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?

March 21, 2002

Book of the Week: No Nature: New and Selected Poems by Gary Snyder. One of my favorite poets, his performance of Turtle Island with Paul Winter is just stunning. This is a great introduction to Snyder's work, featuring a good range of his poems from multiple volumes. Personal favorite: Four Poems for Robin. Beautiful stuff.

Graphic Novel of the Week: Sin City by Frank Miller. Noir delivered wrapped around a brick. Meet Marv. Marv is not a nice man. Marv seeks revenge. Marv does terrible things with amputation, rubber hoses and dogs. Suffice to say this is some incredibly harsh, gritty stuff. Although Big Fat Kill is probably my personal favorite of this series of graphic novels, you have to give props to the one that started them all--and spawned the coolest toy ever. Read the book then check out McFarlane Toys. It's the Marv toy with the button. That's all I'm going to say.

DVD of the Week: Raising Arizona. Some films never get old. And some films you pull out when you just need to unwind and laugh till your arse falls off. Sure, the later, more subtle and criminally underappreciated Hudsucker Proxy might be something you can watch with your "normal" friends--but screw them. Stay home with this disc and let your inner whacko out, you warthog from hell.

Off the Beaten Path VHS of the Week: Time After Time. Not available on DVD yet, this flick sprang to mind after I watched the highly-budgeted hunk of dung that was the remake of The Time Machine. This flick, with Malcolm McDowell and David Warner, is just my favorite time travel film. H.G. Wells vs. Jack the Ripper. Can you ask for anything else? Well, other than for Simon Wells to just stop.

CD of the Week: The Fury of the Aquabats! by The Aquabats. Sickness by the truckload performed by eight (or nine) superheroes with such monikers as Crash McLarson and Chainsaw Karate. Their first album is populated by such insane hits as "The Cat With Two Heads", "Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates"--and who could forget "Attacked by Snakes"? Their backstory is too long to unravel here, but here's their website for the full shmeal. Love it, love it.

Beverage of the Week: Orange Juice. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE, is getting sick. Vitamin C is your friend. And let's face it, you can take vitamins and whatnot, but we're big on liquids here. And there's no better delivery method for C than orange juice. Our favorite is the kind from Horizon Organic...and not just because of the flying happy cow.

Snack of the Week: Reeses Sticks. This is an extremely evil product. Very easy to inhale. The perfect gateway chocolate. You start with this, you think you can quit--but oh no. No, then next thing you know you're mainlining Godiva while letting the rest of your life go straight to hell. Hmmm. What were we talking about again?

Card Game of the Week: Canasta. Not just for old ladies. This game is rather involved—-it takes a while to learn, but it’s worth it. We’ve had many a Canasta tournament around here, and with some refreshment and some time (not to mention some coffee, natch), ruthless wild-card usage and pack swiping runs rampant.