Each Thursday, Needcoffee.com's staff of whackos will wrack our brains to give you interesting and new things to do over the weekend. Books, movies, whatever. We'll throw them out, you do with them what you will. And hey...if you have something you want to recommend--whatever it is--drop us a line.

Incidentally, we've provided links where we can for you to buy the stuff or find out more if you're interested, courtesy of those Amazon types. Hey, come on, we can't be totally selfless in this, can we?

January 4, 2002

Book of the Week: The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey. Ah, learning the ABCs. I can assure you that you never saw this book when you were a young child. Or hell, maybe you did and that's one of the reasons you're at this website. But regardless, the illustrated morbidity that begins "A is for Amy who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil assaulted by bears." is fun for the whole family.

Graphic Novel of the Week: Dreadstar: Metamorphisis Odyssey by Jim Starlin. The first volume of the finally collected Dreadstar series, it's definitely not the best of the bunch. But it is always good to begin at the beginning--with the superhuman Vanth Dreadstar, the forces that enlist him to "save" the Milky Way Galaxy, and the terrible price that must be paid. Good angst for what follows in the series.

DVD of the Week: Henry Rollins: Up For It. Some people think all Henry Rollins does is run around on stage barefoot, shouting. Well, that and bench press Volkswagen bugs. But if you haven't had a chance to see a spoken word performance of his--you are missing out. Almost as good as catching him live, this disc has an entire performance of Henry going nuts and being just mind-destroyingly funny. Highly recommended.

Off the Beaten Path VHS of the Week: Night of the Comet. No DVD, no VHS, no luck. It's just out of print. And why? There's no other valley girls versus zombies post-apocalypse film that I know of! And certainly not with such classic lines as "Let's play a game!" Ah, memories. Like the corners of someone else's mind. Has a pre-Star Trek Chakotay as well. What a deal.

CD of the Week: Fear of Fours by Lamb. I can't get this thing out of my CD player. A Brit "triphop" duo with a female vocalist with a unique voice and a musician providing the rest of the sounds (including a rather badass bassline), it's just nice and smooth. You've got frenetic tracks like "B Line" as well as danceable stuff like "Ear Parcel." Perfect background music for updating a website or driving. Or doing both at the same time.

Beverage of the Week: Dr. Whatever. Not a Dr. Pepper knock-off, necessarily. Instead, it's actually pretty good, and mildly "invigorating" as the label suggests. Created by Journey, though I picked up one bottle of this simply for review purposes, I wish I'd invested in more. Ah well. Check at your local natural foods or organic grocery store.