• From putting the "show" into the show business of Van Halen's best years to becoming a New York City emergency medical technician and recently one of Howard Stern's terrestrial radio replacements, David Lee Roth is adding another strange note to his résumé.

As another year twinkles softly into twilight, I find myself looking back at the year in music. With million-selling digital downloads, Billboard magazine charting the sales of cheesy ring tones, and Case Logic CD folders bulging with burned discs, the public has declared that what they want is the content, and they aren't so concerned with the medium.

I'm no foodie, but this year's home-heating costs make for luxurious reasons to fire up the oven and put your "bake on." And what better than a little holiday cheer to put some brushed snare in your whisk, or some hipster Santa soul in those stiff hips and soggy boots? What could be more perfect than mincemeat and Jimmy Smith's Christmas '64, smoking that mighty Hammond B3? Or decorating sugar cookies with Ren & Stimpy's Crock O' Christmas from 1997? Yes! How about vanilla extract with Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown and cloves for Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby"? Here's a handful of new Christmas music that might become your inspiration for some creative kitchen-craft and tree-trimming time.

• 'Tis the season for publishing companies to offer up a tall stack of terrific music-oriented books - easy to wrap as gifts, and deeper than the E! True Hollywood Story. Backbeat Books has just issued Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock 1970-1982, now featuring a bonus 24-track CD of interviews with Stiv Bators, Gary Numan, XTC, Oingo Boingo, DEVO, The Cult, and many more with the author, George Gimarc.