Entertainment

WAKE UP! THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR IS WAITING FOR YOU

THIS New Year’s Day should be the best in years. After all, it’s Saturday.

The weekend has only just begun, giving you two full days to recover from last night’s festivities and kick off 2005 in style.

It’s easier than you think. For starters, just about everything’s open today – restaurants, department stores, ice-skating rinks, theaters, bowling alleys, even the Empire State Building (give it until 11 a.m., though, to open its doors).

You can even create a New Year’s Day package – scuba diving at the New York Boat Show, followed by a little poetry and a night of dancing at Avalon.

Here are some wonderful ways to jump-start your new year with a bang.

LET ‘EM READ

Start the year on a poetic note by heading downtown to the Poetry Project’s 31st annual New Year’s Day Marathon Reading at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, where Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Eric Bogosian, Philip Glass and a hundred of their peers will strut their stuff.

If hope and poetry aren’t enough to sustain you, relax: Food and drink are available. 131 E. 10th St., at Second Avenue, (212) 674-0910. 2 a.m.-2 p.m. $16.

HAIL THAT BOAT

My, how things have changed. A hundred years ago, the floor of the old Madison Square Garden was flooded and turned into a lake, and boats were transported by horse-drawn trailers for the world’s first National Boat Show.

Today, the show is bigger than ever, and anchored at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The floors won’t be flooded, but there will be a 26,000-gallon heated pool you can scuba-dive in, for free.

655 W. 34th St., at 11th Avenue. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for children. Though Jan. 9. Log on to http://www.nyboatshow.com for more information.

MOVE YOUR BODY

We know what one of your resolutions was – so drop that candy bar and get moving. Gyms all over the city are offering great deals to get your butt in gear.

Equinox, for example, begins its new year’s promotion by offering you up to a $300 savings when you calculate your BodyAge.

Click online to http://www.loweryourbodyage.com and follow the exercises and assessments to determine your BodyAge. The lower the number, the cheaper your initiation fee, which is $100 plus BodyAge.

Membership includes one personal training session and a BodyAge session. http://www.equinoxfitness.com. 897 Broadway, at 19th Street; (212) 780-9300.

REFRESH YOURSELF

Got a hangover? Make your way to the Russian & Turkish baths and sweat it out. Visit the authentic Russian room, where the oven is filled with 20,000 pounds of hot rocks. Then do as the Russians do and dump a bucket of cold water over your head – or, if you’re really daring, jump in the ice-cold pool. 268 E. 10th St., between First Avenue and Avenue A. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $25; (212) 473-8806.

BEGIN WITH BRUNCH

There’s nothing like a good meal and some detox tea to start the New Year.

TriBeCa’s Le Zinc pairs its homeopathic, soothing green tea with such savories as goat cheese omelets with artichoke and roast plum tomatoes, and smoked- salmon eggs benedict. 139 Duane St.; [212] 513-0001. 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Or make like an Aussie and dine the way they do Down Under at the Sunburnt Cow (137 Ave. C, between Eighth and Ninth streets, [212] 529-0005), barrier reef benedict, buttermilk banana pikelets (miniature pancakes) and all.

HIT THE ICE

Take someone you love and hit the indoor Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers during date night, from 5:30 to 8:30 tonight. Couples get in for $15. Pier 61, 23rd Street at the Hudson River; (212) 336-6100. Open 11:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. $10 for adults, $7.50 for children. Skate rental is $5.

Don’t miss your chance to skate under the world’s most famous Christmas tree. Come Jan. 7, it leaves Rockefeller Center, so get a move on. 601 Fifth Ave. between 49th and 50th streets, (212) 332-7654. 9 a.m.-midnight. $17 for adults, $12 for children. Skate rental is $8.

Aficionados swear by Central Park’s Wollman Rink. Enter the park at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue; (212) 349-6900. 10 a.m.-11 p.m. $11 for adults, $4.50 for children. Skate rental is $4.75.

THE PARTY CONTINUES

If you didn’t get enough action last night, press rewind and repeat. At Avalon, the old Limelight, deejays Bad Boy Bill and Steve Smooth will be cranking out techno tunes till the break of dawn. 660 Sixth Ave., at 20th Street. The party starts at 10 p.m.; admission is $30.

Maybe it’s a sign of the times. Party host Daniel Nardicio will be transforming Capitale into a party called “Escape to Candyland.”

Expect to dance alongside the wackiest people you’ll see all year. 130 Bowery at Grand Street. The party starts at 11 p.m.; admission is $58. Go to http://www.saintatlarge.com for info.

For a more surreal experience, head to Spirit, where Brooklyn native deejay Victor Calderone (a favorite of Madonna and Sting) will be mixing tunes. 530 W. 27th St. between 10th and 11th avenues. 11 p.m.; $35.

TAKE THE PLUNGE

Cleanse away your sins with a swim in the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean with the Polar Bear Club at Coney Island.

Four thousand people showed up last year in the annual New Year’s Day plunge at the Coney Island boardwalk.

What’s open What’s not

Stores: Century 21, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s Bergdorf Goodman, Fendi, Gucci, Louis Vuitton

Broadway: “Bombay Dreams,” “Dracula: The Musical,” “Good Vibrations,” “Mamma Mia!,” “Wonderful Town” “Avenue Q,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “The Producers”

Off-Broadway: “Jewtopia,” “The Marijuana-Logues,” “Pieces of Ass,” “Fat Pig” “Awesome 80s Prom”Museums: Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of America ArtSpas: Juvenex, Russian & Turkish Baths Bliss