Who among us, at one time or another, hasn’t wanted to be a pirate – if only for the fashion statement?
Every year fashion offers up the good, the bad and the ugly. But what the industry is really built on – and consumers respond to – is buzz.
Here are the top moments of 2012 that made our heads turn:
Fans will have a chance to join Beyonce on the field at the Super Bowl.
Pepsi announced that fans will introduce the Grammy-winning diva when she takes the stage Feb. 3 at New Orleans’ Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
What was TV like in 2012? As with every year, it was a mix of the ridiculous and the sublime, the sacred and the profane.
A TV-centric political season provided many memorable moments – President Barack Obama’s missing-in-action debate performance; Clint Eastwood’s empty-chair duet. Excellence persevered with series such as HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and “Treme,” AMC’s “Mad Men,” History’s surprisingly splendid “Hatfields & McCoys,” ABC’s promising new “Nashville,” CBS’ “The Good Wife” and, of course, AMC’s “The Walking Dead” with its icky charm.
Picture this: You’re sitting on a white sand beach, warm sun on your skin. Coconut-scented sunscreen wafts through the air. A splashing noise comes from the blue Gulf of Mexico. It’s your dog, happily retrieving her favorite ball from the water.
Al Pacino came back again and Jessica Chastain showed up for the first time. “Annie” returned and so did “Evita” and “Elf.” Katie Holmes made a second appearance and that old stalwart “The Lion King” celebrated its 15th anniversary. Yes, 2012 was a year of old and new, theatrically speaking.
It also was a year in which the theater community tried to keep the show going despite several disasters – a natural one in Superstorm Sandy and two man-made ones in misleading monologist Mike Daisey and the phantom investors of “Rebecca.” None of those, of course, made our Top 10 list of the best moments in 2012:
“Amour”
Michael Haneke takes a subject you don’t often see in movies and probably don’t want to see – the slow, steady deterioration of an elderly woman – but handles it with grace.
Poised to be one of the big musical breakout stars of 2013, British diva Paloma Faith comes across as a sober and sane Amy Winehouse. Her domestic debut “Fall to Grace” (Epic) is a lustrous showcase for her remarkable vocal range. Heavily influenced by American R&B vocalists from bygone days, Faith can belt like the best of them, infusing songs such as “Picking Up the Pieces,” “Just Be” and “When You’re Gone” with a maturity belying her youth. She unleashes her inner dance diva on the track “Blood, Sweat & Tears.”
The best music in 2012? Critical favorites came from Taylor Swift, Frank Ocean, Killer Mike, Alabama Shakes, Jack White, Trampled by the Turtles.
The video game universe in 2012 is a study in extremes.
At one end, you have the old guard striving to produce mass-appeal blockbusters. At the other end, you have a thriving community of independent game developers scrambling to find an audience for their idiosyncratic visions. Can’t we all just get along?
“My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Like its lead characters, ‘Romy and Michele’ fails test of time
