2005 Year

LUCINDA WILLIAMS Singer-songwriter In a nutshell, I think the great thing that's happened is the continued resurgence of this great roots music scene here.... When I moved back from Nashville about four years ago, I was really delighted that it had kind of been revived and was going stronger than ever. Chris Morris from the Hollywood Reporter started hosting the "Watusi Rodeo" radio show on Indie 103. That's a great outlet for roots music....

Will SMITH has kicked alien butt in "Independence Day," in both of the "Men in Black" films and in "I, Robot." He pretended to be Sidney Poitier's son in "Six Degrees of Separation" and received an Oscar nomination for best actor as legendary boxer Muhammad Ali in the biopic "Ali." But while Smith has infused most of his characters with an acerbic sense of humor, he had never done a romantic film comedy until "Hitch," opening Feb. 11.

Every season, there comes a time during the fashion show circuit when people get cranky -- cranky about having to watch another collection of clothes made only to market the designer's perfume and handbags; cranky about another broadtail fur coat that costs more than most people's annual salary, not to mention what it costs the poor sheep; cranky about public relations assistants who, amazingly, exclude some journalists from shows, turning down what amounts to free publicity for their designer

SENSATION-SEEKING premature reports of the death of a mature art, classical music, did not cease in 2005. Naysayers howled into the wind. But it was a very good year. Peter Sellars continues to make waves and move mountains. If there had been any question that Sellars is the single most creative force in the world of opera today, he took care of that in 2005.

SURELY it tells us all we need to know about today's overcaffeinated media universe that the backlash against "Munich," due in theaters Friday, began in earnest nearly three weeks before the movie's release. For months the Steven Spielberg drama has been viewed as the prohibitive favorite in the Oscar race, based on its filmmaker pedigree and weighty subject matter -- the bloody manhunt for the Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

1. White Sox Win It All * They swept the defending champions and media darlings, the Boston Red Sox, in the first round of the playoffs. They beat the Angels in the American League championship series, four games to one, with a controversial assist from umpire Doug Eddings. They swept Roger Clemens and the Houston Astros to win their first World Series since 1917. The only thing they did wrong was not play their home games in Boston or New York. 2.

What else to do this week but peruse the various year-end quote compilations of 2005? And, as always, what fun. Among the menu items: Howard Dean hating Republicans, Pat Robertson calling for the head of the Venezuelan president, Vice President Dick Cheney swearing in -- not at -- reelected Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Sen. Richard J. Durbin becoming the latest pol to learn that Nazi comparisons never work, Kanye West saying George W.

Consider the weekends you lost in 2004 to activities that were merely necessary. Visiting in-laws. Studying for an exam. Painting the bathroom. In 2005, you have 53 opportunities to do better; a quirk of the calendar gives the year one extra weekend. To help, we've selected a promising activity for each and every weekend -- rooting for the Dodgers, tanning at Coachella or appraising King Tut's stash at LACMA, for starters. We had to choose between ballet and baseball.

It began with a leaky dam and ended with a liver transplant scandal. In between, there were disappearing sand dunes, rogue sea lions, controversy in the sheriff's office, butterfly madness and a birthday party hosted by a mouse. There were heartening moments and haunting ones, tales of beauty and tales of the bizarre.

Robert Anderson Novelist/short-story writer Anderson takes a blurred-line approach in his first novel, "Little Fugue," about the ramifications of Sylvia Plath's suicide on her husband, Ted Hughes; his mistress, Assia Gutmann Wevill, who killed herself six years later; and a fictional Anderson's infatuation with Plath.