LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Game of Thrones" roared back onto the Emmy battlefield, topping Thursday's nominations with 22 bids but with a formidable opponent in last year's winner "The Handmaid's Tale," while a streaming platform made history by earning the most bids for the first time.

2. Events - Saturday, December 30, 2017

The Beale Street New Year’s Eve Celebration kicks off Sunday, Dec. 31, at 8:45 p.m. with a concert at Fourth Street and Beale. The B.B. King’s Blues Band featuring pop music icon Tito Jackson will headline the celebration of Memphis music leading up to a midnight fireworks show. Cost is free; visitors must be 21 or older. Visit bealestreet.com for the full concert lineup.

3. Events - Friday, December 29, 2017

The 59th annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl, pitting the University of Memphis vs. Iowa State, kicks off Saturday, Dec. 30, at 11:30 a.m. at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, 335 S. Hollywood St. Join fans from both teams on Beale Street Friday, Dec. 29, for the free Beale Street Parade (3 p.m.) and Bash on Beale Pep Rally (4:30 p.m.). Visit libertybowl.org for details.

4. The Week Ahead: Dec. 25-31, 2017 - Monday, December 25, 2017

Good morning, Memphis, and a very Merry Christmas! Gifts are unwrapped, holiday cheer is spread, and now we start looking forward to the Liberty Bowl – featuring our own University of Memphis Tigers – plus a whole slate of New Year’s Eve events happening around the city. Check out all our top picks for what to do in The Week Ahead...

5. Final Goodbye: Roll Call of Some of Those Who Died in 2016 - Monday, January 2, 2017

Death claimed transcendent political figures in 2016, including Cuba's revolutionary leader and Thailand's longtime king, but also took away royals of a different sort: kings of pop music, from Prince and David Bowie to George Michael.

6. Events - Saturday, December 31, 2016

Beale Street will host a free concert by blues legend Bobby Rush and his Girls and newly signed Stax recording artists Southern Avenue at its annual New Year’s Eve party Saturday, Dec. 31. The concert starts at 8 p.m. at Beale and Fourth Street; the annual Hard Rock Guitar Drop and fireworks start at midnight. Visit bealestreet.com.

7. Events - Friday, December 30, 2016

The 58th annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl, featuring Georgia vs. TCU, will be held Friday, Dec. 30, at 11 a.m. at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, 335 S. Hollywood St. Halftime entertainment includes Motown legends The Commodores, high school marching bands, dancers and homecoming queens from across the country. A pregame buffet ($40) starts at 8 a.m. in the Pipkin & Creative Arts Building at the Mid-South Fairgrounds. Visit libertybowl.org or call 901-795-7700 for tickets.

8. Events - Saturday, February 8, 2014

Memphis Botanic Garden will host the Green Your Home Winter Plant Sale Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the garden, 750 Cherry Road. The sale will feature house plants, custom potting, terrariums and garden gift items. Admission is free. Visit memphisbotanicgarden.com.

9. Events - Friday, February 7, 2014

Memphis Botanic Garden will host the Green Your Home Winter Plant Sale Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the garden, 750 Cherry Road. The sale will feature house plants, custom potting, terrariums and garden gift items. Admission is free. Visit memphisbotanicgarden.com.

10. Events - Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Association of Fundraising Professionals will meet Thursday, Feb. 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Christian Brothers University’s Sabbatini Lounge, 650 East Parkway S. Jeremy Park, president of the Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club, will discuss his book, “Giving Back With Purpose.” Cost is $20 for members and $25 for nonmembers. Visit afpmemphis.org.

11. Events - Wednesday, August 28, 2013

WKNO will host March on Washington online chats Wednesday, Aug. 28, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the WKNO Digital Media Center, 7151 Cherry Farms Road. The event will include screenings of the PBS documentary “The March” as well as online chats and hosted discussions about the civil rights movement. Participants can watch from home or from noon to 6 p.m. at the Poplar-White Station, North or Whitehaven branch libraries. Visit wkno.org or call 729-8735 for details.

12. Events - Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Memphis Rotary Club will meet Tuesday, Aug. 27, at noon at the University Club of Memphis, 1346 Central Ave. Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper will speak. Cost for nonmembers is $18. RSVP to Taylor Hughes at taylor@memphisrotary.org.

13. Civil Rights Museum to Commemorate March - Saturday, August 24, 2013

The National Civil Rights Museum is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington with a concert.

The museum says the free concert is scheduled to take place Aug. 28 at the museum’s outdoor courtyard.

14. Civil Rights Museum to Commemorate March - Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The National Civil Rights Museum is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington with a concert.

The museum says the free concert is scheduled to take place Aug. 28 at the museum’s outdoor courtyard.

15. Events - Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Cotton Museum will host Patrick O’Daniel, discussing his book “When the Levee Breaks: Memphis and the Mississippi Valley Flood of 1927,” Thursday, March 28, at 5 p.m. at the museum, 65 Union Ave. Cost is free and includes a complimentary museum tour and reception. Visit memphiscottonmuseum.org.

16. Events - Friday, March 22, 2013

The University of Memphis Law Review will hold its annual symposium Friday, March 22, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, 1 N. Front St. This year’s theme is “Breaking the Silence: Legal Voices in the Fight Against Human Trafficking.” Visit memphis.edu/law for a list of speakers.

17. BRIDGES to Oz - Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Last week we focused on a new form of mentorship, aimed at talent development and retention, with the University of Memphis and their LEAD program’s Professional Connection Lunches. This week let us discuss an organization that is uniting and inspiring diverse young people to become confident and courageous leaders committed to community transformation: BRIDGES.

18. Plenty to Like in Flashy ‘Chicago’ - Monday, March 19, 2012

Theatre Memphis hopes to get audiences’ blood pumping with a production that gets away with murder.

“Chicago,” which opened March 9, offers more heat and intensity than expected at first glance.

19. Music Commission Announces Emissaries of Memphis Music - Friday, February 3, 2012

The Memphis & Shelby County Music Commission has announced its 2012 Emissaries of Memphis Music.

The eight women selected will receive their accolades at a celebration March 29 at 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn University of Memphis, 3700 Central Ave.

20. Laurelwood Hosts New Concert Series - Monday, April 11, 2011

Starting this month, the Laurelwood shopping center in East Memphis is no longer just the place to go for things like fresh-baked bread at Panera Bread or service from the independent book store Davis-Kidd Booksellers.

21. Deyo Stirs Up Memphis Music Through Foundation - Thursday, August 19, 2010

King Curtis had it right. In the opening crescendo of his soul classic “Memphis Soul Stew,” he masterfully assembles his ingredients: “half a teacup of bass, a pound of fat-back drums, four tablespoons of boiling Memphis guitar.”

22. Big Draw - Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Now showing: Shrek the Third, a kid-friendly flick about a green grouchy ogre voiced by funnyman Mike Myers.

The setting: an amphitheater-like park surrounded by clothing stores, a jeweler and an ice cream shop.

23. Memphis Musicians To Release Record Benefiting Haiti - Thursday, April 29, 2010

JEA Right Now Records, a Memphis-based record label, will release a song in May titled “A Message from Memphis” to benefit Haitian relief efforts.

The project included more than 40 Memphis-based recording artists, producers, arrangers and performers including Kirk Whalum, Alexis Grace, David Porter, the Bar-Kays, J. Blackfoot and Wendy Moten.

24. More Than Shopping - Friday, April 23, 2010

Resource Entertainment Group is a Memphis-based entertainment services company with a resume full of big names and corporate clients.

The company has booked concerts for acts like Harry Connick Jr., Ludacris and Elton John. It produced Sun Studio’s 50th anniversary reunion festival, among a long list of other shows through the years.

Which is one reason REG managing partner Howard Stovall gets some funny looks when he tells people about the new entertainment series his company is presenting – in a suburban shopping center.

REG was tapped to put together two evenings of entertainment each month from April through October at Collierville’s The Avenue Carriage Crossing, the 60-acre “lifestyle center” at Tenn. 385 and Houston Levee Road.

The events are part of “Fridays at the Avenue,” a venture the shopping center is launching next week.

The mall has lined up a seven-month slate of outdoor movies, live music and other entertainment that will be presented in Carriage Crossing’s central park. The series kicks off April 30 with a magician, juggling lessons, a display of fire eating and more.

Later events will include free outdoor movies including “E.T.,” “Hoosiers” and “Peter Pan.” Local bands such as The Venus Mission and The Soul Shockers will perform.

A full list of events can be found at the shopping center’s website, http://http://carriagecrossing.shoptheavenue.com/event/fridays-avenue.

The series’ goal is to draw in families by creating something not usually associated with the clothing stores and food courts of traditional malls: a community-building experience.

“We started talking about this last summer,” said Carriage Crossing spokeswoman Elizabeth Allen. “But we didn’t have the talent and staff on hand to get the level of entertainment that we wanted.”

Enter REG, which is programming a similar Music in the Park concert series for Carriage Crossing’s sister shopping center in Murfreesboro.

The company turned out to be the perfect partner for what Allen said the Collierville center wanted to provide.

As the economic slump continues to batter retailers, the traditional shopping mall – something of a relic in an age of Amazon.com, Netflix and other shop-by-mail outlets – is taking its own beating.

Shelby County malls are working harder than ever to attract and keep tenants, not to mention shoppers.

“There’s a renewed focus on the importance of family, friends and community,” Allen said of what’s driving consumers to hoard more of their money and seek out different experiences. “And we embrace those values.”

Stovall said an event like Fridays at the Avenue is a shrewd, perfectly timed move for the Collierville center, which opened in 2005.

“If your competition is online marketing, and you create an experience that requires you to be there, that does a good thing for your tenants,” Stovall said.

In an unexpected way, his company’s new partner has seemed to fit seamlessly into REG’s operation despite the setting. The core need was similar to that of many other REG clients: entertainment as part of a broader strategy.

It’s not the Memphis Botanic Garden, where REG booked the venue’s “Live at the Garden” concert series in the summers of 2002, 2003 and 2004. And it’s not the rooftop of The Peabody hotel, where REG is the entertainment producer for the Peabody Rooftop parties.

But Fridays at the Avenue is a unique, lower-key entertainment production whose draws will include everything from a meet-and-greet with former American Idol contestant Alexis Grace to the giveaway of a Wii video game system.

“We’re trying to be part of peoples’ lives and part of the community,” Allen said.

25. Events - Thursday, December 24, 2009

Heartsong Church will host a Christmas Eve celebration featuring local singer Alexis Grace today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Heartsong, 800 N. Houston Levee Road. For more information, contact Michelle Worth at 755-6332 or e-mail mworth@heartsongchurch.net.

26. Events - Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The Memphis Bar Association will present a continuing legal education seminar titled “Summary Judgment in Tennessee, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” today from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the MBA office, 80 Monroe Ave., Suite 220. To register, visit www.memphisbar.org.

27. Events - Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Memphis Bar Association will present the continuing legal education seminar “Lawyering: Why It’s Tough: What We Can Do” today from 1:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. at International Paper, 6400 Poplar Ave. For more information or to register, visit www.memphisbar.org.

28. Events - Monday, December 21, 2009

The Shelby County Commission will meet today at 1:30 p.m. at the Shelby County Administration Building, 160 N. Main St. For more information, call 545-4301.

29. Summit to Promote Music Opportunities in Memphis - Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Memphis is reasserting itself as a “perfect hub” for the music industry and a breeding ground for talent with homegrown artists such as the cast of MTV’s “$5 cover” and American Idol contestants Lil Rounds and Alexis Grace.