Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Rock & Roll Is Not In Your Ipod

This weekend's Saturday Night Live featured a parody of "New York Stories," with Fred Armisen and Amy Poehler playing Lou Reed and Patti Smith, respectively.  CBGBs was full of poets, losers, junkies and transvestites, and if you were lucky you might see Dee Dee eat 27 hotdogs.  It was just like the Chelsea, except we're still around--for now, anyway.

Gerald Busby and Friends at The Cornelia Street Café

On Monday we went to see the Chelsea Hotel’s own favorite composer Gerald Busby read as part of
the Serial Underground series at the Cornelia Street Café.  As always it was a relaxed evening of fine avant garde music and slightly quirky good company.

            Composer’s Collaborative founder Jed Distler got the program rolling with a clever and humorous parody of how various composers, including Messiaen, would render the old standard “Happy Birthday.”  One of the composers so parodied was actually in attendance, and a birthday boy himself! 

            One of the highlights of the evening was Judd Greenstein’s piece for solo viola, “Escape.”  Nadia Sirota’s viola was eerie, then light and dancelike, brooding, then playful, as the piece built to an exciting interplay between the two themes, resolving into a frenzied finale.  The piece was difficult to listen to at first, but it gradually pulled the listener in; it made a believer of me.

            Gerald, with heart and practiced inflection, read a moving and funny story about a woman whose cat, Felix, falls off her terrace only to be adopted by a strange sort of trailer trash family with a painting of children being crucified on the wall.  When the woman goes to collect Felix, the fat matriarch of the clan announces that they have changed the cat’s name to Jimmy, and that he seems to like it.  It’s truly heartbreaking when Felix/Jimmy snuggles up to the fat woman as he’s never done with the original owner.  The larger meaning of the story concerns loneliness.  Maggie Paley, whose works include the novel Bad Manners and the nonfiction Book of the Penis is an excellent writer, deceptively plainspoken and without the need to rely on the usual writing school tricks, and manages to accomplish the nearly impossible in evoking empathy for even this rather grotesque family.

            “New York Scenes,” a song cycle by Justine F. Chen, came next.  These are just what they sound like: accounts of incidental encounters with archetypal New York characters.  Chen said she composed the pieces with the baritone Giuseppe Spoletini, in mind, and it’s easy to see why she chose him: not only a fine singer, Spoletini is also an expressive actor.  Best was his depiction of an irritable subway rider.  Together with the fine pianist Edward Lorel, Spoletini carried us through the gamut of emotions, evoking in turn boredom, anxiety, frustration, anxiety, anger, defeat, and finally (momentary) triumph.

            We were then treated to a rousing and funny cabaret number by Jed Distler, “A Brief History of Money” in which the narrator recounts the various indignities he has suffered in his quest to keep food on the table, including:

Broken into automatic Teller machines,

Sold junior highschool students amphetamines,

            and played a dance class in queens.

Finally, Distler played a selection which he described as “Bach for hot tub users,” from his upcoming Meditate with the Masters CD. I liked the piece: smooth and catchy, it was certainly the easiest to appreciate.  I guess that means I’m ready for the Hot Tub life.  Where do they have those things?  L.A.?  Not at the Chelsea, that’s for sure.  L.A. here I come. (Ed Hamilton)

Prehistoric Comedy

I was at the gym across the street from the Chelsea, the New York Sports Club.  The locker room was almost empty, which was odd, but I suppose that’s because it was early on a Sunday morning.  A fit and trim, rather bulked-up young man strolled past me into the shower room, half yelling, half singing at the top of his lungs: “La la la, banana peels and cream pies, the ancient times of comedy, prehistoric comedy, slipping on banana peels and pies in the face.”  He kept it up while he was in the shower.  I could hear him singing the whole time I was getting dressed.

            Finally, somebody else called out, “Would you mind being quiet?  I’m trying to shower in peace.”

            “I’m like this because I was shy when I was a child,” the loud guy yelled.  “I was late talking, not until I was two years old.  Even after that I never used to say anything, and my parents were worried there was something wrong with me.”

            “They oughta be worried that there’s something wrong with you now,” the other guy said. (Ed Hamilton)

All Tomorrow's Parties: Oct. 9 - Oct. 15, 2006

Monday, Oct. 9, 8:30 p.m.
Gerald Busby will perform a dramatic monologue, GLORIA'S CAT, written especially for him by Maggie Paley, author of a novel, BAD MANNERS, and THE BOOK OF THE PENIS.  Violist Nadia Sirota plays Escape by Judd Greenstein, a song cycle by Justine F. Chen, performed by Giuseppe Spolentini pianist Jed Distler mediates with the Masters. The event is part of the Composer Collaborative Inc., Serial Underground, a series that presents all kinds of musical and dramatic performance creations.  Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia St., NY NY $15.00 at the door.

Tuesdsay, Oct. 10, 10:30 p.m.
Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to Happy Valley Tuesdays.  Show: Julie Atlas Muz. DJ:  Larry Tee, Downstairs DJ Ryan and Kim Ann. Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Theodora, Astro, Ladyfag & Amanda Lepore.
14 East 27th St. NY NY

Thursday, Oct. 11, 9:00 p.m.
Seats to "Guilty Pleasures," Norman Gosney's new burlesque show sale out quickly so contact Norman or Amelia to get your password and reservation ASAP.

Friday, Oct. 13, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
It's the closing party for Edie Sedgwick/Hotel Chelsea fan and struggling young artist, Shena Jones. The art show includes portraits of Stanley Kubrick and Iggy Pop, and self-portraits from inside the Hotel. Jalopy, 315 Columbia St., Red Hook, Brooklyn (Jalopy is a new contemporary gallery with many services such as instrument sales and repairs, espresso, and live music.)

Saturday, Oct. 14, 4:00 p.m.
Anders Bramsen's film LE MIS POPOTE (THE ERRONEOUS EARTH KITCHEN) will screen in NYC at the DUMBO Arts Center.
d.u.m.b.o. Arts Center, 30 Washington Street, Brooklyn NY

Saturday, Oct. 14, 8:00 p.m.
Eric Bogosian has updated his play "Suburbia." The new production features former Hotel Chelsea resident Gaby Hoffmann as Sooze, a would be performance artist. According to Hoffmann, she and her best friend Talya Shomron would roller-skate in the hallways, spy on the drug dealer across the hall, and persuade the bellman to go to the neighbourhood deli at night and get them ice cream.
2nd Stage Theatre, 307 West 43rd St., NY NY

Sunday, Oct. 15, 8:00 p.m.
Patti Smith will be playing the final show at CBGB's. In all of our years in NYC, we've been to CBGB's twice.  Both times to hear former Chelsea resident Joe Bidewell play.
CBGB, 315 Bowery, NY NY

If you have an event that you want listed on "All Tomorrow's Parties" please e-mail [email protected]

Hotel Chelsea Newsmakers

Andy Warhol's epic, "The Chelsea Girls," has been named one of the top 100 films of all times by the Radio Times Guide to Films 2007.  "Andy Warhol's underground film is to blame for reality television," according to the Guide. (Evening Standard)

Earlier this week, to celebrate what would have been Thomas Wolfe's 106th birthday, the University of North Carolina moved his monument from a remote part of campus to a more highly trafficked area.  Glad to see Wolfe's finally getting the recognizition he deserves. (News 14 Carolina)

Even though the movie has yet to be released, Sienna Miller is being touted as an Oscar nominee for her portrayal of Edie Sedgwick in "Factory Girl." (Daily Mail)

Nicky: Young, Hot, and Covered With Tarantulas

It may be too late to score tickets, but we hear from a very reliable source that Chelsea's own Nicky Nichols has a role in "The Holy Mountain," and also worked on the costumes.  The film is being screened at the Walter Reade Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 7, at midnight, so whether you can make it or not, be sure to scream along with Nicky as he's covered with tarantulas! 

Greeted with equal volumes of whistles, catcalls and cheers at its controversial Cannes premiere, Jodorowsky’s follow-up to El Topo is a riot of mystic and religious imagery underlining its vision of a spiritual quest towards enlightenment. An austere figure known as The Alchemist (Jodorowsky), holed up in a sheer-faced tower, brings together a diverse group of disciples from every culture and corner of the galaxy to embark with him on a journey to the Holy Mountain, where together they will try to unseat the immortal beings who secretly rule the universe.

One reviewer wrote:
The Holy Mountain was Alexandro Jodorowsky's dizzying elegy to the sex, drugs and spiritual awakening of the late 1960s and early 1970s — a suitably bizarre follow-up to his El Topo (1971). Fascinating, The Holy Mountain is beautifully shot and designed, and it suggests what might have resulted if Luis Buñuel, Michelangelo Antonioni, and George Romero had all dropped acid and made a movie together.


Screening at Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street between Broadway & Amsterdam Avenues on the plaza level.

Imelda Marcos Checks Into The Y

We’ve written before of what a shame it is that the old McBurney Y has been turned into a condo building for soulless yuppies, but a recent photo spread in New York Magazine brought the point home in a much more visceral manner.   It’s the specifics that do the job.  The floor that held the historic pool has been taken over by someone named Cindy Gallop.  She’s turned the place into a warehouse collection of worthless junk that she calls art.  She has a framed AK 47 (aren’t those illegal?) with a Chanel logo on it, as well as a gold Gucci  chain saw  (This is just advertising, and you paid somebody for it!)   Two chairs are covered with leopard skins with the heads attached to bite you on the ass when you sit down.  Bizarrely, she parks her motorcycle right in the middle of the apartment.  (Don’t those things leak oil?)

Perhaps the most annoying feature of the apartment is the display of stilettos running along the living room wall – part storage, part installation, Cindy says – and, may I add, a fairly shameless display of wealth.

Cindy claims to have had a vision of this place while relaxing at her favorite watering hole in Shanghai.  Too bad the Chinese didn’t Shanghai her ass.  The place looks dark as a cave and completely unlivable.  But Cindy doesn’t care what I say, or what anybody concerned about gentrification has to say.  When entertaining in her glorified storeroom, she had the young hunks who serve the hor’d’oevres grind their loins in tiny towels bearing the Y logo.  “Kiss my rich ass” she is telling us all.  (Ed Hamilton) (Photo: Part storage, part installation at the Chelsea.)

Paramount Hotel Steals Our Glory

According to Gothamist, the Paramount Hotel will be offering a special three-course menu for $5 in its Mezzanine Restaurant in exchange for actors' headshots.  You have to be an actor whose parts are five lines or less.  The meal will be available on the 5th of every month and will run through the end of the year. Headshots collected will be displayed in the Paramount Bar.  Now they'll be known as the hotel that caters to starving artists.  Just recently, long time resident Merle suggested that Stanley do something similar, namely, provide regular hor d'oevres in the lobby.  Alas, he's been beaten to the punch!

Tony Lioce Gets Trippy at The Chelsea

Tony Lioce is the arts and entertainment editor of the San Jose Mercury News. Before this he was an arts editor at the LA Times and a rock critic for the Providence (RI) Journal.  In an exclusive interview, Tony reveals that the best thing to ever happen to him at the Chelsea was that his oldest daughter was conceived here.  How 'bout that for taking the Chelsea's famed creative spirit to a whole 'nother level?

Has your writing been influenced by any current or former hotel Chelsea residents?  Oh yeah! I stand in front of the place and read those names of the people who lived there and it's like scanning my bookcase at home.

Which former or current Chelsea resident have you written about?  I actually have written about  Dylan quite a bit. And the Warhol people and the Jefferson Airplane (one member of which, Paul Kantner, I still see from time to time in San Francisco. He and I drink in the same bar). 

When did you stay at the Chelsea?  Pretty much whenever I was in New York from the mid '70s till the mid '90s. 

What inspired you to get a room at the Chelsea?  The legends surrounding the place. I remember when I realized you could actually STAY there, it almost surprised me. I knew, of course, that it was a hotel, but in my mind it was always more like a shrine or something. Then one day I realized, Hey! I could actually stay there! And I did.

Did you spot any celebrities during your stay at the Chelsea?  Viva, Sinead O'Connor. DeeDee Ramone at the guitar store outside.
Has the Chelsea vibe changed over the years? Yeah. It's way more expensive now. When I stayed there it was like sixty bucks a night, which was cheap at the time.

What's your favorite Hotel Chelsea story?  One night I checked in and they gave me a room on the top floor, and I was having trouble finding it until I spotted a sign indicating that it actually was up on yet another floor, up a narrow flight of stairs to a floor I didn't even know was there - almost like something out of "Being John Malkovich." When I saw the room itself I was stunned. It was huge, with windows on both sides, views both north and south. It was more like a loft than any hotel room I'd ever seen before - and certainly nothing even remotely like anything I'd seen at the Chelsea. A few hours later I was sitting at that bar next door, El Quixote, and I was mentioning this weird room, and the guy next to me overheard and told me it was Julian Schnabel's room and that (at the time anyway) Schnabel was letting the hotel rent it out whenever he was out of town. I wound up getting it for the same (then cheap) price I woulda paid to stay in one of the regular(charmingly) dumpy rooms! Pretty trippy.
Do you think the Chelsea has a creative spirit?  The best thing is, our oldest daughter was conceived there. And she lives in New York now. The spirit of the city musta taken hold!

We Demand Our Servants

Sherill Tippins (February House), who's writing a history of the Chelsea Hotel, recently unearthed an original floor plan for the hotel.  She writes:

Your particular apartment was for rent in 1884, as the parlor room of a 2-BR-plus-servants' room with one bath--1200 square feet in all--renting for $1,200 per year.  The closet you had hoped Stanley would let you use was, if I remember correctly where it is, the windowless servant's room.  Anyway, that room, 9'x9', was on the left as one enters the hallway leading to your room.  Most apartments had a servants' [note the plural] room, and none of them had windows.

     So that's the origin of the little rooms that are generally used as trash rooms on some floors.  They used to actually stick people in there.  At least they used to open onto an air shaft, which was probably better than at some buildings.
     I doubt that I need to mention how annoying it is to note that we are paying more per month for one room than they paid in 1884 for four rooms and a bath.  But I'll mention it anyway.  And they had servants.  Can't we at least have servants? 
     Sherill's also found a photo of a bed appropriate to a dwelling such as the Chelsea in those days.    No doubt you can still find a few of these down in the basement.  For our silverware, you will have to look under the kitchen sink at the El Quixote.

TWO TALES OF URBAN MOXIE

I. Old Lady on a Walker

       A decrepit, bent-over old lady in a green dress and a pillbox hat was trying to make it across 7^th Avenue at 23^rd street.  Of course she moved very slowly and the light changed before she could get all the way across, and so she was stuck about half-way out in the street as cars whizzed around her.  Still, eyes set straight ahead, she struggled determinedly on, step by step toward the curb.

         A bread truck roared around the corner and headed straight for her.  It looked like he was going to plow her down, but instead he slammed on his brakes, stopping mere feet from her and laying on his horn.

            The old lady started, then stopped dead in her tracks, straightened herself up, and turned to face the trucker.  “Fuck you!” she said, and gave him the finger.

II. Old Man and a Motorcycle

            A bit farther down 7^th Avenue, at the corner of 21^st Street, a biker came roaring down the Avenue on his chopper—you could hear him coming for blocks—and sat idling at the light.  He was hugely fat, hairy, tattooed, with a tiny helmet atop his head.  The thunderous rumbling of his engine shattered the relative calm of the morning.

            An older man, somewhat disheveled in t-shirt and jeans, was walking along, and when he heard the chopper he stuck his fingers in his ears.  A look of intense irritation on his face, he strode right over to the curb and yelled, “Hey asshole, you think you got it loud enough?”

            The biker turned and looked at the older man.  He couldn’t hear over the din of his bike.  “Excuse me?” he yelled back.

            “You think you’ve got it loud enough, asshole?” the old man repeated.

            The biker shook his head in disbelief and, as the light changed, put the chopper in gear and roared off. (Ed Hamilton)

All Tomorrow's Parties: Oct. 2 - Oct. 8, 2006

Monday, October 2,

An evening devoted to Nam June Paik, to pay tribute to the artist who died this year. It will look at key events in the life of the artist and present the major aspects of his work via interviews and personal accounts. You don't even need to leave home, this event is live on the Internet.

Tuesday, October 3, 10:30 p.m.
Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to Happy Valley Tuesdays.  Show: The Countess and the Cunt Rock Revolution. DJ Kim Ann. Downstairs DJ Ryan and Nita. Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Theodora, Astro, Ladyfag & Amanda Lepore.
14 East 27th St. NY NY

Wednesday, October 4,
Billed as "a fresh exploration of the timeless tale of a young man's coming of age," The Times They Are A-Changin' is "set within a low-rent traveling circus run by Capt. Ahrab (Sesma), whose wagon hasn't moved from its location in some time — though not by lack of effort from his ragtag band of clowns and performers," according to previous production notes. 
Brooks Atkinson, 256 West 47, NY  NY

Thursday, October 5, 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
For our readers in Paris, a retrospective of Yves Klein, the "painter of pure feelings and emotions" opens today. Yves Klein changed the history of art simply by the depth of his International Klein Blue. (Thanks to Rachel for the tip.)
Centre Georges Pompidou, Place Georges Pompidou,  Paris

For Jack Kerouac fans, October 5 is also the kick off for the "Lowell Celebrates Kerouac" festival which is celebrated in various locations throughout Lowell, Mass.

Friday, October 6, 8:00 p.m.
Eugene O'Neill's play "The Harry Ape," recently opened around the corner at the Irish Repertory Theatre.  The Hairy Ape tells the story of the journey of a dark-souled, brutishship laborer known as Yank as he searches for belonging in a world controlled by the rich. According to painter George Chemeche, O'Neill once lived in his room.
Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd St., NY NY

Saturday, October 7, 3:00 p.m.
Today is your last chance to catch Michele Zalopany's show, disIntegration, at the Esso Gallery.  Michele will talk about her art at 3:00 p.m., so be sure to stop by.
Esso Gallery, 531 West 26th, 4th floor, NY NY

If you have an event that you want listed on All Tomorrow's Parties please e-mail [email protected]

Movies and Murders

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting has created an interactive Flash map that shows where movies and shows have been shot. The map isn't comprehensive by any means. For the entire neighborhood of Chelsea only two movies are included -- "I Shot Andy Warhol," which was filmed on 20th St. and  "Bed of Roses," which was filmed on 19th St., in 1996.   Have they never heard of The Chelsea Girls, Sid & Nancy, and Chelsea Walls, just to name a few. The Chelsea Hotel should have its own interactive movie map. (via Gothamist)

Also, in a new feature called Shot in NYC, travel blog gridskipper will pair a murder and a scene (and some times a murder scene) that takes place near or exactly in the same location.  They focused on 23rd Street for the first installment.

On the corner of 23rd Steet near Eigth Avenue. It's February 28th at 12:45 in the morning. Gangster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll is gunned down by members of Dutch Schultz's gang. Earlier Coll has accidentally killed a 5 year-old boy on East 107th street in an attempt on Schultz's life. Coll had wanted to take over Schultz's uptown beer business. The building is now a condo.

Another mob scene took place on 23rd Street at what used to be the McBurney YMCA at 215 W. 23rd (the inspiration for the VIllage People's YMCA). This is where the famous steamroom scene in the Godfather was filmed. Sadly, the new occupant, yuppie gym David Barton, completely renovated and no one knows exactly where the steamroom was. Yuppies.

From Somewhere Within the Bowels of The Chelsea

Or Australia, or somewhere else.