Even though I am not a birthday person, my aniversario got a little nuts this year, but I won’t complain because that means I have some fucking awesome friends. From the Randazzo’s ride to Sam Kim’s Korean BBQ to my rooftop suaré with Hawaii Mike it was all pretty proper. And finally over. I guess I answered my own question, I can live. Thanks everyone!

The Frends x 77Klash x New Era 59Fifty designed by Marcus Burrowes marks the beginning of a takeover. There is no I in Frends but there is definitely an I&I! Big up to all involved. These drop this summer. Bong Bong. Swag.

Kid Bradical and I went out kinda big last Thursday with stops all over town from the DC Life jump at Chop Shop to the Oakley flagship opening to Miss Lillies Fool’s Gold ho-down to the MTTM party at Le Bain but the most fun spot of the night was easily the Penguin fragrance launch at the Penguin store in Soho. Why? Because they had a pool table, a roulette wheel, and a bunch of Olde-Tymey dudes with Rollie Fingers staches that were of no competition to us for the ladies. Oh yeah they also had Bushmills. In fact Bushmills is the reason I’m running some stock photos instead of any that Brad or I took. We didn’t take any pics cause we were too focused on making sure they didn’t pack up the Bushmills before we had our fill. My man Mel D Cole is right, Bushmills gets you faded! Peep the flicks we didn’t take after the jump.

I’ve been a fan of Timberland my entire life. From my New England roots to my time on the tundra of Wisconsin to years of pounding the pavement of Brooklyn to my current globe trotting mountain lifestyle, they’ve always been my boot of choice, not to mention they’re also my namesake. That’s why I was literally blown away to be honored by the company with one of only nine pairs of the new 10061’s aka the 6 Inch Wheat. I haven’t been without a pair of 6 Inch wheats for at least 20 years and was actually wearing a pair of black on black 6 Inch’s as I was lured into an ominous room at Epiphany, Timberland’s NYC partners, for a “surprise.” I turned my back for a second and when I turned around again this beautiful wooden box, custom made by GoodWoodNYC and bearing my name was presented to me. Inside in all their wheated out glory, was a first look at the first redesigned Timberland 6 Inch Wheat since their invention in 1973. While the boot looks just as classic as ever from the outside, Timberland has added an anti-fatigue midsole and flexible toecap to the 6 Inch to address the one complaint the boot has ever had – its comfort. I’ll be out and about this week in these joints with a full report to come. Thanks to Brian, Coltrane, Jan, and Jenna for the opportunity! Check out full looks at the package after the jump.

I headed down to Washington DC last week to be a part of the Virgin 25 blogger conference which also included a trip to see Lady Gaga at the Verizon Center. I’m not necessarily the biggest Lady Gaga fan but it’s impossible to front on her megashow and legions of die hard monsters. Unbeknownst to us bloggers, Virgin Live had arranged for some Gaga face time after the show and I got this instant classic pic. Let me squash all the rumors right now – she is definitely not a dude! I’ll have more on the Virgin 25 in the coming months.

My man Louie Vito is really puttin it down this year. Not only did he take his first podium at Winter X but he threw the weekend’s gnarliest jumpoff with Yelawolf and Z-Trip at The Belly Up in Aspen. In this photo by Craig Wetherby, Mason Aguirre, Trevor Andrew, Stephen Malbon and I are giving Yelawolf and his DJ Artime their first look at some pure Colorado bluebird while Louie was perfecting his run in the halfpipe. Check out some more shots on Radcollector and stay tuned for the video edit with Nike 6.0 next week.

While in SLC I got to kick it with two of my favorite Utahns (yes that’s what they’re called) Laura Hadar and Tracy Anderson at the WeSC x Fice x Frank151 x Ricky Powell artshow. Actually, both Dirty Hades and Tedo3000 are technically columnists on Radcollector although neither apparently has had anything interesting to blog lately. Oh well, I still love them. Check out a bunch of pics from the event here.

Super sneak peek at the Timbo Plaid coming from CCS in 2011. Yeah Kristina! More on this collabo to come!

The end of summer has been a whirlwind, no more like a typhoon of cross country trips, rad events and all around good life livin, so much that I can barely remember what the hell I’ve been doing. But one night I will remember forever was this mega reuninion with my parceiros Brasileiros at the Nike World Basketball festival on the roof of the Ink48 hotel last week. Caralho velho, everyone was there: Zegon, Aori, Arthur Bortolin, Kassiano, and of course meu irmao do sanque bom, Lucas Penido. It really was one for the history books. Valeu Arthur pelas fotos!! Babao we missed you! E Noi$$$!!!

One of my favorite things in this world is linking up with my fellow Highsnobiety columnists. We’re a worldwide bunch living a very diverse set of lives but every now and then they collide and usually nothing but good things follow. Case in point is running into Set Free for the first time at the ill new Vans space in Manhattan last week. Stay tuned for the Set Free Radcollector interview, its a little known fact that homie is an OG BMX head!