To shop perchance, to dream.
These Holiday Gift Guides are a mix of wish list, practicality (admittedly light on that note), and just plain fun with items starting at under $9.00 on up (and up). Aspirational with a shot of good cheap bourbon and a pair of well worn boots. I hope you enjoy this year’s picks that should have something for everyone.
Happy Holidays!
Frank Sinatra In The Wee Small Hours LP (Tone Poet Vinyl Edition) ($38.98)
Hell, I’da spent $40. I grew up on a steady diet of Ol’ Blue Eyes, Billie Holiday, and Stan Getz thanks to my father and as far as Frankie goes, In The Wee Small Hours is my favorite by a country mile because it’s just.so.incredibly.touching.
A Kick Ass Desktop System for $4,500
LAiV Audio Harmony µDAC ($995) | Dynaudio Core 5 Professional 2-Way Reference Studio Monitor ($3,398/pair) | Mogami Gold Studio XLR Cables ($59.95/3 ft. pair) | AudioQuest Pearl USB Cable ($59.95)
Boom! This little system will hit you like a music-loving mule in heat. Bam! I imagine it’ll do a small room righteous justice, too.
三菱鉛筆 B. Toys Mitsubishi Pencil with Pencil Eraser 9850 Hardness HB K9850HB ($8.98/12)
I know, 9 bucks for a box of pencils but bear with me—if you care about the quality of the things you write and erase with, or draw and erase or doodle and smudge, the 9850 from Mitsubishi will bring you joy beyond even $10’s worth.
Vermont Glove The Vermonter Work Gloves ($115/pair)
One thing you may not know about yours truly is I wear work clothes and work boots most days. Carhartt, Dickies, Thorogood. Why? Because they’re typically made well and are priced as articles of clothing not fashion statements (even though they can be). As a home owner whose home sits in the woods on over 4 acres of mostly woods, there are always plenty of chores in need of getting done and I’ve bought way too many shitty pairs of work gloves to count, gloves that tear apart easier than a bargain paper towel in a swimming pool. So I say, just say no! to cheap work gloves and these Vermonters from the Vermont Glove Company will outlast my hands.
A young couple are winding their way up Rt. 17, their first time in the Green Mountain State, and they stop at a quaint General Store for some Fiji water and Kale chips where an old man is rocking in a rocking chair on the front porch.
“Have you lived in Vermont your whole life?” they ask.
“Not yet.”
Anton Webern Complete Music for String Quartet Audio CD ($8.98)
For the price of a nice pencil, you can have the complete string quartets of Anton Webern on CD. To have and to hold. For me, Webern always injects a dose of beauty in his music no matter the style making even atonal 12-note compositions lovingly human, here aided by the Quartetto Italiano and their brio-infused la dolce vita.
Yoshitoshi I Want to Cancel My Subscription Socks ($16/pair)
Did you know that Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” instigated the most requests from The New Yorker magazine subscribers to cancel their subscriptions? As well as “the most mail the magazine had ever received in response to a work of fiction”? While Japanese artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi didn’t have “The Lottery” in mind for his color woodcut “I Want to Cancel My Subscription” seeing as it was made 70 years prior, that’s what these socks scream out to me. And they rock! (that’s a “The Lottery” joke). From the Philadelphia Art Museum store.
White’s Boots Perry 132 ($440/pair)
Speaking of work and boots, I’ve been eyeing these tall beauties from White’s Boots for a while. Hand made boots made in the USA don’t come cheap but the Goodyear Welt Construction employed means you can re-sole these bad boys forever. Built tough.
From White’s
A Goodyear welt is machine stitched, making production fast and precise. But all that speed can easily affect comfort, as synthetic materials replace the all-leather construction that our hand-sewing process requires—that’s why we’ve gentrified the fast and ready Goodyear welt with a thorough hand-bottoming at the hands of our master bootmakers. With a durable composite shank, and a Vibram midsole, our Goodyear welted boots boast the off-the-shelf readiness of a boot half their price and the comfort of a boot twice their price.
Leica Q3 Camera ($6,735)
While I’m not a ‘camera guy’, I am a lover of lovely things—all manner of things (my curse & pleasure)—and I positively lust after a Leica. The Q3 is on my “some day after we pay for things we actually need” list even though I’ve come to grips with the fact that the list of things we actually need is perpetually renewing.
LP ASPIRE Series Wood Bongos Natural LPA601-AW ($147.89)
Way back when our daughters were little, one had a friend whose parents worked for Modern Drummer magazine. At some party or other, that father pulled me aside and said, “See if you can tell who this is” as he held his phone close to my ear. “Hello. I’m trying to reach the editor. I designed and patented a conga drum tuner that I believe would be of interest to your readers….” That voice had me at “Hello” and belonged to none other than Marlon Brando (for real).
In addition to being a conga tuner patent holder and player, Brando also played bongos as did my dad around the same time he had a goatee which is all the hard sell I’m going to do for this little wooden set. Make music, not AI.
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition Second Edition ($26)
“The combination of tremendous intellectual power with great common sense makes Arendt’s insights into history and politics seem both amazing and obvious.” Mary McCarthy | New Yorker
When Mary McCarthy talks, I listen and I listen even more to historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt whose words have meaning seemingly written for today (and tomorrow). I picked this book, first published in 1958, because “The problems Arendt identified then—diminishing human agency and political freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions—continue to confront us today.”
“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”
— Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
A Post O’Alls Vest ($ varies)
Anyone who’s seen me at a hifi show has seen me wearing a vest. A nice vest not only feels good it provides warmth while hiding a thousand sins. Some of my favorite vests are made by Japan’s Post O’Alls (also spelled as Post Overalls). The company bases their designs on classic American workwear while adding a nice twist when it comes to materials, patterns, and colors. I picked a nice wool number in “basket tweed brown” (¥60,000 JPY) to highlight here for the chillier months.
Geese Getting Killed LP ($25)
If you’re looking for one new release from 2025 that proves new music is vital as all get out, I recommend New York City’s Geese and their 3rd studio album Getting Killed, released on Partisan Records back in September. And I’m not the only one…
On his highly recommended The Red Hand Files, Nick Cave was asked, “Which song comes to mind when you are genuinely joyful? I mean, carefree, energy flowing, dancing, moving, kind of happy?”
He responded (in part):
I put my earphones in and played Geese’s new album, Getting Killed. The first song starts with Cameron Winter singing, in his lovely, plaintive way –
“I try/ I try/ I try so hard”
– and I feel those simple words down to my soul, because we all try, because we all try so hard, and when the band kicks into the chorus – I mean, my God, those drums – and Cameron Winter screams, again and again –
“There’s a bomb in my car! There’s a bomb in my car!”
– all worry is laid to waste. The endorphins rushing wild from the freezing water, the music pounding through my body, the caffeine, the fucking ducks and the God-roiling sky – no what-ifs, no yeah-buts, no what-abouts, no caveats, at all. I am made happy, and that happiness is entire and incontestable. And all the way home, I go—to my beautiful waking wife – on this, the best day ever.
Love, Nick
A Frozen Dandelion ($18.89)
Frozen “in a high-clarity crystal glass cube.” Simple. Beautiful.
Garrard 401 Transcription Turntable ($ a lot)
Confession time—I lust after turntables. All kinds. But one dream vinyl rig would include a lovely old Garrard 401 in a nice chunky stacked ply plinth perhaps with not one but two arms for spinning LPs and 78s. Vinyl and shellac. The best of both worlds. Hey, a guy can dream. I have another confession but don’t tell anyone—I don’t find DACs to be particularly lust-worthy. Love? Sure.
Signed Pueblo Pottery from King Galleries
I’m returning to a recommendation first offered in this Guide in 2020. Why? Because you can still buy a lovely signed piece of contemporary or historic pueblo pottery for less than a mid-priced interconnect. Pictured is a small (5.25″w x 3.25″h) gunmetal jar with plant designs from the 1920’s by Tonita Roybal ($600). These are obviously hand made one-of-a-kind works embodying generational knowledge in art and craft and culture and the gunmetal finish used here takes great care in the firing and is striking in person. I still recommend Scottsdale, AZ’s King Galleries for their vast selection that grows by the week and solid reputation. I’ve purchased a few pieces from them over the years and every one was exactly as pictured and described. Window shopping encouraged.
TM “Like to Read” Mug ($15.99)
What would the holidays be without me hawking a mug for the price of two fancy big city cups of Joe.
Carhartt WIP Michigan Chore Coat (Winter) 100% Cotton ‘Dearborn’ Canvas ($245)
The great unwashed. The only place to get a new, unwashed, i.e. unsoftened, Carhartt Chore coat is from the brand’s upscale Carhartt WIP brand. Of course it comes with a high highfalutin’ price but I’m a big fan of buying “Rigid” clothing—jeans, work pants, and chore coats—because they tend to last longer, they break into your body, and you can stand ’em up in the corner if you run out of closet space.
Technics Direct Drive Turntable SP-10RE-S ($14,199.99)
When it comes to contemporary ‘tables, you’re looking at my dream pick (I can see it in a lovely plinth & package like the one from Fern & Roby). Simple clean lines containing real engineering from a historic hifi company sets my heart all aflutter (and wow).
A Lisa Ivory Painting on Paper (direct)
How about owning a real painting? I’m a fan of Lisa Ivory’s work, whether oil paint on panel or paper, as they conjure a similar kind of dark wonder as Albert Pinkham Ryder with a bit of Albert York’s whimsy and a dash of James Ensor’s madness. The works on paper are listed on Ivory’s Instagram page on a regular basis and you have to act fast if you want to snap one up. While I won’t quote her prices as I haven’t kept up since I bought one, which I love living with, it’s safe to say they cost about as much as a Carhartt WIP Michigan Chore Coat.
Diplomático Rum Exclusiva Reserva (about $35)
Speaking of spirits, for those who partake I recommend this aged sippin’ rum from Venezuela’s Diplomático that goes down like a smooth, sweet, aged something or other that doesn’t taste a lot like rum (light on fire, long on flavor). Yum. Goes great with apple cider for a simple holiday cocktail.
American Plating American Song Whistle ($33.99)
Everybody oopsies—a gaffe, a slip, a blunder—and there’s no better soundtrack for ’em as a good old fashioned (since the 1920s) nickel plated slide whistle. Just blow and slide. Make sound effects, not war.
Zora Sicher Geography (signed) from Dashwood Books ($85)
I make no bones about my appreciation of the appreciation of the human form in art. As the history of art illustrates, there is a difference between titillation and interpretation and if this topic tickles your fancy you can start with Sir Kenneth Clark’s The Naked and the Nude. Zora Sicher’s Geography is an examination of intimacy as documented by more than a decade of work captured frame-by-frame through the photographic process.
Grimm Audio MU2 Media Player / Streamer / Preamplifier ($20,600)
Want to buy your last DAC and live happily ever after? Stop fretting over bits and start enjoying music’s gifts? So far, and by far I mean about 15 year’s worth of far, the Grimm MU2 rang my bell the mostest. What’s more, it wraps a server, streamer, DAC, and analog preamp in one cool package. See my review for more words.
Wattson Audio Emerson ANALOG streaming DAC ($1,750)
“But all I want is a simple, great sounding streaming DAC. No bells, no whistles.” You’re looking at it. The Wattson Emerson ANALOG is a petite chunk of aluminum-encapsulated engineering in the service of music. Ethernet in, analog out. Simple. See my review for more words.
Drake’s Green Check Tweed Donkey Jacket ($1,495)
OK, now we’re aspiring. As you might imagine as a third generation Italian American with all but the previous generation manual laborers, I aspire to wear a painfully-priced classic British tweed wool donkey coat. Call me….complicated?
Vintage Woolrich Mackinaw Shirt Jacket ($80-$100)
Getting back down to earth, if you don’t mind buying used, these no longer made Woolrich Mackinaw shirt jackets are the real deal—thick, warm, comfy, and built to last. I’ve got two, they come in colors, and they are my go-to ‘coats’ for the home to Barn commute. I bought one new (because I’m vintage) and one on eBay.
I don’t know much about gardening, but I know what I like. This past Spring, I ‘planted’ (more like spread) a wildflower mix very much like this one right outside the Barn and it grew! All summer. I cannot explain in words the joy found in seeing them sway in the breeze colors ablaze with butterflies hovering on and above. No hummingbirds spotted. Maybe next year when the perennials return.
DeVore Fidelity O/Bronze Loudspeakers ($30,000/pair)
While I’m dreaming and aspiring, you’re looking at both when it comes to loudspeakers I’d love to live with. According to my entire being, which is part of the whole listening experience, the DeVore O/Bronze married to a fine amplifier, very much like a Komuro K300S, connected me to music the most.
From my review:
…the O/Bronze are among the most engrossing loudspeakers I’ve had the great pleasure of living with, placing music intimately close, me inside of it, or it inside of me. I’m talking about a real human connection to music that takes hold of one’s senses, thoughts, and feelings by focusing them completely on the music in play well beyond sounds, digging deep into our shared humanity.
Down Pillows ($ from not much to a lot)
Pillows. I’m going to end with pillows because the older I get the worse I sleep and I’m thinking the right pillow(s) might help. But first a story.
The last place I lived when I lived in NYC was a 4th floor walk-up in SoHo (well before it was a shopping mall) where I had 1/2 of the top floor loft. As you might expect, this was not a legal place to live and the first and basement floors housed a used clothing store called Alice’s Underground. Alice’s had banks of washing machines in the basement where they washed old clothes they then sold as used and when they ran those machines the water to our floor stopped running. This occurred more times than I care to remember, always in the early morning hours when I was showering, preparing for work on Wall Street. Drip, drip, drip. They also turned the heat way down into the low 50s at night during the winter since no one was (supposed to be) living in the building and due to the spaces between windows and frames, temperatures got downright chilly in my pad.
It’s that cold that relates to pillows. Specifically sleeping through it so as a last resort I went all the way up to Madison Avenue to the fanciest store I could find that specialized in down comforters where I bought a greatly reduced but still pricey Scandinavian down comforter because the genial salesman said there was a pen mark on it which I never could find (and he thought I looked like a Russian czar with my then very prominent mustache). And that damn thing worked. Light as a feather yet I was snug as a bug in a rug (along with the occasional bug). Miraculous in terms of materials versus exceeded expectations, just like hearing a 78 rpm record for the first time.
All to say I’m torn about pillows. My Scandinavian down comforter experience tells me it pays to pay for the best, or at least the very good, but there are over 50,045 different down pillows for sale on the internet (I counted) all claiming to be at least very good. Hungarian? Polish? Scandinavian? Canadian? Look, I get fill power, fill weight, and even goose down clusters. But that doesn’t really help. I know I only want pillows made according to the Responsible Down Standard and one that’s made for back and side (and restless) sleepers.
I’ve read reviews but they don’t really help as every reviewer seems to have their own favorite and consumer reviews are even more varied as personal preference appears to play as big a part as fill power, fill weight, and even goose down clusters. As much as I read and try to learn, the more distant I feel I am from finding my perfect pillow. Frustrating!
I’m thinking the only way I’ll really know which pillow is the perfect pillow for me is to simply try a few.
Ho, ho, ho!
Giving Back
“The mission of CharityWatch, a nonprofit charity watchdog and rating organization, is to maximize the effectiveness of every dollar contributed to charity by providing donors with the information they need to make more informed giving decisions.”
If you’re looking to donate to a good cause, CharityWatch watches out for donors, “We dive deep into charity audited financial statements, tax filings, state solicitation filings, and other information so we can let you know how efficiently a charity will use your donations to fund the programs you want to support.”
It’s good to give.
Happy Holidays!