Keep on Ringing in the New Year

    As I mentioned in last week's post, I was only planning to stay up just late enough on New Year's Eve for any nearby festivities to quiet down. While waiting, I watched the usual stuff from New York City. There were the "live" performances, actually pre-taped segments recorded up to weeks in advance or lip-synched songs from Times Square. I will say the sining outdoors in average winter temperatures would difficult for many singers, so I can forgive them for not being entirely live. Then, leading up to midnight, came the usual. First, a performance of "Imagine" that I entirely skipped.  The cameras would almost late cutting to the outgoing Mayor of NYC pressing the button to signal the workers to start lowering the ball. That's right, the task is done manually and not by machine. You can tell whenever the ball jerks the tiniest bit. The fact that the visual and audio weren't completely in synch was somewhat off-putting, but some that cannot be helped with some cameras. Finally, the ball dropped and a badly rendered version of 2026 lit up. The final digit was so stylized that I could barely read it.

    Then, the "party" began. Tons of confetti rained down as the same songs from every other celebration began playing. "New York, New York," "America the Beautiful," and "What a Wonderful World." At least the channel I was watching cut away to the hosts before the ukulele version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" could be heard.  I think. The only respite was the interlude when a video message about the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United Staes popped up. I have a strong feeling that it wasn't produced by the currant administration. I then went to bed.

    I'm sorry, but while this is a traditional celebration that has been ever so modified since it began, it has also become antiquated and dull. Over the course of the day, I was treated to much more spectacular displays from all over the worlds. Sydney and the Opera House. Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Even London and the Millennium Eye Ferris Wheel. The pyrotechnics displays were incredible, and they mostly all started in 2000. New York City and Times Square just has electronic billboards advertising whatever while old-timey songs play in the background, as sponsored confetti falls. Maybe it is a different feeling if one is actually there, but after seeing it on television for so many decades, I doubt I would want to go.

    Sure, some may say that you can't have a fireworks display in the middle of a city, so densely packed. Correct. However, NYC manages to have such displays on the river for Independence Day. Why can't they just move things a couple of blocks over? Or how about lasers or drones? Both would be safer in the center of downtown, and they would provide a better experience. Maybe another city should be the focus of east coast celebrations. NYC had a good run, but it needs to either freshen up or relinquish the crown. Times Square may have been one of the first large public New Year's Eve celebrations, but the tradition needs to change, well more than it has so recently.