If there’s one thing San Diego isn’t known for, it’s our stellar metro transportation, but occasionally, MTS steps up to the plate. Such is the case with A Trolley Show, a transit tribute to Take Away Shows. Originally a guerilla project, the Rowlberto Productions team now boasts public transportation permission and Pizza Parlay support. Promoting local creativity since early 2012, “A Trolley Show demonstrates that people can create art literally anywhere, and we hope it sparks new and interesting ideas” says co-creator Andrew Rowley. Here’s my favorite from The Burning of Rome, but swing by their site for more transportation treasures from Little Hurricane, Maren Parusel and The Wombats, just to name a few. It’s safe to say that “catching a moving performance” now joins “not wearing pants” on our list of fun things to do aboard the San Diego Trolley.

Get this: researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute have created a helmet that manipulates reality through cheap, commercially available electronic components – a video camera, a computer and a head-mounted visual display. Nicknamed the “Inception helmet”, but officially called the “Substitutional Reality system”, it’s made to study cognitive dysfunction in psychiatric patients and investigate how our conscious experiences are constituted in daily life. Researchers have already begun testing with a group of participants in a controlled experiment. Say hello to the superfuture: we’re living in it. So, do you want to take a leap of faith? You can check out the system in the performance art video below. Just remember to come back to reality.

Forget that the first cell phone call was made in the 70s from the original Motorola DynaTAC. That it weighed 2.5 lbs, offered 30 minutes of talk time and took 10 hours to recharge. To me, it’ll always be known as the Zack Morris cell phone. With the release of the new iPhone next month, it’s hard to imagine anyone once envied that brick of a phone, but I’m glad someone has documented it in all it’s glory at ZackMorrisCellPhone.com. Something had to be made to teach the youngins about Saved By The Bell and our ancient history.

Plastic protected containers cut into the side of an old tree trunk placed onto the street – all with the aim of sharing books. Sounds wild, right? This is a clever new way to promote reading brought to you by BookCrossing, a book swapping club dedicated to building up the “World’s Library”. Residents in Berlin – where this is being tested – are welcome to leave books or take one, the point is just to swap books in the public space. If this were a real tree that grows books, now that would be my dream come true. Hat tip to inhabitat for the find and lovely photos.

We’re going to make one last stand for an endless summer with this month’s mix. Although we weren’t able to resist having at least one Beach Boys song on here, we’re hoping tracks by The Radio Dept., Poolside, Kilo Kish and Frank Ocean will also remind you of everything that’s amazing about this time of year.

p.s. – Not seeing the tape ’cause you’re on your mobile device? Spotify premium users can listen to most, but not all tracks here. They get jealous when they see you wit yo’ mobile phone!

Ever since I started spending a decent amount of time posting Instagram pics, I’ve been checking out the many print services that have sprung up. Sharing online is great, but if it’s a tangible item I had a part in creating it’s even better. Here are two services I’m digging right now and after a quick email, both companies were rad enough to hook us up with some special codes for you guys.

Instapparel – For $20 (shipping included), this Orange County-based shop lets you design a tee with photos from your Instagram account. Add one to sixteen images to the shirt and customize things like shirt color, image size and opacity (the images, not your shirt girl). Here’s one I made of photos of my trip to Alaska and the quality was totally great. I’m hoping they eventually add a black shirt to their inventory so I can design a shirt with some crisp b&w shots.

Enter code “HOLIDAYMATINEE” for 25% off.

Plywerk – I haven’t actually ordered from them yet, but was drawn in by the idea of my Instagram photos mounted on eco-conscious bamboo and wooden panels from this Portland-based company. It looks like high quality stuff and I really like the idea of breaking a larger image up and ordering split panels.

Enter code “HM20″ for 20% off.

Still looking for more ideas for those Instagram pics? Check out these posts on Stickygram magnets and PostalPix prints.

There’s something so badass about two people totally re-imagining a product that has only slightly changed since its wide adoption in the ‘70s. Add in a dash of community skepticism and an industrial design master thesis, and you’ve got yourself a revolutionary recipe! After Swedish helmet laws got more strict, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin decided the world was ready for an invisible bicycle helmet that people actually wanted to wear. Many said it was impossible, which pushed them to prove everyone wrong. Seven years (and many middle fingers) later, the Hövding is here. While the price tag doesn’t favor budgetarians, safety has never been sexier.

Images: Hövding