rob vincent dot net

New Year's in TImes Square: the good...

• Asking a cop where the trash was, but there was none nearby, leading to the only time in my life I ever littered... under direct orders from a police officer to do so.
• Landing a great spot in the crowd.. Broadway, just behind 47th.
• Meeting a gang of cute tourist girls from Chicago who borrowed my coat... all at once.
• Sitting down for an hour in the middle of Broadway, and not getting run over.
• The look of pure joy on a little girl's face when I gave her a glowstick.
• The world's cutest couple right behind me, celebrating their recent engagement.
• Started a decennial tradition.. now I know what my plans are for 2015.
• (Guilty Pleasure Alert) I do kinda dig that song where Lindsay Lohan bitches about how miserable she is being famous (from her debut album, the purpose of which is to make her even famous-er) and she actually performed it well live.  She can lip-synch sing!  Maybe one day, if she tries really hard, she can be an actress as well.
• They piped Jay Leno's monologue to the Jumbotron, and it was mostly one of his rare good ones.
• Losing count of how many cute tourists asked me to photograph them.
• My first food eaten in 2005 being a hot dog and sausage off a pushcart.. RAWK!
• I am now the proud owner of a green confetti circle.
• Happy strangers sharing the weird NYC-style "We sure are all doing this thing here now!" fellowship that I've only ever seen at New Year's, Halloween, and protests.
• Mot of the cops were in a good mood.
• One of the guests was a 100-year-old woman who was one of the original Ziegfeld Follies girls.
• This one guy who was happily jumping, bouncing, and raving to every song they piped us.. even the old Chuck Berry classics.
• Spending the time with my favorite City.

The bad...

• Spending all but an hour on my feet, from detraining at 3:44 PM to retraining at 1:46 AM.
• Sitting in the street teaches one that Broadway is not good to the seat of one's trousers.
• 90% of cute tourist ladies have boyfriends, and the other 10% have girlfriends.
• Colin Fucking Powell got to push the ball-dropping button, the twunt.
• My damn laser pointer died before I got to do anything fun with it.
• Some dunderheaded cast members from a Beach-Boys-based musical, utterly murdering the Beach Boys' music.
• Having to administer eyedrops to myself in a packed crowd while being bumped around.
• Whoever kept sparking up the pot, without considering all the kids and non-potheads around.
• Why the Hell, Michigan would New York City's New Year's Eve party arrange to pipe in Jay Leno live from California, rather than New York City's Letterman show?
• Whoever that bearded git was they had doing the mic work.
• The fact that they kept pushing the whole "Let's have the Olympics here in 2012!" thing, my take on which is (and I quote) "Screw that right in the ear."
• The few cops who were appreciably more assholey than they had to be.
• The unearthy combination of solids, liquids, and gases resulting from shoe removal upon arriving home.
• I loaded up on salty jerky and stuff beforehand since bathroom breaks are not an option, and I'm still fairly dehydrated.
• Nobody to New Years kiss.

And the ugly...

• Some drunk girl in the Olive Garden repeatedly flashing Broadway. I hope photos of that turn up online... there were certainly enough snapped, and I'm curious how one would live that one down. Not so much the flashing, as the flashing in the Olive Garden...