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?

March 4, 2005

Book of the Week:

by Hadley Stern. Okay, so we admit. We're iPod converts. And we're starting to get silly about it, so we sought out this new book from O'Reilly. This covers all kinds of hacks, from the slightly pointless (make your own iPod case...out of cardboard?) to the ones for folks with hellacious amounts of time on their hands (redo the entire inside of your car to house your iPod permanently!) to the stuff that you do just to prove you can (like load Linux on it). Regardless, we're geeked out. Join us. (UK) (CAN)

Audiobook of the Week:

by Stephen King, performed by Sissy Spacek. The only thing better than an unabridged audiobook is one with special features. Not only do you get the book available unabridged on audio for the first time (courtesy of our buddies at Simon & Schuster Audio), but it's read by Spacek. Yes, and for those of you clueless, that's the person who played Carrie on screen. You also get an intro by King and a bonus excerpt from The Shining. (CAN)

Comic Book of Last Week: Y: The Last Man #31 by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra. Just when you figure out how the last man on Earth actually survived to gain that title, it's always the same story: ninja chick interferes and is after your monkey. No, we're serious. The series continues to impress as Yorick and friends try to figure out a way to continue the species, even with all of these crazy distractions.

Comic Book of the Week: The Walking Dead #16 by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard. The dead are roaming the planet trying to chew your ass. Literally. You've stumbled across the perfect secure location: a mostly deserted prison. So what's the problem? Um, "mostly deserted." And we're not talking just zombies here. Just remember: in case of a zombie infestation, it's not the zombies that will get you killed. Four-time Chazzie-nominated series here, folks. Read and enjoy.

Graphic Novel of the Week:

by Grant Morrison & Dave McKean. Probably one of the freakiest Batman stories on record, both from its story and the kickass artwork from McKean, it's hard to believe this was fifteen freaking years ago. We are all so damn old. Anyway, not only do you get the tale in sweet hardcover form, but there's also the original script by Morrison with notations by he and editor Karen Berger, Morrison's thumbnails and more. Handled in the UK by Titan. (UK) (CAN)

TV DVD of the Week:

. This TV franchise juggernaut continues to plow onto DVD with all twenty-four second season episodes hitting thanks to Paramount, here on this seven-disc set. Bonus bits include four behind-the scenes featurettes, including a season overview, a look at effects, and two tours of labs used in the show. There are also seven audio commentaries with cast and crew to choose from. Guest stars include Robert John Burke, Michael Rooker, Virginia Madsen and Jay Mohr. (UK) (CAN)

DVD of the Week:

. This Chazzie-nominated film really struck a chord with a lot of us, so that same lot was very pleased to see this two-disc set hit from Universal, an upgrade from the previous single-disc version. It's stacked to the gills with tasty bonus action, including a behind-the-scenes featurette, conversations with the director Michel Gondry individually with both Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, a commentary from Gondry and scribe Charlie Kaufman, and the craziest music video you'll see this year. Plus more! Huzzah. (UK) (CAN)

DVD Boxed Set of the Week:

. For those of you who can't get enough of David Suchet's Poirot, A&E Home Video is here to give you your fix. This four-disc set comes with four mysteries: Death on the Nile, Sad Cypress, The Hollow and Five Little Pigs. This set comes with bios of both Agatha Christie and Suchet, plus an index of all the Christie Poirot stories. (UK) (CAN)

Anime DVD of the Week:

. Our heroes get sidetracked by performing a good deed for a young lady, which leads them into a place of considerable danger. Isn't that always how it goes? This theatrical bit, the equivalent of a disc full of episodes, comes from ADV with a text interview with creator Kazuya Minekura, an art gallery, profiles, and trailers. And you also get a running audio commentary from the lead vocal actors. Nice. (UK) (CAN)

Adverse Video of the Week:

. Steven Seagal plays an ex-CIA agent who gets the task of avenging the death of the governor of Tokyo. This brings him into direct conflict with the Yakuza and the Tong both. So it's up to The Ponytailed One to deliver the appropriate amount of beatdowns. The only thing we're confused about is we kept waiting for him to someone spin this into saving the environment...again. (UK) (CAN)

Family DVD of the Week:

. For those folks out there who want to expose your kids to some Henson goodness, we offer up this release from Hit Entertainment. It's a teaser for the season boxed sets that are supposed to be on their way, so grab these to show your support for the show. This comes with three episodes, a "Fraggle Songs" feature, and an episode of the animated Fraggle series.

Foreign Film of the Week:

. Facets Video would like you to spend this weekend getting to know Josef Schweik. The epitome of the goofy soldier, he's thrown in the hoosegow at the start of World War I for making a comment against the state. From there it's just a hop, skip and a jump to being drafted, and hijinks then result. It comes with a video scrapbook as its sole feature. And if you dig it, check out the sequel. (UK) (CAN)

Music CD of the Week:

by Miles Davis. What could be better than one of the best jazz albums of all time? Howsabout having a Dual Disc version of the album so you get the regular CD on one side and then a DVD side that comes with the entire album in 5.1 surround sound (incredibly sweet), plus a making-of docu, studio outtakes, and a photo gallery. This album gets re-released a whole lot, so it's nice to see one come out that's worthy of your coin. (CAN)