I know guys who’d use any excuse to dress up in skirts and beat the crap out of eachother with wooden sticks, so it’s no surprise to me that now there’s hotels that cater specifically to this niche form of masculinity. eCool points as much out to us this week at our Design Showcase, wherein vacationing at the Rome’s Cavalieri Hilton Hotel will allow you education in all things Gladiator; Roman residents are also alerted to the Gruppo Stucco — an organization which allows anyone trained through them to participate in such historical re-enactments as the rituals of Vestal Virgins and the Madonna Fiumarola procession. Pretty sweet, right? For his effort, he’s getting his very own Behance Network invitation. Want one for yourself? Submit your finds to the Design Showcase now, and if your entry is spotlighted, you too could find yourself in creative pro network heaven.

A while back, Mimoco approached the Spear Collective with the idea of doing an artist series Mimobot. We hollered at our 26 artists to submit design proposals, and many of them came through with some damn impressive bot mockups. In the end, Mimoco chose to produce the work of none other than Undoboy for part 2 of their 2007 Artist Series. I’m sure you’ll agree that the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ you see here are the most regal Mimobots to ever infiltrate USB drives. Undoboy also did a bang up job with loading these things with a ton of exclusive content — wallpapers, icons, avatars, animations, and screensavers — even more of a reason to grab one. Look for these little ballers to hit Mimobot retailers in the very-near future. But remember, they’re limited edition — only 2,000 of each are being produced, and their sure to fly off shelves like greased lightning.

Shane Crozier’s Flux E-Desk looks like something straight out of the future. Think Minority Report, think Blade Runner, think kindergarten circa 2025; this is what I, and I’d imagine Shane, could see school desks looking like in another 15 to 20 years. Granted, that will leave us with a ton of Eames and Day chairs — and those horrible chair-slash-desk things — to figure out what to do with, but I suppose we’ll manage. Shane’s Flux E-Desk is a simple, clean, seat and desk combination that features integrated cable management and a built-in storage unit (I think that’s the little flap on top, I’m assuming for pens and pencils, etc). I’d imagine the lack of back support could get uncomfortable after a day in the hot seat — ergonomics be damned — but then when did we start caring about comfort in the school setting? Either way, the clearly Apple-esque design is ready and waiting when we start shuffling the youngin’s off to school with laptops instead of lunch boxes.

Not too long ago, our buddy Todd (ahem, TEEBEE) from Joy Engine/Cypher 13 scored a chance to take over Installation Shoe Gallery for his first-ever solo show (joining ranks with Bigfoot and Spear Collective’s Jason Thielke, amongst others). After weeks of late-night arts and crafts parties with some awesome collaborators, including Small-but-Dangerous, sAne, and Brian Krezel, TEEBEE’s finally ready to move in to Boulder’s badassest shoe store. The theme for this one is “SPACE TRAVELERS & other affiliated shit,” and the show will include tons of wall art, cuddly Minions, Turntablist Symmetry, a few top-secret surprises… and of course, all the fun kiddies you normally find at Installation’s super rad openings. Boulder and Denver: be there at seven o’clock; the greater U.S. area: book a flight…or just follow up after-the-fact here.

Unruly Heir recently updated their site with a little bite of their upcoming Spring ‘08 collection, and even though I’m almost too stoked on Fall to care about warm-weather clothes, I have to give them a thumbs up for what’s looking like a great set of sunny man-duds. Unruly Heir know how to dress a gentleman without making him look like an old man, and this newest season continue to blend a well-to-do aesthetic with a hell-if-I-care attitude — one of my favorite mixes, I must admit. No word on exact dates of the new line’s actual shelf appearance, but whatever; we’ve still got some time/piles of leaves and snow ahead of us.

Related: Unruly Heir Launch

It’s refreshing to see large companies that still know how to have some company sanctioned fun. As innovative and hip as Apple and Microsoft may be, the extent of their sense of humor or youthfulness usually is constrained to hyperactive commercials with matching rock music. From the Flickr team at Yahoo!, we are presented with a game surely to make your next office Olympics — Faceball. The rules are simple; two opponents sit in office chairs ten feet from each other. They take turns throwing a brightly colored beach balls at the other person. If you make contact squarely with the face, you go again. Miss, and your turn is over. Record the score for 5 rounds and at the end, tally them up for a winner. For full rules and regulations, including instructions for tie breakers, head on over to the official Faceball site and while you’re there, do yourself a favor and watch the wonderfully funny videos. They are professionally produced and I’d say that sorted in an increasingly funny fashion. You should also check out the pictures of the distorted faces as beach balls collide with them in the Flickr photopool. And when you’re ready to start your own tournament, you’ll need some balls — they’re less than $3 a piece, plus shipping.

I had a blast this afternoon flipping through the “pages” of the new London-based online skateboarding magazine Tweaker. I have to admit, I usually like to have paper-in-hand to get the best reading experience out of a magazine, but Tweaker has impressed me with how it reads on screen. It’s built in flash, the pages flip for you, and the content level is pretty high for an online zine — they’ve even richened the content by embedding some interesting video clips in there. My favorite section was ‘Videorama: Top 10 Skate Songs,’ where Mark Jackson makes a case for the importance of music tracks in skate videos and proposes his top picks for the best song + segments of all time. Can you guess which was number one? It will be interesting to see where these skate-obsessed “London heads” go with Tweaker… the initial purpose, at least, seems to be pure love for skateboarding and skate culture.

Via The Goat