This week’s RAW was, as is the norm now, filled with a multitude of moments both good and bad. The main event scene is stronger than ever with a plethora of individuals with legitimate claims to get their hands on the new Universal Champion, Kevin Owens. Unfortunately, the worst feud of the decade between Titus…
Note: I originally wrote this review to be published in The East Texan on October 2, 2014. It won third place in the Division III Critical Review competition at the 2015 Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Convention. ****1/2 Gary Clark Jr. doesn’t like playing live. He’s too shy, he says, to really interact with the audience…
Note: I originally wrote this review for publication in The East Texan on April 9, 2015. It won first place in the annual Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Convention in the Division 3 Critical Review competition in 2016. ***** Once or twice a year, if we’re lucky, we, as much listeners, are subjected to an album…
***1/2 It’s interesting that, to wrestling fans at least, The Wrestler (starring Mickey Rourke in what by all accounts was the role of his career) has the reputation of being a movie focused on presenting a realistic reputation about the perils of wrestling that plague all too many washed up old legends after the WrestleMania lights…
Welcome to the Weekly WWE Wrap-up where I pick my match of the week and decree who won in the weekly battle between Smackdown and RAW. Although there was a lot of fluff this week (please God, let this Titus O’Neil vs. Darren Young rivalry end), this was a pretty good week for WWE overall…
B+ It’s no wonder why Harry Potter’s classmates hate him. He’s famous for an incident during which he never played an active role, is a teacher’s pet beyond any semblance of respectability, and at the end of the day, is a bit of a bumbling idiot who tends to stumble his way to greatness on…
Welcome to Burnes’ Turns, something that I began a few years ago when I was the Entertainment Editor of The East Texan. This was a weekly part of my Soundtrack column where I listed my favorite songs that I’d listened to that week, and was inspired by my favorite Rolling Stone writer David Fricke. I’m very…
**** If there’s one thing you can say about Chris Jericho, it’s that he is an entertainer. Wrestling fans are pretty easy to please when it comes to autobiographies. As long as you’re writing about the business, backstage politics, in-ring situations, etc. we’re usually happy. But we also typically want to read about things that…
B+ It’s been a lengthy road, but with three new tracks it seems like Seansational has finally arrived. Sean Bates, the 22-year-old behind Seansational, had been recording self-produced, self-performed music for years under the name In Orbit, but it was when he was drumming with his band Skies and Fire that he contracted an ailment that…
*** It’s interesting how we form our musical taste. I just completed a giant thesis on this topic, and take my word for it, it’s a very complicated process. But you don’t need a 50-page essay to recognize that the time in your life when you’re first exposed to an artist can have a major…
The Soundtrack Online 