My son's Christmas present to me, apart from his continued existence, was Erik Satie on vinyl.

An old record in pristine condition.

Erik Satie lived and played in Paris around the turn of the century (the 1900s). He is the Frank Zappa/Andy Warhol of classical music.

The entire album is in French, which, luckily, I can read.

“Sketches and Exasperations of a Big Boob Made out of Wood”
“Three  Distinguished Waltzes for the Disabused and Affected Man”
“Flabby Preludes”
“Age-old and Instantaneous Hours”

are some of the titles I can make out. Others contain words Satie invented himself and thus are untranslatable.

Now, I am quite sure you reading this know very little about Erik Satie and his music. In a field where everyone took themselves very seriously, he was, like, “fuck that” and absolutely did not. Which made him, in my opinion, brilliant. If you have the movie “About Schmidt”  starring Jack Nicholson on hand, watch it. The piano music throughout is Erik Satie, fyi.

Along with the warm, fuzzy socks I got from my aunt, this record is my favorite Christmas present of 2015.