圣诞节倒计时10天 | 英语四级考完了！圣诞礼物选好了吗？

In Anchorman, Ron Burgundy boasted: “I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.” 

在2004年的喜剧电影《王牌播音员》中，男主角朗.伯甘蒂自诩:“我很重要。我有许多皮面的装订书，我的公寓有浓郁的红木香气。”

Give the VSP in your life Chase and Wonder’s library-scented candle, which “evokes mahogany shelves full of leather-bound books and reading under the flicker of warming candlelight”, and smells of “rich wood, amber, pink pepper and pomegranate”. A lot nicer than decaying paper, which is what actually gives libraries their smell. 
送给你生命中“特别的人”（Very Special Person)“Chase and Wonder”品牌的图书馆香味的蜡烛吧。它能“唤起红木书架上满是皮面书籍的画面感和在闪烁着的温暖烛光下读书的感觉”。这款蜡烛富含“木材，琥珀，粉红胡椒和石榴”的味道，比图书馆真正的腐烂纸张味好闻很多。

There’s a specific target demographic for this little item: keyboard warriors chained to their desk who struggle to keep their mouths closed while chomping crackers. So that’s quite a few, then. Considering the subset of these who are also into Star Wars, the R2D2 desktop vacuumer is possibly the most brilliantly designed present of all time.

这个小玩意儿是为特定目标用户设计的： 整天粘在电脑桌旁边，大嚼饼干时强忍着闭上嘴巴的键盘战士们。所以这是个不小的用户群体。在《星球大战》的系列衍生产品中，这款R2D2桌面吸尘器可能是有史以来最棒的设计了。

Post-punk and indie fans ahoy! This unique print reinterprets 42 of the genre’s classic album covers in the form of postage stamps, bringing them all together on an eye-catching and arty 60x80cm litho poster. Bands getting the stamp treatment include Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Jesus and Mary Chain, whose Psychocandy-inspired stamp is particularly fetching. 

后朋克和独立音乐的粉丝们！这款独特的印刷品以邮票的形式重新诠释了该流派42张经典的专辑封面，并将它们组合在一张规格为60×80厘米的醒目海报上。专辑被纳入这套邮票的乐队包括Joy Division、Siouxsie and the Banshees和Jesus and Mary Chain，其中根据Jesus and Mary Chain的专辑《Psychocandy》设计的邮票格外吸引人。

Display your passions discreetly on your wrist with these elegant cufflinks. The rose-gold-plated pair feature a French horn and semi-quavers, the silver pair a violin and a single note – which should cut a dash at the opera.

用手腕上优雅的袖扣低调展示你的热情。这对袖扣有两种颜色选择，镀玫瑰金色的由一支圆号和几个十六分音符组成，银色的则是一把小提琴和一个单音符——戴上这款袖扣去看歌剧应该会大出风头。

If someone you know can still wrench a hollow laugh from the nation’s descent into hell they might enjoy this pair of egg cups in a blue and white 18th-century porcelain style. One’s for those who like their Brexit soft, the other for fans of hard. Or to put it another way, drooling and runny versus dry and relentless. Some would prefer no eggs at all, thanks - how about a croissant instead? 

如果你身边还有人能对脱欧事件的烂摊子笑得出来，他们可能会喜欢这对18世纪青花瓷风格的蛋杯。这对瓷质蛋杯一个给那些支持“软脱欧”的人，另一个给支持“硬脱欧”的人。换句话说，一个装轻煮稀软的鸡蛋，一个装煮熟梆硬的鸡蛋。有些人根本不喜欢吃鸡蛋，那好吧——来点牛角包怎么样?

Pondering the meaningless of existence and the absence of God this Christmas? We’ve got you covered. The Ingmar Bergman Foundation have produced an elegantly designed series of maps, so you can follow in the footsteps of the famously intense Swedish director around the most important locations of his life. 

在这个圣诞节你在思考生存缺乏意义和缺席的上帝吗?我们替你考虑到了。英格玛•伯格曼基金会制作了一系列设计精美的地图，让你可以跟随这位瑞典导演、著名的文艺大师伯格曼，游览他生命中最重要的地方。

Eat wild strawberries in Uppsala! Have an identity crisis on Fårö! Play chess with death … wherever you fancy, since The Seventh Seal was filmed in the studio! It all adds up to a cineaste’s road trip to remember.

在乌普萨拉（瑞典东南部城市）吃野生草莓；在法罗群岛面临身份认同危机；和死神下象棋…地点随你定，因为伯格曼执导的《第七封印》是在演播室拍摄的！这些对影迷来说一定是一场难忘之旅。

Worker poverty at Disneyland may quash your appetite for a celebration of its history. But Taschen’s lavishly researched new book reminds us of Uncle Walt’s utopian vision for the park, and includes detailed drawings from every stage of its conception and construction. It also doubles as an enveloping history of mid-century California and industrialised entertainment. 

迪士尼乐园员工的贫困可能会抑制你对迪斯尼历史庆典的兴趣。而Taschen这本基于大量研究的新书使人回想起创始人沃尔特叔叔对迪士尼公园的乌托邦式构想。书中含有迪士尼乐园每个阶段的详细图纸，展现着相应时期的设计理念和建筑构想。它同时也是一本讲述中世纪加利福尼亚州和娱乐产业工业化的历史书籍。

Help someone sprinkle a bit of art on their Christmas dinner with these Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso ceramic salt and pepper shakers by Ingela Arrhenius. Salvador is for salt, and Pablo for pepper, of course, but the pots are marked with letters lest any not-so-arty types be unaware which is the one with the magnificent moustache. 

Ingela Arrhenius将达利(Salvador Dali)和毕加索(Pablo Picasso)的典型形象绘制在陶瓷的盐瓶和胡椒瓶上，用这款调味瓶给别人的圣诞晚餐上撒点艺术吧。画有达利的代表盐瓶，毕加索则代表胡椒瓶。当然，瓶子都标有字母，以免那些不太懂艺术的人搞不清楚有着标志性大胡子的是哪位艺术家。

Mike Schur’s acclaimed sitcom imagines an afterlife where people are directed to either “the Good Place” or “the Bad Place” based on the plus or minus points they’ve accrued on Earth. So remembering your sister’s birthday gets you +15.02 points, while using “Facebook” as a verb lands you -5.55. Thankfully you don’t have to suffer this rigorous vetting process to buy a Good Place or Bad Place T-shirt, but frankly, if you do use “Facebook” as a verb, you should be wearing sackcloth and ashes instead.

在Mike Schur广受好评的情景喜剧中，虚构的来世会根据人们在地球上积累的正负分值将他们带去“好地方”或“坏地方”。记住姐姐的生日会得到+15.02分，而把“Facebook”用作动词会得到-5.55分。值得庆幸的是，你不需要经历这种严格的审查程序，就能买到一件印有“好地方”或“坏地方”的T恤。但坦白说，如果你真的把“Facebook”用作动词，你就应该穿麻和梣制的衣服，而不是这款T恤。

To bee or not to bee? That was the question for the National Theatre in London, which it answered by installing a handful of noble hives on the building’s roof. The theatre now sells its own homegrown honey: a limited number of 110g jars of the sticky stuff are produced each year. Buzzier than the National’s five-star revival of Follies, this is the perfect present for your sweet prince or princess. 

“蜂存”还是“毁蜜”？这是一个问题。伦敦国家剧院的答案是在剧院屋顶安置了一些尊贵的蜂房。目前，这家剧院出售每年限量版110克瓶装自酿蜂蜜。这款蜂蜜比国家剧院五星级阵容重新排演的富丽秀还要精彩，简直是送给你甜蜜的王子或公主的完美礼物。

Forman’s witty and wise guide – still in print after almost 25 years – remains one of the best ways to navigate the rarefied world of opera.

著名电视制片人Denis Forman这本幽默诙谐又不失智慧的指南书出版近25年后仍在印刷，仍然是畅游高雅歌剧世界的最佳方式之一。

Its defiantly low-brow approach horrified critics, but Forman’s real passion for the genre shines through. How can you not love a book that pronounces Wagner’s Meistersinger “not such a monster as The Ring, clearly better than the slightly ludicrous Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, less holy than Parsifal, not so taxing as Tristan”? 

这本书一反传统的通俗语言震惊了评论家，但是Forman对歌剧的激情可谓力透纸背。你怎么会不喜欢一本如此评论瓦格纳作品的书呢？书里说《纽伦堡的名歌手》“不是《尼伯龙根的指环》那样的怪物，明显好于略显滑稽的《唐豪瑟》和《罗恩格林》，不及《帕西法尔》神圣，又不像《特利斯坦与伊索尔德》那么费劲。”

Described by its manufacturers as “a face mask that restores records”, Record Revirginizer is a bottle of non-toxic anti-static polymer – or to use the technical term, blue viscous gloop – which you pour over your dirty vinyl, gently massage, leave to dry, then peel off. It’s a process that is both effective and satisfying – any crud in the grooves sticks to it, and one high-end hi-fi magazine claimed an 80% reduction in noise.

Record Revirginizer是一瓶无毒防静电的聚合物（或者用术语，称为蓝色粘稠物），制造商称其为“能够修复唱片记录的面膜”。在肮脏的黑胶唱片上倒一些，轻轻按摩，干燥后再将其剥离。此流程非常有效且使人满意，任何凹槽里脏东西都会黏在这层保护膜上被剥离。一家高端的高保真音响杂志声称降噪效果可达80%。

On first glance it’s a handsome old map of the US, but on closer inspection it becomes a thigh-rubbing muso’s dream, with song titles transposed appropriately in place of states, cities, mountains and more. 

第一眼看上去，它不过是一幅做工考究的旧美国地图。但是仔细观察，它却是足以让一个音乐发烧友拍腿叫好的梦想礼物——州、城市、山脉等的名称被巧妙地用歌名来替代。

There’s the obvious (Virginia Plain, Rainy Night in Georgia) but also some cute deep cuts – Minneapolis is renamed after Tom Waits’ Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis. There’s even some savage humour: a depopulated bit of Canada is dubbed Basic Space, after the xx’s moody number.

有些直截了当，比较明显，比如Virginia Plain，Rainy Night in Georgia。但也有撷取一些俏皮却蕴含深意的短语来命名的——Minneapolis市就用Tom Waits的名曲Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis来表示。其中甚至还不乏一些犀利的幽默——加拿大一处人烟稀少的地方以The xx乐队一首感伤的歌曲Basic Space命名。

This little children’s book is a lovely way to learn about the “mother of the civil rights movement”. With facts and quirky illustrations, it tells how Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1956 Alabama eventually led to the end of segregation on American public transport.

这本儿童读物是了解 “民权运动之母” Rosa Parks的绝佳途径。书中以事实阐述和奇特的插图讲述了1956年在阿拉巴马州，她拒绝在公交车上给一名白人男子让座，最终彻底取消了美国公共交通上种族隔离现象的故事。

Celebrate the revival of brutalism with this calendar, which will see you through 2019 with 12 prime slabs of concrete hewn by the likes of Le Corbusier, Breuer and Rudolph. Their bracing aesthetics will help you face up to your new year’s resolutions in style.

这款日历是为了纪念粗野主义建筑艺术的复兴。它将在2019年的12个月中逐渐帮您重温Le Corbusier, Breuer和Rudolph等大师用混凝土构建的经典建筑。它们催人奋进的美学会助你满含格调地完成许下的各项新年愿望。

Conflicted about constantly abasing yourself before the secular altar that is your smartphone? Then express your misgivings with a phone cover that reproduces Bruegel’s Tower of Babel. Guaranteed to win admiring glances from that irony-loving hottie across the aisle on the 8.32 to Euston as you babble fatuously into your handset. 

你是否经常为自己不得不屈尊俯就，献身于智能手机这一俗世凡物而愧觉自降身份，心有不甘？那就让印着Bruegel笔下通天塔的手机壳来纾解你的不安。在8点32分开往Euston的火车上，若你百无聊赖，拿起手机喋喋不休一通，保准能赢得过道对面那个冷漠刻薄的辣妹艳羡的目光。

This banana-scented air freshener promises to “eliminate the stench of patriarchy”. The Guerrilla Girls New York art collective have been doing that for more than 30 years. Formed in 1985, they campaign against male power with posters, ape masks and shocking data.

这款香蕉味的空气清新剂志在“消除父权制的余臭”。三十多年来，纽约的“游击队女孩艺术团体”一直在为此努力。该团体成立于1985年，成员们用海报、猿猴面具和触目惊心的数据来与男权抗争。

For a work of art that you can display, and spray, in your home this comes cheap – but then, as they have pointed out, women artists only earn a third of what men do. 

作为一件你尽可以放在家里展示它、喷洒它的艺术品来说，它算便宜的——而正如成员们指出的那样，女性艺术家的收入仅是男性艺术家的三分之一。