Once again, our editors are on hand to answer the question you're all asking: What was special about BC last week? Here it all is, from soup to nuts. Well, from music to gaming, anyway.

Read on, and remember that there's plenty more where that came from.

MUSIC

Tom Johnson has been looking at the best Overlooked Alternatives of 2006. In this column, Overlooked Alternatives: 2006 Spotlight, Part 4: The Best of the Rest, he wraps it all up with a look at those peculiar nuggets that don't really fit anywhere else.

In Music Review: A Date With John Waters, Jon Sobel takes a very candid and entertaining look at the traditions of Valentine's Day and how it relates to this album.

Benjamin Cossel asks the question What Do You Do When Nashville Isn't Making "Real" Country Music? and solves the problem with some solid new "Old Country" solutions.

From Asst. Music Editor DJRadiohead:

My suggestion to all of you is to subscribe to Mark Saleski's Friday Morning Listen. Not only will you be treated to a great read, you're likely to hear about some music and artists you never knew existed. Take this week's look at Sex Mob.

There are seemingly century-long gaps in between them, but The Mondo Project's Hot Topic columns should never be missed. This installment tackles the age old debate about selling out.

Check out this review of Bruce Hornsby's box set by one of our newer writers, Peter Chakarian.

From Asst. Music Editor A.L. Harper:

So elegantly stated it could have been Elton John's eulogy. Or maybe it is. Read Nick Deriso's beautifully sad One Track Mind: Elton John - "Come Down in Time".

Ray Ellis announces "And the Best Rock Song Ever Written is... No! Not That One!".

BOOKS

I'm not, it might be said, in the demographic for graphic novels - well perhaps I'm being stereotypical there, but I think of them as being mainly a young, male preoccupation. But some great reviews on BC Magazine lately have made me think I'm missing out on something. Among them was Blake Matthew's review of American Born Chinese, which makes the work sound both sophisticated and challenging, while also accessible, adjectives that might also be applied to the beautifully structured review. But importantly, while Blake tells us a twist that holds three individual tales together, he doesn't give it away - an all-too-frequent lapse of some reviewers.