Morning, all. Well, it’s a slow time of year—seems like time kind of stops around the holidays. There wasn’t even a new episode of Top Chef All-Stars on last night. Regardless, let’s see what’s going on in the world of arts and entertainment.

Legendary jazz pianist and longtime D.C. resident Billy Taylor died yesterday of a heart attack at age 89. Our own Michael J. West nominated Taylor as the District’s second-best jazz musician, after Duke Ellington, in the Washington City Paper‘s 2009 best-of issue.

Yet more Michael Jackson news. The defense for Conrad Murphy, the doctor accused of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson’s death, will argue that Jackson actually killed himself. What do you think will go down as the biggest premature death in pop music history: Jackson’s or Elvis? Discuss.

You know what the end of the year means: lists galore. The best, the most influential, the whatever superlative you can think of for 2010 lists. Folks like Tom Ford, Carey Mulligan, and Alber Elbaz make Vogue‘s “impact” list; Four Loko, incest at Columbia, and the KFC Double Down are among the items on the New York Times‘ “what New Yorkers talked about” list and my colleague Jonathan L. Fischer puts acts like America Hearts, Tabi Bonney, Dave Nada, and Carolyn Malichi on his best local songs list. Keep an eye out on the blog for Louis Jacobson‘s most memorable images later today.