Yes, people still buy those shiny silver disks, especially since it’s hard to wrap up a digital file and stuff it in a stocking. With that in mind, here are some recent book and music releases which could be just the right gift this holiday season.

BOOKS

• “Arguably” by Christopher Hitchens – The great writer may be battling cancer, but his rapier wit remains unchanged. “Arguably” assembles some of his thoughtful essays for easy consumption.
• “Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark” by Brian Kellow – Conservatives may know Kael best for her infamous quote regarding President Richard Nixon’s re-election vote tally, but for movie buffs Kael’s prose represents a thoughtful, albeit typically left-of-center, voice.

• “Bossypants” by Tina Fey - The woman behind the infamous Sarah Palin impersonation is a top-notch humorist, and her first foray into the book realm proves it.
• “On the Island” by Tracy L. Garvis Graves – The compelling tale of an English teacher whose invitation to work on a tropical island ends up in disaster is a first-rate survival yarn.
• “The Ledge” by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughn – The year 2010 ended with movie goers marveling at “127 Hours,” the true story of Aron Ralston’s inspiring escape from a mountain chasm. Readers can relish another true tale of adventure and survival with this detailed account of two men battling the elements.
• “Delirium” by Lauren Oliver - A young woman living in a government-controlled society finds love as well as purpose in this young adult novel.
• “Rescue” by Anita Shreve – Smart, sensitive tale of a man’s attempt to rehabilitate a troubled woman.
• “Swamplandia” by Karen Russell - Gator wrestling meets family dysfunction and loss -what’s not to love?
• “In 50 Years We’ll All Be Chicks … And Other Complaints from a Middle-Aged White Guy” by Adam Carolla – He’s the toast of the podcasting world, but Carolla’s shtick translates easily to the printed page. Politically incorrect, and proud of it.

MUSIC

• “21,” Adele – Possibly the biggest crowd pleaser of the year, with appeal to pop, rock, blues, and soul aficionados alike. Who doesn’t like “Rolling in the Deep?”
• “Bad as Me,” Tom Waits – The idiosyncratic  songwriter returns with his first full album proper since 2004’s “Real Gone,” revealing he’s still got a few fresh twists to take with his growly saloon-fixture aesthetic.
• “First World Manifesto,” Screeching Weasel – Screeching Weasel is one of the greatest pop punk bands ever, so it’s a delight to know that lead singer Ben Weasel is both conservative and Catholic, much to the chagrin of the punk community. Support this free thinker and get some great pop punk for yourself with his latest release.
• “Helplessness Blues,” Fleet Foxes – If you think vocals should be recorded in a single take with zero auto-tuning, this great American folk band is for you.
• “As Far as Yesterday Goes,” The Red Button – Near-perfect pop that feels like it was unearthed from a Flower Power time capsule. Seth Swirsky, a Big Hollywood contributor, and Mike Ruekberg re-team for another batch of great songs, from the blistering beauty of “I Can’t Forget” to the mournful “Picture,” you can’t go wrong with these 12 tracks.
• “Songs for Christmas,” Sufjan Stevens – Take a listen for yourself. A great mix of reverent but fresh takes on traditional Christmas music, plus plenty of magnificent originals. Also a great record of Sufjan’s progress as a songwriter over the years.
• “Best of Gloucester County,” – Danielson – Profiled on Big Hollywood at the time of its release, “Best of Gloucester County” is a rich, detailed celebration of family life and growing older and wiser, expressed through one-of-a-kind folk rock.
• “Bon Iver,” Bon Iver – Lush, expressive, melancholy folk music working from a wide sonic palette. A newly-released deluxe edition includes a music video for each and every song.
• “Drive” Soundtrack – Italo-Disco is back!
• “Era Extraña,” Neon Indian – Hazy, shoe-gaze-y but never lazy synth rock from the son of Mexican pop star Jorge Palomo.
• “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming,” M83 - Huge ’80s/John Hughes nostalgia trip, massive synth sounds. This is a rare double album that doesn’t drag; plus, if you buy it, you’ll be sticking it to unions!
• “Portamento,” The Drums -Very minimalist rock. Fans of both Joy Division and the Beach Boys will feel right at home.

Big Hollywood writers Ezra Dulis, Meira Pentermann and Ron Capshaw contributed to this guide.

So, for those who aren’t familiar, what is the purpose of the book? How is it structured, and what kind of lessons are you sending to its “little patriot” readers?

It is a teaching tool to help kids learn the fundamentals of America. So, it goes from one nation under God through ten amendments in the Bill of Rights. It’s a counting book, but it covers government structure, history–a little bit of everything. It’s meant for ages 5-8; the counting aspect is for younger children, but they might not really understand the concepts until they’re a little older. Still, good to familiarize them with it early!

What brought about the decision to make a book specifically catering to conservative parents?

It’s not really conservative; it’s more patriotic. It’s all factual things–I guess “one nation under God” is considered religious–but aside from that, things like 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights are pretty straightforward, information for kids.

I wrote it for my friend’s little boy when he turned three, and he’s like a nephew to me. So we were learning how to count, and I just wasn’t crazy about any of his books. I mean, they were fine, but I felt like he could be counting better things, so I wrote him a book for his birthday. Originally, I didn’t think about publishing it at all, but I shared it with a few friends to read to their kids and it was so well received that I realized parents are really looking of books like this. And I’m passionate about helping as many kids as possible learn about our country, so that’s how it came to be.

How do you feel about the lessons and values that kids are receiving from most modern children’s books?

I feel like many are lacking something. One of the first books I bought the same little guy, it was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie–which, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that story, but it’s how, if you give somebody something, they’re just gonna expect something more. So I feel like, even with some of the books that have good messages, the parents still need to extrapolate on what’s being said, and the books aren’t making kids ask more questions or want to learn more as well as they could be.

Do you think that in contrast, your book is encouraging the child to interact with their parents about what they’ve read?

Yes, I hope that it stimulates an interest in the children to learn more, because I feel like having well-informed children is the best chance we’ve got.

What kind of feedback have you been receiving from those who have already seen the book so far?

So far, people love it. I was worried that people might think it’s conservative, but they’re really not. Even people who may not see eye-to-eye with me on politics are just seeing it as a pretty straightforward, patriotic book. Since it is “One Nation Under God,” people of faith are liking Number One. It’s being pretty well received so far; of course, not that many people have seen it yet, so we’ll see what happens.

Who did the illustrations for the book, and how did you get them involved?

A man named Anthony Resto did the illustrations; he is incredible. I actually just found him on Craigslist; I thought it would just be a place to start and get some leads. I didn’t really expect anything to happen from that, but he answered the ad and was perfect.

I see there’s going to be a book tour come September when it’s released. How extensive are the plans for that tour?

That is still sort of being decided. In the next year or so, I hope to cover quite a bit of America. And so far, my Twitter friends and others are pulling together and helping me get into their local bookstores–things like that. So, pretty much whoever will have me, I will do my best to go wherever I’m invited.

And so, it’s being self-published their your Hamilton Oddbody company. What kind of methods are you using to get the book out to different stores?

Yes, my mom and I are the “Hamilton” part of it, and “Oddbody” is Clarence Oddbody from It’s a Wonderful Life. So, we’re doing it with our guardian angel. [laughs] So far, building a market has just been through our network of personal contacts, and it’s coming together amazingly. People really seem to believe in the book, and they’re willing to go to their local bookstores and put in a word for us, and it’s being really well received. We don’t have plans for a digital copy through Kindle or Nook right now, but that’s definitely something we are considering.

You can pre-order Amelia’s book at her website and “Like” its Facebook page here. You can also follow Amelia on Twitter, @gadsdenista.

This article was originally published at the Landmark Report.

The half-hearted denials of some in the industry are belied by their own actions and their own words – and, surprisingly, by the refreshingly candid admissions of some liberals in television who not only admit its intolerance and stridency but even claim to regret it.  Case closed.

Full disclosure – Ben’s a friend and my frequent “Hour of Hate” partner on Larry O’Conner’s legendary Stage Right Show.  He’s also the rarest of things – a proud Harvard Law School graduate who is fiercely conservative and who loves television (By the way, Ben’s much-mocked predilection for wearing Harvard Law hats and other apparel makes a hilarious appearance in the book).  But Ben’s no snob – he not only freely admits how much he likes television but insists that much of it is well-acted, well-directed and well-produced, its insidious pinko undercurrents notwithstanding.  Moreover, Ben is a creature of Hollywood – he has family in the industry, friends in the industry, and he even flirted with entering into it himself, until he ran smack into the seemingly impenetrable wall that is the conservative blacklist.

As Ben documents in exquisite detail, the conservative blacklist operates both directly and indirectly.  In some cases, television industry bigwigs simply refuse to hire conservatives because they hate conservatives – the late Bruce Paltrow comes off here as a particularly obnoxious jerk, which goes a long way toward explaining his half-wit daughter Gwyneth.  But much of the reason is simply affinity.  As Ben documents, the industry has always been a very small community of like-minded individuals who dwell not only within the physical confines of the same LA/NYC world but, equally importantly, share the same world view.  If you are not one of them inside the bubble, they will never see you to hire you.  Naturally, this leads to the kind of nepotism that explains the rise of overrated no-talents like Gwyneth Paltrow – many of the people who hired her had known her since she was a weird-looking little kid and besides, it couldn’t hurt to do a favor for a guy with the pull of her father Bruce.

Ben shows how this direct and indirect phenomenon also applies to the content of the shows themselves.  Some industry players make no bones about it – they seek to directly influence the audience with outright propaganda.  What’s interesting is that this is rarely successful – audiences hate being hit over the head with unadulterated lefty agit-prop and quickly turn away when it gets too heavy-handed.  A good example is Ellen, an innocuous little comedy series that did okay until the star and her on-screen doppelganger came out and made the show all lesbian, all the time – and not hot lipstick lesbian but whiny, crunchy, let’s-do-macramé-and-other-crafts lesbian.  No one wants that.

But the indirect approach is the most effective, and Ben presents an airtight case that much of the liberal normalization promoted by television is the result not of a conscious desire to change the world but simply by a desire to reflect “reality.”  Of course, the “reality” of liberal Hollywood types is not the reality of some nuclear family with 2.5 kids and a minivan in a suburb of Kansas City.  Hollywood’s “reality” reflects its own freaky, dysfunctional lifestyle; this bizarre anomaly is the image broadcast to America as “normal.”  Sadly, too many Americans accept that image and internalize it – a quick examination of statistics on any social pathology is going to show a correlation with the liberal long-march through the television industry that Ben so thoroughly documents.

And document it he does.  How did he get these interviews?  Don’t these people have minions to Google the guys who want to talk to them?  Ben speaks to dozens of Hollywood players, from out conservatives like Big Hollywood contributor Adam Baldwin to hugely successful (and therefore largely liberal) TV executives, writers and producers like Brandon Stoddard, Fred Silverman, Leonard Goldberg, Abby Singer, Larry Gelbart , David Shore, Marcy Carsey, Tom Fontana and Marc Cherry (the Desperate Housewives creator who is a rare Hollywood Republican).

Ben’s not one to just shrug his shoulders and sit there – every time we meet for lunch at a kosher restaurant (Ben takes his faith as well as his politics seriously; he also tolerates my unsuccessful efforts to score a cheeseburger) he is working on about a dozen ideas.  Primetime Propaganda not only makes the case but offers solutions.  The answer is neither confrontation nor retreat, but engagement.  In fact, it’s almost a Gramscian “long march” infiltration strategy.

One more thing – Primetime Propaganda is not only an essential and irrefutable argument about the state of Hollywood and a battle plan for addressing the problem but a great read.  Sadly, I had to wait to peruse my advance copy because my Hot Wife kept taking it for herself.  Fans of The Stage Right Show are already familiar with how Ben’s mind works faster than his mouth – he has so many ideas he literally cannot talk fast enough to get them all out, though he tries mightily.  On paper, Ben’s insights have a chance to come out slowly and in detail, but the same lacerating wit still shines through.  There are zingers galore.  You get the best of Ben – smart and smartass.

But a thousand-word review cannot capture either the full depth of Ben’s argument or the wealth of interesting facts behind many of our favorite shows, like how The Dick Van Dyke Show broke through racial barriers.  He goes through dozens of shows in detail – it’s fascinating and alarming all at once.  Best of all, while this is an important book for conservatives who want to know why TV is what it is, reading it is not a painful duty – it’s a pleasure.

Primetime Propaganda presents an open and shut case – the charge is that television is a liberal enterprise that acts directly and indirectly to impose its worldview on its dwindling audience while simultaneously acting to exclude conservative voices and views.  And there can be only one verdict after reading this damning indictment:  Guilty as charged.

Depending on your point of view, she is either a genius or opportunist.  Should a politician go anywhere near reality TV?  If you are a crusty, wing tip wearing beltway boy, the answer is obvious. If you are in Hollywood, you are jealously wondering which agent she engaged.  If you are in flyover land, you are withholding jjudgment.  

What is clear is that Palin has tapped a connection with “real America” in a Reaganesque manner that makes any politician jealous.  She understands the culture, and she knows what it takes to keep ones name at the center of conversations.  She engenders just the right amount of criticism to keep her fans rabidly defensive.  Her detractors wind up looking like yipping, hysterical Chihuahuas with pink, spiky collars in pathetic attempts to appear menacing. Meanwhile, poli-star wannabe’s from Michael Moore to Meghan McCain are salivating as their pathetic attempts to pedal their way to relevance falls far short of what only comes naturally to Sarah Palin—Poli Super Stardom. 

She has it.  They want it.  They can’t get it.  It is that simple.   

The “It” is the Hollywood and new media age super stardom that tees up political success.  Reagan started the tactic.  Schwarzenegger leveraged it before he dropped the baby (California) on its head.  But only Sarah Palin has perfected it.  

When liberals hate her, conservatives become more intrigued.  When they call her names, conservatives jump in the ring to defend her.  When they call for her murder, conservatives turn all guns on her protection, her promotion, and yes, her presidency. 

This has Hollywood scratching their heads. Who is her agent?  How could she do all of this without proper media training?  Why no voice coach, they wonder.  Surely she needs some polishing that only folks in the business can provide if ever she is to make something of herself.   

Politicians are watching too, wondering as they comb their hair in the rear view mirror why they aren’t the fairest of them all.  The reason?  They might be dynamic, good looking, smart, savvy, but they represent none of the cultural change that Sarah Palin embodies for conservatives.  They think that their smart wonkishness, or their strong soundbites will win the hearts of conservatives, but it won’t. Conservatives intuitively know that politics is merely one front in the war on our culture.  Hollywood is another. Palin has shrewdly tapped both and in so doing has unprecedented ability to leverage the media to move the culture, or vice versa.  Politicians might not like the fact that Sarah Palin is the only one who gets it, but it is an undeniable truth they cannot overcome. 

Those who would oppose her should be very afraid.  

Palin knows that culture is predictive of politics and Hollywood moves culture.  Therefore, as the country revolted against Obama Progressives and shifted dramatically rightward, the one remaining liberal stronghold standing in the way of a pure conservative revolution is the puppet master of culture — Hollywood.  Sarah brought scissors to the theatre and she is challenging the master. Snip, snip, snip and it is done.  Palin just took a leading place on the stage, reaching both red and blue state America with her unpretentious authenticity on her way to reclaiming our culture.  The culture will be restored and the socialist folly will be buried in the tombs of bad scripts where it belongs.  John Wayne style Hollywood is resurging, and America is poised to once again be Reagan’s “Shining City on the Hill”—a beacon for the rest of the world. 

So that is why the liberals are so concerned that Sarah is taking Hollywood. It is not President Palin they fear, but a God-fearing, family oriented, crackerjack smart, female “Puppet Master Palin” that has them trembling.  If she and her conservative, apple pie eating, patriotic cohorts held the strings, libs could no longer rule the world stage from the rafters. 

Somebody get Sarah some sunglasses!

As to the first, we have reached a tentative answer: A combination of temperament and values in the conservative mind combine to make the writing life both less suitable for, and less attractive to, conservatives.  The question remains:  What is to be done?

Let us state the obvious first  – conservatives who are so inclined must write, write often, and write well.  But that is not enough.  They must submit their work to literary magazines, publishing houses and agencies, large and small, again and again if need be.  Getting your work to market is a long, disappointing slog, with no guarantee of success for even the best of work.  Liberal writers know this and engage the process nonetheless; conservatives must do likewise.

But what to write?  Some will argue that conservatives should write material with explicit conservative themes.  This, I think, would be a mistake.  While explicit themes have their place, over-reliance on them would make conservative authors niche artists who preach to the converted only (or at least mostly).

Far better, in my view, to write the best stories possible without worrying too much about politics – a good story, told well, will garner readers from across the political spectrum.  Conservative values will nonetheless naturally shine through, and will be all the more powerful for their subtlety.

And finally, conservatives who despond over the lack of conservatism in the arts need to look to the next generation:  Do we teach our children that conservatism and the arts are not incompatible?  Were we so taught by our parents?  Do we encourage artistic gifts in our kids when and if they arise?  If values are at the heart of the matter, then the only way conservatives will compete in the literary world (or any art) is if we change how we view and value the arts, and that kind of change can only begin in the home.

In closing, I would like to thank the readers that stuck with me through the end of this series.  And I would especially like to thank John Nolte, Andrew Breitbart, and Big Hollywood for taking a chance on this long and discursive journey, and for all their efforts to advance conservatism in the arts.

For conservatives to triumph politically, we must compete culturally.  That means not just commenting on art – but making some.

Let’s get to work.

[Ed. note: You can read a new chapter of this eight-part series every Saturday and Sunday morning. Previous chapters –Part one, two, three, four, five, six. and seven.]

Matt Patterson is a columnist and commentator whose work has appeared in The Washington Examiner, The Baltimore Sun, and Pajamas Media.  He is the author of “Union of Hearts: The Abraham Lincoln & Ann Rutledge Story.”  His email is mpatterson.column@gmail.com