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?
October 15, 2004
Book of the Week:
by Mark Salisbury. If you've ever been interested in writing comic books or just the process, then this release
from Titan is a no brainer. Featuring interviews from Gaiman, Miller, Ennis, Morrison and others, it also has sample script
pages, so you get to see that there's different ways of doing it than Gaiman in his Sandman series (the sample pages
of which apparently half the industry newcomers used to figure out how to format their stuff). Excellent info.
(UK)
(CAN)
Audiobook of the Week:
. Harper Audio gives you a nicely done disc of Neil reading his own stuff. On here, you get
The Day I Swapped My Day for Two Goldfish, The Wolves in the Walls, "Cinnamon" and "Crazy Hair." And if you
haven't heard Neil reading his own stuff, this is a must. And if that wasn't enough to tempt you into checking it out, there's
also has an interview with Gaiman. Nice.
(CAN)
Comic Book of the Week: Bloodhound #4
by Dan Jolley & Leonard Kirk. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first cracked this series open. Big hulking guy who
has a penchant for taking down metahumans and happens to be incarcerated at the time where he's pulled out to do a job for
the feds. It's brutal, it's well written and because it's at DC, it'll probably last all of ten issues. So I'd suggest you
enjoy it while it lasts.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
by Joss Whedon & Karl Moline. Long before he started writing about the X-Men, Whedon published this tale of a
Slayer in the future, which actually would have made a cool TV series. Fray is a thief who lives in the bad part of town
and who gets visited by a horned demon who declares her a vampire killer. It's another well-written female protagonist staking
vampires, but with a sci-fi twist. Nifty. Published in the UK by Titan.
(UK)
(CAN)
TV DVD of the Week:
. Shout Factory does it right and more evidence to back that up is in this DVD set for Lucy fans to check out
this weekend. Lucy came back to TV a few times after I Love Lucy, and this was one of the more successful shows of
the bunch. This four disc set is stacked to the gills with goodness: twenty-four episodes of Lucy with her real-life
kids playing her kids in the show, plus blooper reels, rehearsal footage, behind the scenes stuff, alternate scenes,
promos, excerpts from specials, and a lot of this has commentary from the kids, Lucie & Desi Arnaz, Jr.
(UK)
DVD of the Week:
. Spielberg's first feature-length film (though made for TV) hit DVD thanks to Universal, and the disc is quite
admirable. Not only do you have the film itself, which has held up quite well to the test of time, you also get some great
features: Spielberg talking about the making of the film, Spielberg talking about his work for television and Richard Matheson
talking about writing the screenplay. You also get a photo gallery, trailer, and production notes. Worth checking out if
you haven't yet.
(UK)
(CAN)
Docu DVD of the Week: . Well, we enjoyed the hell out of the first film. Guys getting ornery about winning an old prosthetic forehead at a fan auction? Comedy gold. This time, the crew from the first mission is going abroad to document international fans and their shenanigans. Want to see what a Trek Con looks like in Serbia? Here you go. This Paramount release also has some features: an audio commentary, deleted scenes and fan films. (UK) (CAN)
Adverse Video of the Week:
. This sad little ditty is about a new doctor coming into a psychiatric hospital and having to deal with the
dark dealings that are happening there, resulting in death, um...evil, and I don't know, lack of budget. I'm sure that
such hospitals can be pretty formidable places on their own, but in the film, this place is about as scary as my elementary
school...and yes, that's with the demonic messages being scribbled on the ceiling.
(UK)
(CAN)
Family DVD of the Week:
. Anybody who grew up with Mr. Fred Rogers, and I don't know about his international draw but on this side of
the pond that encompasses pretty much everyone, will want to check out this release from WQED. Michael Keaton, former
crew member from Neighborhood hosts this retrospective, covering his career as the famous children's show host. Bunch
of features are involved as well, from late night talk show appearances to additional footage of public appearances.
(UK)
(CAN)
Anime DVD of the Week:
. ADV continues to churn out the Remastered editions of this classic anime series. This fifth iteration comes,
like all the others, with a Veritech fighter toy that's quite tiny. You also get some minimal restored scenes, but the
main attraction with these sets are the superior video and audio. They're not kidding when they say these things have been
remastered, and the difference is obvious, even to a non-phile type like me.
(UK)
(CAN)
DVD Boxed Set of the Week:
. Ken Burns is a master of the docu and PBS is making it easy to catch up on his stuff if you're behind, by
offering his entire America series in one ginormous boxed set. Seven titles make up this collection, covering everything
from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Shakers, and from the Statue of Liberty to Congress. As far as features go, look for
some behind the scenes work and convos with Burns on each title.
(UK)
(CAN)
Kung Fu DVD of the Week:
. A pair of guys (one of them being Yuen Biao), take fu lessons from a shady character--but when they realize
their teacher is a bonafide criminal, it's up Sammo Hung (who also helmed this 1979 flick) to come in and pull their fat out
of the fire. Funny and with plenty of fists, it's another good solid fu release from Fox. No features, sadly.
(UK)
(CAN)
Music DVD of the Week:
. This latest release from Universal Music features plenty of kickass live European blues performances, all from
Memphis Slim & Sonny Boy Williamson with guest Otis Spann. Spanning performances from 1960 through 1965, you get tracks
like Slim's "The Blues is Everywhere" and Williamson's "Bye Bye Bird," plus three tracks of Spann. For bonus materials,
there's just photo galleries on this release, but the music itself is worth the weekend.
Music CD of the Week:
by Gustavo Santaolalla. Deutsche Grammophon's release of the soundtrack to this film by Walter Salles is from
the same composer who handled Needcoffee fave flick 21 Grams, and it's a worthy score to put behind the eight
thousand mile motorcycle road trip of Che Guevara and his buddy. Check out "Chipi Chipi" and "Que Rico El Mambo" from the
film to sample the goodness.
(UK)
(CAN)