New Year's Eve

Another New Year’s Eve (NYE) passed by the usual way: watching the festivities on TV.  Even those in New Jersey and Long Island pass on venturing into Manhattan to watch the ball drop at Times Square, preferring to enjoy the event on TV from the warmth of our homes, soon to crash (depending on the amount of alcohol and/or drugs consumed) in the nearby bed.  A few of them, however, strike me as sufficiently noteworthy to bring up here.

 1988.  We were in Paris, and my brother and I were invited to our friend Geoff’s place for some celebration.  He lived in Neuilly at the time (now lives in London, though he travels so much I’d say he lives on the plane).  Unfortunately no beer or snacks were available, so we ended up getting VERY drunk.  Aside from that, we had a great time.

 1989.  That summer, Matt and I worked at the Paris Air Show, and met “Mo”, a girl I had met at GMU in Spring Break 1987.  I met her again on 12/31, and she invited me to her sister’s place in Paris, over by St. Paul, which is on Rue de Rivoli a few Metro stops east of the Louvre.  Lots of drinking, but nothing happened, and at 5 a.m. I walked home, very much sober by that point.  The Metro was closed, so it took me an hour to walk back.

 1996.  My friend Ken and I saw KISS at the Continental Arena (the basketball/hockey arena where the Nets and Devils play, right next to Giants Stadium) on New Year’s Eve.  At midnight they went live to Times Square.   While Dick Clark was in earmuffs and a parka, we were toasty warm with Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter.  Woohoo!

 2000.  My first of two NYE’s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The fireworks are set off on Copacabana Beach, six separate boats.  Unfortunately, it was raining, and our lodgings were in Ipanema, not Copa.  So when the fireworks ended, all 5 million people (however much the endless multitude was) decided not to stick around and party in the rain.  We had to fight horrendous crowds, an overpacked bus, and walk several blocks, before collapsing exhausted in the little apartment in Ipanema. 

 2002.  This time we had a place in Copacabana, 3 blocks from Ave. Atlantica (on Barata Ribeiro), so our trip back from the beach – no rain this time! – took all of 5 minutes. 

 Since then, all the NYE’s except for this year (in the NYC area, but not Manhattan itself) were spent in the DC area.

  Rudolph's Shiny New Year.  Having mentioned the Christmas TV specials last week, I’ll mention this special, which was tacked on to my DVD of “The Year Without a Santa Claus” and actually not bad at all.  It was made by the same Rankin/Bass people, in the similar stop-action animation style.  It seems that Baby New Year was teased mercilessly about his huge ears and crawled off to the Archipelago of Last Years, pursued by a big vulture named Aeon.  It’s up to Rudolf and some supporting characters to catch him and bring him back to Father Time’s castle before the New Year begins.  Sir 1023, the knight who runs the island of 1023 (a medieval place full of fantasy and fairy tale creatures) is voiced by Frank Gorshin, better known as “The Riddler” on the 1960s Batman TV series.  Dinosaurs, the Three Bears, Ben Franklin, and some time-related animals (whale, camel, etc.) all add up to a fairly bizarre but entertaining adventure.   My only gripe was that the island of 1893 was bypassed completely.