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?

April 7, 2002

Book of the Week: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Definitely the most dense murder mystery you're liable to lay hands upon. Oh sure, you saw the flick with Connery and Slater, but trust me--you were only getting less than half the story. It's deep thoughts you could go through with a snow shovel, but not so much that you wind up bleeding from the eyes. Theological discourse, ontological weirdness and monks getting offed. What a deal.

Graphic Novel of the Week: Flaming Carrot: Man of Mystery by Bob Burden. Terribly whacked, there's nothing on this planet like this second-string, blue collar hero. That's right: he's got a carrot for a head. And it's on fire. And he's got webbed feet. Don't ask. Just ask for directions to the firing range and enjoy. BTW, we've linked you to Dark Horse Comics' site since Amazon doesn't appear to have any copies anymore. Whatever. Ut.

DVD of the Week: Fawlty Towers. Ah, the example of what sitcoms should be, which of course, is break-all-your-furniture funny. John Cleese is better known in England for this than Python--go figure. And when his character refers to his wife as "my little nest of vipers" or when he smacks around his bedeviled waiter from Barcelona--well, hell, it's just classic. Pick it up.

Off the Beaten Path VHS of the Week: Ed Wood. One of Tim Burton's best-executed films and a great performance from the always-solid Johnny Depp. Not to mention Martin Landau in an Oscar-winning performance spewing immortal lines like calling Boris Karloff a "limey cocksucker." Amazingly, not on DVD though, so rent the thing if you haven't already seen it.

CD of the Week: The Hour of Bewilderbeast by Badly Drawn Boy. Hard to figure out how to explain this one-man band to you. Nothing really I would know to compare it to. What I would urge you to do instead is grab the CD and listen to tracks like "Say It Again" and "Stone on the Water." It's choice, however you choose to describe it.

Beverage of the Week: Donkey Kick. It's no secret. I love energy drinks, but most of them taste like some bizarre Nutrasweet monstrosity. However, none was more surpised that me to find this sucker in my local QuikTrip--and it's actually rather choice. And you can't go wrong with a label that features a black belt burro on the front.

Ice Cream of the Week: One Sweet Whirled. When I first heard that The Dave Matthews Band was joining forces with Ben & Jerrys to make an ice cream, I thought--um, okay. Not that Phish Food wasn't a great flavor, but seriously, how good could it be? Then we realized it had, among various and sundry other things, coffee ice cream. And we were in.

Spice of the Week: Everglades Heat. Good spicy stuff. Nice and hot. Personally, I love it on pizza--but I'm weird like that. I would give you a link to the website of the place that makes it, but frankly the MIDI files that they had on there almost made me claw my own ears off.