Buffalo Rising Online

Great A&M this year...for the first time in a long time, I really loved the art. One hysterical thing was reading the Buffalo News story on Saturday morning, in which they discuss this "massive" pirate ship...the thing was as big as a garden shed. My friend and I got a good laugh out of that. Anyways...it's the best party of the year. Long live Artists & Models!!!

Thank you to Beth and Patrick for your great comments on A&M @ the C.T.. I believe it was a great success this year and a lot of fun for all. The free art test assessed that I was "NOT NORMAL," go figure.

Thank you to Beth and Patrick for your great comments on A&M @ the C.T.. I believe it was a great success this year and a lot of fun for all. The free art test assessed that I was "NOT NORMAL," go figure.

finally- I made it to an artists and models and had a blast. I will not miss another one. I agree with the comments about the art some was really impressive some I did not understand but to each their own. What a party! Hey does anyone know anything about the band that played inside with the drums and the saxs? After the played inside they moved to the veranda for the rest of the night.. they were amazing.

This event was *awesome* I'm so glad I got dragged to it... lol

Did anyone else love the 'cupcake' lady --- her dress looked like a huge puffy cupcake.

Besides that, the awesome art, the not too bad wait for booze (unlike the Polish festival!!!!!!!!!!) -- I ran into a lot of various people I haven't seen in a long time... it was a FABULOUS night, I will enver miss another. And Central Terminal is an amazing venue for it

Great event but the main building is still a huge mess, yeah, yeah... I should have seen it when restoration began. It's great for eclectic events like A&M yet the CT really needs a caretaker with much deeper pockets than a struggling volunteer based non-profit. Too bad UB has never considered it as an urban campus.

Zen, "Great event but the main building is still a huge mess, yeah, yeah... I should have seen it when restoration began. It's great for eclectic events like A&M yet the CT really needs a caretaker with much deeper pockets than a struggling volunteer based non-profit. Too bad UB has never considered it as an urban campus."

It's "too bad" about a lot of things regarding the current status of the terminal but the point is that 11 years ago, a group of unbelievably dedicated people decided to take on the onerous task of owning a completely trashed shell of a 523,000 sq. ft. building.

Restored: it's not. Preserved: it's getting there. It's also a destination in the community once again and in the public conscious. So much so that Hallwalls broke its own rule about returning A&M to any venue 2 years in a row. We certainly would welcome them back. They were fantastic to work with.

All in all, not a bad track record for a group of unpaid volunteers who besides working on the building, also find themselves being event planners.

Miller, do you monitor this thing solely for comments on the Terminal? As always very defensive. Again, I am not belittling your monumental efforts but to repeat, looking at the condition of the entire complex I don't think you can really restore it (and I don't even mean restore it to its original condition of course) without the cash infusion of a huge benefactor. Look at the Martin house, obviously much much smaller scale, no where near as bad, and they still needed millions of dollars.

Zen, I'm not sure mmiller's response was overly 'defensive', it reads like a well measured response. While you claim to not be 'belittling' his efforts, you call the site a 'huge mess'. On a defensive scale mmiller gets a one, offensively, you get a six. Pack a lunch one day and help him in his efforts, surely it will then be 'less of a mess'.

I read BRO daily because I like it. I don't troll for CT comments, but I will respond when I feel necessary. You can take that as "defensive" if you like, but I like to correct misimpressions about the project. No one knows better than I do that we are not capable of restoring the CT without a benevolent benefactor, in whatever form that benefactor appears. But, I happen to think that what we accomplish there IS important. If we didn't take care of that "huge mess", it would be an even bigger mess and an absolute budget breaker for the city's demolition budget.

I think I've written this before... It probably seems like I have some vendetta against the CT group but I really don't. Like I've also said many times, kind of, actually doing something proactive def beats apathy any day. Yet there aren't even any plans for the hulking tower, correct?, and the sprawling two story mai/baggage? structure with hundreds of broken windows really should be taken down, of course who would pay? So what's with the crumbling plaster all over the interior of the main concourse and the graffiti, vandals are still getting in there I take it. It is curious that perhaps no other structure in Bflo has so many come to its sentimental defense than this place.

Freddy, I get a kick out of your overly-romantic cliched outlook every time.

Zen, I don't take anything you've said as having a vendetta against the terminal. Allow me to clear up a few more misimpressions though:

1. Plans for the tower and 5 story baggage building: the plans are for the whole complex to become a mixed use facility: offices, condos, retail, satellite train and light rail, public access to the concourse. That's always been the plan. We also believe that the baggage building is the place to start redevelopment, as its structurally sound and has open floor plates similar to the Larkin Co. building.

2. Crumbling plaster: a result of 12 years of exposure to water due to 4,600 broken windows. A large part of our maintenance is in removing loose plaster. Much of the terra cotta speed tile underneath has also been damaged, so replastering is not an option right now.

3. Graffiti: also a result of 12 years of being wide open. Unfortunately, the marble has been so rendered so porous and brittle that our efforts to remove the graffiti has been futile. We've got an expert coming in from Rochester next week to see if he can try. There is no new graffiti inside and we've had no new break-ins.