Welcome.

Head Butler is founded on a simple proposition: There's so much New Stuff you need help finding the Good Stuff.

If you're like most smart, curious people, you're drowning in media. Open any magazine or paper, turn on any TV or radio station, and you're bombarded by news and advertising that tells you what to think, what to buy, what's really cool and what's totally hot. It's too much. You can't keep up. Or even catch up.

There are two typical responses to Too Much. One is to turn off --- to pay no attention to New Stuff and endlessly recycle your Greatest Hits in books, movies and music. The other is to throw up your hands and consume the culture that everyone around you is buying. Either way, you miss a lot of Good Stuff. So you need a butler. Not like the stuffy gentleman in English movies, but a friendly advisor --- a plugged-in cultural concierge who will tell you about books, music and movies you might never hear about from anyone else.

If you've got the right butler, you won't just hear about New Good Stuff, you'll also learn about Great Old Stuff --- the really compelling or funny or heartbreaking books, music and movies that came out last year or the year before or even decades ago. F'instance: You like Van Morrison. But do you know about the masterpiece that is Van's three-decades-old Astral Weeks ? Or you loved "Silence of the Lambs". Bet you'd also love a super-scary 1952 novel called The Killer Inside Me . Do you find yourself watching "Die Hard" over and over? Then try "East-West."

Head Butler's bet is that the stuff he loves --- the Good Stuff --- is what smart, curious people really want. So he's going to let everyone else tell you about Donald Trump, Jessica Simpson, Sean Hannity, Mitch Albom, thrillers that look like video games and high school comedies that could have been written by high schoolers. He's going to skip the over-hyped new releases you read about five minutes ago and won't care about five minutes from now. Instead, he's going to tell you about books, films and music you might cherish for the rest of your life.

Here's what you can expect from Head Butler:

--- Most days Butler will share a favorite from the best of the new or from the backlist: books he's read (and re-read), music that stays in the rotation for him, movies he can watch again and again.

--- gift recommendations for any occasion for even the hard-to-please.

--- a mini-essay, a link to someone else's smart commentary or unusual product, and more.

What's Butler's ambition? To save you time. To save you money. To help you be the smartest, most wide-awake person on your block. And in return? Your thanks will suffice. Really. And perhaps a week off at Christmas. But enough of Butler talking about himself. Time to help you. Butler hopes the service will be satisfactory.

--- Jesse Kornbluth, for Head Butler

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WANT TO BE A GUEST BUTLER?

If you have a favorite book, movie or musical release that you want to share, Butler would love to hear from you. You'll be paid exactly what Butler gets (nothing), but think of the glory. Send your recommendation --- no more than 1,000 crisp, opinionated and, above all, original (that is: not plagiarized) words --- to HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com. And, please, no attached files; send your submissions as e-mail.