Things I Can't Recommend Enough
or Utterly Biased Reviews, by Laura


DVDs
This category goes, hands down, to Joss Whedon's Firefly, which Will introduced us to earlier this spring. The writing, acting, sets, and pacing for this show are just so spot-on, compared to anything on television right now, that when you get the abrupt and unsatisfying end of the box set, you'll find yourself wanting to write the Fox Network and tell them what idiots they are again. The good news: even though not a single tantalizing plot thread gets tied up in Season One, there's a major motion picture due out in September.

CARTOONS
Props here go to another vastly-underrated show, in this case cancelled not once, but twice! I grant that not everyone can find Home Movies as thorougly delightful as I do -- but if by any chance you haven't checked out this series of 15-minute shorts about young Brandon Small and his moviemaking friends, give it a shot. (Adult Swim, Sundays, 1:30AM, or alternately, you could buy the DVDs.) In a way, it reminds me of really good improv, where the actors have just got this amazing chemistry going on. Except it's animated, and it takes place in your elementary school.

TELEVISION
What is that's so compelling about the Food Network? It has a strange allure, that much is for certain. Certainly there's a case to be made for Iron Chef, but if asked what we record most often on our Comcast DVR, I must confess: we're Good Eats fans, through and through. To the point where our devotion to Alton Brown, that MacGyver of the modern kitchen, led to Jake giving his mother a rather long lecture last November on the proper method of mashing potatoes, and me somehow carving the Thanksgiving turkey. Which would not be particularly odd, were it not for the fact that we hardly ever cook anything besides spaghetti.

WEBCOMICS
Ever since the latest Sluggy storyline started, I've been being more and more particular about webcomics, I feel like. It's not that I require instant gratification and solid punchlines, just that the only comics I can find with good writing happen to have them. The standout among this (dwindling) bunch? The artistically-inert Dinosaur Comics, an amazingly fresh and witty tale of a clip-art Tyrannosaurus-rex and friends, featuring the exact same panels every day of the week (excepting dialogue). If I were of a mind to have children, I'd totally reserve the right to dar el luz to the spawn of Ryan North, this webcomic's creator. And then be thoroughly disappointed when the little tyke preferred Spongebob to My First Nietzsche Reader.

WINE
The past year has been one fruitful alcoholic explorations here in Atlanta, and I'd be remiss to point out that Jake and I have finally found a wine that we'd like enough to actually buy, both in restaurants and to eat with our aforementioned spaghetti. From the Mendoza region of Argentina, the 2002 Alamos Malbec is a medium red wine of surprisingly complex character, featuring a heady nose, and... uh, nice... legs and... erm... mouthfeel. Anyhow, we still don't know that much about wines, but we do know that everywhere we see this one, it comes well recommended, and at $9 a bottle at our local "package store," as the Southerners say, we're recommending it, too.

BEER
Let's get the scoffing at the name out up front: the appeal of North Coast Brewing's PranQster lies not in whimsical mispellings (thank god), but rather in outstanding value of this eminently drinkable, solid, Belgian-style ale that turned the key in the lock on my permanent conversion to beer snobbery. The downside of which is that now I feel compelled to bring a pack with me to social events, where I'm torn between converting others and hording it all for myself. Sure, it's $6 or so for four 12 oz. bottles, but at 7.6% alcohol, just think of it like you're buying an 8-pack.

NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINK
Were it not for the local establishment Chocolaté Coffee, I doubt I'd be drinking much caffeine anymore -- my stomach decided it didn't like coffee anymore about six months ago, and for the most part, I've reluctantly bowed to its wishes. Except when I'm driving on I-85 and pass the Shallowford exit, in which case I am inevitably compelled to stop for a Dark and White Mocha, innards be damned.

MUSIC
How sad am I that Gomez is not touring this summer? Almost as sad as when my first goldfish died, I'd say. And it's only been three months since I last saw them in concert! Anyhow, when they get back to the US again, you should see them. Or at least check out their new live album. It is named for a Tom Waits song they cover, and it is splendiferous.

BLOGS
Occasionally when I am in the bedroom reading, the sound of uncontrollable giggling will filter through the walls and doorway from where Jake is sitting at his computer. A quick trip to the other room usually reveals the culprit is Query Letters I Love, a site whose content is composed entirely of descriptions of horrible, horrible movie ideas.

FOOD
Hm. What should I say about Pura Vida? I'm getting a craving for their spicy sauteed mushrooms just now. And their yucca croquettes, and hanger steak pinchos, and the awesome, awesome cheese plate, and the... oh man, I've got to get Jake to go tomorrow. Virginia Highlands tapas, Central American style, $6 each. The two of us get full off of maybe 6 or 7, if we can stop eating them, which is really not a bad deal for perhaps the best food I've had in Atlanta.