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03.15.09 by Widge @ 9:59 pm  So, yes, it's true: at Hour 18 of Red Nose Net's marathon 24-hour broadcast, I cratered. We started at noon EST and I made it to 6am the next morning before my body just literally rose up in rebellion and overthrew me. For those who are interested into just what the hell happened, here are the Facts in the Case of M. Walls: we were talking to Mark Evanier and I had started to feel rather unwell. Not an allergic reaction to Mark, you understand, but just a feeling of "Ugh, I need to take a break and splash some cold water on my face" and also "And maybe close my head in a door a few times." You know the feeling. Anyway, I took a pee break aftewards (which, as the evening progressed, had become a Musical Event thanks to Joe Covenant), went and assumed my place on the throne (where I am master of all I survey) and realized I was seriously unwell. Categorized as: Admin
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02.16.09 by Widge @ 1:19 pm  Okay, I know I had said the poll would be up for a week, but the results were so overwhelming, I've gone ahead with the 89% of you who wanted the contests moved so we could try and get more of them up. So here's how it works. The contests no longer appear here on the front page. They do, however, appear in the Recent Posts thing on the right hand side of the front page. They also have their own feed--they don't appear in the site feed any longer--so that you contest junkies and you content junkies can each have your own place to play. And if you want both--and if you do, man, we love you lots--then you can subscribe to both. Here's the main site feed (now without contests) and the contest feed (for just contests, natch). I've made the contest feed be just excerpt-only, since 99% of the time, the submission form doesn't work through a feed. That way you can see very quickly what's what and decide what to enter. And that puts those pesky forms away from the main feed, where they were a bit cluttery. I like having the full post in the regular feed because I find I'm more likely to read a post if it's right there and I don't have to click through. We've all gotten so damn lazy (and pressed for time), haven't we? Categorized as: Admin
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01.23.09 by Widge @ 6:58 pm  I quote from The Wall Street Journal's Numbers Guy: The chorus of views is harmonized on sites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, which aggregate and compile disparate reviews. Rotten Tomatoes, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp., presents the percentage of critics who recommend a film. Metacritic instead averages the scores from critics, assigning numbers to those who don’t assign their own.
There are other differences. Metacritic, owned by CBS, weights reviews by the prominence of the critics and their publications; at Rotten Tomatoes, all critics, from Needcoffee.com to USA Today, are weighted equally. So basically this proves what we've known all along: Needcoffee.com is at the opposite end of the journalistic spectrum from USA Today. So if you don't like USA Today, you'll love Needcoffee.com! Welcome to the weekend! Categorized as: Admin
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01.01.09 by Widge @ 1:46 am  Okay, so we appear to have survived another one. Our tenth year was a big one, so let's pause and reflect, shall we? Well, on the good side of things, Weekend Justice was relaunched with the entire Needcoffee crew instead of just my boring ass and I think can actually be listened to without psychotropic assistance. For those who like podcasts that become only comprehensible through the use of chemicals, Ken and I started Nuts on the Road, a desperate attempt to make our phone calls productive. You can find all of that mess in our Podcasts category. Nuts on the Road was also the title of our revamped and revived Gonzo Film Fest at DragonCon, where we brought in not just cool films, but also Paul and Storm and "Howling Mad" Dana Snyder performed. Also there for the weekend were Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer of The Venture Bros., and of course, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff and Joel Hodgson of Cinematic Titanic. There was also Nuts on the Road: The Mother of All Panel Shows at DragonCon (known in the UK as "Goddammit, Doc!") which was a triumph of surrealistic performance art. Special thanks to Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf for joining in and putting up with us. Categorized as: Admin
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12.24.08 by Widge @ 9:48 pm  On behalf of myself and the entire staff at Needcoffee.com: whether you're having a secular Xmas, a religious Christmas, you're worshipping a stick or you're just using this as yet another excuse this week to get drunk... Merry Freaking Christmas. Categorized as: Admin
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12.19.08 by Widge @ 12:24 pm  Well, in a very fortuitous start to the day, Uncle Bear has decided to see through the tons of my annoying ads and bestow a "Superior Scribbler" award to me anyway. What is a Superior Scribbler award? Is it one of those chain letter meme things that websites fall into when they want to post something but don't feel like being creative for five minutes? Could be. Is it something designed to drive traffic back to the point of origin? Could be that as well. But beyond that, it's an honor and a privilege. And now I have to come up with five people to pass it to. I will say to Paul and Storm, because even though they sing more than they scribble, I'm assuming that they scribble the stuff down on paper before they sing it. Regardless, it's quality. And yes, they are two people, but let's face it, you can't have one without the other. It's like having Zan without Jayna. (I'll let them fight over which is Jayna.) I will also say to Len Peralta at Jawbone Radio, because he scribbles fancy art things and is the only artist who we could talk into working with me. I will also say to Ken Plume at Quick Stop Entertainment, only because it gives me an opportunity to remind you he's up for Secretary of Geek Affairs for the Obama administration. Which is at...huh, Paul and Storm's site. We are such an incestuous pit of vipers. I will also tap Wolven, just because he entertains me by hopping onto Twitter and yelling "Who the fuck are all you people? Huh? TALK TO ME!" like a madman. In fact, everyone go follow him right now just to freak him out. And lastly, Jhayne, the Lady Porphyre, whose stuff I have always loved. Categorized as: Admin
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12.10.08 by Widge @ 10:11 am  Quick FYI: we had our database go down for a brief period very early this morning. Rather than send out a newsletter to the thousands of we have on the list and pester you that way, I'll start FYI-ing about downtime when I can on my Twitter. So if you want to follow me there, you'll get whatever's going on for the site plus random non-sensical stuff that I post there from time to time. So basically it's like here, but on a much smaller scale. Or you can just peek at it if you're ever wondering why I haven't updated the site in the last half-hour. You can find my Twitter here. Danke, friends. Categorized as: Admin
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11.18.08 by Widge @ 11:42 pm  Ken Plume is well known to readers of Needcoffee as being the head of Quick Stop Entertainment, one half of the Ken P.D. Snydecast, the curator of our Gonzo Film Fests, and an all around bastard. But now he's dealing with something nobody ever wants to have to contend with: his mom's fighting cancer. Again. He wants you to send his mom a postcard for the holidays, to help keep her spirits up as she keeps up the good fight. For the address and the full story, check out Ken's site here. Categorized as: Admin
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09.03.08 by Widge @ 3:39 am  So we survived. And everybody seemed to have a good time. We'd like to thank everybody who came out for all of our events: our many panels, Gonzo Sound + Vision, the Nuts on the Road Panel Show, and everything else. We'd like to thank the track directors who put up with our shit: specifically, Leigh, Caro and Kelly. And we'd also like to thank the TechOps folks as always, who did a bang-up job of doing what TechOps folks worldwide do: everything with nothing. We'd like to thank the DragonCon staffers who made our lives easier, especially the Guest Services folks and the Programming folks. Thanks go to our special guests and allies: Paul & Storm, America's Opening BandTM; Dana Snyder, voice artist and general lunatic; Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick of The Venture Bros.; Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff and Joel Hodgson of Cinematic Titanic; Robert Llewelyn of Red Dwarf fame; Aaron and Brian from Quick Stop's Cabin Fever (who were here on the international podcast exchange program); and last but definitely not least, that pop culture motorcycle gang known as The Unique Geeks, who swooped in to assist with prize transit just when we thought the Hottentots had us. So from Bob, Cosette, Din, Doc, Red, Rob, Rox, Serv, ScottC, Tuffley, Ken and myself...thanks. Remember Tinkerbell. And maybe we'll be back. Maybe. Categorized as: Admin
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08.30.08 by Widge @ 2:37 am 
Click to embiggen. At DragonCon, one night only. If there's a Con in your area that doesn't have a Gonzo Film Fest, please tell them they should contact us. Update: Our NOTR events were a smashing success, methinks. More on that post-DragonCon when we resume normal services. In the interim, thanks to everyone collectively for coming out to both Sound + Vision and the Panel Show and supporting us in our whacked out endeavors. More in-depth appreciation after the Con closes and we have a moment to clear our noggins. But seriously: thanks. Categorized as: Admin
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