[ctviggen]

Anyone get any surprises for Christmas?  My two most surprising items were as follows:

(1)  Joss Stone, The Soul Sessions, CD.  I never heard of her before, but my friend's wife got this CD for me.  I really like it.  Here's a review:

http://www.popentertainment.com/joss.htm

I like the CD so much I'm thinking of getting the new CD by her.  

(2)  An iPod 20gb!  This present, from my girlfriend, was totally unexpected.  While I'm not sure about the quality of the music, as a travel companion, it's been great. I already have about 400 songs converted from CD, and I've been doing a lot of work around the house.  I just put the output of the iPod to the input of my older, 2-channel, upstairs system (Creek amp and Mirage speakers), and rock out all day on random play.  It's wonderful -- all the music I like and no commercials.  Now, I just need to triple my CD collection!  (Which I want to do anyway.)

[mca]

I received the Ken Burns Jazz collection on DVD from my parents. I never got a chance to watch it on TV. I usually get a couple of shirts from them, so this was a big surprise