Weekly Recommendations...from Needcoffee.com

Each Thursday (or Friday, since some weeks we seem to be running behind on everything), 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, in the US, the UK and Canada.

Hey, come on, we can't be totally selfless in this, can we?

January 7, 2005

Book of the Week:

by Nat Gertler & Steve Lieber. You might find this some interesting reading. Me, I can't draw water from a well, I'm so artistically reclined. But hey, like most Idiot's Guides, it breaks it down into fairly easy bits that even a moron like me can understand. Step by step, let these guys take you through the process, from establishing a goal to plotting out the wordage, to getting the art in place, and the options you have for getting the thing published once you're done. From Alpha Books, it's worth a read for all aspiring creators. (UK) (CAN)

Audiobook of the Week:

by C.S. Lewis, performed by various. Well, the series gets more and more preachy as it goes along, finally coming to a head in the final, unnecessary volume where Lewis pulls the mask of his allegory and really pisses off most fantasy lovers. But hey, with voices like Kenneth Branagh, Michael York, Lynn Redgrave, Derek Jacobi, and Patrick Stewart doing the reading, this Harper Collins release will make you forgive them for publishing the series out of its proper order. (CAN)

Comic Book of Last Week: Daisy Kutter: The Last Train #4 by Kazu Kibuishi. This Viper series wraps up nicely with our titular hero and Tom, after facing down one of the coolest metal killers we've seen in a while, now going to face the man behind the train robbery and all of the carnage that resulted. Things aren't what they seem to be--which became lethally obvious--and Daisy is pissed. Kibushi's work is quite nice and you'll leave this series, like me, hoping that the subtitle "The Last Train" means there's another in the hopper somewhere.

Comic Book of the Week: Flaming Carrot #1 by Bob Burden. We must celebrate the coming of this new series, published by Image under their Desperado banner. If you've never been graced with Burden's particular brand of madness, then you must give it a try as this first issue kicks off with our hero taking on Garbagemouth and a zombie that sings. Yeah, you read that right. Ut!

Graphic Novel of the Week:

by Frank Miller. Can't wait for the movie? We mean the whole movie, not just Jessica Alba as a stripper. Right. Well, get ahead of the curve by checking out the story that will give you that as well as Bruce Willis in full-on badass mode. Hartigan is a cop on the verge of retirement who gets drawn into a kidnapping case and has to protect the girl, Nancy. No matter what it takes...or how long it takes. Handled in the UK by our friends at Titan. (UK) (CAN)

TV DVD of the Week:

. Wanna see Michael Chiklis before he became a badass semi-crooked cop and then went on to don a really terrible looking Thing costume? Anchor Bay will hook you up. This drama had the man playing a former Brooklyn cop now serving as the police comissioner of a small upstate city. Here's all twenty-one first season episodes across six discs with bonus interviews with Chiklis, fellow cast member Theresa Saldana, and co-creators Stephen J. Cannell and Stephen Kronish. (UK) (CAN)

DVD of the Week:

. Some special editions are more special than others. This one is extremely sweet and will have the fans drooling. Weighing in with four discs (two for the movie alone--not just restored, but "ultra-restored), this Warner Brothers release is as stacked as you can imagine for a classic with this age on it. You get a film historian commentary, a two-hour making-of docu, a restoration featurette, docus covering the cast, the prologue from the international release version and more. Check out the official site here. (UK) (CAN)

Docu DVD of the Week:

. The Eagle Academy in Florida is a place where at-risk youths can go for six months to try and get their lives straightened out with an old-fashioned dose of drill sergeant screaming. This docu takes you through the program with one class, from the moment they get off the bus and get ambushed by the staff to their graduation. You also get some "Where Are They Now?" bits and interview footage on this Docurama release. (CAN)

Adverse Video of the Week:

. Poor Wesley Snipes. The guy's still got a viable franchise going on and yet he takes the time out to make this, in which he's a veteran soldier already not the most stable guy out there. Then he gets nabbed and injected with some gunk that makes him very open to suggestions. Now what's real and what's planted in his head? Time for him to go kick some ass and find out. The actors do the best they can, but ultimately the story weighs them down and they drown in it. If you crave mindless, really mindless, action, then you might go for this. (UK) (CAN)

Anime DVD of the Week:

. Welcome to Gregory House. This is Gregory, your CG-animated evil host. Yes, he's a rodent, why do you ask? You've become a guest at this strange establishment, and the other guests are all crazed creatures of some kind or another. Imagine, if you will, Sid & Marty Krofft on even more drugs animating a Twilight Zone-esque series based on that song by The Eagles. This whacked out Geneon release comes with twenty-five episodes of the series plus four bonus episodes. (UK) (CAN)

Animation DVD of the Week:

. You don't want to rent this, you want to snag it permanently. Trust us. This second half of the collection contains forty Mickey shorts, from 1928 to 1935, all looking better than they ever have. Leonard Maltin, the genius behind getting these things out, is here to provide intros, you also get a spotlight on artist John Hench, a visit with a serious Mickey collector, a virtual comic strip and galleries. There's only 175,000 tins out there, so grab yours now. You've been warned. (UK) (CAN)

Western DVD of the Week:

. Kirk Douglas is a town marshall who isn't having a good day in the least. His wife, who is Native American, gets raped and murdered. Luckily his son escapes the men on one of their horses, but the horse provides a clue: it belongs to his friend, played by Anthony Quinn. Quinn and Douglas facing off? Yeah, even without bonus bits, it makes this Paramount release worth checking out. (UK) (CAN)

DVD Boxed Set of the Week:

. All four brothers are on hand for this Universal boxed set, featuring the films Duck Soup, Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, Animal Crackers and The Cocoanuts. It's six discs of classic comedy, and also includes interviews from The Today Show with Harpo, Groucho and Harpo's son William. There's a forty-page booklet included as well, which does include a bit of historical information. If you need some serious guffawing to get done over the weekend, then this will do the trick. (UK) (CAN)

Music DVD of the Week:

. For the fan of Peter Gabriel, Rhino has just the thing for your weekend: twenty-six music videos from the man himself. Yeah, some of them are listed as bonus bits, but that's a bit disingenous. They're music videos, okay? With classics like "Sledgehammer" and "Steam" along with more recent tracks like "Father, Son" and footage from the upcoming video release of his 2004 tour, there's much goodness to be had. Some of the videos come with intros as well. (UK) (CAN)

TV Show of the Week: Growing Up Gotti. That's right, it's time for another season of the exploits of John Gotti's daughter and grandsons. Here it's the adventures of the boys, both chaperoned and unchaperoned, in the Hamptons. Two episodes kick off the second season this coming Monday night on A&E. Click the nifty logo for more time and show info.

Music CD of the Week:

by Placebo. Blame Tuff Diddy. He's been playing these guys on Radiowerks and got me addicted. Here is a nice sample platter of their stuff, from the lovely dirgeness of "Without You I'm Nothing" (with Bowie) to the strangely cathartic "Brick Shithouse." Make sure you get the version with the bonus disc so you can check out the Freelance Hellraiser remix of "English Summer Rain," which I like better than the original. (UK) (CAN)

Toy of the Week: P-Brains Series 1. Okay, so are you ready for this? This dimunitive little fella has a brain that sits in its head. When you push on the brain, it spouts drill sergeant speak almost like what you would expect to hear if R. Lee Ermey was born a Smurf. But there's another P-Brain that's a baby that does the same thing, you know, provide baby speak when you push its brain. The sick ones among you will enjoy this: you can swap the brains, and the personalities go with the brains. So there's a baby P-Brain giving you shit about push ups all of a sudden. Crazed? Yeah, you bet. And we've got to respect that. From the strange folks at Uncle Milton Toys.