Wondering what to gift to get for a loved one this hoiday season? Well look no further than The Syndicate’s Official Holiday Gift Guide.

We found products that are exciting to us, this means lots of randomness and even more related to monkeys. Check them out, who knows maybe you will like them too. Happy shopping.

THE BRIT BOX: UK INDIE, SHOEGAZE, AND BRIT-POP GEMS OF THE LAST MILLENIUM BOXED SET
Rhino Records
- By Matt

Wondering what to pick up for your favorite Brit Rocker this holiday season? Try Rhino’s The Brit Box set.

Rhino is known for putting out amazing sets (see No Thanks! The ’70s Punk Rebellion, Left Of The Dial: Dispatches Of the ’80s Underground, or Whatever: The ’90s Pop & Culture Box boxes for further proof). Now, they are now crossing the pond and tackling the British take on jangly pop music, shoegazer, and indie with songs sequenced chronologically over the last 15 years of the 20th century.

As expected, Rhino does a good job of placing relevant but lesser-known (at least here in the states) seminal artists next to those with crossover success to create an all-encompassing collection appealing to anyone looking for a retrospective of the scene. It’s all packed into an easily-manageable 4-disc, 78 song set. There’s also a hefty booklet that, like it’s previous counterparts has probably too much info the average consumer would care to delve into but will give the musical fanatic a great but quick read.

This boxed set will take you from the heights of arena rockers like Oasis, Blur, The Cure, and The Verve; drag you through the haze of Spiritualized, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, and My Bloody Valentine. Show you the beginnings of acid house with Primal Scream and the Happy Mondays; then inject you with a shot of sugary pop of The La’s and The Sundays before giving you great rock of Supergrass, Elastica, and Placebo to wash it all down.

Time to get your education on.

THE YODELING PICKLE
- By The Rev

First the light bulb and then a man on the moon. What will they think of next? It’s a pickle…that yodel’s!!!!! Seriously, what else do you need to know!??!?!

After you buy one for your entire holiday shopping list you can go home as there is nothing left to invent.

ADOPT A FARM ANIMAL
The Farm Sanctuary
- By Michelle

Within the past year I realized how much stuff I have in my apartment – WAY too much stuff. Between the books, records, clothes, CDs, shoes, DVDs, and posters, my shelves and closet are exploding. Then I thought of how little I can live off of when I’m on vacation (a travel-on size suitcase for a month long trip in London, for example) and decided it’s time to clean house. I’m sure I’m not the only one in this situation, so instead of buying your friends (or me) a joke present that is going to collect dust, put your money to good use and adopt a farm animal.

Think: you can have a pet, look at pictures of your piglet rolling around in mud in the warm spring sun, but not have to actually deal with cleaning up its poop.

The Farm Sanctuary in upstate New York allows you to adopt a specific animal, and you can go visit him any time you want to at the farm!

You can adopt this piglet for less than the cost of a DVD boxset! awwww!!!

THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING 2007 BOOK
David Eggers and Sufjan Stevens
- By Graham

Renowned author Dave Eggers returns with his yearly collection of the year’s best fiction, nonfiction, alternative comics, screenplays, blogs, lists, and anything else he deems worthy in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007. Each year, the author (along with students from his San Francisco writing lab) compiles a grouping of these fun, introspective, and often quirky works into a paperback novel. The newest edition (released in October) also boasts an opening list from Eggers himself and an introduction from indie-rock stalwart extraordinaire Sufjan Stevens.

If you’re unfamiliar with Eggers, also make to check out his brilliant A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius (his first major offering, a memoir about the death of both of his parents, leaving the 21-year-old author to take care of his 8-year-old brother), You Shall Know Our Velocity (his first novel, a story of two young friends who travel around the world to give away a large sum of money), What Is The What (a startling portrayal of the Sudanese civil war from the perspective of an American refugee), and How We Are Hungry (a moving collection of short stories).

SCARFACE “I AM TONY MONTANA” HOODIE
- By Marc

Here’s a great gift for the holidays. An “I Am Tony Montana” Scarface all over full zip hoodie. This is a great way to stay warm while projecting your inner thug to the world.

Tony says “Me, I want what’s coming to me…The World Chico. And everything in it.”

This hoodie features a faux pinstripped suit with Tony’s chains accented with rhinestones and gold glitter ink. The hood zips all the way to the top and creates an image of Tony’s face including peep holes for the eyes. The inside satin lining features an additional pocket with a print of money and a cigar protruding from it.

“SHE’S A HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS” MP3
Patent Pending
- By Jackie

It’s that time of year again. Getting around in New York becomes next to impossible with the droves of Christmas tree aficionados; It seems that everyone’s house is covered in some type of twinkling lights and our radio stations are invaded with songs of holiday cheer. And amidst all the chaos what are you doing? Stressing out about what the perfect gift to give your loved ones this year will be. Well look no further. The perfect gift this year is the gift of song. Not just any holiday song but none other then a very special “She’s a Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas” by the talented pop punk band Patent Pending.

Nothing says happy holidays better and at $0.89 on amazon.com you just can’t beat the price. The perfect gift, the perfect stocking stuffer, and the perfect way to say “I care” in that “She’s A Ho Ho Ho…Merry Christmas” kind of way.

LOCKED AND LOADED WINE BAR
Uncommon Gifts
- By Tracey

“Locked and Loaded” – For the wine drinking gun enthusiast on your holiday shopping list, this is a great find.

This beautiful, vintage ammunitions box doubles as a wine bar. Ideal for a few cocktails before hitting the shooting range or the tree stand.

BONUS: For the environmentally-conscious, it’s made from 100% recycled materials.

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON DVD
Flight Of The Conchords (Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie)
- By Bill

Finally, New Zealand will no longer only be know for The Lord of the Rings! When I saw the pilot episode of the show, I was not really a fan as it just seemed like Tenacious D for hipsters. Then I added HBO to my cable plan and decided to give the second episode a chance. I was then hooked and proceeded to watch 5 more episodes with the lovely technology that is On Demand. Each episode gets better, with highlights including the different eras of David Bowie visiting Bret in his dreams and the Demetri Martin/Todd Barry supergroup “Crazy Dogggz.”

Unfortunately, HBO dropped the ball and included no special features on the DVD, the 12 episodes are great though making it a worthwhile holiday gift.

LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA VIDEO GAME
Lucas Arts
- By Brian

Okay, so I’m three things:
1 – A total Star Wars geek (my wife and I walked into our wedding reception to the Star Wars theme song and had our wedding party walk out to the “Imperial March”)
2 – A fan of Legos (yes, I purchase Star Wars and Harry Potter lego sets; definitely saving to purchase the Tie Fighter)
3 – A video game nerd (still have my old school Gameboy & NES for those nights where I want to revisit Tetris and Tetris 2)

So Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga? This is the quite possibly the Mecca for some of the most nerdy aspects of my personality. A veritable smorgasbord of fanboy nerd-dom, if you will. For the uninitiated, the game centers around playing as the Lego versions of all your favorite characters and vehicles from all six Star Wars movies through various levels which reflect different planets and scenes from either trilogy. For example, you can play as Luke Skywalker or Darth Maul and use the Force to manipulate lego bricks in the jungles of Naboo or the Jundland Wastes on Tatooine and even fly around on your speeder bike through the Ewok forest or cruise around on Anakin’s speeder around the buildings of Coruscant. Flaven!

For those of you that may have purchased and played the previous iterations of Lego Star Wars (The Video Game / LSW II: The Original Trilogy), The Complete Saga offers new aspects to the gameplay including power-ups, revisions to various levels that enhance / improve the gameplay of those levels as well as all new bonus characters and new boards. I own the version produced for the Wii, which takes advantage of the motion sensitive controls to swing character’s lightsabers. How awesome is that? While I don’t have any experience with it, versions produced for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 also promise online gameplay, allowing you to square off against your friend as Darth Vader out in Timbuktu.

Obviously this is all coming from a person who views the entire combination of this game as quite possibly the best thing since Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funky Homosapien teamed up for the Judgment Night soundtrack – so why should YOU buy it? Even for the novice gamer, the controls and gameplay are so easy and seamless that you can pick up on the use of controls within minutes of playing. The hidden treasures and mini-quests embedded in the game as well as bonus levels make repeat plays of all levels make it fun and exciting each and every time. Plus, who doesn’t get a kick out of seeing a cut scene version of Mace Windu lopping off the head of Jango Fett?

Life is good, people…and so is The Complete Saga

BLACKBERRY CURVE
RIM
- By Bram

We’re not going to lie – we here at The Syndicate love our Blackberries. In no time at all, they went from something that only the douchiest of investment bankers would own to a must-have accessory for anyone. And the Blackberry Curve has a lot to do with that. ‘Wait a minute,’ you’re thinking. ‘I thought Blackberries were for businesspeople only?’ Not anymore, hypothetical reader. The Curve (and the smaller, cheaper Pearl) still have the features that the business community relies on, namely awesome e-mail capabilities.

But the Curve, which was introduced earlier this year on AT&T and is now available through nearly every carrier, makes owning a Blackberry fun for everyone. All Curves and Pearls come with at least a 2 megapixel camera and Blackberry Messenger, which is like the Blackberry version of IM. And if you get a micro SD card like I did (I have a 4 gig), you can use your Berry like an iPod. And the smooth, small design of the Curve and Pearl make earlier Blackberries seem like cold war relics. So instead of the cool, but much more expensive iPhone, get your friends, family or yourself a Curve and have a Berry Christmas.

JVC-VICTOR SX-WD1KT WOOD CONE SPEAKER KIT
JVC
- By Gray

Combining three of my loves in life – woodworking, simple design, and music, The JVC-Victor SX-WD1KT Wood Cone Speaker Kit is absolutely amazing. Not only for those of the “Maker” variety, but for audiophiles, or anyone who likes working with their hands, this kit is second to none.

Combining real Cherry Wood (which has been a favorite since my days at my Dad’s woodworking company), and suberp quality JVC speakercones, JVC has definitely knocked it out of the park with this. But why, oh why, are they only being sold in Japan?

I know that I (and my Dad) would love to get my hands on these, for continued enjoyment from unboxing, to assembly, to continued use and appreciation.

FURREAL FRIENDS BUTTERSCOTCH PONY
Hasbro
- By Dan

Walking through the aisles of Target last week, I found a display of what appears to be a miracle come true. In front of me was something that would make an excellent holiday gift for any hunting enthusiast. A robot death horse. I’m not sure what department it’s sold in, but it was near the burly men’s clothing, so I’m going to assume it is with the bad-ass dude’s hunting accessories. Or maybe Target has started an animatronics army division. The model on display was labeled with the seemingly innocuous name of Butterscotch.

Good thinking Hasbro (I believe that’s an upstart division of Halliburton – the names are too similar). Bring the Trojan horse concept into the 21st century. We don’t need anything that will strike fear into our prey from a distance. We’ll keep that the public name, but for internal use we need something more tough. So I propose to codename this new project Butcher-scotch 1.0: The Master HorseChief. Let’s take a look at some of the features $299.99 will buy you this holiday season:

- Responds to speech and petting: Unfortunately, Butcher-scotch does not talk back. This does not provide the authentic Mr. Ed experience I was hoping for. One requires a companion in battle, and what would be better than having that as your ride as well? Strike one, Hasbro.

- “Sit on your pony for a pretend ride and she makes walking sounds!”: Wait, the legs don’t move? That’s not practical at all. I’m starting to wonder if the designers brought in a military advisor.

- “Sniffs your hand!”: I’m going to assume this means advanced scent-scanning, something Robocop always sadly lacked. Great addition, very useful when tracking down enemies.

- “Feed her carrots!”: This is a good storage system and great for stashing any evidence while on a reconnaissance mission. You’ll quickly blend into the tourist after you’ve shoved your surveillance equipment down BS’s gullet.

- Requires 6 “D” Batteries: This is all well and good when I’m in the comfort of this convenience store, but what am I supposed to do when I’m in the frozen tundra? Diesel fuel would be better in the next upgrade.

- Maximum Weight 80 Pounds: Well this is ridiculous – first it doesn’t walk and now I can’t even sit on the thing? Some “FurReal” horse experience this is…

All in all, Butterscotch shows promise, but sorely lacks as a companion should you find yourself in an emergency situation when hunting polar bears, wild boar or gazelle. Stuck in an ice cave with a broken leg? Butterscotch won’t be able to walk for help, or pass time with a fascinating debate on foreign policy. Lost in the desert? Good luck drilling up more fuel, Butterscotch is only alkaline. Maybe this could have an alternate function as a toy for little girls to play pretend, but I mean – how practical is that?

SCREAMING SLINGSHOT MONKEY
IGg Factory Inc.
- By Pat

Some people are easy to shop for like old-fashioned Tradesmen. If you know a Wigmaker, or “wigsmith” then it would be a good idea to buy them a brand new hackle or a weaving frame. But if you don’t hang out with a lot of tradesmen it’s tricky because you need to get something that is not only incredibly expensive, but also very practical and useful like this Screaming Slingshot Monkey who can soar almost 50 feet!

This is a very amazing invention because in the past many monkeys have been killed by people who want to shoot them out of a slingshot and make them scream. These people usually live in poor countries like Europe and can’t spend upwards of $3.99 in one place and don’t have technology like we do in the Colonies, and therefore do not have the means to hire one of these specially trained Slingshot Monkeys. He is also wearing a burglar’s mask to protect his identity, which is also awesome and adds value. Value that you may not realize until the year 2068 when you are bored with your Screaming Slingshot Monkey and take it to auction at a taping for PBS’s Antiques Road Show and find out that it’s worth nearly 7 tons of diamond!

Psyche! That is obviously a joke. You’ll never get bored with your Screaming Slingshot Monkey.

SUPER MARIO GALAXY VIDEO GAME
Nintendo
- By Pete

Now that I finally have a Wii, I need to learn to focus. I continue to download as many games as possible for the virtual console to fulfill my childhood fantasies. I only had the Turbo-Grafx 16 growing up so in addition to getting all of those games, I have to explore for the first time, the other game systems from generations past. In the meantime, I had stopped playing Zelda altogether even though it’s an amazing game. I had to buy the new Metroid when it came out as well, so I’ve just been buying games without having time to actually play and finish any of them.

Starting last week, I dug down deep into my soul and decided to commit myself wholly to finishing Zelda. Everything had been going great since. Great that is until I was invited over to a friend’s place to play the new Mario game, Super Mario Galaxy. Not only did I immediately and easily pick the game play controls, but I knew right away that I would be playing it for the next three hours straight. So, I’m sorry Zelda, but Mario is the franchise after all. At this point I can only be patient enough to allow someone else to give it to me as a gift and hopefully finish playing Zelda before the 25th.

Check out the trailer. Then move Mario to the top of your wishlist.

SOLAR NODDING MONKEY, GUN REMOTE CONTROL, NINTENDO DS
FindMeAGift.co.uk | Nintendo
- By Claire

The Christmas Holidays are upon us and sometimes the finding of gifts can be a stressful thing. I personally always like to go with the humorous (yet effective and efficient) gift ideas like this solar powered, nodding desk monkey complete with black skull t-shirt and all! Everyone gets stressed out, confused, and even lonely sitting at their desks so why not have a pet Monkey that always thinks you’re right?! OR you could go for the humorous yet totally AWESOME gift like this cowboy style gun remote which could take you back to your childhood Duck Hunt days.

BUT, if you’re looking to buy something a little more worth while- get your co-worker, friend, or family member a Nintendo DS. Dual Screens, Wi-Fi connection so you can play other people, tons of game choices, sleek design…C’MON! Playing video games can relieve stress, help with perception, stimulate your brain and always keep that inner child in check. Since the holiday season is all about giving and “loving thy neighbor”, anyone is more than welcome to purchase me one. I’d prefer the new red and black design, but I’m not picky.

It’s your last chance to get some good karma points and do at least one thing nice for a stranger this year.

THE MCLOVIN’ EXTRA VALUE MEAL
- By Jon

The must have funny comedy of the year is being released on December 4th.

Superbad was amazing the first time I saw it in the theaters, so I can only imagine how amazing it will be in the comfort of my own home!

Enjoy the McLovin’ Meal, here are the contents:

- Superbad DVD (Gotta get the Unrated Version)
- 12 Pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon (Cans)
- Grandma’s Boy DVD, just because it’s AMAZING!

TWIN PEAKS: THE DEFINITIVE GOLD BOX EDITION (THE COMPLETE SERIES) DVD
David Lynch
- By Elles

How do you know it’s good? First of all, it’s TWIN PEAKS. Second, it’s called DEFINITIVE. Need I say more?? Ok, here ya go: This box set finally gives Twin Peaks / David Lynch fans something to applaud in a DVD set as far as special features go…not to mention both seasons in one box.

It would take pages and pages of my rambling thoughts to not only explain how huge of an impact Twin Peaks made an impact on network television in the early 90’s as well as myself and my college years trying to dissect the layers of symbolism and mystery. I’ll skip that and leave the reasons to check this out to any diehard cult fans who were once bit by the Twin Peaks bug. You’ll find them, just ask around. While viewing, remember to drink lots of coffee and serve up some cherry pie. Oh and the owls are not what they seem.

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