Local trio The Gift isn’t afraid to get heavy. Many of the songs on the aptly named Mostly in Sickness stick to the minor keys and singer/guitarist Beck Levy isn’t afraid to open up her throat and scream along to those dark riffs. It’s as if she’s reliving the loss and grief of her music as the rhythm section of Henry Mesias and Mikey T plod heavily behind her.

With the revival of classic cookbooks propelled by the releases of The Silver Spoon and Julie and Julia — the blog-turned-book in which Julie Powell writes on cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking — it’s worth noting the death of chef and cookbook writer Edna Lewis, 89. Lewis didn’t just compile recipes. Having authored The Taste of Country Cooking, she’s largely credited with explaining and showcasing Southern cooking to…

MONDAY: >> We’ve been hearing an awful lot about certain journalists who’ve spent superfluous time in jail for ideals they supposedly believe in — but, before you make any contributions to that gravy train, why not hear from Marie-Helene Carleton, who’ll be in town discussing the travails of her filmmaker partner Micah Garen, who was taken hostage in Iraq in 2003. Even if you’re an avid news junkie, there’s still a lot you don’t know…