I’m not sure how I feel about guys wearing their limited-edition sneakers on all occasions. While I’d probably be the first girl around to high five a dude for a pair of lightening bolted, cheetah pelted high-tops, I think I represent a fair share of people when I offer the following statement for consideration: Some nights (or days) call for leather in its original state. This doesn’t necessarily mean I think you need some boring shoes, this just means there are days (and nights) when it is probably better to let your face be a stranger’s first point of focus, instead of your neon laces. Here’s help, should it be desired: PF Flyers has been making shoes for over 50 years, and the newest additions to their men’s line-up feature sneakerhead-friendly details wrapped in a slightly softer package. Embossed suedes, patterned textiles, and awesome leather treatments give these shoes the same sort of personality you find in your normal footwear, but also offer a tiny bit of (crap, can I say it?) maturity for the days when your run of 50, artist signed kicks won’t be given the respect they command. My favorites include the No. 5 Series, the Topstrap Center Lo and Center Hi (pictured), and the Perrin — but they’re all pretty delicious. Check ‘em out, then find a dealer close to home here.

Pop!Tech is off to a running start with an awesome morning of incredible speakers like artist Chris Jordan, Kiva.org founder Jessica Flannery, and many more. Author Steven Pinker just left the stage, and Louanne Brizendine is about to begin. Wish you were here? Peek into the Flickr Stream or, better yet, watch the Live Pop!Tech Broadcast!

In August 2006, Burton photographers Dean “Blotto” Gray, Jeff Curtes and Adam Moran (also Burton Snowboard’s team manager) hit the road with six major international snowboarders, from Norway’s Terje Haakonsen to America’s Shaun White, to such far-flung destinations as New Zealand and Chile. 28 Day Winter: A Snowboarding Narrative is a culmination of that trip, a coffee table book that puts readers there in the flesh with the photographers as they witnessed these stars doing spectacular 720’s, grabbing air on their boards, soaring over objects like gasoline barrels. The photographs are stunning, showing magnificent backdrops of terrain, sometimes with a brightly colored speck in the distance that is the rider cruising across a blanket of white. Other photos depict riders bonding in their down time, an experience that snowboarders know are very much a part of the whole picture. When you reach the end of the book, you almost have to hold yourself back from hopping on a plane with all your gear and heading to snow country immediately.

The book comes out in December, but you can pre-order it at Amazon for a discounted price.

Publisher Thames & Hudson just released a new kind of fashion bible, in which designers like Karl Lagerfield and Jean Paul Gaultier are finally given all (which is to say, none) of the (original) credit they deserve. Streetwear is a comprehensive and encyclopedic overview of the world of urban fashion that focuses exclusively on first-wave creative movements. While many fashion books credit streetwear with inspiring top designers’ couture collections, this may be the first book that focuses entirely on their roots, i.e., urban living and its resulting fashion sense. Interviews with over forty leading streetwear brands help to examine the rise of street fashion from its underground beginnings to its commercial present and future, while heavy focuses on design and media provide great resources for streetwear fanatics, media, designers, and founders of new street fashion labels. Penned by Steven Vogel, an established street culture participant, critic, and streetwear exhibition curator, this UK-released, 352-page bible is available for worldwide shipping through the Thames and Hudson website.

Retro camera overlords Lomo have re-released the cult 1960s Diana camera from Hong Kong, keeping all the glorious hallmark characteristics that, to this day, get amateur and pro photographers alike clamoring for the nostalgic- and romantically-fuzzy photos it produces. Lomo’s Diana+ still maintains the plastic lens, simple two-shutter and three aperture settings plus manual focus of its progenitor. But the new version now allows for a removable lens, a choice between two image formats, an “endless panorama feature” and a special aperture for pinhole pictures. Just like the Holga, this camera encourages happy accidents, and it ain’t a bad-looking camera either, in true-to-original Tiffany blue and black. An eBay check revealed more than a dozen of the old-school ones up in hot bidding war, but if you get the Lomo option, for $75 they’ll throw in 20 rolls of AGFA film with the camera.

In his latest conceptual arts foray, Jonathon Keats is “formulating new miracles at a cosmic scale for gods to license and implement.” Huhhhh? The way he explains it — and I’m not so sure I could do much better — is that “In previous centuries, people were taken by the notion that the sun orbited the earth … the Copernican revolution upset all that. [He] figured disillusionment might be avoided in the future, and wonderment enhanced, by contriving planetary systems with multiple stars in orbit, all encompassing a planet in elaborate aerobatic configurations.” To elucidate his theory, Keats has designed 7 novel solar systems and made them available for licensing through S.F.’s Modernism Gallery. However, it need be known that buyers of his solar systems are highly encouraged to obtain the help of a qualified engineer — and is ultimately responsible for the construction of the system (Keats declined to comment about the estimated cost of construction of such a system). If you’re afraid that you just don’t have the money lying around to make one of these things a reality, don’t fret — you can hear the melodic appeal of Keats’ stellar musical composition ‘Sonata for Astral Organ’ on GarageBand — a much subtler miracle, but a miracle nonetheless.

Everyone needs a break here and there from the hustle and bustle. Unfortunately, seclusion is hard to find in the big city setting, especially in the middle of your day when home or the park isn’t an option. So what do you do when you can’t find it? You create it. Designer John Hannah created his piece, Headspace, with momentary seclusion in mind: “Headspace provides escape from the stress of busy public places, allowing individuals to claim physical and mental space for a moment of privacy and seclusion.”

Each Headspace unit provides a moment of respite by enveloping the user in relative quiet and shade. The almost-floral design dulls ambient noise and offers a place to hide from rain or bright sunshine in a unique combination of private and public space. I’d imagine standing in one of these on a busy NY street would be somewhat akin to watching a modern-day silent picture. We could use a few of these.