Here are some other entertainment, arts and dining highlights from 2011:

BRUNO MARS, SUPERSTAR

The Roosevelt High School grad followed a breakout year and his triumphant December 2010 homecoming concert at Blaisdell Arena by winning a Grammy in February for best male pop vocal performance for his hit single "Just the Way You Are." He continued his ascent with a midyear concert tour with fellow rising star Janelle Monae and a high-energy tribute to Amy Winehouse at the MTV Video Music Awards in August. His new tune, "It Will Rain," was chosen for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1" soundtrack, and Mars, a mere 26, also made the 2011 Time 100, the magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world. The year came full circle when Mars pulled six Grammy nominations for 2012, including nods for his platinum-selling "Doo-Wops and Hooligans" album and another hit single, "Grenade."

CURTAINS FOR ACT

Army Community Theatre went dark in October after nearly 70 years, but the end was not unexpected. The stage company was caught in a perfect storm of government budget cuts, shrinking revenues, a dwindling core audience and minimal participation by military personnel. Season ticket holders were notified in October the Army was replacing ACT with recreational programs that focused on military personnel and their families. Seven decades of theater came to an end on Halloween with the closing-night performance of ACT’s production of "The Rocky Horror Show" in a Schofield Barracks cafeteria.

A FEAST FOR FOODIES

What happens when two local James Beard Award-winning chefs — Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong — call on a few of their friends to come out and cook? The biggest food event of the year. The Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival, Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, served up 31 chefs, plus winemakers, mixologists and dessert purveyors feeding more than 2,500 people over three days, in three locations, while also raising $250,000 for the Hawai‘i Agricultural Foundation, Culinary Institute of the Pacific, Paepae O He‘eia and Papahana Kualoa.

Foodies were thrilled to meet celebrity chefs from East and West, among them Charles Phan, Justin Quek, Dean Fearing, John Besh, Celestino Drago, Rick Moonen and Marcel Vigneron, and taste their creations utilizing local produce. The tasting events were in addition to daytime discussions of innovations in the food and farming industries.

GREENER PASTURES

The hardest-working local band this year had to be The Green. With a solid front line of Zion Thompson, JP Kennedy, Caleb Keolanui and Ikaika Antone, the band spent as much time touring across the mainland as it did back home, where The Green appeared at the Republik Music Festival at the Kakaako Waterfront Park Amphitheatre in June. After the success of its self-titled debut album, a 2011 Na Hoku Hanohano winner for best reggae album, the October release of "Ways & Means" showed The Green maturing as musicians able to confidently work in related genres. The new album debuted at the top spot of the Billboard and iTunes reggae charts. In the latter half of the year, the band toured across the Pacific and returned home for concerts on Oahu, Maui and Kauai.

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

The public is finally catching on to issues of food sustainability, thanks in part to farmers’ markets and Kanu Hawaii’s Eat Local Challenge. Leading the farm-to-table charge was Ed Kenney, owner of town and downtown restaurants. Kenney spent much of the year promoting nose-to-tail preparations for local hogs, working with culinary students at Leeward Community College this fall to present a dinner featuring pigs from Kahaluu and Kauai farms. A couple of weeks later, he cooked for first lady Michelle Obama and guests at Kualoa Ranch during the APEC summit.