++ one more

For the cold, menacing winter wind that keeps fires on, doors closed, and people close. 

Fleet Foxes – Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (I think they mixed up the titles when they named a different song “White Winter Hymnal”)

++ for christmas…

I got my dad a gift that I fear would only be funny to me, him, and my brother. Here’s the explaination. 

In our family, the men are all huge music junkies. My dad raised us that way. Our masculine moments were more often shared over listening to classic rock in his car or sneaking around and stealing some of his old rock from the insane CD collection he stored downstairs. No sports or hunting for us. Compliemented by the fact that he is an old rock DJ and knows all you ever need to know, we got a firm and steady education in music from an early age. 

As we’ve grown, our tastes have all become independent. Yet, no matter how much we differ or agree on the best bands out there, we all still share music. My dad shares the most and burns us CDs on a regular basis to check out and learn from. We put in our own effort as well. 

I figured this year I would make a gift that Cummings men could truly appreciate. I conceptualized this idea of a tattered looking sleeve thing that was sewn together purposefully badly to look ‘punk rock’. I got some good help from a lovely friend. I then drew up a fast and maybe not so good illustration that would fit on the front. It looks a tad like this…

The Horns

This little illustration gets painted on the front of the envelope. Then I drew up a list of hairdos. The hairdos would be cut out and have velcro on the back so they could be interchangably affiched to the knuckles of the hand… giving them their own rock and roll personality. They look kinda like this…

So the point of this all? Well basically the pouch is for him to send us CDs in. You pick a hairdo based on the kind of music you’re inserting into the pouch, and mail it. Then when one of us sons gets this new music in the mail (we don’t live in the same state, sadly), we refill it with new music to send back for him to try out and change the hairdo accordingly. 

It’s silly, but it works well for our obsession with rock and roll proliferation. The Cummings family rock education has no excuses. I think he’ll dig it… if not for its strange piece of art then for its function. 

What would I send this year? Here are a couple of songs I’m obsessed with…

Loney, Dear – A Few Good Men

Suburban Kids with Biblical Names – Loop Duplicate my Heart