I like a man who wears a pair of wings over his crotchal area…well, I’ve never actually seen that before, but that’s part of why I’m loving LaVie NY’s Holiday collection, which includes a pair of jeans that seems to say, “my junk is king!” and then even more brazenly, “let’s fly away on it!” As a follow up to prior collections (that included the infamously rapper-adored “U Love My Style” tee), LaVie’s latest offers tees, cardigans, those sexy pants, and some good-looking items for the ladies. LaVie is primarily available in New York, but they’re still small enough that personal contact could help you nab the pieces you want, so do your browsing here, then see what you can get here.

Sweet Mother Russia has blessed the world so much in the way of culture and the arts. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Yakov Smirnoff are just some of the national treasures the former Soviet Union has had the decency to share with us, though ballet and cold war humor are not the only contributions we cherish from our comrades. One of the most notable of Russian crafts is that of the Matryoshka, or nesting doll principle. Famously perfected by Fabergé in the late 1800's the craft lives on today with Russian Designer Yar Rassadin whose Pantone Matryoshka collection takes inspiration from both the Pantone color matching system and a minimalist UFO style, making for a uniquely modern twist on the nearly 120 year old art form.

Via MoCo Loco

If hard-working novices can master the kickflip on a skateboard, they hold the key to entering the next level of tricks. However, doing a kickflip — and landing the mofo — on a surfboard is another matter entirely. As in it’s almost totally impossible. But let’s say you can do a clean-as-a-whistle kickflip in the water, and in fact, you’ve done it in your backyard beach hundreds of times just for giggles. Now’s your chance to shine; get a buddy to film the whole thing from start to finish, then send it to Volcom as an entry in their $10,000 Kickflip-Off Contest. You’ll win it, but the $10K is not that important, nor are the endless babes you’ll get. It’s the initiation into surf legend status that, as a well-known credit card commercial likes to put it, is priceless. Get on it.

If the site for Crummy Brothers Organic Cookies new online shop had launched sooner than yesterday, the deliciously chunky treats would have made Heather’s Top 5 Foodie Gifts in a heartbeat. However, it wouldn’t have been the first time that the Dagoba chocolate cookies weaseled their way into our holiday posts; Josh has been talking about Crummy Brothers since the early days, when their recipes included even riskier additions, like lavender. Today, Crummy Brothers Organic Cookies come in four varieties: Original, Orange Blossom, Lemon Ginger, and Chocolate. Don’t be fooled by the omission of the word “chocolate,” in most of those options, because all of the cookies come packed with gobs of Dagoba organic goodness. So, in other words, that last “Chocolate” variety is actually a chocolate chocolate chip cookie. And let’s face it: if you hate chocolate, you hate life. Heather and I fell most in love with Orange Blossom (just like Josh’s Dad before us), but that certainly didn’t hold us back from eating, um, everything else. Make your holiday gift baskets even yummier here.

You know we get all goobery and excited over tables that do stuff, so the thought of the RGBy table gets us pretty excited, too. Using photo sensors and multicolored LEDs, the table changes color according to the objects placed on top of it, and is the product of a pretty badass design collaboration between Ichi Kanaya, designers Makoto Hirahara and Shinya Matsuyama of Japan's Studio Mongoose. The fact that there’s only one in existence just adds to its totally hot factor, if you ask me.

Via [technabob]

If we hadn’t taken a peek at SpearTalks alum and friend Amit Gupta’s holiday wishlist, we’d have never guessed he was so into gadgety, geeky stuff. Okay, so not really, but here’s what he told us he’s all hot for this holiday season:

I’d really like to spend the holidays hacking together some ideas for emerging hardware and software platforms…

Chumby [ed note: don't we ALL.]
A box full of Bug Labs new hardware
Android emulator plus a real phone that will run it.

And a geeky friend who wants to spend a week over christmas figuring out and building some awesome new apps or services in those environments!

Brad Pitt’s making news for something other than adding to the collection of ridiculouslt attractive, culturally-relevant third world children he shares with Angelina Jolie; this time, it’s for something we’d probably never have seen coming. Apparently Brad Pitt has a little soft spot in his heart for architecture and design, and he’s proving it by helping out the people of New Orleans. Pitt is putting up $5 million of his own money, alongside philanthropist Stephen Bing, toward project Make It Right, an initiative that will build 150 low-income houses for residents of New Orleans.

These aren’t your average projects; the team has hired 13 architecture firms each to submit plans for sustainable, flood-resistant designs. Each house will be around 1200 square feet with three bedrooms, and each will cost around $150,000. The green design initiative is expected to keep upkeep costs down by at least 75% for the residents.

Make It Right is asking for donations from anyone willing to help. Companies can donate a house or multiple home, and individuals are encouraged to help with as much or as little as possible: a solar panel, a tree, even an energy efficient toilet.