GMG Classical Music Forum

The Back Room => The Diner => Topic started by: Michel on December 25, 2007, 07:05:13 AM

Title: Presents
Post by: Michel on December 25, 2007, 07:05:13 AM
So what did you get?

I got a giant pair of willies.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Gurn Blanston on December 25, 2007, 07:21:33 AM
Quote from: Michel on December 25, 2007, 07:05:13 AM
So what did you get?

I got a giant pair of willies.

Assuming that means something different in England than it does here in America, then good!  ;D

I got a Sansa 8 gig MP3 player and a Nike driver, hope it improves my golf game. :D

8)

----------------
Now playing:
The Nutcracker - Royal Concertgebouw / Dorati - The Nutcracker Battles against the Army of the Mouse King - He wins and is transformed into Prince Charming
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: springrite on December 25, 2007, 07:26:28 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on December 25, 2007, 07:21:33 AM

I got a Sansa 8 gig MP3 player and a Nike driver, hope it improves my golf game. :D

8)

Maybe a Tiger golf glove would help. It helped me getting a hole in one -- on the miniature course, of course.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Gurn Blanston on December 25, 2007, 07:31:56 AM
Quote from: springrite on December 25, 2007, 07:26:28 AM
Maybe a Tiger golf glove would help. It helped me getting a hole in one -- on the miniature course, of course.

Ummm, got one of those, too....  :-[   :D

8)

----------------
Now playing:
The Nutcracker - Royal Concertgebouw / Dorati - The Magic Castle on the Mountain of Sweets
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 25, 2007, 07:54:20 AM
Well, we treated ourselves to a 2-night stay at a new hotel in Charlotte a few days ago - called the Ballantyne Resort Hotel (http://www.ballantyneresort.com/) - caters to the businessman w/ a good expense account! Our first visit - plan to return for a special occasion -  :D

We usually don't exchange presents, but the LOML wanted a new portable keyboard (can't take her piano to church to play!), so we picked up an intermediate model that she will likely be on most of the day, so music, reading, & the web for me!  8)

(http://www.thetwistergroup.com/store/image.php?imagefile=D%3C%3EYPT310AD.JPG)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: gomro on December 25, 2007, 08:04:01 AM
Quote from: Michel on December 25, 2007, 07:05:13 AM
So what did you get?


Here's the whole sordid story:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=14671423&blogID=341193906
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: knight66 on December 25, 2007, 12:08:11 PM
Two copies of a book called 'Grumpy Old Men'. A pen that is also an FM radio, (that will be going to a charity shop unopened.) two diaries for next year. There was also some good stuff.

Paul' you by now surely MUST be overdowed.

Mike
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: 71 dB on December 25, 2007, 12:23:26 PM
- The book "Vauraus ja aika" by Osmo Soininvaara
- One pair of socks 
- Ajasto Eurotime calendar 2008
- A Scarf
- 1 kg of Mascobado sugar
- An umbrella
- A shelf for 80 DVDs.
- 200 euros of money

:)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on December 25, 2007, 12:26:50 PM
A superb Wagner Tee Shirt  :)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Mozart on December 25, 2007, 12:32:22 PM
Some strange black objects...
(http://cdn.llbean.com/products/home_garden/52038/images/M52038.jpg)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: 12tone. on December 25, 2007, 01:05:37 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on December 25, 2007, 12:26:50 PM
A superb Wagner Tee Shirt  :)

"Wager" on the front.

"Get the Menuhin" on the back.


Is that correct?  I've got one that says:

"Beethoven" on the front.

"Get the Menuhin" on the back.  It's so sweet.

Title: Re: Presents
Post by: маразм1 on December 25, 2007, 04:02:09 PM
I got a portable dvd player   :P  I suppose it will come in handy.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: AnthonyAthletic on December 25, 2007, 04:21:51 PM

Beer
Whisky
A Watch
A Shirt
£100
A Homer Simpson Talking Coffee Mug
Aftershave (don't use it, have beard)
A Years Subscription to the BBC Music Magazine
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: George on December 25, 2007, 04:25:52 PM

Gift Certificate for $100

The New Ingmar Bergman Box set with Smiles Of a Summer Night, Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and The Virgin Spring

Two Wong Kar Wai Movies - In the Mood for Love, 2046

Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks

3 Tool DVD's - Schism, Parabola and Vicarious

Eagles - Very Best of 2CD

Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on December 25, 2007, 04:56:31 PM
Quote from: 12tone. on December 25, 2007, 01:05:37 PM
"Wager" on the front.

"Get the Menuhin" on the back.


Is that correct?  I've got one that says:

"Beethoven" on the front.

"Get the Menuhin" on the back.  It's so sweet.



I got this  (http://www.cafepress.com/cp/moredetails.aspx?showBleed=false&ProductNo=177094635&colorNo=6&pr=F) one.  :)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on December 25, 2007, 04:57:57 PM
Quote from: George on December 25, 2007, 04:25:52 PM


Eagles - Very Best of 2CD



Snap! I gave my wife the 1cd set. Listened to it yesterday; my fave song is still One of These Nights.  :)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Keemun on December 25, 2007, 05:51:44 PM
CD: Bruckner - The Complete Symphonies (Jochum/Dresden Staatskapelle)
CD: Mahler - Symphony No. 2 (Klemperer/Philharmonia Orchestra)
DVD: Pucinni - La Boheme (Del Monaco/Teatro Real Madrid)
DVD: The Nativity Story
Book:  PD James - A Taste for Death
Book:  Martha Grimes - I am the Only Running Footman
A gift card to an Indian restaurant my wife knows I'm dying to return to.  ;D
A gift certificate to Upton Tea Imports.
Claude Monet wall calendar.
An iPod FM transmitter for my car stereo.
Slippers.
Gardener's Hand Therapy lotion (don't laugh, I need it >:()
Money.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: MishaK on December 25, 2007, 05:54:49 PM
Barenboim on Beethoven DVD set
Several Japanese cookbooks
A Montblanc pen

:)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Keemun on December 25, 2007, 06:04:33 PM
Quote from: O Mensch on December 25, 2007, 05:54:49 PM
A Montblanc pen

One of THESE (http://www.montblanc.com/36.php)?
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: MishaK on December 25, 2007, 06:20:56 PM
Quote from: Keemun on December 25, 2007, 06:04:33 PM
One of THESE (http://www.montblanc.com/36.php)?

No. A pretty regular ball-point pen. Says "Meisterstück Pix" on the gold ring around the middle.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Michel on December 26, 2007, 12:03:19 AM
Quote from: knight on December 25, 2007, 12:08:11 PM
Two copies of a book called 'Grumpy Old Men'. A pen that is also an FM radio, (that will be going to a charity shop unopened.) two diaries for next year. There was also some good stuff.

Paul' you by now surely MUST be overdowed.

Mike

What was the good stuff?

I actually got a pair of wellies, I just thought it might be fun to write willies.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Michel on December 26, 2007, 12:05:29 AM
Quote from: O Mensch on December 25, 2007, 05:54:49 PM

A Montblanc pen


Woe unto you, lawyers!
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: knight66 on December 26, 2007, 04:08:09 AM
Quote from: Michel on December 26, 2007, 12:03:19 AM
What was the good stuff?

I actually got a pair of wellies, I just thought it might be fun to write willies.

Fine re the wellies; you will get a lot more use out of them.

The good stuff: A book on the recently deceased political stand-up, Linda Smith. A case for my MP3 player that is also a speaker, so I can hear it in hotel rooms etc without bunging up my ears. My mother and I swapped cheques, a pointless exercises, but it makes her think she is giving me something. Chocolate, nuts, pullover, wine and some very good home made chocolates, ("prepared in a house containing nuts.")

Tomorrow we go to Oxford and that is a place from which I frequently bring back the kind of gift that was thought up as a joke by two drunks using a pin to stick into two contrasting lists of nouns; as a further joke they commission the product. Giraffe and CD rack was one such....so poorly made the CDs fell out of the slots running up its neck.

Mike
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Brian on December 26, 2007, 12:02:57 PM
Quote from: Keemun on December 25, 2007, 05:51:44 PM
Book:  PD James - A Taste for Death
Book:  Martha Grimes - I am the Only Running Footman

My mom and I have both been exploring both James and Grimes; our favorite Grimes remains her first novel in the ... whatever that series was called where the books are all named after pubs. Anyways, PD James is extraordinary, maybe the best mystery writer alive; I really enjoyed The Murder Room and have a couple more sitting around waiting to be read. :)

As for my gifts:
- chocolate
- jelly beans
- one of those absolutely amazing CD-packaging openers that Barnes and Noble has for a dollar (cuts open the plastic and stickers)
- Alan Alda, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself
- Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia
- Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- "Dancing on Water" album (Finjan, the Canadian klezmer ensemble)

That's right: no classical music. :)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: BachQ on December 26, 2007, 12:11:39 PM
Rec'd a 40 CD set of ........ of ......... of ........... VIVALDI  :P
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: orbital on December 26, 2007, 12:12:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 26, 2007, 12:02:57 PM
- Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia

I'd appreciate comments on this book if you do not forget :) It is being pushed heavily by B&N and I want to know if it really that good :)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Wendell_E on December 26, 2007, 12:18:04 PM
A couple of bottles of wine

A $30.00 Walmart gift card.  I don't normally shop there, but I went to their website and ordered the new Met Eugene Onegin DVD.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Keemun on December 26, 2007, 12:49:07 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 26, 2007, 12:02:57 PM
My mom and I have both been exploring both James and Grimes; our favorite Grimes remains her first novel in the ... whatever that series was called where the books are all named after pubs. Anyways, PD James is extraordinary, maybe the best mystery writer alive; I really enjoyed The Murder Room and have a couple more sitting around waiting to be read. :)

I find James to be more literary, certainly the better writer.  But Grimes is more fun, even if a generally "lighter" read.  The Murder Room was the first James book I read and I was hooked after that.

Quote from: D Minor on December 26, 2007, 12:11:39 PM
Rec'd a 40 CD set of ........ of ......... of ........... VIVALDI  :P

And I thought Santa only gave coal to those who were naughty.  ;D
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Brian on December 26, 2007, 01:13:25 PM
Quote from: orbital on December 26, 2007, 12:12:56 PM
I'd appreciate comments on this book if you do not forget :) It is being pushed heavily by B&N and I want to know if it really that good :)

Well, the first chapter was fascinating. It was a case study of a fellow - a doctor - who was hit by lightning and suddenly succumbed to uncontrollable urges to play and compose classical piano music (despite never listening to said genre before, and never having played the piano). Eventually he quit his job and his wife left him because he spent so much time at the piano. Sacks compares the case to others on record, including a young lady from the middle east who, after surgery to remove a brain tumor, became so passionate about classical music that she would play opera in the car loud enough to be heard in surrounding automobiles. Sacks doesn't seem able to explain these bizarre occurrences, but they make fascinating reading. I will gladly let you know more when I finish the book.  :)

Keemun ~ PD James certainly is literary; in fact she may be the best writer to write murder mysteries since ... well ... I don't know.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: orbital on December 26, 2007, 02:05:43 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 26, 2007, 01:13:25 PM
Well, the first chapter was fascinating. It was a case study of a fellow - a doctor - who was hit by lightning and suddenly succumbed to uncontrollable urges to play and compose classical piano music (despite never listening to said genre before, and never having played the piano). Eventually he quit his job and his wife left him because he spent so much time at the piano. Sacks compares the case to others on record, including a young lady from the middle east who, after surgery to remove a brain tumor, became so passionate about classical music that she would play opera in the car loud enough to be heard in surrounding automobiles. Sacks doesn't seem able to explain these bizarre occurrences, but they make fascinating reading. I will gladly let you know more when I finish the book.  :)


Thanks Brian, I'm already sold on the first case  ;D
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: The new erato on December 26, 2007, 02:34:06 PM
Quote from: D Minor on December 26, 2007, 12:11:39 PM
Rec'd a 40 CD set of ........ of ......... of ........... VIVALDI  :P
Yes, lots of stuff in D minor in that box!
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Kullervo on December 26, 2007, 03:11:45 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 26, 2007, 01:13:25 PM
Well, the first chapter was fascinating. It was a case study of a fellow - a doctor - who was hit by lightning and suddenly succumbed to uncontrollable urges to play and compose classical piano music (despite never listening to said genre before, and never having played the piano). Eventually he quit his job and his wife left him because he spent so much time at the piano. Sacks compares the case to others on record, including a young lady from the middle east who, after surgery to remove a brain tumor, became so passionate about classical music that she would play opera in the car loud enough to be heard in surrounding automobiles. Sacks doesn't seem able to explain these bizarre occurrences, but they make fascinating reading. I will gladly let you know more when I finish the book.  :)

If you're interested, Anthony Storr's Music and the Mind covers much of the same territory.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: greg on December 26, 2007, 03:51:59 PM
-Vaughan Williams Symphonies- Previn/London Phil. (almost listened to them all!)
-Rautavaara- Symphony 7, Angels of Visitations/Koivula (Naxos) (i actually liked the last work more than the symphony itself)
-Final Fantasy XII, my best gift
-a planner from my little brother
-Slim Jim, gum, Reeses  (i just realized how much i like Slim Jims.... way better than the Reeses, and Reeses are my favorite candy!  :o maybe Slim Jim are my favorite food even?)
-cell phone (finally, i'm not the only my age without one  ;D )

i got my mom a guitar instruction book with 3 CDs inside, my dad a CD he wanted for a long time (and was surprised to get it, too!), and my little brother a DVD of Joe Satriani: Live in San Francisco (when i asked him what he wanted, that's what he picked).
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: mikkeljs on December 27, 2007, 07:16:46 AM
I got:

A cd box with Mahlers symphonies.

Xenakis: Formalized Music

A cd with piano music by Nørgård

Coffee

and other things.  :)
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: greg on December 27, 2007, 08:12:25 AM
Quote from: mikkeljs on December 27, 2007, 07:16:46 AM
I got:

A cd box with Mahlers symphonies.

Xenakis: Formalized Music

A cd with piano music by Nørgård

Coffee

and other things.  :)
i'm very very jealous.... which Mahler set did you get?
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: MishaK on December 27, 2007, 08:13:32 AM
Quote from: mikkeljs on December 27, 2007, 07:16:46 AM
A cd box with Mahlers symphonies.

Who's the conductor?
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: greg on December 27, 2007, 09:50:11 AM
oh yeah, i almost forgot to mention.... my little brother gave me a planner for 2008 and 2009. It fits in my pocket and everything, it's perfect! I needed one so bad, but never thought of buying a planner..... ok, i think that's everything for me.
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: 12tone. on December 31, 2007, 06:29:16 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on December 25, 2007, 04:56:31 PM
I got this  (http://www.cafepress.com/cp/moredetails.aspx?showBleed=false&ProductNo=177094635&colorNo=6&pr=F) one.  :)

Wow, what's up with the goth look?  Wagner is not goth music  ???
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: greg on December 31, 2007, 06:31:35 PM
Quote from: 12tone. on December 31, 2007, 06:29:16 PM
Wow, what's up with the goth look?  Wagner is not goth music  ???
yeah, that should have Mahler on it, he's a bit more gothic...

anyways..... i bought a black Jimi Hendrix shirt at the mall yesterday, and it looks gothic, too! Hmmmmm that one makes the least sense  ;D
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: 12tone. on December 31, 2007, 07:05:34 PM
Quote from: 僕はグレグ (Greg) on December 31, 2007, 06:31:35 PM
yeah, that should have Mahler on it, he's a bit more gothic...

anyways..... i bought a black Jimi Hendrix shirt at the mall yesterday, and it looks gothic, too! Hmmmmm that one makes the least sense  ;D

I can't even see Mahler being goth.  Emo?
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: Kullervo on December 31, 2007, 07:34:26 PM
Quote from: 僕はグレグ (Greg) on December 31, 2007, 06:31:35 PM
yeah, that should have Mahler on it, he's a bit more gothic...

anyways..... i bought a black Jimi Hendrix shirt at the mall yesterday, and it looks gothic, too! Hmmmmm that one makes the least sense  ;D

Did you know you sound like a 12-year-old girl when you begin a sentence with "Anyways......"?
Title: Re: Presents
Post by: greg on January 01, 2008, 05:02:07 AM
Quote from: 12tone. on December 31, 2007, 07:05:34 PM
I can't even see Mahler being goth.  Emo?
possibly, although i'm not very familiar with even the basic sound of emo.