Wednesday, December 05, 2007

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Giftmas

The lack of activity around here is pathetic, I know, and am duly sorry. Life has been busy. The wife just got home from a major tuneup of her mysterious lady parts. And it's the season for all of my favorite pagan holidays: first Halloween, then Turkeyween, and soon Giftmas will be here.

The wife's night in hospital was thankfully uneventful, and the children spent the night their grandparents, for which I am grateful, and which provided me with the rare occasion to Read a Good Book. It was A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon, which was recommended to me by Piehammer.

Among my family members I am infamous for burying my nose in books, although this is a matter in which Perception trumps Reality, because in truth I read far fewer books than my wife, my son, my parents or my brother. And every holiday season I am disdained by my family because all I want for Giftmas is music. Some of my own kin will go so far as to buy me anything but music. And then they ask me what I want, which essentially is to say, "Other than the only thing you want in the world, what else would you like?"

If you are reading this, and you are related to me by blood or marriage, hear me now: I have transcended the desire for all material things, except those which spin around and make pleasant noises. And books about the people who make things that spin around and make pleasant noises. Actually, I do like fruitcake. But that's it. So here is my Giftmas list for 2008:

Machine Gun Etiquette by the Damned (the 2004 release on Chiswick with bonus tracks)

Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth (the 2007 two disc deluxe edition)

The Pretenders by the Pretenders (the 2006 two disc reissue on Rhino)

Any Other City by Life Without Buildings ($12 postpaid via Paypal!)

The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting (the book by Jim Walsh)

Hot Snakes t-shirt, XXL please.

7 Comments:

At 12/07/2007 10:06 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK Jon, check this out: http://articles.citypages.com/2007-12-05/news/the-hold-steady/
Big article on the Hold Steady but the cool thing is the interactive map.

Happy Giftmas, buddy!

 
At 12/08/2007 1:33 PM , Blogger piehammer said...

The hot snakes shirt only goes up to XL.

 
At 12/11/2007 1:41 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Peace,

Yo I noticed that you posted Digable PLanet's Little Renee on one of your older blogs. I have been trying to find an mp3 version of that song for like 5 years and have been unsuccessful. Help a brother out man, please.

jbfenderson@hotmail.com

 
At 12/13/2007 4:39 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jon: I am weirdly provincial about (i.e. am resistant to) reissues with lots of extras, at least for albums that are sacred to me, such as the first Pretenders album. But some of those extras I think are available on the big Pretenders box set that came out last year.

 
At 12/20/2007 12:17 PM , Blogger anandamide said...

you should post at some point (if you haven't done so already) on the merits of expanded re-issues. i'm often not a fan of "bonus tracks" etc. on the main disc, as there is usually a damn good reason stuff didn't make it to the disc and when put on the same disc waters down the original release. although here i must make an admission: i object to this in part because i often listen to stuff on shuffle which is something of a purist no-no.

 
At 12/21/2007 9:48 AM , Blogger jonder said...

I like the extras. Maybe it's because I want to hear more of what an artist was doing at that point in his/her/their career when a brilliant album was made. I can appreciate the drawback of hearing sub-par songs come up on shuffle, or tacked on to the end of an album that you enjoy listening to as a whole (without extras). I like the way that recent reissues put the extra material on a separate disc, like the Young Marble Giants "Colossal Youth", and the reissued albums by the Pretenders, the Stooges, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

 
At 12/21/2007 10:00 AM , Blogger jonder said...

And why must Hot Snakes discriminate against their exxxtra chunky fans?

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home