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Watching the ball descend on New York City's Times Square has been a New Year's ritual for nearly a century. Next year the Big Apple plans to complement its annual rite with live images on giant video screens around the square of other celebrations beamed from each of the world's 24 time zones. The day-long show begins in the Fiji Islands at 7 a.m. E.T. and comes all the way back home by midnight to Times Square and the plummeting 6-ft., 500-lb. rhinestone-studded aluminum ball. Dick Clark, 68, will be one of the hosts of the fete; a half-million souls are expected to jam Times Square, with an additional 300 million tuning in via television.
Farther uptown, fireworks will burst over the Hudson River, with some of the best seats in the city reserved for the thousands of guests attending a dinner at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, one of the world's largest indoor gathering places. For those in a nostalgic mood, the center will have on display an exhibit of sports memorabilia, with legendary sports figures in attendance.
Interested? Start planning now. The Marriott Marquis, which is giving a black-tie dinner dance that will feature a laser light show, took its first reservation for New Year's Eve 1999 in 1983--two years before the hotel opened. Now it's fully booked, with a waiting list of thousands.
If the best-laid plans of others don't appeal, you can custom design your own party at the Millennium Broadway. This aptly named hotel is offering the use of 538 guest rooms for four days, meals and beverages included, for 1,200 of your closest friends--plus the opportunity to project your own personal millennium message onto the hotel's facade. The cost? A mere $3 million. And, yes, it's still available.
A CITY THAT ROCKS
For decades, Bill Graham Presents has staged New Year's Eve bashes at up to 18 separate locations in and around San Francisco on a night when most promoters take a holiday. The Graham-fest will be there for Dec. 31, 1999, as well, but it will be joined on the Big One by some upstart competitors.
At least half a dozen of the Bay Area's largest concert arenas, including the 60,000-seat Oakland Coliseum, have been reserved by Graham Presents. Though president Gregg Perloff has been tight-lipped about who will be headlining the shows, rumors are solidifying that the Other Ones, recently formed by surviving members of the Grateful Dead, will take the stage. Meanwhile, Cool World Productions is planning "a mini-Woodstock for the millennium" a rave-style, all-night shindig with computer-generated music, animated graphics and laser displays at a venue to be announced. The gay community is also mobilizing for a blowout bash or two.
Even happy revelers have to sleep sometime. Try the Ritz-Carlton, which is offering the "Ultimate Experience": a three-day package that includes 18-karat-gold his-and-hers Bulgari watches, a chauffeur-driven Jaguar, daily massages, butler service, a five-course dinner and a tour of Napa Valley, plus a tasting of the "10 finest vintages from the past century." The ultimate price: $100,000. If that's more than you were planning to spend, the hotel offers lesser, lower-cost packages. Most of the Bay City's other great hotels still have vacancies as well.
A HUMBLE SALUTE