MP3s are shared to try to convince people they should like the same music I do (As in... "then she told a friend, and she told a friend...) Of course if you love music, you should (responsibly) spend lots of your disposable income on music, concerts, and merch. If you are an artist or from a label, and would like a song removed, please e-mail me at kofis.hat [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll promptly do so.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Top 10 Album Covers of 2007
1. Field Music - Tones of Town
The album's theme: "There's no place like home, but how come I don't always feel 'at home', and what does that mean anyway?"
Is the woman in the front of the picture pondering those questions, is the diner her 'home away from home', and does she find it some measure of solace that at least she isn't wearing that lime-green blazer the woman behind her has chosen?
I love the composition in this photo. The guy sitting with lime-blazer woman angles his leg in a way that seems just about right if he was tapping his foot. The picture's posed within an inch of its life, but captures realistic details like that. Not sure I see any food in this diner, mind you, but, hey, it's a stylized pretty image for a band that makes stylized pretty music.
2. The Primary 5 - Go
The cover photo of a traffic signal pole is surprisingly beautiful and, appropriately, it communicates "Go" just about as well as anything, with the arguable exception of an image of one of the games called "Go". A traffic signal is a much more universal image, though.
One possible shortcoming: although the cover works well artistically, the band's name might not be ideally visible from a marketing standpoint. Because the band broke up this month, marketing might not matter much to them at the moment anyway.
3. Jason Falkner - I'm OK...You're OK
Once an artist decides their photo should grace the cover of their album, the odds of that cover becoming memorable, at least for a positive reason, decline drastically. Playful composition and typography elevate this cover. He's listening to music (or at least pretending to) rather than gazing at the camera or off into a sunset. There's not a terrible eau de ego here, nor does the art seem very likely to quickly look soooo 2007 in a srsly bad way. Granted, the kicky look isn't terribly modern to begin with but I maintain it has a certain timelessness. Zee cover art of I'm OK...You're OK, now and forever.
4. Tegan and Sara - The Con
A lovely cover that stood out from the crowd this year and admirably showed an appreciation for another art form. I'm speaking of course, of the noble art of the con. You can read more about cons using the Internet at your local library.
5. Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy for Evolution
The cover art for this classical album is beautiful and elegant but not overly fussy.
6. Nick Lowe - At My Age
Oh, at what age? (That's a rhetorical question). It would take more than white hair to render Nick Lowe convincingly fuddy-duddy in this wonderful, hep drawing. It's old-fashioned, yes, but in a cool way that fails to make him seem remotely as aged as he might have intended. This artwork reminds me a bit of some of the title credits for old screwball comedies. Lowe, here, is posing a bit like a slightly-stodgy character at the beginning of such a film, right before he's plunged into wacky mishaps.
7. The Bad Plus - Prog
a) Here's to words, to writing, to writers!
b) Boo computers! Microsoft sucks! Lets go back!
c) Complicated cover art ‡ better cover art; simple covers can be very effective.
d) All of the Above
e) Some of the Above
f) Boo Multiple Choice Tests; lets go back before they existed!
8. The Most Serene Republic - Population
The Muji "Suburbia in a Bag" toy, made by Industrial Facility was used to create The Most Serene Republic's adorable cover, which looks like a Little Golden Book. Ah, childhood.
9. Marah - Can't Take It With You EP
The ouija board prompts a double-take; the letters that spell out the title can be found there. Also on the board, the ouija's classic "yes", "no", and "goodbye". This design concept fits the title really well.
10. Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
It may provoke a smile, a bit of discomfort, outright hate, or all three, and that's part of what makes this unique cover well-suited to Malcolm Middleton's A Brighter Beat. Among the songs on this album is the one he chose to take a crack at the UK Christmas #1 this year. Now, "We're All Going to Die" may not have been everyone's cuppa, but maybe it was just the title. Or more people decided they'd rather listen to X Factor winner Leon Jackson while drinking their Christmas cuppa. Or maybe Middleton's music really isn't everyone's cuppa. He reminds of us of our mortality, even moreso than television talent programs. (Or do those make us remind ourselves of it, almost with an odd note of reassurance, as in, "well, at least heaven's soundtrack will be better"?) Middleton prompts a strange blend of good cheer and morbid melancholia.
I took an immediate dislike to this cover when I first saw it, but I came to like it, and now I like it a lot. The context the video for "A Brighter Beat" provided must have made a difference. It also helped that the album was released early in the year, so I had several months to get used to the balloon-headed guy in the bed, and come find him quite sweet, if a bit fragile and prone to static cling.
Happy New Year, all. Have a happy and safe 2008!
And regardless of when you're reading this, don't drive if you've had anything alcoholic to drink or be passive about it if you see someone else about to do so.
John K. Samson is a poet and a storyteller as much as he's a singer-songwriter and guitarist. You'll find yourself absorbed by one (catchy, sing-along) emotional snapshot after another—characters expressing what they feel, wish for, and regret more honestly and creatively than most people ever do.
"Tournament of Hearts" finds a curler eloquently expressing their frustration with life by using the language of their sport:
"'Why can't I ever stop where I want to stay?' I slide right through the day Always throwing hack weight Right off, no never never ever ever Right off, no never never ever never
That chorus is incredibly catchy. While these stories are often thoughtful, even melancholy, many are simultaneously so fun and upbeat they almost require toe-tapping at a minimum. The work of Samson's cohorts Stephen Carroll, Greg Smith, and Jason Tait is a thing of beauty. All are very talented and their work is tight and cohesive. (After seeing him in concert, I've tried to emulate Carroll's vertical guitar-playing in Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, but so far my skillz don't quite match his.)
It's probably pretty clear how much I enjoyed Reunion Tour. It's easily my favorite album of the year.
I first heard about The Hours from XO London. It was immediately apparent they were special. Narcissus Road is a stunning debut; its songs have hooks to spare.
Their music was reminiscent of The Stone Roses, and I thought they, too might have one-great-album in them. There's a big distinction in that six years ago, singer-songwriter Antony Genn overcame a severe drug addiction. His father also died from cancer. These difficult experiences seem to have left him stronger, and better able to cope with what life throws at him. A more mature person is less likely to want to grab his dolly and go home if his bandmates don't like a new song he wrote.
Many of the songs on Narcissus Road were sparked by Genn's "life experiences" in childhood. He says "your parents fuck you up".
The soaring "Icarus", about Pete Doherty, gently urges empathy for those who have spectacular falls, reminding us of the personal seeds of such destruction ("He had a misanthrope for a dad/Who crushed any hope he might have had/When he was just a boy"). "Icarus" also delves into the universal pangs we all feel ("In a world of such confusion, contradiction, and delusion/We all can have a heavy heart").
The group's somewhat "Tubthumping"esque first single "Ali in the Jungle" is a sort of companion to "Icarus". "Icarus" is about the fall; "Ali" is about getting back up again. It makes allusions to a number of comebacks (most significantly, Muhammad Ali's "Rumble in the Jumble" fight, when he regained his Heavyweight title). The song is both reassuring and demanding, like a good mentor: "Everybody gets knocked down/How quick are you gonna' get up?"
"I am the bear with the dullest of claws made to fight this life on a rope of meaningless laws" - "Killed by the Telephone"
Mary Timony has a lilting vocal style I'm partial to, and I think The Shapes We Make is an album worthy of her vocal skillz. One song after another delivers a clear point of view and perceptive lyrics accompanied by strong alt-rock music.
Songs are both political (like "Sharpshooter" and "Pause/Off" which take anti-hunting and pro-choice stands, respectively) and personal (like the piano-heavy, hopelessly-devoted "Window", which might appeal to Tori Amos fans). I put "Curious Minds" on my top songs list, so of course it's another highlight. It's hard to name highlights because it's such a good album. It's smart and entertaining and I think it will still sound good years from now.
4. Aereogramme - My Heart Has A Wish That You Would Not Go
I'm not sure how much middle-ground there is with Aereogramme. Maybe some people feel that they're talented... but can't stand listening to them, and that's a sort of middle ground. Otherwise, if you give the album a few songs, or watch a few Aereogramme videos, you kinda get the sense whether or not this is a band for you. My "gorgeous, lovecentric album pulsing with an aching passion" may be your "mopey, whiney, pretentious, miserable, foreign guy who's probably better off without this girl that makes him so damn mopey".
Battle ≠ Battles. Battles is spelled with an "s" at the end; they're a band; Battle is spelled without an "s" at the end. They are a catchy-rock-song-producing machine of some kind. Break the Banks is a great album, full of fast-paced, toe-tapping songs with strong beats.
6. Oh Laura - A Song Inside My Head, A Demon In My Bed
Like 80% of trendy groups nowadays, Oh Laura is Swedish. Unlike many of their musical comrades, Oh Laura's music shows a country influence. Thematically, it makes sense. Their excellent debut album is largely concerned with relationship issues and heartbreak, such things are the lifeblood of country. Better still, the band wears the country influence well, and is in general very talented. Their stock in trade is bouncy love confessionals and surprisingly catchy songs about relationship troubles; some are more country-flavored than others, all are well-done.
Songbook is delightful, whimsical, and clever. "If Only I Were a Painter, I'd Paint for You the Moon" is lots of boppy fun in a Belle and Sebastian vein. "Home as a Romanticized Concept Where Everyone Loves You Always and Forever" is even better than the title. Lyrics like "I went to ninja school/to learn how to murder you" ("Death by Ninja (A Love Song)") are not for everyone. My reaction to the album was twofold: "I love this" and "This is not for everyone..." Whimsical music isn't for everyone; for many of us who find it appealing, this album is quite a treat.
Jinkies, Time On Earth is a wonderful album. Generous in both quantity (14 songs) and emotional richness, the album covers a broad range of subject matter, but much of it touches on love and loss. The themes could hardly be absent, as this is the band's first album since the death of drummer Paul Hester. His death is directly addressed ("She Called Up") and alluded to in subtle ways. The death of someone close to you causes aftereffects like a major earthquake that shifts the ground, and causes lingering, unpredictible aftershocks.
The album eloquently describes the emotional turmoil of this shifted, unpredictibly rumbling ground, and some of the other angst that touches our "time on earth".
There's misrouted GPS navigational systems, in the catchy "Don't Stop Now", with its wonderful interplay of textured guitars and gentle drumwork. The lyrics, in which Neil Finn addresses his wife Sharon, lost on the road during a storm, are both encouraging and selfish ("No, don't stop now/Give me something I can write about").
The pensive, lovely "Pour Le Monde" ("for the world, not for the war") shows how rangey and talented the band is; the lyrics ("And I wake up blind/Like my dreams were too bright"), tone, and sound of the song are completely different than "Don't Stop Now, or than "English Trees" (another highlight, with beautifully-expressed thoughts about love and loss).
I was disappointed when it turned out Absolutes wasn't a new album by the "I Have the Password to Your Shell Account" Barcelona. This Barcelona wasn't a chirpy bunch of lovable wisenheimers! However, they are lovable in their own, (much)more sincere right. Absolutes' infectious, lovelorn synthpop became an immediate favorite of mine.
Thoroughly charming retro-pop performed with style and skill. The band isn't always skilled at picking singles, however ("Add Your Light To Mine, Baby"? Really?) If you've only heard "Light" and thought it was mediocre, you're right, but the band is much better than that song. The album does begin with "Light", but twelve much better, sparkling tunes follow.
Naturally, given the genre, these are largely sugar-sweet, bubbly love songs. You're probably not going to find Lucky Soul singing about a harrowing meth addiction or grisly plights of any kind. It's high-quality, fun music.
Flat-out beautiful noise rock. If this kind of music is your cup of cacophony, it's well-worth owning the regular edition (the limited-edition adds a remix disc).
Because Rich Aucoin synced his EP to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, some might be tempted to dismiss it as a novelty, which it definitely isn't. It's a kick to watch Grinch with an Aucoin soundtrack, but the music stands on its own as an accomplished, majestic work. Multi-instrumentalist Aucoin favors a sonic patchwork quilt approach, à la Andrew Bird or Sufjan Stevens, and his songs have a similar offbeat charm. There's an amazing mélange of sounds on this entertaining album—pianos, drums, organs, flutes, trumpets, handclapping, a theremin (!), and a whole lot of synth. But the most important ingredient in the mix is Aucoin's obvious talent. Personal Publication is an incredibly accomplished album, and leaves you excited to see where his career will go.
Welsh retro-popsters Los Campesinos! are pretty much loads of fun. Now, they do profess to care about nothing more than dancing, and that's not true. They made an anti-war statement in "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" and then, in case anyone didn't get it, they a bloody war video for the song (eh, I prefer their fun videos). They've also covered Black Flag's "Police Story", so they're not just a mild-mannered group of dancing peasants, as their name and some lyrics might imply. Mild or not, they tend to produce energetic, fun pop songs.
Weirdest audience-participation moment in a comedy album:
A Michael Showalter gig is interrupted by meowing; he realizes a woman sitting in the front row has brought two cats with her (in "a cage"). It makes for a kind-of amusing, definitely-uncomfortable moment as he berates the woman, then kicks her (and her cats) out of the show. It feels a bit set up for him; did someone put her there on purpose? Did no one at the theatre notice her holding a large cat carrier? Hmmm.
Top Best-Ofs Albums Of 2007:
1. Michael Penn - Palms & Runes, Tarot & Tea: A Michael Penn Collection
I would have assembled a different collection of tracks, but how often do you get your ideal compilation? Michael Penn music is always a good thing. This collection includes many of his most-loved songs ("No Myth", "Whole Truth", "Don't Let Me Go"), several alternate versions, demos, and previously unreleased songs. If the alternate takes don't tend to improve on the previously released versions, that mostly speaks to the high quality of the originals. But the new version of "Cupid's Got A Brand New Gun" is stellar, and the spacey bachelor-lounge cool stamped onto the new "Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In)" has really grown on me.
What, no "As Heaven Is Wide"? OK, so this compilation isn't my ideal either, but it too includes a ton of excellent music. The second disc adds loads of remixes, including "The World Is Not Enough (UNKLE Remix), "Androgyny (Felix Da Housecat - Thee Extended Glitz Mix), and "Milk" (Massive Attack Big Beat Mix).
2007 was a great year for music. Not great enough to merit some sort of "top 100 songs of the year" list, mind you, but a pretty great year. Therefore this year's top songs list has been expanded to a whopping (but-not-bloated) 50-tune size. The list is packed with quality, delightful music. Another post, which will include Kofi's hat's 2007 Top Album and EP picks, is still to come.
You can read more about the quality music in this post at your local library! (Or at the artists' websites, I suppose.)
A wistful, lovelorn tale of a lost opportunity for possible romance, set inside a Canadian bus, somehow doesn't sound cheerful. The Weakerthans' magic still somehow produces a happiness-inducing, highly-danceable song.
This touching apocalyptic love song fuzzes in-and-out, increasing its desperate edge. "Broken" edges out the also-excellent "Vapour Trail"
4. Aereogramme and Hal Duncan - "If You Love Me You'd Destroy Me"
"I'll give you the secrets that no one else knows Stripping my soul as I strip off my clothes"
For the Ballads of the Book compilation, Scottish writers and poets penned tracks performed by Scottish singers and bands. At the album's website, you can check out the lyrics to this track and streaming audio of it, and do likewise for other tracks on this impressive collection. Even if you only liked "Destroy", it'd be ample reason to join me in hoping for Ballads II: The Revenge of the Kilt.
Lucky Soul made the most irresistibly catchy retro-pop to be found this year. I prefer this one slightly over "My Brittle Heart", but they're both wonderful, and very similar: sweet, fizzy, winsome, and melodramatic in that old-fashioned, pop-song way. I find "Darling" a bit catchier ("Every fourth beat is missing/If it ain't missing then it's skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skipping").
I'm counting Aerogramme and Hal Duncan as distinct from Aereogramme so I can sneak this song on the list. Hey, the group broke up this year. Who knows how long it may be until they reunite and give us new material?
9. New Young Pony Club - "The Get-Go" (barely edges out "The Bomb, which is also stellar)
10. Rich Aucoin - "10,432 Cuts For The US (An Exploding)"
16. Athlete - "Best Not to Think About It" - the band often plays an acoustic version of this song in concert. This recent video shows how well it works as an acoustic song:
The process of checking which songs that seemed to be released in 2007 were truly songs first released this year was painstaking, both because it was time-consuming and tedious, and because it excluded some kickass music. I'll mention just one "not actually a 2007" song, because the group's website is so much fun, and well worth exploring. The song is "De Reiziger" by Dutch group De Kift (if you like Beirut, you'd probably dig it.)
Edited to add Post-script #2:
Patrick Wolf's "The Magic Position" was erroneously excluded from the list when it was posted. The mistake was probably the result of an editing error on the part of one of my well-meaning, semi-competent interns. I'm adding the song in a tie for #50.
Via CRAFT, a t-shirt that proclaims "I LOVE POWER BALLADS". At last people can know that about you without your having to constantly remind them. The old-school lighter illustration reinforces the statement. Oh, a sea of bobbing cellphones just isn't the same as the flickering flames of the good old days, is it?
Gift Guide '07: Merry Christmas, Here's a Halitosis Detector!
Yikes, Christmas is drawing near. Here, then, the Kofi's hat 2007 Gift Guide, a project I decided for some reason to undertake! The gifts are loosely organized in delightfully-overlapping, grammatically-questionable, verbtastic categories. Merry Whatever You Celebrate and/or Believe!
Write
Vintage Vantage's linernotebooks, at $15-34 each, aren't cheap, but they are stylin'. Vintage LP covers are used for the front and back covers of these spiral notebooks.
The bizarre version (pictured above) featuring a bunch of children holding carrots aloft (kids carrots, $24, Vintage Vantage) is my favorite. It seems to use a French-language album intended for children and the young at heart... both groups who could do with a little more Vitamin A in their diets? There are several Elton John linernotebooks; same goes for Billy Joel. If you dig Neil Diamond or Mötley Crüe, you're in luck.
No one should get even such a cool notebook and not get a writing implement. It's even better if they get an unusual one. JetPens is one source for unique and interesting pens, including many from Japan. Shipping is free for orders above $25 and it should be easy to find enough keen items to reach that $25 mark. For starters, there's the Dong-A Popcorn Puffy Paint Pen ($12, 10-color set), which puffs up under the high heat of a blow-dryer. Okay, so it's not necessarily recommended for your environmentally-conscious friends and relatives, unless you think they'd be so amused by the pens' name they'd forget how much energy they're using with the blow-dryer.
Read
Christmas is good for lying around looking at books that, well, are easy to read, and can be quoted aloud, to the delight or irritation of gathered loved ones. Comic strip collections are a great choice if you have a good handle on your giftee's sense of humor. FWIW, this year I'm gifting Dinosaur Comics: 2003-2005 A.D. ($14.99) and collections of these strips: Pearls Before Swine, Dilbert, and Foxtrot.
I also recommend Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree ($11.20), a collection of his "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns from The Believer. Each one begins with a list of the books he bought and read that month. It's remarkably entertaining to read Hornby discuss what he's been reading. As a fan of tangents, I love it when some interesting topic drives him somewhat to distraction. He discusses people's tendency to send books because they think the writing is similar to his own or deals with subject matter reminiscent of his life. Matter-of-factly, yet eloquently, he writes:
"I can see why publishers do this, but the books that arrive in the post tend to be a distorted and somewhat unappetizing version of one’s life and work. And what one wants to read, most of the time, is something that bears no reference to one’s life and work."
So I'm not the only person who feels that way. Hornby's second collection of "Stuff I'm Reading" columns, Housekeeping vs. the Dirt ($11.20 at Amazon), was published last year. The McSweeney's Store is selling both books with a bonus Songbook CD for a cool $18. When they say Songbook is sold out, though, they must mean from their store, because it's still in-print and available from Amazon for $10.40; however it is the disc-less version.)
The New York Times has helpfully compiled a list of 10 Best Books of 2007, so that ought to pretty much cover your book-gifting needs. If it doesn't, for some odd reason, maybe their compilation of 100 Notable Books of 2007 will do the trick.
Whether you're stumped, it's too late to peruse gift guides, or your person just likes the gift of choosing their own things, there's always the option of gift certificates. Oh, gift certificates. You're like cash, except you can only be spent in certain locations, and sometimes you expire. But if cash seems tacky, a gift certificate can seem classy. A BookSense gift card can be used in person at 300+ independent bookstores and online at some stores and expresses support for the noble independent bookseller. A gift certificate to the giftee's local independent comics or music store also might be welcomed.
Listen
A mix CD made with care is a wonderful gift.
Albums, old or new, can be pretty cool too. I hesitate to delve into offering any music recommendations here; this isn't intended as a mini-year's-end-best-of-list. It's a brief, painfully incomplete list of recommended independent-label 2007 albums. No warranties are expressed or should be implied; your mileage may vary: Japancakes - Loveless, Woodpigeon - Songbook, The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour (if someone's been very good this year, you could get them a copy for their car, one for the office, one for each CD player at their home, and one for their significant other's CD player), Architecture in Helsinki - Places Like This (warning: they dance on the line between fun and annoying. Some people might well hate them. I think they're a lot of fun. But... yeah, I can see people hating them.), The Last Town Chorus - Wire Waltz
If you know they would be welcome—concert tickets are a cool gift.
At windchimes.com you can listen to various kinds of chimes, bells, gongs, and fountains before you buy.
Cook
Cooking Light's Best Gifts For Cooks is a brief list, but it includes some cool items, like the silicone (and glass) Silpat mat which can be used to make baking surfaces nonstick ($12.50+, Chef's Boutique, 10% off if you buy 10 or more.)
Also gift-worthy: flexible silicone mixing bowls ($44.95 for 3 red bowls, sized 1, 1 1/2 and 2 quart, Chef's Resource). They allow one to easily pour ingredients from one bowl to another, or add them to an entirely non-bowl arena such as a food processor. It's like a whole new world of convenience.
If you're jumping on the silicone-kitchen train for your giftee, consider getting them an expandable/collapsible silicone collander ($29.99, Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Available in red, blue, and gray.) Also dang convenient, and, well, cute. I recently gifted myself with a 12-cup silicone muffin pan; it's all about the silicone at the moment. Hurry, and help your loved ones replace all their bakeware with silicone before we find out it's somehow flawed and we have to switch again.
ReusableBags.com offers several Lunch kits; you may have a hard time deciding which one (or two) to get. The To-Go Ware Kit has utensils made from sustainably-harvested bamboo, two dishwasher-safe food containers that fit together, a stainless steel carrier, and a plate, The carrycase is made by a women's co-op in Thailand. A few kits include Bento boxes.
Rishi Tea is organic and fair-trade certified, and could make a refreshing alternative to the flavored coffees often given at the holidays.
If it's at the last minute and you're desperate, go for some unusual salsas (remember to get chips) or baking mixes from Williams Sonoma.
Play
It may delight, mildly amuse, or horrify its recipient, so proceed with caution before plunking down $25 for that halitosis detector (Restoration Hardware). For the record, it is pretty cute and detects a whopping "four escalating stages of unfreshness". It's technically suitable for ages 10+, and it might thrill (rather than traumatize) the right 11 year-old. Still... even if a kid liked it, I shudder at the thought of the childhood experimentation that might take place trying to reach and maintain level 3 or 4 "unfreshness".
No, I'm not doing the Halitosis Gift Basket for anyone (not this year anyway), but in the "fun and nonsensical" category, I did get my brother a Camoflage Marshmallow Shooter with a simulated laser sight. Naturally, I also got him a bag of mini-marshmallows, which I am hoping he will mostly shoot at targets other than me.
A Flybar seems like a great idea that kids won't do anything nutty with... hey, where's my couch?
Donate
The altruistic route: if you know a cause or group that's especially important to someone, it's easy. If they say something vague about not wanting a present and "just giving to charity", you could punish them for their vagueness with a gift toward an organization with views you know they despise, or simply purchase Charity Navigator gift card and force them, I mean, them decide where they would like to direct the donation. Yes, I can turn a charitable holiday gift into an opportunity to be vaguely sinister and underhanded; I am very proud.
The chord progression map for major scales pictured above was created by Steve Mugglin of chordmaps.com. The design is available in convenient t-shirt form ($14.95 sizes S-XL, then $18.95+, Zazzle). Six different versions of the shirt are available, with different colors used in the map. (As a side note, so to speak: a keen fractal design shirt is also available.) The shirts, sadly, are all white. Spend more than $75 from Zazzle and get free shipping using the code FREESHIPMORE through December 10th. This code and lots more t-shirt coupon codes and info about holiday sales at t-shirt stores can be found at The Daily Tee.
Retail Me Not is another great source of coupon codes; it's worth a search there, and a Google search before you shop, especially if you're buying online. There are lots of discounts and coupon codes to be found year-round, but especially at the holidays.
When you buy Throx, you get three socks, so you're ready for the (inevitable?) loss of one. Paul Frank also sells a 3-pack of socks ($30, free shipping through 12/21); perhaps this is a trend. If so, I hope we don't go evolving another foot, adapting to having all those extra socks.
At Holiday Felt Club XL, I sought a pair of earrings that matched the dress I planned to wear on Thanksgiving, and lucked into a lovely, wordy pair made by Barbe Saint John, namely her Sparkling Conversation mixed media earrings ($20), made using vintage paper from a French dictionary and Swarovski potato chip crystal beads. They are indeed sparkly and have a whimsical charm I love.
Beautiful, city-inspired and steampunk-influenced necklaces and other items someone might deserve if they've been reasonably good this year are available from Barbe Saint John's Saints & Sinner's shop.
In addition to crafting jewelry, she handspins yarn. 100% of the net proceeds from her "Scrappy Cats" handspun yarns are donated to A Place to Bark, a Portland, TN animal rescue non-profit organization.
Any jewelry-wearing LEGO fans on your shopping list? Consider getting them something from Kasimade.com, where the jewelry is both ridiculously inexpensive (earrings as cheap as $3.00) and completely adorable. I bought a $15.00 necklace from Kasi at Felt Club XL. I love it and it fetches loads of compliments.
It's not a Felt Club find, but nonetheless I think this steampunk ring ($10, Steampunkadelic's Etsy shop) is pretty cool.
A last note related, more-or-less, to things one wears— if you're getting someone cosmetics, perfume, or bath products, please make sure the company doesn't test on animals. If a product's packaging (or their website) doesn't say one way or the other, odds are they do conduct animal testing.
Other Stuff
If you're buying for a LEGO fan, whether or not they wear jewelry, for goodness sake, check out the Official LEGO shop. They sell loads of cool exclusive stuff you won't realize you—I mean the person you're shopping for—needed until seeing it there. They might have a refrigerator that dispenses ice cubes, but does their fridge give them LEGO brick-shaped ice cubes ($7.99)? I didn't think so. How 'bout a sports bag in that same familiar shape? ($24.99, only available in blue) Or a backpack? ($19.99, available in pink or blue)
Adding an actual LEGO toy would be fitting and fun, and you can get something cool for very little money. The shop's sales and discounts section contains heavily-discounted items. There are some pretty inexpensive items elsewhere, like Mini Animals and the Mini Construction toy (each is $4.99).
Giving someone a clock might be interpreted as a message ("maybe now you'll start showing up on time"). Reduce the odds of offending with your timely gift by giving a clock that's more work-of-art than timepiece. Oh, this Gear clock ($124.95, Z Gallerie) tells time fine... probably. But who can tell for sure?
Fans of puns and/or psychology might appreciate the Freudian sips mug ($12.95, The Unemployed Philosophers Guild). Or perhaps your mother would like a Freudian slippers ($24, Uncommon Goods)? Uncommon Goods also sells $12 Freudian slips "sticky notes", and perhaps if you're shopping for someone who collects "sticky notes", you should get them. Otherwise, I think you shouldn't.
A distinctive table, perhaps one that resembles a tuba, like the one pictured above, $1,600 from San Francisco's Sultana, would make a surprising and interesting present. If you love someone who would love a Palm tree table but you would not love to spend more than $4,000 on it, why Sultana may be able to help you out there too.
Unless someone else buys it first. Then you might be left pondering whether your loved one would prefer, say, the rather cool 1940s Composer's Cabinet or possibly the rather disturbingly-named "Mod Fiberglass Phalic [sic] Lamps" (choose the Cabinet! If they have the space and a use for it!)
Other Gift Guides
The New York Times Holiday Gift Guide also recommends presents in non-literary categories—music, technology, dining & wine, and fashion, style and home.
Speaking of treehuggers, this year's Treehugger.com Gift Guide offers a list of Worthy Causes for the Holiday Season and ideas for what to get, er, "the geek" (man, am I'm confused). Is there one type of geek, or many? Do the treehugger people just not want to consider themselves geeks? Geekery is good, treehuggers! Own your geekdom!
The Treehugger geeks also suggest presents for other "types" like "the yoga fiend", "the DIYer", and "the new parents" (it's not there, but isn't "your baby-sitting services" what new parents most want? It gives them some time to get away on their own, and keeps them from being so desperate for a night out that they do something rash like taking the baby with them to the movies.)
For 77 design gifts under $77, peruse the Core77 Ultimate Gift Guide. Core 77 recommends the same silverware as MAKE, which made me feel better that Core featured the bubble-blowing dish scrubber I had planned on including.
The Men's Health Gift Guide may present you with a dilemma (no pun intended; I pun accidentally. It's a gift.) If you seek guidance shopping for a significant other, you'll be asked to classify them as one of several stereotypes. A female, for instance, can be a: "Chic Diva", "Hot Momma", "Buff Babe", "Tomboy", "Green Goddess", or a "Cute Coed". Before looking at the recommendations for women, I asked myself, "Which am I?"
"Buff Babe" was out. That sounds like a woman who would go on the revived American Gladiators; I'm a woman who will enthusisastically watch the revived American Gladiators unless/until deciding it sucks.
I care about the environment, but I'm not as green as green LA girl— you can check out her Emerald City Green Gift Guide for much better "green" suggestions than an expensive watch or socks with "increased dexterity and breathing space".
I'm a little bit chic, slightly buff, somewhat green... there should be a hodgepodge category. But I remembered a Helpful Incident. At Thanksgiving dinner, my cousin's very beautiful, angelic-looking, mischievous two year-old daughter turned to me and said, "You're Mommy!" After the pause that ate Delaware, I asked, "I am?" She was sure: "Yes! Hi Mommy!!" "Hi..?" I responded, weakly.
So apparently I'm closest to qualifying as a "Hot Momma" (she didn't say I'm hot, but gimme a break, this is hard enough.) The recommendations for moms include a wine club subscription and a Bluetooth headset... hmm, no, that's way off. They really don't know what mothers want. Oooh, wait, they also suggest a pretty, eco-friendly yoga/pilates mat and cushion set for two (Beinjoy, $100). That's more like it.
The recommendations for a "Do-It-All-Dad" (pictured in a suit with a son on his lap) don't include a diaper bag or anything that relates to child-rearing. Apparently the name "Do-It-All-Dad" was chosen to show that irony is not dead, thanks very much. He put the kid on his lap for a minute before leaving for the office; isn't that enough to show he's co-parenting? Perhaps he just doesn't need corporate help to parent, unlike product-obsessed mom? Well, then he shouldn't need to get ahold of the modern, high-tech equivalent of a picture frame, a digital photo display unit ($199-$249, Philips). His favorite picture of the tot in a simple frame should suffice.
The "93 products we love" in the Men's Health TechGuide includes a wide variety of non-digital photo display unit stuff, including Home Hero fire extinguisher, which they call ""the Natalie Portman of portable firefighting: smart and hot." Yes, I know a fire extinguisher is supposed to put out fires, but they seem pretty pleased with themselves; let's not extinguish their enthusiasm. Ho ho ho. Anyway, the Home Hero will be exclusively at Home Depot when available; no sign of it at their website yet.
Don't let SELF's holiday gift guide fool you. Those Godiva truffles aren't "heart-healthy", even though they contain dark-chocolate. SELF has other, better suggestions.
Boing Boing's Shopping Zen links to a number of gift guides/round-ups of gift-guides (yes, this does get confusing).
Games Magazine gets a jump on the new year by including their 2008 Games of the Year and Other Awards with their holiday gift guide. The gift guide isn't online, but the awards are. For more game recommendations, see PC Magazine's Gift Guide: Hot Games list. Their gift guide includes recommendations for "the person who has everything", kids, etc., but does anyone really want to get their kid a $70 "sassy" interactive toy parrot? It will be cute when "Squawkers McCaw" repeats what you say the first time, but how about the tenth time? Is "randomly responding to his pre-programmed phrases in a nonsensical way" really all that "'humorous and 'playful'"? In short, I probably need one to test whether it's bearable, let alone any fun. Also, there should be a monkey version next year, so let's hope someone's on that.
