14 things to look forward to in 2014

1. 'America's Got Talent' auditions

Jan. 25-26, Indiana Convention Center.

Go big or go home if you're going to try out for the chance to stand and be judged by Howard, Heidi, Howie and Mel B.

"You want to get out there and give it your all," host Nick Cannon told The Star. "If you're not the most talented person, but you have an amazing personality? Those people have gone pretty far on our show."

2. The Essential Robert Indiana

Feb. 16-May 4, Indianapolis Museum of Art.

It's fitting that this retrospective opens Valentine's Day weekend because the artist's most famous work is his LOVE sculpture, with the tilted O. But the timing is also ironic because Robert Indiana is not a sunny guy. The ubiquity of LOVE — there was even a postage stamp of it — irritated him and may have hurt his rep as a serious artist. "I am father to a bad child," he told The New York Times. "It bit me."

Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle and now, at 85, lives in an old Odd Fellows lodge on an island in Maine with a Chihuahua named Woofie. Besides the IMA's upcoming show, his work is the subject of a major exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York (through Jan. 5). The IMA's exhibit will have 57 works, only a few of them variations on LOVE.

3. Comic Con

March 14-16, Indiana Convention Center.

Gamers, geeks, comic connoisseurs will descend on the state's first Comic Con to see the likes of Maisie Williams (Arya Starks from "Game of Thrones") and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus from "X-Men: Days of Future Past"). /p>

The event — not to be confused with the San Diego Comic-Con, that draws 130,000 — will attract more than 10,000 attendees. More than 150 vendors will set up shop and artists will sketch live in Artist Alley. If that's not enough for you? Pop Con hits the city May 30-June 1, bringing pop culture and, what else? More comics.

4. Cheryl Strayed talk

March 31, Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler University.

Cheryl Strayed waited years to write her account of her three-month solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail. When she finally put pen to paper, the result, "Wild," coaxed Oprah Winfrey to bring her book club out of retirement.

Strayed's tale of how the trail helped her pull herself out of a downward spiral after her divorce and loss of her mother also resonated with Reese Witherspoon, who optioned the screen rights to the book. Witherspoon plays the author in the movie, scheduled to hit theaters sometime next year.

5. Indy Eleven opening day

7:30 p.m., April 12, IUPUI's Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium.

The Indy Eleven aren't Indianapolis' first professional soccer franchise, but it's already its most successful. That's saying something considering the fact that the North American Soccer Association-affiliated club has yet to play a game. The inaugural season home opener is scheduled for mid-April, and the Eleven will take the pitch to face the Carolina RailHawks.

With 7,000 season ticket deposits in hand and supporter groups like the Brickyard Battalion assembling, "footie" fans can expect to join the largest, loudest crowd IUPUI has seen ... ever?

The NASL season will see the Eleven play nine times in spring and 18 times in fall with a break for the World Cup.

6. Tanjerine festival

Late April, location TBA.

After blending visual arts and music through 12 years of the Oranje festival, organizer Ryan Hickey is preparing a sister event focused on fashion, film and food. The new party, Tanjerine, will bring together chefs, bartenders, fashion designers, models and filmmakers in a setting never utilized by Oranje (an autumn event known for its rotating sites of unconventional spaces before settling down at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 2012).

"Like Oranje, the goal of Tanjerine is to present these creative media in an alternative environment and provide patrons with an experience unlike any other," Hickey says.

7. The Minimalists 'Everything That Remains' Tour

April 29, venue TBA.

No, they're not a hot new indie band — though they count 2 million fans of their blog, the minimalists.com. Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus are two guys in their 30s who quit their six-figure jobs, rid their lives of meaningless things, activities and relationships, and decided to give the bird to American's obsession with status.

Now when someone at a party asks them, "What do you do?" they redirect the question to, "Do you mean, what am I passionate about?"

Already, the Minimalists have 350 Facebook RSVPs for their talk and book signing in Indianapolis. Tickets are free at their website.

8. Indy's first REAL vegetarian restaurant

Not "vegetarian friendly" — or one that has a vegan option or two. But a true all-veg, don't worry-about-stealth-bacon-in-the-greens kind of place.

Ezra's Enlightened Cafe, 6516 Ferguson St., likely will open in early 2014. Owner Audrey Barron, a certified raw chef (and mom to namesake Ezra), and head chef Allie McFee have already developed a menu of salads, wraps, raw soups, dehydrated breads and crackers and cakes, pies and chocolates. All will be made without gluten, dairy, animal products or processed sugar.

Ian Phillips of killertofuindy.com still is looking for a location for his Three Carrots restaurant on the Eastside. The chef serves up vegetarian comfort food such as biscuits and seitan sausage gravy at the Indy Winter Farmers' Market.

9. Grand Prix of Indianapolis

May 10, Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Speedway residents will hang their "Welcome Race Fans" banners early this year. The inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the first IndyCar Series road race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, takes place May 10 on the track's newly reconfigured road course.

The $5 million project — which required 20,000 tons of asphalt — created a 2.439-mile track that includes 14 turns with cars traveling clockwise around the course (rather than the counter-clockwise route of the Indy 500). The idea, say IMS execs, was to create a more competitive race with more opportunities for passing.

New infield grandstand seating and spectator mounds will offer better views, and affordable pricing (general admission is $25) makes the race family friendly. Unlike the 500, ABC's televised live coverage of the Grand Prix won't be blacked out in Indianapolis.

10. International Orangutan Center opening

May 24, Indianapolis Zoo.

Zoo-goers expecting to see the seven new residents at the center might come up with one extra primate in their count. An eighth orangutan, a 12-year-old male named Basan, has joined the "team," which moves into its new home at the Indianapolis Zoo in January.

This gives the endangered apes time to acclimate to their environment, which will feature a skyline aerial cable ride above the zoo, a community plaza, an exploration hub and an atrium featuring the 150-feet-tall "Beacon of Hope" illuminated by lights the orangutans turn on themselves.

It also includes a functional forest and three oases where the orangutans can rest, learn and play — which for Basan includes hiding in barrels, wrapping up in blankets and playing with water. (Filling objects up with water is a favorite past-time).

Weighing in at 114 pounds, Basan is a slightly smaller male orangutan (the average is 200 to 250 pounds) but has been declared fit for breeding by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its Species Survival Plan Program. No pressure, Basan, but we'd love to hear the pitter-patter of little orangutan feet soon.

11. Terra Cotta Warriors: The Emperor's Painted Army

May 10-Nov. 2, Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

When China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang died in 221 B.C., he was buried with terracotta sculptures of his armies to protect him in the afterlife. These artifacts — 16 feet below the Earth's surface — lay untouched until the mid-1970s, when they were discovered by farmers in the ShaanxiCQ Province.

Visitors at this exhibit can see 10 of the warriors — which stand between 5 feet, 8 inches and 6 feet, 7 inches tall and weigh up to 500 pounds. In addition more than 100 artifacts recovered from pits around the emperor's tomb will be on display. Children can explore the science of paint and learn how these artifacts have remained intact all these years.

12. 'The Fault in Our Stars' movie

June 6, theaters nationwide.

"I'm on a roller-coaster that only goes up." This quote from the novel "The Fault in Our Stars" applies to the buzz surrounding the film version, which takes a love story between teenage cancer patients and heads into box-office battle in the middle of summer blockbuster season — opening the same day as Tom Cruise's next sci-fi project, "Edge of Tomorrow."

Indianapolis author John Green wrote "The Fault in Our Stars" as an Indianapolis story, which will be reflected in the movie even though it was made in Pittsburgh and not here because of tax-break reasons.

The cast includes Shailene Woodley (star of "Divergent," opening March 21), Ansel Elgort (recently seen in "Carrie"), Willem Dafoe and comedian Mike Birbiglia. Producers Wyk Godfrey and Marty Bowen have the "Twilight" saga on their resumes, while screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote "(500) Days of Summer."

13. 'The Book of Mormon' musical

June 17-22, Old National Centre.

Pious Hoosiers, take note: One of Broadway's "filthiest" and "most offensive" shows, according to critics, will make its first appearance in Indianapolis. "The Book of Mormon," which debuted in New York in 2011, won nine Tony Awards, and surprisingly, received only a mild response from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, known for their hit animated TV show "South Park," likens the show to a mash-up of Disney meets Mormonism meets Rogers and Hammerstein. "Mormons are just happy people," Trey Parker told Good Morning America. "So you're going to get a happy musical."

P.S. Looking for something more sentimental? "Ghost: The Musical," based on the 1990 romantic drama, will make its first Indy run in March.

14. The Beatles Tribute Celebration

Sept. 6, Pepsi Coliseum, Indiana State Fairgrounds.

The Fab Four first planted pop music's Union Jack on U.S. soil in Feb. 1964. That appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" triggered "Beatlemania," and the rest, they say, is history. Fast forward 50 years and the newly renovated Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum will host a Beatles tribute concert to mark John, Paul, George and Ringo's only concert appearance in Indianapolis.