I remember the 2001 New Years was spent with Clint and Dave at a local bar in Mayne. The television in the bar was running commercials during the count. We all watched our watches and then a car commercial and then our watches and then a drug commercial and then our watches and then each other, wondering if everybody’s watch was off. When they came back from the commercial break, they were showing some place celebrating the turn of the New Millenium.
Then some guy stood up and said, “This is bull-excrement! Everybody, start counting down with me. And so at about 12:02am on January 1, 2001, we rocked in the new year, new century, new millenium, and all that.
I was reminded of our little fake celebration as I watched the turn-over a week or so ago. I was reminded because they showed the ball dropping on Time Square. I knew what it was because I saw the same thing at 11:00 when the Eastern Time Zone actually celebrated the New Year. I have to assume that we celebrated out New Year to the first television re-run of 2009.
The thought occured to me that this is ridiculous. There are approaching 100,000,000 people in the Central Time Zone. We don’t need East Coast leftovers. I have decided that it’s time to Chicago, Memphis, or New Orleans to step up. I pick those three because Chicago is the largest city and because the other two know how to party. However, if San Antonio or St. Louis or Omaha wanted to do it, I wouldn’t object. Then they need to come up with the dropping of a sugar beat or corn stalk or some spectacle like that. We need people in the streets. We need a party. A party big enough that all the CST networks will show it.
Las Vegas apparently does their own thing to great effect. Maybe Los Angeles does, too. To anyone that spent the New Year on the west coast (Spungen? TL? Becky? Brandon?), what were they showing on TV? I really hope it wasn’t NYC reruns. Since Las Vegas’s celebration was getting some airplay in Colosse, I assume not.
Well, the Central Time Zone has got even more people than they do. It’s time for us to stop accepting the media’s assumption that we all worship the Big Apple and that we should be satisfied with their TV leftovers.
As for the Mountain Time Zone… I don’t know what to tell you. Denver? Phoenix? Salt Lake City? I wish you the best of luck coming up with your own thing.
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4 Responses to New Year, Old Footage
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Conan O’Brien sometimes does a countdown for central time. One year, he lowered their announcer down onto an asian male prostitute. It was pretty funny. Also, the channels from Mexico seem to be on central time. I remember watching a concert from what I’m guessing was Mexico City, around 1am Eastern Time, and they seemed to be getting ready to do a countdown.
You’re right though, that there’s slim pickens for the rest of the country. I knew a woman who lived in mountain time, and she told me there’s nothing on t.v. to watch at midnight. Either Denver doesn’t do anything, or it isn’t widely covered.
Stockbrokers and some other financial industry workers in the Pacific time zone often have to be at work when the NYSE and NASDAQ are open for trading. That means a 6:30 am start time, though the benefit is that they’re done for the day in the early afternoon.
They were in NYC but then our local news jumped in to show the fireworks off the Space Needle, which is pretty cool. San Antonio used to have a huge block party downtown with food vendors, bands, etc. That was a lot of fun, but I don’t think there was anything that exploded or dropped at midnight — just people counting down over a mic and the crowd screaming, playing noise makers.
Kirk,
That’s interesting about Conan O’Brien. If I’m in the CST in the future I may have to tune him in. You know, I would rather watch Mexico City live than New York City reruns. That’s really sad about the Mountain Time Zone. I wonder if the Mormons could put something together in SLC. That could be… intersting. If I were in the Mountain Time Zone, I’d totally watch.
Peter,
I talked to a coworker about it today and he told me that one helpful thing about living on Pacific Time is that when the time changes over on the East Coast, it’s a good reminder that it’s time to get where you’re going for the New Years.
Becky,
Too bad they don’t go local for the turnover. Noisemakers, like excited Mexicans, are much preferable to New York. I’m starting to sound like a pecantecommercial… “This stuff’s made in New York City. New York City?! Get a rope!”