January 1, 2008
Happy 2008 New Year's, New York!
A sparkling new 700-pound ball, tons of confetti, and over a million people helped ring in the New Year from Times Square last night/early today. Mayor Bloomberg and police Police Academy valedictorian Karolina Wierzchowska, who also served in the Iraq War, hit the switch that brought the famous Times Square New Year's ball down. The Daily News called it a "shimmering pole dance," and it was the 100th time Times Square has had a ball drop to welcome the new year.
Mayor Bloomberg told NY1 his 2008 wish for the city, "I hope we can continue all the trends ... 2007 has been a great year for New York City. Let's just hope we can duplicate it in '08." And though there were a number of incidents over night, Times Square - with almost 1,000 rookie cops on patrol, street closures, and more NYPD procedures in place (like welding manhole covers) - did not seem to have any criminal incidents.
As is our tradition, we watched Dick Clark count down to 2008 on his Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve special. He seems to be doing better, but his body and faculties seem to tire quickly, when his still-spry mind was trying to express things. We hope he continues to feel better in the new year. Regarding some of the other New Year's hosts, Ryan Seacrest was smooth yet annoying, Carson Daly was more engaging if somewhat dull, and Tila Tequila (hosting on MTV) was as terrible as we thought she'd be.
With 2008 just minutes old, the Department of Sanitation began its extremely coordinated effort to clear up the 40 tons of confetti and trash quickly from the crossroads of the world. The DOS had over 100 workers, plus 16 mechancial sweepers, 13 collection trucks, 14 leaf blowers and a few low-tech brooms. On NBC's coverage, we saw Tiki Barber join the DOS to do a little sweeping and a lot of hand shaking.
We wish you a happy new year and hope you enjoy the first day of the new year, which might also be your final day of a long vacation. Tell us about your New Year. And if you took pictures of New Year's in Times Square or elswhere revelry, you can share them with us by tagging them "gothamist" on Flickr or sending them to photos(at)gothamist(dot)com.
Photographs from the Times Square festivities by Seth Wenig/AP
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Carson Daly's resemblance to a young Dick Clark is somewhat uncanny, and a little unnerving.
Man, I hadn't seen Dick Clark since his stroke and it definitely threw me for a loop. Part of me thinks he should retire the tradition - it was pretty hard to watch - but another part of me thinks, what the heck, man, this is his deal, who cares how he sounds? Anyhoo, happy 2008, everyone!
Once you recover from the shock of seeing an old infirm man clinging to life and suppress the gag reflex you realize that Dick Clark is just a metaphor for the circle of life and that people are afraid of him cause he represents the tail end of it and theirs in the future. I think we need more old people on tv to remind us that we too, one day will get old and shit in our pants. on another note, that pic reminds me of that joke about the woman cop and the jew mayor on new years eve.
We turned on the tv at about 2 minutes to midnight, watched the ball dropped and then headed to my friend's backyard and lit sparklers. Woohoo. I have not been able to watch Clark since his stroke. I would like to remember him as he was and not as he is now.
Happy New Year, everyone and good luck. It's gonna be an interesting year.
How many here even know that he used to host "American Bandstand"...?
Strike that last comment - since AB last aired in 1989 (courtesy Wikepdia) I would think that most of your readership would be at least somewhat familiar with the show...
Did anyone else see seacrest introduce Bloomberg's daughter as his wife?
New Year's Eve sponsored by Pontiac? Disgusting.
New Year's Eve sponsored by Pontiac? Disgusting.
Wow Freddy, I didn't realize it was on that late. I'll be 29 in March and my only recollection of AB was Clark introducing the song "Pac Man Fever." Hahaha. :)
Oh and someone give Carson Daly a hamburger.