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 27, 2003
Book of the Week:
by Timothy K. Beal. A fascinating little volume that concerns the bestiaries involved with various religious
mythoi. Tying in monsters with religion--and showing how the creatures are downright essential--is fascinating enough, but
when you open up the book talking about the fate of various researchers before who have tried to plumb the depth of the
unknown...Frankenstein, Pretorius, Angell...you know you're in for an interesting academic text.
Comic Book of the Week: Vertigo X
Preview by Various. Normally we actually nab a comic book. You know: narrative, pictures, all of that. But
this book is such a tremendous hoot we couldn't stay away. Not only do you get snippets of upcoming books from the imprint,
but you also get to see how the cool artistic trifecta of Manara, Sienkiewicz and Prado (three of many) are going to
tackle Gaiman's Endless. You get
interviews with practically everyone under the sun, a new Shade short-short, a tenth anniversary artist jam, and
Manga Death. No, seriously. Granted, the fashion report on what Vertigo characters are wearing is beyond lame, but what
the hell--it's $.99 and dense with goodness. Buy the damn thing.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
by Chuck Dixon & Jeff Johnson. Take a little bit of Crouching
Tiger and throw in a monkey master of kung fu. Oh, and some rings that you can imagine might have been forged
by Saberhagen. Shake and serve with dry toast and coffee. That's what this book is. Excellent flowing action art by
Johnson and funny chaos by Dixon. A must for the martial arts afficionado.
DVD Boxed Set of the Week:
. Do I really need to explain this to you? For the love of all that's holy, it's M*A*S*H. Even at its
worst, it's a show that's head and shoulders above pretty much anything you can find on television these days. And in this
box, you get the introduction of Henry Morgan, the exit of McLean Stevenson, and classic moments with Alan Alda, Wayne
Rogers and the rest of the unit. And with the sweet transfer on these discs, the 4077 has never looked or sounded better.
DVD of the Week:
. I've been waiting a while for this to hit DVD, and it finally has. This is me, pleased. Why? Well, say
what you like about the film itself, but the primary draw for me is the score by Pink Floyd. Sure, the film itself is
well-grounded in sex, drugs, and a search for a return to paradise--and ends up mixed. But it's gorgeous to look at,
and like I said--dig the soundtrack.
VHS Picks of the Week: Doctor Who:
and
. You want these Jon Pertwee adventures from the early 70s? Well, VHS is your only recourse, my friends. BBC
has released these on tape, but you do at least get almost five hours of Who goodness. If you're a completist, you'll want
to snag these and hope for DVD.