The winners of the 88th Annual Academy Awards will be white. Sure, there might be a couple of minority directors or special effects teams nominated, but the major award-winners will be lily-tinted. For the second year in a row.

He pioneered tropical house, the poppy sub-genre of EDM which slows things down for a more Caribbean beach party feel. And recently, the not-so-long-ago bedroom producer became the fastest artist to hit one billion streams on Spotify.

Humans domesticated dogs 15,000 years ago. The pseudo-wolves found nuzzling and cuddling for scraps of meat easier than the hassle of hunting. Humans have since monkeyed with the genetics of a bunch of beasts for a bunch of purposes, but have boosted the diversity of canines with a special fervor.

Jimmy Flynn gives his take on some of the best bites in San Pedro Square.

Before “The Big One,” San Francisco’s New Year’s Eve concert, I was drinking White Russians when my favorite black American, Kanye West, released a new song, “Facts.”

Going to the movies isn’t what it used to be. People used to dress up to go to the theater. They donned their finest suits, dresses and hats to commemorate the occasion. It was grand. It was an event. Moviegoing was revered.

Drake poured a dumptruck of cement around the foundations of his stardom with “Hotline Bling.” In the delightfully self-indulgent music video, Drake executes alone-in-your-bedroom dance moves, shimmies in glowing interdimensional gaps and nestles into the convexities and concavities of cartoonishly thick women.

Bieber became enviable as Youtube’s first bonafide star, flipping some pre-pubescent covers into a spot under Usher’s cologned, leather wing. His seven-song debut EP, “My World” went platinum. All seven songs charted. No other musician has done that on their first try.

Income inequality is at a higher level now than during the Great Depression. So during Santa Clara’s production of Clifford Odet’s 1935 play, “Awake and Sing!,” audiences can find striking similarities between themselves and a struggling three-generation Jewish American family in the 1930s Bronx.

Historically, “hapa” referred to someone who was half-white and half-Pacific Islander, though these days it simply means “biracial.” Martinez herself is hapa (half-Mexican, half-Filipino) and soon after learning the word, Martinez came up with the title of her play “Hapa Cup of Sugar,” which is a reflection of Marissa’s experiences growing up biracial in the Bay Area.

During her senior year of high school, Santa Clara first-year Riley O’Connell wrote a 15-minute slam poem that earned her a spot among five finalists vying to be 2015’s Denver Youth Poet Laureate. It was her first official poetry performance.

Dia de Los Muertos and metal music both celebrate death. So Metalachi, “The World’s First and Only Heavy Metal Mariachi Band,” made an appropriate headliner last Friday at the Ritz in Downtown San Jose. The band pumps out suave, yet worshipful mushings of the two genres.

I last visited a pumpkin patch during a field trip in third grade. But last week, I made my triumphant return to not one, but two pumpkin patches.

Go ahead, indulge. Have seconds. Have dessert. Have a midnight snack. Add bacon. Extra cheese. It’s college, everyone gains weight. Live to eat. Eat for fun. Eat for comfort.

Nerds kill the fun of space flicks. They cross-reference the physics of every interstellar explosion or derring-do flight maneuver, and howl with fury when they find an error. They demand accuracy, and film directors risk mockery if they don’t deliver. This might be for the best.

On Sunday, three theatre arts majors showcased their directorial prowess in the Fess Parker Theatre. The show sold out and each of the vignettes entertained the full house in their own way.

Last Saturday at the Ritz in downtown San Jose, the 78-year-old renal cancer survivor and surf rock pioneer unleashed a torrent of unparalleled prowess.

I sipped my mint tea and listened to author, journalist and English Professor Michael Malone reflect about his former schoolmate and neighbor, Steve Jobs.