Happy New Year?

Patrick Barry, The Levison Group

Around this time of year, most people are looking towards the future, ruminating on their hopes and dreams for what lays ahead. In conversations with friends and family, some questions, resolutions and fears have included: What will 2017 have in store for my life? How can I improve myself this year? Should I buy a gym pass and train for that half marathon? Should I drink more or less Pabst Blue Ribbon beer? Will my adult son finally find someone that can tolerate him so he can become someone else’s problem, or at least stop subsisting solely on frozen pizzas, change out of his only pair of sweatpants, and move out of my basement? Is winter going to last until March? Is there really going to be a new Baywatch movie? Will I die alone? You know, real cheery stuff.

Rather than look ahead to what might be in the upcoming year, however, I prefer to use the New Year holiday as an opportunity to look back on the past twelve months. It’s my opportunity to reflect and express my gratitude. The truth is, despite all the havoc of 2016, I know I had a good year. I was able to travel the world: My wife and I took a month-long sabbatical to Japan, Cambodia, and Thailand. On several occasions, we were able to spend time with friends and family that we hadn’t seen in far too long. We rang in New Year’s Eve in Texas at our good friends’ wedding, the first traditional Indian wedding I’ve attended. Professionally, I handled several large mergers and acquisitions for some of my biggest business clients. All in all, I can’t complain – though of course I will, so keep reading.

I, of course, realize that, despite my good fortune, 2016 was a very rough year in so many ways for our country and the world. First and foremost, there were too many devastating terrorist attacks to count (as I sit here writing this column, my phone alerts me to another senseless attack in Florida). The horrific Syrian war blazed, and is still blazing, and the refugee crisis it spawned became recognized as one of the most complicated humanitarian emergencies of our time. We lost a Supreme Court justice in February, and Congress refused to hold confirmation hearings on the president’s replacement, leaving us with an often deadlocked court. We also lost some of the great performers, artists and personalities of our generation: David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Wilder, and Muhammed Ali, to name just a few. Even everyone’s favorite Western lowland gorilla, Harambe, was taken far too soon. And, of course, we can’t forget the most depressing presidential race in our nation’s history.   

It was thus agonizingly fitting that ABC helped us usher out 2016 with a trainwreck befitting the exiting year. For the unfortunate few of you who didn’t have the pleasure of watching the catastrophe live, I’ll provide a brief summation.

Mariah Carey was scheduled to be the headlining performer for the ball drop in Times Square for the Dick Clark Productions gala on the alphabet network. The stage was set – literally and figuratively – for the five-time Grammy winning superstar, as more than one million people gathered anxiously to watch Mariah perform. Mere minutes before the stroke of midnight, she was immersed in an elaborate light show and accompanied by a plethora of extravagantly dressed sidekicks and backup dancers. Then, glistening under the glow of the Times Square video billboards and neon screens, the music kicked on and she began to “sing.”

It was a disaster. Her timing was off, but the vocals rolled on, confirming that she intended to lip sync the set. She attempted to sing along with the pre-recorded backtrack, but she couldn’t sync up with the blaring background music, so what resulted was an incoherent cacophony of raspy, cringe-worthy vocals. To make matters worse, she started bemoaning an earpiece malfunction and chiding the production technicians while the music continued in the background, hoping to coax them into fixing the problem on the fly. By the end, she had stopped endeavoring to sing at all, instead encouraging the massive crowd to join in on the fun. She ended in a way that perfectly summed up this year and her performance: she flippantly and sarcastically told the crowd, “It just don’t get any better,” and walked off the stage. Cue the ball drop.

Early the next morning, Mariah and her team went into full blown damage control. Her manager publicly lashed out at the event’s producers, Dick Clark Productions, claiming the company didn’t properly prepare for the event, even going so far as to insinuate sabotage was at play, saying the production team “set her up to fail.” Grainy photos of an unidentified man appearing to slink around backstage immediately before Mariah’s performance were circulated on the internet (though not by Mariah or her team), suggesting the guilty saboteur had been found. Her team’s strategy was abundantly clear: discredit the producers in an effort to deflect blame away from their prized client. Rather predictably, Dick Clark Productions swiftly responded with vehement denials, and for their part, tried to shift the blame back to Mariah.

The event was interesting for a couple reasons. As a lawyer, I was intrigued by the myriad legal implications that could stem from this 10-minute performance and the corresponding blame-game that ensued. It wouldn’t surprise me if the parties’ respective legal teams are discussing potential claims to lob against the other as we speak: breach of contract against the production company for failing to adequately prepare the equipment; defamation against Mariah for the accusations her and her manager very publicly made against the production company in the immediate aftermath; trespassing against the man sneaking around on stage prior to the performance, etc. Maybe someone could even assert a cause of action against Mariah for negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress for making us all sit through the worst non-version of “Auld Lang Syne” of all-time.

But, for me, the more enduring and significant aspect of the event was its metaphorical significance: 2016 had to end this way. A seamless, uneventful Times Square performance would have felt out of place – not nearly strange or unblemished enough for 2016. Mariah howling her biggest hits, out of key and off time, in front of millions who were anxious to be done with this year might be just what was needed to finally turn the page. There was a therapeutic and spiritual quality to the act – like writing your biggest fears and regrets on a piece of paper and throwing into a roaring fire. We’re ready to face the future without dwelling on what this last twelve months has brought.

So, now that we’ve hit rock bottom, it’s time to collectively take a sigh of relief and ready ourselves for a new year. What can we hope for? How about a return to decency, reasonable discourse, compassion, and some semblance of renewed hope and humanity? Well, that’s probably too much to ask, so I’d personally be happy if one of my readers can just score me a couple of tickets for Mariah’s next live show.

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Under Analysis is a nationally syndicated column of the Levison Group. Contact Under Analysis by e-mail at comments@levisongroup.com.
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