Metroplex residents have a variety of activities to choose from this week, including Oktoberfest celebrations, a Fleetwood Mac cover band concert and a soccer game. Sports Cheer on FC Dallas as they take on Orlando City SC at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco. Tickets can be purchased online starting at $19.65. Music Take a trip to the 1970s with Fleetwood X, a Fleetwood Mac cover band, as they take the stage with Ella Red at 7 p.m. Sept. 28. Fellow music lovers are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets to take advantage of the open lawn seating at the event, as part of Levitt Pavilion’s free concert series. Pick up the microphone or jam out to local live music at Inclusion Coffee’s weekly Golden Mic Night at 8 p.m. Oct. 2 on East Abram Street. Tickets can be purchased online for $10 or at the door for $15. Entertainment Support local businesses with The Mosaic Market’s Rosé All Day event from noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 29 at 204 N. West St. Take a trip downtown to explore local artisans and small business owners while sipping sweet wine. Residents can channel their inner chef in a makimono rolling class from 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 30 at Uchi Dallas on Maple Avenue. After the lesson, a multi-course tasting menu full of seasonal specials will be available. The Sanford House Inn and Spa is hosting Oktoberfest from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 4 in Restaurant506 on North Center Street. Dr. Jeckyll’s Beer Lab and Division Brewing will be providing drink options on-site. Dinner menu items will include Bavarian pretzels, apple strudel bread pudding and more. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased online. news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Wrath of the Triple Goddess, the second installment in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Senior Year Adventures series, dropped Tuesday, pulling fans back into Jackson’s mind. As the second book in the spinoff series, following Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods, Wrath of the Triple Goddess has our favorite hero scrambling for his second godly recommendation letter to attend New Rome University the following year. Originally pitched to go along with the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” show, author Rick Riordan wrote the new trilogy, following Jackson in his senior year of high school, to celebrate the character's new era. The book is dedicated to 20th Television and Disney+, who collaborated to stream the series’ show adaptation. Riordan then references the second book, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, which the second season of the show will be based on. Set during the week of Halloween, Jackson, his girlfriend Annabeth Chase and his best friend Grover Underwood must pet-sit the goddess Hecate’s magical creatures, Gale and Hecuba. A mishap featuring a strawberry milkshake causes Hecate’s polecat and hellhound to run away from home, sending the Celestial Trio on a hunt to find the missing pets before Hecate returns from a trip. This book was likely supposed to be released soon before the second season of the show — mirroring The Chalice of the Gods' release before season one — due to The Sea of Monsters being referenced many times in the new book. However, the timing didn’t line up, potentially because of the writers and actors strike last year. The trio recalled the events of their quest into the Sea of Monsters while facing the consequences of their actions in the form of Circe’s Aeaean handmaidens who attempt to enact their revenge on Jackson and Chase for destroying their island oasis. Hazel Levesque and Leo Valdez, characters from The Heroes of Olympus series, were name-dropped numerous times. Since this trilogy has lower stakes compared to previous Percy-centric books, we got to see our favorite demigods’ day-to-day lives, from their school life to the Halloween party at the end of the book. As the first Riordanverse book released after the show, Wrath of the Triple Goddess was able to tie in aspects from the TV series like Chiron’s leg brace, explaining why the centaur used a wheelchair as Mr. Brunner. It was evident that Disney was backing the book, with references to Disney’s properties littered throughout. Passersby were wearing costumes ranging from Disney princesses to Star Wars characters, and Harley from the Hephaestus cabin was dressed up as Iron Man. Jackson and Chase were adorable as always, reminding each other that they were better as a team than as individuals. I really loved this book. Getting back to reading Percy’s point of view is a nice change of pace, especially after the show is set in 3rd person and we don't get to hear his iconic inner monologue. This book felt more like a coming-of-age with our heroes gearing up to leave high school and having one last hurrah before retiring from the life of an average demigod. Underwood’s insecurities from The Chalice of the Gods were reiterated by his fear of being left behind while Jackson and Chase moved to California. This brought back my own memories of moving back to Texas, after high school, while leaving my friends behind in India. If the third installment in the post-Heroes of Olympus trilogy follows the pattern, it will likely release fall 2025, before the second season of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” airs. As always, this universe is a delight to read and I can’t wait to see more. @marupudisairam news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Bring the microphone — Director Coralie Fargeat has something to say. Her 2017’s debut film Revenge is a raging look at rape and revenge through the male gaze. Her second feature-film, The Substance, opened Sept. 20 and turns everything inward to highlight themes of ageism and obsession with body image through the female lens. Those themes, however, are not new — especially in 2024, as many films, TV shows and media critics have weighed in on the issue of women’s bodies being objectified and routinely judged. Simultaneously, we still see the media we consume do the same thing, discussing the way women’s bodies look, how fast they age and how they express themselves. So, Fargeat’s task was not easy: how to tell the story of body image with such anger and audacity — or it will just be the same status quo being told for decades otherwise. Through that lens, The Substance is a bloody brilliant satirical body horror that leaves its audience agasp, overwhelmed and pondering with thoughts as it stops at nothing — absolutely nothing — to make its statement about the beauty standards that society has inflicted on women over many years. It’s a bonkers movie bolstered by a sensational lead performance from an actress who gives her everything, as she’s reached a certain age where options for such roles are fairly slim. While all her co-stars crush, she kills. Demi Moore, in a career-best performance, plays Elisabeth Sparkle, who was once a successful actress in Hollywood but is now hosting fitness instructional videos as her youth falls behind her. Despite passion and excellence, Sparkle is being replaced because the producer is looking for someone younger, preferably between the ages of 18 and 30. After a car accident, a young doctor mentions she’s a good candidate for a life-changing procedure called “the substance.” The instructions start out simple enough. She must inject herself with an “activator” dose once. As she does so, Sparkle’s younger, more beautiful version of herself, Sue, astoundingly played by Margaret Qualley, will be born out of her back, leaving the actress’s body lifeless on the floor. Then, Sue must inject herself with a “stabilizer” shot every day while making sure Sparkle is hooked up to a feeding bag for seven days, so her body won’t deplete. Because the two are one and the same, there’s a third step, “switch,” where the two must switch positions every seven days. As time goes on, the process becomes too rigorous to follow consistently, leading to a journey of obsessions with beauty and self-hatred and to consequences that neither Sparkle nor Sue could imagine. Throughout its 140-minute runtime, Fargeat was never interested in subtlety. She left nothing to the imagination, from the big yellow coat Sparkle wore throughout the film, as a callback to the opening image of the egg yolk multiplying in the frying pan, to Dennis Quaid’s animated performance as an executive named Harvey — a reference to Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood’s former most powerful man. The on-the-nose storytelling is just as intentional as Fargeat’s vision for all other cinematic elements. In this case, substance is style. The leering cinematography in certain scenes provided a too-close-for-comfort feeling, combined with the extended use of slow motion to emphasize sex appeal. The sound design, a crucial element in the French director’s films, inserts the audience into every scene and gives sound systems a workout. The prosthetic makeup highlights the gore effects so well that it propels The Substance into one of the best body horror films of all time. You may ask: Why two hours and 20 minutes for a movie that communicates something so often discussed in such a heavy-handed way? Well, if it’s so simple, why do we still see the media comment on women’s bodies every day? And in life, when will it stop? Thus, every story sequence becomes a metaphor. The Substance is not a shallow political drama, nor is it interested in politely asking society to consider being kinder to women’s bodies. Instead, it’s a non-stop epic film that pushes until you can no longer pull back, so much so that the final act will leave your jaw on the floor — if it’s still attached to your body. @DangHLe editor.shorthorn@uta.edu