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 21, 2002

Book of the Week: The Boy Genius and the Mogul by Daniel Stashower. The early days of television, when one man's neat idea is another man's ticket to being an innovator. This is the story of Philo T. Farnsworth and his struggle against David Sarnoff of RCA over who was the "true" inventor of the television. An interesting yarn, Stashower does the tale justice in this book, being short on detail but long on entertainment--it's worth a read.

Art Book of the Week: Chihuly: Gardens and Glass. A nice big coffee table book that pairs Chihuly's glassworks with essays on both subjects from the title and the artist's bridge between them, along with a serious of quotes from the artist himself. The text isn't great, but hey--it doesn't distract from the key point of having the book to begin with, which is Dale Chihuly's amazing work in glass, set against lots of flora.

Comic Book of the Week: Y: The Last Man #5 by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. Mother of God, finally--something to take my mind off the fact that Transmet is over and done with. Yorick is the last man on Earth. No...seriously. And if you think that would be cool, remember: Bob and Doug McKenzie thought drowning in beer would be like heaven, too--and see where that got them. Instead of fulfilling some whacked out fantasy that might be in your head, he has to deal with the fact that: the world's in chaos; his girlfriend's stuck in Australia, the Israeli special forces are after him, a bunch of one-breasted new Amazons are after him, and the one woman in the world who might be able to help him just might have caused this whole mess to begin with. Sound crazy? Oh hell, you don't know the half of it. One of the best new series to kick up this year. Buy lots.

Graphic Novel of the Week: Planetary, Vol. 2: The Fourth Man by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. Well, while we're waiting for Cassaday to get over working on that sad Marvel Knights Captain America series, we can always enjoy what's already out--and that's this second tome of Ellis goodness. The Warren manages to deconstruct loved and cherished comic spandex icons while simultaneously creating a whacked out history for the Wildstorm Universe and then in turn mining it for strangeness via his three protagonists. Oh, it's good. Now I just need more new issues. Please?

DVD Boxed Set of the Week: The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 1. Do I ever need to explain myself with this? It's MST3K, for the love of Jaysus. Not only that, but you get four MST3K-enhanced flicks in a single box--and how many other boxed sets this year can boast "Creepy Girl," Mike Brady, Lyle Waggoner and a killer carpet? Answer: none.

CD/DVD Combo of the Week: South Park: Season One + Commentaries from Comedy Central. Buy this from Comedy Central. Why? Because, well, they are giving you the Trey Parker/Matt Stone commentaries that WB in their finite wisdom didn't want you to hear. And they're surprisingly lucid and informative--and really, quite tame for WB to be worried about having included them. Ah, but their loss is Comedy Central's chance to do some renegade commentary action--and we've been waiting for somebody to do just that. Funny and enhanced, we can deal with it.

Reissue CD of the Week: Sing, Earthboy, Sing! by 2 Skinnee Js. Okay. 2 Skinnee is the Truth. You know this. You've accepted it. Stumpy and his posse are the absolute last word in whacked-out rap, and this album is what first introduced them to the world at large. Sure, there had been previous releases--but once you've heard the sampling of the Imperial March from Star Wars that launches "Irresistible Force," you are changed forever. Pledge allegiance to Stumpy, true ruler of this planet.

New CD of the Week: Audioslave. Finally, the alternate hard rock lover's wet dream is on sale. Imagine Chris Cornell from Euphoria Morning backed by what's ostensibly the sonic equivalent of the wood chipper that consumed Steve Buscemi in Fargo. Except it's set on low speed, because instead of just destroying everything in their path like they used to, the trio of Rage members are very capably backing up Cornell's wailing and--holy shit, melodies and change-ups and stuff. Oh, it's good. It's good.

Sound Bites of the Week: Ernest Cline. By edict from the Widgeman himself, Cline is our site's Poet Laureate, paving the way for the eventual resurrection of Bill Hicks, who will save us all. The Great Chain of Airwolf goes something like this: Airwolf; Incredible body-rocking sex; Watchmen; the second side of Abbey Road; then Cline. Go and laugh your arse off. Addendum: ScottC demands that you know this was all his idea.