Well, it's that time of year. The time when some of us get totally plastered and sing strange songs while others watch totally plaster New Yorkers singing silly songs on TV at 9 p.m.

But the rest of us will be whooping it up in downtown Tacoma at First Night. If you haven't yet heard about the arts-based, family-friendly (ie alcohol-free) party for New Year's Eve, let me clue you in: it's part of an international chain of similar festivals, each totally local, and it used to happen a lot in T-Town. After a financially-induced hiatus, it came back with a bang last year, and this year promises more of the same. It all takes place around Broadway between S. 7th and 11th Streets, and you can check out their website for details.

My plan for the night is to cruise the local music inside local businesses and theaters, catch Shakespeare sonnets live at Sanford and Sons at 9:30p.m., watch Hi Jack (Lynn Di Nino and collaborators assemble a zebra duo, a stage barker and Marie Antoinette while egging on viewers to rattle DIY percussion instruments in the hopes of springing a Jack-in-the-box out of a shipping container) at 10:30 p.m., then watch some of the Academy Shorts in the Pantages Rehearsal Hall before joining in the general midnight mayhem.

If I last that long, that is.

And according to Di Nino, the performance art goes on rain, snow or whatever. Don't forget to bring a piece of toast. (For the New Year's Eve TOAST, of course, geddit?)

Don't forget, admission to inside events is by First Night button only: buy them for $10 today from the Broadway Center, LeRoy Jewelers, Glenna's Clothing, King's Books, Sanford and Sons, Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass. The button gets you free admission all day to all museums. Downtown events begin around 6 p.m.

After a snow-delayed start, the holiday weekend turned into a Christmastime extravaganza at the Grand Cinema.

“We had our biggest weekend of the year,” said Philip Cowan, executive director of Tacoma’s three-screen art house. From Friday through Sunday, the theater sold $16,729 worth of tickets, edging out 2008's previous best, the weekend of Jan. 18-20, when patrons ponied up $16,510 to see “Atonement,” “There Will Be Blood” and “Juno.”

This year it was “Doubt,” “Milk” and “Slumdog Millionaire” that kept the cash register humming. “Doubt,” which stars Meryl Streep as a stern nun who suspects that the parish priest played by Philip Seymour Hoffman is a pedophile, was by far the theater’s most popular picture, taking in $6,862 at the box office, Cowan said. “Milk” landed in second place with $5,037 in ticket sales and “Slumdog” brought up the rear with $4,830, Cowan said. The latter two titles have already been playing for several weeks.

The performance of all three movies is so strong that the theater will be sticking with that lineup this coming weekend. No new films will open on Friday.

For a while there, the opening of “Doubt” was in doubt as last week’s snowy weather delayed delivery of the print of the picture to the Grand by a day. It had been booked to open on Christmas Day, but the print didn’t appear until Friday, arriving by private courier just in time for the day’s first scheduled showing at 1:45 p.m., Cowan said.

As was the case with January’s big weekend, when “Atonement,” “Blood” and “Juno” were major contenders in the Oscar race, the three films playing there this week are widely predicted to be in the thick of next year’s Academy Awards shoot-out. In the Best Actress race, Cowan said, “I predict that Meryl Streep is going to win.” Of that he has no doubt.

There are a few things that instantly bring out the 10-year-old boy in me: catching frogs, snowball fights and, of course, model trains.

I just can't resist the little trestles, the miniature buildings, the wee people going about their Lilliputian lives.

That's why I'm excited about the Washington State History Museum’s 13th Annual Model Train Festival opening Friday. There'll be nine model train displays at the museum through Jan. 3. Check their website for details on related activities.

The museum also has the exhibition "The West the Railroads Made" up through Jan. 24. It's a great reminder of how the history of the west (including Tacoma) and the railroads are so intertwined. But I guess that's small comfort to the folks currently sleeping on the floor at the Amtrak station.

It was a year for superheroes. It was a year for some riveting documentaries. It was a year for pictures distinguished by truly memorable acting. It was a vintage year at the movies. For my money, the best of the best for 2008 were:

1. “The Dark Knight” The top-grossing movie of the year (at $530 million-plus) was also the best picture of the year. Dark, stirring and with Heath Ledger giving the performance of a too-short lifetime as The Joker, “Knight” proved once and for all that, done right, a movie based on a comic book can be a grand, provocative and powerful movie experience.

2. “Wall-E” Pixar scored yet another triumph, blending whimsy, pathos and a cautionary message about the consequences of despoiling the environment into a seamless whole. The story of the lonely robot yearning for love and companionship on a trashed and abandoned Earth was visually stunning and very affecting.

3. “The Visitor” This small-scale indie drama was a personal triumph for longtime character actor Richard Jenkins who turned his first leading-man role into an unforgettable portrait of a lonely man whose encounter with an illegal-immigrant couple taps a wellspring of quiet compassion he never suspected existed within himself.

4. “Man on Wire” A feat of incredible audacity, the high-wire walk between the brand-new Twin Towers by French aerialist Philippe Petit in 1974, inspired an incredibly moving documentary by filmmaker James Marsh. Up there, 1,350 ft. in the sky, Petit turned himself into a work of art and became his own masterpiece. With evocative music, well-staged re-enactments and revealing interviews, Marsh turned “Man on Wire” into a masterpiece of the filmmaker’s art.

5. “Iron Man” It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a man in a flying can! It’s Robert Downey Jr. soaring to heights unequaled in his checkered career, having the time of his life playing the brash genius Marvel comic hero. Of this year’s two super-fine superhero movies, “The Dark Knight” has gravitas, but “Iron Man” is almost more fun that a fan can stand, from start to finish.

6. “American Teen” I can’t think of any movie, be it a documentary or a fictional feature, that captures the overwhelming intensity of the emotional lives of adolescents with the powerful immediacy than this documentary by filmmaker Nanette Burstein. Granted a level of access to the kids that is quite astonishing, she came as close to becoming a fly on the wall as it's possible for a human being with a camera to be and was able to record personal moments of shattering intensity in the lives of a select group of small-town Indiana teens.

7. “Doubt” Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman remind the world, if such a reminder is needed, why they are regarded as among the top screen actors of our time. As a hair-raisingly strict nun-principal at a Bronx parochial school and a charismatic parish priest suspected of having an unhealthy interest in an altar boy, Streep and Hoffman are formidable adversaries engaged in an ethical battle royal in filmmaker John Patrick Shanley’s superlative adaptation of his Pulitzer-winning 2004 stage play.

8. “Rachel Getting Married” Jonathan Demme’s story of a black-sheep daughter who throws her family into chaos when she returns home for her sister’s wedding is so raw and real and painful and intimate in its depiction of people in crisis that it seems less like a movie and more like real life. When it’s over you don’t feel like you’ve seen a picture, more like you’ve actually lived it. Expect star Anne Hathaway to be competing with Streep for a best actress Oscar when the nominations are announced next month.

9. “The Wrestler” By now you have surely heard the hype about “The Wrestler” being Mickey Rourke’s comeback vehicle, the picture that will re-establish his reputation as an actor of tremendous ability. Believe it. As an over-the-hill professional wrestler with a bad heart, Rourke is heart-breakingly good. The movie will be opening in Tacoma after the first of the year.

10. “In Bruges” For a thriller, “Bruges” is uncommonly low-key. But it’s extraordinarily well-acted by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, starring as a couple of Irish hit men cooling their heels in the scenic Belgian city of the title, and by Ralph Fiennes, who plays their mad-dog boss. Sightseeing and mayhem, along with a goodly dose of droll humor, are artfully melded by writer-director Martin McDonagh.

I've just received another closure/cancellation notice - and again it's from Seattle.

I've been trying to get updates from the Museum of Glass and Tacoma Art Museum tonight but their websites are quiet. Perhaps they plan on normal operations on Sunday.

If I decide to hit the roads tomorrow and head to an arts or entertainment venue I'm going to call first to make sure they're open.

MEDIA ALERT
Frye Art Museum Closed Due to Weather

Sunday, December 21, 2008

WHAT: The Frye Art Museum is closed to the public Sunday, December 21 due to inclement weather. The museum is scheduled to re-open to the public Tuesday, December 23 at 10 am, unless weather conditions do not improve. Visitors may check the status of the museum by visiting www.fryemuseum.org where closure information is posted.

The Seattle Symphony has reconsidered. Here's the latest:

Tonight’s Messiah Performance Cancelled

Seattle, WA – In the interest of safety, tonight’s 8:00pm performance of Handel's Messiah has been cancelled due to worsening weather conditions.

Ticketholders for tonight’s performance should call the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office at (206) 215-4747 on Monday, December 22, between 10:00am and 6:00pm.

I'm in the newsroom this afternoon, covering Snowpocalypse. Even an arts editor is pressed in to duty on days like this.

I was expecting the whole Puget Sound A&E scene to shut down this weekend but found this in my in box:

WEATHER ADVISORY

Seattle Symphony's Messiah Performances Will Continue As Planned

Seattle, WA – All performances of Handel's Messiah will be performed this weekend at Benaroya Hall, regardless of inclement weather. Concertgoers are urged to plan accordingly for possible traffic delays.

Performances of the perennial favorite, conducted by Music Director Gerard Schwarz and featuring distinguished soloists and the Seattle Symphony Chorale, will take place at 1:00pm and 8:00pm on Saturday, December 20; and 2:00pm on Sunday, December 21.

Tickets for Handel’s Messiah are still available through the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office at (206) 215-4747 and www.seattlesymphony.org . The Ticket Office phone lines will be open on Saturday, December 20, between 1:00pm and 6:00pm.