Mark Hurst set up a nice little site called the Uncle Mark 2004 Gift Guide and Almanac. The cynical might see it as an inflated Amazon affiliate play, but I like the idea of looking to particular people we trust for recommendations. I’d love to see, for example, a list of David Byrne’s favorite new records. A while ago I wrote about a record store in Hamburg that operates this way (see April 24 entry). And isn’t this the idea behind the Oprah Book of the Month?