Pop Shots - Tips For New Year’s Eve

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, with New Year’s Eve coming up this Thursday, I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s column to tips on how to have the best possible time on this craziest of nights. Of course, since this is Pop Shots, I’m harnessing the power of some classic songs to give these tips, and everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* The first order of business for NYE revelry is finding good transportation. You can’t expect someone to be your designated driver, the subways are going to be even more overcrowded than usual, taxis will be passing you by, and Uber’s use of surge pricing will have you paying a week’s salary just to get home. What can you turn to in such a situation? There’s only one reasonable transportation option if you’re partying hard...


* Once you’ve secured your travel arrangements, the entire night leads up to the ball dropping in Times Square (and NFL replay officials attempting to decide whether or not the thing it lands on should be credited with a catch). You don’t actually want to be in Times Square for this. Even with the weather being unseasonably warm, Times Square is a bottomless vat on consumerism, and on NYE it’s filled with screaming tourists in novelty glasses. If, however, you make the mistake of being in Times Square, please remember that no matter how much you have to drink, you shouldn’t attempt to ride the giant ball. You hear me, Miley Cyrus?


* Another midnight tradition is kissing your significant other to ring in the new year. Many folks, however, don’t have a significant other. That’s OK, because all the single people of the world have their choice of who they want to lock lips with at the very beginning of 2016. I say, if you’re single, why limit yourself to one set of lips? Embrace your inner Mac Lethal, and be a make out bandit.


* Once it’s 2016 you may reflect on 2015, and decide you want to do better. You may even regret some of your previous actions. You could always make a list of people you’d like to make amends with, and call each of them up personally, but a much easier way to go about things would be to take the Ruben Studdard route, and just apologize for an entire year all at once. One apology, and you’re done.


* Finally, New Year’s Eve can be an alcohol soaked evening, and over-consumption is a distinct possibility. Know your limits, and don’t get completely wasted. You don’t want to wake up with a splitting headache, and have a terrible start to the new year. Getting black out drunk can also lead you to lose things that are very important to you, a lesson not lost on King Missile.


And with that, my time is up for the week. Have a fantastic, and safe, New Year’s Eve! I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.