The spirit of Christmas is alive with rock music in the Wizards of Winter. The musicians gathered on Nov. 23 at the Crouse Hinds Theater to celebrate the holiday season, mixing familiar songs with twists of exciting progressive electronic rock.

Jonathan Larson’s Rent is, distilled to its purest form, a story about life and what you do with it. One of the musical's most quoted lines is "No day but today" - a sentiment that is as poignant today as it was when Larson premiered it off-Broadway in 1996.

The 20th anniversary tour of Rent, which played at the Oncenter Crouse Hinds Theater from Nov. 15-17, provides audiences with heartfelt, powerful performances and proved why the musical has lasted 20 years.

In a crowded dark basement that smells like patchouli oil, cigarette smoke and body odor, seven musicians that make up Syracuse riot grrrl band The Malvinas are setting up to perform at LadyFest 2016.

“What is that?” a crowd member says as the band tunes their instruments. “Does that guy just have a pipe with a string on it?”

The referenced band member, Zeke Leonard, plucks the string, just once.

“Oh,” the man says. “Yep, that’s exactly what he has. That’s awesome.”

Remember, you are not the Denzel Washington of your life movie.

Chris D’Elia cracked up a sold-out crowd in Goldstein Auditorium with jokes like that as part of University Union’s Family Weekend comedy show Saturday night. Stand-up comedian Michael Lenoci opened for D’Elia.

Lenoci, who explained his bio as “32. Single. That’s my life,” spent his 30 minutes focused on jokes about relationships. His understanding of relationships: “You’re pretending until you can trick them into falling for you.”