Calling all McG's of the cigar world

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Camacho is shelling out $2500 cold cash to the cigar enthusianado (Herfin' BigDog, patent pending) that can come up with the most original, homemade commercial for their 10th anniversary cee-gar. You know Sherpa and I got mad skills and will be in it to win it. Little hint - thinking a 90's era rap song and demonstrating my rhyming skills. I'm the Daily Doormatt and I love Camacho/they got cigars down cold like gazpacho.

Rocky Patel Decade - Today's Sunday Smoke

Wow, I am really out of practice! I was making this video and stumbled and stammered a bunch of times. Ah, editing!

So the Rocky Patel Decade is what I picked up at Nyack Tobacco Shop today and I love it. I did some snooping around - Scott had the honor of getting the insight dope from Mr. Patel and what the boss man said held true to what I experienced - nuttiness, some spice, but typically Rocky Patel earthiness and quality. I highly recommend this cigar, it brought a tear to my eye. The draw and ash were perfect. For $10, this is a premium cigar without some of the ridiculous price tags I have seen and spent in the past few weeks.

So speaking of ridiculous price tags, I also picked up a the Winston Churchill by Davidoff #10. I am really perplexed on this one, there was a flavor in the cigar that I couldn't identify and it was prevalent throughout the smoke. I am thinking it is somewhat on the floral side, but can't place it. But hey, Spring has sprung and flowers are blooming. Is it worthy of the Winston Churchill name? The jury is still out on this one.

It's good to be out of hibernation and plan on making the Sunday Smoke a weekly ritual, much like going to church and frying meatballs.

Big Al TV - Training Day

Big Al TV - Al Woods, showin' off the skills

He was able to do this when he was in his teens, check out the skills.

Big AL TV responds to his "fan mail"

Although he has a fan base of 14, AL TV is taking off and answering his "fan mail"

SIDE COUNTRY SKIING

As the season draws to a close for many ski areas, Arapahoe Basin Ski begins its' renniansance of second winter. This past Saturday felt more like late December than late March temperature wise. Searching for a new challenge I loaded up my backcountry gear into my new Black Diamond Covert back pack and traverse across A-Basin's East Wall.










Setting my sights on the Y-chute (located directly under the word across) I packed up my skis and begin to boot track up the northern spine of the East Wall. The snow conditions were excellent though the snow on the south aspect of the chute revevaled itself to be very heavy with ice and forced me forward and out of my skis. I slid about 20 feet and hiked back up in chest deep bottomless snow



If I can offer any advice on this type of skiing I would say do it, it makes you a better skier. However, do not do it alone and if you are a solo-ist let ski patrol know your location

UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA

That's my final four.  UNC won't be denied the championship this year - although I was really tempted to take Louisville in the Regional Final to beat them - but the game is being played in Charlotte.  It's a home game for the Tar Heels for Pete's sake.

Upsets - I like Cornell over Stanford in the first round.  I am not the only one picking this and historically, a 13 knocking off a 4 happens often.  I also like Davidson to get to the sweet sixteen.  I think my other picks are relatively calculated.  

So yeah, I have a few days off because of Holy Week and my choral schedule is really busy this time of year.  Just so happens that the tournament starts this week.  It's like the planets are aligning.  Psycho T must bring it home for the Tar Heels!

McGreevey - Proving New Jersey is once again not as classy as New York

Ah, New Jersey.  The state I live in.  The state I was made in (I was born in Massachusetts, but if you do the math, my folks were living in NJ when I was "formulated")

New Jersey literally and figuratively lives in the shadow of NY.  The great Empire State.  As a result, we New Jerseyans have a chip on our shoulder and try our damndest to upstage our friends across the Hudson.

So here's another fine example -- the Governor of the State of NY gets thwacked in a sex scandal.  Forced to resign, potentially looking at serious jail time for soliciting prostitutes.  His story stays on the front page of the NY tabloids for about a week.  In the background, pundits and analysts debate if this scandal is worse than that of our own beleaguered and embarrassed former Governor, James E. McGreevey.  Only a few years have passed since our Governor stood in front of the American public, with a weeping and ashamed wife by his side, opened the book of his private life and exited off stage right.

But of course, in true NJ form, McGreevey couldn't let a NYer get the best of him.  Oh no.  Today's tabloids rang out -- McGreevey and his wife were making every Friday Night a special one with lurid threesomes.

And even true to form, the way things went down in Jersey were a few ticks below the way things went down in New York.  

Let's compare:

New York Governor - $4200 call girl, 5-star hotels, $80,000 in fees to escort service

New Jersey Governor - Freeloading male college student, TGI Fridays, Condo in Woodbridge

It's true, NJ can never measure up to New York.  Face it folks, people in NJ consider Sinatra the patron saint of the Garden State, yet the man never recorded a song about Hoboken.  

And we were doing so well with those Kevin Smith/Zack Braff movies.

$46.50 for one cigar? The Stradivarius Robusto Major

Maybe half a year ago (who the Hell says half a year ago, BTW), Jason provided video inside of Matt Rosen's vault at What's Knot to Love, and Mr. Rosen noted that he had a first run box of the Stradivarius brand of cigars.  Jay told me they retailed for a little more than $30 a smoke.  Aged 15 years and made with a Cuban seed in the Dominican Republic by Daniel Nunez, the Stradivarius carried the name and the bloodline of something special.

So last week I decided I needed to get out of the office at lunch time and mosey down to Nat Sherman and low and behold, in there locked-up super secret vault, they have the full line of Stradivarius smokes.  Its payday, I am feeling pretty generous, and oh yeah, a few nights before I took my friends for $300 in poker, so needless to say, I am buying smokes with house money.

The Stradivarius Robusto Major is in my sights.  I am looking at an expertly crafted coffin box with the wax seal on it and I say to myself, this is a victory cigar. I am going to take this cigar, go to Bryant Park, light it up, and relive my mastery at the poker table.

Did I have a bit of sticker shock when they told me it was $46.50 for one -- of course.  Did I think that this was going to be a knockout cigar -- absolutely.  Was it?  HARDLY.

Let me tell you - when I hear the word Robusto, I expect ROBUSTO.  I expect strength.  I expect complexity.  What I got was smoothness, creaminess.  Don't get me wrong, these are great attributes for a cigar.  But complexity, not a scintilla of complexity.  From ignition to extinction, the cigar carried the same even tone, which given the price tag, was a bore! 

The Stradivarius Robusto Major is expertly crafted, they cut no corners.  It ashed and burned beautifully.  It had some of the redeeming qualities that I typically point out in cigars that I love and rate high.  But let's face it, $46.50 for a smoke, I should have wanted to lay down on the ground and take a nap in the middle of Bryant Park at 12:45 pm.  Instead, I walked back to the office in the same manner my friends walked back to their cars following poker night -- dejected.

Almost 6 miles in 50 minutes

This might be my best long distance run to date -- if you consider 6 miles to be long distance. Ok, so last night I went to IHOP and ate more carbs in one sitting than I ate all week. And I have to tell you, my stomach has shrunk considerably, in fact, Em and I were looking around at the masses of food people were eating at the tables around us and we have no idea how the heck people can eat like that. 3 pancakes, eggs, sausage, hash browns, etc. I mean it's insane. I could barely finish the 3 pancakes and side of hash browns I ordered. I felt like someone hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat.

Anyway I have to believe that all those carbs helped me run effortlessly today. I mean I had the mph cranked at 7.5 for 30-35 minutes of the run and it was a really comfortable pace. I am really starting to realize how much I need to run in my life. A day like today solidifies that feeling.

oooh yeah!!

Mr. Oh YEAH! Would be proud of tonight's run my friend. A fairly fast pace for a warm up, and then I had myself pinned at 8 minute miles until I got to the last mile, and then I had myself at 7:40 a mile. The last 400 meters, I had things cranked up to 7 minute mile pace. I definitely worked it tonight. Well see what the weigh in is like, but I may be looking at a 20-pound weight loss since December.

It's gonna happen man, sub 7:30 minute miles are on the way.

SHED ANTLER HUNTING

Hunters, it is that time of season. When I retired from Mountain biking three years ago I started hiking more. I than decided that I did not want to hike alone so I got a dog. I than decided that I did not want my dog to be alone so I got a second dog. That stops there.

Every winter since my first dog in 2005; when that first warm phase of springs sets in I started shed antler hunting. Yes, mule deer, white tail & elk all drop their antlers in late winter early spring. If they had horns that would not be the case. For example Big Horn Sheep do not shed their horns.

Entering my third season shed hunting I was hoping to come up big. After skiing Arapahoe Basin on Saturday I returned home with ample daylight and hiked the Hog Back near redrocks park with my two Patterdale terriers. With my Patterdale terriers the first shed hunt of the season turned up big as the dogs took control and picked up the deer trail right away.



After two hours of traversing and many doubts, my first shed antler became a reality. I was just as excited to see it as if I were in a tree stand waiting for my quarry to come in closer. My patience paid off in the form of an A typical four point mule deer antler. This Saturday I will pick up the trail where I found it and continue the traverse south with hope of finding the sister antler.

A Q&A with Dylan Austin - The Man who connects "Enthusiandos"

Back in October, Jason and I became a few of the handful of first members of Socialcigar.com; a site that we saw as being the Facebook or MySpace for cigar enthusiasts. We have met many friends from across the country through this space -- hopefully some have become regular readers of the Doormatt as a result.

Edgy, informative and entertaining, Social Cigar has collected more than 1,500 in just 5 months. Each member has the ability to tell it like it is -- they can post comments, videos, pictures and reviews of what they have smoked.

I posed some questions to Social Cigar's Dylan Austin. When he's not inventing words like enthusianado and awesomenicity, he is hard at work leading the Social Cigar revolution. Below are his thoughts and hopes for the social network.

What made you guys start Social Cigar?
Well, we really didn't start Social Cigar. Actually, we were approached by a guy from a marketing agency here in Miami that was building this site out of his love for cigars and his opposition to Cigar Aficionados ratings. He came to us looking for sponsorship and we fell in love with the power that unbiased consumer reviews could have. Needless to say we were in!

What are the hopes and aspirations for the site?
To have fun and make as many friends as possible! We wanted to be part of a social community where consumers could connect, make friends, and provide unbiased talk and recommendations on the products they love. I believe that Social Cigar is a great resource for anyone who loves cigars and the fact that it's all user driven keeps the content pure and unadulterated. We hope to see 5,000 or so members by this years RTDA in July.

What have the numbers been like - how many people are part of the online community?
So far the site has been live a little over 5 months and there are close to 1,500 members. We were truly blown away at how fast the site has grown and continues to grow at a rate of about 100 new members every week.

How has the site grown since its inception?
We started out with the basic social platform with a forum, personal blogs, photos, videos, etc..... Now there are tons of cigar related contests going on, there is a live chat that is very active, and we have a new cigar reviews section that has grown to almost 200 reviews in under a month.

The growth really is secondary to the quality of the content and the strong relationships that are being built. I have made so many friends on the site and I have already travelled thousands of miles to go meet some of them in person! It's Great!!!!

Was the creation of the result of a boom in the cigar blogging community?
No not really! It has to do more with the loss in effectiveness of normal advertising methods. Conventional advertising is impersonal, over-saturated, and takes too long to turn a sale! As marketers, we are all becoming more and more aware of this trend! People trust a person more than they trust a catchy tag-line.

As for the boom in the growth of cigar blogs, I think it's great!!!! Anytime you get people that love their hobby so much that they are willing to share it with the world it's a great thing!

Do you forsee other cigar makers sponsoring the site? Or luxury companies? Or bloggers even?
I don't see why they wouldn't, it's a great community and it's getting a lot of exposure!

The member cigar review, who came up with this idea?
Actually, the agency person came up with this idea. He was tired of people putting so much emphasis on the opinions of the industry's only media source and decided to create his own. I told him it was a long shot but it seems to be working really well so far.

Why was this idea important?
It keeps people honest and allows for consumer to trust their peers over everyone else! Not only that, but the power of word of mouth is incredible, it make or break you really fast. How many times have you bought something from a recommendation? I'm a sucker for the, " Dude, you gotta try this...." People want to know what's good, what's out there, and they want to here it from someone they trust!

How do you envision the site evolving?
Obviously I 'd love to see the membership grow larger and larger. But what is most important to me is that the quality of the experience and the information on Social Cigar grows just as the membership does! We are also in the process of co-sponsoring Social Cigar events nationwide and soon to be international hoping to grow the visibility of this powerful brand.



Editor's Note - It has been brought to my attention that the term "Enthusianado" was the creation of Social Cigar member Herfin' Bigdog. The Daily Doormatt apologizes for the oversight. MC

Tonight's 5K

A decent workout this evening, although this was one of those times where the end time didn't seem to reflect the workout put. Unlike my race in Central Park, it wasn't a pleasant surprise. I seem to be hitting a lull at around 2.5 miles that is causing me to slow down and get knocked off the pace. Perhaps it is a matter of patience. I'll fix it tomorrow.

Here's what I can promise though, tonight might be the first night where the thought of sitting on the deck and enjoying a smoke crossed my mind. 56 degrees today. If we hit 60 tomorrow, I think its going to happen. I have been reduced to smoking Cohiba Club cigarellos on my way from the office to the train station, just for a quick hit.

You know its bad when Fume sends an APB out on you. Oh man, I have to go pay my cigar locker dues. Damn life is just getting away form me lately.

March Madness Workout

It was a decent workout today. The highlight really was finding $5 on the street. But I did have another sub 8 minute mile today. I feel a lot faster and think that my 5K time is going to be much quicker the next time out. Today was the first time that I used a heart rate monitor. I have a Nike heart rate monitor with wristwatch. What was cool was that the heart rate monitor on the treadmill picked up my heart rate and I was exercising at around 186 bpm for a good portion of the time.

I am hopeful that tomorrow's workout is a bit more inspiring.