By: Alex Templer - MSTv Events writer

It seems the years are passing faster as the world grows smaller, right?  Just as we're getting used to one of these 365 day interludes, it comes to an end leaving nothing but a massive party and even bigger clean-up in its wake.

Well, its better to go out with a blast then a whimper, right?  Plus, staying home for New Year's eve just plain sucks!  So, we've compiled the best list of places in Baton Rouge and New Orleans where you can rock out 2012 with friends and/or someone you love. 

Or, maybe you can meet and get to know someone you might like to love in 2013 while you're out!  Either way, you're bound to have some fun!  Pick your poison, hit the streets and play it safe out there, guys!!  Happy 2013!!

Baton Rouge area
CLUB COOZAN: 10920 Mead Drive. 9 p.m. Music by Gumbeaux Rouge and Floyd Brown. $15 per person.

CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL: 4728 Constitution Ave. Music by Carbon Copy, Chase Tyler Band and Press 1 for English. A dinner array of Cajun specialties available 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Info: (225) 925-2244 and (888) 233-9527.

GLEN’S: 5110 Corporate Blvd. 9 p.m. Music by TimeWarp. Champagne and party favors at midnight. $10 per person.

HILTON CAPITOL CENTER: 201 Lafayette St. New Year’s Eve Murder Mystery. $350 per couple. Includes deluxe accommodations, New Year’s Eve dinner, activities and New Year’s Day breakfast. Info @ (225) 344-5866

JUBAN’S: 3739 Perkins Road. 8 p.m. Music by Ned Fasullo and the Fabulous Big Band Orchestra. $98 per person. For reservations call (225) 346-8422.

L’AUBERGE CASINO: Music by The City and The Vettes. Free.  777 L’auberge Ave. 10 p.m.

ONEZIA LOUNGE: 13091 Airline Highway, Gonzales. Music by the Chris LeBlanc Band. $40 per couple, $25 single.

RENAISSANCE HOTEL: 7000 Bluebonnet Blvd. 6 p.m.-11:30 p.m. Unlimited champagne and music by the Hazy Ray Band. $65 per person. Info: (225) 388-5710

SPANISH MOON: 1109 Highland Road. Music by Twin Killers.

New Orleans area
Banks Street bar and grill: 4401 Banks Street. 9 p.m. Music by Egg Yolk Jubilee.

BLUE NILE: 532 Frenchmen St. 10 p.m. Music by Honey Island Swamp Band. $30.

CHICKIE WAH WAH: 2828 Canal St. 8 p.m. Music by Jon Cleary. $25, $30.

CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER: 900 Camp St. 9 p.m. Music by White Panda and Earphunk. Open bar, champagne at midnight.  Email geauxadmin@gmail.com for info. General admission $140, green room pass $200.

HOTEL MONTELEONE: 214 Royal St. 9 p.m. Music by Lena Prima and Band.

HOUSE OF BLUES: 225 Decatur St. 10 p.m. Music by Gregg Allman and Royal Southern Brotherhood. $125 general admission, $225 balcony seating.

HYATT REGENCY: 601 Loyola Avenue. 9 p.m. Big Night New Orleans with entertainment by Big Sam’s Funky Nation, New Orleans Saints receiver Joseph Morgan, the Stooges Brass Band, Cowboy Mouth, Bustout Burlesque, The Saintsations, DJ Icy and DJ Mike Swift. $99, VIP $169. Tickets available at http://bignightneworleans.com/tickets.aspx.

By: Mike Scott, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
December 26, 2012 at 8:06 AM

You can talk all you want about the sheer numbers of movies being shot in Louisiana, but the ultimate judge of a good year for Hollywood South is one in which good content is produced. 2012 was just that for the local film industry -- in fact, it was the best on record. Here's my list of the 10 Best Hollywood South Films of 2012. So what do you think? Is your favorite on the list? Sound off in the comments section below. You can also find all of my 2012 year-end lists here, which are being released incrementally this week, covering everything from the best documentary films to the best performances to the best overall films of 2012.

10 best Hollywood South Films of 2012

By: Doug Elfman  NOLA.com
December 17, 2012 at 9:41 AM

If you're still wondering what to get that gamer in your life, here are some thoughts. We have a lot of ground to cover, so I'm offering a bit more guidance during the holiday gift-buying season.

1. For the third time, one of my Xbox 360s just died, giving me that old “red ring of death” light around the start button. So from now on, I’m recommending PS 3 and Wii U over Xbox 360. There are other reasons for my switching allegiances.

I’ve never loved that Xbox Live charges me $60 a year to game online. PS 3 and Wii U are free to game online. But the new Wii U still doesn’t have a lot of games available, so PS 3 has a big edge.

I’m giving you my Top 10 games of 2012 for more holiday gift-buying ideas. But don’t forget you can buy old masterpieces too, such as these below.

Old greats available for both Xbox 360 and PS 3: “Mass Effect Trilogy,” “Deus Ex: Human Revolution,” “L.A. Noir,” “Resident Evil 4,” “Battlefield 3,” “Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution,” “Just Cause 2,” “Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days” and “Afro Samurai.”

Available only for PS 3: “God of War Saga,” “Uncharted 2,” “Uncharted 3” and “Infamous 2.”

Available only for Xbox 360: “Alan Wake,” “Fable III,” and the first three “Halos.”

Top games for the new PS Vita: “Uncharted: Golden Abyss” and “Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational.”

Top games for 3DS: “Super Mario 3D Land,” “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D” and “Mario Kart 7.”

And top games for the new Wii U: “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” and “Scribblenauts Unlimited.”

By: Chelsea Brasted, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
December 10, 2012 at 1:03 PM

The Third Street Film Festival returns to Baton Rouge four times bigger than before, and it's only in its second year. The festival, which features only films produced in Louisiana, received more than 100 submissions in its sophomore year.

The 2012 festival will run for two days at the Manship Theatre with four blocks, each with three to seven short films, a 30 minute break and a feature length movie. The four separate film blocks will also be peppered with panels featuring filmmakers, government officials and other industry-specific speakers.

TSFF is the brainchild of 23-year-old James Hebert who first wanted to produce a film contest early last year, but the solicit for films on Facebook quickly turned from contest into festival.

"Somehow, just through Facebook, we got 70 films last year," Hebert said. Hebert immediately saw the potential and secured a night at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center downtown for the festival.

"It was two weeks before the festival and we had like 10 tickets sold. That's just like my immediate family," Hebert said of the inaugural event. "Then two days before, we had 100 sold, and then we sold out ... We had pretty overwhelming success."

With more than 100 submissions this year, Hebert and a group of friends are having a difficult time choosing what films to fill the available time slots.

"We have a lot of good films and so little time. I still have 18 more hours of film to watch," Hebert said.

By Chris Waddington, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
December 13, 2012 at 8:52 PM

New Orleans’ Latin Jazz Festival will heat up the holidays on December 21 (7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.) with a string of free performances at Casa Borrega, 1719 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. I’m stoked about the festival’s strong local lineup, which includes guitar wizard Steve Masakowski with Mas Mamones, the Alexey Marti Quintet, and a rare, all-Latin set by the Iguanas. Besides, my appetite for all-things-Latin also was whetted by some recent performances in New Orleans.

First, there was a visit by Cuban keyboard titan Chucho Valdes --- a show that opened with a blazing performance by Marti, a young Cuban percussionist who now lives in New Orleans. Then came Ballet Hispanico, the electrifying New York troupe that rocked local dance fans with help from the Grammy-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. (Snug Harbor offered a lagniappe from Orchestra leader Arturo O’Farrill, who brought a trio to the venerable Frenchmen Street club).

If those shows put you in a mood to dance, the Latin Jazz Fest at Casa Borrega should satisfy. The Iguanas, for example, plan to connect the dots between the music of Mexico and the group’s familiar Louisiana repertoire. Joe Cabral, the Iguanas’ saxophone player, described the link in press material from festival organizers: “Some of the genres we play, such as the polka (in its traditional Northern Mexico form), are easily compared to the sounds of Louisiana because they are similar in structure, content and cadence to zydeco and other variations of Cajun. Instruments like the accordion make the relationship even more obvious.”

For details about the Fest, visit the Casa Borrega facebook page or call 504.292.3705

By: Michael Farrar  Special contributor to theadvocate.com
December 13, 2012

Santa as an athlete is a hard sell, but the Running of the Santas Festival and Pub Crawl on Dec. 15 in New Orleans is shaping up to be a good time whether you’re into physical fitness or not.

While it’s not promoted as a race, organizer Bob Dauterive finds it funny that some folks think it’s a hard-core competition.

“I’ve had people contact me to ask, ‘How should I train for this?’ I said, ‘Train? We only go three blocks!’ The goal is to finish, not your run time,” Dauterive said, “You’re not only having fun, but you’re helping a worthwhile cause at the same time, especially at the Christmas season.”

The cause for the New Orleans Running of the Santas event is to benefit the That Others May Live Foundation, which is a group that Dauterive said helps provide educational scholarships and other assistance to families of U.S. Air Force search and rescue personnel who are killed on duty.

“I know there are a lot of worthwhile causes in New Orleans, but this particular charity is close to me because my son-in-law was an Air Force search and rescue pilot. So it’s important because I hope they never have to raise money for my family,” he said.

Although it raises funds for a serious purpose, Dauterive thinks this second New Orleans Running of the Santas will be twice as much fun as the first year, which had an impressive turnout of party goers.

“Last year, we had approximately 900 people participate in the event as the first year in New Orleans, and this year we’re looking at doubling that number, somewhere between 1,800 to 2,000 people,” Dautrieve said.

Dautrieve knew that NOLA crowds would love it when he saw Philadelphia’s Running of the Santas three years ago.

The festivities officially kick off at the South Pole, which is Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar, at 3 p.m., building up to the 6 p.m. three block race to Generations Hall for a North Pole party and costume contest.

“We had reindeer, we had a couple dressed as Christmas trees, we had elves – you name it,” Dautrieve said. “You know the variety of costumes is wide open, but the more folks in costumes, the more fun it is.”

Besides costumes, the North Pole party at Generations has live music by the Category 6 band, which never disappoints anyone wanting to get wild as they keep the generous spirit of the holidays alive.

By: BBC World News

Strong sales of the latest Call of Duty and Halo sequels were not enough to prevent a drop in annual US video game sales, according to research firm NPD.

It suggests sales of hardware and software sold by retailers were down 11% on the year in November.

Nintendo's Wii U also launched that month and Assassin's Creed 3 had just gone on sale. The figure does not include digital downloads.

NPD linked the drop to weaker sales of titles outside the top five.

"Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11%, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year," it said in a statement.

Figures may also have been depressed by the fact there were fewer releases this November than a year earlier when Uncharted 3, Skyrim, Lego Harry Potter 5-7 and Modern Warfare 3 were among titles that went on sale.

Blockbuster sales

Activision, Microsoft and Nintendo have all been touting the success of their new products over recent days. 
Black Ops 2 - the first in the Call of Duty series to be part-set in the future - topped $1bn (£624m; 773m euros) worth of global sales in its first 15 days of release, said Activision Publishing.

It said it had achieved the milestone a day quicker than the movie Avatar did in 2009 - albeit with fewer individual units sold.

Microsoft has not provided a comparable figure for its Xbox-exclusive Halo 4, but has said that more than 50 million games in the franchise had now been sold.

Based on the firm's earlier announcements, that suggests about four million copies of Halo 4 were sold worldwide over its first 30 days.

Meanwhile, Nintendo has revealed that it sold 400,000 Wii Us and its bundled touchscreen controller during their first week of release in the US.

That compares to 600,000 units of the original Wii console during its first eight days on the market in North America.

The Japanese company has a target of 5.5 million Wii U sales worldwide by the end of its financial year in March.

By: Chris Waddington, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
December 08, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Christmas Eve bonfires have guided Papa Noel through the Louisiana night for generations. Those bonfires also signal that 1,300 pyre-building friends and neighbors have rolled out the red carpet for anyone who wanders from blaze to blaze, seeking holiday cheer on the levees of St. James Parish.

Can’t make it on Christmas Eve? The organizers also sponsor the annual Festival of the Bonfires, which opens Dec. 14 and runs through Dec. 16. My colleague, Angel Thompson, has posted all the Festival details on nola.com. The Festival, which takes place at the Lutcher Recreation Park on La. 3193, includes most of the fun things you expect from this kind of Louisiana gathering: a gumbo competition that draws about 50 participants, live music, pageants, car shows, a 5K run, and much more. Of course, the Festival of the Bonfires has something you don’t get anywhere else: a preview of Christmas Eve on the levee. On Saturday (Dec. 15) the party moves from the Park to the levee where a single bonfire will be lit at 7 p.m. (Free shuttles are provided).

Those towering bonfires, tall as some houses, make a pretty impressive site from any angle, though the best view was probably from the now-defunct Vacherie Ferry. The crossing took visitors from the cane fields and calm of the Mississippi’s west bank to the heart of the miles-long party. As the fires were lit (always at 7 p.m.), boat horns let loose, smoke drifted over the water, and all those blazes were reflected on the river.

To approach by car from the east bank take a bit more planning. Lee recommends getting to the area by 5 p.m. at the latest. (There are scattered bonfires in neighboring Ascension and St. John Parishes, but Lutcher and Gramercy are ground zero).

“I think everybody in town has a big, open-door house party that night,” Lee said. “I’ve had to miss it a few times, but that was like Christmas without presents, a tree, or Santa Claus. It’s not the same at all.”

Looks like fun?  Read more for the where and when?

By: Alison Fensterstock, NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune
December 06, 2012 at 9:36 PM

Son of Rogues’ Gallery, the sequel to the "Pirates of the Caribbean"
inspired collection of swashbuckling songs released on the Anti Records label in 2006, features 36 traditional sea shanties and various other oceangoing songs, recorded by artists including Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Nick Cave, Patti Smith and many others.

This week, Anti announced that the album, most of which was recorded in 2010, has finally been scheduled for release.Producer Hal Willner told Rolling Stone that the second collection, which comes out in February, is “not as much about torture, sodomy and death” as the first.

By: Scott Collins - LA Times
      December 4, 2012

Those zombies in "The Walking Dead" have already terrorized the good people of Atlanta. Now they're gobbling down the ratings record books too.

The zombie smash has become the first cable series to win the fall TV ratings in the key demographic of adults ages 18 to 49, according to Nielsen.

That includes established network series such as "Modern Family," "The Voice" and "The Big Bang Theory," as well as the new fall shows like "Elementary" and "Revolution."

What kind of power does "Dead" have? Well, Sunday's "mid-season finale" -- the show will return in February -- drew 10.5 million viewers. Throw in a couple of encores, and the total rose to 15.2 million.