On News Year's Eve, Belinda Carlisle and Rufus Wainwright will sing classic French cabaret songs and more accompanied by a Parisian band and dancers. You could be with them in Los Angeles' living room, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, as we are giving away a pair of tickets to the 10:30 p.m. show, which will take you into 2008.
To enter, leave a comment telling us about your favorite New Year's Eve in the past. Let's think, last year we brought 2007 with the Flaming Lips and huge ass balloons (see the video at the link) and the year before... well, yeah, that's not for publish... ;)
The contest ends at 11:59:59 p.m. Thursday, December 13th, 2007. If you win, you will be notified via the e-mail address you provide on your LAist commenter login. You must respond within 24 hours to that e-mail. Good luck y'all!
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Sitting in a hot tub in Half Moon Bay with 4 hot astronomers.
At The Killers concert at the Paramount Studio Lot...and then back at place with the guy I was dating....
Lake Tahoe 2002...30 close friends, cabin at the bottom of the ski lifts, fabulous snowboarding, cute guys, and lots of alcohol and good food.
Queen Mary 2004... friends... family... a live Latin band grooving the night away. Then fireworks from the deck while sipping champagne.
taking the metro to hollywood, bar hopping, dancing to house, meeting up with friends, drinks and kisses at the countdown, and a free designated driver courtesy of the metro.
Hanging in the Parisian 'burbs with my best friend... eating escargot for the first time...
in chicago, funfetti cake, veuve-cliquot and a countdown to 2007 on some weird spanish tv station because its all we got. also, the first time ive ever had a new years kiss with a person im still kissing every day.
In Vegas, getting a 4 of a kind playing poker ( the best I've done so far... )
ringing in the new 2007 in san francisco with a house full of friendlies for a 7:00pm dinner that didn't end until after 2am. i can still taste those kumamoto oysters with shallot mignonette and the homemade foie gras.
ringing in the new 2007 in san francisco with a house full of friendlies for a 7:00pm dinner that didn't end until after 2am. i can still taste those kumamoto oysters with shallot mignonette and the homemade foie gras.
Fav New Year's eve spent barging the Seine in France listening to Parisian music!
Fav New Year's eve spent barging the Seine in France listening to Parisian music!
Last year was awesome... Flaming Lips and Gnarls Barkley and then home in bed with my baby!
Camping with another couple in Big Sur. There were only a few other campers at the campsite under a clear night sky filled with billions of stars and planets. We sat around an open campfire and toasted the New Year around the world every hour-on-the-hour starting in Australia.
New York City 98/99
A whole lot of us rented out a tiny bar downtown with a Scottish rock band.
Anyway, I woke up in 1999 on a kitchen floor in Hoboken with a $250 limo receipt in my wallet. I knew no-one in the house, but we hung out the next day.
Good times.
DM
Has to be 2000, when I was hanging in the kiddie room away from all the drunk adults- I was high, shroomin, drunk, and completely believing Jesus was going to come down for armageddeon at the stroke of midnight. Actually, correction- My favorite New Years was the minute after that ball dropped! Safe for another millenium!
NYE 1999-2000, Miami, FL. High school reunion party - terrible. But who cares? It's NYE. At 4 am, leave party, get on friend's boat - boat out past the bay - drink bubbly, watch the sun come up. Hard to find something more beautiful.
Best new years was in Bangkok thailand in 1999!!!
Michael Plaut
310-413-7030
I don't know if its a favorite, but its probably a memorable one, seeing Poison and I believe it was Warrant...and it might have even been Winger (or insert another 80s hair band--its the music of my youth and I'm not afraid to admit it) at the Long Beach Arena. Actually memorable because of the friends I was with and the fact that we were incensed that Poison did the New Years countdown about 10 minutes before actual new years. Ahh...youth. But now that I am older (and actually just returned from a trip to Paris), I would love to see Rufus and Belinda..pick me, pick me :)
New Years Eve 03/04. Playing spin the bottle with all my friends and strangers.
Easy. New Years 2000. While everyone was planning extravagant "Parties of the Century", my girlfriend (now, wife) and I went the opposite route. Gourmet dinner that we spent all day cooking (oysters, lobster, mashed potatoes, creme brulee). Lots of nice wine. Cuddling up on the couch under a blanket afterwards to watch the countdown, and then kissing happy new year. We got engaged a few months after.
ringing in the millennium with family in japan.
My first year in LA: drinking margaritas at my friends' house party in Montecito Heights (go, NELA!). Watching downtown twinkle from their balcony. Oh, to be young and free and 23.
Dec 31, 2008.. Celebrating the next month's inauguration of President Ron Paul.
Ringing in 2000 back in Chi-town at the Mayor's Ball. I danced (and drank) the night away, pulling a Ren McCormack and sliding across the giant dance floor right past Mayor Daley, his wife, and some big dudes. Ahhhhh! We were young! We were free! We were pre-9/11.
To end the evening, I got so high for so the first time. Really high. It was funny.
Last year I went to bed at 10:30pm...alone:( Damn the government for taking my fun away.
Ron Paul!
my friends and I baked naan. it was delicious.
New Year's Eve 2002 in South Carolina, a place that understands explosions aren't just for the 4th of July. Spent the evening lighting fireworks and listening to the neighborhood erupt. For some reason it was the most active year and the BOOMS were constant for hours. It sounded like a fun, festive war. I’m assuming real war doesn’t have the post firework fizzle sound. It’s like audible glitter.
There was nothing quite like seeing the fireworks over the Queen Mary in 2000 with the lights reflecting off the water of the harbor. Somehow with all my friends and family, there was never anything ever like it.
I love traveling through Europe and one of my favorite places to be is Madrid, especially for New Year's. The nightlife of the everyday goes to the max, but on this special and unique celebration that no other can compare. It is perfectly normal for the nightlife in Madrid to continue to sunrise, but New Year's means much more than that. In 2005, my friends and I all went to the Puerta del Sol to celebrate New Year's which was completely packed with a fervor of anticipation. We all got there not exactly knowing what to expect and in the clamor of the evening we came across a group of Spaniards who explained the Spanish celebration of Twelve Grapes, which seemed to elude us in our quick glances over our travel guides. As soon as the clock hit midnight, we all got our twelve grapes ready and as the bells ring each time, we all took a grape. This seemingly simple task proved to be so much more difficult as we all struggled and practically choked on our grapes in our pathetic American attempt at keeping with a Spanish tradition. Of course, in true Madrid style, the square practically erupted in a party and of course we ended our night partying amidst the old world charm of Madrid's streets following the endless sound of jubilant music.
crashing house parties with friends on the strand in hermosa beach.
crashing house parties with friends on the strand in hermosa beach.
prank calling Michael Plaut all night long... well into 2008.
prank calling Michael Plaut all night long... well into 2008.
setting sail for Ishcombobbido with an egg cream and a plate of broccoli watching the sweet potato drop...
Standing on top of an apartment building rooftop in Times Square, NYC on December 30, 2001 - 3 months after "9/11". 10 seconds before the big ball dropped, I remember everyone staring up, and counting down - loudly, feigning the quiet fear we all felt. When that clock stroke midnight, and Auld Lang Syne flooded the city, I don't think I ever felt happier to be embracing the cheesy guy with the black leather jacket next to me.