By Bradley Winterton
Christmas had always been a time when old traditions are revived and even reenacted. Christmas dinner is usually eaten in the UK at 3pm, which was the time everybody ate their main meal of the day in the 18th century, but not for long thereafter. Silly after-dinner games reminiscent of the leisurely Edwardian era are still sometimes played over the port and nuts, and not long ago charades were performed on Christmas evening.

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Compiled by Noah Buchan
The Apple Daily (蘋果日報) released its list of the top 10 famous, or should we say infamous, celebrities who have kept the paparazzi busy digging up dirt and have guaranteed brisk sales throughout the past year. Pop Stop highlights the top three.

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By Noah Buchan
Mando pop, Thai rap, Korean hip-hop: all popular in their respective countries and throughout Asia. But young talents from this part of the world are rarely heard on Western radio stations or seen on MTV.

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By Noah Buchan
Murder, adultery, neglect and a little detective work are at the heart of Performance Workshop's (表演工作坊) newest play, Like Shadows (如影隨行), which opens tonight at the National Theater.

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By Ho YI
What do you get when a group of boundary-breaking artists mixes traditional Taiwanese opera with rock 'n' roll, Japanese manga and a story from 18th-century Italy? Hou pei la (胡撇仔) reinvigorated; a plebeian theatrical form that prevailed in Taiwan under Japanese rule.

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By Tom Leeming
And like that, he was gone. In what was supposed to be an early Christmas present for house music lovers, Ibiza's Tony Haze delivered an interesting set Saturday night at Plan B. If you've seen It's All Gone Pete Tong you'll know exactly what the lifestyle is like for an Ibiza club resident like Haze: throwing down massive tunes; partying hard; and showing up local DJs by mixing fabulously (unless deaf or badgered).

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By Ian Bartholomew
It takes a considerable lack of humility to call your establishment Really Good Seafood, but having been a fixture of the Taipei dining scene for the last 15 years, this restaurant can claim to have established its credentials. Originally located near the corner of Jinshan South and Hoping East roads, it relocated earlier this year to a swank new location at 222, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段222號). Six month ago it embarked on a new venture, opening an outlet in the food court of Breeze Center.

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By Ron Brownlow
The tables at Hoagies aren't much used yet. Yi-ling Chen (陳怡霖) and her sister Stacy (湘文) opened their deli a little more than two weeks ago, and they haven't taken out advertisements or done a lot of promoting.

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This sequel isn’t as suspenseful as fellow action franchise ‘Indiana Jones,’ but it still keeps audiences watching despite some poor acting and dodgy historical references
By Bob Strauss
Nicolas Cage’s playful action puzzler National Treasure gets a more elaborate, slightly less fun sequel in Book of Secrets.

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'Outsourced' uses the experiences of an American former manager in India as a platform to discuss the effect of cultural differences in the workplace, life and more
By Matt Zoller Seitz
Outsourced, in which a Seattle call center manager named Todd (Josh Hamilton) is fired and then dispatched to India as a consultant to train his own replacement, is a wonderful surprise.

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What could be more appropriate for Christmas Eve than a good old-fashioned drama? Here are some movies that - sometimes inexplicably - get the festive juices flowing
By Matthew Sweet
A movie doesn't have to feature Santa Claus to be a Christmas classic. Here's how a bunch of films became irretrievably associated with the holiday season - even if some of them have as much to do with yuletide as hot cross buns.

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Compiled By Martin Williams

AGENCIES
Peter Jackson, the creator of the record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy, is to executive produce two Hobbit movies after settling a US$100 million lawsuit with film studio New Line, the studio said Tuesday.

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BY TAIPEI TIMES STAFF
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Top Five Mandarin Albums

BY TAIPEI TIMES STAFF
1. Alan Luo (羅志祥) and Show Your Dance (舞所不在)with 21.36% of sales [ FULL STORY ]

BY TAIPEI TIMES STAFF
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