By JONATHAN AGUIRRE @TheEtCetera A favorite pastime of hip-hop fans is discussing who is the best rapper ever. Of course every genre fanbase has this debate of who is the best in their field. But hip-hop is a relatively new genre and doesn’t have many artists in the running for the title. With...

By JONATHAN AGUIRRE @TheEtCetera I would say that Bob Dylan needs no introduction, but considering there was virtually no hype for his new album, he might. When I heard that one of my all-time favorite artists was releasing a new album, I wondered how I only found out a few days before its March...

By EMYLEE LUCAS @TheEtCetera Editor’s note: Spoiler alert. Jack is back, and he finally has a gun. It’s a rare treat for people like me, who grew up in the ‘90s and early 2000s, to get a conclusion this good to a beloved childhood cartoon. Many shows of that era simply ended on a cliffhanger...

By JONATHAN AGUIRRE @TheEtCetera Pitbull, aka Mr. 305, aka Mr. Worldwide, aka Armando Christian Perez, is a pop-rapper from Miami and I’m not really sure who he makes music for. I’ve never met an honest-to-God Pitbull fan. “Climate Change” was released on March 17, and no one cared....

By JONATHAN AGUIRRE @TheEtCetera Nearly 21 years ago, the cult classic “Trainspotting,” based on the book of the same name, was released to the world. The movie tells the story of the misadventures and betrayal of a group of heroin-addicted friends. It glorified drug use with creative and stunning...

By KATRINA BOND @KatBondETC Complete with ghosts, fashion, mysterious texts, fantastic breasts and a horrific murder, “Personal Shopper” is a horror/psychological thriller that follows Maureen Cartwright (Kristen Stewart), a (you guessed it) personal shopper working in Paris for fashion mogul...

By Anthony Resendez @TheEtCetera “Song to Song” is a romantic drama set in Austin that follows a love triangle between the main characters and their musical careers. Directed by native Texan Terrence Malick, the film stars Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara and Michael Fassbender. Natalie Portman, Cate...

By CAITLIN PIPER @TheEtCetera To call “Nier: Automata” my dream game wouldn’t be an exaggeration. A rather indirect sequel set more 9,000 years after my beloved cult classic “Nier,” “Automata” is an unlikely union between notorious Japanese game director Taro Yoko and developer-of-all-things- fast-and-flashy...

  Landon Williams @LandonETC Capstan delivered fluency, energy and expertise for an exciting set at So What Music Festival that satisfies even the most discerning hardcore punk fan. The front man. Anthony DeMario, had fantastic clean and dirty vocals. Clean vocals were often shared with...

Landon Williams @LandonETC   Forever the Sickest Kid’s hasn’t missed a beat. The band of middle age dads played two top tier comeback shows for their Dallas hometown fans. Headlining the So What?! music festival and playing their first show in three and a half years, they played for hundreds...

Landon Williams @LandonETC  Hail the Sun played a flawless performance March 4 at the Prophet Bar in Dallas. Their show was noteworthy by how well they commanded the stage and how fluid they were with their instruments. They are not a four-chord band. The complexity of each of their individual...

By LANDON WILLIAMS @LandonETC The Human Experiment definitely has good parts to their performance, but it’s hard to focus on what went well when there were so many places at which the band could improve. In order for a group to play at a festival like So What?!, they have to have some sort...

By JAMES HARTLEY @JamesHartleyETC With a crowd of only about 25 people, Orenda had high energy and kept their small audience moving this weekend at So What?! Music Festival. Orenda, a metalcore band out of Tempe, Arizona, got to So What?! By winning a competition and were slated for one of the earliest...

By DAVID SILVA @DavidSilvaETC March 13 marks the 25th anniversary of a film that’s considered one of the most accurate interpretations of courtroom procedure, “My Cousin Vinny.” The movie is used as a tool to demonstrate voir dire and cross-examination to young lawyers and has been praised...

By KATRINA BOND @KatBondETC Ed Sheeran’s new album “Divide,” released March 3, features 16 diverse tracks that cover him finding his place in the music industry, revealing his family history and finally finding the right girl. While I didn’t enjoy every song, there’s no denying “Divide”...

By JON AGUIRRE @TheEtCetera I’ve heard nothing like it. It is strange, uncomfortable and puzzling. Mark Kozelek’s eighth album, “Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood,” was released under the band Sun Kil Moon to little discussion Feb. 17. Kozelek got his start as the lead singer...

By MACKS PREWITT @TheEtCetera “Before I Fall” is the film equivalent of an adult trying too hard to relate to someone half his or her age. It is embarrassing, stereotypical and not in any way relatable. “Before I Fall” is the newest installment of young adult fiction movies, and it’s a good...

By JOSH TAYLOR @TheEtCetera With the Feb. 24 performance of “In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play,” the Harvester Theatre Company proved that taboo content can be seen in a funny and pleasant light. “In the Next Room” by Sarah Ruhl is set in the late 1800s, around the time electricity was introduced...

By DAVID SILVA @DavidSilvaETC The cinematic disappointment that is “The Cure for Wellness” can be summed up by the expression that I kept uttering throughout the not-so-psychological, not-so-thriller: “What’s the point?” Director Gore Verbinski, whose most popular works include “Rango”...

By Larsen Ullrich @TheEtCetera Hugh Jackman’s final cinematic portrayal of the famed Wolverine is gritty, bleak, dirty and at times, bloody. “Logan,” also the last installment in the “X-Men” Wolverine saga, is the first Marvel-based film of actual quality, but it is not what most people...

By JONATHAN AGUIRRE @TheEtCetera It’s hard to put into words how bad “Fifty Shades Darker” is. But what makes it so bad? Everything, really. “Fifty Shades Darker” is the sequel to the not-so-acclaimed “Fifty Shades of Grey.” The movie stars Dakota Johnson as Ingénue Anastasia Steele...

By LANDON WILLIAMS @TheEtCetera If you are looking for entertainment that leaves you feeling happy and content, do not watch “A Series of Unfortunate Events.” If you are looking for a deep and meaningful mystery filled with secret organizations, answers that only lead to more questions and a broken-hearted...

By ANTHONY RESENDEZ @TheEtCetera “The Comedian,” starring Robert De Niro, Danny DeVito, Leslie Mann, Harvey Keitel and many other stars of television and film, takes a realistic approach to the classic boy meets girl archetype, shaking off clichés in the often-overdone romantic comedy genre. The...

By KATRINA BOND @KatBondETC When I walked into the Bath House Cultural Center auditorium, a performer with a powdered face and a dress like a nightgown greeted me like an old friend, shouting “You came!” as she shook me by the shoulders. She then dropped her voice. “Now you can never leave,”...

By JOSH TAYLOR @TheEtCetera If you’re looking for the backstory to McDonalds through the eyes of the man that made it all happen, I would highly recommend “The Founder.” Easy to follow writing and a great story make this movie one of my favorite releases of the year. John Lee Hancock’s...

By JAMES HARTLEY @JamesHartleyETC From the moment the film starts to the moment it ends, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is everything a Star Wars film should be. I wasn’t impressed by the copy-cat nostalgia trip that was “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens,” so I went in to the theater...

By KATRINA BOND @KatBondETC The Harvester Theatre Company’s Dec. 2 performance of David Saar’s “The Yellow Boat” elicited a quasi-emotional response from the audience, but it did not carry the gravity one would expect from a play with such a heavy topic. “The Yellow Boat” is centered...

Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” teen vampire series and her standalone adult novel “The Host” both came packed with action and a supernatural romance. Nothing twisted or mysterious about the plot. But Meyer has shifted in a new direction since her last book release in 2008. “The Chemist,”...

Josh Taylor @TheEtCetera With raunchy humor, a clueless and somewhat mentally challenged sandwich maker and a bunch of alcoholic washed-up cons robbing a charity for children, “Bad Santa 2”is an outstanding comedy in an otherwise underwhelming year for comedic movies. While Billy Bob Thornton...

By DAVID SILVA @DavidSilvaETC Grouplove brought out a highly energetic setlist for their Dallas fans and accompanied it with a mesmerizing lightshow. The LA-based indie rock band kicked off the Texas leg of its 2016 tour at a sold out House of Blue on Nov 15. The tour followed the Sept 9 release...