Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide	A Little Holiday Music by Donny Kutzbach

First Act PW580 electric guitar ($179.99 at shop.firstact.com)—Guitar Hero III for XBOX360? Rock Band for PS3? These are not the things which make a true rocker. Still, I’m not so worried about the next generation because the current swell of instrument-simulation music video games can only help to inspire them. All the same, mastering Slayer’s “Reign in Blood” on expert level is not the real thing. Maybe it’s time to put down the four-button plastic toy and pick up an actual guitar. What better way than with one designed by a rock legend? When Paul Westerberg and his Minneapolis buds started the Replacements, their goal to was to get drunk and play loud. They achieved both, along the way issuing some of the 1980s’ defining rock albums and helping to shape the punk and underground rock scene. Westerberg went on to become America’s rock-and-roll laureate, a peerless songwriter and performer who has never lost his perfectly jagged punk edge. As legend has it, Westerberg stopped at a chain store during a solo tour several years back to pick up shaving cream. As a lark, he ended up walking out with an inexpensive First Act electric guitar, which was quickly added to his stage arsenal for nightly use. The folks at First Act were ecstatic and asked Westerberg to design a custom model. His ideal was realized in a Les Paul Junior-style six-string with a lone but growling single coil pickup, a fast maple neck and a permacool “punk rock plaid” pickguard. Now, with a quality instrument available at less than $200, there’s no need to die without a guitar within your reach. In case Westerberg’s model is not your style, First Act offers a varied line of introductory level guitars and—trust me—these make way better beginner guitars than the Harmony I got out of the Sears catalog back in 1984.

Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who DVD ($23.99 through most music/video retailers)—This could be marketed as a “how to” video on becoming the greatest band ever. (Sorry, Led Zeppelin!) Amazing Journey goes beyond the usual rock doc constraints and Behind the Music cliches to offer a tightly knit narrative told largely by the band themselves and those closest to them, interspersed with so much unseen footage. From mods to rockers, the ups and downs of Keith, Ox, Pete and Roger could only be called Amazing Journey. The stadium-crushing drum calamity, steady but bruising bass lines, guitar windmilling and microphone swinging captured on the in-concert material all but prove that this was the greatest live act of all time. You will be cannonballing off of your couch! It’s well worth hunting down the three-disc special edition that includes a long-lost live show from 1979 (the Kenny Jones-era) from Chicago. Rock is dead, they say? Long live rock!

Mojo Magazine subscription (around $120 depending on currency conversion—go to www.mojo4music.com)—Speaking of rock living long, has the rock music magazine really died? With Rolling Stone saving its covers for scantily clad teenage movie stars of the moment, the boom of blogs and the takeover of online music journalism, it would be easy to say yes…but then rock’s always got the Mojo. The monthly British music mag strives to bring the finest in music old and new by presenting rock’s most significant and revolutionary music makers while championing tomorrow’s stars today. Thorough features, exclusive photos and one of the largest review sections make Mojo second to none and a veritable bible for any serious fan. If $10 a month seems steep for a magazine, consider also that each issue comes with a themed mix CD.

David Bowie Box ($60.97 at Amazon.com)—You may have Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs and Low, but your Bowie collection is hardly complete. Shame on ya if you’ve ignored the last decade or so from rock’s most visionary one. This is a pretty impressive body of work and a celebration of the Bowie renaissance. Included are his five most recent albums: Outside, which saw him return to work with one of his greatest collaborators, Brian Eno; the riffs and electronic blast of Earthling; the moody and sublime millennium turner ‘hours…’; 2002’s Heathen; and 2004’s Reality, which saw him returning after years to work with producer Tony Visconti. Each complete studio album includes a second disc that complements the set with more than 60 additional tracks—ranging from live, alternate and remixed versions along with rarities—resulting in a real bevy of Bowie. Some 40 years on, the artist is still at work and terrifically genre-defiant and chameleon-like. The proof is here!

SanDisk Sansa MP3 Players ($99-$149 through most electronics retailers)—The ultimate testimony I can give to the Sansa? I am a complete Kool-Aid drinker when it comes to the iPod and—in spite of the ubiquitousness of Apple and iTunes in my life—I’ve been thoroughly wowed by the Sansa for its versatility, compactness and affordability. The most compact and lightweight on the market, Sansa’s flash-memory-based media player is available with up to eight gigabytes and can store and play music, video and photos like its competition. Yet, for the same price as Apple’s $150, four-gigabyte Nano, you can have a Sansa with double the space. Sansa is also one of the few players on the market with a port to instantly add more memory/content. Another great point about Sansa: Not only can you put the music from your new box sets or rip DVDs on it, but say you start writing a song on that new guitar and need to get it down? The Sansa has an onboard recorder and mic to capture your ideas on the go. Add to that the built in FM tuner for radio and the Sansa offers a lot in one place for not a lot of money.