Ready your living room, you’re about to be buried in an avalanche of glorious rich surround sound. The Intimus 6T-DB Hybrid XD Surround Sound Speaker System is one of Aperion Audio’s finest home theater systems. The system is comprised of two 6T towers, 6C center channel, two 5DB dipole/bipole surround speakers and a Bravus 12D subwoofer.

Long story short, it will rock your face off.

Let’s start with the bass - every guy likes bass. The Bravus 12D subwoofer has not one but two 12 inch drivers that you’ll literally feel as it’s 500 watt digital amplifier explodes with room shaking frequences throughout your room (and neighborhood no less). The 6T towers and 6C center channel speakers will envelope you in flawless sound reproduction with a soundstage wider than a Lincoln Town car. Forget audio sweet spots, you’ll have a sweet room. Moving further back the dual 5DB dipole/bipole surround speakers will immerse the rest of your auditory senses with glorious cinema scale surround sound.

What this means to you: Warning, the Aperion Audio Intimus 6T-DB Hybrid XD Surround Sound Speaker System will create mad scientist laughter as picture frames fall from the walls, noise complaints are made, wives file for divorce, girlfriends move out and all forms of life cower at the sound of your Richter Scale measurable home theater.

Cost: $3769 (Range: $1170 - $5859) @ Aperion Audio

Ready the aspirin. Clovefield is about to hit the shelves and your movie collection. The migraine inducing film will no doubt raise your hopes that one day internet will be teeming with shaky handheld movies of the same caliber but lets not get ahead of ourselves here.

The J.J. Abrams produced and Matt Reeves directed film follows five young New Yorkers in a truly terrible course of events. Starting at a going-away party and ending with an encounter with a skyscraper sized monster, Cloverfieldn will make you rethink complaints about a bad evening out.

I won’t sit here and promise you any depth to the storyline of this movie. The idea of character development is laughable and no one, not even the creepy guy from American Beauty, would carry a camcorder through the absolute hell these characters encounter. What I can say is the jarring feeling you’ll get from viewing what feels like yet another YouTube-ready video of a party to the horror of seeing New York and it’s inhabitants destroyed is visceral and stirring. Just make sure you’ve got some aspirin around.

Cost: $16 @ Amazon

Also See: Help I Have A Headache Tablet Pack

[click on image to enlarge]

The plethora of crossover utility vehicles hitting the streets is somewhat concerting to me. There seems to be a lack of vehicles that singularly excel at one purpose. Take the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon or Lotus Elise as examples. One can tromp trails and one can scorch streets. Call me old fashioned, but I like something that’s unparalleled in function.

That said, the newly announced at the Bejing Auto Show Audi Q5 gives me promise for crossovers. Vehicles that otherwise excel at no function except to carry groceries through inclement weather and do so with a good sound system and leather. The US version will be a V6 3.2 liter 265 horsepower (243lb-ft torque) all wheel drive Quattro whip. The Q5 will share little with the Audi Q7 being based more A5 coupe and A4 sedan/wagon.

Inside you’ll see much of the current Audi design cues in addition to an oceanic sunroof but also a good deal of cargo space and room for four. Take my advice and avoid asking three grown adults to sit in the back row of any car, unless it’s three beautiful women.

Image of interior after the jump.

Estimated Cost: $30,000 - $50,000 @ Audi
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2008 National Geographic Adventure magazine’s gear of the year award winner, the Leatherman Skeletool CX shows just how far the Leatherman tools have come.

Sure, the signature, shape is there to some degree but looking more like some badass industrial transformer, the Skeletool CX won’t be mistaken for your grandfather’s Leatherman.

New for 2008, the Skeletool CX has: needlenose pliers, regular pliers, wire cutters, hard-wire cutters, built-in bit storage in the handle, 154CM combnation straight and serrated blade, carabiner/bottle opener, removable pocket clip and a universal bit driver. All in a package tha weighs 5 ounces. The stainless steel tool has tungsten DLC coating and a handle made of carbon fiber. [via]

Cost: $80 @ Amazon

Budget option: Leatherman Skeletool | $58

There is no finer way to keep track of the date than a Pirelli Calendar. Unfortunately, the calendar has never been an item your mere dollars could purchase as it’s never been sold commercially. So your hopes of replacing the corporate gift 365 day golf tips calendar are far from being realized. For the lucky gentlemen that know someone that know someone that know someone that can get them one, you are envied.

The Pirelli Calendar has been a yearly gift to the company’s top clients and other VIPs. The calendar features world-renowned photographers such as Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, Herb Ritts, Norman Parkinson, Bruce Weber, and Annie Leibovitz showcasing names you might better recognize: Iman, Cindy Crawford, Sophia Loren, Naomi Watts, Penelope Cruz and Gisele Bundchen to name a few. Seriously, just look at that photograph. (French Riviera - March, 2006)

For the rest of us, our options of date-beauty-tracking are improved with the Complete Pirelli Calendar Collection, Years 1964-2007 (we’ve seen 2008’s calendar and you’re not missing anything, unless you have a fascination with Geishas). This book contains all the photographs of the calendars for the last 43 years and the never-published calendar of 1963. It also includes behind-the-scenes photographs as well as text (oh yes, you’ll be poring over the text… I’m sure of it) that follows the evolution of the calendar over the past forty years.

What this means to you: You may not be the VIP that gets one of these calendars but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the same love of, ahem, art as we do.

Cost: $54 @ Amazon

Re-issued decks are the Mitchelle and Ness jerseys to the skate world. I can recall plenty of times when I was out skating running into some older dude claiming ‘I used to skate’. I would hand them my deck and they would try to pop and ollie, there’s nothing like knowing that you still got it. That’s why as being a distinguished fellow myself, I keep my own deck handy.

Powell Peralta is a staple in skateboarding history and their re-issue of the Skull & Sword deck has me day dreaming of the times I used to kill it every time I set my eyes on it. The Skull & Sword was one of Powell’s first graphics from infamous artist Vernon Courtlandt Johnson and the graphic was so popular it became their official team board.

I own a couple re-issues myself and whether it be for cruising down the street to the nearest bodega or using it as a nice piece of décor, a guy should always have a board handy.

Cost: $62 @ SK8supply.com

Everyone else goes for navy or khaki hues when they buy chinos, so why don’t you skip the standard affair and buy a pair that isn’t the norm, like these rock grey flat front twill chinos from Lacoste.

I don’t condone white so don’t call these pants white, not to mention your monitor might not actually show the true color of these pants. The pair that I’m wearing right now are far (far) from alabaster.

These 100% cotton chinos are a classic fit with a flat front and side seam pockets and like many Lacoste pants, have the signature logo embroidered across the inside waistband.

Editor’s Tip: Pair these with white canvas sneakers, brown boat shoes, or just some nice leather sandals, like these Steve Madden Salvtore’s.

Also See: J.Crew Officer’s Chino | $95

Spring and early summer are here and that means three things:

1. Women begin the parade of skirts, shorts and other skin revealing ensembles
2. Golf bags are out of the closets and on deck in car trunks
3. Wedding season

Ah yes, wedding season… the perennial joy of buying gifts, looking happy to see people you could care less about, eyeing well dressed women trying to guess which ones are single, and standing in bewilderment as people laugh at unrelate-able nostalgia. Some men embrace it, others don’t. If you’re a groom may we hope you’re not the latter of these two, but may we also suggest this book.

Get some irreverent advice from Shandon Fowler as he guides you through the perils, joys and customs of the life test, that is, a wedding. A perfect fit for your buddy that just got engaged.

What this means to you: The tagline of The Groom’s Instruction Manual says it all: “How to Survive and Possibly Even Enjoy the Most Bewildering Ceremony Known to Man”.

What this means to you:

Cost: $16 @ Quirkbooks
Cost: $11 @ Amazon

Take my advice: Lock your bags when you travel. My luggage has shown up before with things missing and honestly the battle to figure out how to recover those items has never been worth the effort. Not to mention, it’s just good practice.

Whether you’re a casual traveler, backpacker, or call Delta Terminal 5 your second home, security matters. At first glance you might not think much of the Victorinox Swiss Army Travel Sentry Cable Lock but it’s equipped with so much more. First, it uses a cable (not a latch) to secure your gear. The cable is much more versatile providing you some flexibility and never compromising on security.

What this means to you: No, you don’t need one on your briefcase or attache, but if you’ve got three pieces of luggage, what’s 50 bucks to ensure peace of mind.

Cost: $15 @ Amazon

A little while back Charles & Marie sold (they still do) a clever mug aptly named the On Off Mug. It was a beverage mug that changed in color depending on the temperature. Basically, if the mug was full of hot java it showed ON, progressively changing into OFF as the coffee disappeared or cooled. Pretty fitting of my own propensity for directly correlating my mood depending on coffee consumption. Who said caffeine was a drug? (hand shaking)

The Hot Cold Mug, you guessed it, does exactly the same thing. No further explanation needed. The ever so simple yet clever premise of the mug works just as perfectly and will be available in about three weeks from now. A more perfect gift for your I-don’t-talk-to-you-unless-there-are-exactly-two-point-five-cups-of-coffee-in-my-stomach compadre. If not, then feel free to send the Gear Patrol team a set.

Cost: $25 Preorder @ Charles & Marie