merry xmas to me

Now granted I was not exactly expecting a lump of coal in my stocking but this past xmas was a particularly bountiful one which will provide me with hours of entertainment in the coming year. The Amazon wishlist is an amazing thing. It allows all your relatives who have no idea what to get you, the ability to score on Christmas morning, at your birthday party, or for whatever event you are receiving presents for.

It's too bad that I am taking such a big credit load this coming semester because I received an awesome array of books for christmas. I suppose that I can at least veg out and study to the music and movies that I received as well.

Now I just need to convince my family not to spend so much on me. I mean don't get me wrong I love getting all the things on my wishlist but it's kind of ridiculous for people to spend so much on gifts.

And now for the list you may not care about or not but these are the things that I will be all about this year;

Music:
- Anthology of American Folk Music
- the classic collection of early american music put together by Harry Smith, who by the way is an amazing guy that really deserves a biopic .
- various: I Belong to This Band
- The latest release from dust-to-digital is a collection of Sacred Harp recordings from the 1920s to today. It is a companion to a film which I am not familiar with but will definitely be looking into. I just found out that there is a group who meet weekly at the UoM Baptist church. I think I will be checking this out in the coming year.
- London Sinfonietta: Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters
- a great collection of works by some of the top avant garde composers and arranged works by Aphex Twin and Squarepusher

Movies:
- Vertigo
- the classic hitchcock psychological thriller about obsession.
- Walk the Line
- no need to talk about this. I hope all of you have seen it.
- Sports Night
- Aaron sorkin's first tv show is an awesome look behind the scenes of a sports tv show.
- Once Upon a Time in America
- the classic gangster film from Sergio Leone. This may be my favorite gangster film of all time.
- The Hidden Fortress
- another classic by Kurosawa that was the genesis for the Lucas to write the Star Wars trilogy

Books:
- The Book of Dave by Will Self
- what a premise. a cabby buries his rant about this world in his ex-wife's back yard and several hundred years and an apocalypse later it becomes the basis for a new religion and society.
- Songbook by Nick Hornby
- a collection of essays about songs that mean a lot to nick hornby.
- The Obstacles - Eloy Urroz
- two writers each writing stories that appear to be about each other.
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- the classic, which I have never read
- The Essays of Mark Twain
- perhaps the finest american writer.

Add to this a bottle of Deanston 17 year scotch and it was a pretty good xmas.