




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That's right. This is my collection all bought or gifted to me from H&M over the past few years. This is only the beginning... I was doing laundry... I couldn't resist...

Photo Credit: Self-Portrait by E.Payne

"Aren't you too old to be boxing? I mean c'mon?" is what my mother-in-law immediately asked me yesterday after I revealed to her my new fitness routine.

I can always count on her to not keep her thoughts to herself...

I laughed and quickly explained that I wasn't trying to be a prize fighter. I was simply getting in shape. 6 weeks ago I may have agreed with her. But that was then and this is now: 6 weeks into my experience at LA Boxing - Mammaroneck, approximately 10 pounds lighter (I can't seem to shake a nagging fluctuating 1 pound), a whole lot stronger, faster with my hands than I ever thought I could be and walking tall --- shoulders back, back straight --- not so much from pride but because of all the ab work I'm doing.

It has been a serious uphill battle chasing down the former me: 173 pounds, 6% body fat, insane, disciplined and maybe carrying 25% of the responsibilities I do now and having roughly 50% more time than I do now. When I was in this place it was the winter of 2005. Barely 30 days later my daughter was born. Then began my slow, unnoticeable descent into personal inactivity. By the time I got married in 2007, I had gone from being up at 5:45am to do more in an hour than most people did in a week to doing a handful of pushups when the mood hit me. After I got married I stopped doing even that.

In July 2009, I weighed in at 205. My body felt heavy and slow, I couldn't move the way I wanted to and my right heel was bruised making it nearly unbearable to walk. None of my clothes were fitting. Even though it took me 3 years (starting from my daughter's birth) to gain only 28 pounds, this was no consolation for me. That summer I managed to run off about 12 pounds of that, much of which I now suspect was water weight because by year's end and a heavy round of holiday eating I was 205 once more. At 5'10" 205 is easy to disguise clothed, but not in the mirror after you come out of the shower. Not when glory that was once your pectorals (established during my senior year of high school) had become flabby pieces of meat covering your breastplate.

Making matters worse is that I'm no longer a gym rat after having put myself through a year of a Brooklyn based bootcamp in 2005. It was in Prospect Park that I learned to do bear crawls and mountain climbers until exhaustion. I sprinted the entire length of the Brooklyn Bridge in both directions. I did jumping jacks at red lights ignoring the heckles from everyone that felt the need to roll down their windows and yell at me and my fellow boot campers. I removed the bread from my diet, lived off lean meats, fish and vegetables, ate before seven and was in bed by eleven. My boot camp instructor loved me and made me an example for the rest of the group. I was a non-complainer who did what I was told. I did have my binge days on Sundays where I ate everything that wasn't nailed down from French fries to frosted flakes. The bottom line was that although I had a girlfriend and a son to be (my wife and son now) but I was single and my time was mine.

Not so anymore. Other than promising myself to get in shape someday my options were bleak. My body --- something I've been in tune with and kept tuned for a very long time was out of whack and no longer listening to me. I was contending with dim prospect of having to live with something that is me but resembles nothing I've ever known to be me (if that makes sense). My self-esteem was on the line, because a major tenet to me being who I am is being in shape and feeling like I'm in shape. Working out aided in my development of the self-love required to be able to love others and not rely on others for love and approval. It rounded out who I was as a person. That part of me has been missing for these past few years.

Then along came LA Boxing (Mamaroneck). They saw in me an opportunity (I guess): an out of shape family man who was very vocal about wanting to be in shape once again. For me it was simple. I'd get to learn how to box (or something close to it) --- something I've always wanted to do. It took me nearly a week to get up the nerve to actually go to the gym after I had secured my membership. I wore a lot of clothes that first day to cover my protruding gut and my less than defined arms and sharp shoulders. By the time I was done with their signature, hour-long, 1,000 calorie burning cardio boxing routine (complete with gloves and heavy bags) I was a hot, sweaty mess. I wear a lot less now, but the burn and the sweat has only gotten worse. I can't speak for any of the other LA Boxing sites across the country, but the gang over at the Mamaroneck is the nicest and most supportive bunch of merciless trainers I've ever met.

It's definitely been a blast. There I have a discipline to embrace versus just going to the gym to lift weights or run on a tread mill. I'm not in it to learn how to knock someone out. I just want the all over conditioning that comes with being a boxer. I'm not interested in turning back the clock. I want to age with strength and grace. At one point during my workout yesterday I was doubled over tasting my breakfast in my mouth and feeling my stomach churn. The owner, Dean, ran up on me and screamed, "What are you doin'? I didn't tell you to stop!" And I went right back into it because I have nothing to do but gain by boxing away my backfat. I get to be more alive for my kids and I get to fine tune this machine that I use to move through my days.

What my experience so far at LA Boxing has done is expose the following:

Bad Habits: 1) I can't stay up all night long (a current problem I'm battling) and think I'm going to waltz up in the gym first thing in the morning and pump out a mean performance. It's just not gonna happen; 2) Based on the sheets of sweat that come off of me, drinking fluids all day long (water and electrolytes) is a must; 3) Garbage in - garbage out: I've actually known this for the past 15 years but undoing my snacking of the past four years is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I've opted to correct this by snacking mostly on fruits.

My Age: I'm not who I was four years ago, so staying up all night long and waking up at the crack of dawn to work out just doesn't work. I accepted this about 3 weeks ago.

Other than that I've always been of the inclination that there is nothing I can't do, short of flying without being inside an airplane. As of this weekend I will be 7 weeks in and in a better place than I've been for a very long time. And as of yesterday I began my eventual mastery of skipping rope like a boxer --- something I've ALWAYS wanted to be able to do. So no, I'm not too old to be boxing. I'm not too old to do anything that I want and/or need to do. I've even got more motivation thanks to a family trip to the Caribbean scheduled for the end of this month. I'm trying to be as shirtless as possible while I'm away.

When relaying all this to a friend last night she remarked, "We all have that thing that works for us. I'm glad you found yours." If you have something that you want to do, or always have wanted to do I encourage you to pursue with all your heart, strength and spirit as much as time will allow. As far as I know we only get one go-round in these bodies of ours. Why pass on living life to the fullest? Do what you need to do to make your life richer. Everyone around you will benefit from it, just as I hope you will benefit from my journey as I check with you to update you on my backfat annihilation.

Peace....

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for this post. I have been provided with a complimentary membership to LA Boxing for a limited time period.

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Recently, a few single friends of mine have thrown an interesting question my way. It wasn't what I expected --- the usual, "Why did you get married?" Instead it was, "How did you get married?" I guess in 2009 seeing someone you like, having sex with them and dealing with the fallout of having gone to bed with a psychopath just isn't what it used to be anymore. If it was ever anything to begin with.

Getting back to that question. It definitely posed a challenge because I honestly never thought about it. I didn't make a conscious effort to have someone fall in love with me. I didn't plan on getting married nor work to find the woman who would say I do. But as I think back what I did do was to stop taking myself seriously. Completely.

Better put, I stopped giving a you know what about what anyone thought of me. I don't know what brought it on. I distinctly remember waking up on the morning of my 28th birthday and not caring anymore. I just got tired of it. I still dressed to impress, but I sought to impress no one but myself. I didn't sweat not having the things I thought I should have, I developed an immediate appreciation for the things I did have. Life became a beautiful thing that I was able to clearly see. I published a horribly edited book of my poetry and short stories. I gave notice at a job that made me absolutely miserable and landed a new one within a week of handing in my resignation letter. I learned to laugh at myself, with myself and for myself. I actually became quite self-centered after liberating myself from the whims of others. But none of this meant I was a eunuch. When it came to the women I had a simple requirement for relations(hip): she had to be able to laugh with me, at me and at herself. She also had to be able to put a sentence together and not leave her house not looking like who did it and ran, but that's a another story for another time.

Truth is folks, I've let time and circumstances chip away at this freedom I once basked in. This past Thanksgiving I had a chip on my shoulder the size of Texas (shout out to all my Texan readers) because I did the very thing I'm saying not to do here --- I let the thoughts and subsequent actions of others bother me. My daddy blogging brother from another mother, Outnumbered Is Jason Mayo, wrote an excellent, but depressing post, The Saddest Thing I've Ever Heard, about the decline of laughter from childhood to adulthood. I'm going to take up his challenge and laugh in the face of all the crap life throws my way. I can't holler all the time.

I've never been above random outbursts of silliness. Typically music has been at the source of these incidents. As a child who began playing piano at the age of six, music has always been intrinsic to my life. And with music comes the dancing.

That's right, the dancing.

I'm that guy who knows how to dance thanks to cotillions, step shows, school assemblies, etc.. But I'm the guy who chooses not to. I like to have fun with music, any and all kinds.

Such as the theme music to the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three:



I did about 7 more takes of this, but my wife liked this one the best. Especially the part where I was rolling around on the floor.

Yes, folks, I was THAT guy in the club and made no bones about it. If a woman was too uptight to be bothered with my very obvious antics, then it was her loss, plain and simple. When my wife and daughter saw this video they both were curled up together laughing until they cried. That's what I'm talkin' about.

If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to a woman's is definitely through laughter.

My bottom line to the single set and us tight, stiff, serious married people with children - know that it's okay to be light and be silly, even stupid, from time to time and make sure you're with someone who is able to do the same or at least appreciate you for being that way.

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Every so often I get the opportunity to step out and treat myself to a good dose of grown up fun.

Just one of these occasions took place yesterday evening when I attended the launch party for Volkswagen's 2010 GTI (Twitter Hashtag #gti2010) held in lower Manhattan at the uber-sexy Classic Car Club Manhattan. With G4TV’s Olivia Munn hosting, ?uestlove of The Roots DJing and surrounded by shiny 200-horsepower vehicles, my testosterone level returned to it's appropriate mark. And did I mention the iPods? VW has become the first automaker to launch a vehicle exclusively on a mobile device by providing the new Firemint Real Racing GTI game available now for free for iPhone and iPod Touch at the iTunes App Store. It solely features the brand-new 2010 GTI (in multiple trims and configurations, course). For those of you who follow this blog, you know my fondness obsession for the iPod touch, so I was immediately sold. At the event there were plenty of iPod Touches on hand for game play. I spent most of my time on the game hugging the wall with the 4-door GTI I drove (couldn't go with the coupe for the simple reason that I have to stuff 2 kids into the back).


But I intend to play until I'm a master and I would highly advise anyone who loves this car to do the same. Six U.S. players will each win one of six customized limited-edition GTI MkVI (Mark 6) Vehicles now through December 2! For the exact rules and regulations please visit www.VW.com/RealRacingGTI.


Pictures from the event:


Peace...

[DISCLAIMER: No goods or services were exchanged as payment for this event, product and contest description.]


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Every so often I get the opportunity to step out and treat myself to a good dose of grown up fun.


Please see the post dated immediately after this one to read the rest.

Thanks!

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