News About Stuff V No doubt everyone looked at the inevitable Coffee Table Book as a gift for the hard-to-buy relative. It's easy, right? Everyone likes to look at something that appeals to them. The photo-book is the subject of a new book, The Photobook: A History - Volume I. One of the authors, Martin Parr, has an extensive collection of photography in books. The printed book has been around for centuries, but photography has only been around a fraction of that, and reproduction in print is still younger. The Photobook showcases the reason Parr loves the books -- the experimental and strange applications of photography in the early days, from life-sized photos of the correct bread to the expressions of a human face in pain. The thousand words each of Parr's favorite photos is worth might not make any sense when penned to paper, and he likes it that way. Now that Christmas is gone -- what to do with the gifts? The bestest coolestest ones get places of honor in the household...but the less-than-coolestest ones are banished to the garage, basement, or thrift shop. Not that they weren't given with the best intentions, Christmas is time for the worst gifts. Yes, one year my daughter & I bought a singing fish wall plaque for Grandpa, and I don't remember seeing it hanging in the living room...Tips for the future: the words "AS SEEN ON TV" do not make for good gifting. The Tahoe Daily Tribune's list sums it up nicely, covering nearly every bad gift I've recieved, given, or heard of: The list could go on forever: the deep fryer, bread maker, fondu pot, fajita maker, lava lamp, Chia pet (post Chia hair growth), feather boa, hand and foot massagers, coin counter, the jelly and jam gift baskets, sausage and cheese gift basket, or bath and body gift box, or the collectible you have too many of or just don't collect anymore. Although, many of today's valuable collectibles were the toss-away gifts of the past...if they didn't throw them away, there wouldn't be rare, now, would they? You might want to stick a couple of those annual Thighmasters in the back of your closet - you never know what they'll be worth someday. Don't do that with the cheese sampler, though: it's just not a good idea. Most likely, the bestest, colestest you could have gotten your friends, kids, and relatives are the same ones you thought were the bestest in your childhood. The retro-toys have been a big seller, from the stalwart Lincoln Logs, to newer retro items like Strawberry Shortcake, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, and Care Bears. Even video games -- for $20 you can get repackaged versions of your favorite Atari games. If you never thought antiquing was 'cool,' you probably wouldn't be here. You'd accepted long ago that YOU were uncool for antiquing, lurking amongst the glass cabinets and musty books of antique shops. Little did you know that punk rockers hold a soft-spot for antiquing in their hearts. Christopher Reece, former drummer for the band Social Distortion, publishes a 'zine regularly. Not a punk 'zine, not a pop-culture 'zine -- it's a directory to the antique shops on the Orange County CA area. The OC is packed with antique-afficianado punk rockers? Who knew? While on tour, Reece would visit antique shops as a way to pass the time. Dissatisfied with yellow-pages listings, he and his wife began to publish their own for the service of other retro-hounds. The antique shop here in Fargo recently made a large sale to the Marilyn Manson entourage, and a pawn-shop owner here in town once told me he often met touring rockers who stopped in to browse his wares. There may be more to this connection than one might think... Article by Derek

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