Ever since he was 9 years old, Lorena High School senior Brett Hendrix has loved playing the guitar. By the time he was 13, Hendrix had already started his own band, the Brett Hendrix Band. Today, Hendrix’s band performs weekly at many different locations around Waco.

“I started playing in different places when I was 13 and drew a quick interest in having a full band rather than just me playing alone,” he said. “My brother was going to MCC and happened to have these two guys that wanted to start playing. I found a drummer and sure enough we kicked it off that summer.”

The spring semester is full of musical entertainment and diversions at Baylor, just as it is at McLennan Community College.

The MCC Theater will put on a reproduction of the Broadway hit “Hairspray” in the Ball Performing Arts Center located on the MCC campus at 7:30 tonight and Saturday.

Historians say the lesson of history is that there’s no such thing as a foreseeable future. Honest Oscar forecasters would have to agree.

When Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane announced the Best Picture nominees Jan. 10, pundits immediately declared a front-runner. “The contest has come down to one film, and it’s ‘Lincoln,’ an excellent, very popular movie by a great director on a subject that inspires, uplifts, redeems. … It’s the perfect Academy movie,” wrote Wesley Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the website Grantland.

The Dallas-based up-and-coming band Air Review is coming to Common Grounds on March 2 to play some songs from its new album “Low Wishes.”

The band currently has a single, “America’s Son,” playing on KXT, a Dallas radio station, and has been getting lots of media attention from organizations such as The Dallas Morning News, and the Denton-Record Chronicle.

With spring break right around the corner, many students are scrambling to make plans for that one precious week without school. This year, a unique alternative from the usual cruises, lake houses and festivals has presented itself in MTV and United Way’s Spring Fix.

MTV, the music television channel, has partnered with United Way and mtvU, the 24-hour college channel, to organize an alternative spring break for students who wish to spend their break in a philanthropic way.

Every year, Baylor holds All University Sing for Greek organizations but students not involved in a Greek organization don’t have to miss out – they can join Sing Alliance.

Sing Alliance is a student-run group for students who are not part of a Greek organization.

On Diadeloso in 1996, Baylor hosted its first on-campus dance, forever lifting a ban on dancing at the largest Baptist university in the world.

Now nearly 17 years later, students dance to the beat of their own drum by the hundreds in banana suits, sombreros, Speedos and other costumes.

When I saw this necklace on Etsy, I immediately wanted one, but I was not going to pay $75 no matter how much it was calling my name. So I Googled the name hoping to find some instructions on how to make one for myself. I found a YouTube video with step-by-step instructions. The YouTube video explains this DIY the best, but I’ve tried my best to write out the steps and include what I did differently.

As part of a broader gun control plan he announced last month, President Obama said he will push Congress to fund research into the causes of gun violence – including, potentially, the role of entertainment.

Researchers have been tackling the subject of links between violent entertainment and violent behavior for years, often coming to divergent conclusions.

Baylor University’s School of Music will be hosting its 19th Annual Midwinter Organ Conference which started Thursday and ends Saturday at various locations throughout Baylor campus.

The conference, which chooses to focus on the younger generation of organists, will feature many new rising stars in the organ community like Stephen Buzard and David Baskyfield, who are both award winning, young organists.

If you have ever passed by Common Grounds, odds are that you have heard Savion Wright singing. Wright, a junior from Jasper, is a multi-talented musician and singer who said he has always had music in his life.

“Music is a big part of my family,” Wright said. “All of my brothers and sisters sing and play at least one instrument. I kind of had to outdo them all and play every instrument that they played plus one more.”

Nothing consumes and defines Baylor life in the spring semester so much as All-University Sing, a marathon of Broadway-style shows put on by Sing Alliance, Baylor Chamber of Commerce and various Greek organizations every year in front of family and alumni from all over the country as part of a 61-year tradition.

When the curtain rises, all the audience sees is the glare of stage lights against dramatic make-up, flashy costumes and newly painted props. This year, 18 acts are performing, including paired acts and Sing Alliance, which consists of students who are not involved in Greek organizations but still want to participate.

I’ve seen a lot of Sing acts — 6 or 7 years’ worth of them to be precise. I have a very strong idea about what makes a “good” Sing act. I look at song choice, creativity, story, execution and, to an extent, cleverness. I appreciate novelty and new-ness, as well as risk-taking. I’m going to try to reward acts when they are good, but I’m not going to hesitate to criticize them when they miss opportunities (or notes during a solo). This year, we will be working on a 5-point-scale. A 5 is near perfection and a 1 is barely showing up. Since Chamber is actually competing this year, no zeroes will be given.

When all you see are red roses, candy hearts and pink plush animals, you know it’s Valentine’s Day.

But for many busy students, Valentine’s Day this year will lack the chocolates and fancy dinner that make Valentine’s Day famously romantic.

Arlington sophomore Shelby Blue and Tyler junior Matthew Baldwin will spend Valentine’s Day performing at opening night for All-University Sing, leaving little room for celebrating the holiday. They have been dating for seven months.

I found this cute DIY project on Pinterest, though its original source was the blog House of Humble. I was looking for something to decorate my apartment for Valentine’s Day, and to take my mind off the fact that I’d be spending the day at work instead of being romanced, I decided to take on a project. To save myself some money, I adapted the project to incorporate things I already had in the house. I’d give the project a medium difficulty rating. It requires a basic knowledge of sewing, and I recommend being careful with the hot glue gun. Apart from that, it was pretty straightforward.

A Baylor alumnus wants to redefine college dating.

Noah Mortel, who graduated from Baylor in 2008 with a degree in economics, marketing and international business, has created an online dating website called CollegeBoo geared specifically toward college students.

For those still searching for a Valentine’s Day gift, an arts and crafts event being held tonight by local Waco boutique Harts N Crafts may be the answer.

From 7 to 9 p.m., Harts N Crafts, located at 1125 S. Eighth St., next to Common Grounds, will host a Valentine’s Day party complete with free cupcakes and drinks where patrons will also have the opportunity to create handmade gifts for their loved ones.

My grandmother had this saying:

“A good cook never has a clean kitchen.”

Well, I like to think I’m a good cook, but I’m also a neat freak. I knew from the beginning that trying to make cookies from a cake mix had the potential to go horribly wrong. After all, cake mix is infinitely more runny than cookie dough.

Amid all the “House of Cards” chatter (e.g., ‘Hey, Kevin Spacey takes down the 4th wall Ferris Bueller-style!’ and “I watched all 13 episodes in five hours” OK, that was a stretch), Netflix has offered another talking point by announcing its partnership with DreamWorks Animation to produce a children’s series.