Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Favorite Christmas Presents


I'd say the present I've used most so far is the set of Dominos we got from my brother-in-law. Mrs. Chaka and I play a couple of rounds at most meals. So far, we've each won two games and concluded that the chair on the north side of the table is far luckier than the one on the south side. (Chicago-area readers, make your own joke.)

Another gift that's provided hours of enjoyment is a pair of mix CDs that my sister-in-law gave me. I am highly out of touch when it comes to music. Mrs. Chaka has said that she always thought a man should have an interesting CD collection, and when we met during our freshman year of college, mine was woefully mediocre. Luckily I had my raw sexual magnetism to fall back on.

My CD collection is still fairly mediocre (as you can tell by the fact that it's a CD collection and not a playlist on an iPod). What artist do I have the most of? Bob Dylan. Some might think that's good taste, but to be honest, there's a good measure of regional pride and reverse prestige going on there. I don't have the patience to go out looking for new music; the radio bores me, and I won't spend money on CDs or mp3s. That's where my sister-in-law rescues me. She gave me Come on Feel the Illinoise a while ago, so I got in on the Sufjan Stevens bandwagon slightly ahead of the curve. From her mix CDs, I have a few more artists to investigate:

Beirut (who, Mrs. Chaka points out, sound a lot like Sufjan)

Feist (who sounds sorta like a female Jack Johnson)

On the reverse prestige note, I would like to confess that I love the nerdy/uncool instruments: accordian, harmonica, ukelele, oboe.

So, any number of things you can comment on for this post: You can talk about your own music tastes, which Christmas present you are using the most, my raw sexual magnetism, etc.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think the 3rd option is appropriate for the blogspere.

Pirate Jimmy said...

I think you should add harder music into your audio diet. I suggest some of the following:
Tool (which I know you've listened to some of, after your post about the song off their latest album).
Darkest Hour
Alice in Chains


Or, a real suggestion, is Jimi Hendrix. You can never go wrong with Hendrix.

Special K said...

You definitely need more Spanish language artist...which is good, because it's all I have to recommend at this point! But I've stumbled across many great artists in my journeys through the Amazon and through Amazon.com.

--Alex Campos--Colombian Christian artist with a wide mix of styles, from rock to ballad to Mariachi to revamped nursery rhyme, to cumbia.
--Jesús Adrián Romero-- beautiful piano/guitar accompaniment, Christian artist
--Fonseca--incredible Colombian cumbia, tropical beats, fun stuff
--Cabas--young Colombian artist with a mix of rock, great tropical rhythms, traditional songs and instrumentation, and beautiful harmonies

and of course, if you're not a fan yet after his awesome album Mi Sangre, the colombian musician JUANES's new album La Vida...es un Ratico will surely convert you.


As for presents, I just put my new bike seat (thanks, dad) on my bike and my bike on my trainer, so now I just need time and motivation to use it! In 3 days of school I've used 3 pairs of socks (thanks, Santa). I've listened to both my new CDs dozens of times each and am 8 pages into my new book on ministry to the poor (thanks tía). Oh, and I've misted and watered my carnivorous pitcher plant every day and have enjoyed it's exotic beauty every time I go into my bathroom (thanks mom)! Yeah, the latter might be my favorite so far.