The year may be coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean the trends that became popular during 2011 have to. From leopard-print everything to fingerless gloves, 2011 saw the arrival of many fun new trends, as well as the rebirth of vintage trends such as oxford shoes and old-school bowler hats. Keep these fashion favorites alive in the coming year with our guide to the top trends of 2011. You be the judge of which fashions have the staying power to become style staples of the new year!

Did you rock any of these trends this year? Which do you think are hits — and which are total misses? Sound off in the comments!

By Sara Gartman

Varsity Jacket

You don’t have to be a varsity athlete to sport a stylish letterman jacket. Bring your A-game with this retro Knit Letterman Jacket from Forever 21 ($22.80). Guys can rock this old-school style too, with the Contrast Knit Jacket from Forever 21($39.90).

Mad Hatter

After the royal wedding and the spotlight on Kate Middleton’s style that followed, hats became one of the year’s most popular accessories. Beanie or beret, fedora or Panama, floppy or knit, hats are an easy way to add some style to any outfit (or just hide a bad hair day!). Try the bowler-style Glitz hat from Goorin Brothers($55.00).

Leopard Prints

In 2011, the fashion world went wild for leopard prints. From shirts to pants to shoes, you could wear the animal pattern everywhere from top to bottom. Get in on the trend with these Leopard Print Patent Toe flats from Topshop ($40.00).

Lace Dress

Making an appearance in spring and fall 2011 ready-to-wear collections as well as recent resort runways, lace has been an ongoing trend through the seasons. From lacy tops, to frocks, to trim detail, this feminine fabric has been spotted everywhere on catwalks and city streets. Try a lace look with this Sleeveless Lace Dress from Delias ($49.50).

 Schoolgirl 

Unlike mandatory dress codes uniforms, the schoolgirl trend was sophisticated and stylish. Peter pan collars made looking like a straight-A student one of the year’s most popular styles. Mix up the look and try the Silky Collar Tee from American Apparel ($39.99) with basic jeans and a pair of flats.

Sixties

Bringing back the swinging sixties, ’60s-inspired shift dresses went big this year. Mod A-line frocks are fashionable and functional, making it easy to go form dressed down to dress up with just one look. Go for a groovy get-up in this Shift Dress from ASOS ($64.63).

Bell Bottoms

Say so long to your skinny jeans and stretch jeggings because bell bottoms are back. From the spring 2011 runways to the streets, ‘the 70s-inspired wide-leg pant is taking over. To get the look, try these Stretch Flare Jeans from Alloy ($39.90). Keep in mind to keep the rest of your ensemble simple with a fitted top when wearing wide-leg denim.

Fingerless Gloves

The need for fingerless gloves probably came with the invention of the iPhone. Rock this stylish winter trend for guys with these AEO Fingerless Gloves and the AEO White As Snow Fingerless Gloves ($11.99) for women.

Surf Island Top

One of the most unexpected fashion trends of 2011 was the Hawaiian-printed shirt. The top that was once associated with dorky dads and vacationing tourists went high fashion on the resort runways. Get the look with this Surf Island Top from Roxy ($18.96).

Wingtop Oxford shoes

While guys dug derby shoes this year, girls also sported similar menswear-inspired oxford shoes. Get the look for women with these Wingtop Oxford shoes from Target ($16.98) and these Men’s O&F Leather Fleur de lis Accent Lace Ups from Target ($49.99).

Colored Jeans

Bringing a little bit of color into the dark world of denim, colored jeans have become trend for guys and girls this year. Take a break from blue jeans with these Colorful Skinny Trousers from Zara ($69.00).

LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 5-7 has to satisfy two camps. On the one hand you have those who adore to chase after collectibles in the LEGO games, and on the other you have individuals who relish in the comedic send-ups of the texts the games are based on. So how well does it manage?

Voldemort is back to raise all kinds of hell, as LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 takes on the darker tone established during the fourth film and novel. The Dark Lord’s resurrection is a pressing matter with not just Harry’s scar, but happiness everywhere.

But this is a LEGO game, so that means tongue-pulling, slapstick, knowing looks between characters and the bad guys not being quite what you’d normally expect. The Magical and Muggle worlds may be under threat to a degree they have never been under before, but don’t let that put you off.

Once you’re in control of Harry again, it’s obvious that not a great deal has changed in terms of how you actually play the game. Spells work the same in terms of tearing up the environment and assembling blocks in order to build tools and objects to help you surmount obstacles, and there are a couple of new spells to make progressing through the chapters seem more varied compared to the first game. Annoyingly, you do have to reacquire many of the spells Harry, Hermione and Ron had learned before the end of their fourth year at Hogwarts.

New toys

Along with the spells, there’s the return of pets that can go places the main characters cannot, as well new tools such as Hermione’s bottomless purse and a Deluminator for Ron in the final two parts. The introduction of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes boxes are an appreciative nod to the joke shop that George and Fred set up, which you can also go into in Diagon Alley in order to purchase new spells and enter cheats. The boxes may only be used by members of the Weasley family, and along with objects that may only be manipulated by dark magic they serve as gatekeepers to many of the game’s collectibles.

There being so many dark wizards and witches to smack down during the course of all five parts of the game, the most welcome addition comes in the form of duels. Defining how you finally face down many of Harry’s enemies, the dueling system involves entering a temporary arena where you fight a one-on-one magical battle.

As you shield yourself from your enemies’ spells, duels are won through matching the spell you use to the one your opponent is using. When two of the same kind of spell connect, a bright, energetic stream erupts between the two wands and you’re asked to rapidly tap a particular button in order to out-duel your opponent. You repeat the process several times until your opponent’s health is completely diminished.

More major characters will take several duels to defeat, in-between which you’ll be busy throwing projectiles at them. A system similar to this was briefly used in Years 1-4, but it was nowhere near as exciting. Here it feels far more frantic, as if you’re playing as a wizard or witch as opposed to an efficient assembler of plastic blocks. Frustratingly though, if you’re playing in co-op, having a second player moving around the screen and subjected to the shifting horizontal split-screen divide makes it difficult to focus on what is happening in the duel.

Years 5-7 has a healthy number of collectibles scattered through the game, which extend it far beyond the realms of simply playing through the main chapters’ ten hours. All available collectibles are of the same nature as the previous game and as hinted earlier, some are obtained through new means. Interestingly, a 2D platform experience tells the tale of the Three Brothers in the first part of the Deathly Hallows, uniquely taking its cue from the presentation of the movie sequence.

Along with several events where you get to fly via various means, these moments help to break the game up more than the previous title. What is noticeably missing, though, is the LEGO Builder mode present in Years 1-4, tucked away under Gringotts, although honestly the feature didn’t add that much.

Smooth

Traveller’s Tales have not lost their touch with with cutscenes: each chapter is appropriately peppered with them to ensure that you know just where the plot is heading – or rather, if you’ve watched all the films, you’ll know roughly what to expect. The pithy snippets of humour that are showcased in each one make them amusing regardless of age. From Voldemort and Professor Snape taking tea and biscuits together to Sirius falling in half – serious moments are serious and amusing.

However, as with the final part of the previous game, the growing complexity of the films is at times hard to recapture in silent cinematics. Many of the more complex plot points have been paired down to a level of symbolism that will be very confusing for the uninitiated, while some have been brushed away completely.

This doesn’t mean that the plot doesn’t flow. Actually, it comes together well. Considering that LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 takes on the grittiest story arcs of the film incarnations of the franchise, it does reasonably balance the demands of rolling out a story that fans will appreciate with the necessity to keep things within the look and feel of the LEGO world.

The evolution of the video game from bedroom curio to highest-grossing entertainment medium continued apace this year. While the charts were dominated by the big-name franchises such as Call of Duty, the year was a triumph of mass appeal. The prevailing wisdom is that there weren’t any truly new video games released in 2011, rather refinements and updates. But what refinements. While innovation might have plateaued as the current generation of consoles reaches its sixth year, the understanding that developers now have of their medium allows them to build richer worlds and provide tighter gameplay.

By Tamar Zmora – Posted by The Next Great Generation

This year, the books-turned-movies genre brought audiences a lot of Robert Pattinson and teenage angst — not mutually exclusive; theater marquees advertised the Twilight series’ third installment, an adaptation of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and the final Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Profitable Studio (wait, that’s not the real name?).

The feature films of late 2011 and next year will once again send audiences running to their local libraries and/or bookstores (preferably before running to the theater). From 1950s comic books to ghost stories to the post-apocalyptic land of Panem, these movies are calling for you, bookworms.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Now playing). Caught in an embittered court case against a vicious financier, journalist Mikael Blomkvist is found guilty of defamation and must lay low until his prison date. But after leaving his post as co-owner/editor-in-chief of Millennium magazine, Henrik Vanger, former CEO of Vanger Enterprises, hires Blomkvist as a detective to investigate the disappearance of his granddaughter 40 years prior. This book is a suspenseful and gripping thriller, a story of redemption for the socially maligned.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Now playing). The 23-book Adventures of Tintin series, by author Hergé, presents a satirical political take on events of the 20th century, documenting the era’s ethnographic and racial epithets and addressing stereotypes of China, Arabia (The Middle East), and America. The series was published during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, and the plots rely heavily on events of the time period, but Tintin indulges readers with the lure of mystery and intrigue and entraps them with comical twists and ridiculous side characters.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Opens Friday, Jan. 20). Pull out the tissue box for this one. Jonathan Safran Foer’s second novel relays the story of a boy, Oskar Schell, seeking to connect with his father, a victim of 9/11. The boy finds one of his father’s keys in a vase and goes in search of its origins — Does the key open a door? A safe? Or does it serve a greater purpose? For Oskar, a child wise beyond his nine years, the search gives him an understanding of who his father was; for a city still grieving, Oskar is that flicker of prospect and boundless optimism. The book is extremely cathartic and incredibly low, and the heartbreak will latch on to you and linger even after the final page.

The Woman in Black (Opens Friday, Feb. 3). In this film based on Susan Hills’ ghost story, Daniel Radcliffe takes on the role of Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small isolated village north of London, to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow and tend to her affairs. During his stay, Arthur is met with the haunting sight of the frail “woman in black.” The eerie isolating setting and history of the location make it a prime locale for a ghost story. Let’s hope the film scares audiences to the bone.

The Hunger Games (Opens Friday, March 23). Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the world is divided into 12 districts, this film will be the first based on Suzanne Collins’ bestseller trilogy, an idea formulated while flipping channels on T.V. One channel featured footage of the Iraq War, while a competing channel offered a reality T.V. show, and the melding of the two resulted in what is now known as The Hunger Games: Citizens, randomly selected through a lottery system, must fight to the death to appease and entertain the Fat Cats of the Capitol. In a society fraught with socioeconomic inequity, children are pitted against each other (it’s a bit reminiscent of Lord of the Flies), and when 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps in for her younger sister Prim, who was chosen by the lottery, she sets a plot-guiding precedent of valor. While the book — told in the first person from Katniss’ perspective — isn’t exceptionally well-written, there’s action at every turn of the page, so you won’t be able to put it down.

Need more good reads? These books are also being adapted for the silver screen:
The Lorax (out Friday, March 2)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (out Friday, June 22)
The Bourne Legacy (out Friday, Aug. 3)
Atlas Shrugged (Part II out Fall 2012; Part I came out earlier this year)
The Hobbit (out Friday, Dec. 14)
The Life of Pi (out Friday, Dec. 21)
What’s your favorite book-turned-movie (or movie based on a book)?

It’s certainly been a bewitching weekend for Once Upon a Time star Ginnifer Goodwin.
The actress took a break from her fairy tale themed ABC series to explore the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Ginnifer showed off her fondness for the Harry Potter books and movies by dressing up in a Hogwarts school robe and a Gryffindor scarf.

The 33-year-old even held a wand and tried to cast a spell as she was snapped smiling inside the popular attraction.
It was a fitting holiday getaway for the actress who stars in a fairy tale series on television.
She plays Snow White, on the hit ABC drama Once Upon a Time.

Ginnifer was the latest in a legion of stars who have visited the Disney attraction since it opened in the summer of 2010.

The 20-acre Wizarding World Oark is a huge hit, drawing more than 7million visitors from around the globe in its first year alone.
Now a second attraction is now in the works in Los Angeles.
Universal Studios revealed earlier this month it is hoping to repeat the magic of the Orlando theme park at its Hollywood attraction, by reconstructing Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade as well as many of the roller coasters and other rides.

The official announcement about the new park was toasted by officials with ‘Butterbeer’, the iconic drink served in Hogsmeade’s Three Broomsticks pub.
Officials did not say how many of the Florida rides would make their way to the Hollywood park, nor did they say if any new rides were envisaged.

But they did reveal the new attraction would be created with the same commitment to authenticity to the books and movies as the one in Florida.

Warner Bros. chairman Barry Meyer called the announcement ‘probably the best holiday gift we could give to the legions of Harry Potter fans worldwide.’
He added: ‘Everyone involved with these projects is committed to continuing the enchantment of J.K. Rowling’s masterful books as they were brought to life on screen in our eight films and dedicated to extending the magic of the experience for generations of fans to come.’
But it’s not just the USA capitalising on its film links. There will soon be a Harry Potter attraction opening near London at the studios where many of the films were made.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2080762/Once-Upon-Time-star-Ginnifer-Goodwin-enjoys-bewitching-holiday-Harry-Potter-attraction.html#ixzz1iCKjPHkH

by Leslie Meredith

One-in-four teens is at risk of developing early hearing loss because of their misuse of iPods and other personal-listening devices, a new study suggests.

Teens today who are listening to their MP3 players at high volumes or for hours on end may find their hearing begin to deteriorate before reaching middle age, study researchers said. “In 10 or 20 years it will be too late to realize that an entire generation of young people is suffering from hearing problems much earlier than expected from natural aging,” Chava Muchnik, a professor of communication disorders at Tel Aviv University in Israel, said in a statement.

For the study, Muchnik and her colleagues first gave 289 teenagers a questionnaire about their listening habits. Forty-one percent of the teens said they used their MP3 players daily, with 19 percent using them more than once a day. Forty percent of the teens admitted to listening to their music between 30 and 60 minutes a day and 21 percent said they listened between one and four hours a day.

A majority of the teens (39 percent) believed that they listened to their music at “moderate” levels.

In a room with moderate ambient noise, the researchers then had 74 teens listen to two popular Israeli songs with MP3 players and standard in-ear headsets. The teens were allowed to set the volume level of the MP3 players to their preferred setting, and the researchers measured the actual sound going into the teens’ ear canals using a tiny probe microphone. To avoid biases with the volume settings, the researchers gave the participants the questionnaire only after they completed the listening exercise.

Using the participants’ range of daily listening duration taken from the questionnaire, the researchers converted the measured sound level to 8-hour-equivalent levels, a noise-exposure standard where 85 decibels is considered hazardous to hearing. The researchers found that more than a quarter of the teen volunteers were at risk for hearing loss when listening to music for 30 minutes or longer.

Muchnik recommends that manufacturers adopt the European standards that limit the output of MP3 players to 100 decibels. And aside from just turning down the volume to spare their hearing, Muchnik said that teens could also choose over-the-ear headphones rather than the in-ear headsets that normally come with MP3 players such as the iPod.

Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith are gearing up to debut a special New Year’s single on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2012″ on Saturday night.

“U know what…to say thank you for an amazing 2011, me and @officialjaden are releasing a #NewYears song at Midnight. #COUNTDOWN,” Bieber Tweeted on Saturday afternoon.

Bieber, 17, and Smith, 13, will also be joined by performers like Lady Gaga to ring in the New Year on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2012″ on ABC.

“Thinking with both @ladygaga & @justinbieber in times square for #NYRE tonight, twitter might explode,” Ryan Seacrest Tweeted on Saturday.

The night’s festivities begin at 8 p.m. with a two-hour special called “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party” to mark the 40th anniversary of the annual New Year’s Eve show which began with Dick Clark in 1971.

“Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2012″ will air at 10 p.m. on ABC following the special and will be hosted by Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy in New York. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie will host segments from Los Angeles.

The show is also set to feature performances from music artists such as LMFAO, Florence + The Machine, Nicki Minaj, Blink-182 and Pitbull.

Bieber’s latest album, the Christmas-themed record “Under The Mistletoe,” hit No. 1 on the U.S. chart and as of December 25, has sold 1.2 million copies. It contains several traditional Christmas songs, such as “Drummer Boy,” featuring rapper Busta Rhymes, his latest single “Mistletoe” and duet of “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which features original singer Mariah Carey.

Smith, who is the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, made his screen debut with his father Will Smith in 2006′s “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He has since starred in the blockbuster remake of “The Karate Kid,” which took in over $350 million worldwide. Jaden also starred opposite Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly in “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

Smith’s sister Willow Smith recently debuted a music video with rapper Nicki Minaj for her single “Fireball.” Willow is best known for her 2010 single “Whip My Hair,” which she performed at Dick Clark’s 2011 “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” on ABC.

ABC is the parent company of OnTheRedCarpet.com

Bieber and Jaden Smith have collaborated and performed together in the past. Earlier in the month, Bieber posted a video on YouTube of the pair performing a song entitled “Thinking about You.” Watch the video below.