It seems like no time at all since I was doing my Christmas list, and I still haven't finished playing with all my toys, so this list is actually proving a little tricky to compile. Also, because of having received two marvellous cookbooks for Christmas which I'm nowhere near done with exploring, it just seems greedy to include my usual parade of food-related reading matter, so I've cut that down drastically from the 6-8 volumes on my wish list too.
If you're feeling creative and want to deviate from the list, Djelibeybi has access to all the CDs, books, DVDs, etc. we have around. Current interests are including: complete obsession with composition, getting very into more experimental/improv/electroacoustic stuff, trying to play the flute a bit more and experiment with some improvisation there, bread-baking, house-which-is-not-yet-ours-but-hopefully-will-be-soon.
As always, this list isn't a hint. It's for people who were going to get me a pressie anyway but don't know where to start. I hope it helps!
I don't think I can be bothered to put these in any sort of order because I've struggled enough with trying to think of stuff this time, so they're just going to be random. As always, Amazon vouchers are VERY, very welcome. They are not a cop-out or showing a lack of imagination, and this year more than most, with a house to do up and starting uni in September - a little spending money to play with would be awesome. iTunes vouchers are good too (in ££s though, I don't have an Australian account so can't use ones in AUD)
Zoom H1 digital recorder. Tiny, light, surreptitious. I tried to make a workable field recording setup out of my iPod Touch and 2 lovely mics, but have been entirely unable to without buying adaptor cables that are almost as much as just getting one of these, and it seems that the adaptors may introduce noise into the recording anyway, so I've given up and after some research, the H1 seems to be the answer.
Short & Sweet by Dan Lepard. Dan Lepard is one of the gurus of bread-baking and while I don't think I'm quite ready for his (sourdough-intense) bread-baking book, this one does have some fabulous-looking bread recipes, an introduction to his bread preparation techniques and some amazing-sounding other cakes and biscuits and things. Chocolate custard muffins, anyone?
The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together by Twyla Tharp. I absolutely loved Tharp's The Creative Habit. It was a real inspiration to me and really helped me get back into serious composing. This one, on collaboration, I think would be very helpful - I'm coming across more situations and having more ideas requiring collaboration, and it looks like this could be a useful read.
A proper paella pan would still be nice. They say the carbon steel ones are the best.
Either TransAmerica or TransEuropa. We used to play TransAmerica in our lunchtimes at LBi and it's a great game for 2 or more people. Quick and fun. TransEuropa seems to be a new version - same rules, different continent, so either would be fun.
Prokofiev Violin Sonatas, Gidon Kremer & Martha Argerich. I bought their complete Beethoven sonatas last year and it is just wonderful, so I'd love to hear what they've done with these.
Marc Johns: Fuck Art, Let's Be Hedge Fund Managers print. I LOVE this post-it-note artwork. So much that I actually wrote to him and asked him to make it a print. And he wrote back (about a year ago now) and told me that, lo, there it is in the store. I think this would be great on my studio wall, don't you?
The Shape of Content by Ben Shahn. This one was recommended by @pkpiano - I've read three of his previous recommendations (Art & Fear, The War of Art and Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit) all of which have been fantastic and have shot straight to the top of my best-creativity-books-ever list, so I'm very interested to see what this one's like too.
Roussel's Joueurs de flute. I love this set of pieces. I played a couple of them during my brief stint of flute lessons at the Sydney Conservatorium and have always wanted my own copy. I don't mind which edition, but do check to make sure it includes all four - some publishers sell them as individual pieces...
A friend on Twitter has strongly recommended this fascinating-looking book: The Flavor Bible, which is a book for cooks who make things up as they go along. It includes adventurous food pairings, but also sections on how flavour works and how to combine different flavours effectively. Similar, but focused more on the pairings and an anecdotal style (both books have their fans, and the reviewer I found who had reviewed both came to the conclusion that they were pretty complementary) is The Flavour Thesaurus, which also looks interesting, if perhaps a little opinionated (she doesn't like chocolate & beetroot cake apparently!). At any rate, while I have a specific recommendation for the American book, either one would be very interesting indeed, especially with a shiny new kitchen to cook in soon...
Pelagia and the Red Rooster. The second book in this series was even better than the first - looking forward to see what Boris Akunin does with this one.
Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days. The first Hummingbird Bakery cookbook gets pulled out regularly here - their cookie recipes are amazing! This book includes their rose cupcakes, which I was hoping would be in the first book, and expands out into whoopie pies, which sound like fun to make.
Nice new well-padded oven gloves because ours have been leaking stuffing for a couple of years now. Preferably glove-style and not joined together (those long teatowel-style with pockets on the end freak me out). Please, no blue. Other colours are fine, especially if they're red/orange/purple/green, etc.
Some nice modern salt & pepper grinders (note: grinders, not shakers, pls!).
Just about anything from Georg Jensen would go down well.
Could do with a really nice fruit bowl. Something stylish and classic and presentation-y - suitable to leave out on the table or bench and give a sense of occasion. Stylewise, I'm liking Bloom by Georg Jensen, Alessi's Port Basket & Alessi's Marli baskets (although I think the Marli would bug me because as soon as I picked it up it'd be lemons all over the floor but I love the styling). I think I'd prefer stainless steel/silver over glass or wood. Sorry - this one's vague but maybe you'll find something...
It is not impossible that there may be a need for me to sew stuff - hemming light curtains, making cushion covers on the cheap, etc. and it could be handy to have a sewing machine at some point. If this appeals, John Lewis has a red sewing machine :-D (oh all right, it comes in white as well) which is suitable for light to medium fabrics & does buttonholes. The cheaper model is light fabrics only, so guessing that's only suitable for clothes but in the reviews for this one (the red, more expensive one) someone said she sewed oilcloth cushions just with a sturdy needle installed & no problem. But as you can probably tell, I know absolutely nothing about these things. Might be a useful thing to have though.
I'd really rather like to get an easel for my studio. Cass Art usually has nice ones & they're often super-cheap. Would need to be able to hold A2 paper at least. And I think a freestanding one would be better than desktop, but I could be wrong.
Update 29-Mar: It seems that Some People have left things rather to the last minute, so I've been asked to add in some additional stuff. However, this is proving rather difficult and I feel I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit simply because I can't seem to think about anything but house-panic and work-panic and other sorts of panic at the moment. At any rate, here goes...
The Silver Spoon or 1080 Recipes, Phaidon's Italian and Spanish cookbooks, respectively
Peyton & Byrne British Baking - think this one would really come into its own when we have to leave here and no longer have access to chocolate marshmallow teacakes
Design*Sponge at Home - haven't seen this book live in person, but I've been a fan of the blog for a while and she usually picks interesting interiors to profile
Terence Conran: Essential Colour - colour is a topic that isn't really covered in Conran's Ultimate House Book, and it's something I'm trying to understand a bit better - this looks like a good introduction that focuses on what colour does and how to manipulate it, rather than just putting together suggested colour schemes.
Marc Johns has a marvellous new series of prints out of objects reading books. I think a group of "Salt shaker reading JD Salinger", "Frying pan reading Walt Whitman" and "Bananas reading Shakespeare" would look lovely, framed, in the new kitchen.
Interesting-looking design books that I haven't discovered yet. Perhaps especially books on interior design of small spaces?
An IOU for a frivolous something for the house if we ever get it???
Get my CD player fixed for me??
A ticket for Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach?
I think I have now run out of ideas. So sorry. Will try to do better at Christmas... Who knows. Maybe we'll almost own a house then.
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