It’s time to start figuring out those Halloween costumes because (where has the year gone?) the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book is out for 2009. Among the unique fantasy gifts this year: a custom cupcake car (top speed 7 mph), an exclusive dinner party with at least 8 literati ($200,000 to charity), and the world’s fastest electric motorcycle (top speed 150 mph).

I couldn’t understand why they would bother creating a Lego version of the Rock Band video game, but then they announced that it would feature a David Bowie minifig and now I’m all for it. If Lego released actual David Bowie minifigures, perhaps a set of his many personas, I’d be first in line at the Lego Store. On a similar subject, I had been wondering if Harrison Ford is the first and only actor to be represented by two different minifig characters (Indiana Jones and Han Solo). But Lego trivia fanatics know that Alfred Molina also has two minifigs (Doc Octopus from Spiderman and Satipo from Indiana Jones). (update: fixed Batman -> Spiderman ‘typo’ … really it was a typo! Thx rory.)

If you’ve ever dreamed of a large room entirely covered in trampolines, it exists at Sky High Sports. There are 3 locations in CA and WA. For parents of jumpy kids it seems like a great alternative to a padded cell.

At the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, the Los Angeles Philharmonic welcomed music director Gustavo Dudamel by putting him to work conducting Beethoven’s 9th. But the high point for a bunch of kids from central L.A. was when Dudamel led the YOLA Expo Center Youth Orchestra in an abbreviated version of “Ode to Joy.” The L.A. Times takes a look at the experience from the perspective of 11-year-old violinist Arlette Romero who takes a 30 minute bus ride to Saturday morning rehearsals. Says Romero of her music experience: “I like how you can express yourself just by playing a few notes. And it’s fun. Lots of fun.”

I’ve been intending to rebut Jason Kottke’s “Legos becoming just another single-use plastic toy” post but haven’t had time to round up photographic evidence. Tim Maly and Robin Sloan did a great job of it though. My favorite part of the N.Y. Times article that triggered this discussion states: “The number of different bricks or elements that go into Lego toys has shrunk to less than 7,000 from roughly 13,000, and designers are encouraged to reuse parts, so that a piece of an X-wing fighter from the ‘Star Wars’ series might end up in Indiana Jones’s jeep or a pirate ship.” We started our son with a large stash of vintage bricks from my husband and sister-in-law’s childhood. Then he discovered the Lego store at the mall around the same time he fell in love with the Star Wars movies.

He started asking us, over and over, for the specialized Star Wars sets. I resisted at first, but he was already building space ships and other objects out of his basic blocks on his own, and it was unlikely I would be squashing his creative brain development. So for special occasions and rewards, our son has received many of the small Star Wars sets, mini-figs, and a few of the medium-sized spaceships. Thanks to the international market, the instructions use no words, just diagrams and numbers, so even at four he was able to put the sets together with just a little help on the trickier attachments. I was actually a little horrified that after his first hard-won success at putting together a full ship, he started taking it apart. Then I realized he was doing exactly what I hoped for: he created something entirely different and of his own design.

On his fifth birthday he received three sets and as he was constructing one, he made pieces of another into animals and enemy ships. His designs have become more sophisticated not only because his brain is developing but because of his experience with the sets. He knows how to use hinges and feet and spinning pieces to make mechanical parts and he’s got an amazing eye for symmetry. He has the mini figurines for acting out stories so his play is not just about building things. I can’t wait until he’s ready for Lego Mindstorms and FIRST.

Donald Fisher, founder of Gap, Inc., died Sunday at age 81 in San Francisco, the city where it all began on Ocean Avenue in 1969 after an unsatisfying search for pair of Levi’s. Fisher and his wife announced their intent last week to turn over their 1,100 piece contemporary art collection to the SF MOMA after plans to build a dedicated museum at the Presidio fell through.

The Metropolitan Opera’s gala opening night production of “Tosca” made the news when the audience loudly booed the production staff. The publicity won’t hurt. Many will say it’s the traditionalists who were upset at the grim staging and liberties taken by director Luc Bondy. But The New Yorker‘s Alex Ross, certainly not one to walk the traditional line, holds nothing back in his severely critical review of the performance that moved some to boo. He opens with “It takes a certain effort to suck the life out of ‘Tosca.'” and proceeds downhill from there. And unlike other critics and the audience, he also pulls no punches with the singers, who had otherwise escaped the booing.

It was a surprise to see the Hanford Site pop up on the N.Y. Times’ “American Journeys” column but low points in history are the critical ones to remember. With advance planning, you can tour Hanford’s B Reactor which provided the plutonium for “Fat Man.” Located in south-central Washington, the Hanford nuclear reservation is a huge environmental clean-up site with nine decommissioned atomic reactors and tons of liquid and solid nuclear waste, not to mention decades of controversy. There’s a lovely buffer zone around the site where the Columbia River flows and nature abounds.

It’s been 10 years since the first major league baseball bobblehead doll giveaway (SF Giants: Willie Mays) and the gimmick still packs fans into the stadium. The design process for most bobbleheads begins at Bensussen Deutsch & Associates in Woodinville, WA. A detailed sketch is sent to the Chinese manufacturer who ships back a hand-carved and painted proof. A few revisions later a little baseball player with an oversized nodding head is ready for manufacturing and then bobblehead day at a stadium near you.

As firefighters battle to save the Mount Wilson Observatory from L.A. County’s Station Fire, the caretakers of a less well-known observatory are anxious to hear the fate of their cinder block and metal structure six miles away. Stony Ridge Observatory was built by 15 amateur astronomers who paved the road, dug the foundation, and even ground the glass for the telescope lens. There are several movies capturing the construction. It was completed in 1963 and used the next year to map the moon for potential Apollo program landing sites. The Station Fire has damaged other structures in the area and the road up is blocked so they won’t know the condition of Stony Ridge until it is safe to take a helicopter over.