Fireworks never flash across the screen, but “The Master” celebrates the genius of acting, screen-writing, set design, directing and almost everything else about cinema with no less fuel and splendor. It is your typical Oscar suspect: an art-house independent film with more than a streak of ambition, an idolized director notable for his uncompromising style, a fierce cast, an intriguing story and as always, something contentious that nests at the tongue of the critics and the public alike. And yes, it is irresistible to an upper-middle class college town.

People who know me well will immediately know what I’m talking about. People who know me sort of well will also probably know what I’m talking about. And people who don’t know me at all still have the chance to catch the reference in the title of this article. I’m talking about Doctor Who, the iconic British science fiction television show that has thrilled, entertained and terrified three generations of fans worldwide for almost 50 years.

This weekend, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra embarks on a seemingly herculean task, a series of 5th symphonies including those of Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler and Shostakovich. These are some of the most well known, loved and studied pieces for any orchestra to tackle, making for an exciting and substantial season. With so much attention given to these works, it is a brave undertaking.

Few contemporary writers have been anointed with as much praise as Junot Díaz. Since 1996, when he first burst onto the literary scene and was immediately exalted as a promising upstart with a distinctive voice, Mr. Díaz has been the darling of the literary mainstream, a recognition that has earned him induction into the pages of The New Yorker and into the Pulitzer Prize board from which he received his very own trophy in 2008.

If you’re a fan of video games, specifically PC games, you most likely have played Half Life. If you haven’t, it’s a sci-fi first person shooter released in 1998 by Valve, and one of the most important video games in history. Here’s the short version: you play as Gordon Freeman, a physicist in a high tech protective suit, who survives a freak accident in the Black Mesa research facility that results in extra-dimensional creatures infesting the complex. You then fight your way out with a variety of scavenged weapons.

Last Thursday, I took a trip to Holyoke, MA with my girlfriend to Mountain Park to see the first tour show of Ben Folds Five, which has recently reunited to record a new album entitled “The Sound of the Life of the Mind,” which came out yesterday. This was especially exciting, as it was the first show that Ben Folds Five had done (save a one-time performance in 2008) since the 90s.

A Short History of Ben Folds Five

The summer of 2012 was a shockingly good few months for rock music, or at least I thought it was when I began compiling which albums stuck with me from this summer. I still stand by that assessment, to a degree, especially when it comes to long-established acts absent until they suddenly decided to kick themselves back into shape after years of painfully drawn-out new-release schedules.

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