...and coins for anyone who doesn't celebrate either! (wouldn't want you to miss out on displaying your 8bit love to the world)
i've been playing around with the larger (well, normal sized to everyone else) hama beads recently to come up with some new christmas tree decorations / holiday hangers in time for the impending festive season. if you don't have a tree, they also look good in windows where the translucent beads really catch the light nicely.
i'm also always up for suggestions or requests - festive 8bit videogame sprites were a bit thin on the ground as i was researching, even from the snow-laden super mario levels, so i ended up going with generic shiny things in festive colours. maybe 5 gold rings from sonic the hedgehog would be a good next project? but if you can think of any christmas-themed videogames of a suitable era, let me know! either here, or on the OMEGAZOID facebook fan page and if you come up with a good enough idea, i might make you a prototype!
if you like the look of these, but want something a little bit more wearable, i've got some jewellery/accessories lined up ready to be listed so look out for those soon...
so i made you all a muxtape^ 8trackplaylist to share in my joy and my vast christmas music mp3 collection.
liner notes:
*Weezer - O Holy night* apparently they recorded this for an iPhone game which everyone loved so much they are releasing the mp3s on itunes (but possibly only in america? i can't find them on the uk store) this is my favourite of the 6 and i am absolutely addicted to listening to this song at the moment. as in i will happily play it 4 or 5 times on repeat. the high note near the end is pure win, and it's quite weird to hear weezer singing such explicitly Christian carols but very cool at the same time
*Darlene Love - It's a Marshmallow World more generically winter than christmas but absolutely amazing all the same. kinda reminds me of hairspray and makes me want to be darlene love. she is truly queen of christmas music.
*Last Christmas - pas/cal never heard of the band before this but much much much better than the wussy version jimmyeatworld did on the OC chrismukkah cd. kinda almost chip-tuney which is quite nice
*I Want an Alien for Christmas - Fountains of Wayne i can't remember where i first heard this but i remember having to special order it into hmv when i was 13 because it was so cool. and then i plagiarised the cover artwork for my art homework... this was *way* before they fell in love with stacey's mom
*All I Want for Christmas is You - My Chemical Romance my least favourite christmas song (when sung by mariah carey at least) made more than listenable by one of the few nu-emo bands actually worth listening to (sometimes)
*Trains to Brazil - Guillemots not a christmas song. except it blatently is. even in the middle of summer this song never fails to make me feel all jingle bellsy inside
*Everything's Gonna Be Cool this Christmas - eels one of the finest examples of original indie christmas songs, found on indie radio station compilation cd's, chrismukkah mixes and mp3 blogs the world over
*Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens my absolute favourite christmas song ever. it's a classic. the video with shakey's awesome jumper makes it even better.
A spaceman came travelling by Chris de Burgh is my 2nd favourite (mostly because of how bizarre the lyrics are, but partly because the 'lalalah's' are immense) but I'm saving that for another time... yup, there's plenty more where this came from if you really want it ;)
credits: *all the bands or artists for being awesome and... *all the original songwriters for writing kickass songs that, whilst sounding horrendously annoying and/or crap when sung by the original artist (i'm looking at you mariah), make ace covers *the amazing hypemachine for supplying me with many many mp3s and... *all the music bloggers in the world who have even geekiermore exhaustive christmas music collections than me and share them every year *adam and joe for playing the darlene love track last week on their 6music radio show and introducing me to my favourite 'new' christmas song (even though it's probably about 40 yrs old) *my sister for knowing i wasn't being ironic when i asked for the O.C. Chrismukkah mix album *my mum and dad for bringing me up with the annual christmas cd whilst tree decorating, letting me listen to the evening session one christmas and allowing me to experience the wonderful juxtaposition of the guillemot's non-christmas but blatently festive song, and for owning the Phil Spector Christmas LP *god, because he invented christmas, and gave us something *even* better than christmas songs, but so good that it has inspired music throughout the ages
^i never ever used muxtape when it was going, and as soon as i find the perfect use for it, i find it got taken down by the stupid RIAA :(
happy christmas! blog's been quiet cos christmas has been crazy busy this year, but to all my friends, all my blog readers, all the people who are looking at this wondering what on earth someone has bought them for christmas, hope you have all had a lovely day :D and please enjoy the best christmas song ever courtesy of mr shakin' stevens!
today's gaming bounty has included guitar hero, copious singstar, two versions of zelda, and endless ocean - which if you've read the zine you'd know i was really looking forward to :) so going to take a bit of time off to play with all these and will update in the new year.
couldn't leave without giving you all a little something to celebrate and thank you for reading, so you have a choice of *two* gifts from me (via some other reputable websites...):
can't be too long, cos i need to go to the post office before it shuts - a lot of you must be getting pixel jewellery for christmas this year cos etsy has gone crazy this week! uploaded a pile of new stuff including the heart meter pin, one of which sold within mere minutes of going online(!); twosizes of pacmanbracelets (if you want ms pacman, ask, but you may have to wait an extra day or so); the new translucent heart container necklace and a pacman ghost regiment pin. for some strange reason a lot of the pictures i took last weekend on my sister's camera (mine is broke :( ) look fine on my screen but come out really washed out on etsy. so don't be fooled, they are really bright in real life :) lots more to come this week!
amongst the packing fest, i finally read scott pilgrim 4 and it is ace. everyone should put it on their christmas lists - i'll see if i can put up a link to the review i wrote for DM around the time vol. 3 came out. christmas really did come early like i thought it would, cos not only is my discbox arriving this week, but i just got radiohead tickets woo! :D
and finally, i want a christmas tree like this one. spain must looove retro videogames, that's where my latest parcel is heading off to! the fair write-up, photos and competition winners will be up soon, promise :)
p.s. this is a really quick and easy and fun way to make really pretty and classy looking snowflake decorations if you are looking for something to pass the friday afternoon time away :)
