East Dallas resident Heather Paterson recently was awarded jazz performer of the year for 2011 by the Sammons Center for the Arts.

The Center has sponsored a successful monthly jazz series for more than 20 years; check out the spring 2012 schedule here.

Paterson is a member of the jazz quintet Straight Ahead. You can see them Saturdays at The Free Man Cajun Café at 2626 Commerce.

Paterson is a nurse practitioner by day and chair of the nurse peer review committee at Children’s Medical Center.

Search youtube for “Hot Pockets,” and of course, the first hit is this 5-minute bit from Jim Gaffagin. It is the thing for which he is most famous. He could win a Nobel Prize, and if I saw him in the street, I would still be like, “Hey, it’s the Hot Pockets guy.”

But if the word “Hot Pockets” pops into your head, the voice you imagine likely is that of neighborhood resident Camille Cortinas. She sings the Hot Pockets jingle that Gaffagin clowns in the bit. Turn up the speakers and hear it here.

Cortinas and her husband, Eric Neal, are the subjects of our Q&A in the January Advocate. Cortinas keeps the lights on lending her voice to commercial clients including the Texas Lottery, Dixie Cups and Methodist Health Systems.

But anyone who knows Cortinas or has seen her perform knows she is not just the Hot Pockets lady. Last year, she released a full-length solo album, “Taken Apart.” And she and Neal also perform in their Band of Puppets, whose aim is “making entertaining music videos for kids that parents can also enjoy.”

Here they are performing “Coffee,” one of the songs from “Taken Apart”:

In the January issue, we spotlighted young jazz singer and White Rock area dweller Lyndsey Jones. You can see her Jan. 19 at Terilli’s on Greenville.

Lyndsey’s current album, “What a Day,” consists of jazzy covers from Alicia Keys, Van Morrison and Sara Bareilles, plus an original — the title track. She’s working on a second album that will showcase her songwriting talents. Read more here …

Check out her tunes on Facebook.

She’s the voice of the “Hot Pockets” jingle and other commercials, he’s a member of countless bands, and the musicians both perform in Band of Puppets.

“I want to make it big,” says the 21-year-old White Rock resident with a laugh. The question, “What are your hopes for the future?” was admittedly a silly one.

It’s been a rough few months for Lower Greenville shops, restaurants and bars. Construction on the street hurt business, but the hard times are coming to an end along with the road construction.

So a few Lower Greenville merchants are throwing a progressive block party Saturday, Dec. 10, starting at 4 p.m.

All shows are free, and food and drink specials are expected. Here is the line-up:

4 p.m. Dove Hunter performs at Good Records

5 p.m. Room Sounds performs at Old Crow

6 p.m. performer TBA at Mextopia, which will have a face painter from 3-6 p.m.

7 p.m. Simon & Garfunkel tribute band Stockslager & Holt perform at the Single Wide, plus Wooly Bully caricature portraits from 3-7 p.m.

7 p.m. New Fumes and D.J. Wanz Dover perform at Zubar

8 p.m. Free wing-eating contest at Greenville Ave Pizza Co.

8 p.m. Cover Brothers perform at World Beer Co. Bottle Shop

9 p.m. Blind Irish performs at Crown & Harp

9 p.m. DJ Playlister P performs at Libertine

10 p.m. Missile performs at Billiard Bar

11:00 performer TBA at Greenville Ave. Pizza Co.

Adele’s “Someone Like You” is like the Roberta Flack song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” of this generation.

It’s beautiful and emotional. Everyone relates to it. But, dang, it’s so sad! Sometimes we all just want to cry and eat ice cream while listening to Adele. Plus, the song gives me a nasty earworm, so even though I love it, it’s annoying at the same time.

Like Roberta Flack, Adele has one of the most soulful voices of our time. And even though she has a mega hit with “Someone Like You,” her catalog is deep.

Good Records gives us an Adele fix with a screening of “Adele Live from Royal Albert Hall” at 9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28. The DVD is released Nov. 29, and Good Records will start selling it after the screening, at midnight.

Loveable local alt-country band, The O’s, will play Mockingbird Station this weekend — did you know Mockingbird Station is a concert venue? Not only that — get this: they have a heated outdoor mezzanine. Not that you’ll need heat with a projected high of 85 Saturday, but still, it’s pretty rockin’.

The O’s — featuring John Pedigo and Taylor Young — are the third band this season to take this outdoor stage, located between the Angelika and PURE dental.

The O’s formed in 2009 and call themselves “a couple of regular guys making music for good people”, but their 2011 album “Between the Two”, produced Grammy Award-winner Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn, The White Stripes, Cat Power), is garnering good, enduring buzz.

Promoters of the Mockingbird Stations show tell us to expect an all-out party with guitar, banjo, drums, harmonicas and tambourine. We have no doubt.

In this-here music video, “We’ll Go Walkin’”, the guys go walking to Tietze Park and other recognizable East Dallas spots.

Husband-and-wife duo Seth and Shawn Magill, aka the East Dallas-based band Home by Hovercraft, are producing a rock-n-roll musical with their creative partner Michael Federico.

The play is called “On the Eve,” and it is described as “the almost entirely true story of Marie Antionette and the first time-traveling hot air balloon.” Federico wrote the story, and the Magills wrote the music and lyrics.

With Revolution on the horizon and a husband who is generally lacking, Antoinette turns to a space-busting aeronaut, a crazed scientist, and a beautiful muse to set things right in her kingdom. However, as the tool to truly dominate her people comes within her grasp, Antoinette starts a revolution of her own—realizing she’s become little more than History’s plaything. Changing the story midstream, Antoinette sends her new acquaintances through Space and Time to fight, sing, and Irish dance on her behalf.

Pay-what-you-can performances of the show, sponsored by Nouveau47 Theatre, are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18-19, at the Margo Jones Theater in the Magnolia Lounge at Fair Park.

The free five-day Festival of Modern Music returns to the neighborhood this weekend.

Check out our story about the festival’s artistic directors from the November 2010 Advocate. And find the full festival schedule here.

Some highlights in the neighborhood:

Bartok’s rarely performed “Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion” starts at 7 p.m. at Steinway Hall.

At 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” will be performed at Willshire Baptist Church.

At 9 p.m. Saturday, The Tidbits and the Forbes/Gonzalez/Bendiks Trio perform experimental rock at Good Records.