Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Patti Smith Reviews Bob Dylan's New Album

Well I was sitting on my window sill, watching the sky shifting, when a messenger arrived with
a copy of the new Bob Dylan album.  I gave old Glenn Gould a rest and put Modern Times in my player. To this day, it still feels funny sliding a CD in place instead of setting a record on the turntable. It was always exciting, that first moment, when the needle connected with the vinyl groove. The first CD I ever heard was an experimental one, a long time ago, with Rainy Day Women on it. I just shook my head and said "nope. it will never take off. nobody will give up playing records." Nostradamus I am not.
In any event, there are two handsome portraits of Bob in the packaging. I like the song called Ain't Talkin'.  Like walking alongside Bob hearing him thinking. It was nice to get a special copy brought to my door.  It kind of made up for all those bus rides in the mid-sixties, through Camden into Philadelphia, to stand for hours in line just to buy a copy of Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde. It was always worth it though. I was never disappointed. (Photo: Smith at Lollapalooza, 2006)

Modern Times aside, I am just writing to say I have been working more on the website and will be making some changes in the next week. I had been kind of negligent for a while as I did a lot
of traveling and have had a lot on my mind.  But I promise to be more active.  I am adding another version of Qana on the site. Just a live late night practice tape. I mispronounced it when I did it myself but it was the only version I had and I thought the sentiments were more important than the pronunciation. I have a penchant for  mispronouncing, so sorry about that.

So I hope you will check the site out. I will try to put new stuff up every day or two. It's a good communication base. Hope to see you there. Well I've got to go clean out the refrigerator. A good idea is  to put an open new box of Arm and Hammer baking soda on one of the shelves. It cuts odors. Not that I'm implying anything.  all good wishes, Patti Smith

You can catch Bob Dylan in concert on Saturday, Sept. 2 at Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.
Patti Smith's new book, "Just Kids: From Brooklyn to the Chelsea Hotel" will be available in stores October 1.

Unknown Flophouse Mistaken for The Chelsea

A play called “The Love Doll” has just finished its run at the Philipstown Depot Theatre in Cold Spring, NY, wherever that is.  The play is set in the “infamous” Chelsea Hotel -- – though I can’t imagine what they mean by that – situated on 23^rd Street between 8^th and 9^th Avenues.  Apparently, in this play, a man who lives with a life size blowup doll attempts to commit suicide by boobytrapping his room.  Now, for the life of me, I can’t image how anyone could suggest that such loathsome perverts would ever be allowed to set foot in our fine hotel. This is not the Chelsea we know and love and Stanley Bard would never allow such behavior.  Most likely, however, since they got the address wrong, they probably got everything else wrong as well.  I can only conclude that they are unfamiliar with the city, and that these events took place in an entirely different building.  They speak of the Chelsea as the scene of “madness, mayhem, and finally joy,” but those of lucky enough to live here of course know only the joy.  (Ed Hamilton)

Sathima Bea Benjamin’s SongSpirit

            Our Chelsea Hotel neighbor, Sathima Bea Benjamin, has just released a new CD, SongSpirit, on Ekapa Records.  Interspersing old jazz standards with her own original songs, the CD covers almost her entire career, from an early recording with Duke Ellington in Paris in 1963, to her latest session in Capetown in 2002.
            Sathima has a very fine voice, which can range from the sweet, upbeat and buoyant, as in “Ah Sweet Mystery of Life” and “I Only Have Eyes For You,” to the smooth, sultry and sexy, as in the Ellington piece, “I Got it Bad and that Ain’t Good” and “Lush Life,” both of which really evoke the feel of the smoky night club.  I’d have to say that “Lush Life” was one of my favorites on the CD: I listened to it over and over.
            Three of Sathima’s own songs appear on the CD as well.  I particularly liked “Children of Soweto,” with it’s cheerful, uplifting folk beat, and “Africa,” a moving evocation of returning home to her native South Africa after years of Exile.  In the latter, with the haunting Saxophone of Carlos Ward echoing in the background, Sathima sings, “I’ve come home to feel my people’s warmth, to shelter ‘neath your trees, to catch the summer breeze...”  Also of note on the piece is the piano of Onaje Allan Gumbs.
            Sathima is married to the great jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, and the selection she recorded with him, “It Never Entered My Mind,” is another of the highlights of the album.  Ibrahim’s delicate, tinkling piano sounds almost classical on this piece.
            Yet another highlight of the CD is the bittersweet “Indian Summer,” with its evocation of love that almost was, and of the promise of dreams that will never come true.
            If you like jazz, or even if you don’t, you can’t go wrong with this CD.  It’s mellow and relaxing and provides a welcome break from the jarring dissonance of the city.  The CD rewards repeated listening, and stands as an eloquent summation of Sathima’s lifelong body of work. (Ed Hamilton)

All Tomorrow's Parties: August 28 - Sept. 3, 2006

Monday, August 28, 12:00 midnight
Bob Dylan will premier his first album in five years, "Modern Times," on XM Satellite Radio.  Beginning on Tuesday, August 29, fans can purchase a copy of Modern Times at select retailers. The artist's 44th album features 10 new songs recorded this winter with Dylan on keyboards, guitars, harmonica and vocals, accompanied by his touring band.

Tuesday, August 29,
After winning the Budweiser Irish Derby, Dylan Thomas is the favorite to win the Juddmonte International Stakes being run today in York.  So head over to the nearest OTB parlor and place your bet before they close them all down.

Tuesday, August 29, 10:30 p.m.
Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to Happy Valley Tuesdays. SHOW: LAVINIA DJ: Princess & Dan Cacioppo Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Astro, Theodora Ladyfag, Amanda Lepore & Dirty Martini.  Door: Andrea and Cynthia. 
14 east 27 St., NY NY

Friday, September 1, various times
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film opens tonight at the Film Forum.  It's the US theatrical premiere of Ric Burns’s 4-hour epic.  Narrated by Laurie Anderson. With Jeff Koons as the voice of Andy Warhol. Featuring interviews with art dealer Irving Blum, curator Donna DeSalvo, diarist/co-author Pat Hackett, art critic Dave Hickey, writer Stephen Koch, Jeff Koons, Paul Morrissey, George Plimpton, art historian John Richardson, and Warhol’s brother John Warhola.
Film Forum, 209 West Houston, NY NY

Saturday, September 2,
Harry Smith's early abstractions will be shown along with some of his other short films at the Anthology Film Archives later this month, but for those readers who just can't wait you can already enjoy some of his early abstractions on youtube.


If you have a relevant event you want added to "All Tomorrow's Parties," e-mail [email protected]

Featured E-mail of the Week

From a rocker in Maryland:
Just wanted you to know how much I enjoy the blog...it's alot of fun to read, I find myself laughing outloud at work...and sometimes I really need that! Thanks once again for linking the blog I wrote about the Chelsea...even if you did take it a little out of context!! …. Maybe next time I'm in town you could ask Stanley to give me a discount...HA HA! Keep up the good work. And thanks for giving me my Chelsea fix when I'm home. This is why we write the blog: to help the people in Maryland make it through the workday!

A librarian from Brooklyn weighs in: I really enjoy reading about the Chelsea on your blog. I loved that there was an entry that looked into the AOL searcher profiles, awesome idea!! I also just watched the Entourage episode about the Ramones project. Cool!

A new reader who enjoys torturing librarians writes:
I notice some of my favorite writers listed on your site. Here's a fun game to play:

Call up your local library and tell them that you're looking for a book. Tell them it's a kids book...by Charles Bukowski. Then just wait a few seconds for the long pause. Then say "Yeah, I think it's called 'Notes from a Dirty old Man to little kids' or something like that."
I have a friend who is a librarian and she hates me for doing this stuff to her.

A reader from Canada:
I kind of like the idea of the Chelsea Hotel being old and crappy. None of this refurbished business.
Of course, in my head, I'm writing in a room there, the curtains are dusty, the room is clean but it's not the Hilton....which is exactly why I would be there. 
n'est pas?  Our point exactly!  Old and Crappy is best!

Betty Bishop Remembers The Nineties

Betty Bishop spent a memorable six months here at the Chelsea back in the early nineties, attending one of good ol' Gingie's birthday parties.  She even got to have one of her paintings on display in the lobby for a while.  But she sure was glad that the guy who jumped down the stairwell was all cleaned up by the time she got home.
1. What do you do?  I have done a lot of things. From working as a waitress to owning a fairly large catering company where we made little sandwiches for the Queen of England. I sold it and retired when I was 51 years old. Then I took up art. I am now 72.
2. When did you stay at the Chelsea?

I stayed at the Chelsea for 6 months the winter of 1992/93. Room 603 I think. You can see a painting of my room and there is also one of the hall on the 6th floor. (Click here for her photos. The one on the right hung in the lobby for a while.)

3. What brought you to the famed hotel?

I am from Toronto - I wanted to study at the Art Student's League and did study at the Art Student's League. I knew about the Chelsea and I just phoned and asked if they had a room with a kitchen. They did and the price was right although it took rather a long time to get them to tell me exactly how much it would cost me. "Come on down and we will see"...............it was sort of like that if I remember correctly.

4. Has your art been influenced by any former or currents residents of the hotel?

Probably unconsciously.

5. Which artists do you most admire and why?

Cezzane, Titan, Tuttle, Freud, Horace Pippin - why? because they give me shivers! Oh yes - Van Gogh! Matisse.........

6.  Do you think the Chelsea Hotel has a creative spirit?

I imagine it does. I sometimes wondered who else had slept in my bed and who they slept with.

7.  What was the best/worst thing that happened to you at the Chelsea?

The worst was the day I came "home" and learned a guy had jumped or fallen down 9 flights into the stairwell. Fortunately for me they had cleaned him up before I got home. The best was Ginger's birthday party - Ginger was the house dog and I am invited to her September Birthday party - forever and ever!

8. Did you spot any celebrities during your visit?
Yes although it depends on your definition of a celebrity doesn't it? I had dinner with a woman who used to swim with Picasso. She also lived between the Chelsea and her Paris apartment. I am sure she is dead now so I can mention her but I don't know if she was a celebrity. She was a painter.

A Tale of Two Dylans

A Welsh writer named Phil Bowen has written a play about a meeting between Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan in the Chelsea Hotel. Though initially produced in 2001 and 2002, it was of course a flop.  Now its been brought back for a run at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Wales. Through superior blogging skills we have managed to obtain an excerpt from the top-secret script.  Picture the two men seated in a dingy cockroach-with-teeth infested room at the world famous Chelsea Hotel:

Bob: How does it feel Dylan, you old tosspot, to be on your own, with no direction home, etc. etc….?

Dylan:  Well, not so hot, Bob, you royal asshole, but at least Death Shall Have no Dominion Over Me.

Bob: No, but 18 whiskeys did.  Looking back on your life, how many roads did you have to go down before they called you a man?
Dylan: A shit load, but I’m still not ready to go gently into that good night.

We can’t wait for the sequel, where Dee Dee Ramone instructs Mark Twain in the finer points of shooting smack.

Stefan Brecht's Poetry of the Street

Stefan Brecht, the son of the great German playwright Bertolt Brecht, and a poet and scholar in his own right, maintained a writing studio in the Chelsea Hotel throughout the eighties and nineties.  Every morning, Stefan walked up 8^th Avenue to the Chelsea from his home in Greenwich Village, recording his journey in photographs.  The photographs are not what you might imagine, however, not street scenes or portraits of Chelsea neighborhood characters.  They are instead photos of the sidewalk itself, the actual pavement over which Brecht walked, with all its cracks and crevices, its grease stains and gum spots, revealing the history of the many generations of feet that have trod over it.  The photos, in black and white, have a striking, abstract expressionist quality.  Hopefully we can see them in a show someday; blown up to a decent size and hung on a gallery wall they would surely be impressive.  In the meantime, Onestar Press has a book of the photos in the works, due out this fall.

            Brecht also recorded his daily journey in poetry, and these poems have been collected in a new book, 8th Avenue Poems published by Spuyten Duyvil Press.  In a straightforward, no nonsense style, Brecht sets aside a lifetime of erudition to channel the unadorned essence of humanity in its naked struggle for survival on the mean streets of New York.  In these poems we encounter the junkies, the homeless, the trannie whores; the cleaning ladies cleaning and the young toughs preening.  Brecht’s practiced method allows him to penetrate to the heart of these people, to capture and bring back the very kernel at the core of their being, allowing us to grasp this kernel intimately by showing us that way down in the depths of our souls it is the most fundamental basis of our own struggle as well.  Consider:

It is undoubtedly an American,

but a gross sight, he is defecating in a doorway,

his pants down decently in the back only,

in a crouch, ready to jump, peering about apprehensively,

his large face up and moving. (72)

            With no attempt to sanitize, but with always an eye for the true human pathos inherent in every situation, Brecht lets the scenes speak for themselves, and speak they do, most eloquently.  They tell a tale of lives shaped—in many instances warped and twisted--by the exigencies of the harsh, Darwinian grind of the city’s overwhelming, terrible/beautiful immensity:

...in the street men carry/the faces of Indians as though some upheaval/had brought to the fore in their faces the arched cheekbones, opaque/agate eyes, the wide expanses on skulls like boulders/of this race exterminated hereabouts and in the islands... (76)

            Brecht is a keen observer of human nature, able to turn his gaze upon a street scene objectively, dispassionately, and to discern the formal beauty even in the midst of a seemingly formless—and sometimes downright frightening--chaos.  It is nonetheless clear, however, that he feels a close bond of kinship with his subjects, and his poetry is best when he lays aside all artifice and engages with the people of the street, as in this poem in which his eyes meet--for the very first time—the eyes of an insane homeless woman he has passed a hundred times in the street:

...and her face distracted into a grimace./ Now I don’t know if she was showing ironic contempt for my inability to/maintain non-recognition, mocking/me with some slight savagery, or if the rictus within which her eyes flared/was a genuine smile, better than mine, but distorted by some muscular/dyscontrol... (58-59)

            These I/Thou encounters pop up seemingly at random, surprising and touching us, as we feel they do Brecht himself, with the depth of their poignancy.  It’s a common, though doomed, strategy to attempt to remain aloof, enclosed within one’s own self, when walking the streets of New York.  For the outward danger of the streets—a danger in no sense inconsiderable—is dwarfed by the profound inward tax that the city inevitably extracts from one’s soul:

“Nickel,” he says, “Smoke,” between his teeth like at the refectory table/in the big house, graduating/up to the big time, but me at the corner of 17^th in the smoke of his young/business man’s whisper see my old girl friend in her 35^th year/slipping back into the steadying habit,/taking high aim, her nerves shot,/and the innocent enterprise of this punk/gets on my arse,/ a regrettable lack of detachment. (43)

            We are all like this in New York, doing our best to stand up straight and hold our heads high as we walk the streets, yet possessing a scarcely concealed fragility at the core of our being.  Several of Brecht’s photos of 8^th avenue are scattered throughout the book, as if to drive home the point that, like the sidewalks, the people in his poetry are worn and cracked and bear the stamp of a thousand footfalls as well, and are nonetheless as durable, as enduring as the pavement upon which they walk.

[Stefan Brecht was born in 1924 in Berlin, Germany and came to America in 1942.  He has published several books on the theatre, as well as a volume of his poetry with City Lights.  He currently lives and works in the Chelsea area of New York.  8^th Avenue Poems, Spuyten Duyvil Press, New York, will be available in bookstores soon, or you can order it at www.spuytenduyvil.net.]

-- Photo of Stefan Brecht at the Hotel Chelsea, Room 1010, 1979 by Maggie Hopp.  A special thanks to Caroline Hansberry for providing the review copy of the book as well.-- (Ed Hamilton)

Faux-Murder Chic at Miss Sixty Hotel

This Miss Sixty hotel in Riccione, Italy looks like a Holiday Inn with a child’s plastic stencil worked into its façade.  Even worse, here they are trying to steal the Chelsea's business with a fake murder room!  (I can’t tell who was fake-murdered there.)
But hey, accept no substitutes.  We have plenty of real murder rooms, including the  greatest of all – if you can find it, that is.  Nobody beats the Chelsea for morbid, gothic tourism.  Seriously though, Miss Sixty people, the faux-art-hotel thing I can see, but faux murder rooms?  Don’t even try it. We blow you away, you amateurs.   Oh, and they’ve got Orwellian technology too!  Luckily, we’ve developed some of that ourselves. (Ed Hamilton)

Book Publishers Finally Discover Internet Writers

Collegestories.com, a humor website (not to be confused with collegehumor.com, the site which was recently purchased by Barry Diller for several million dollars), just released an anthology entitled Class Dismissed (Villard, 2006).  Without a doubt this book will make several times as much money as all the movies set to be derived from the collegehumor content.

It seems that drunken frat boy humor is making a comeback of late. The New York Times reported on this trend recently in the Style section, singling out the lifestyle magazine Modern Drunkard and several forthcoming novels.

Why, may you ask, should we care?  Well, this blog's Slice-of-Lifer, Ed Hamilton, has a story in the Anthology.  We haven’t seen a copy of the book yet, so we don’t know if they used the author’s photo, but they requested a humorous one.  Here’s what they got from Ed, much to the dismay of his mother, who wanted us to send a photo of Ed in his first communion outfit.  In retrospect, perhaps that would have been funnier, or at least more ironic.

Here’s an excerpt from Ed’s story, but that’s all you get for free.  You’ll have to buy a copy of Class Dismissed to read the whole story.  (It’s also an excerpt from a novel, but Ed’s still waiting for somebody to snatch that up.)

Soon, I was hopelessly lost. The houses were getting shittier and shittier, more ramshackle. At one of the houses there were some long-haired rednecks hanging out on their front porch. They were older than me, probably in their early thirties. There were three of them, and a fat woman redneck.

They looked friendly enough, so I figured I'd ask them for directions. But in my drunken state, stumbling up into their yard, I chose an ill-advised greeting:

"Hey you guys, got any reefer?"

The men just sat there, expressionless, but the woman jumped up and screamed at me, hysterically, "No! Get out of here!

That seemed downright inhospitable. I decided to take my revenge on her by hanging out there for a while. "I wasn't even talking to you, lady," I said. Then, addressing the man nearest me, the one with a beard, I said, "You probably got some reefer, don't you, man?"

All Tomorrow's Parties: August 21 - 27

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 6:00 p.m.
Join Kevin Fitzpatrick, founder of the Dorothy Parker Society, for a toast to Parker on her birthday. The Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, NY NY

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 10:30 p.m.
Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny bring you Happy Valley Tuesday. Show: Amanda Lepore, I know what boys like. Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Astro, Theodora Ladyfag & Amanda Lepore.  Door: Andrea and Cynthia. 
14 east 27 St., NY NY

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 8:30 p.m.
For our readers in Tennessee, former resident Joe Bidwell will be performing at The Family Wash. 2038 Greenwood Ave. @ Porter Ave., Nashville, TENN

Wednesday, Aug. 23, 8:00 p.m.
Last chance to check out Burlesque Room before it moves to a new venue. Don't miss the big Flip Cup Tournament starting at 9:00 p.m. Drink specials include $7:00 beer and a free shot! Nina Fisher performs at 10:00 p.m.
Serena's in the Basement of the Chelsea Hotel, 222 W. 23rd St., NY NY

Friday, Aug. 25, 7:30 p.m. Wine reception at 6:30 p.m.
"A Letter from Greenpoint" with Jonas Mekas in person. In 2004, Jonas Mekas, one of the key figures in New York’s alternative film culture, moved from Soho to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. “This video,” says Mekas, “is about letting roots grow in a new place, new home, with new friends, new thoughts, experiences.” Preceded by Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 1949-2003, 15 mins.
Museum of the Moving Image, 35 Avenue at 36 Street Astoria, New York

Saturday, Aug. 26, various times
Factotum, the new movie based on the book of the same name by former Chelsea Hotel guest Charles Bukowski is sure to please fans of the drunken writer.
IFC Center, 323 6th Ave, NY NY

If you have a relevant event you want added to "All Tomorrow's Parties," e-mail [email protected]

Fatasses Need Not Apply

We're always seeking to be of service to our Chelsea cohorts.  Hope we could help.  (via craigslist)
  "In town for the weekend, staying at the Chelsea.  Please be eager, thin, sexy.  I promise to be the  same.  Everything will be safe, comfortable and badass."

Hawk Alfredson at Galapagos on Sunday August 20

Hawk Alfredson's paintings will be on display at the Galapagos Art Space located at 70 N. 6th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Many of you have seen Hawk's paintings hanging throughout the building here at the Chelsea Hotel.  The event Sunday evening from 7:30 - 10:00 is a kick-off party for a sci-fi film by Jeff Vandermeer.

TV Lobotomy

Now that 3/4 of the Ramones are dead -- including our beloved hotel-mate Dee Dee, who's gone to the great shooting gallery in the sky -- the band seems to be getting really good product placement.  In an upcoming episode of Entourage, the HBO show, the plot centers around a Ramones movie script that the boys want to see produced.  I watch this show all of the time at the gym with the sound off.  It seems interesting, but, I guess, not interesting enough to actually listen to.  Maybe I'll turn the volume up next time.  The Ramones themed shows air on 8/20 and 8/27.  Hey Ho, lets go!  (Ed Hamilton)

More Rockers Rippin Up The Chelsea

The Geezers (?) stopped by the Chelsea to jump up and down on the beds and bare their bottoms! What else is there for rockers to do once they make it to the Chelsea? Nail the furniture to the ceiling! Throw that TV out the window! Who says they don't rule, you wanks!

D-XRISTO: ABSOUTELY FRENCH!

Renaissance man D-Xristo! stopped by the Chelsea to visit his friend, and fortunately for posterity his friend had a video camera.  He is French, goddammit!
What do you do?
I am an art model, pet sitter, actor and singer songwriter under the name of D-XRISTO!
What brought you to the Chelsea?
My best friend and talented photographer Michael Huhn who moved to Los Angeles came to New York on a business trip and stayed briefly at the hotel!
Had you heard of the Chelsea prior to your visit?
Absolutely!!! Sid Vicious from the Sex pistols stabbed his girlfriend to death there!
Did the Chelsea live up to its reputation?
Absolutely! It is such a mysterious place!
What inspired you to shoot your video in the Chelsea?
My friend decided to do it and I jumped immediately! It was a fantastic idea!
Do you think the Chelsea has a creative spirit?
Absolutely!!!

Welcome to the Chelsea Hotel: Old, Crappy & Eerie

There’s a review of the Chelsea on the tripadvisor site that really takes us to task.  “Chelsea Hotel: Old & Crappy” the review is called. The reviewer talks about the old furniture and speculates that Stanley's purpose in retaining it is to give the place “the feel of when the stars stayed here.” I have news for you bucko, the stars are still here!  The first time my girlfriend and I stayed here was back in the mid-eighties.  The drawers in the chest were moldy and had holes rotted through them.  Nobody in their right mind would have stored clothes there.  We must not have minded too much, we came back. I don't think the tourist minded it too much either, they indicated that they would most likely recommend this hotel to their best friend.
The tourist mentions that the Chelsea feels "errie." Yeah, that's the famous Chelsea energy, chief.  I never have thought of it quite that way myself, but everybody experience it differently, of course, and now that he says that, it makes sense.  The owner, he says, seemed cool.  I can see that too, I suppose.

Venturing Down The Chelsea Memory Hole

Last week, there was a lot of discussion about AOL’s decision to release details about user’s web searches.  Despite efforts by AOL to remove the data, the database is still online. We decided to look into the AOL memory hole to see who was planning to visit the Chelsea.  We expected to find artists and rockers, but instead we found some typical tourists.

Mystery Guest # 1 This tourist was very confused that AOL directed her to the Chelsea hotel in Japan.  Anyway, she isn’t going to Japan she’s coming to New York.  U.S. Air was too expensive so she tried Jet Blue.  She rented a car from Hertz. When she booked her room at the Chelsea she discovered that she needed to bring her own quilts and therefore quickly signed up for quilting classes.  And, someone told her not to expect flowers in her room; she’ll be bringing her own.

5114698	google	2006-03-03 21:40:31
5114698	us air	2006-03-03 13:46:32
5114698	us air	2006-03-03 13:28:18
5114698	google	2006-03-03 12:49:08
5114698	chelsea hotel	2006-03-03 10:12:24	http://www.chelseahotel.jp
5114698	chelsea hotel	2006-03-03 10:10:47	http://www.hotelchelsea.com
5114698	quilting classes in nassau county	2006-03-03 00:18:08	http://www.yellowbook.com
5114698	quilting classes in nassau county	2006-03-03 00:15:16	http://www.newsday.com
5114698	keith shawn smith unc	2006-03-03 21:43:51	http://www.newsobserver.com
5114698	hydrangea macrophylla	2006-03-04 11:30:23
5114698	hertz	2006-03-07 13:06:44
5114698	jetblue	2006-03-06 18:50:38	http://www.jetblue.com

Mystery Guest # 2 -- This Indiana Hoosier thinks you need a passport to come to New York. Though he’s ready to retire, he’s still a sexual dynamo and he doesn’t want any of our Slammin’ NY Babes slappin him with a paternity suit. He best beware of his wife’s deadly chicken salad recipe. It could be his last meal.

All Tomorrow's Parties: August 14 - 20, 2006

MONDAY
If you really want to pick up an extra $200.00 FUSE's hit show, PANTS OFF DANCE OFF is looking for sexy women (over 21 only) to dance and strip for this fun TV show in its second season.  They are shooting throughout the month in a midtown manhattan studio. (Your private parts will be blurred on TV).  If you're interested send an e-mail with DANCE in the subject line to [email protected]. Attach a jpeg of yourself and include a phone number and email where you can be reached. 

Tuesday, Aug. 15, 10:30 p.m.
Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to HAPPY VALLEY TUESDAYS. DJ: Sammy Jo. Downstairs: D.J. Ryan and Kim Ann. Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Astro, Theodora Ladyfag & Amanda Lepore.  Door: Andrea and Cynthia. 
14 east 27 St., NY NY

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 9:00 p.m.
Burlesque Room. Drs Open @ 8pm, FREE BEFORE 10pm DJ This 'N DJ That will be spinning 80's/Electronica/Trip Hop/Ambient.  $5 Cover after, $7 BEER + SHOT COMBO ALL NIGHT
Serena's in the basement of the Chelsea Hotel, 222 W 23rd St., NY NY

Friday, Aug. 18, 7:00 p.m. FREE
The seminal New York punk band the New York Dolls play a free show. Their promoting the release of their first new album in thirty-one years.
South Street Seaport, Fulton St. at South St., NY NY


Saturday, Aug. 19, 11:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Readers spending the weekend in the Hamptons should take advantage of the first ever survey of Andy Warhol's work on Long Island. The exhibit includes more than 100 pieces ranging from works created in the 1950s through the 1980s.
Guild Hall Museum, 158 Main St., East Hampton NY NY

If you have a relevant event you want featured on All Tomorrow's Parties e-mail the information to [email protected]

Andy Warhol Stamp & Look-A-Like Contest

Celebrations were held throughout the land to honor Andy Warhol, who would have been 78 on August 6.

The USPS issued a new Andy Warhol commemorative stamp on Wednesday. The stamp features Warhol's "Self-Portrait,1964." Better stock up now before they turn up for sale on e-bay!  Update: Correction from the Post Gazette &  a reader.

The Allentown Museum held an Andy Warhol look-a-like contest. The winner was a 16 year-old boy.  Lucky kid.  Good luck with adolescence.

Over at Gothamist, you can view a clip of Nico and the Velvet Underground rehearsing at The Factory in 1966.  No Andy, but what the hell.  Nico actually lived at the Chelsea, instead of just turning up to bother Stanley with his cameras and a gang of wierdos now and again.

Patti Smith Reflects

The great singer/songwriter and poet Patti Smith sent along her reflections on the month of August.  Patti lived in the Chelsea with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the early 70s.  She returned to the Chelsea and lived her for a time in the late 90s as well.

August 9 full moon. This is the day Jerry Garcia died.  He was born on the first of August and passed away on the ninth, so it's nice to think of that span as Jerry week. It certainly seems that he well deserves a 9 day week. So it's winding to a close. I lit him a candle, listened to him singing Palm Sunday, and looked at his paintings in a big Jerry book.

August 2, the birthday of my sister Kimberly, was the anniversary of William Burroughs' passing.
While in my old house in Michigan I found my seventy year old bottle of Chartreuse squirreled away. I
bought it in the eighties with him in mind. We promised each other we'd share a drink one day, but we never got around  to it. I reread his Port of Saints and looked at a catalogue of his gun shot paintings. I traced my son and daughter's names  written in his hand on an old Christmas card.
Then I cracked open the Chartreuse and poured us each a shot. The green sugary liquid put me in mind of nineteenth century absinthe, so while I had my ritual drink with William, I kept in mind the likes of Paul Verlaine, Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud.

August 3, on the birthday of Beverly Lee, a member of the wondrous Shirelles, Arthur Lee passed away. I met him a long time ago. He was just a little older than me. He was soft spoken with a vague criminal air. Forever Changes left its mark. I was in Michigan when he died and I walked down to the end of my dead end street and sat on a bench beneath a weeping willow. It was at least one hundred degrees but I still had my trusty black coffee, steaming fresh from Seven Eleven. I played back Amoreagain and Orange Skies in my mind. These songs of Love are so deeply rooted I can hear them as clear as if they were wafting from a turntable.

My son's birthday rolled around. August 6 was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Over one hundred thousand people were massacred in that drop. Too many candles for one to light. I was back at my post on the bench looking out at Lake St. Clair. A huge Monarch brushed my cheek. I figured the butterfly, symbol of immortality, served to evoke them.

A few weeks ago I was in London. I visited a small bar painted green and lit with a green light. William used to frequent this joint some years ago. You can only enter through private subscription. I wasn't drinking. I was just visiting. It was three in the afternoon.  There were a few old-school characters nursing their whiskies. Suddenly, in the center of the friendly yet oppressive silence, one of them cried out "Syd Barrett is dead." This took me off guard. But the fellows spontaneously raised their glasses, issued a " here! here! Syd!" and then retreated into their private worlds. For that one moment they were of one mind. And I was with them, saluting someone I never knew. Someone who made music. Someone who loved Arthur Lee.

Today is my friend Betsy Lerner's birthday. It's the day the United States dropped an Atomic Bomb on Nagaski. It's the day Hermann Hesse died. The day Jerry died. I have returned to the city. Children are racing up and down my street. We humans keep in mind. That's what we do. Tonight is a full moon. Guess when it sets, I will get me a cup of black coffee, sit on the stoop, and contemplate the bombing of Qana, the miracle of love and Dark Star.

Patti Smith

Maybe Now People Will Stop Saying We're A Corporate Blog

Recent posts about our illustrious proprietor Stanley Bard have generated a lot of controversy.  Three daily readers weigh in with differing views on the matter:

   Something has recently struck me as somewhat unseemly, if not rather meanspirited. I've enjoyed 
   this blog from the time you all kicked it off, but in catching up last night I was perplexed by a
   repeatedly strange hostility towards Mr. Bard. I actually stopped to ask myself,' what happened
   to piss you off?' it seems to me that if you wanna slap Stanley around, at least tell me how come.
   My experience of the guy is that he fights and sweats like hell for this place to keep it as much
   "The Chelsea" as possible. In the past, he had numerous very fair reasons to kick my ass out, but
   instead always remained open to listening to my latest hardluck story -- forever preposterous and
   true. He runs a hotel, I don't see why he should be begrudged for wanting to make dough. I think
   the place has a pretty good mix of people and relative to the mentally ill vibe that existed when I first
   came here, (which admittedly I do miss at times), the current mix of tenants, yuppie s? visitors,
   children, dogs, individuals and Robert is preferable to the days when my neighbor howled like a
   stupid, bloody dog and clearly was ready to mass murder and scared the fuck out of my girlfriend
   who was delicate enough to fear going into the hallway.. ( The only time, I ever complained, and he
   was out not long after.)

   Look, I'm mister live and let live, it just kind of hurts my feelings that you're using this terrific thing
   you created to repeatedly cheap shot Bard. Or so it seems to me.

   Anyhow, keep up the good work. Peace, Linter

A former resident disagrees:

   David, Ed and "Susan" have written many lovely things about Stanley too. But people have always
   griped a little about Stanley -- it was kind of a Chelsea Hotel tradition.

   I love Stanley -- he was good to me and my friends there -- and have always understood that he is
   up against it -- the heirs of his father's former partner (aka "the investors") don't care about artists or
   the hotel's legacy or the Chelsea "family", they just care about the high rents in New York and how
   they can cash in on that. He has always walked the razor's edge between business concerns and
   his indulgent love of artists.

   I am sad to see Capitol go, it's an institution but I could stomach it if it was a way to keep Chelsea 
   Hotel rents down and the doors open for experimental and struggling artists. Unfortunately, I don't
   think the "investors" will be satisfied with that. (Bluehour)

The tourist has his say:

   Gosh. I'm only an Australian tourist but... I thought a good natured roasting of dear Stanley was a
   Chelsea tradition- it never occurred to me that he is anything other than loved.
   The only sure thing in life is change.

Mary Ann Rose: The Chelsea Is A Living Museum

The artist Mary Anne Rose views the Chelsea as a Living Museum.  Now there's a suggestion: Stanley could establish a recommended donation for viewing the paintings in the lobby and make some extra cash.  Mary Anne and her husband, the late painter Herbert Gentry, embody the timeless bohemian spirit of Chelsea.
What do you do?

I am an artist and art educator.

When did you move into the Chelsea?
My late husband Herb Gentry first invited me to join him in New York at the Chelsea (I was living in Paris at the time, where I had met him) . That “introduction” in November 1978 would become permanent. Gentry had come to the Chelsea many years earlier. (Photo: Mary Ann Rose and Herbert Gentry in front of the Chelsea from the archives of Mary Ann Rose.)

What would you say are the main differences between how the Chelsea was when you first moved in and how it is now?
We are talking about 1978 through 2006. Well, of course, I’ve changed. I was so wide-eyed and excited and fascinated by the Chelsea the minute I walked in. It was another world. There was an older generation or two of folks alive at the time so it carried a palpable connection to living history for me. It was also a very friendly place. A different crowd of folks sat in the lobby in 1978. There were real characters passing through the lobby late evenings that might keep a voyeur surprised and amused.

American culture and New York was a different experience in 1978. I remember the French advertised New York as “le metropole moins cher du monde” which meant dollars were cheap. Those were transitional times, a very lively social period. You still felt how the Chelsea had been home to American bohemia, and a lot of the residents, memories and attitudes of earlier years lived on at the Chelsea .  The French have a saying for this, the more things change, the more things remain the same.

The lobby was really pretty funky in 1978, the front desk area was sort of white painted plywood, forget the elegant dark wood look of today! The original Chelsea antique sideboards and benches in the lobby had different upholstery, but there were no flowers. Much of the same art was hanging in the lobby when I first came, some newer pieces have been added, but many are the same. That’s what really defined the place for me – a living museum!

How would you describe your art?
I have spent a lot of time writing during the time Gentry was ill, and after he passed away. A little tight for physical work space, I’ve been forced to make a lot of creative adjustments. My art? I think of it as the roll it up and take it with you kind – originally, to facilitate painting and exhibiting on two continents. Visually-based, abstract and geometric modalities, Paintings on unprimed, unstretched linen, works on paper, drawings, prints.

Who has influenced your art?
Clearly, living with another artist influenced me. But I was an artist before I met Gentry, and remain an independent artist today. The artistic discourse is important and continual.
Has your work been influenced by any residents here at the Chelsea?
I believe one’s life is influenced by interactions with people and places, and this shapes who you are in entering the studio. My residence at the Chelsea extends over 28 years. At the Chelsea, one passes art on the walls, people in the elevators, and there is the city itself. My artist friends here? Doris Chase, long term resident and video artist, in particular shared a lot of her experience with me before she left.

How did you meet Mr. Gentry?
We met in Paris at the Cite Internationale des Arts.

Identify some other artists who he admired and why.
Gentry went back to Paris in 1946 after serving in WWII, and lived many years in Paris, and then Sweden. Gentry came to the Chelsea thanks to the recommendation of the international museum director Pontus Hulten, who was a Swede and Herb knew him in Paris and Stockholm. Herb thought of it first as the place that European artists stayed. Gentry had grown up in New York city in the 1920s and 1930s, the Chelsea was perfect. Gentry admired many here at the Chelsea, of course those with French connections, Bernard Childs, Shirley Clarke, Virgil Thomson, Martine Barratt, many others. But Gentry was a personality, made many connections and impressions here that I still learn about! At the Chelsea, he congregated with writer Chester Himes, artists Romare Bearden. Bill Hutson. Bob Blackburn resided here in the final years. The Printmaking workhop was nearby. I worked there, too. Artists from Scandinavia and Paris stayed here, painters, musicians, short term and long. Writer Piri Thomas.  Bernard Childs, Martine Barratt, and others. Ed Clark in the neighborhood. Theater, actor Kevin O’Connor was our next-door neighbor, then actress Cyndi Coyne and Theo. Gentry would meet for breakfast at Wellington Restaurant on Seventh Ave. -- now Eros Cafe -- and Chelsea Square at 23rd and Ninth Ave. He loved the funky donut shop and egg sandwiches at Eighth and 23^rd. He had a café spirit and the neighborhood offered that to him.

Describe Mr. Gentry’s art?

Expressionist. Always abstract, but enjoyed the figurative element that emerged in his work. Some of his ideas were based on a belief, even a faith, in the subconscious.

Was Mr. Gentry’s work influenced by anyone he met or knew here at the Chelsea? Gentry the artist was already formed when he first arrived at the Chelsea. Most importantly, he felt very good here, and free in his lifestyle, and able to paint. The many people he met here all contributed to his art, because he was inspired by the human spirit.

Do you think the Chelsea has a creative spirit? I think creative individuals bring their creative spirit with them, and arrive at the Chelsea with this spirit as part of their baggage, so to speak. Because many such folks are gathered at the Chelsea, it becomes a safe and even, stimulating environment to work, share and acknowledge that creative impulse. It is a norm, rather than an exception.

THE MYSTERIOUS GODAWFUL STENCH

The hall smelled like shit, night after night.  It was July, and the stench was ungodly.  The smell seemed to be coming from the trash bin, though sometimes it was more focused in other areas, like right in front of our door, inexplicably lingering there.  But we just attributed that to weird air currents in the hundred-year-old Chelsea Hotel.  We thought about cat litter, since one of the women on the floor had a cat, but that smells more stale, it seems to me--and don’t they put disinfectant in that stuff?  No, this smelled like somebody opened the lid of the trash bin and took a good long dump right in the can.

Diapers, that’s all we could come up with.  The people with kids that age live on the other side of the elevators, separated from the trash bin by two heavy doors, and so presumably don’t have to smell it and are therefore less likely to care.  On the other hand, they surely knew better; surely knew to seal those things up in a plastic bag.

We weren’t the only ones bothered by the smell.  One evening we ran into Sarah, the gray-haired costume designer, sniffing around out by the trash bin.  She said she had complained to the people at the desk.

“So what did they say?” I asked.

“Oh, they didn’t take me seriously.  They never do,” she said, as if she expected as much, a smile still enlivening her round, pleasant face.

“Maybe because you’re only paying $500 in rent,” I said, jokingly.  She’d been living in the hotel, in a huge, rent stabilized suite of rooms, since the sixties.

“That has something to do with it, for sure,” she said.

            Sarah was rather scatter-brained, too, I thought.  Possibly they thought she was imagining things, or at least exaggerating.

            “We’ve got to do something about it,” she said.  “We can’t go on living like this.”

            The upshot was that she asked us to call down and complain as well, on the theory that they were more likely to take action if more than one person bothered them.

My area of specialization is the bathroom, so my girlfriend was the one who called.  The only one there at the front desk was the telephone operator, a kindly elderly lady named Anita.  I could only hear half of the conversation, of course, but my girlfriend filled me in on Anita’s part:

“The trash really stinks, and somebody needs to come get it,” my girlfriend said.

“You know nobody’s gonna come get your trash honey,” Anita said.  “You gotta take it out yourself.”

“No, the trash in the hall.  It’s stinking.”

“Well, if you left your trash out in the hall, that’s why it’s stinking.”

            My girlfriend hung up the phone, and said, “I don’t think they’re gonna do anything.”

“Why didn’t you explain it to her better?” I asked.

“It was no use,” she said.
She was probably right.  That’s the kind of thing that generally happens when you complain around here: a sort of willed incomprehension.  To accept that there was a problem would have required action.  (Ed Hamilton)

Schrager and Schnabel Build Hotel From Old Mushroom Crates

The Gramercy Hotel used to be a place very similar to the Chelsea, down at the heels and full of bohemians and bohemian charm.  But then the developer Ian Schrager gutted it and threw the permanent residents out on the street.  Now it’s an art hotel for the rich and jaded.  Julian Schnabel, a sometime Chelsea resident (he has a studio here), and the ostensible designer of the Gramercy—he doesn’t like the term “interior decorator”--should have known better than to get involved in this project.  But it’s clear why he did it: several of his paintings are front and center in the main rooms of the Gramercy, exposed to the gaze of rich potential collectors.

            The hotel does look pretty good, I must admit, a fairly relaxing place to hang out.      The furniture appears comfortable, the lighting subdued, and the art on the walls is fairly standard and shouldn’t agitate or offend anyone.  A lot of hard liquor will apparently be consumed here, as there are two bars: a large Rose Bar for prim ladies daintily sipping Cosmos, and a smaller, darker Jade Bar (why didn’t they just call it the Jaded Bar?) for the more serious lush.  Hey Ian, can we come blog from your place?  The walls and ceilings are lined with dark wood taken from old barns and mushroom crates.

            The problem is, the Gramercy looks exactly like a million other boutique hotels and upscale restaurants in the city and around the country.  No chances have been taken, leading me to suspect that Schnabel was hired simply to lend his name to the project.  In the article I read in The New York Times, the author seems hard pressed to explain how, exactly, this place is cutting edge: it’s not futuristic like Schrager’s earlier hotels, but on the other hand it’s somehow supposed to be an advance on the dozens of other “art hotels” that have sprung up like mushrooms (maybe that’s where they got the crates!) in the last few years.  There’s an art hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, of all places, that’s more cutting edge than this.  For the rich wastrel looking for a fresh new hotel experience, this is going to be an unmitigated flop.  My advice is, don’t bother.

            Instead, wait until Schrager takes over the Chelsea!  We just got rid of Capitol Fishing & Tackle after sixty-five years in the hotel, and so now there’s a huge space on the ground floor that he can fill with Schnabel’s art and turn into a really rockin’ bar.  I’m sure he’ll want to redo the present lobby as well, kitschy and unboutique-like as it is.  The permanent residents, of course, wouldn’t be allowed in either of these spaces, but what I’m hoping is that, instead of throwing us out, Schrager will let us use the service elevator to the basement where we can scurry in and out through the secret tunnel to less fashionable 22^nd St.  We all promise to be good bohemians and not speak out of turn and only make acceptable art.

            Ah, what the hell.  Gut the place.  The current rumor is that we’re going to get a Duane Reade in the Capitol Fishing & Tackle space.  Whoopee! Maybe we can get rid of El Quijote and get a Starbucks in here too.  Death to those who would turn New York into a boring mega-mall! (Ed Hamilton) Related articles -- Job Opportunities for Bohemians; Ian Versus Bohemia

All Tomorrow's Parties: August 7 - 13, 2006

Monday, August 7
BLUE MONDAY - The Touch Massage party will not be held at Serena's tonight and is looking for another venue for future parties.  Check their website for updates. We hear that someone from the hotel complained about the nudity.  (According to a professional masseur who works the event there is no nudity. Everyone keeps their underwear on.) Ridiculous, I know.  Who on earth would care about what goes on in the basement?  It's the Chelsea for God's sake.  In further depressing gay-related news, the steam room and sauna at the New York Sports Club at 23rd & 8th have been closed due to "inappropriate behavior."  You'll have to find that party at another venue as well.

Tuesday, August 8, 12:30 p.m.
Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to HAPPY VALLEY TUESDAYS. DJ: Sammy Jo. Downstairs: D.J. Ryan and Kim Ann. Afterparty for "Marilyn Monroe in Art" exhibit.
Show: Peppermint Gummibear and Dancers (photo).  Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Astro, Theodora Ladyfag & Amanda Lepore.  Door: Andrea and Cynthia.  14 east 27 St., NY NY

Wednesday, August 9, 8:00 p.m.
Burlesque Room at Serenas presents "BR Acoustic Sessions." Doors open at 8:00.  Free before 10:00, $5 cover after.  DJ This N DJ That will be spinning.
Serenas in the basement of the Chelsea Hotel, 222 West 23rd, NY NY

Friday, August 11, 11:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Last chance to see "On Second Thought," a group show of multimedia work including Andy Warhol's  black-on-black ``Four Marilyns'' (1979-86): a 36-by-28-inch silkscreen on canvas divided into four parts, each containing a barely discernible face of the legendary actress.  One of the most interesting pieces is the 1995 video, in which Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy restage and warp 1970s performances by provocative artist Vito Acconci -- complete with frontal nudity, bath bubbles and hysterics.
Perry Rubenstein Gallery, 527 West 23rd St., NY NY

Saturday, August 12, 7:00 p.m.
The 22nd Annual New York Antifolk Festival opens today. The performers include Suzanne Vega.
Thompkins Square Park, East Village, NY NY

A Room With Ghost: $4 and Up

Bids start at $15.00 for this issue of Life Magazine from the mid-60s. Sounds like a bargain to me, but so far, only one bidder. Surely this artifact is worth something to somebody. The seller promises that the article about New York's Most Illustrious Third Rate Hotel contains anecdotes of all the famous artists, musicians, and writers who have lived at the Hotel Chelsea. In the picture I can identify Mark Twain on the left, and Brendan Behan chugging from a bottle on the right, but on the rest I'm rather shakey.  If anybody can identify the others, let us know.

Oliver Stones Got Nothing on the Chelsea

This week, Newsweek has a big article about Oliver Stone’s new movie, World Trade Center, and Newsweek’s website discusses the proliferation of 9/11 art.  But of course, as usual, the Chelsea was way ahead of Hollywood. Filmmaker Luke Joerger’s short film First Person 911, a series of vignettes shot during the 9/11 attack and its immediate aftermath, was screened at the New York Underground Film Festival in 2002. The film, shot on the day of the attacks, accurately captures the whole range of emotion, from disbelief to confusion to terror, of what it was like to be a New Yorker on September 11, 2001. You can view a bit of the film online. (Photo: Ray Mendez, Luke Joerger, Anthony Paris)
Luke, of course, has since moved on (though not, of course, from the Chelsea!)You can view some of his more recent work at Chelsea Hotel Vlogs and Pods and at Snap Films.

Devendra Banhart Rocks, Trashes Room; Sid’s Old Mattress

Rock and roll is here to stay.  Responding to Steven Kurutz’s dis of the Chelsea, several readers wrote in to recount their rock and roll experience at the Chelsea.
    Former resident Bluehour tells us, “One day maybe I’ll write about the very nice rock star (Dee Dee Ramone) who peeled me off a sidewalk and helped me get back to my room, after, um, too much drinking.”  We can’t wait to hear!  And, funkydollarbill tells us of “trashed halls and rooms with bed sheets tied in knots, flooded bathrooms, burnt carpet, angry neighbors, furniture used as firewood, broken condoms, broken mirrors, broken windows, broken souls and very hungover musicians and directors.”  Funkydollarbill you see directs  produces music videos by such groups as The Utah Saints, Feeder,  Lorraine, Eye to Eye, Mortis, and Bob Sinclar. After the Devendra Banhart shoot, Stanley Bard said the room was “the worst he’d ever seen in his lifetime.”  And that’s saying a lot.
          Several readers wanted to make sure that I mentioned that Dee Dee Ramone was a long time resident as were Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen.
            And my neighbor from down the hall, who delivers her comments in person, told me a story about a friend – or maybe a friend –of-a-friend, as they say – who checked into Room 100 in the mid-eighties.  The mattress was lumpy, the springs poking through (standard issue here), so she decided to flip it over to see if that helped – only to find a horrorendous blood stain on the other side!
     Told of any other building in the world, this would be easy to dismiss as an obvious specimen of urban folklore.  But it rings true in the Chelsea for a couple of reasons: one is the almost unimaginable uncleanliness of certain corners of this place; the other is the legendary cheapness of our illustrious proprietor, Stanley Bard.
            Besides that, the Chelsea is such a weird, mythological place, that known laws of the physical universe – not to mention of commons sense and decency – are routinely suspended.  Even if it didn’t happen in the “real world” at the Chelsea, it did anyway.  As reader Jay Hails wrote, “If the Chelsea isn’t Rock & Roll, then there is no Rock and Roll.” (Ed Hamilton)

David Goodwillie Discovers His Muse at the Chelsea

We seem to have stumbled upon a trend here. David Goodwillie is the third author we've interviewed who got into the Chelsea via a sublet arrangement.  It sounds like David's arrangement turned out OK. He met Anna Wintour down in Serena's and he scored a room with a view: "When I woke up and looked outside, I saw this gorgeous girl walking around topless in her apartment.  She was getting ready for work, but must have known I could see her.  I've never seen anyone take so long to get dressed.  And right in front of the window the whole time.  It was a good writing day..."  You can hear David read Friday at 7:00 p.m. at the Astor Place Barnes & Noble.
What do you do?
I've done all kinds of things since moving to New York City eleven years ago.  I've been a minor league baseball player (in Ohio, actually), private investigator, Sothebys auction house expert, investigative reporter, Internet entrepreneur, and finally, settled down to write books, which is the only occupation I've been successful at and is clearly what I should have been doing all along.  That said, my first effort, a memoir called Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time (it came out June 2nd), chronicles everything I did on the way to becoming a writer, so I suppose it wasn't a waste.  It's a generational story about what it was like coming of age in New York in the late nineties, the exact moment when the past--the history of the city that hangs heavy around us all the time--was overtaken by the future, by endless possibility--in the form of technology and the Internet boom.  Thankfully, it was something of a mirage, though it's scarred a lot of us who lived through it.  I'm writing a novel now.
When did you live at the Chelsea?

I never lived at the Chelsea, but I did write part of my book there.  I wrote in a friend (and fellow-writer's) room for parts of 2002-03.  It was something of a sublet arrangement, I suppose, though I sometimes rented my own room as well.  It's a great place to work.  The thick walls keep the outside world away.

What inspired you to move into the Hotel Chelsea?

I'd always loved the place, or at least revered it, been awed by the history of it, and it seemed to me--and still does--a kind of anomaly, even in New York City.  It was a place where art--and the varied lifestyles that word produces--came first.  Being offbeat is almost a prerequisite at the Chelsea, and in a rapidly homogenizing world, that's quite alluring. 
Do you think the Chelsea has a creative spirit?

Yes, of course, in the way that any historically intriguing place has a certain spirit.  It's funny: for all the hubbub about celebrities and artists forever roaming the halls, the actual halls, once you get up and out of the lobby, are usually incredibly quiet.  Even at night.  The heavy guestroom doors can seem like barriers protecting the secrets inside.  When I was stuck on something, I used to get up and walk around--up and down the big central staircase--wondering whose room was whose.  What had happened in this one, in that one?  Where did Leonard Cohen live?  Which room did Edie set on fire.  I was always too shy to actually ask anyone.  I never wished walls could tell stories until I spent some time in the Chelsea Hotel. 
Has your writing been influenced by any current or former Chelsea Hotel residents?

My writing is influenced more by the city than any one person living in it.  And in that way the city--at least my version of the city--has a lot to do with the Chelsea Hotel.  When I was writing an early draft of my book, I got really frustrated one night and asked my then-girlfriend what she thought the theme of the book really was: Careers? Coming of Age? Commitment?  Relationships?  She thought about it for a minute and the said something I'd never considered before.  She told me I'd written a love story, an ode to my ongoing affair with New York, the city itself.  And she was right.  Within that city, there are a few epicenters, symbols of the place and its living past.  The Chelsea Hotel is one of them.   

Who, among contemporary authors, do you most admire?

James Salter, Adam Gopnik, Phil Gourevitch, Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, David Gates, Colson Whitehead, Amy Hempel, Jay McInerney.  Language, the way words work together, is important to them.  And they all, whether writing fiction or non-fiction--have an incredible ability to place you in a vivid setting (yes, often New York), before strapping you in and taking you for a ride.   

What was the best/worst thing that happened to you while living at the Chelsea?

I had rented a room on the far right side of the hotel (the left if you're facing it), and the windows looked across a "courtyard" (one of those urban wastelands between buildings) and into the apartment building across the way.  When I woke up and looked outside, I saw this gorgeous girl walking around topless in her apartment.  She was getting ready for work, but must have known I could see her.  I've never seen anyone take so long to get dressed.  And right in front of the window the whole time.  It was a good writing day... 

The worst?  I got stuck in one of the elevators for twenty minutes.  Alone.  In mid-summer.  Not that fun.    
Did you meet any famous folks while living at the Chelsea?

I used to see Ethan Hawke and Rufus Wainwright coming in and out all the time.  Ethan was usually alone, Rufus with a group.  I was friends with Sam Schaeffer, who along with his mother Serena Bass, were the original owners of Serena, so I spent a lot of time at the bar down there after long days of writing.  Sam knows everyone, so it was always quite a parade coming in and out of that cavernous basement.  I had my 30th birthday party at Serena (in 2002), and when I went in one afternoon to plan the thing with Sam, his then-stepmother Anna Wintour was there.  When I met her, she told me she liked my shoes.  I don't think I took them off for a month after that.

The marketing materials for "It Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time," doesn't promote that part of the book is set in the Chelsea, why?

The time line of the book (1994-2001) takes place before my time at the Chelsea.  That said, the place affected me so much that I had to include it.  So I wrote a prologue (attached) that takes place at the Chelsea.  It's at the beginning of the book, though it takes place sequentially after the book is done.  I think it serves to root the story in New York, because the first chapter (which immediately follows) actually takes place in Ohio, at a tryout for the Cincinnati Reds.  You can probably guess how that went.   

Are you currently working on any projects you can tell our readers about?

A political novel about modern-day America and the two sides of my generation--those who care too much, and those who care too little.  I'm trying to figure out which is worse...