Common Grounds live event coordinator and musician Wes Butler lets the Lariat in on the secrets to success at CG’s rapidly growing backyard stage presence.

From the details on what exactly Butler looks for in an artist to the gigs CG is working on bringing to us next year, Butler reveals the details of CG’s backyard.

Cartoon pandas are usually pictured with a bamboo stalk, but Panda Joe Tacos has chosen a sombrero as its mascot’s prop.

The taco vendor at 900 S. 18th St., which has recently become its permanent location, draws customers in with the cute Mexican panda bear painted on its truck.

Stephen Heyde is the conductor of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra and the Waco Symphony Orchestra and is a prominent figure in the School of Music.

Sitting down with him, the Lariat learned about his views on the progression and future of music, as well as its role in peoples’ lives.

NBC has invited us all to the wedding of Ms. Elizabeth Miervaldis Lemon (Tina Fey) and Mr. Crisstopher Rick Chross (James Marsden) tonight. Thanks, but no thanks — we’d rather just watch (NBC at 7 p.m., “Mazel Tov, Dummies.”)

Few directors put up as convincing a mask as Alfred Hitchcock or were as adept at using that public face to sell their work to the wider world. But what was the master of suspense really like in his private moments?

The Rocket Summer, the stage name for solo artist Bryce Avary, is the prime definition of a self-made musician.

Getting the name of the solo project from a chapter title of Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles,” Avary has been recording and performing since age 12.

The Rocket Summer, the stage name for solo artist Bryce Avary, is the prime definition of a self-made musician.

Getting the name of the solo project from a chapter title of Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles,” Avary has been recording and performing since age 12.

Sitting down with Avary before a recent performance in Waco Hall, the Lariat learned more about Avary’s entry into the music scene and his life experiences so far.

Few directors put up as convincing a mask as Alfred Hitchcock or were as adept at using that public face to sell their work to the wider world. But what was the master of suspense really like in his private moments?

With Anthony Hopkins as the great helmsman and Helen Mirren as Alma Reville, his wife of more than 50 years, “Hitchcock” puts major league star power at the service of its peek-behind-closed-doors premise. But whatever that relationship was like in real life, this is one cinematic portrait of a marriage we could have lived without.

Buzzard Billy’s, also known as the Swamp Shack, offers one of the most serene views of the Waco Bridge. Dining on the deck with the sunset on the Brazos River proves that Waco does have some perks.

The entrance to the restaurant includes a walk across a bridge over a green marsh that makes you feel like you are on the History Channel show “Swamp People.” As soon as you walk in the door, the Louisianan decor lets you know exactly what style of food you’re going to get.

Baylor students who wander around town looking for a great bite but find the same old options can finally have a say in their dinner.

You may have seen their advertisements on your Facebook sidebars, “Something exciting is coming to Waco!” The website, www.1401Speight.com, is letting Wacoans choose the cuisine of their upcoming Waco restaurant, via voting on their website.

The website, started by Baylor graduates Vincent and Chelsea Harris, gives four options: gourmet tacos, upscale franks or sausages, a burger bar or “other,” where you can write in your own vote.

Baylor has a rich musical scene, and it’s about to get even richer with the third annual JaZZ and StanZaZ show tonight.

The show, hosted by the Zeta Phi Beta sorority and Diverse Verses Poetry group, will be held from 6:20 to 9 p.m. in the Bill Daniel Student Center Den.

Performances will include song and spoken word poetry selections by Baylor students from a variety of backgrounds.

Movies about the mentally ill tend to render them in cute, charming strokes — with only the occasional blast of ugly to remind us, “Oh yeah, this gorgeous, lovelorn soul is still crazy.”

And “Silver Linings Playbook” has a hint of that. You cast Bradley Cooper as a mentally ill man who probably got out of the psychiatric ward a bit too early, and Jennifer Lawrence as a young cop’s widow who isn’t really coping with that fact, and the Hollywood ending is written all over it.

Some were skeptical when Ubisoft unveiled the time and location of the latest “Assassin’s Creed” entry back in March, but this skepticism was entirely unwarranted.

“Assassin’s Creed III,” the fifth installment in the series thus far, takes us to the end of the world, and the end of British rule in colonial America.

In the game, we are introduced to a brand new assassin who is a Native American from the Kanien’keha:ka tribe named Ratonhnhaké:ton (he is nicknamed “Connor,” and will be referred to as such) as he becomes involved in the growing civil war between the British loyalists and the American colonists.

A 2,500 year old Eurepides classic is getting a steampunk makeover in the Baylor Theatre’s production of “Hecuba,” showing nightly until the weekend.

The show itself was truly a work of art. From the beginning to the end, the actors and actresses, including Michael Griffin as Polydorus and Nellsyn Hill as Hecuba, helped bring the performance to life through pure emotion.

Though the story contains historical elements, Waco graduate student and director Christopher Peck says the play speaks for itself.

Today’s Baylor Symphony Orchestra concert will shine the spotlight on one of the School of Music’s outstanding student musicians.

Ricardo Hamaury Gómez, winner of the 2012 Baylor Concerto Competition, will perform Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 today at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Concert Hall in the Glennis McCrary Music Building.

Uproar Concert Promotions, an organization that is branching off of student-run record company Uproar Records, is launching its first show this week.

The Rocket Summer, a one-man band started by Bryce Avary, will perform in Waco Hall this Thursday, with both David Dulcie and Layne Lynch opening. Lynch shares an interesting connection with Avary.