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Posted on 07.21.11 by Widge @ 4:50 am
Comments on this: 3 so far. Add your own.  So we get another adaptation of Captain America this weekend. I am looking forward to it with some apprehension--the apprehension a default mechanism to protect myself from disappointment. I started thinking about Chris Evans, and the version of Cap we've seen in the film and what this version entails. Then I started thinking about different versions of the character I've run into over the years, both in comics and out, as we've mentioned before. And thus, a bit of time later and here we are. A rundown of my personal favorites--the ones I found Most Entertaining over my long career of reading comics and partaking of comics-related media. Hopefully Evans will appear somewhere on this list. We shall see. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 07.20.11 by Widge @ 11:21 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  We received another two entries for the contest and so we have added them to the poll below. If you want to support them, hop in and start voting. We're going to push out the deadline for voting because it took us a day or so to get these two new entries in. So to be fair, voting ends now 11:59PM EST, July 27th. You can vote. Your friends can vote. Hell, if your dog has access to a computer, your dog can vote. We're not particular. Popularity drives the winner and the winner gets a mystery box full of random goodies from the Need Coffee Closet of Swag. Now let's meet our two new contestants. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 07.15.11 by Widge @ 4:16 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  A few random bits that we had leftover to help you get done with your work week. One of the most startling things that happened when I started watching a lot of British panel shows was discovering somebody I hadn't seen in forever. I'm speaking specifically of when I sat bolt upright on the couch and said, "Holy crap, that's where Rich Hall went!" He had a series on HBO in the 80s and then sort of fell off my radar. And I don't know, but he looks just the same as I remember him. No idea. Regardless, here he is from the most recent Channel 4 Comedy Gala singing "Roberta," a song from his country alter ego, Otis Lee Crenshaw... Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 07.14.11 by Widge @ 4:56 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. First things first...we've got some great Thrift Store Battle entries thus far...and I know we said the initial phase was to end tomorrow. However, we had some people ping us and say that the July 4th weekend here in the States put them back, so we're going to extend the deadline till Monday. So at 11:59PM EST, July 18th, it ends. That's the deadline update. But to inspire people to hurry up and finish getting entries in, we're putting up the existing entries for voting. Voting will go for a week after the deadline, so voting ends 11:59PM EST, July 25th. So the faster you get your entry in and posted, the more votes you can get. Remember, Twitter it with #ThriftStoreBattle or email us at thriftstorebattle at need coffee dot com. And here's how the voting works. You can enter once a day (like our normal contests) and you can draft your friends or whoever to vote as well. Popularity rules this contest, like with most contests of this ilk online. So without further adieu, let me roll through the entries we've received. Everyone included either a sign or themselves and generally sent multiple images. So even if a person or a sign does not appear in a photo below, we have the accredited photo on file, never fear. Entries will appear on the voting thingy at the bottom of this post in a random order. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 07.07.11 by Widge @ 5:03 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  We have a complicated relationship with animals. And to be clear I am speaking of non-human animals, since Jiminy Cricket did explain quite rightly that we are all human animals. And I'd like to talk to you about a subset of non-human animals: fictional animals. Seeing the T.G.I.Friday's-sponsored trailer for the Doctor Dolittle reboot starring Kevin James (being released in this country as Zookeeper) started me pondering our relationship to fictional animals. They, much like people who work at information desks in shopping malls, appear to come in three categories: Helpful, Sinister, or Silent. Leaving the Silent type to David Attenborough (and, admittedly, Aardman's Gromit), we can see very quickly that the remaining two categories cover just about every known talking animal. In the Helpful category, we have The Cowardly Lion, Hazel from Watership Down and Bugs Bunny. In the Sinister category, we have the Big Bad Wolf, Napoleon from Animal Farm, and that AFLAC duck. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 07.02.11 by Widge @ 7:43 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  So for those of you spending your weekend looking for something to do...remember there's still Thrift Store Battle. We've gotten a few choice entries already. And some of them are positively terrifying. The one I'm sharing with you above (since people have asked for additional examples) is from Heather C. and while that detail is the one that has the TSB sign on it...there's another pic that shows the entire couch. I have not shared that for your own sanity's sake. The yellow just...continues. It is a formidable entry and we say well done. But there's plenty of insane items out there to be found. Yard sales, thrift stores, consignment shops...go forth and find your entry. Win a mystery box of prizes! Also, we heard from some of you that you don't have Twitter and thus can't use the tweeting/hashtagging it #ThriftStoreBattle to enter. So send your links via email to thriftstorebattle at need coffee dot com and we'll accept them that way as well. More insane entries! Bring them! And find all the details from the original post so you too can join in. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 06.27.11 by Wolven @ 6:18 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Remember a few months back, when I mentioned that Alan Moore, Damon Albarn, and Jamie Hewlett were planning on doing a rock opera about the life of Magician John Dee? Well apparently that's not happening anymore, as Moore and Hewlett have dropped out. But Albarn Really wanted to make this thing, so he just went ahead and did it anyway. From the Guardian Article: The genesis of Doctor Dee dates back at least two years. Alex Poots, the Manchester festival's director, had approached the writer and graphic novelist Alan Moore with a view to involving him in a stage production, and Moore's passionate interest in Dee led to a meeting with Albarn and Hewlett. Albarn had already begun to think about working on an unspecified "heartfelt English piece," and learning about Dee's story hardened his resolve – but Moore and Hewlett then dropped out, leaving Albarn in charge of the project.
Moore's reasons for dropping the project can be heard in the video below the break, but Hewlett's reasons seem to still be a mystery. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 06.25.11 by Widge @ 4:35 am
Comments on this: just one. Add your own.  There's a game we play when we go to any thrift store. In addition to trying to find odd and novel black clothing, I am trying to find the oddest, weirdest, downright mind-destroying object I can. It's usually an item of clothing, but it can be anything. A vinyl LP (ask your parents, kids), a book, an odd VHS tape, a vintage board game--anything. Everyone comes together with their entry into the contest and it's generally fairly clear who wins. This is the world of...Thrift Store Battle. But it doesn't have to be a thrift store, like Goodwill or the Salvation Army or whatnot. Could be that Mecca of odd and wonderful bits, Unclaimed Baggage. You could be asking yourself at this point: what's a good example of a worthy entry? Well, here's one of Cosette's more memorable entries. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 06.13.11 by ScottC @ 12:30 am
Comments on this: 4 so far. Add your own.  It should have been a monster hit. MTV, the king of morally questionable television, was making a US version of Skins. This notorious UK drama features hot young teenagers indulging in alcohol, intoxicants, and orifices. MTV even had Bryan Elsley, the creator of the original show. With a huge promotional campaign, the American Skins premiered on January 17 with 3.26 million viewers. Then it all went to shit. On June 9, MTV put the show out of its misery stating "Skins is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn't connect with a US audience as much as we had hoped." And if you believe that, I got some land down in Florida that I can sell to you real cheap. Let's have a look at how MTV fucked up a hot show about hot teenagers doing hot things. Categorized as: Stimuli
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Posted on 06.11.11 by R.M. Rhodes @ 4:25 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  R.M. Rhodes, comic creator and friend of French comics, returns to introduce the uninitiated to another classic creator... Jean van Hamme is a best-selling writer of French comics and has been since the late 70s. His first really popular series was Thorgal, with artist Grzegorz Rosinski. This viking tale wavered between realism, an explicitly science fictional backstory and an even more explicit fantastical element that derived from traditional Scandanavian mythology. More lush than Northlanders, but just as unflinching about the viking culture. The art is beautiful, bearing some notional relation to Jean Giraud's work on Blueberry. van Hamme's second major series was XIII, a spy thriller based in part on the premise of The Bourne Identity. Val Kilmer and Steven Dorff starred in the television mini-series that was made in 2008. The artist, William Vance, is not particularly memorable either, but the story is compelling enough to capture a wide audience. Categorized as: Stimuli
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