Christmas and a Small Gift Idea of Film and Music

Christmas season. I put the wreath on the door yesterday. No lights to trim the house. Kids grew up a long time ago. This weekend comes the fiber optic small Christmas tree, complete with the rotating color patterns shining through the ends of the green needles. Can't put up a real tree with lights and ornaments because the cats chew into the lights and ornaments. It's a small sacrifice we endure to make sure one of the kitty's doesn't melt down like the cat and William Hickey's toupee do in National Lampoon's Christmas Story.

We still exchange gifts with the family, and with a few very close friends. It ain't about the money anymore. It's the thought, and the connection which count these days.

The family grew up, and got older surrounded by music and movies. Being in the business of selling the stuff rubs some of that tinsel dust off. Lots of plastic discs and tapes over the years.

With that backdrop, I thought you might be interested in a couple of suggestions I offer as gift items this year for those who are special to you and might enjoy something a little different in the way of recorded listening, and or viewing. These are either films available on the DVD platform of  your choosing or albums available on CD, or downloads if that's how you entertainment-boogie these days.

My first pick of this month to put into your friend's gift basket might surprise you, or might not depending on how well you know me. Roger Ebert calls it the perfect film. I call it the most sublime and important picture capturing the American experience ever made. The film's score haunts the listener like a ghost with a folk quality of sadness and reflection. The film's director, Robert Altman, made a number of outstanding films but in my mind McCabe & Mrs. Miller remains the most vital and his best.

I would gift this film to any friend, or acquaintance, who wants a better understanding of how the American story unfolded, got folded back in again, and remains virtually the same story today. Maybe someone you know through social networking who lives outside of the US and wants a clearer truthful picture of the peculiar American mindset could be the recipient of your generosity.

In my business days many people often wondered, and would ask me why anyone would bother to own or possess a movie. Books and music they seemed comfortable with as purchase items, but films seemed to these folks too ephemeral for any ownership value. McCabe & Mrs. Miller deserves a choice spot on any discerning shelf.

As a companion item to the film I would encourage you to pick up the Leonard Cohen album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Here is a humorous and perceptive take on why this album became an all-time favorite choice for one writer.  The original album, which came out in 1967, was a stand alone record of songs, which Robert Altman, or someone on the film's set, felt would be ideal four years later as the the predominant soundtrack backdrop. Few albums stand out apart from the time when they were recorded. This remains one of those albums, and that it works with such power in the film makes the album all the more unique and wondrous.

Thanks for stopping by. Next post I'll find a few different flavors as offerings.