Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve '86

 

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed the Rockin' Eve production I featured earlier this week that welcomed 1982. Today, I feature the show that welcomed 1986. Enjoy below or on YouTube here.

I'll be back after the holiday. Happy New Year!

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve '82

 

Hello all! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas--I certainly did! I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family, great gifts, and great food. That's all you can ask for Christmas! Now it's time to look ahead to New Year's Day, and we do that with the full presentation of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve welcoming in 1982!

Every network has it's own New Year's Eve program these days, but back in the day, Dick Clark was the only game in town. Here he welcomes 1982 with performances by Alabama, Rick Springfield, Barry Manilow, and others. Hosted by Charlene Tilton and Tom Wopat (man, this really IS 1982!)

Enjoy the show below or directly on YouTube here. I hope to have another Dick Clark program this week. Thanks!

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve '79

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah. But the holidays aren't over yet. We have one more celebration before we put a wrap on the holiday season--New Year's Day! And I can't think of a better way to celebrate the new year than by--celebrating an old year!

When I was growing up in my house in the '70s and '80s, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve was a yearly tradition. I wouldn't think of ringing in the new year without it! And here is an example of what made the broadcast so fun. Here is the one that welcomed 1979, and it's filled with late '70s goodness. Put on your platform shoes and dance along with everyone. Check it out embedded below or directly on YouTube here.

Enjoy! And stay tuned if you do enjoy it, because I think I'll post one or two more before 2022 is over.

Thanks!

Night Court, "New Year's Leave"

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great Christmas Day or Hanukkah. We have one more holiday left in the season, and we celebrate it with an episode of the great sitcom Night Court.

In "New Year's Leave," the crew deal with an elderly man who escapes a hospital to spend New Year's Eve in Times Square in memory of his late wife, as well as a man dressed as the Baby New Year who claims to be the real thing.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2015!

Hello everybody! It's been three weeks and one day since my last post--sorry about that! I've been wanting to post much sooner, but I've been busy acclimating to the normal routine after the holidays. I just wanted to pop in real fast to let you know that I am here, I'm not going away, and I'll be blogging semi-normally soon.

In the meantime, here's the ghost from the beginning of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon opening dancing to "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. You know, just to tide you over.

Thanks!

Happy New Year 2013!

By this time, the Thanksgiving turkey is long digested, the busy shopping season is blessedly behind us, Santa has made his yuletide ride, and we've rang out the old and rang in the new. The 2012 Holiday Season is officially closed.

While we pack away the holly and mistletoe and the red and green decorations, the biggest mistake we can make is to pack away the spirit of the holidays. "Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men" is a belief we must practice year round, or it has no meaning. If you're like me, and you hate to put Christmas behind you--don't.  Be of good cheer, eat, drink and be merry, and care for your fellow man (especially when it's not returned) today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. When we all successfully do that, every year will truly be a happy new year.

And with that I say, one last time this season--Happy Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

Tuesday's (Late) Forgotten Film: Get Crazy

Hi everyone! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas/Chanukah/Winter Solstice/Kwanzaa/Festivus/etc. I'm home on Christmas vacation, which is why I totally forgot about this week's Tuesday's Forgotten--oops! Better late than never, right? With the last of the holidays left this season, New Year's Day, I have an appropriate choice for this week--the 1983 rock comedy Get Crazy.

Get Crazy stars Allen Garfield (Mother, Jugs, and Speed) as a Bill Graham-type rock promoter who owns a live theater in New York much like the Fillmore. He is preparing his annual New Year's Eve concert to welcome in 1983, but a greedy land developer (is their any other kind?) tries to sabotage the concert, with help from the promoter's betraying nephew, so he can take control of the building and demolish it.

The film includes outlandish antics from many over-the-top characters, both on and off the concert stage, and the film lives up to its call for wild behavior. I've only seen the film once on broadcast TV circa 1990 (and even then only in parts), and although it was once available on videocassette, it has never been released on DVD. That's a shame, because I'd love to spend this New Year's Eve welcoming 2012 with this wacky film.

Here is a fan-created trailer for the movie.



If I don't get to talk again before Sunday, Happy New Year!

UPDATE AS OF 12/28/2011: Oh happy happenstance! I just discovered today, completely by coincidence, that the movie is available on Comcast digital cable's movies on demand service in the free movies section. I get to see the movie this New Year's after all. Rejoice!

Happy New Year!

My final post of the 2007 holiday season; my final post of all of 2007, for that matter. I started this blog back on October 30th, and I've had an absolute blast sharing all of this great material with you. Since the blog's inception, almost every post has been related to a holiday, be it Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas (or other). With the start of a new year upon us, I will be branching out of that small niche to bring you all kinds of great things on all kinds of subjects. Thanks to everyone that has given my blog a look the past two months, and I hope you continue to stop by throughout 2008 and beyond.

To ring out the old and ring in the new, here is one final Christmas clip, a unique take on "The 12 Days of Christmas" (sent in by friend Todd Mason):



Second, the happiest New Year's Day song ever--by U2. Well, maybe not the happiest, but it's a New Year's song.

U2 - New Year's Day
Uploaded by jpdc11. - See the latest featured music videos.

Finally, count down to midnight amongst the company of Rhoda Morgenstern:



To everyone, I wish a year of health, happiness, and love.

Happy New Year!

Meet The Mummers

This is about a subject near and dear to my heart. Every New Year's Day, many Philadelphia citizens participate in and enjoy as spectators the Mummers Parade, something most people living outside the area aren't familiar with.

The Mummers Parade is one of the oldest continuing folk traditions in the country. The Parade consists of people dressed in various kinds of multicolored and speckled costumes, very similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. There are four different divisions of Mummers: comics, fancies, string bands, and fancy brigades.

The comics are simply that: clown-like in nature, and usually spoofing some type of social or pop cultural trend. Fancies are individuals arrayed in extravagant costumes of different categories, usually with a theme to their outfit. String bands are large groups of musicians (between 46 and 64 members) who march in ornate comstumes while playing their respective instruments: saxophone, banjo, bass fiddle, and drums, creating a unique sound not heard anywhere else on the planet. Finally, the fancy brigades perform similarly to the string bands, but to popular recorded music of the times rather than their own live music.

I was a Mummer myself for several years, and I was and currently am very proud to have been a part of it.

What I've said here doesn't do justice to the tradition. The best thing I can do is offer some clips.







The band seen directly above, The Joseph A. Ferko String Band, is one of the most popular bands of all time. Here is the band's titular founder on the game show "I've Got A Secret" from 1963:



For more information on the Mummers, visit these online sources:

The Mummers Museum: http://www.mummersmuseum.com/

Official Mummers Web site: http://mummers.com/

WPHL-TV Channel 17, Philadelphia, the local station airing the Parade: http://www.myphl17.com/community/mummers/

Finally, this longtime Mummer sums up why this great tradition continues: