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?
September 26, 2003
Book of the Week:
by Gilles Boulenger. This is pretty much everything you ever wanted to ask John Carpenter (apart from the
very blunt "What the hell happened to you, man? I mean,
Vampires, dude?) in one long bigass interview.
Starting with the basics and moving through his entire filmography (ending with Ghosts of Mars), it's over two
hundred pages of solid Carpenter with a veritable buttload of accompanying on-set stills. The fan just can't pass it up.
Audiobook of the Week:
by Chuck Palahniuk, performed by Martha Plimpton. Welcome to Waytansea Island. This is Misty. Her life's suck
factor is pretty much off the scale right now. Her husband tried to commit suicide and is now lying in a coma. Her husband's
work--remodeling houses--is beginning to come back to haunt her, since rooms (yes, we said "rooms") are disappearing and
revealing messages left by her husband. And everybody seems to want former art student Misty to paint and keep on painting.
Crazy stuff from a scarily sane man, and the reading is excellent to boot. Check it out.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
by Neil Gaiman & various artists. Well, it took a while for The Neil to return to the series that put him
permanently on the comic book map, but he's back--and he brought some incredible artists along for the ride. This
hardcover is a tale for each family member of the Endless. Check it out especially for the tale of Death with P. Craig
Russell, Desire with Milo Manara and a Dream story with Miguelanxo Prado that ties the Endless even more firmly in with
the DC Universe. Glorious stuff.
Comic Book of The Week:
Fables: The Last Castle
by Bill Willingham, Craig Hamilton & P. Craig Russell. We've been enjoying the hell out of this Vertigo series, with its
take on fairy tale characters in the real world. Pinocchio complaining about being stuck at his young age and thus being
unable to reach sexual maturity--now that's comedy. But there's nothing funny about this one shot, which tells the story
of the last battle in the homeland of the Fables, and how the last castle of the title was finally overrun by the Adversary.
Brutal and excellent.
DVD Boxed Set of the Week:
. So how do you follow up on one of the hottest gimmick shows in recent memory? Well, you, ah, go back and do
it all over again with some twists. And then you put it out on DVD and throw features at it--so nobody here is complaining.
You get six episodes with commentary, not to mention forty-four (!) deleted scenes, featurettes, bits that let you play
with your remote's angle button, and the whole thing's in widescreen. Seven discs worth of goodness to take you through
a weekend. What a deal.
DVD of the Week: . Okay, so it's September. Sue us. But still, we've got a soft spot for musical versions of Dickens--goes back to our years in the theatre. This time out you've got Albert Finney in the role of the mean and miserly bastage, with Alec Guinness along for the ride as the ghost of Marley. Some people find the musical portion of things annoying, some find it enjoyable, but hey, it's worth a watch.
CD of the Week:
by Femi Kuti. Imagine, if you will, a slightly more upbeat version of Manu Dibango, and you're getting close
to what you'll find on this album by Kuti. African beats, nice and smooth horn sections, and cool vocals add up to a
really sweet album. Also features guest appearances by Common, Jaguar Wright and Mos Def. And Kuti can deal some mean
saxophone. Worth listening to for getting your ass moving, that's for sure.
Magazine of the Week:
. Check out the September issue of Harper's, if you haven't already. The cover story is the tale of how the
present public school system in America simply "trains children to be employees and consumers" and "not to think at all."
And we can't argue with that. You also get the usual slate of readings, not to mention the world-famous index (for a
sample of that, check it out here).