A&E

When Nero, the last emperor of Rome, realized that he has a public relations problem, he summoned Scribonius to write a play that would turn the public opinion of him around immediately. What followed is Amy Freed's "You, Nero," an eye-pleasing spectacle about the events in Nero's palace during the declining years of the Roman Empire as extravagant as the Roman Coliseum itself.

The Beall Center for Art and Technology in the Claire Trevor School of Arts is hosting an exhibition called "Scalable Relations," showing the complexities and shifting contexts of today's information society through digital media. The exhibit brings together works by faculty of the UC Digital Arts Research Network (DARnet) and is open to viewers from Jan. 9 to Mar. 14.

While you're still trying to figure out your class schedule for this quarter, UC Irvine's arts department began this year prepared with a slew of fresh showcases from local, talented artists. Both running from Jan. 8 until Feb. 7, Kenny Berger's "A Just Noticeable Difference" premiered last week along with Steve Fagin's "The Surfing Memory Syndrome."

While 2008 didn't reach the pinnacle of video game awesomeness that 2007 embodied, the past 12 months also provided an incredible lineup of hardcore titles from nearly every genre, with "Metal Gear Solid 4," "Fallout 3" and "Grand Theft Auto IV" emerging as the most stunning available releases.

Films released in January are not expected to be Oscars. What is expected of the new year is basically new trash, so make sure you keep your expectations low when going into "Bride Wars." However, even with those lowly standards, "Bride Wars" is just an absolute failure. It is downright bad.

Scotland has produced a lot of solid music. Plenty of relatively successful bands make the transition in the states, and even nowadays you'll seldom find hipsters who don't name-drop Belle & Sebastian within their first five sentences when talking about music. So it's easy to give a band the benefit of a doubt, especially if they've already received so much critical acclaim by all those charming U.K. critics, and a lot of it is good. But then again, a lot of it is bad.

Ah, the year in music. Like virtually every year, there was something for everyone in 2008.

Lonely robots, rambunctious villains and curious children were all part of the cinema stew in 2008, as Hollywood recovers from a whirlwind year of record-shattering ticket sales, heated writers' strikes and the passing of a few wonderful actors. With the Oscar race in its final lap, here's a look back at the year's best, by category.

Review of Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion".

One of the most anticipated dramas of the season, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" illustrates delightfully rich storytelling. Benjamin Button's (Brad Pitt) journey is presented in a wistful, melancholic manner, emphasizing the rawness of loss, death and looming mortality. Director David Fincher's haunting fable is unlike many other dramas of its kind. This epic tale is about a man who ages backwards, coming into the world as an infant suffering from all the infirmities of an 80-year-old man. As each year passes, Benjamin becomes younger and younger until he achieves infancy at the end of his life.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is currently presenting "Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008," the first major exhibition bringing together the magazine's historic archive of rare vintage photographs and magazine covers with its contemporary photos. The exhibition, which opened Oct. 28, 2008, explores the ways in which photography and celebrity have interacted and changed, with portraits from the magazine's early period (1913–1936) and the contemporary Vanity Fair period (1983–present) as well as behind-the-scenes videos from key Vanity Fair shoots.

Clint Eastwood has been on the Hollywood shortlist for directing quality films since directing Sean Penn and Tim Robbins to Oscar acclaim in 2003's "Mystic River," winning the Best Director Oscar for 2004's "Million Dollar Baby" and weathering the lukewarm reception to "Changeling" earlier this year. But that doesn't excuse movie studios from throwing money at Clint and blindly accepting whatever stained package he gives them in return. This unchecked power has given us "Gran Torino."