A lot of people will ask you “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” And that’s a reasonable thing to ask — we all are expected to party so much that night that we dance all night and at the end of it all go blind and puke blood, and stuff. The question I have is “What are you doing the night after New Year’s Eve?” It lands on a Friday this year, New Year’s Day. But most likely we’ll all be home, with the lights very dim.

Seeing as you’ll probably have slept in all day, I have a suggestion — stay up until 4AM on Thursday night/ Friday morning, and watch the Maysles brothers’ fascinating Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway (on your local PBS affiliate so it’s not like you even need cable and your rabbit ears will still work hooray). This film tells how the Maysles’ 1975 cult classic Grey Gardens film somehow became a hit Broadway musical. This delightful coda to that powerful documentary not only shows what’s happened to the film’s “stars” (including a great appearance by “the marble faun”) and discusses the huge influence on fashion that Little Edie has had — it also addresses the issue of whether the film was an exploitation of these eccentric and strong women, or not. It’s narrated by that creepy Terrence Howard guy (he of “baby wipes” fame) and is not to be missed. So TiVo it if you’ll be asleep then.       —Mike