Pop music

        If you're searching for something for that ultimate record geek or science-fiction fanatic, look no further.

        Brain in a Box: The Science Fiction Collection (Rhino; $99.98 CDs only) is the year's most lavish boxed set. Packaged in a gorgeous holographic case, the five CDs (and book) feature TV themes (including Rod Serling's groundbreaking Twilight Zone), movie themes, weird, easy-listening “exotica” of the '50s and '60s (Les Baxter's “Saturday Night on Saturn”), rock hits (“Telstar,” “Flyin' Saucers Rock 'N' Roll”) and sundry novelties, including one by our own Mojo Nixon, “UFOs, Big Rigs & BBQ.”

        Award-winning documentarian Ken Burns has spawned a mini-record industry with his upcoming PBS series Jazz. Along with the massive coffee table book, there are dozens of CDs bearing the “Ken Burns Jazz” imprint.

        The best single package is — what else? — Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music (Columbia; $59.98 CDs only). The 114 tracks on five CDs leave some gaps, of course (Bessie Smith is here, but not Mamie Smith, the Cincinnatian who was the first African-American woman to record a blues). But with a talent lineup that ranges from King Oliver to Cassandra Wilson this is the jazz history to beat.

        For those on a budget, there's a 20-track, single-disc version, Ken Burns JAZZ: The Best of (Columbia; $18.98 CD only).

        And, if money's no object and you don't mind putting a promise under the tree, on Jan. 2, the entire 10-episode series will be available in boxed sets on VHS (10 tapes; $149.98) and DVD (10 discs; $199.98) on Jan. 2.
       

Television

       How about giving a slice of the HomeTown as a holiday gift?

        WCPO-TV's Joe Webb has packaged his favorite Channel 9 HomeTown features into a 90-minute tape. It's twice as long as the prime-time special that Channel 9 has aired twice this month.

        HomeTown Vol. I includes Mr. Webb's stories about Rabbit Hash, Arnold's, the Maisonette, U.S. Playing Cards, Sharon Woods, the old Oakley Race Track, Cincinnati's brewing industry, the Sharonville Root Beer stand, covered bridges, College Corner and a man who makes birth announcements with Hershey's chocolate bars.

        “From the beginning (in 1997), we have had calls from people wanting us to put out a tape for sale,” Mr. Webb says.

        The VHS tape ($19.95) can only be found at one store — the Channel 48 Store of Knowledge at Kenwood Towne Centre.

        It also can be ordered by sending a check or money order, payable to WCPO-TV, for $19.95 to HomeTown video, WCPO-TV, 500 Central Ave., Cincinnati 45202. (Please allow two-to-four weeks for delivery.)

Film

        F.W. Murnau, the father of the cinematic vampire, would never have believed it would come to this: Vamps is out on DVD.

        That would be B-Plus Productions Vamps, the brainchild of local boys Mark Burchett and Mike Fox.

        Five years ago, they gathered a motley crew of horror fans from in and around Cincinnati to make the gleefully cheesy, zero-budget, no-brow, strippers-and-vampires video that proved a hit within the shockingly large subculture devoted to homemade horror stories.

        So successful has the video been that it is now available on digital video disc at perfectly respectable retail outlets, including Media Play, Best Buy and Suncoast.

The arts

        Make someone's Christmas melodic. Buy a psaltery — a zither shaped like a trapezoid — from Wm. Rees Instruments of Rising Sun, Ind., and you'll be making music in minutes. Mr. Rees has been a featured artist at the Craftsman's Guild Gallery in San Francisco, and his handmade instruments are award winners from Ann Arbor, Mich., to La Quinta, Calif.

        You'll be playing Ode to Joy and the 1812 Overture as soon as you set your fingers to plucking. Each psaltery comes with follow-the-dot music sheets that slide under the strings to give beginners a quick start.

        Psalteries run from $70 to $150. While you're at the studio (222 Main St., Rising Sun) you can also test-drive one of Mr. Rees' award-winning harps. Call (812) 438-3032 or visit traditionalharps.com.

Local history

        Hen Peck, Goosetown, Clopper's Ford; villages such as these made up the old Cincinnati suburb of Cumminsville. These days, even the name Cumminsville is giving way to Northside.

        But in 1914, when the Ludlow Avenue Viaduct was new, it was Cumminsville that celebrated the new bridge with a commemorative book. Even then, the book was published by the Northside Business Club.

        Souvenir History of Cumminsville, 1914 ($22.95) is the latest in a series of reprints of neighborhood histories by the Ohio Book Store. Other neighborhoods in the series are Western Hills, Hyde Park, Mount Adams and Norwood. The book is available at Joseph-Beth Booksellers and at Ohio Book Store, 726 Main St., downtown.

        In 1914 Cumminsville included South Cumminsville, south of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad tracks, and Northside, north of the tracks.

        The new Ludlow Avenue Viaduct spanned the Mill Creek, the Cincinnati and Erie Canal and the B&O Railroad tracks. The new span opened the way for street car and automobile traffic, linking the area with the rest of the city.

        It was cause for celebration, for merchants to get pictures of their stores and factories in print. It was a cause to publish historic pictures, to boast of schools and churches, and tell the history of the area.

        The most entertaining histories in the book are those of the area businesses, the taverns, the theaters, banks, breweries and funeral homes, that were in business when the book was printed in 1914. Most of the buildings and houses pictured, survive today.
       

        Mariemont is named for her. She was instrumental in establishing Cincinnati Art Museum and Children's Hospital. Now Millard F. Rogers Jr., director emeritus of the museum, has written a book about her. She is Mary M. Emery, art collector and philanthropist. The name of the book is Rich in Good Works.

        The illustrated biography details her life, from her birth in 1844, her marriage to Thomas J. Emery in 1866 to the settlement of her estate after her death in 1927. Notes and a list of her philanthropies end the 237-page hardcover book. It's is $34.95 at the Museum Shop.
       

        Pointe is a new dance magazine, and it would make a great gift for your ballet sweetie. Loaded with great pictures, it's a breeze to read, and with its fresh ideas, it may provoke the more established Dance Magazine to try some new things.

        Pointe is advertised as “exclusively for the ballet dancer” and is published four times a year. To subscribe: $9.95 to Pointe, Box 1916, Marion, OH 43306; www.pointemagazine.com.

        (Dance Magazine has been around for 70 years and includes more types of dance — contemporary, jazz, tap, etc. Published monthly; Send $34.95 to Dance Magazine, Box 5068, Brentwood, TN 37024; 800-331-1750.)

        There's never a lack of dance videos to suggest. Instructionals abound, but be sure it's something your friend or relative wants to learn. Local instructor Padma Chebrolu has just released a 60-minute “how-to” on the intricate hand and foot movements that comprise the ancient dances of India. $19.99, Cultural Centre of India, 9462 Hopewell Road, Cincinnati 45249; 227-9612.

        New York's Bob Rizzo offers half a dozen “simply” (read beginner) videos from funk to ballet, $20-$30. Best prices are through Dance Distributors, (800) 333-2623.

        And for the serious balletomane, Dance Magazine offers a series of famous dancers in well-known ballets. There's Rudolf Nureyev partnering Veronica Tennant in Sleeping Beauty ($26.45), a host of American Ballet Theater stars dancing Le Corsaire ($28.45) and many more. Dance Magazine, Attention Circulation; 33 W. 60th St., New York, NY 10023; www.dancemagazine.com.
       

Radio

        Just what everybody needs for Christmas — a blues break.

        For the first time, Gary Burbank has included a Blues Break 201 performance by his Howlin' Blind Muddy Slim on his year-end tapes from his WLW-AM (700) show.

        Burbank 2001: A Space Oddity also has all of Mr. Burbank's favorite characters: Earl Pitts, Gilbert Gnarley (and nephew Tad), the Rev. Deuteronomy Skaggs and the Big Fat Balding Guy.

        One CD ($15) or two cassettes ($12) are available at Bigg's stores and Burbank's Real Bar-B-Q in Sharonville; or by phone (800-EARLPITTS); or the Internet (www.earlpitts.com). Burbank Creations promises that telephone orders placed by Wednesday will be delivered before Christmas.
       

Classical music

        This holiday, Cincinnati shows off its musical heritage in art reproductions large and small.

        For the opera lover with everything — and a big blank wall — Cincinnati Opera is selling oversized (about 4 feet by 6 feet) bus shelter posters for $100.

        The coated, unframed prints (yes, they really were in bus shelters) feature illustrations by Rafal Olbinski. They tout Cincinnati Opera's recent productions: La Cenerentola, Pelleas et Melisande, Salome, Don Giovanni, La Boheme, The Turn of the Screw, Faust, Lucia di Lammermoor and Falstaff. Supplies are limited. Call 744-3235.

        At the other end of the spectrum is a miniature framed reproduction imported from England of a watercolor painting of Music Hall (circa 1878). It's my personal fave at $20, sold by the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall. Call 752-2333 or 381-8028.

        No central gift shop exists in Cincinnati for classical music fans. But you can find unique musical gifts around town in retail stores, through arts organizations or on the Web.

        For a classy gift, give opera glasses ($50). Cincinnati Opera's brass-trimmed opera glasses are as nice as anything I've seen at the Metropolitan Opera shop in New York. The opera also sells a great white tennis visor ($15), scoop and crew-neck T-shirts ($15) and sweatshirts ($30), all with opera logo.

        Smaller items include a coffee tumbler ($10), note cards ($2) and key ring ($12). Call 744-3267.

        • To keep time and support a good cause, the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall sells a large wall clock ($15) and a small acrylic crystal desk clock ($10), with SPMH logo. Call 752-2333 or 381-8028.

        • You can buy gifts from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the CSO Sales Office (1229 Elm St.) or on the Web (cincinnatisymphony.org). This year's top pick for kids: The Remarkable Farkle McBride (Simon & Schuster; $16), a whimsical book about a musical genius by John Lithgow, illustrated by Cincinnatian C.F. Payne. (Mr. Payne used the CSO as his model.)

        Recordings by the CSO and Pops orchestras are always a hit (CD: $15; some cassettes available, $10). If you have a RealAudio Player, you can listen to excerpts on the CSO Web site before you buy the CD.

        The latest from Maestro Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the CSO is Mahler's Symphony No. 10. Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops have just released a Viennafest album, with the music of Franz Lehar and the Strauss family.

        For holiday favorites, the CSO sells Mel Torme Christmas Songs with Keith Lockhart conducting; Christmas with the Pops, with guests Rosemary Clooney, Doc Severinsen, Toni Tennille and Sherrill Milnes; and Christmas at the Movies, featuring pianist Michael Chertock (in CD or cassette).

        There's other merchandise, too, from Cincinnati Pops seat cushions ($10) to brass ornaments of Music Hall ($15).

        Finally, to jazz up your holiday, here are two of my favorite things, released this year, and in record stores throughout the city:

        Dave Brubeck's One Alone (Telarc; CD $15.99; no cassette) was the appetizer to a year-long celebration of Mr. Brubeck's 80th birthday Dec. 6. The intimate solo outing is a rare chance to hear the genius behind a half-century of work as the jazz pianist takes a poignant journey through 13 classics.

        Kentucky “girl singer” Rosemary Clooney teams for the first time with two hot young jazz stars: singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli and singer-pianist Diana Krall in her latest album Brazil (Concord Jazz; $16.99). There's a warm glow in this collection of bossa nova ballads. My favorites are wistful tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim and others, such as “Corcovado,” “One Note Samba,” “Dindi” and “Boy From Ipanema.”
       

Art

        For those who savor looking at the artwork at Cincinnati Art Museum, now you can peruse much of the collection while sitting in your favorite easy chair at home. Frank Duveneck's “The Whistling Boy,” Horace Pippin's “Christmas Morning Breakfast,” Rookwood vases, Andy Warhol's “Pete Rose.”

        The Collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, its first handbook since 1986, contains 330 pages of color photos plus information about each work written by the curatorial staff. Every collection is represented, from Egyptian art, furniture, ceramics and textiles to contemporary works.

        The 6- by 9-inch handbook costs $19.95 and is for sale in the Museum Shop.

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