Big-kid Legos
For the still-toy-obsessed man-child on your shopping list, the local deviants behind Citizen Brick offer a custom-printed Lego building set replicating the strip club experience. As a disclaimer on its website states, Citizen Brick isn’t affiliated with the Lego brand; the creations are merely built out of the same familiar blocks and designed for those yellow humanlike creatures to get seriously weird in. While they sell minifigures (“Da Coach” is obviously Ditka) and accessories (a bong labeled “paraphernalia”), the Center for the Performing Arts set comes with four figures (three of which are scantily clad), a stage with a stripper pole, and a DJ booth, among other things, and it’s rigged with working LED lights. This adult-themed playset is rather dirty, but it’s cleanly designed as anything the actual Lego company mass-produces. —Leor Galil $275, citizenbrick.com.
“David Bowie Is” for sale
The Museum of Contemporary Art‘s David Bowie exhibit lasts an hour and a half, two hours if you move through it slowly and stop to study every music video and watch Bowie’s performance in The Elephant Man. But memories, no matter how spectacular, are fleeting. The MCA hopes you’ll commemorate your visit with more tangible mementos, for yourself and for the Bowie lovers in your life, and they’ve got plenty for you to choose from. In addition to the expected posters, mugs, and T-shirts, there are Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust necklaces, iPhone cases, and even a very tasteful cheeseboard. Do you have loved ones who, for various reasons, like being the wrong age or the wrong species, couldn’t see the show in person? Have no fear: there are paper dolls, an astronaut duvet cover, and a CD of Bowie songs lullabized for your little Ziggy, Major Tom, or Thin White Duke, and a gold-plated bowl for your Diamond Dog. Everyone can be a rock star—and for longer than just one day. —Aimee Levitt $1.95-$4,400 at the MCA Store and mcachicagostore.org.
A bottle opener with a twist
Invented by former University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign college roommates Joe Walsh and Kent Frayn, the DropCatch is, like any typical undergrad student, a free-form art project that grows more peculiar and outrageous as more bottles of beer are popped open. Consisting of a typical wall-mount metal bottle opener on a block of wood embedded with a rare-earth magnet, the DropCatch retains discarded bottle caps at its base, eventually creating a colorful cluster that can hold more than 60 caps on the standard model and about 140 on the ultra. The designs are classic: the “Pilsner” model, for example, is carved from walnut and features two subtle maple inlays. Engraving is available for an extra fee. —Kevin Warwick $50-$95, dropandcatch.com.
Reading under the influence
Published by Bridgeport impresario Ed Marzsiewski (also of Marz Community Brewing), the lively, unpretentious Mash Tun journal communicates its contributors’ enthusiasm for beer with a dizzying mix of cheeky reviews, deep-dive history, scene reports, instructional pieces about what goes into my favorite adult beverage and how best to appreciate it, and unguarded interviews with brewers and other industry people. This gift pack makes it easy to give all five issues. —Philip Montoro $35, underthecounterculture.bigcartel.com.
