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?

February 8, 2002

Book of the Week: Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. Time for another mindbending read, my friends. McLuhan came out of relatively nowhere to write this tome about media and mass media and what it means to us bipedal whackos on the planet. Balancing information and insight with statements like "It has been pointed out that, in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is not king. He is taken to be an hallucinated lunatic," you simply can't lose.

Graphic Novel of the Week: The Coffin by Phil Hester & Mike Huddleston. Welcome to Iron Man in hell. Dr. Ahmad has figured out a way to trap the soul so that it doesn't leave the body--thanks to a contraption he calls a "Coffin," a bit of exoskeleton/armor that transforms the dead body into a shambling golem...with some added features. Creepy and freaky, it's a damn good read with kickass art by Huddleston. The kind of stuff that Vertigo would publish if they had any sense.

DVD of the Week: Tron. Twenty years old, and I don't care what anybody says--this flick is still damn cool. Not only does it look awesome on the new 20th Anniversary edition DVD, but it's got a documentary as long as the film is! You only thought you know how crazed it must have been to create this thing with the computing power of two decades ago--to hear the whole story via this DVD will blow your cranium off. Very cool.

Off the Beaten Path VHS of the Week: April Fool's Day. Guilty pleasure that's not available on DVD. It's a goofball slasher movie about a bunch of old school friends coming out to a mansion of an amigo of theirs, only to find themselves being stalked and murdered one by one. Fun 80's mayhem.

CD of the Week: May St. Project by Shea Seger. Imagine a female version of Moby on his last record, while giving thanks for less techno and hype. Or maybe, Emmylou Harris hooking up with the burgeoning English drum and bass scene. Then you would have this wicked-cool album.

Beverage of the Week: Mello Yello Melon. Cross Midori with a willing Mello Yello, and you'll get this tasty, refreshing new take on citrus sodas. It's twin, Mello Yello Cherry, is also nummy, even better than Mountain Dew's similar Code Red. We would provide a link to the Coca-Cola Company's website, but the amount of information they actually have on the site these days regarding products is absolutely criminal. We wouldn't waste your time with it.

Link of the Week: Flix Remix. Sick, sick, sick. These guys have taken kung fu, a Wu-Tang member, some other new voices, and created Cappadonna's Iron Fist Pillage. Don't ask. Just go check out the clips and laugh till your eyelashes hurt. "Your crew is totally lame. I just kicked your ass with a bucket." Righteous.