Neither more nor less

Saturday night , it was clear , was a dud of an evening ,little of nothing going on ,the East Village was dead. I was standing in front of Ray's candy store as is usual , but with nothing to do and no one to talk to .Nothing was happening anywhere and thus nothing of significance to photograph. All of a sudden I heard some loud music ,I looked up towards the sound and saw a roof filled with people ,many hanging over the railing looking down over the street and yelling . It was a party .

At the corner of 7th and avenue A , above the bar Niagara on top of the building there was a huge party with loud music playing and lots of people drinking lots of beer . With nothing else to do , it seemed like the only alternative at the time ,I headed to where it was all happening , up on the roof . The street level door to the building was open , so like many,many others I just walked in and climbed the beer bottle strewn and drunk lined stairs to the roof . The crowd was large to the point of overflowing , indeed , people were hanging over the railing ,beers were falling to the street and some individuals were climbing to the roof of the building next door to find a relatively private place to urinate . This couldn't, of course , go on forever un-noticed by the neighbors and the authorities . Someone would certainly call the police .

A short time after I reached the summit and was confronted with a daunting crowd to navigate my way through ,the police arrived . I.D.s were checked and checked and.... people left ,perhaps half the crowd left for one reason or another right away . Afterall who wants to drink beer with cops around especially if you are underage ...right? Well ...eventually the cops left and the party picked up a bit .With fewer people, there was now room to maneuver ,enjoy the veiw and the party .... and it was also less likely that the overloaded roof structure would collapse . The band ,"The Scurvy Pirates" played their version of pirate rock and the crowd , now smaller , drank on. This is how it was this last Saturday night in this neighborhood .