After a month’s reflection, I have decided that my favorite Christmas gift from 2003 was a copy of “Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns”:http://www.giganticfilm.com. It was an especially significant gift for me since it was given to me by my mother-in-law, who personally went into her local Suncoast store and asked for this DVD.

??Gigantic?? is a documentary about the band “They Might Be Giants”:http://www.tmbg.com, and the two Johns are John Linnell and John Flansburgh, the band’s core members. I’ve been a fan of TMBG since 1989 or so, when my friend Gene Hwang introduced me to them. They’ve made a lot of great records since then, of course, but “Ana Ng” (from ??Lincoln??) will probably always be my favorite TMBG song.

For me, the best thing about the film is the footage from various concerts. I’ve always wanted to see Them perform live, but unless they get inspired to add some Alabama tour dates one of these days it seems increasingly unlikely that I’ll have that opportunity. The interview segments that appear throughout the film are also nice, and they illustrate how humble and unassuming Linnell and Flansburgh really are about what they’re doing. The DVD’s bonus features, such as the music videos for a lot of their early songs (including “Ana Ng”), are the icing on the cake. Probably the only thing I didn’t like about the film was the inclusion of various actors performing dramatic readings of the lyrics of TMBG songs. For example, we get to see Michael McKean reciting “I Palindrome I”. I understand what they were going for, and I’m a fan of McKean and some of the other featured actors, but it just didn’t work.

If you’ve never heard They Might Be Giants, and you’re looking to expand your musical horizons a bit, you might want to pick up ??Dial A Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants??. This is a 2-CD anthology, released in 2002, and features 52 of their best songs.