The Mystery Holiday, Where People Got Drunk Last Night (Times Square), And 2014

New Year's eve and day have always been something of a mystery to me.  Many people, even those who don't overly imbibe the night before, expect to get the day off, and are often quite surprised that even essential services and stores remain functional and open for business.  Maybe the day is seen as a time of "me" in contrast to the function of Christmas, which in North America seemingly serves a two-fold function to the secular public as a time of family obligations and a time to spend deeply into debt in order to satisfy supposed needs of gift recipients.  The whole exhausting affair might in fact give purpose to the night of selfish excess which provides for cheap entertainment; large bar tabs can otherwise be forgotten in the suds.  In the rest of the Gregorian calendar observing world, people do in fact celebrate, but in North America, more so in the United States, Mexico City, and urban Canada, people get downright crazy.  No other place in the world gets more insane than Times Square.

Clutter, shadows, and isolation among the bustling heart of a city...  Insanity as urban art.

I could write a rather lengthy post about the history, glitz, glamor, shame, etc. that is involved in this meeting of roads in Midtown Manhattan, and I actually have written about the statue of a Roman Catholic priest which is the unnoticed centerpiece of the northern part of the square.  Really, though, that is easy information to find, and this is one of those instances where the description simply pales in comparison to the experience of exposing the senses to it in person.  No photos of it really do the place justice; it pretty much glows.

Its amazing what standing just a few feet closer into the scene with the same camera on the same settings can do to this classic picture scene.  The signs all seemed to have gone off at the same time, the construction is hidden by passing cars, and even the metal plates on the road seem to light up.  This angle is, of course, looking south towards One Times Square.

It glows almost as good if not better than Vegas, perhaps even more so.  Vegas exists to purposefully take your money without any regret, surface of otherwise.  Tourist New York, on the other hand, exists to take you and your wallet on a ride that you both seem to, above all else, enjoy, and not merely for the purpose of spending.  That said, even while you can be entertained here just by people watching and taking in the sights, all those signs, especially the big ones front and center on One Times Square pretty much exist to get you to spend something.  They want you to eat, drink, and take in a show.  They even want you to know that the police and around to make sure your experience is as unmolested as possible.

Which leads us into the second bit of our post, and away from the relatively quiet February scenes photographed above.  It seems that last night, much like last year in general, people were gathering to protest and break the silence about what they view to be ignorance.  Apparently more protests against racial discrimination and police brutality were set to take place last night in Times Square, but there were so many people there to simply party, revel, and lose themselves in the moment that nothing significant ever got underway.  The protestors could not even make it to the party, and Times Square did its usual job of distracting everyone from the reality of what was happening in the rest of the country.  2014 has largely been like that, though, perhaps more than any other year before it. 

The 24 news cycle and the ebb and flow of internet trends have largely ensured that people really don't think about things like government spending and corruption, international incidents, disease outbreaks, and even, well, joy over things that have gone right.  Times Square is a reminder that our society often gets bombarded by all sorts of information, is driven towards pleasure, and has a very short term memory.  Times Square is a lovely place in some ways, but one that is extremely artificial.  It is very purpose driven towards an intoxicating excitement that in the end is all too ephemeral.  In many ways and for many people, such was the experience of 2014 in North America.