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?

November 7, 2002

Book of the Week: The Wiseguy Cookbook by Henry Hill with Priscilla Davis. Henry Hill is perhaps best known for being the man whose story wound up on the big screen as Goodfellas. However, you might not guess that the man has a tremendous love of cooking and good food. This book serves as a sometimes amusing, always interesting combo of biographical snippets and pretty choice looking recipes of all kinds. A different sort of book to add to your shelf of boring, normal cookbooks.

Comic Book of the Week: Alias #16 by Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Gaydos. Bendis is still doing something like twenty-six books a month, and still manages to make all of them interesting. This kicks off a new story arc that has something to do with an incarnation of Spider-Woman, the ongoing relationship our heroine has with Scott Lang, and the amusing things SHIELD can pull off using cell phones. Nice.

Graphic Novel of the Week: A Walking Tour of the Shambles by Neil Gaiman, Gene Wolfe, Randy Broecker & Earl Geier. I'm pleased as hell to see that this book has finally been reprinted, as I've been seeking a decent copy of it for some years. I stumbled across a copy on Alibris a couple of years back only to have the seller disappear mysteriously, though conveniently after my payment went through. I'm glad to report that American Fantasy has returned this collector's item to its former glory and then some. Join Gaiman and Wolfe as they take you through everything you could possibly want to see in this little-known (and even less often seen) section of Chicago.

DVD of the Week: Beauty & the Beast. Yes, it's Platinum Edition time again. And while this edition doesn't stack quite as high as Snow White, it's still several stories tall in its own respects. The sucker's got three different versions of the film with some bits of commentary, the whole slew of design and art galleries you'd expect--basically enough viewing for a few nights. Goodness is here.

CD of the Week: Why Do They Rock So Hard? by Reel Big Fish. When you positively, absolutely need smartass ska and you need it now. There's nothing that will cheer you up when you're feeling blue quite like the classic "Somebody Hates Me," the romantically stirring "I Want Your Girlfriend to be My Girlfriend Too" and the ultimate boy-haven't-I-been-there tune, "Everything is Cool."

Snack of the Week: Ginger Crystallized in Dark Chocolate Bar by Chocolove. The first great thing about this chocolate is the company's name. Who could pass up something named Chocolove? The second great thing about this chocolate is that they tell you the percentage of cocoa in each bar--some even have a little gauge on the back so you can see what’s more milky and what’s more dark. Being 65% cocoa, this bar is on the dark end of the scale (their bars go from 33% cocoa to a whopping 77%) and very rich. The ginger adds a lovely dimension to the chocolate experience, although we couldn’t taste it in every bite. The other great thing about this chocolate? Each bar has a love poem printed on the inside of the outer wrapper in an effort to help you get some...wait for it...chocoloving.

Beverage of the Week: Rooibos Rejuvenating Tea by Bija. Full of antioxidants and also caffeine-free, this tea is purportedly chock full of healing properties. It’s reddish and bold, and speaking as someone who drinks herbal tea a lot, it tastes refreshingly like...good real tea that needed no sugar or milk to help it along. As an added bonus, on the website all of the Bija healing teas have a recipe in which the tea can be used! Multi-purpose. We can dig it.