That Secret Santa practice that’s popular in the workplace and in some families always confuses me. I can’t keep track of how it works, and when I find myself unable to get out of one of these things, I get a bad feeling in my stomach. I’m cool with gift giving being out in the open. The guessing game thing and the ability to trade in a gift don’t sit right with me. Hit me with your best shot!
In that spirit I’d like to suggest Rock Town Hall’s Not-So-Secret Santa Celebration. Choose a Townsperson – one Townsperson – and wish a musically relevant gift upon that person. Try to spread the wealth: pick someone who has not yet received a gift, and don’t hog a half dozen Townspeople for yourself.
This “gift” doesn’t have to be a specific thing, like a particular record. In fact, I think it could be more fun it was more like wishing a musical value or insight for a fellow Townsperson. For instance, I might wish that my close personal friend E. Pluribus Gergely would finally feel the brilliance of the s/t album by The Band, one of my favorite albums since childhood and a constant point of disagreement between the two of us. It’s not just that we disagree aesthetically. I think a little less of him for not getting that album, and he takes pity on me for being so tied to the emotional and historical involvement that I have placed in the album since it was given to me by my uncle when I was about 5 years old. Wouldn’t this be a wonderful world if Rock Town Hall’s Not-So-Secret Santa simply granted him the ability to find a place for that album in his heart?
I would like to give saturnismine a graduate assistant (or two) to grade papers and do other kinds of grunt work so he can attend to more important work in the halls of Rock.
Mod said of Plurbie:
…he takes pity on me for being so tied to the emotional and historical involvement that I have placed in the album since it was given to me by my uncle when I was about 5 years old.
This, from the guy who likes Herman’s hermits because he fell in love with a greatest hits comp of theirs when he was eight years old?
Let us not mock, kindly EPG, HVB. Instead, let us shower our fellow Townspeople with gifts!
i wish all of you 6 cassettes of your choosing for just a penny!
In that case, Mod — I give to you the ability to just free your mind, so your ass can follow. This applies to both “black” and “white” genres of music that are *supposed* to make you shake your rump — or at least pump your fist — without thinking too much about it. (See: P-Funk, Prince, ZZ Top and AC/DC.)
Happy holidays!
I appreciate the gift, Hrrundi, and know what you mean. When this season of giving is over, perhaps we can examine my long appreciation of rump-shaking genres. It’s not always thinking that gets in my way, with some artists, but a lack of feeling I get from the music. I try.
Over the last few years I have, I should note, come around to the joys of Funkadelic. I’ve long liked most of America Eats Its Young and the early greatest hits comp that I bought on vinyl in the ’80s (“Funky Dollar Bill” rules!), but in recent years I’ve downloaded another dozen songs from their other albums, and those songs are always welcome when they pop up on my iPod.
I own 2 AC/DC albums, thanks to my gentle audiophile friend, Sethro. There’s MUCH to like about them, but I can SURELY use your gift to help me work through all that I do NOT like about them:)
I have another date with Prince ahead. Man, I hope your gift gets here before that point!
I’d like to give Big Steve David Gilmour’s studio, Astoria, which is on a boat. That way, none of his musical instruments or equipment will ever be endangered by surging water again.
Thanks, cher (he said with a Cajun accent). That sounds like a better studio than the barge where the Beach Boys recorded the Holland album, but probably with less hash.
I would just like to wish all of you a Very Merry Chrimble & A Gear New Year, as the Beatles said too darn long ago.