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January 01, 2006
The Joy of 06
At about 3PM on New Year's Eve, one million people start arriving at Times Square, where they stand in pens until midnight as they are pelted with snow, rain, and sleet. Meanwhile they can't so much as take a leak without losing their place in the pen.
Faced with the choices of standing in the cold for 9 hours, a $150/person party at a club, or going to the office to watch and drink BYOB, I went to the office. About 100 others did the same. The office is across the street from the ball at the same height, so the ball falls right in front of the windows.
The ball is actually a lot smaller in real life than it seems on TV. Frankly I don't think that the people standing back at 55th St could see it at all. The TV also doesn't pick-up the effect of ball's crystal festoons, which give the ball the shimmer of a giant Faberge egg.
(Click pictures to enlarge.)
This photo shows how small the ball really is.
We had a hard time seeing how far the crowd stretched up 7th Ave, but it appeared from the flashbulbs that they may well have gone all the way to Central Park South, which would provide a great view of the Central Park Fireworks. The cops--perhaps 15 of them at every intersection--were surprisingly friendly, and we had very little trouble getting into the office. We didn't even see any checkpoints for weapons or alcohol.
In the picture below, the main stage (with Mariah Carey) is very bottom/center. The ABC studios, where 20/20 is filmed, are very bottom/right. The MTV studios, where TRL is filmed, are a block up 7th on the left (not visible).
If Tiff ever gets an audition to be a newscaster, I suggest she include this in her portfolio:
More than one ton of confetti was thrown off the rooftops at 11PM and midnight.
The confetti was big enough to show up in the camera:
When we noticed the ball was on its way down, starting 60 seconds before midnight, you can guess what happened. As the ball reached its base and the big "2006" was lit, fireworks from the rooftop across the street went off, with some shells hitting the Conde Nast Building around the 35th floor. Fireworks are best seen up-close!
Our first picture of the new year:
Building occupants are instructed to stay in the building until the crowd thins out, but that wasn't long. It's amazing how fast a million cold, shivering, tired people can disperse after the New Year's kiss.
As you might notice in the background, there was a lot of staring when we took this picture. Maybe it was because Tiffany was in a white half-length dress and me in a suit. Maybe it was because I appeared to be taking a picture of a random girl; maybe they confused her for a more-famous actress. Maybe it was because I was happy-warm-tipsy and the crowd cold-sober. Maybe it was just because Tiffany had put on her walking shoes rather than the stilettos. But I think that the most likely reason of all, is that... OK, I don't know why. I just wanted to quote the narrator of the Grinch.
May 2006 be the best year yet.
Posted by adrianjo at January 1, 2006 02:46 PM