Houston-born and, lately, Fort Worth-based Robert Ellis is a maelstrom of musical output. The singer-songwriter, a part owner of Niles City Sound (and the studio-affiliated label, Niles City Records), just released a superb new solo LP, Yesterday's News, to the same sort of acclaim he helps acts like Jamestown Revival and Thomas Csorba earn via his work as a producer. Ellis also finds the time, somehow, to tour extensively across the United States and Europe, both on his own and as a support act for artists like Ben Kweller and Belaver.

What is Erykah Badu up to now? When it comes to Dallas' High Priestess of Cool, the better question to ask these days is what isn't she doing? Seemingly every day, news of another fascinating Badu endeavor ricochets around the internet: Her collaboration with cannabis entrepreneur Berner; her appearance at this year's Met Gala; her arena-headlining tour with yasiin bey — hell, by the time you read this, she'll probably have done 12 more awesome things. Given her current ubiquity (did we mention landing the covers of both Vogue and Elle Brazil in the span of three months?), there's a sense the world has possibly caught up to the woman who has long been ahead of us all.

The first thing you notice while listening to Aperture, Mesquite native Hannah Jadagu's full-length debut on Sub Pop, is the songs' intimacy. Jadagu's lovely, delicate voice threads through precisely constructed thickets of snarling guitars, burbling synths and fleeting digital flourishes born out of her early days in the Dallas suburbs as a shy homebody impulsively assembling sonic collages on her iPhone 7. While she makes her home in New York these days (and studies at NYU), the 20-year-old Jadagu is also busy turning heads and earning raves from the likes of The New York Times with her cozy but commanding work.

Dallas' comedy community is relatively new, but locals have gone on to carve out huge comedy careers, and Ralph Barbosa is one of the newest names destined for stardom. The most admirable part is how humble and shy he is in an era of comedy where testing the edge to see what you can get away with and ramping up the energy in lieu of good writing are shortcuts to the spotlight. He calls himself "one of the shyest attention hogs to ever do comedy" on his website, but any comedy fan knows that the quiet ones often have the best material because their patience gives the time to write and practice. He's got a Bob Newhart vibe where he seems sedated but still enthused by his material. Barbosa started the year with a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, followed it by opening for Dave Chappelle and ended it with a sold-out, six-show run of live performances at The Kessler that will become his first feature length special on Netflix.

Dallas resident and Denton native Dustin Ballard has 2.7 million TikTok followers who are following him straight into the pits of despair. On his TikTok account "There I Ruined It," he car-crashes two songs that have no business together, and the results have a strange beauty to them. Want to hear Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" sung to the backing instrumentals of Bob Wills' "Cherokee Maiden"? What about Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" to the backing instrumentals of blink-182's "All the Small Things"? Ballard has done all of it, and with the advent of artificial intelligence, he has also recently taken to AI remixes, including one of Frank Sinatra singing Lil Jon's "Get Low." Such antics have earned Ballard the attention of victims such as Lizzo, Ed Sheeran and Snoop Dogg. The words, "Thanks, I hate it" apply here, but with a bit more emphasis on the word "thanks."

After spending a couple of years or so paying dues at clubs like Rubber Gloves and Andy's, Denton band Homewrecker & the Bedwetters played an EP release show in support of their Undressing EP. The all-local show brought a crowd literally in the hundreds, and it had the energy and exuberance that will have attendees reminiscing far into the future. The way Gen-X scenesters in North Texas wax nostalgic about seeing Funland and Baboon play to hundreds at the Fry Street Fair, the attendees at Homewrecker's EP release show will be telling others about how people stage-dived as the band played "You Are Valid and We Love You."

It's cool to buy handmade ceramics, and it's even cooler when your ceramics come from an artist in your very own city. It's eco-friendly, and it's something to brag about to your friends. Make sure to let them know that if you were to mistakenly eat off of any mass-produced IKEA ceramics, you could go into anaphylactic shock. Cue Stephen Salter, who produces some of the most impressive and practical ceramics around, ones that are as beautiful as they are useful. Salter has a tangible passion for ceramics, and he loves to share his process with the world. He has an entire TikTok dedicated to his work and how it's done. You could stare at the mesmerizing rotating clay for hours, and you will, because you're probably addicted to social media. Once you're sufficiently influenced, click over to his Etsy page and bust out your credit card.

Maybe you just broke up with your long-term boyfriend, or maybe you are just one more heinously unfunny prompt on Hinge away from a brain aneurysm. Dating is exhausting, and if you feel the ick toward one more man you thought you might have had feelings for, you may become celibate for life. So, it's not a crime that you just want to hook up with a man who isn't going to hit you up to ask how you think the first date went. What you need is a trip to Barley House, the best bar in Dallas to find current and former frat guys. The guys here won't even ask you what your name is, and that's just fine. Grab a pitcher of beer, do some shots and let loose with Logan, Kyle or ... Todd. He'll take you back to his beige unfurnished apartment, you'll have a good time, and you'll never have to hear him tell you about how he could have been a professional athlete if it wasn't for that one injury in high school.

It can't be easy to come forward with claims of abuse, but doing that in front of the entire world takes some serious guts. That's just what Dallas-based entrepreneur Courtney Vucekovich did in House of Hammer, a Discovery+ docuseries in which she airs gruesome accusations (including flirtations with cannibalism) against her ex-boyfriend, actor Armie Hammer. Vucekovich alleges that her romance with Hammer turned so dark that it left her with PTSD. Several other women detailed similar accounts, which Hammer has denied. Vucekovich's bravery and mental health advocacy will undoubtedly help countless women avoid toxic relationships.

From the Texas House to the U.S. House, Jasmine Crockett's political star continues to rise. Crockett previously earned the Observer's "Best Freshman Lawmaker" during her time representing Texas House District 100, which stretches across parts of Dallas. She's now bringing that same fighting spirit to the nation's capital, where she recently went viral for her verbal takedown of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the controversial Colorado Republican, after Boebert was rude to a witness at a congressional hearing. Crockett's dedication to voting rights and civil liberties is apparent, and we're excited to see where her political career takes her next.