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. Hey, come on, we can't be totally selfless in this, can we?
January 24, 2003
Book of the Week:
by Orson Welles & Peter Bogdanovich. Boy, is it ever. More Orson than you can shake a stick at. Not only do
you get over three hundred pages of interviews between Bogdanovich and Welles, but you also get an in-depth look at the
man's career, along with supplemental info about the two major films of his that got sliced to pieces
(Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil). Nothing
like a great reference book that can double as a bludgeon. Film buffs must read.
Audiobook of the Week:
by Tami Hoag, read by Blair Brown. Let's face it. Not every audiobook can be something with the gravitas of
an unabridged twenty-four hour-long reading of I, Claudius--nor do we expect them to be. Sometimes you just need
some light listening to help you survive another traffic assault. Hoag's book is that. It's a nice little mystery, with
enough in the way of colorful characters to keep you interested, and enough in the way of Brown's performance to keep the
thing bumping along.
Comic Book of The Week:
Queen and Country #13 by
Greg Rucka & Jason Alexander. Ah, how we dig El Rucka. I think he must be taking some of the same stuff as Bendis, seeing
as how you can't spit in a comic store without hitting a new book by him on the shelf. Anyway, this Oni title has been a
fave of our since it debuted, and this latest story arc starts off with some great character development--then a prelude
to a very interesting mess. Nice to see Alexander again, as well.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
by Ron Marz & Brandon Peterson. The more we think about this title, the more we think it's pretty damn
ingenious. I mean, you have the Barbie doll-esque character who suddenly gets immense power (long story, read the book)
and has to grow a third dimension. You have the cute fuzzy sidekick straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon show--except
that this one's got the powers of a god all by its lonesome. And you have villains that are capable of handling the former
Barbie her arse on a plate. So it's familiar, and yet, it's trying to do something completely different. Oh and did we
mention the art is solid?
DVD Boxed Set of the Week:
. Well, if you like this series then I don't have to convince you to give this set a whirl. Seven discs,
all thirty-four of the original series episodes, plus some sweet little bonus items--it really is a nice boxed edition of
the show. Department store employees like you've never seen before. And...this is probably a good thing.
DVD of the Week:
. Who but Criterion would give a Lubitsch title from 1932 such grand treatment? Nobody, but that's
okay. Because here you get a great-looking restored film, a bonus short film by Lubitsch, tributes to the director, a
radio program from 1940--and a commentary from Lubitsch's biographer. A true jewel of a comedy that they just literally
don't make like they used to, this one is another film buff's must-see.
CD of the Week: Mutations by Beck. Every once in a while Beck releases an album that goes completely under
radar. That was this case with this, his followup to the exploded-out-of-control Odelay!. Not to say that that
album wasn't a great one--but this is a different colored horse. From the laid back and wistful "We Live Again" to the
depressed fun of "Bottle of Blues," damn, it's a good disc.
Beverage of the Week: Steap Green Tea Cola. Now when I say "green tea," the last thing on your mind is cola, right?
Well, the combination works, surprisingly. It's got that cola thing going on like you'd expect, but it's got a nice sweet
green tea effect in there as well. Isn't this supposed to be good for me or something?