Monday: By now you've no doubt planned your New Year's Eve down to the moment you fall, fully clothed, into bed. If you're stuck for ideas, however, I advise you to check out these five suggestions on how you should spend the last night of the year, and this list of New Year's Eve parties around town. They won't tell you how to keep from getting sick in a taxicab, but they're pretty helpful in most other regards. Cheers, and stay safe.

Tuesday: I can't think of any force on Earth that could get me out of bed before noon on New Years Day, much less into a 5K run that could possibly end in the chilly waters of Lake Washington. But in my heart I'm still a Las Vegan (read: a feckless drunk), and your average Seattleite climbs six mountains a day. To those hale and hearty souls, I say this: Road Runner Sports is hosting its Resolution Run 5K and Polar Bear Dive today, and if you're so inclined, you lunatic, you could start this year cold, so to speak. Try to keep the gasping to a minimum, 'cos some of us are trying to sleep in.

Wednesday: The force is strong with Magnuson Park's Building 47 today, as the community recreation center plays host to the twelve hours of concentrated geekery that is the "Star Wars" films. "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones" screen today; "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope" will be shown tomorrow; and the series concludes Friday with "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi." (My advice to you: Skip today, arrive late tomorrow and leave early on Friday, before those <expletive> Ewoks can eat your brain.) Concessions will be available, and you're encouraged to wear that Princess Leia outfit you've got hanging in your closet. Girls are also welcome.

Thursday: Here are three compelling reasons to see the Santa Cruz, Calif., trio The Devil Makes Three perform tonight at the Tractor. One is its cool name, which the band uses as if there were an individual called Devil Makes, and this were his trio (there isn't; it ain't). Another is its drummerless lineup; the chunky, staccato playing of guitarist Pete Bernhard, upright bassist Lucia Turino and guitarist Cooper McBean pretty much negates the need for percussion. Finally, there's the trio's punky-blues sound -- the character of which truly does resemble an inferno when the band catches fire.

Friday: If you like your plays as fresh as your produce, you owe it to yourself to check out "14/48" at Capitol Hill Arts Center tonight or tomorrow. The "world's quickest theater festival" is as good as its word: 14 brand-spankin'-new plays will be written, rehearsed and performed over the course of just two days, at the rate of seven plays per night. The opening-night crowd even gets to submit ideas for the following night's productions, which the writers select from a hat (and then "complain bitterly" about). Tickets to the fest often sell out, so if this interests you, borrow a page from the "14/48" playbook and act fast.

Saturday: Film critics are practically elbowing each other aside in their eagerness to court Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, "There Will Be Blood." The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named it their best picture of 2007; the New York Film Critics Circle awarded Daniel Day Lewis best actor; the Austin Film Critics Association recognized the score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. It's been nominated for two Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild award. This weekend, find out why so many tastemakers and movie-industry folks are prepared to marry this film, forsaking all others.

Sunday: The fault lies not in the stars, my friends, but in bloated productions of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" that, remarkably, don't involve sing-alongs. The Seattle Shakespeare Company and director Gregg Loughridge rectify that great wrong with "Chamber Julius Caesar," a stripped-down, tuned-up staging of Shakespeare's bloody Roman romp. Seriously, dudes. Sing-alongs.

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