It's the end of the year, so we're taking stock.
For the Planet's arts and entertainment critics, that means tallying up the best of 2004. Our music team comes up with three different Top 10s, including the 10 best CDs you haven't heard yet (guess which artist shows up on more than one list). Mark Leib assesses the theater season; Diana Peterfreund recalls her most indelible eats; and Lance Goldenberg looks back at an unusually good year in movies.
The news staff gets in on the retrospecting, too. Writer Max Linsky catalogs his most unforgettable characters (he's only been here about two months, so he didn't have to tax his memory too hard). Editor David Warner uses the issue as an excuse to discover what's lurking in all those newspapers he's been saving all these months. Columnist Wayne Garcia looks ahead to the politicos likely to play big roles in 2005.
And in Scene & Herd, Scott Harrell looks into a very cloudy crystal ball to predict the future of Tampa Bay. It ain't pretty, but it's pretty damn funny.
Happy New Year!
This article appears in Dec 29, 2004 – Jan 4, 2005.