Each Thursday, 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 30, 2001

Book of the Week: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. You might have heard a lot of things about this book. Namely about the amount of drug use and probably some more stuff about the amount of drug use. But cast all of that aside--yes there's lots--but this book is ridiculously funny. A perfect intro to "gonzo" thinking and a warning to steer clear of those goddamn bats.

Graphic Novel of the Week: Sky Ape by Amara, McCarney & Jenkins. I can't get over probably the sickest thing to come out of comics in quite some time. It haunts me. And now that the sequel is out this week, it's only fitting that I hold this up as something you simply must read. Spanish bicycles fighting people dressed as hot dogs, a boy with an extra set of knees, and a millionaire gorilla with a jetpack who has a strange forgotten past. What does it mean? Damned if I know. But it's good.

DVD of the Week: The Virgin Suicides. Thank Christ Sofia Coppola gave up acting. Thank Him again that she directed this film. The book is an absolute reader's dream--gorgeously, movingly written. And the film captures the devastation the book provides and adapts it extremely well for the screen. Moving and disturbing.

Off the Beaten Path VHS of the Week: Mindwalk. Not out of print, but still not on DVD. You know the shameful drill. A little known film adaptation of Fritjof Capra's The Turning Point, it puts the words and ideas of Capra in the mouth of Liv Ullman's character, with characters played by John Heard and Sam Waterston playing devil's advocate as they walk about the gorgeous setting of Mont St. Michel. Simple, but fascinating.

CD of the Week: Endtroducing... by DJ Shadow. Having checked out his work with UNKLE, it was only natural to back up and consider his own album. And it delivers. Nice beats that form great background music for working, it also gets huge points for sampling John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.

Beverage of the Week: Starbucks. You've got to like Starbucks. Why? Not because they're like the Borg and they're everywhere. No, that's not it at all. It's because they make good coffee. And it's STRONG. Especially the type you can by in bags and experiment with in the privacy of your own abode. Kids, don't try this at home...often.

Candy of the Week: Atomic Fireballs. There's only one thing better than the little red sphere that burns. Having that little red candy sphere on a lollipop stick so you can take it from your mouth and get a few breaths in before subjecting yourself to that good pain again. That's right, they've got Atomic Fireball lollipops now. We LOVE it.