Be Excellent To Each Other

That time of year's come around when Christmas and birthday lists need to be made. However, being a Faulknerian idiot man-child with the impulse control of an excitable chimpanzee I have naturally already bought most of the obvious Things Of Brilliance that immediately appealed to me at the time, to the point that my current birthday list consists of:

1) In The Loop on DVD
2) Um...
3) Er...
4) No, that's it.

So I ask you, people of Beex - what is brilliant? What floats your boat? What makes you smile? Books, games, films, music, gadgets, toys, if you're interested in sharing it I'm interested in hearing about it.

Buy some ski's and ski boots.

Or lots of beer.
Yes
Lots of beer

I bought myself one of these last week as a present to myself for having quit smoking:

http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/Defau ... D=EFLH3000

I'm into RC stuff anyway and have all sorts of larger helicopters for flying outside and other tiny ones for indoors but this one is the first small indoor one that flies properly like a helicopter. Astonishing piece of miniaturisation, a couple of years ago a heli this size would have cost three times as much and been half as good.

Don't you buy yourself a new plane or helicopter every month though?

Buy Zombie books. (World War Z and that new compilation that Morte posted about)
An iPod Touch (If you don't have one already)
Port.
Morrisons Pork, Cheese & Pickle Mini pies.
My Hori Arcade stick for £70

I have a similar problem.. it's my birthday soon and people keep on asking what to get me. I honestly don't want anything (Not because they'll get it wrong of course... ) But I would rather they just get me a card and pop round for a chat.

Saying that.. If anyone wants to buy me the new Slipknot box set I would be their best friend forever.. Well, a couple of weeks.

1) Someone else doing the cooking and washing up, without moaning or passive aggressive stomping and sighing about it.

2) Everyone shut up.

3) Also, go away.

I second the RC toys - I've got an RC car and it's great. You can buy little upgrades (called hop-ups for some unknown reason) and fiddle about with them and it's great fun.
However, it may lead to you doing the same with a 1:1 car.

A lot of months, yes. Currently after one of these:

Yeah, nice.

Took Poopie on a walk past the RC Flying club last week and watched someone having great fun with a model Spitfire.

Think I'll stick with Il2 for now, I'd hate to smash an expensive kit.

That's part of the reason I have a car - I don't have the skill for a plane!

Once you're well practised with a car you've half-learned planes anyway. It's steering the wrong way when it's coming towards them that does for most beginners' planes.

Powell & Pressburger Box Set for 30ish quid. Simply some of the best films ever made.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Powell-Pressbur ... 428&sr=1-1

Any Calvin & Hobbes books you can get your hands on.

Got any digital pictures you want framing? Why not buy some nice frames and then ask for money to splash out at processing labs?

Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book series - though it's a bit pricy it's ace.

Art Spiegelman's Maus books.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable - perfect for QI style fun.

Single malt whiskeys such as Talisker, Ardbeg, Old Pulteney, Craggenmore etc. - never be truly alone again with these delicious wonders.

Nice pair of hiking boots and fleece jacket.

Probably of no use to you but here's my list of brilliant stuff what I like to have;

BMX.
SLR (or a decent compact camera that lets you play with all the settings).
Tripod.
Port. Red Stripe. Proper beer. Rum (Spiced or otherwise). Tea.
Self inflating lifejacket.
Spare CO₂ cartridges for those moments when the lifejacket gets soaked & detonates. (Also, clean underwear for when that happens )
Puma States.
Walking boots.
Wooly hats.
Books that are both fiction & non-fiction at the same time (Currently reading this)
A big heavy duvet.
BBC Nature programs (Blue Planet, Life Collection, etc), also Whisky Galore & The Maggie.

Fuck yeah. At least 6 inch think when fluffed up. When I win the lottery my bed's going to be at least 1 foot longer than a standard double/king so I can get my feet in the bed at night, another half as wide as a king size, and with a duvet 2 foot thick for the winter. mMMmMmMmmMMmm

Don't forget to buy Helen a bed, too.

Durr, she'll have her own house far far away.

A fucking big kite. Either a power kite, to kill yourself with when it drags you across a field and into some powerlines, or off the beach and into the sea, or a stunt kite which is ludicrously expensive and delicate and can do cool tricks like this. Kites are ace.

(people are idiots, though, and will stand underneath your kite as you're flying it, seemingly oblivious to the little razor-thin lengths of nylon/steel wire flying through the air at high speeds above them. And then they'll get angry with you when the wind drops and the kite lands on them.)

I'm reading Maus now, so... there's more?

Aye, Maus was a 2 parter. Though I think they've now started selling it as the one book.

Oooh. I'll wait till I get to the end of mine to find out if it's the 2 parter or the 1st part then.

Don't fancy stumbling on spoilz in my quest to find out.

I'm loving it btw, it's beautifully done and with such a tragic storyline.

What make's that, guy?

I've fallen in love with the ease of Parkzone stuff, so the next one will be their Spitfire. After that, I may have a go at some of those ridiculously gorgeous Flying Styro WW2 planes, as I have some spare servos and stuff and I need to find a plane to put them in.

This was a brilliant thread until the nerds muscled in.

So's your face.

A third for Maus here. Art Spiegelman is an obnoxious cunt, by all accounts, but he can't half do a heart-wrenching comic book.

The Calvin and Hobbes Complete Box Set thingy is a definite must if you do not have 100% of the strips. Hell, even if you do.

It's another PZ one, £115 for the "plug and play" version that just needs RX and battery. To be honest I'd struggle to get a similar thing in the air any cheaper by buying all the bits separately so as well as being the lazy option it's also sensible. Although I'm also looking at this Stuka:

http://www.myhobbystore.com/7118/Thunde ... Stuka.html

You might want to wait a little while before getting the Spit as I'd be surprised if they don't soon do a revised version with a brushless motor, they've already done this with the P-51.

Nerds? In my internet forum?
/


Sorry I can't suggest anything brilliant except for a steering wheel for xbox 360.

Yeah I guess you could split a few of these out into the RC Planes thread.

We all are now you've posted the image LOLZ

Ha ha, yes, LOLOLOLOL

Best comic book ever written imho, and well deserved its Pulitzer Prize.

Art Spiegelman and his wife Francois Mouly have done a series for children called 'Little Lit', which are old folk tales in comic book form, handsomely (read expensively) bound and with lots of guest artists and writers. Fun but pricey, which is why I only have one. Spiegelman has also done 'In the Shadow of No Towers', which is his personal reaction to 9/11, having witnessed it happening in lower Manhatten. (His daughter's school was near the towers.) Its his attempt to flush this huge emotional weight from his system, and is strange but compelling reading, quite unlike anything else. It's only eleven pages, but it's A3 sized. You can see sample chunks of pages here - http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/gra ... error.html

Other than those, Art hasn't done many actual books. He edited and did shorts for a while for a comic anthology called RAW, which came out from 1981 to 1991, with his wife also contributing. He'd been a long time cover illustrator for New Yorker, and did the cover for the September 24th 2001 issue. He resigned a few months later, stating as a reason that American media had become too timid and conformist. Amusingly, Spiegelman is also responsible for the Garbage Pail kids, and a lot of other Topps trading cards of the time, residing after an internship as writer/artist/editor of their trading card and comics line. Naturally, the movie had zilch to do with him, thankfully.

If you're after more edgy comic book serious-but-wonderful comics, you may want to check out Joe Sacco's Palestine and Safe Haven Gorazde. Both hilarioius reads, obviously.

Thanks Pete, I've heard good things about Palestine (not booked my hols there though LOLZ!11), I think I want me some Walking Dead, or something with loads of tits next though.

Both of these are awesome ideas - I'm walking every day now in a doomed attempt to shift some of my prodigious bulk and my battered old Reeboks are giving way under the strain. And I keep meaning to get some of my photos printed so asking for frames is a great call.

Got all the Sandman stuff and the complete Maus. What little of Calvin & Hobbes I've read I liked, so that's a possible goer. Cheers, Pete (and everyone else).

If you want to stick to trainers, running-type ones last lots longer than normal ones.

Try the Love & Rockets books by the Hernadez bros. then, about two young lesbian mechanics in New Mexico. Funny, emotionally involving, lots of stuff about Mexican wrestling and punk bands, lots of sci-fi elements involving dinosaurs and rocketships early on (though those are dropped for a slightly more realistic approach gradually) and a good deal of breasts. It's sort of like a soap opera, but cleverer and funnier. Later on it goes off the boil a little, but there's still excellent stuff like 'Speedy's Dead', which sledgehammered me at the time, and Gilbert Hernadez solo stuff - the sketchier drawn but maturer, truthful and more compelling Human Diastrophism and Heartbreak Soup.



Another great thing about Love & Rockets, is that nearly everyone looks so damn fucking cool.

Hot-dog! I'm on a roll today!

Or go for the fell running variety. Google Inov8

DVDs:

Brass Eye, Monkey Dust (only series one was released, and the others won't be because the creator is dead and the music rights are held by subhuman scum, so pirate the other two), Spaced, Due South, I'm Alan Partridge, Arrested Development

I would personally like a jacket and winter coat. Frankly most of a new wardrobe, but I am very fickle about such things. Or rather, other people apparently aren't fickle enough.

I wouldn't mind that full Beatles set of CDs.

Due South is lovely, still haven't finished my box set though. I should get around to rectifying that. Plus, dontcha just love the theme tune?

Whenever I hear it, a little part of my deadened heart twitches slightly.

Yeah, Monkey Dust was great. Third series dragged a bit though. Over reliance on the Paedofinder General and that lab rabbit, I blame.

Oh my,

I would totally gay Paul Gross, too.



I've only ever seen series one.

"I'm the meatsafe murderer, only I never done it" etc. Brilliant stuff. The last episode, particularly.

Big MR SAD FACE that there are two other serieseseses that I can't watch.

Morals or technical spakkitude?

Which one is less embarrassing for me to admit to?

Just watched three episodes of Due South in a row with a bunch of beers.

Crumbs... but maybe...

If you can't/won't download monkey dust, they're almost all on youtube anyway. The third series was weak, aye - the rabbit was shit, and some of the long runners were wearing thin. The first two are some of the best things ever broadcast in this country, though. Some of the exchanges between Ivan and Mr. Jennings in the second series are just beautiful. Even the ones that start out rubbish (the 'new haircut couple' in particular) turn it around.

Heh lately for birthday gifts I've just been giving people Snuggies. Worst gift ever, I know.

Now though ever since I started this thing I have plenty of money so maybe I won't be so cheap on the gifts now

(I never thought I'd recommend one of those crazy get rich schemes but hey it's working for me. Thought I'd share)

Now that's a shill!