Chester Hall : Basura y Cucarachas

Today I wrote : "Chester Hall is not a person. Chester Hall is a form of synecdoche; a type of metonymy." I felt very empowered.

Chester Hall was the name of a former co-worker's apartment building. This may sound like nothing of particular import to most, except for the fact that the building was located in what's known as the South Bronx. Whoever constructed the building did so with love and money. The façade is made of brick and limestone. And what also caught my eye was the fact that the windows have retractable cloth shades on the outside!
Chester Hall had an elevator which was common of buildings with six stories. The floors are counted a bit differently in American buildings. The ground floor is called the first floor. The floor above that one is called the second floor. And so on, and so forth.
The building is next to the elevated IRT subway lines #2 (west side) and/or #5 (east side). There is (or was) a bank in the building (accessed from an entrance on the street level) and I'm pretty sure there were grocery stores nearby.
I'm not sure if the building had an incinerator. Such things became outlawed in New York years ago, but when I was growing up they were the only way that trash got destroyed. Some more progressive activists and ecology-minded folks would separate newspapers and glass products. Plastic, however, was fair game. When I would visit, I'd often see bags of trash outside tenants' doors. Did the superintendent come by and collect these packages? Were the people too lazy to incinerate the trash or toss it in a trash can? And don't these folks know that there is a direct correlation between the presentation of stagnant, open-to-air garbage and the attraction of roaches, water bugs, and the like?
I never asked.
My friend's apartment had drapes that were kept closed. The living room was more of a salon. There was a grand Sohmer & Company piano (painted avocado green) in the room. My friend played classical music and also the works of Ernesto Lecuona.

This is an example of the composer's interpretation of his own work. I have NEVER heard it played like this before. The segments go through variations in dynamic mood and at one lengthy crescendo it sounds as if a strolling person were all of a sudden stomping through muddy waters with thunder cracking in different tones.

A comparsa is a group of singers, musicians and dancers that take part in carnivals and other festivities in Spain and Latin America. Its precise meaning depends on the specific regional celebration. The most famous comparsas are those that participate in the Carnival of Santiago de Cuba and Carnaval de Barranquilla in Colombia. In Brazil, comparsas are called carnival blocks, as those seen in the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian carnivals. In the US, especially at the New Orleans Mardi Gras, comparsas are called krewes, which include floats.

Anyway, when my friend had long left her natal homestead, I would often call her at work and when the receptionist would answer, I'd say, "Please tell her that Chester Hall is calling."
It was our private joke.