Freshness Magazine has some pictures of the beautiful new Yutori Kimono shoes by Puma. They’re inspired by traditional Japanese Geisha culture and are actually made of vintage kimono dress fabrics– but wait isn’t cutting a Kimono like committing Hari Kari? Either way, each shoe is one-of-a-kind and can be worn as a slip-on or with the heel up. Grab a pair while you can at Shoe Biz in San Francisco, Fred Segal, Sportie LA and GOODS in Seattle.

Is it an art gallery or a store that sells Helio handsets? The answer: both. At Helio’s newly opened (today) flagship store in Santa Monica, CA, you can of course buy the touted Helio devices that will change the way you communicate with your friends by putting you and your GPS-based device smack-dab in the middle of a friend-centric network (MySpace and Facebook included). But what’s more impressive is the way Helio has found a way to integrate real art with the Helio brand. The flagship store, along with another 5 soon-to-launch stores, feature artwork curated by John Doffing, founder of Start Soma + Start Mobile galleries and curator of the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco. The art-rich stores offer more than just a gallery setting though– customers can actually download digital versions of the art as wallpaper for their Helio device or purchase the originals directly from the stores. Ingenious.

We’re not huge gamers here– even though we do have an original Tetris Arcade game here in the office. We’re suckers for the originals, the old-school– okay, the not-to-complex games that require very elementary hand-eye coordination. Occasionally I break out the original Nintendo to play some Mario Brothers– on a cold winter evening there’s nothing like it– so when I saw this Grow Your own 1up Mushroom Kit, I knew there was a gaming god, and he (or she) was looking down on me. All you do is fill the green sewer-pipe shaped flower pot with soil, add the ’shroom spores deep into the pot and add a water/food combination. Hide it in a dark location (behind the TV, under the sink, in your gaming lair) and wait a week. When you come back to see the fully grown mushroom, you’ll be so thrilled, as the guys from ThinkGeek put it, you’ll likely jump up in the air and punch the ceiling (earning 10 coins). Apparently the packet claims the 1up Mushroom grants ‘immortal life beyond dreams of a man”– the verdict is still out on that one, until we know for sure we’re strictly sticking to eating shitakes and portabella.

Architects Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus are responsible for this gorgrous (yet simple) design. The Simple House lies on the Alentejo Coast in Portugal, and like many of the dwellings in that region, it’s simple in form, in a way carrying on a reciprocal relationship with the landscape. The outside of the house is devoid of openings, signifying a ’serene search for simplicity,’ whereas the interior causes one to perceive excavated space, utilizing thick walls and scant materials. The real magic of the house is realized when you slide open the big wooden doors (on both the East and West of the house), exposing the interior to the outside elements, and an experience anchored by patio in the center of the house. Then and only then will you see what the presence of light does to illuminate the interior of this simple and voyeuristic design.

As we promised back in August, the nice people at Beautiful Decay have come out with quite an impressive fall/holiday line of t-shirts. Beautiful Decay was founded on the theory ‘if you can’t find it, you make it,’ and prides itself on promoting emerging artists and fostering a collaborative environment. Their t-shirts have always been stellar, but the new line has impressed me from both a fit-standpoint as well as an intricate design standpoint. My favorites (pictured above from left): designed by Sasha Lee, Friends With You, and Kyle Thomas.

Lets face it, throw-pillows aren’t really the most masculine things in the world– but that doesn’t mean they can’t be. We’ve probably all gone through fighting a girlfriend, house-mate or significant other against putting the drab baby-blue velvet throw pillows on the couch. We covered EAT home accessories a few years back, and the husband and wife team are still at it. The ‘fuck-you’ fashion pillows are available at a handful of brick and mortar stores. If you’re in the NYC area pop by The Future Perfect in Brooklyn, if you’re elsewhere check their retail list to find a shop near you.

When the dot-com bubble burst back in 2000, we saw a few satirical looks at the whole ordeal, pointing out how preposterous it was that people thought they could sustain such an inflated stock market. Six years later, many believe we are poised to witness a bubble burst with the real estate market. Flipper Nation is a new online mockumentary that utilizes the power of viral video and a format similar to that of ‘The Office’ and ‘Best in Show’ to satirize the house ‘flipping’ craze that has engulfed the U.S. in the past few years. More than mocking the house flipping craze (which I find to be quite funny), Flipper Nation impresses me with how it is utilizing viral video strategies to reach out to large audiences– a trend the we’ll see a lot more of in the near future.

Are you tired of navigating a labyrinth of automated phone systems and the robot voices that accompany them every time you call a company for customer service reasons? Do you find yourself frantically and incessantly pressing ‘0′ to get a human voice on the line, so you can actually get something accomplished? The GetHuman 500 Database is your best friend when it comes to getting a person on the line. It not only provides the customer service phone numbers of 500 of our most frequently called companies, but more importantly, it tells you how to key stroke your way directly to an operator. We have been huge fans of this resource for some time now– it has gotten to the point where Josh will call up a company and will all at once press 0 while simultaneously yelling ‘help,’ ‘operator,’ and ‘domestic’. Amusing to say the least.

Our pals at Freeline Skates are up to good this holiday season, recently joining the Product(Red) campaign. (If you’re unfamiliar with these skates check out our last post). They’re dedicating $15 per package of “Our Red” version Freeline Skates towards helping orphans in Africa. The Freeline team creates change in the action sports industry everyday– literally reinventing the whole ‘inline’ skate movement with this product– but now their change will extend further then just the industry. High five guys, good looking stuff and a great cause!