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New Year's at Home
With all due respect to my fellow critics (in this proud publication and elsewhere), the pickings for New Year's concerts this year are looking not only slim, but skeletal. Besides, recommending any activity for New Year's short of the monetary bonfires and champagne monsoons you get at black-tie affairs is a cruel ruse. Who wants to go out and fight for breathing space with a bunch of anonymous amateur drinkers, anyway? You probably have friends; they may throw a party; they may even have a stereo. Go there, or stay home. Hell -- last year I spent New Year's in a living room with three close and personals, howling at the TV when, come midnight, the Space Needle started ejaculating fireworks all over Seattle. At times, our culture is so wonderfully obvious.

-- Michael Batty