All I want for Christmas (yes, really)

Still looking for that perfect Christmas gift? The one that says, “You mean so much to me in this season of goodwill towards men,” or maybe “You mean so much to me that I wouldn’t want to jeopardize that by not giving you anything during this season of goodwill towards men”? Last week, we suggested that if you’re strapped for cash, perhaps a little more thought could be employed to choose that gift. Can’t spare another second? Can’t bear to waste time on such idle thoughts? Good thing we’ve done you good by doing up our own gift guide just a few days before the BIG DAY.

Of course we’d like give you a bit of a warning that the items listed below are for recipients who possess both smarts and taste. But then again, charity is usually a given during this season.

BOOKS

When I was four years old, my father taught me how to read. This remains the best gift anyone’s ever given me as it gave me everything I have today. He gave me my name and by teaching me to read gave me the means to make my own. Visiting bookstores like Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street (or our sentimental favorite, their first branch at the Rockwell Power Plant Mall), we see many children with their parents in the queues, carrying their purchases (sometimes bigger than the child holding it). It’s a heartening sight as it’s apparent that they’re getting the same gift. (My father and I had more peculiar reading selections but that’s beside the point.)

On the shelves of the best bookstores, there are more than a couple of books by local authors that we recommend as being essential to every Filipino home’s library. First off, there are the two volumes of Expeditions, which compiles the winners of last year’s Graphic/Fiction Awards in both the Short Prose and Comics category. Featuring a foreword by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman (who got the inspiration to put up the money for the award after his 2005 visit to Manila) and published by Fully Booked, it’s a worthwhile traipse through the fantastic throughways and darker alleys of the Filipino imagination. Our own personal bias goes to the prose-dedicated book (and not only because we chaired and edited that division of the contest). Admittedly not all of the selections are to our taste but the stories themselves are still demonstrative of our writer’s powerful imaginative capabilities.

Together with this, we’d also like to recommend that you get a copy of Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3, which features literary luminaries such as Philippine STAR columnist Krip Yuson, FH Batacan, Sarge Lacuesta, Ian Rosales Casocot, Yvette Tan and Luis Katigbak contributing works of sci-fi. Edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar, it’s not only justly praised for the high-quality of the writing but also that it’s probably the most entertaining collection out there at the moment. (And it’s only P300!) As they won’t be available in bookstores until next year, you can order by sending an e-mail to SATAN at charlesatan@gmail.com. They won’t be in bookstores until next year.

MUSIC

To be honest, we can only truly only recommend one album to you (in light of the fact That Epic Reggae Set, Ciudad and Drip haven’t released their albums yet). If you’re only going to purchase one album this year then it has to be Radioactive Sago Project’s “Tanginamo Andaming Nagugutom Sa Mundo Fashionista Ka Pa Rin.” (That is, if you can still find it, as collectors have been known to buy several copies.) We were asked by Burn to vote on our Top 10 albums of this year and we really could only come up with this one. Essential. Indispensable. A User’s guide to the coming Filipino apocalypse.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Well, a subscription to Rogue magazine is always welcome. Featuring the best in culture, it’s another must-have for these times.