21 thoughts on “Famously Hot New Year, 2013-2014”

1. Kathryn Fenner January 1, 2014 at 8:05 pm

   It must have been awesome. It sounded like we were under attack at my house. At the finale our one year old Weim came over for comforting.

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2. Brad Warthen Post authorJanuary 2, 2014 at 10:31 am

   It was really very nice. I’m not much of one for mob scenes, but this was nice. The bands put on a good show, and we had places to go in out of the cold when we wanted — Cap City Club and the Push Digital party.

   I say this as someone who had never wanted to be at Times Square at that hour on that night. When we were in London for New Year’s, and had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in the Trafalgar Square festivities, we did not. Instead, after dinner at an Indian place in the Swiss Cottage area, we walked to Primrose Hill, which provides a great vantage point for viewing the fireworks downtown.

   We found ourselves part of a throng of several hundred very peaceful folk of all ages, many of them quietly launching those upside-down luminaria things — a mini hot-air balloon consisting of a bag over a suspended candle, which drifts off into the sky. It was pretty magical. Then everyone counted down and then cheered the fireworks in the distance, then made their quiet way home.

   This was kind of like that, only with amplified music…

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   1. Kathryn Fenner January 2, 2014 at 10:45 am

      Well, most things are better from a VIP perspective.

      I hate crowds and, especially, amplified music.

      When I worked in Sears Tower, we used to watch the Fourth of July fireworks over the lake from the 75th floor conference room, with a boombox playing the symphonic music, including 1812 Overture. My way….

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      1. Brad Warthen Post authorJanuary 2, 2014 at 12:34 pm

         When I say “amplified music,” don’t imagine that it was LOUD amplified music. I hate that. My hearing troubles today could be linked to that one time in 1971 when I “sat” on the third row at a Grand Fund Railroad concert. We stood (who actually sits at something like that?) directly in front of speakers as tall as a two-story house. My clothes were flapping around my body as though I were in a high wind, just from the sound energy. I couldn’t hear normal conversation for three days after.

         No, this was much, much gentler. Nothing seemed amplified beyond the volume needed simply to be heard clearly by the outdoor crowd. The music couldn’t be heard at all from the Cap City Club. When we visited Push Digital, just two doors down from the stage, Wesley et al. had all their windows open for watching the crowd below, and the music drifting in as no more than pleasant background sounds, and no one had to raise their voices to converse.

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         1. Silence January 2, 2014 at 12:49 pm

            I could hear the music from my house, about 15 blocks away….The fireworks were pretty noticable as well.

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            1. Brad Warthen Post authorJanuary 2, 2014 at 2:20 pm

               I’m surprised. That suggests it was quite loud, but at no time did it seem so to me. And I’m usually pretty sensitive to that sort of thing…

               The Cap City Club must have good soundproofing, because we couldn’t hear a thing up there…

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            2. Brad Warthen Post authorJanuary 2, 2014 at 2:23 pm

               … or maybe sound carries OUT better than it does UP…

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            3. Kathryn Fenner January 2, 2014 at 5:28 pm

               Bass travels further and gets louder. This is why those boombox cars’ owners aren’t quite as deaf as we think.

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            4. Scout January 2, 2014 at 6:59 pm

               I think it is more that bass can turn corners whereas the high frequencies don’t. So it permeates places that the high frequencies get reflected out of – the result being the bass survives longer and farther away than the trebles. It’s to do with the difference in wavelengths that makes the long bass ones be able to bend and the short treble ones get reflected. I think.

               I majored in physics, for like a second or two. Then calculus happened.

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            5. Kathryn Fenner January 4, 2014 at 7:16 pm

               My husband, who has a BA in physics, fwiw, thinks it is just that the waves are longer and pass more easily through walls, or vibrate with them. I dunno. I took self-paced astronomy.

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            6. Scout January 5, 2014 at 1:27 pm

               He probably knows more than me then! 🙂 I thought I remembered they bend but who knows. Maybe it is a combination of both.

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         2. Ralph Hightower January 4, 2014 at 4:30 pm

            GFR? I just want to celebrate another day of living…

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   2. Silence January 2, 2014 at 11:07 am

      Against our cabbie’s advice, my then girlfriend and I did spend a New Year’s Eve in Trafalgar Square, back in 2000-2001. There was a throng of people, it was probably the biggest crowd I’ve ever been a part of. But it was fun!

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3. Bill January 2, 2014 at 12:46 pm

   Damn I Got Old Quick.I went to bed at 10 pm,but heard all about it from my niece.I saw Jimi Hendrix on the 4th of July w/fireworks(1970).Easier to get into frottage when your a teenager.It’s all been downhill from there:(they have the date wrong;he died two months later):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKgxXzE8sdA

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   1. Bill January 2, 2014 at 12:52 pm

      you’re ^ that one always trips me up,so to speak

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4. Kathryn Fenner January 2, 2014 at 5:26 pm

   This is a test of the emergency comment system.

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   1. Kathryn Fenner January 2, 2014 at 5:26 pm

      Success!
      Press any key

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   2. Ralph Hightower January 4, 2014 at 5:37 pm

      I sent my suggestion for 2014 NYE’s Headliner to Mayor Steve. Sam said he would forward my suggestion to the entertainment committee.

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      1. Silence January 6, 2014 at 7:57 am

         Who did you suggest Ralph?

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   3. Silence January 6, 2014 at 7:57 am

      In the event that this was an actual comment, the comment would be followed by sensible, well thought out and intelligent statements….

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      1. Brad Warthen Post authorJanuary 6, 2014 at 3:35 pm

         Followed by… silence.

         It’s like the zombie apocalypse…

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