Andrew Lloyd Webber’s kitten climbed into his digital Clavinova piano and destroyed the score for his new musical Phantom in Manhattan. Brad summarizes the news in the best musical lolcat ever.

I still love my 1997 Subaru Legacy Wagon and it will probably last a few more years and miles, but I’ve started thinking about a new car. The question many Subaru owners ready for a replacement have nowadays is “when will Subaru have a hybrid?” A concept vehicle was displayed in Detroit early last year. After Toyota, of the Prius, bought GM’s 8.7% stake in Subaru parent company Fuji Heavy Industries, speculation pointed towards a hybrid 2008 Legacy using Toyota’s technologies. But Subaru has recently stated that they decided to first put their resources into a diesel engine, with those models expected to roll out next year. Subaru owners ready for an upgrade will have to decide whether they want to stick with that mid-20s mpg for another long Subaru lifetime.

Back in March I mentioned that a play about the Iraq war at my ol’ hometown high school had been canceled because of its controversial content. After N.Y. Times coverage of the situation got out, the New York theater community came calling. The play, “Voices in Conflict,” has performed to packed houses at two prestigious Off-Broadway venues and a final show on Friday at the Public Theater is sold out. The student performers have juggled finals, college applications, A.C.T.s, and now graduation events to make it into New York for rehearsals and the shows.

Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium has acquired a rare blue lobster captured in the Thames River in New London, Connecticut. A genetic defect causes the blue coloring, a result of an excessive production of protein combining with a red caratenoid molecule, astaxanthin. Blue lobsters are one in a million but they still turn red when cooked. This one has escaped that fate.

With the Mariners visiting the Chicago Cubs for the very first time, Seattle Times sportswriter Larry Stone took the opportunity to wax nostalgic about Wrigley Field. They may have added lights, a few ads, and 1,790 seats, but there’s still a hand-operated scoreboard, the absence of Jumbotron and Diamond Vision, and the echoes of a long-suffering but passionate fan base who’ve been waiting since 1908 for another title.

In March, Matt pointed to a photo of a Target knock-off of the LikeABike, a wooden “walking” bike for toddlers. I told my husband, who conveniently works near a Target, and he bought one which is now hidden in our garage, waiting for a 3rd birthday to arrive (our toddler’s currently plenty happy pedaling his tricycle around and careening it down little hills just to shave years off of my life). This past Sunday’s Target circular listed the bike on sale, but I still can’t find it in their online store. It’s a “Play Wonder Walking Trainer bike” and it’s $39.99 this week (that’s 10 bucks off). While I was searching the Target site I did find recumbent tricycles for 4-6 year olds made by Triker.

It took 10 days, 7 people, and 300 truck-loads of sand to create the world’s largest sandcastle in Myrtle Beach this month. Gadling has gathered photos and video of the 49.55 foot tall castle along with other unique sand sculptures from around the world. A long time ago I helped with Mont St Michel in the sand and also the Sphinx but they were tiny in comparison.

Ask Playbill.com got the lowdown on cast album royalties from Kurt Deutsch, president of Sh-K-Boom Records. Royalties are typically $1.50 to $2.00 per album with 60% going to the writers (composer, lyricist, book writer) and 40% going to the producers of the show. 15% or 20% of the producers’ share is split between the performers. However, royalties don’t kick in until the sum of the royalty portion (the $1.50-$2.00) of all albums sold goes over the album’s production & marketing costs. So if an album with a $2 royalty cost $500,000, then 250,000 copies would need to be sold before royalties were paid out. Few cast albums sell enough to make royalties. However, the songwriters do make a “mechanical royalty” on every album (around eight cents a song) and the performers are paid well for their recording time: one week’s salary for an 8 hour recording session and the same rate for every additional hour (1/8 a week’s salary / hour). (via Amazon’s Daily blog)

“The world’s largest operating musical instrument” is in a Macy’s in Philadelphia. Now with 28,543 pipes ranging in size from an inch to 32 feet, the original (still massive) configuration helped to bankrupt the Los Angeles Art Organ Company who created it for the St. Louis International Exposition in 1904. Purchased by the Wanamakers for the store they opened in 1911, the organ passed through several changes in store ownership and became Macy’s property last year. With a curator and organist on staff, Macy’s takes full advantage of this showpiece in their local marketing efforts.

If you’ve got a Concorde airplane sitting around that might need some servicing, an auction of spare parts will be held in Toulouse in September. Proceeds go towards the creation of a museum park featuring the history of Concorde maker Aerospatiale Toulouse (which became Airbus).