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?
November 12, 2004
Book of the Week:
by Alton Brown. What we love about Alton is his ability to deliver not only kickass recipes but practical
advice about how to survive in a kitchen environment, plus his Beakman-like ability to make the science of kitchenwork
accessible to people with minds like ours. This book, like his previous cookbook/instruction manual, delivers a solid
education in the building blocks of food, the fine art of mixing, and more. It's out from Stewart, Tabori and Chang and
we dig the hell out of it.
(UK)
(CAN)
Audiobook of the Week:
by James D. Hornfischer, read by Grover Gardner. This tale of World War II U.S. Navy destroyers in action in
the Pacific theater hits from Random House Audio, and it's a doozy. These were guys that faced down insurmountable odds
from the Japanese fleet, outgunned and outmanned, but determined to do what damage they could before they went down. But
they didn't fail in the least. This reading by Gardner is capably done and will be great weekend listening for any fan of
war tales.
(CAN)
Comic Book of the Week:The Walking Dead #12 by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard. Jesus Christ, people. Kirkman
nails it. There's no other way to put it. Here's a guy who watched the Romero zombie flicks and understood what they
were about. In this latest, our heroes have to leave relative safety and head back into the wild again, trying to find food
and shelter. Truly we are in a zombie renaissance, and Kirkman's leading the literary charge. Pledge allegiance.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
by Warren Ellis & various artists. This book collects both of Spider Jerusalem's writings, previously published
as I Hate it Here and Filth of the City and another Spider short that appeared in Winter's Edge.
Featuring Spider's cutting insight and barbed intellect, his words are accompanied by art from pretty much every artist with
a pulse in the industry today. It's handled in the UK by Titan Books.
(UK)
(CAN)
TV DVD of the Week:
. In the UK they apparently released the entire second season in one box, but here Fox has seen fit to break
it up. Here you get sixteen episodes all remastered and spread across four discs. Jonathan Harris starts to come into his
own in this season as the villain with a yellow streak a parsec wide. And we also get the episodes in color--bonus. Alas,
no featurette showing you where the space monster then went across to the studio where they were filming Voyage to the
Bottom of the Sea to do his bit there.
(UK)
(CAN)
DVD of the Week:
. If you're a sci-fi fan or fan of Lucas, then this is right up your alley. We're big proponents of knowing
your cinematic history, and this special edition from Warner Brothers is just the ticket. It comes with an audio commentary
by Lucas and Walter Murch, a fascinating series of audio featurettes with Murch, two docus, the original student version of
the film, and a weird-ass featurette about the cast shaving their heads.
(UK)
(CAN)
Docu DVD of the Week:
. One of the hot political topics these days is immigration, legal and otherwise. You know that disputes over
crossing the border are becoming prevalent when it happens--not in Texas or New Mexico or any place like that--but in Long
Island. This Docurama release concerns the community of Farmingville and the incidents--some violent--against Mexican
day laborers. Extras include deleted scenes and an interview with the filmmakers.
(UK)
(CAN)
Adverse Video of the Week:
. This film hit Sci-Fi and brought with it giant mutant kill fish action. In other words, Dindrane is happy
as hell. Anything that bites fishermen in half rocks on toast as far as she's concerned. But beyond that, this isn't
anything you haven't seen before, as it it's definitely The Sea Strikes Back in B-movie fare. The CG fish look okay,
the dialogue is dreadful, but the body count is respectable. What more can you ask for? Oh, and it's from the director of
Spawn. Heh.
(UK)
(CAN)
Anime DVD of the Week:
. New Generation gets the remastered treatment from ADV, so you can see the Invid kicking human ass in
5.1 and looking better than ever! The first thirteen episodes are here, with some bits of footage added back in here and
there, and if you move your asses, your edition might come with a limited edition Super Veritech Morpher toy. We still
tell folks to keep their Legacy discs nearby for their bonus stuff, but man, these editions look pretty damn good.
(UK)
(CAN)
DVD Boxed Set of the Week:
. When Ken Burns tackles a subject, the man doesn't screw around. Neither does PBS. Look at this thing: ten
freaking discs--and all about the subject matter at hand. Too sweet for words. Not only does the thing clock in at
nineteen hours, but you also get the bonus action: a making-of featurette, three bonus full-length performances, info on
all the music selections featured in the series, and additional scenes. God, we love these folks.
(UK)
(CAN)
Western DVD of the Week:
. Eli Wallach, Terence Hill and Brock Peters play guys in the Old West running from place to place, robbing
each other, robbing casinos, getting setup on charges of murder, fighting entire armies...the works. It's like somebody
took a bunch of Sergio Leone's crusts and used them as the basis for a sandwich. It's fun nonetheless and it hits DVD thanks
to Paramount.
(CAN)
Family DVD of the Week:
. The adults among you will probably freak out when you see your favorite Disney animated heroes in full 3-D
CG animation, but hey, this category's for the kiddies. Anybody eight or below will probably enjoy this without the reflex
of going "What the hell?" It's in that spirit we recommend this. The Disney characters learn about Christmas and sharing,
while the bonus bits include deleted scenes, games, Michelle Kwan being interviewed about providing live action
reference footage for the skating sequences, and DVD-ROM activities.
(UK)
(CAN)
Music DVD of the Week:
. Acorn Media's series brings Broadway performances to folks who, even if they make it up to the Big Apple now,
will have missed some kickass stage content. They're doing this by mining previous years' televised Tony Awards. This
time around, you've got Jerry Orbach, Patti Lupone, Michael Jeter, Gregory Hines, Nathan Lane and Katharine Hepburn among
the performers. Some excellent stuff.
(UK)
(CAN)
Music CD of the Week:
. Somehow, it became Oscar season while we weren't paying attention. To help us get through the trauma of
another year ending, there's cool musical scores to go along with cool movies. We're not sure how Depp's latest flick is
going to be (though it's already made the Oscar shortlist, we understand), but the score by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek is quite
good. Some tasty piano action and more, from Decca Records.
(UK)
(CAN)
Book of the Week:
by Alton Brown. What we love about Alton is his ability to deliver not only kickass recipes but practical
advice about how to survive in a kitchen environment, plus his Beakman-like ability to make the science of kitchenwork
accessible to people with minds like ours. This book, like his previous cookbook/instruction manual, delivers a solid
education in the building blocks of food, the fine art of mixing, and more. It's out from Stewart, Tabori and Chang and
we dig the hell out of it.
(UK)
(CAN)
Comic Book of the Week: The Walking Dead #12 by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard. Jesus Christ, people. Kirkman
nails it. There's no other way to put it. Here's a guy who watched the Romero zombie flicks and understood what they
were about. In this latest, our heroes have to leave relative safety and head back into the wild again, trying to find food
and shelter. Truly we are in a zombie renaissance, and Kirkman's leading the literary charge. Pledge allegiance.
