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?
July 2, 2004
Book of the Week:
by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman's collection of dark little gems is a winner. If you've never had the pleasure of
checking out the twisted humor of "Chivalry," or the even more twisted holiday greeting of "Nicholas Was...", you should
be kicking yourself. "Cold Colors" is one of the best techno-weirdness stories this side of City of Silence. Nice
little nuggets for your weekend reading pleasure.
Audiobook of the Week:
by C.S. Lewis, read by Derek Jacobi. No matter what anyone says, this is Book Three, okay? Book Five my ass.
Anyway, this Harper Audio release features the Narnia series (long before the ending collapsed in on itself), one of the
books that seems to be a lot of people's favorites. Helping matters greatly is Jacobi, who could make reading the ingredients
off a bottle of Coke C2 sound interesting. Definitely a worthy performance.
Comic Book of the Week: Ultimate Fantastic Four #8
by Warren Ellis & Stuart Immonen. As much as we love to read The Warren tackling his own projects, it's always nice to
see him doing spandex opera again. Here, his take on the FF continues and we're actually pretty pleased. His Doom looks
like a crazed badass, and we have no idea where this is going...we just know we dig it. Immonen's artwork is quite choice
as well. So nice to have a good Marvel book for a change, huh?
Comic-Related Book of the Week:
, edited by Roy Thomas. TwoMorrows covers comics like nobody's business and they don't disappoint. So when
they tell you that Roy Thomas is going to cover All-Star Comics thoroughly, they're not screwing around. Not only
do you get an issue by issue examination, but coverage of the second incarnation of All-Star, talk of the "lost"
issues and more rare art than you could shake a stack of All-Star Squadron books at. Know your history, dammit.
TV DVD of the Week: . Paramount was kind enough to release all twenty-four episodes from this season on a four-disc boxed set. As if one of the smartest comedies in a long time to hit TV was not enough, the features are not too skimpy: interviews with Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, a talk with the art director, and, like previous sets, a featurette on all the celebrity caller voices that are featured during the episodes along with some clip montages.
DVD of the Week:
. Jim Sheridan's latest flick (on DVD thanks to the folks at Fox), got nommed thrice over in the last round of
Oscars, two of which were for starts Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou. This tale of a family seeking the American dream
comes complete with a commentary from Sheridan, deleted scenes with optional commentary, a making-of featurette
and an alternate ending. Worth at least a rental.
Anime DVD of the Week:
. Geneon releases the next four episodes of this series on one volume, in which you get to find out what a
maimed fighter, a gang leader, a visitor from the surface world and a girl psychic have in common. Here you get also
an interview with character designer Yasuyuki Ueda, cleaning opening animation, alternate dialogue outtakes and
a couple of songs. It's nice and grim and gritty anime.
Comedy DVD of the Week:
. New Video brings you this three disc set, the "50th Anniversary edition," chocked full of ridiculously funny
stuff from one of the masters. You get twenty-two sketches across three discs, along with some tasty little bonus morsels:
stories told by Caesar, Neil Simon and Nanette Fabray. There's also cast and writer bios. If you've never been graced with
some of Caesar's stuff, get off your ass and try some for the weekend.
Music CD of the Week:
. My initial description of this band is still the best: "Incubus if they were possessed by Satan." It just
fits, because their frontman, Ghost, can go from screaming his throat off to whacked out melodies at the drop of a dime.
I don't normally go for superhard groups, but the mixture here is surprisingly endearing, and good for when I just feel like
I need to break shit. Their single currently is "No Name," but I'm more fond of "Down" or even "Suffocate," personally.