When I think about this selection, I am a bit curious about the timing of its release. Obviously, the time is now if one is celebrating one’s 50th anniversary. You don’t wait until your 53rd anniversary to celebrate your 50th, but I wonder if the audience for these classics isn’t made up primarily of people who so value their entertainment experiences and the quality of what they’re watching that they’re not all on the verge of buying HD-DVD or Blu-ray players, making all 50 DVDs in this collection somewhat obsolete.

Be that as it may, if you’re looking to immediately increase the quality of the films in your DVD collection, you can’t do better than this 50-disc collection of Janus Films, including 28 Academy Award nominations, 8 Oscar winners and 2 Palme d’or awards from Cannes.

The lavishly presented collection includes titles like The Seven Samurai, The 39 Steps, Jules and Jim, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Alexander Nevsky, Black Orpheus, The Adventures of Colonel Blimp, Beauty and the Beast (no, not the Disney version), Wild Strawberries and Floating Weeds to name just a few. And if none of those films ring a bell, shame on you! Invest in some quality and stop polluting your mind with crap!

$594.99 at Amazon.com

I finally (finally) received my new sofa and now I need some new pillows to go on it, right? I mean, what decent person gets a brand new sofa and lets it sit there all naked and alone without some hugable softness?

Certainly not me! And my “pillows of choice” come from two lovely ladies in Grand Rapids, Michigan. K Studios makes hand-stitched pillows in various sizes from 14” up to 24” square, as well as the odd rectangle or round. Made from organic cotton or rustic hemp and stuffed with a 95/5% down/feather blend, they then hand-stitch one of their designs in a thread color of your choice! While some may like their people, birds or foliage, I am in lurve with the streetscape and ranch designs, echoing the west coast VA-affordable homes that line the streets where I grew up, TV antennae included!

$98 - $132 each from k studio.

When I moved into my new apartment a few months ago, I was really happy with just about everything in it. The walls were painted a muted steel blue-gray, the bathroom had a hand-painted Spanish-style sink, the carpets were new and the skylight spilled ample sunny spots for the cat to enjoy. The only things that sucked were the uniformly horrible lighting choices.

The bedroom suffers with a brass and black chandelier monstrosity, there’s another stupid and pathetic little light above the stairs, and someone thought a Mission styled barn lamp was perfect for the kitchen. What I really need is an influx of cool like these hand-painted lamps by Zia Priven!

You can get pendants like this Malabar Wallpaper drum, or the usual table lamps with equally beautiful shades. Because they’re each handmade, you’ll have to wait 8-12 weeks to get yours, so you better order now!

$290.00 - $340.00 at Velocity Art And Design.

Do you have big, blank walls and you’re wondering what to do with them? Tired of staring at that paint job? Want something not only conversational, but so far from boring that your visitors will stop in their tracks, staring in awe and wonder at what the hell is going on in your living room?

I’d recommend Plan59.com’s assortment of retro beauty no matter what, but the reason I’m pushing their colorful reproductions of automobile ads and weird, overly enthusiastic children orgasmic over foodstuffs is that they’re offering to print any of their many, many posters at gigantic sizes. They have a new printer they’re dying to try out, and they need people like you to spend $200 and request to see your favorite image from their collection printed at sizes that start at 44 inches and swell to nearly 6 feet!

Six feet of meat and veggies! Six feet of the new ‘56 DeSoto! Six feet of the future as seen through the eyes of the past, with streamlined buses running down clean, flawless super highways ferrying nuclear families to their uni-wing space jets! And for your trouble, you get 2 free prints to boot!

$200.00 at Plan59.

If you’re looking for some interesting artwork to plaster on your bare, boring walls (and you don’t have a lot of money (and you’re interested in design (and in particular, you like chairs))) lookee what we have here!

The good folks at designboom have cooked up this illustrated history of the folding chair. You get 196 full-color images of 196 different collapsing seats on a 27¾” x 39½” poster sent to you rolled up in a cardboard tube via priority post. Imagine the hours of fun you and your butt will have as you peruse these uncomfortable but functional ideas! Your butt will thank you.

$17.00 at designboom.

Every once in a while I come across a big ticket item that I myself cannot afford but that I am sure some of my luckier, smarter readers and friends who managed to sell out their ideas to Google or Yahoo! can splurge on because they have so much money they don’t know what to do with it.

Which brings me to Road Tested Chair by artist John Carter. These slightly uncomfortable but incredibly handsome pieces are constructed by hand in NYC out of actual Walk/Dont Walk signs mounted on steel street sign brackets. Each chair plugs into a standard 115V AC outlet and comes with a remote control. Sit one in the corner of your vast VC-funded loft and watch your guests turn green like money.

$3,700.00 at UncommonGoods.

I am not a Christmas Card sender. I used to be, gathering addresses up and going out to choose just the right card to send all my friends, something that wasn’t too, y’know, “Christy” and also was a bit whimsical, but still managed to keep within the spirit of the season.

MOMA is offering these, titled “Christmas, Kennedy Airport” by photographer J. Meyerowitz. You get your snow, your festive and holy star (albeit a neon one) and, just because it’s cool, a be-finned Cadillac patiently awaiting the return of its owner in an otherwise empty parking lot. Inside, just a simple “Season’s Greetings.” Simple, pretty, and inexpensive to boot!

$6.95 for 10 cards with envelopes at MoMAstore.

Creating a beautiful Christmas Tree is a challenge. Often they look pre-made, store-bought and too, well, fake. Sometimes, of course, they are, but who wouldn’t want to add a touch of elegance and class to that pile of dead needles in the corner of the room?

Ichendorf is one of Italy’s finest glass producers, and they hand-blow these gorgeous crystal ornaments, box them up in sets of six and let people like you add shimmering ice to their green boughs. If you don’t get a tree this year, these would look equally lovely simply hanging from the ceiling, or in a window where everyone can enjoy them.

$40.00 for a set of 6 at unica HOME.

Around thirty years ago (my God, I’m old), three students of the Rhode Island School of Design and an ex-punk joined together in New York and became a band. That, in itself, is hardly noteworthy. But the band turned out to be Talking Heads, and the music that the quartet produced over eight studio albums altered the musical landscape and introduced African tribal rhythms to a wider audience.

Rhino has collected all eight albums togther and, rather than just settle for that, they went back and remastered all the original tracks into cleaner stereo mixes — and while they were at it, also mixed them down into new DVD-Audio 5.1 mixes, then pressed all the albums onto DualDiscs (CD on one side, DVD on the other) and packaged them up inside a latge plastic brick embossed with the song titles and the band’s name.

As usual for an all-encompassing compilation, the set also includes rare and previously unreleased material and some of the band’s videos. The individual DualDiscs are accompanied by copious liner notes authored by the band members, as well as photos and song-inspired art pieces.

$119.98 at Amazon

Contrary to popular opinion, particularly among web designers of late, simpler is not always better. Complexity can be beautiful in its own way, although I, for one, am certainly happy that those bloody awful 3-D images you had to squint to look at and then jumping dolphins would suddenly appear as if by magic are gone from our collective lives.

Your DNA, for example, is one complex structure. But out of it, beauty may be extracted. And, sure, yes, you’re beautiful, too, but I’m talking art that you can hang on a wall and admire and then when someone goes, “But what the hell does it mean?” You can smile and look at them and truthfully declare, “It’s me!”

Proteinº sends you a sterile mouth swab, sterile gloves with which to swab, a special DNA postal envelope and an FTA Microcard and you take a sample of your own DNA for them. They send you back a certificate of your breakdown and a digital canvas of everything you are inside, which turns out too look something like a rainbow. Aren’t you pretty?

£190.00 at Proteinº Store.

I just had to share this with you in the hopes that somewhere out there I have a reader who is so fabulously wealthy that the idea of buying an original Picasso from Costco is not insane, so that when I start begging as a “professional blogger,” you’ll come to my aid and support me in my old age.

No shit, this is an original, one-of-a-kind, not-a-copy Picasso crayon (?!?) on paper piece titled “Atelier de Cannes.” It is signed and dated by Pablo and comes framed (so, you know, you save money!) and ready to hang — it even includes the hanging hardware! Really, they just think of everything.

$129,999.99 at Costco.com.

Rhino Records really knows how to crawl through the musical vaults and produce the best collections of tunes to define a certain period of time and a certain sound from that period. As a 1980 high school graduate (yes, this is my 25th reunion year and no, I’m not going) I can attest to the near perfection of “Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The ’80s Underground.”

What do we have in this 4-disk, 100+-track collection? “Holiday in Cambodia” by The Dead Kennedys. “Message of Love” by The Pretenders. “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” by Mission of Burma. “Ghosts” by Japan. “This Charming Man” by The Smiths. “Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing” by Minutemen. “Vienna” by Ultravox. “Just Like Honey” by The Jesus and Mary Chain. “Blister in the Sun” by Violent Femmes. “Senses Working Overtime” by XTC. “Under the Milky Way” by The Church. “Monkey Gone to Heaven” by Pixies. “The Cutter” by Echo and the Bunnymen.

And on, and on, and on. If you could possibly assemble this collection on iTunes, you could save yourself some moolah, sure, but Rhino’s saved you all that time and packaged these audio treasures in another colorful and informative box set, including a 64-page booklet with essays, notes and reflections on a period of music that influenced almost every decent piece of music you hear today. And I say that because I’m old and I think Britney sucks ass.

$58.49 at Amazon

David LaChapelle’s photographs are familiar to anyone who’s a fan of celebrity excess. His ultra-saturated high-concept images of everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to David Bowie to Eminem to Madonna are created in highly exaggerated styles where his subjects are placed in entirely fake surroundings with extreme and usually erotic experiences erupting all around them.

Now Taschen has seen fit to gather a collection of his images, package them in a 692-page oversize 20 x 13½ inch book with a bright fuschia cover, have him personally sign each of the 2,500 copies and call the whole thing David LaChapelle, Artists & Prostitutes.

There are other collections of the photographer’s work available, but Taschen, as usual, is going all-out on this limited edition, printing the color-separated illustrations using “the finest reproduction technique available today, which provides unequalled intensity and color range.” If you know LaChapelle’s work, you know it demands high intensity color.

$1,250.00 at TASCHEN Books.

Sometimes you see something and you just have to have it right goddam now! Case in point; UK designer Sam Buxton’s collection of Mikro-Man sculptures.

What you start out with is a sheet of chemical-etched stainless steel, 150 microns thin. You fold and bend and twist and curl and then you end up with one of Mr. Buxton’s teeny, tiny sculptures.

There are nine different Mikro-Man assemblages to choose from, and you can collect them all and then pretend that Mikro-Man went out on his bicycle to visit the jungle before stopping by the office to tidy up a few things about his pending trip to Mars, but on the way home (above) he had an accident and was therefore unable to go on holiday as planned.

The smaller sculptures are only $18.00 each, but knowing you, I’m showcasing the mega ultra fabulous Mikro-Man House, which includes everything a Mikro-Man will ever need!

$140.00 at Veer.

I own an original Breen. It’s in my kitchen. It’s mostly pink and shows a group of skateboarding nuns, which are cool, and I lurve it. Everyone should own their own Breen, in my humble opinion, and it’s a fun and simple way to start an art collection that contains something other than yet another Ansel Adams print or a Hang In There, Baby! cat poster.

Mr. Breen’s latest work is titled “Better Teeth,” and it portrays many of our Presidents in their less known guises as Saviors of the Nation, in particular John F. Jesus whom, we learn, “Had Better Teeth than the Other Jesuses!”

The sexy, swarthy Kennedy smiles sideways at us from a color frame surrounded by the ghosts of past and future President-Jesuses, with Osama himself ejecting the genie-like demon of a bomb-clutching, Vulcan-eared George W. Jesus. Deee-licious!

Up for bid at eBay.

Your walls need more fun. You’re staring at them every day as you attempt to find enough creative inspiration to write another blog entry about how funny your dog is, or that burrito you ate last night — or maybe even the work deadline you’re avoiding because, y’know, funny dog.

Super Fun Fun’s “Gozira Sukuri-Mu” is hot pink and all-paper. Godzilla is portrayed in all his cartoony screaming goodness towering over Tokyo and probably inhaling a bunch of sushi-scented air before flaming another cool miniature building and, you know, contemplating life and whatnot.

$10.00 at Super 7 Store.

DeVotchKa hails from Denver and includes the musical talents of Nick Urata, Tom Hagerman, Jeanie Schroder and Shawn King. Nick’s vocals are front and center, carrying a sense of longing and beauty through the threads of the songs on this, their third album.

What do they sound like? Everything! A bit of country by way of Mexico in “You Love Me,” the hypnotic, electronic dirge of the 7-minute “How It Ends,” the backwards instrumental introduction of “Viens Avec Moi” that leads into the throaty growling vocals and handclaps. What’s not to like — or love?

Listen to: The Enemy Guns and You Love Me.

$12.97 at CD Baby.

Sometimes, the most beautiful things come from the most horrid. Case in point: Your Disgusting Head: The Darkest, Most Offensive and Moist Secrets of Your Ears, Mouth and Nose, also known as Volume 2 in the How Books series — or — The Haggis-On-Whey World of Unbelievable Brillance.

As you may have guessed, this slim volume of insanity comes to us from McSweeney’s, and inside the red faux-leather binding you’ll find all the secrets about your huge noggin, like “good reasons for teeth removal” (peer pressure), and “the real reason your ears can’t hear your pets talking” (your pet is a mumbler).

$11.53 at Amazon

Dolk Lundgren is a stencil artist from Norway. Stenciling here in the U.S. is generally lopped in with grafitti, but elsewhere it’s an artform with fans and collectors.

This piece, “Puppy Love,” is clearly meant for Star Wars fans or puppy fans or puppies who want to mount R2-D2 and save the action for posterity. It’s hot pink so obviously it will match any decor, and is available in a limited edition of 200.

£39.99 plus shipping at POW.

The company may be down for the count, a victim of digital photography’s more instant than instant capabilities, but Polaroid still has something to offer the photo fans of the world — The Polaroid Book, for example.

Polaroid founder Edwin Land and famed photographer Ansel Adams started the Polaroid photography collection more than 50 years ago, including shots from artists and camera gods taken with the famous point-and-shoot cameras that made the company famous. Over 400 works from the 23,000 photos in the collection are contained in this hardcover retrospective, with a cover taken from the film box and notes by collection historian Barbara Hitchcock.

$39.99 at Taschen.

If you’re already a Dead Can Dance fanatic, you’re probably already aware that the band broke up in 1999 but are currently touring Europe and coming to North America in August and September. And, if you’re a fan, you may already know that they’re recording every concert, then taking the tracks and remastering them and issuing limited editions of 500 CDs for each concert on their tour.

Each show consists of a 2-disc set of music, and DCD are performing at least 30 minutes of new material in their set each night of the tour.

€25.00 each at DCD Discs.

If you’re not a fan of the band, but maybe you want to be (assuming you like This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins and other goth-sounding ethereal 4AD-types) Rhino has issued a 3-CD, 1-DVD box set that includes the group’s entire collection of released music as well as live, rare and previously-unreleased tracks on Dead Can Dance 1981-1998. Packaged in a cream-colored slipcase with a full-color booklet, the 65 tracks will have you dancing with the dead for hours and hours.

$59.98 at Rhino.com.

Pictures cannot do justice to the “All You Need is Sticker Graphics” collector’s box. I got mine in Paris (jealous?) and paid in euros, so you’re getting off cheap by buying it here in the U.S. of A., especially considering my shipping charges!

This is a collector’s case of stickers by dozens of street artists and designers. It comes in a yellow plastic case embossed with sticker designs, and inside you get all the stickers, a fairly comprehensive softcover book (also yellow and embossed) that includes more graphic goodness from the represented artists, and a full-color poster you can stick on your wall. Sweet!

If you’re into graffiti, street art, stickers or cool collectible plastic boxes filled with crap, this is for you.

$49.99 at Giant Robot.

The four-man British collective known as eBoy is currently working with British designer Paul Smith on a series of clothing and shoes based on their pixelated worlds. For Smith, they designed a London cityscape he’s been cutting and pasting pieces from onto T-shirts, shoes, shirts and suit linings.

You can either pay a couple hundred for one of those pieces, or pony up a lot less dough and get your own eBoy fantasyland to hang on your wall and marvel at the complexity and humor blipping out of every square centimeter.

Me, I really like “Superbroncobattle,” in which three cape-clad mechanical dinosaurs apparently controlled by aliens run rampage over a dystopian society — but not before facing Godzilla and a hoard of military vehicles. If you dream in color, chances are some of your childhood dreams looked exactly like this.

£11.99 at Magma Rarefuel. Additional £5 shipping charge to U.S. addresses.

Artist Mark Ryden delights in using the playthings of children as a jumping off point to display his mastery of creating works that glide between an otherworldly beauty and an odd discomfort. Idyllic skies and perfect children are often juxtaposed with raw meat and bleeding images of Abraham Lincoln or Jesus.

While an original work would cost you a few thousand, you can currently buy a limited edition microportfolio of three postcards. The three images, Blood, Sweat and Tears, show oversized toys exhibiting the titled characteristics while big-headed cherubic children frolic and cavort. Yes, it’s very weird… and also lovely.

$10.00 at MarkRyden.com.

There’s no doubt about it, nuns are scary. Not, perhaps, as scary as clowns, but pretty damned scary nonetheless.

If you attended Catholic School and, for some reason, have a hankering to see a skull in a nun’s habit grinning down at you from your walls, better make a fast trail over to Aesthetic Apparatus, where the limited edition “Nunskull” print (only 25 available) is awaiting you.

If you happen to get there too late, worry not, oh sick art collector — the Michael Jackson/Jeffrey Dahmer poster in hot pink is sure to fill that bleeding void on your wall, instead.

$100.00 at Aesthetic Apparatus.