Entertainment

Top 7 rentals 1. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"

"Hustle & Flow" •••

I've never known anyone who's kept a New Year's resolution but that doesn't stop us from making them every year. It's an automatic ritual that offers us hope and a promise that in the next year things will be different. But what if this time we resolve not to make any resolutions and celebrate what is instead of what we wish was? Celebration is the key here. That's why we have parties, so we can mark the end of another year and all the things that have happened. I never looked at it that way before. I saw it as celebrating the New Year, which hasn't even happened yet. Heck, forget the New Year – I was celebrating midnight and didn't give much thought to what came next or before it. But this year I find myself thinking more about where I've been and where I'm going, instead of all I want to change.

The following events are scheduled in the region. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are available through TicketsWest (TW; 325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com) or Ticketmaster (TM; 509-735-0500, www.ticketmaster.com). Prices listed do not include service charges. Tickets to Spokane Symphony performances also are available through the symphony box office, 624-1200.

A bittersweet goodbye Well, there's good news and bad news. Here's both at once, in a nearly two-minute-long answering machine message from Larry and Karla Graves, now-former owners of Paprika, an upscale South Hill restaurant:

New Year's Eve used to suck for law-abiding teenagers. While parents and barflyish elder siblings partied to forget the previous year, kids had to choose between spending the night TPing houses, creating guerrilla fireworks displays and pounding ill-gotten booze or watching the TV countdown, playing board games and drinking soda pop.

"Grizzly Man" •••1/2

Now available Ricky Nelson, "Greatest

We played Xbox 360 games on three high-def displays, including two 32-inch flat-panel HDTV sets of the LCD variety. Samsung's bright, sharp LN-R328W makes a swell game screen. Racecars in "Ridge Racer 6" and "Project Gotham Racing 3" look fabulous (no wonder Best Buy uses Samsungs with its Xbox 360 store displays). We like its trim design, and it's reasonably priced at about $2,200.

Does your job suck? So you think you've worked the crappiest, most horrible job in the Inland Northwest? Well, we don't believe you, so you'll have to prove it.

SEATTLE – If Wendy Diamond were a character on "Sex and the City," she'd have Carrie's wit, Samantha's black book and Charlotte's affection for a pampered pooch. And she'd still be looking for Mr. Right. "When I broke up with my boyfriend 2 1/2 years ago, everyone started setting me up with men with dogs," says Diamond, whose love of her life is a 6-pound Maltese named Lucky. "One night it was the Shih Tzu guy. The next night, a boxer. The night after that, a mutt. Then I'd be out with another boxer, another mutt guy ... and I just realized (with) the personality traits, the similarities were right on."

When I overheard a rumor of a Japanese woman who takes all of her guests from Asia to Takara, I immediately began looking for an excuse to visit Coeur d'Alene. My urgency can be explained in two words: raw fish. I first ate sushi in Seattle as the result of a dare, and I was stunned when I woke up a week later wanting more. Now – years later, a mountain range away from a major port and this side of a few queasy meals – the issue is not just sushi, but good sushi. Consistently, the chefs at Takara deliver excellent sushi when I've visited – sweet shrimp (ebi) and yellowtail (hamachi), savory grilled fresh water eel (unagi) and more exotic options such as boiled octopus (tako).

QMy girlfriend wants to see "Brokeback Mountain," but I don't want to see a movie with two guys having sex. She says I'm being narrow-minded. I say that I don't have a problem with gay people, I just don't want to watch a whole movie about them. Who's right?

Basketball NBA

The following events are scheduled outside of the Inland Northwest. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are available through TicketsWest (TW; 325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com) or Ticketmaster (TM; 509-735-0500, www.ticketmaster.com). Prices listed do not include service charges.:

Now available "XB 360 Dead or Alive 4"