The annual membership fee for Prime is $79.00 and you get anything you buy from Amazon (not including 3rd party stores) via Two-Day shipping for free. You can also upgrade for $3.99 per unit to One-Day shipping. I find their prices are generally better than any other online or brick-and-mortar store.
M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 Powered Speakers (currently $145.33- I got mine for about $13 less that that just a week or so ago) - I bought these for a little home-recording/general audio computer set-up as I'm putting together to dump a bunch of old cassettes and DATs (bands I was in etc.) onto the computer. They sound amazing and are loud enough for pretty much any home-based application.
mStand Laptop Stand By Rain Design - I bought this for my MacBook pro- it's really great for someone who wants to be able to use their laptop more like a desktop computer. It lifts it up high enough that you can use a separate mouse and keyboard with it and the screen is more or less at the same angle as my iMac. Seems like it keeps it pretty cool as well.
LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player - I've been holding out on buying a blu-ray player until they got really cheap and this is the one that I finally sprung for. It's currently $129.95 (I think I payed a few bucks more a few weeks ago) which is pretty great, especially if you are a Streaming Netflix user, as this unit also streams Netflix content at least as well as the stand-alone Roku box, which is only $30 less and doesn't have a blu-ray player. You can also stream YouTube videos. I also bought an AmazonBasics Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable Braided (6.5 Feet / 2.0 Meters) to go with this, which seems to work fine.
Froth Au Lait Froth 'N Sauce - Now I like my coffee very light and milky, but also, like, hot. This unit is a totally foolproof way to get frothy or just hot milk (depending on which set of blades you use). It keeps the milk hot for up to 45 minutes. This version you can actually use to make things like gravies and Hollandaise sauce and such. Also- this place has amazing customer service. Before they sent me mine, the woman who owns the company called me up and we spent quite a bit of time going over the different products, tips on caring for it etc.
Big Star - Keep An Eye On The Sky [BOX SET] - Big Star are and have been for the last 33 years or so, one of my favorite bands. At one point known only to rock critics and other like-minded snobs, now they are pretty well-known to anyone who considers themselves some kind of hipster.
It's pretty amazing that they managed to find so many tracks that were still unreleased after all these years. Alot of great demos, alternate, and live versions. My only quibble with it is that I think maybe it should just have kept it an all-rarities set, not sure why the standard versions of songs are on there when anyone who buys this should or does own all the individual cds.
The Lost Beach Boy: The True Story of David Marks one of the founding members of the Beach Boys (Hardcover) - I got this on the Hound's recommendation and it was a pretty fun read, especially if you're a Beach Boys nerd like me (which I'm pretty sure the Hound is not.) David Marks grew up next door to the Wilsons and was one of the first people that Carl Wilson played music with. He actually played on the first few Beach Boys LPs but after quitting (at the age of 15!) he was pretty much white-washed out of Beach Boys history in favor of Al Jardine. Marks also was in obsessive studio pop project The Moon who made 2 great pop-psychedelia LPs Without Earth and the Moon. Another great Hound recommendation is Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip (Paperback) - A sort of autobiographical "Hollywood Babylon" to paraphrase Genesis P'orridge.
Tommy Hoehn - Losing You to Sleep (Mini Lp Sleeve) [IMPORT] - This is one of the few things I still own on vinyl as I wasn't sure it would ever come out on CD. This is not for everyone as it's kinda obscure, sub-Big Star power-pop with a pretty high price tag, but if you're a fan of Southern Power-Pop you should check this out if only for the Alex Chilton co-write "She Might Look My Way" and the awesome "Blow Yourself Up" (which is also available on the amazing anthology of the Memphis studio and record label Ardent : Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story [IMPORT])
