My building turned 80 this year and the owner and the management team in a rare gesture of camaraderie with the tenants, threw a wine and cheese party on Friday evening in the Mayflower lobby. Apparently, they invited their other building tenants as well and in a strange turn of events, more residents of the Elliot than the Mayflower turned up at the party.

I guess the Mayflower residents couldn't be bothered to come down the rickety elevators. I mean, hardly anyone comes down when there is a fire alarm. Why would they care about two pieces of cheese and cheap wines? If I were more statistically inclined, I could probably prove that the people who habitually evacuate the Mayflower in the event of a fire alarm are no different in number and identity, from the people who came down to check out the cheese. My hypothesis is that they are also the residents who are more inclined to smoke and thus welcome the chance to get out and spew columns of tobacco smoke to shroud the two hollow lions outside, regardless of what the occasion is -- fire, cheese, household feud... whatever.

So, to get back to the party, the piece de resistance was supposed to be the premiere showing of a short film - "Of Dreams and Glory", shot entirely in the lobby of the Mayflower, in January this year. It debuts at the Sundance festival in February. People interested in the making of this movie should check this out. I remember the day they shot it pretty well because they blocked the lobby and the elevators off for the whole day. As I was rushing home in the evening, I slipped on the ice and fell headlong outside the Mayflower. I couldn't even go in through the main door in the front and had to take the side door to the west-wing of the buiding, go down to the basement, cross to the east-wing and then take the elevator to my flat - all with a skinned knee and a thousand well-placed curses.

I thought they would set up a nice projection screen for the movie, but they played it on a tiny DVD player, that jammed after a while. I caught the 10 minute movie in its second showing. They ran it around 5 or 6 times before the DVD player threw up its hands.

I think it was supposed to be a suspense-noir-art movie of some sort. At one point there was a jump sequence with flicking knives and painted bizarre faces. However, I am not very sure what the entire plot was. A lady who lives on the sixth floor said that she probably might end up with nightmares for the rest of this week because of the jump sequences. I personally thought those were the only interesting bits in the movie. The movie otherwise consisted of some expanded dialogue between a painted young man (who was an apparition?) and this old man tied to a chair. The tinny sound from the DVD player resonated around the lobby and none of us could actually hear what the actors were saying. Some of us made up dialogues to go with the scenes and took turns at guessing what was going on but that didn't help our comprehension any. Oh, and I think there was some Christmas music, if that helps.

The "special effects" in the movie were an interesting take on the truth (as in, they were lies). The west-side elevator looked almost brand new. Considering the fact that 80 years have probably passed since they washed the carpets in either of the elevators, that's hardly the truth. Also, in a nifty touch-up, they faked the working of the brass-dial-floor-indicator over the elevator. I don't think even the oldest resident (who has lived here for nearly 35 years) remembers these brass dials actually working. Some of the dials don't even have needles on them.

In the course of the "party", I met and talked to the owner of the building, Myron Robbins. He seemed like a fairly nice old man till I popped the question of recycling. As readers probably know, my building firmly refuses to recycle. (What is with the places I live *and* work refusing to recycle??!!) I creep about and dump all my recycle-ables in my neighbour's (my recycling bin, that s/he stole, actually) bin on Tuesday nights. The advantage of this is that I am on first-nod basis with that bloke who wheels those bottle-filled carts on empty streets on recycling nights. We mutually nod and smile at each other every Tuesday.

So I asked Myron about the recycling and he said that he shall be working on bringing a recycling solution to Mayflower as a first priority and added that he always listens to his esteemed tenants. Really? I can't believe that NO ONE brought up recycling as an issue in all the four years that BMG has owned the Mayflower. In fact, I brought up the recycling issue three times with the current management in the past year. What happened to all those suggestions and concerns? I was told that recycling was impractical for a building the size of Mayflower (a lazy way of saying that they really didn't care). Maybe it was the wine and cheese or maybe its just a load of lies all over again, but this time if there is no move to bring recycling to Mayflower, I shall not hesitate to advertise these empty promises all over the net.

I think the real highlight of the evening for me was not the cheese or the movie but the fact that, in a moment of wine-induced remissness - no doubt, someone from the west-wing let slip that the terrace of the Mayflower was accessible to the tenants (not widely advertised because they don't want the liability of people jumping or falling off the building).

I didn't waste any more time socializing and spent the rest of the evening surveying Buffalo from the roof of the Mayflower. The view is amazing. It's somewhat similar to the view that Paul posted from the 15th floor of Buffalo General but its grander because you can see 360 degrees around the building. You can even see the city of Niagara Falls at a distance. I was so excited that I forgot to take my camera along but its very photo-worthy. Buffalo is a beautiful city and despite the no-recycling weird anti-environment resolve of Roswell and Mayflower, I am glad to be here.

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PS: When I moved to Buffalo, I think the first thing that people asked me was whether I could see Niagara Falls from my window. Well, I am pleased as Punch to say that I can indeed see it from my Building. (Who cares, if its just Niagara Falls, the city and not The Niagara Waterfalls. ;-))