Ryan & Ryan's Holiday Gift Guide 2022!
Ryan & Ryan's Holiday Gift Guide 2022!
It's beginning to look a lot like Solstice!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Solstice! And as we like to say, “Cheers to that!”
To help you kick off the holiday season, we decided to put together a list of our favorite recommendations from the last nine months of our Epicurean Vagabonds Substack page! Searching for some unique, one-of-a-kind gifts to give your friends and loved ones for the holidays? If you really love them, start by giving them the gift that keeps on giving . . . A Paid Subscription to The Epicurean Vagabonds!
This will grant them a year’s worth of reading, listening, looking, viewing and tasting recommendations from our Aesthetic Arrest podcasts, Mid-Week Libations and weekly articles and conversations. In addition, Paid Subscribers ($5 monthly or $50 annually) will receive:
Audio versions of selected articles read by one or both of us.
Recipes from Ryan Wildstar’s Cooking with Cultural Appreciation series.
Ability to comment on all of our content and engage directly with us and our community.
Access to monthly discussion/recommendation threads.
Exclusive content, including excerpts from our works in progress (such as Ryan Wildstar’s upcoming memoir and Ryan Elston’s upcoming novel), as well as poetry, creative writing and select articles.
The satisfaction of helping two Epicurean Vagabonds subsist in this increasingly difficult world so we can keep sharing our content with you!
Cheers to That! And now, here’s our Top Holiday Gift Picks for 2022!
BOOKS:
First stop . . . the library is open! Cuz reading is what? . . . Fundamental! Gift someone you love the miracle of reading AND support The Epicurean Vagabonds this holiday season by purchasing a book from our Epicurean Vagabonds Storefront at Bookshop.org!
From their website: “Bookshop.org is a socially-conscious way to buy books online. We dedicate most of our profits to supporting local, independent bookstores, authors, and publications that cover books. We are dedicated to preserving the profound cultural benefits of bookstores.” Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised over $24 million for local bookstores!
Here's how it works: Visit our Epicurean Vagabonds storefront here. Check out our recommended booklists. If you purchase a book we've recommended or ANY OTHER BOOK on the entire website *after* visiting our Epicurean Vagabonds storefront, we receive 10% of your purchase and an additional 10% will go directly to support brick-and-mortar bookstores! Let's help keep independent bookstores alive!
Visit our Bookshop.org storefront here!
And check out our curated lists of recommended books:
Aesthetic Arrest: Ryan & Ryan’s Weekly Book Recommendations (ALL of the books we've ever recommended on our podcast that are currently in print!)
All That Jazz: Recommended Books About Jazz (our favorite jazz books, some of which we discussed on Ryan and Ryan in Conversation: All That Jazz)
Halloween Horror Extravaganza! R&R's Recommended Horror/Weird Fiction (as discussed on Ryan and Ryan in Conversation: Halloween Horror Extravaganza!)
The Essential H.D. (Hilda Doolittle): A Reading List (from Ryan Elston's essay, H.D. and Me: Thoughts on H.D.’s “Eros” [audio version here])
Our Modernist Paris: Recommended Reading (from Ryan Elston's article, Our Modernist Paris: Part One)
Great Books by Trans & Nonbinary Writers of Color (from an upcoming article)
Eat Like An Epicurean: Our Favorite Cookbooks (Cookbooks are another perfect gift for the holidays! Here are some of our favorites!)
WINE:
Wildstar’s Top 10 Holiday Wine Picks for 2022 (including some bubbly for New Year’s Eve!):
Domaine Ferrer Ribiere Empreinte du Temps Carignan, IGP Cotes Catalanes, France
Borie la Vitarele Saint-Chinian Les Terres Blanches, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Elise Bougy 'Chetillon de Haut' Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Extra Brut, Champagne, France
Juve y Camps Reserva de la Familia Gran Reserva Brut Nature Cava, Catalonia, Spain
Domaine du Mas Blanc Banyuls Vieilles Vignes, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
MUSIC:
The last two years have not been easy for most musicians. So why not give the gift of music by purchasing some albums? At the beginning of July, we made a list of Our Favorite Albums of 2022 (So Far). We've now created a new list containing ALL of our favorite new albums of 2022! Check out the full list here:
The Epicurean Vagabonds: Our Favorite New Music of 2022
When you click on the album title, many of the albums will contain a BandCamp icon that looks like this:
You can then purchase the album directly from the artist via BandCamp. If not, check out the individual artist's website for more information about where to purchase. And please consider supporting your independent local record stores by purchasing your music directly from them!
For some reason, four of our favorite new albums were not available to be listed on RateYourMusic, but you can purchase them at the links below:
And don't forget Ryan Wildstar has two albums of music available for purchase on BandCamp as well!
If you're interested in jazz, check out Ryan & Ryan in Conversation: All That Jazz, for several lists of our favorite jazz musicians of all time. Support their work as well!
VISUAL ART:
An original work of art is a perfect gift for the holidays. We know we have some art collectors out there reading this right now, but whether you're adding to an extensive private collection or purchasing contemporary art for the very first time, we highly recommend Artsy, one of our favorite websites for contemporary art.
With nearly two million works of art for sale in its database, Artsy also has an incredible search function to help you find exactly what you're looking for. You can search for artworks using any combination of price range, medium, materials, size, time period, and the artist's name, nationality or ethnicity. You can even choose your preferred color palette if you're looking for something specific to match your interior decor! Their images of each artwork are extremely high quality, so you can zoom in close to look at the details. You can follow your favorite artists or get notifications when similar works are available for purchase. There are numerous galleries, exhibitions, art fairs and museums with virtual viewing rooms. Plus great articles in the editorial section. We love Artsy!
And if you're looking for recommendations of great contemporary artists you might enjoy, check out our Mid-Week Libations every Wednesday, where we always highlight the work of a contemporary artist (often with links to Artsy or other venues where you can purchase their work directly). We also discussed The Artsy Vanguard 2022 on our most recent Aesthetic Arrest podcast, which you can listen to here!
We also recommend Katy Hessel's excellent Substack and podcast, The Great Women Artists.
SUBSCRIPTIONS TO STREAMING SERVICES:
What are you binge-watching right now? Gifting your loved ones with a streaming subscription is an excellent way to literally give them hours of entertainment in the new year. And if you're looking for something new to watch, in every Friday's Aesthetic Arrest podcast we recommend our viewing picks for the week. We also created a massive four-part article, Ryan & Ryan’s 101 Favorite TV Series of the Last Five Years (click here for part one, part two, part three and part four), with a huge list of our favorite shows. Below are our top choices for the streaming services where you can get the most bang for your buck:
(Note to our international readers: Not all of these streaming services are available in all regions. However, if you use a VPN, your region can be wherever you want it to be . . .)
HBO Max: HBO Max currently has *by far* the highest number of our favorite TV shows right now, including Raised by Wolves, Julia, Hacks, Succession, The White Lotus, Gentleman Jack, Insecure, We're Here, Legendary, Veneno, It's a Sin, Sort Of, Minx, Station Eleven, Tokyo Vice, Somebody Somewhere, His Dark Materials, The Gilded Age, Watchmen . . . plus classic favorites like Rome, Treme, The Wire, In Treatment, Everwood and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Definitely the most bang for your buck!
Britbox: We love our British TV, and if you want all of that *old school* British TV, as in so old school it only aired in the U.S. on PBS with an introduction by Alistair Cooke, then check out Britbox. They've got all the old school British classics (Mapp & Lucia, Brideshead Revisited, Miss Marple, Elizabeth R, Are You Being Served?, Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Keeping Up Appearances, Absolutely Fabulous), as well as new classics from this century like Downton Abbey, Luther, Miranda, Doctor Foster and Cranford. Plus hours and hours of historical costume dramas, locked-room murdery mysteries, and adaptations of almost every interesting Victorian novel ever. Get ready to Upstairs Downstairs the house down boots!
Paramount Plus: Sign up to Paramount Plus for our two favorite franchises: Star Trek (Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, plus the original series, Next Generation, DS9, Voyager) and RuPaul's Drag Race (U.S. version only, but including All Stars and Untucked), as well as The Good Fight with Christine Baranski!
Apple TV+: This one doesn't have the wide variety of choices and endless hours of viewing that the other ones do. However, if you want quality over quantity, Apple TV+ has certainly given us some of the best TV of the last year or so, including Foundation, Pachinko, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Now and Then and The Mosquito Coast.
WOW Presents Plus: If there's someone in your life who loves RuPaul's Drag Race as much as we do, then consider giving them a gift subscription to WOW Presents Plus. ALL of the international versions of this fabulous franchise can be viewed here, including RuPaul's Drag Race in the U.K., Canada, Thailand, Spain, France, the Philippines, Holland, Italy and Down Under . . . with new versions coming soon for Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. RuPaul's Drag Race is taking over the world and we're here for it! (Note: WOW Presents Plus is available almost everywhere internationally!)
Shudder: Finally, for the horror fan in your life, we highly recommend checking out Shudder, a new streaming service with an amazing library of horror films from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to Carnival of Souls to Black Christmas (our favorite film for the holidays). Plus recent TV shows and documentaries like the new Interview With the Vampire series, Trickster, The Boulet Brothers' Dragula and Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror. For more horror recommendations (many available on Shudder), check out Ryan and Ryan in Conversation: Halloween Horror Extravaganza!
[To see a full list of films and TV available on each streaming service, check out JustWatch.com!]
DRAG MERCH:
We obviously love the art of drag, a specifically queer art form with a long and fascinating history. We end every single Mid-Week Libation on Wednesdays with a Youtube link to an iconic performance by one of our favorite drag artists. If you know someone who loves drag as much as we do, then check out all the wonderful merchandise and fun gifts you can buy at DragQueenMerch.com. “DragQueenMerch.com offers a turnkey solution to drag queens to be able to have an online merchandise store which enables them to offer official products to their fan base.” So many delightful, campy, fabulous and incredibly original gift ideas! They also sell gift cards!
VACATION DESTINATIONS:
Are you planning a vacation for 2023? Here are some of our favorite destinations with links to our articles about them! For our travel agent services, please contact us directly here!
Ryan and Ryan’s Recommended Travel Destinations for 2023!
Split & Brač, Croatia: Visit the island of Brač, one of the most charming bucolic islands of Dalmatia and just a quick but breathtaking ferry ride from Split. To read more about both Split and Brač, check out our article, Cooking with Cultural Appreciation Part Two: Pašticada on Brač.
A Wine Tour of Languedoc-Roussillon, France: The pioneering winemakers of this region will awaken your palate to some of the most robust and intricate wines made in the world! Check out Ryan Wildstar’s article, Quintessentally Quaffable Wines: Languedoc-Roussillon, all about some of the stars of the region!
Koukaki neighborhood in Athens, Greece: Koukaki is one of our most beloved areas of Athens. Koukaki is a hip, non-touristy neighborhood full of fantastic restaurants and wine shops offering a plethora of Dionysian libations. For more info, check out our article, Going Krasi for Koukaki.
Rome, Italy: For all our adventures in the eternal city, check out both our podcasts all about our recent sojourn in Rome, as well as our articles about Rome: Roma Urbs Aeterna Part One: The Bacchanalia Begins & Roma Urbs Aeterna Part Two: Traipsing Through Testaccio.
Tirana, Albania: Tirana is a veritable cornucopia of some of the best food of any country we’ve ever lived in! To read Ryan Wildstar’s article about Tirana, Cooking With Cultural Appreciation Part One: Tirana-My House, click here!
Lisbon, Portugal: One of our absolute favorite European cities! To read about our experiences in Lisbon, along with some fabulous recommendations, check out Ryan Wildstar’s article, A Pessoan Promenade Through Lisbon.
Montreal, Canada: And then there is Montreal. What’s not to love? As far as cities go, it’s like Paris and New York had a love child and then immigrants and indigenous people took over and said, “Step back, we’re doing it our way!” And then there is the food . . . the food scene is, without a doubt, one of the best of any city in the Western Hemisphere. For some of our favorite spots in Montreal, read I Left My Deer Heart in Montreal, Part One or listen to Ryan Wildstar’s audio article below:
Also, if you're looking for somewhere delicious to eat on your next vacation to France or the Balkans, you’ve come to the right place! For our favorite pizza in the Balkans, read our article: Best of the Balkans: Our Top 10 Favorite Pizzas. And for some of our favorite fine dining restaurants in France (Paris, Alsace, Jura, Burgundy, Languedoc & Rhône), listen to Ryan & Ryan in Conversation: Fine Dining in France.
FELLOW SUBSTACK WRITERS:
Support our fellow Substack writers! Become a subscriber or gift a subscription (or both!) to any of our favorite newsletters:
The Honest Broker, Lil’Habit, NOT DRINKING POISON, The Jewish Table, Expedite, Anne Byrn: Between the Layers, Snack and Destroy, COOK WITH LERATO.
FELLOW ARTISTS & FRIENDS OF THE EPICUREAN VAGABONDS:
For some more gift ideas, we’d like to recommend the work of the people who are near and dear to us:
Lil’Habit Life Coaching: Andrea’s life-coaching with Lil’Habit is the reason we have a Substack at all! Andrea’s program is a fantastic gift idea for anyone looking to “learn a new method for how to show up and be successful at what you have been longing to do in a way that allows you to follow through.” Consider one of her programs this holiday season and treat yourself or someone else! Start with the Lil’Habit Kickstart or Lil’Habit Training Wheels Program. Read some of the glowing reviews and testimonials from her clients here. Lil’Habit literally changed our lives and we recommend this program to anyone who needs some help actually following through on those New Year’s resolutions.
Delmar Richardson Voiceover Services: The golden voice and music behind our Aethetic Arrest podcast introduction. A professional television and film actor, musician, voiceover artist and radio personality, Delmar is the voice you need for your project!
Jacen Touchstone Sound Engineering Services: Jacen Touchstone and Ryan Wildstar have been working together on music since 2003. Jacen is an accomplished musician, sound engineer and audio professional who has been working with legendary musicians since the 1980s. Check out his website and contact him directly for any music projects you or someone you know may have.
The Art of Daniela Hoyos: Want to support an amazing artist? Consider buying some of the incredible artwork created by our friend Daniela, who we featured recently on our podcast: Aesthetic Arrest Podcast: Agatha Christie, BBC Proms, Gourmet Gratins, Eno & The Mystic Birdwoman. You can also follow her on Instagram here and here.
Happy Holidays and Happy Gift Giving! And thank you to all of our readers and listeners for your continued support. If you know someone who might like The Epicurean Vagabonds, consider giving them a yearly or monthly subscription for the holidays!
Thanks for the shoutout!