Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Cindy's Party Finally Ends

We're probably running this inot the ground, so we'd better make this the last post about Cindy Gallop's party.   Reporter Vivienne Lehney asked our friends, all long time Y members, to give their impressions of the evening, and of the recent changes in the Chelsea neighborhood. (ChelseaNow.)

Did you have any expectations before going to the party about Cindy or her home?
Peter & Dorte -- We had no expectations about Cindy. We expected her to have a large fancy place, but had no idea how fancy.

George Chemeche -- I didn't expect to find an ex swimming pool turned to such lavishly designed condo apartment!

Penelope Anderson --  I was very excited to have been invited (a last minute cancellation of one of Debbie's guests.)  Of course, I was curious about the apartment that had once been the Y.  And hoping I would fit in.

What are your impressions of her after the party?
Peter & Dorte - Nice, pleasant, good-humored, diplomatic (concerning Ed) and rich.
George -- Cindy is a full-of-pepper women who loves to enjoy life and share it with others.
Penelope -- Warm, gracious, true to herself, enjoyed sharing her home.  All very positive. Lots of space and Cindy loves it and loves living there.
Sherry Mazzoccohi -- I thought she was extremely charming and surprisingly intelligent. Usually people are one or the other, rarely both.

What are your impressions of her home?
Peter & Dorte -- More like a nightclub than a home in some ways (I guess this was also her intention, from reading the New York article). She has some amazing art.
George - It might not fill everyones expectations. But, for sure, it has a warm, cuddling ambiance. And for sure it reflects her personality.   Very important.
Sherry -- Her apt was pretty wonderful. The NY magazine photos didn`t do it justice. She has an amazing art collection and probably the most taxidermy I have ever seen in one place except the natural history museum.

What do you miss most about the McBurney Y?
Peter & Dorte -- I was pretty depressed about the demise of the last Manhattan Y with gymnastics and the other sports (but you know this).  Dorte and I joined in 1991, and were members until shortly before the building was closed.

George -- I miss the roof in the summer and the friendly staff members of the Seventies. I was a member for about 30 years. By the way, I wrote an obituary poem about the Y after it closed.

Penelope -- I've been a member since 1992. Originally is was a home away from home.  It was a place to meditate with exercise and enjoy the community of members.  And it was filled with history and caring staff, and you were a part of that history.

Sherry - It is hard to convey what the Y meant to all of us. That's where we all met and became friends. There are some people I have completely lost track of-that's a little like losing a part of yourself. Sure I miss the Y. I was a member for ten years. It was a more like an extended family than a gym.

What do you feel about recent changes in the Chelsea neighborhood?
Peter & Dorte -- This is a tough question. My feelings about the changes in Chelsea are very much those about New Yorkin general. The steep increase in housing prices pushed the middle class out of their enclaves, and they in turn pushed the poor out of their's. As a result that many neighborhoods are becoming more class-homogeneous. This isn't an especially original observation. I don't think it is a conspiracy, but it is a shame.

George --It changed for good. I think it is the most dynamic and interesting part of the city.

Penelope - Cheaply built high rent buildings that are pushing out low and middle income people.   I moved to Chelsea in 1991 because it was a family neighborhood.  Now I feel that I am living in a shopping mall, without a sense of community.  It's sad, but I am getting used to it. (Photo: Penelope)

Sherry - Chelsea is changing rapidly. But that's the way things are.

What was your favorite part of the get-together?
Peter & Dorte -- The art and the food!
George -- To be with a group of people, most of whom live in small rooms or modest studio apartments, and still enjoy the lavishness of the hostesses fortune without any jealousy or resentment. That was heart-elating evening . . .
Penelope -- Meeting the gracious host and hostess.  Meeting other neighbors.  Meeting a gracious journalist.  The conversation was fun and yes, it never hurts to be reminded that good people come in all economic levels.
Sherry -- I think my favorite part of the evening was when we all admitted we read Jamie Bufalino’s column first, then the horoscope in Time Out. I felt like we all sort of bonded over that.


George in his apt at the Chelsea.

Revisiting the "Y" Building

Those of you who have been following the blog know that, upon reading my criticism of her loft in the old McBurney Y building, Cindy Gallop invited us over for drinks.  Though we suspected a hoax at first, it soon became clear that she was for real.
Taking Cindy up on her courageous invitation to come on over, we invited a few friends from the Y and headed to Cindy’s place in the old McBurney Y.  We really had no idea what to expect, but Cindy could not have been more gracious and welcoming.  If she bore me any malice, she certainly hid it exceptionally well. I think she’s very self-confident, and believes in her own choices in art and living space and my little bit of criticism didn’t shake her. 
It was an evening full of surprises.  For one thing, it surprised us to learn that she treasured the Y and its heritage. In my review I criticized her practice of dressing her waiters in Y towels, but apparently she must have meant it as a sort of homage to the Y.

Cindy demonstrated how her trendy peek-a-boo bath works – it fills from the ceiling. It was a surprise for painter George Chemeche when Cindy turned the spigot and he got wet!

Yet another surprise was that Cindy had so many works by Paul Richard.  (You can see his Pope and Gerbil in the background) We have been seeing his work all over the Village since the late nineties and have always thought he was a very good artist.  We attended a show of his on Hudson Street in 1999 and he gave us a small piece. 

Another thing that surprised us was that she had so many books.  I was most envious of all her shelf space, since we have to throw most of our books out for lack of space.

Of course, none of us are too happy that our Y was converted into million-dollar condos, but if anyone has to live there, I guess I’m glad it’s Cindy.  We and our friends from the Y feel that the Y has abandoned its charitable and community mission and is fast becoming little more than a non-profit sports club. Tomorrow we'll have opinions from other party goers.

(Thanks to Steven for the photos)

Happy Thanksgiving From Montana

We heard them come in late last night; several people checked into the transient room next door and all had to go to the shared bathroom in the hallway, one after another.  The next morning I met the last of them as he was clearing out, a thin man in his late thirties dressed in rugged winter gear with a Afghani hat and carrying a green army duffle bag.  He said he was from Montana, which (maybe) would explain the getup, and that they had driven thousands of miles in 33 hours to get to New York.  “Sounds peaceful,” I said, meaning Montana, not the drive.  They had one more night in New York, he said—though not, apparently, in the Chelsea—and then it was back on road, back to Montana.  (Maybe they came to see the Macy’s parade.) “I know this building has lots of history,” he said.  “You have no idea,” I replied and took that opportunity to hand him a blog card.  “Come here,” he said, leading me back into the transient room, “I want to show you a letter I left on the desk here.”

            Ever the suspicious New Yorker, I thought, Oh shit, it’s going to be one of those goddamn chain letters and now I’m going to be cursed if I don’t send it to a hundred people.  Instead, he had left a pen, a stamped envelope and a notepad with a note on it that said: “Write that letter today.  You know which one I’m talking about.  You’ll feel better if you do.”  “That’s nice,” I said, thinking, hell, nobody from New York would ever think to do that, we’re all too selfish, too caught up in our own lives.  The man said he had checked into a hotel several years back and had seen a note just like this sitting on a desk, and that it had led to a bout of soul searching with the end result that he had sat down at that desk and written a long, and long-overdue letter to his father (he left the details to the imagination).  Since then, he said, whenever he checks out of a hotel room he always leaves the note and the rest of the stuff.

            He asked if the maid would leave the note and I said yes, though actually I wasn’t quite so sure; it was just that I didn’t want to say no, since it was such a touching gesture in such a God forsaken place as this that I didn’t want him to take it back.  For the next few hours I listened for the maid and when I heard her rustling around over there I rushed over just in time to see her closing the pen up in the notepad and getting ready to take it away.  She said she didn’t know what that was about, but I told her she was supposed to leave the things and I believe she did.

            Oh, one more thing: I told the guy that I had just been to my cousin’s wedding in Montana this summer, though I couldn’t remember the name of her town.  Now I remember.  So in case your reading, guy from Montana, it’s Lewistown. (Ed Hamilton)

All Tomorrow's Parties: Nov. 27 - Dec. 3, 2006

Monday, Nov. 27, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Nat Finkelstein and David Dalton, two Factory insiders, will share the short but enduring story of Andy Warhol's first It-Girl, Edie Sedgwick. Bibbe Hensen, a friend of Edie's (and Beck's mom), playwright and Factory co-hort, Robert Heide and Edie's good friend, Danny Fields, will all participate in the evening's discussion.
Strand Books, Corner of 12th and Broadway, NY NY (Thanks to Jean Pearson for the tip.)

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 10:30 pm
Susanne Bartsch & Kenny Kenny return. It's opening night for Room Service Tuesdays. For Spanking Good Fun. Hosting service: Amanda Lepore, Astro, Kim Aviance, Ladyfag.  Moondust, Theodora & Richie Rich. Music Service: Kim Ann. Sounds in the Strip Tease Lounge: Alex From Tokyo, Show: Jonte Dance Troupe       
35 East 21st St., Between Park & Broadway


Wednesday, Nov. 29, 10:00 - 6:00
A room full of Rita Barros' photographs are included in an MA Thesis Exhibition at NYU. The show closes on December 8.
80 Washington Square East Galleries, NY NY

Thursday, Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m.
Known for his interdisciplinary work that is often part installation and part dance, Luis Lara Malvacías returns to Dance Theater Workshop with the world premiere of There is no Such Thing. Spontaneous actions, projections, and manipulated sounds saturate the 21 short sections that make up this non–linear work.
Dance Theatre Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., NY NY

Friday, Dec. 1, 12:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Best-known for involving a range of non-artists -- such as televangelists, psychics, and theorists -- in the creative development of his works, Christian Jankowski presents new and recent videos, films, photography, and sculpture that question traditional ideas of artistic authorship and experiment with commercial filmmaking conventions. Exploring in particular the genre of "horror," the exhibition suggests how cinematic visions of monstrosity and violence can also communicate broader notions of transformation, revenge, and redemption.
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St. NY NY

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

Outlaw Hotel Chelsea Bloggers Feelings Hurt

Finally, our prayers have been answered, another blogger stops by the Chelsea. From Vanity Fair's November issue, here's music blogger Sarah "Ultragrrrl" Lewitinn.  I'm glad they told us that the photo was taken in New York's Chelsea Hotel, otherwise we never would have guessed.  She looks so pensive and contended, totally unliked the usual crazed Chelsea denizen (blogger).

The Oct. 2 issue of Time featured another dotcom success story; Charles Ardai, founder and CEO of Juno. Ardai, 36, missed the great age of pulp, so after Juno merged with a competitor in 2001 and he had time and money to burn, he founded his own press, Hard Case Crime. (Photo: THE CHELSEA HOTEL IN NYC)

We find it hard to believe that these lumanaries of the internet world were here, and yet neglected to pop in and say hi!

Chelsea Hotel Newsmakers

A previously unpublished short story by Eugene O'Neill has been unearthed.  We plan to start the rumor that it was written while he lived here at the Chelsea thereby greatly increasing the value of the story.

In Chelsea Now, Stanley Bard reports “The misconception is that the Chelsea Hotel is a wild, flamboyant, kooky kind of hotel,” said Bard. “It is the most respectable, in reality, the most admirable, the most appreciated, the most intellectual type of environment that exists in this city or any other city.”  How much fun is that?

April Barton, the owner of Suite 303, located here in the Chelsea Hotel talks about the latest fads in men's hair fashion.  (via BusinessWeek online)

Soethby's "Dolly Parton" Warhol portrait may be fake. (via Towelroad)

Barneys, the upscale New York department store readies their windows for the holiday season.  This years theme is Happy Warhol-idays.  (New Yorker)

Suzanne Bartsch planned to spend Thanksgiving at home. (Village Voice)

William Bolcom and his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, discuss turn-of-the-20th-century parlor songs and popular fare of later eras.(Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Ryan Adams releases eight new albums on his website. (via Drowned in Sound)

Sally Singer dishes out some fashion advice. (Associated Press)

Patti Smith has been nominated as an inductee into the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It's All About Edie Today

Who can possibly keep up with the twists and turns of the much ballyhooed Factory Girl.

First, Sienna Miller was being hyped as an Oscar contender for her role as Edie Sedgwick.  A week later, she was being called back to reshoot several scenes.  Finally, a trailer has been released.  The goal is to release the movie by the end of the year so it can be in contention for an Oscar. (Yeah, right!)

From the looks of this list of brand extensions, Edie could end up with more money that Andy Warhol:
•Edie Factory Girl by photographer Nat Finkelstein and writer David Dalton (VH1, $29.95, in stores). Bio/photo book by two who were part of the scene.
•In recent months, Teen Vogue and Seventeen have included articles on how to create the Edie look.
•Delias.com is selling an Edie Dress and a Factory Girl tote bag.
•Urban Outfitters carries a Ciao! Manhattan T-shirt, tunic, tote bag and notepad with her image. (I must confess, I bought the T-shirt.)
•MAC and Smashbox Cosmetics created lines this year inspired by her mod look.
•Fashion Wire Daily recently reported designer Karl Lagerfeld's upcoming collection has "echoes" of Sedgwick's style with models sporting heavy eyeliner and fringed straight blond hair.
•Kung Fu Nation has been selling out of its Edie T-shirts sold at KungFuNation.com, Urban Outfitters and Hot Topic.
•In January, In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family by cousin John Sedgwick (uncle of actress Kyra Sedgwick) will be published by HarperCollins. It chronicles, in part, Edie's rapid rise to fame, heroin addiction and death by overdose.
•Edie is an online phenom. "A lot of kids are finding her, and a lot of people are creating online communities," says Ben Allgood, 22, creative director for Edienation.com and myspace.com/edieonfire. (There are several good Edie sites on myspace - http://www.myspace.com/ediesedgwick65 

Well, since Edie has become a cash cow we think she should be schilling for our friends.  We're sure she'd totally be into these Shuga Buds -- serious bling for ipod fans.  In the photo at left Edie enjoys listening to Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" with her stereo quality personal earphones studded with Swarovski crystals. (Full disclosure -- Shuga Buds is owned by a friend.)

Thanksgiving Prayer -- William Burroughs

Thanks for the American Dream....

Ghosts, Aliens, Jon Bon Jovi: Nothing Can Ruffle This Chelsea Painter

            Last week, with a documentary film crew in tow (It was a shoot for New York Streets, a documentary that will be aired on Dec. 10th on channel NHK BS1 in Japan (and a small subscribed Japanese cable channel here). Debbie and I went to visit the painter Robert Lambert in his apartment/studio in the Chelsea Hotel.  Robert’s willowy figures exude a weird, otherworldly, spiritual beauty that captivates and transports the viewer.  Surrounded by Robert’s magnificent large canvases, Debbie asked the questions and I scribbled the answers down in my yellow note pad. 

-When did you first move in?

1998.  I had just come back from Paris.  My friend was living here and he introduced me to Stanley.  That always helps.  I was in 831.  [Editors’ Note: this is part of Thomas Wolfe’s old suite, and, more recently, the inspiration for the fragrance Kyle.831]

-What had you heard about the Chelsea before you moved in?

I never gave the history any thought.  The place had a nice vibe to it, and I liked it.  Stanley was pretty good about it and showed me a few places, and so I moved in.  I stayed 19 months, went back to Paris and lived there for 3 years, then came back to the Chelsea and I’ve been here ever since.

-How has the Chelsea changed your art?

It’s been changed by every place I stay.  There’s differences in light and color everywhere you go.  I’d have to say that it was hard for me to get a feeling for my art after 9-11.  When I moved in [in 2002] I used lots of paint, lots of texture, like in my piece about the killing of Theo Van Gogh.  But I got my first computer while I was living in the Chelsea, and it enabled my new work, which is flat, mixed media, with a very rough texture [it’s burlap on wood].  All this is drawn from my life at the Chelsea, though I can’t be specific about how it influenced me.

-Which city has the better light, New York or Paris?

I don’t know, I use construction lights.  That’s only  impressionists who care about that.  The only way light influences me is by the mood it creates: I go outside and I come back in, and I see the seasons changing.  It affects the way I express myself.

-According to legend, Stanley will take a painting in exchange for rent.  Any truth to that?

Not with me.  Maybe in the olden days.  Stanley has a good collection.  He has a good eye and certainly came up with a lot of great art.  But he also missed some of the great ones.  When Cristo moved out they found that he had wrapped all the doors and furniture, everything in the apartment, but Stanley didn’t know what it was and so he threw it all out.  But the artist can get away with a lot more than the ordinary person.  He’ll come up and look at my work once in awhile, nod his head, not say much, but let me know that he supports my work.

-How have old science fiction movies influenced your art?

They are classic, not old!  They haven’t really influenced my art at all.  They are hokey, silly, you have to suspend disbelief, so it feeds the imagination.  You have to add color yourself and pretend that somebody with a tea kettle on his head is an alien.  It’s like a good painting, never finished.  You have to work at it.

-Do you have a ghost?

I don’t know who it is.  It knocks on my door at 2 or 3 in the morning, a definite knock.  Sometimes I have the feeling that it’s in here, a presence.  But it’s a nice ghost.  Stanley told me an actress lived her, and perhaps she died here.  It’s a female presence.  I would say it was even if it wasn’t anyway.

-Do you think the Chelsea has a Creative spirit?

Yes, a lot of them.  But if I had to single one out I’d say it’s probably the drama.  There’s a drama being played out every day in the lobby, and watching it can’t help but give you some juice.  Sometimes the drama is sad and pathetic, sometimes just plain silly.  A lot of times it doesn’t even make any sense.  It’s like a Guatemalan soap opera, it’s so outrageous. It’s unlike anywhere else in this regard.

-Did you ever meet Andy Warhol?

Not here.  But I lived diagonally across the street from him on East 66^th Street in the 80s.  I saw him walking his dog everyday, and going around handing out Interview Magazine to all the doormen.  I never spoke to him, and we just nodded at each other as we passed.  But the strange thing was that, after he died, over the next few months the tree in front of his house withered and died as well.

            

            Robert recently had the honor of serving as the Painter in Residence at Rockefeller University, where his paintings commemorating 9-11 hung for a year, and where he himself hung out with Nobel laureates in the various sciences.  He wants everyone to know that he believes himself to be the only one from the Chelsea to have ever spliced genes—and he doesn’t mean Levis either!  (That joke is better when you hear it rather than read it.)

            As we were about to leave after the interview, Robert mentioned casually that Jon Bon Jovi had once shot part of a video in his room.  Eureka! Now we know who the ghost was!  Of course, you might argue, Bon Jovi is not dead, but we think a dynamic international superstar of his magnitude is most likely able to generate a ghost even while living.  Bon Jovi is not really a female presence, but oh, what the hell.  Who ever said ghosts were supposed to be logical:  “Like a cowboy, on a steel horse he rides...”

Director Robert Altman Dead at 81

Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind "M-A-S-H," "Nashville" and "The Player" who made a career out of bucking Hollywood management and story conventions, died at a Los Angeles Hospital, his production company said Tuesday. He was 81. (AP)

Altman had many connections to the Chelsea Hotel and its residents. We had the pleasure of meeting Altman's wife Kathryn at a party thrown by Scott Griffin here at the Chelsea this year.  Scott Griffin produced Arthur Millers'  Resurrection Blues in London earlier this year and Altman directed.

Chelsea Hotel resident Gerald Busby is responsible for the score of Altman's film Three Women.

Kyle.831: A Former Resident's Chelsea Experience Inspires a Fragrance

Kyle Taylor lived down the hall from us in 831, a part of Thomas Wolfe's old suite, from 2000 to 2004.  While at the hotel he returned to his creative roots in fashion and is currently in development on a line he designed while living in 831 that will debut along with the fragrance.  In addition to fashion, the Chelsea inspired a series of paintings that will be presented in a solo show this spring and three chapters of a book on his father and a serious pot habit.  Kyle was transformed by his time at the Chelsea and says that it is the only truely accepting home he has known as at adult.

Kyle.831
It was intimidating, the hotel, not due to its colorful history or famous artist or infamous events or even its shabby condition.  When I entered the lobby for the first time a powerful energy seemed to slap me in the face as though hundreds of voices were speaking simultaneously, beckoning me in with wary curiosity.  They emanated from the strange paintings on the walls and the dusty sculptures and the worn white marble floor and reverberated off the thirty-foot ceiling.  I don't know what they were saying, but these were not your typical run-of-the-mill spirits.  I felt an uneasy excitement, as if I was a child breaking the most tempting rule for the first time.

Although I had lived in New York for ten years, I knew little of the Chelsea Hotel.  I had passed its stunning Victorian Gothic façade with wrought iron balconies and tall windows on 23rd Street many times with great curiosity, but never bothered to investigate.  One day, while looking for a new apartment, I was compelled to inquire about long-term rentals.  I called and was told, "Yes, they rent by the month. You will have to stop by and speak to the manager, Mr. Bard." 

After the initial shock of the lobby, I walked to the mahogany front desk at the far end and asked for the manager.  A handsome, slightly built and impeccably dressed man in his early 60's appeared from a large door.  He confidently told me that I was in the "most famous hotel in the world" and ticked of the names of numerous current and former residents, Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Thomas Wolfe, Arthur Miller, Ethan Hawke, Madonna, Hendrix, Maplethorpe, Pollock, Rivers, Twain.  He explained that every room was different and asked what I was looking for.  I wanted a room on the front with a balcony.  "They are very expensive" he retorted, "I will show you a wonderful room on the fourth floor, it has air conditioning", something I assumed they all would have.

He grabbed a key from behind the desk and spirited me up the stairwell.  Although, the hotel has elevators, I assume Mr. Bard wanted me get the full effect of the Chelsea Hotel experience.  The gently slopping brownstone stairway is the center core of the building. The rooms are down wide, white marble floored hallways off either side.  On the backside of the stairway the high walls were adorned with artwork that was oddly mismatched and randomly hung with little thought.  On the front side was a heavy decorative wrought iron railing with a wood and brass handrail.  The walls appeared to have hundreds of coats of paint in colors that reminded me of a 1950's nursing home: pastel greens and blues that had no relationship to the style or period of the building.  Old wiring was exposed along the wide heavily painted molding and turn of the century fire hoses hung coiled behind small glass doors stenciled with the word "fire" in red paint.

I was mesmerized; I had been nowhere so utterly unique and oddly authentic.  As I was lead down the fourth floor hallway, I realized the hotel had a distinctive aroma.  A sort of musk that I have since discovered is also unique to the Chelsea Hotel; a blend that combines the subtle lingering undertones of the century old wrought iron and marble with hints of painting oils and a distinct overtone of the artist's favorite creative stimulant.  An intoxicating scent that I have had recreated in my pheromonic fragrance, Kyle. 831.

I did not take the room that day, and it would be two years before I would return to live at the Chelsea.  But all my senses had been awoken with the sights, sounds and smells of "the most famous hotel in the world".
Kyle. 831

All Tomorrow's Parties: Nov. 20 - Nov. 26, 2006

Linda Troeller's TB-AIDS Dairy a photomontage which explores Linda's mother's experiences at a TB sanatorium in the late 1930s was recently on display at Ryerson University in Tornoto.  You can learn more about the project online at www.tbaidsdiary.com. (Photo: Linda at the opening in October.)

Tuesday, Nov. 21,  5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Residents of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood have joined forces with The Ritz, a new lounge located on New York’s famed Restaurant Row, to host “Giving Out Proud,” an event to benefit the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). For a suggested donation of $20, partygoers will receive five raffle tickets. Additional tickets will be available for purchase. Many Midtown businesses have offered to donate an array of prizes, such as massages, dinners and gift certificates. The Ritz will offer happy hour drink specials.
The Ritz, 369 West 46 St., NY NY

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 11:00  1:40  4:30  7:40  10:35
Fast Food Nation is a no-holds-barred exploration of the fast food industry that ultimately reveals the dark side of the “All American Meal.”  The perfect movie to get in the mood for Thanksgiving.  Former Chelsea resident Ethan Hawke has a cameo in the film.
AMC Empire 25, 234 West 42nd St., NY, NY

Thursday, Nov. 23, 9:00 - 12:00
Do anything except go to the Thanksgiving parade where you're likely to get hit in the head by a big Bullwinkle balloon. Expect a lot of congestion on 7th Avenue.

Saturday, Nov. 25, 10:00 - 6:00
"Cast A Cold Eye: The Late Works of Andy Warhol," draws together many of Warhol's most iconic paintings from the following series executed during the 70s and 80s: Mao, Ladies  & Gentlemen, Hammer & Sickle, Skulls, Guns, Knives, Crosses, Reversals, Retrospectives, Shadows, Rorschach, Camouflage, Oxidation, The Last Supper, Self Portraits and more. Comprising of works from the last eighteen years of Warhol's life, "Cast a Cold Eye..." includes masterpieces that have been rarely or never before seen in New York.
Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th St., NY NY

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

Ian Scharger Angers Commies

            Finally, Ian Schrager does something right!  It seems the rich elitists who enjoy exclusive use of Gramercy Park are incensed at poor Ian for giving his Gramercy Hotel guests keys to their protected

enclave.  Aside from the obvious sin of allowing strangers into the idyllic retreat, it seems that these hotel guests don’t fully appreciate the necessity of keeping the gate firmly locked.  Anyone with half a brain can see the necessity of such a measure: after all, who knows what rabble might wander in off the street!

            Why does this place exist anyway?  Every time I go by there I hardly see a soul inside, and even on it’s busiest days there’s rarely more than a handful of people using it.  They claim that it’s private property, but the land is actually owned in common by the people lucky enough to live nearby and have a key.  Imagine that!  In New York City!  Free market capital of the world!  Go live in Red China, you damn commies!

            Furthermore, they’re not paying any property taxes on this highly desirable tract of land.  If they were, you can bet they’d be in favor of opening it up to the public.

            Obviously, there are some very influential people with keys to this park, and it won’t be easy to pry those keys away from them.  But I’m amazed that there’s not more of a public outcry.  At a minimum, the issues surrounding Gramercy Park need to be reexamined.  Offer the “owners” compensation if need be,  but with park space at a premium, the city needs to seize this tract and turn it over to the public.  -- Ed H.

Celebrities Both Rich and Dead

As part of our ongoing fascination with dead celebrities who have a connection to the Chelsea Hotel here's the list of top earning dead celebrities as published by Forbes.com.   The 13 icons on the sixth annual Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list collectively earned $247 million in the last 12 months. Andy Warhol is number six on the list with earnings of $19 million. And now we learn that Andy Warhol's Mao has just sold for a record $17 milion.

Lance Loud At The Chelsea

Thanks to our guy in Australia and youtube.com here's a 5 minute excerpt from an episode of "An American Family," the very first reality show which was filmed here at the Hotel Chelsea.  From the looks of things, he had a room with a huge closet. We're extremely jealous.

NY ART BOOK FAIR FEATURES WORK BY CHELSEA RESIDENTS

The NY Art Book Fair takes place this weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).  The Fair features contemporary art books, artists’ books, art periodicals, and ‘zines offered for sale by over 70 international publishers.  Former Chelsea resident Stefan Brecht’s newly released book of photographs, 8^th Avenue (onestar press) will be available at the fair.  In his review of Brecht’s book, Ed writes:

Every morning, Stefan walked up 8^th Avenue to the Hotel 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. 

Be sure to stop by, and you might find books by other Chelsea artists as well.  Printed Matter is located at 548 West 22^nd Street,  NYC.  The hours are from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Sunday.

www.nyartbookfair.com

TALKING ABOUT MESSIAEN: PAUL FESTA’S APPARITION OF THE ETERNAL CHURCH

            Last Thursday we were lucky enough to catch the New York premiere of Paul Festa’s fascinating film, Apparition of the Eternal Church at St. Bartholomew’s on Fifth Ave.  As the brochure for the event states: “In this documentary Festa interviews over thirty artists listening and reacting to Messiaen’s rarely heard but powerfully provocative organ work Apparition of the Eternal Church.  Their responses range from astonishment to fear, from repulsion to unfettered joy.”  Sponsored by the Premiere Commission (founded by the Chelsea’s own Bruce Levingston) in conjunction with Rooftop Films, this documentary about the work of composer Olivier Messiaen was followed by a live performance of the Messiaen composition by organist William Trafka.

            It was fun to watch the participant’s faces as they listened to the piece over headphones, and to hear their comments and try to figure out what they were listening to (Messiaen’s piece wasn’t audible to the film’s viewers).  They were an eclectic bunch, apparently all people of some renown, though I had heard of only three of them, Harold Bloom, John Cameron Mitchell, and Kiki (Justin Bond).  (The organist Albert Fuller, Festa’s inspiration for the project, was the most interesting and entertaining of the subjects.) There were a couple of drag queens, a bondage aficionado, a woman who wore flaming antlers, and a man who was dressed as a zombie.  Many of them said the music was painful, discordant, a torture, that it evoked the flames of hell or an old horror movie, that if they heard it in a cathedral it would surely make them repent of their sins right away.  One guy said it sounded like Bach on a really bad day.  A couple of people had to remove their headphones because the sound was so intense.

            It became clear pretty quickly that the film is about not only the Messiaen piece but also about how music in general affects us, and about how we can express it.  It’s extremely difficult to talk about music, but the people Festa interviewed did it well, especially considering the fact that there were lights in their eyes and a cacophony blaring in their ears.  But perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned from that; perhaps they were so distracted that they were able to open themselves up and let it flow to a degree they would not ordinarily have been able to do.  The music seemed to transport them to another realm, a meditative state, a state of altered perception, where their tongues were loosed and they could express the ideas straight from their unconscious mind without the censorship of the ego, without worry of sounding stupid or being off the mark.  The movie demonstrated, like no other I have seen (and in a truly original way), the primal power that music can exert on the human psyche.

            I’ll say one thing for the movie: it really succeeded in making you want to hear the piece, that’s for sure.  With a buildup like that I felt for sure the actual performance was sure to be a letdown.  William Trafka played beautifully, and as far as I could tell flawlessly.  Though I could understand the remark about Bach (it sounded like that Bach piece from the Phantom of the Opera), I’m afraid that I didn’t agree that the music was torture.  Maybe it was the headphones, but in the setting of St. Bartholomew’s the piece was ethereal and lifting.  True, it started out a bit eerily, but soon it began to build, soaring to the otherworldly heights of the cathedral’s vaulted ceiling.  It transported me back to my childhood, listening to the--much more modest--organ in the little Catholic church in the town where I grew up, and reawakened in me the feeling of awe and mystery that I associate with my early religious experience.  I think the fact that a number of the interviewees made similar remarks is significant as well: it took us back to a time and place of innocence where we could speak our minds without fear.

            (In the same sense childhood can also be painful.  And I have  associations with Christianity that are painful as well—it does certainly have its dark side, as the director points out with his quotes on the torture of martyrs that follow the interviews—making the Messiaen piece, though rewarding, ultimately not my idea of easy listening.)

            Anyway, for anyone interested in music, it’s a film not to be missed.  Go see it if you can find it anywhere.  If not, go see Borat (Ha Ha!—though actually Borat is pretty good too.)  Ed Hamilton
Other reviews -- queerspace.com

Edie Sedgwick Sends Her Best

Snarkycharming took these photos of Edie Sedgwick's note to Andy Warhol after he was shot by Valerie Solanas.  Sedgwick's note is on display at the Warhol Museum.  And oh, by the way, what's up with "Factory Girl", the Edie biopic starring Sienna Miller? Is it really too awful to release? Surely it would be impossible to make a bad movie about someone who lived at the Chelsea, with the hotel's rich history and palpable creative vibe. (But if, in some parallel universe, it were possible, we know it would be called "Chelsea Walls".) Today marks the 35th anniversary of Sedgwick's death.

We Believe!

Okay, the second e-mail made believers out of us.  So, Cindy Gallop (or Imelda Marcos as we affectionately call her here on the blog) is graciously going to host a few former McBurney Y members in her home in the Y Building.  We’re choosing our guest list carefully.  Hopefully we can have a productive discussion with Cindy on the impact of gentrification on the neighborhood. 

This isn’t the first time we’ve been invited to be guests in the home of someone whose home we had previously written about.  The last event turned out pretty good.  The worst thing that happened was that the host introduced us to his other guests as “eccentrics” from the Chelsea Hotel.  Heck, that’s a compliment.  While the other host also owns a very impressive art collection he doesn’t own a gold plated Gucci chainsaw.  Or, at least he didn’t have it on display.  Instead, he has a sculpture of a puppy being burnt in a toaster.

If anyone has any questions for Cindy, we’ll be happy to pass them along.

Dog Gone

We must admit, we were puzzled by those dog-napped flyers posted in the elevator last night.  Fortunately, this very helpful e-mail landed in our box this morning.

Outlaw Bloggers Please Help!

Heartbreaking news, but some yet-unmasked Super-kriminal lurking the Chelsea's hallways has cruelly dog-napped our beloved companion Uk-Peesch (ook-peesh), a rare mix of German Shepard, plexiglas and gorilla glue who faithfully stood sentinel over the 2nd Floor residents ever since being rescued from certain incineration at least a month ago. So far no ransom demand which has us worried shes finally fallen prey to cultists. If anyone has information leading to the recovery of Uk-Peesch or the swift apprehension of her captors, your identity will be kept in the strictest confidence. Uk-Peesch, if you're reading this, we love you. Please Come Home.

Be Afraid For Your Children

Beware the mysterious old man inserting objects into the stolen monkey head.  It seems the child is showing an unhealthy interest in his activities.  And rest assured, his little eyes took in much more than that leopard print chair.  Years later, if this diabolical building has not been cleansed of its artistic spirit by yuppie condo conversion, Conor may well return, lured by the siren song of bohemian obscurity, and then all will surely by lost.

The Hotel Chelsea...when we checked in before the concert, we had to wait in the lobby for the bellman to show us to our room. Conor sat on one side, playing his Game-boy and Chloe and I on the opposite side. An older man sat down next to Conor. He had a carved, wooden monkey head in his hands, and he was putting things into the hollow bottom of it. Conor looked over at me with a question of concern. I assured him that he was OK with a hand gesture and he settled into his curious observation mode just in time to catch the story of the head. The man in possession of the monkey head told another resident of the lobby that this head had belonged to him at one time. He had owned it about 15 years ago and then someone stole it from him. He said he found it today in a store and stole it back. The head was from East Africa and was quite attractive, I could see how someone would become attached to something like this.

When we got back to the hotel after the concert and arrived on the 7th floor where our room was, we could see bright lights beyond the door in the direction of our room. We tried going the other way, because we weren't sure exactly which way to go, but then realized we did have to go toward what we then realized was a photo shoot of...a woman wearing a corset. It was about 11 PM. We opened the door and the photographer apologized to us. No, we said, we're sorry to interrupt. Conor claims he didn't see anything other then the leopard print chair that was turned over on its side on the floor.

At Long Last...

(via curbed) The most beautiful building in Manhattan returns to its full glory today as the scaffolding is removed!

They're Out To Get Me

On a rainy night last week, Susan and I were cutting through Washington Square Park on our way to a reading at the Bowery Poetry Club.  A soggy homeless man wrapped in a blanket shambled toward us across the lawn.  “Excuse me people,” he said.  “I want to tell you something that the CIA doesn’t want you to know.”

            Always on the lookout for scraps of suppressed information to bolster my various conspiracy theories, I was eager to hear what the man had to say, but Susan grabbed me by the arm and hurried me along.

            “I’m J.F.K Jr.!” the man called after us.  “The knowledge of that could get you killed!”

            Gee, thanks for telling me, J.F.K.  I’ll be on the lookout for black helicopters.

            When we got to the edge of the park, two other street people, a man and a woman, were arguing on the street corner:

            “Where’s my money?!  Give me my money, bitch!” the man said.

            “I don’t have your money!  You owe me five dollars!” the woman retorted.

            “I want my money!”

            “Give me my five dollars!”

            Continuing to scream at each other to that effect, the couple stepped out into the street, blocking traffic.  Cars couldn’t get by, and they all started honking their horns.  The couple were standing right in front of a cab and the cabbie leaned his head out the window and yelled at them to get the hell out of the road.  I turned around to watch, and, doing so, stepped backward and stumbled into a tree well.

            “Don’t watch them,” Susan said.  “They’re trying to create a distraction so that someone else can commit a crime.  Do you still have your wallet?”

            I felt my pocket: I did.  Then I noticed I was standing in an inch-deep puddle in the tree well.  The street people really had it in for me tonight.  “I think they wanted to create a distraction so that I would step off into the mud,” I said. (Ed Hamilton)

All Tomorrow's Parties: Nov. 13- Nov. 19, 2006

Monday, Nov. 13, 10:30 - 5:30
"Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings," is worth heading up town to check out. The show includes more than fifty paintings and an equal number of drawings, organized chronologically, drawn from all phases of the artist's career. Two new large-scale paintings exhibited for the first time are included. In "Dylan: A Biography," Marden recalls hanging out with Edie Sedgwick in Bob Dylan's room at the Chelsea and that it was "in a state of perpetual disarray."
MOMA, 11 West 53 Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, NY NY

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 7:30 & 9:30
ME AND MY BROTHER, (1965-68 (re-edited 1997), 91 minutes, 35mm, b/w and color. Robert Frank's stunning first feature-length film, places documentary footage of poets Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and Peter's brother Julius within a fictional framework.
Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave., NY NY

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 11:00 - 6:00
Steven Kasher Gallery presents "Fred McDarrah: Artists and Writers of the 60s and 70s."  This exhibit presents more than 100 vintage photographs from the archive of one of New York’s best known but least understood photographers. It is the first ever gallery exhibition surveying McDarrah’s work, and the first exhibition ever curated from his entire archive of published and never-before-seen prints. This exhibition celebrates Fred’s 80^th birthday.
Steven Kasher Gallery, 521 West 23 St. Second Floor, NY NY

Thursday, Nov. 16, 9:00 p.m.
Norman Gosney's Guilty Pleasures Speakeasy continues to take Manhattan by storm.  Check out their new website for details.

Friday, Nov. 17, 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Maya Stendhal Gallery proudly presents www.JonasMekas.com - Recent Work; a collection of 40 short films created and curated by avant-garde filmmaker, artist, poet, and archivist Jonas Mekas.  In addition to this elaborate cinematic installation, all 40 short films will be simultaneously released for download onto computers or multi-media devices ( I pods ) at www.jonasmekas.com. According to Mekas, this will be, “…one of the most exciting venues for independently working film and video makers that has become available.”  Many of these films consist of flashes of images of New York, Fluxus, Elvis Presley, Jackie Kennedy, Alan Ginsburg, as well as some of modern art’s most prestigious ground-breakers including Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Harry Smith, Robert Frank, Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed, Robert Breer, Mary Menkin, Stan Brakhage, John Lennon, Nam June Paik, and Nico.
Maya Stendhal Gallery, 545 West 20th St., NY NY

Saturday, Nov. 18, 12:00 - 8:00
Blog reader Elvert Barnes recommends Washington D.C. based photographer Frank Muzzy's photographs which are currently on display at MDH Fine Arts.
MDH Fine Arts, 233 West 19th Street, NY NY

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

Dylan Gets A Tribute & CBGBS Gets Dismantled

Earlier this week, Ryan Adams and Patti Smith were among the singers who paid tribute to Bob Dylan at Avery Fisher Hall.  According to Billboard Magazine, "... the night really belonged to two artists: Natalie Merchant, with Philip Glass on piano, gave an exceedingly haunting reading of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" that left the audience breathless. And avant-hip-hoppers the Roots blew the house down with an ecstatic, incendiary version of "Masters of War."

The broadway musical, The Times They Are A-Changin', has ended after 28 days. No comment!

MTV documented the dismanteling so that the building can be reassembled in Las Vegas.  Surprise, suprise, the place smells bad and they found a lot of guitar picks.

Let's just say the club smells its age. There must be at least four dozen flies buzzing around. At points, the stink is so intense that some of the workers can't help but dry-heave. "I've never smelled the smell we're smelling today," one of them says. "It's like a mix of Sprite and sh--."

"I'm Not The Guy Who Sells War Bonds" by George Chemeche

I’M NOT THE GUY WHO SELLS WAR BONDS

Each night, each morn

I praise the day I was born

without a knight’s backbone.

Each night, each morn

I mourn those who’re sworn

to stay the course

by the rivers of Babylon.

Copyright George Chemeche, Oct.24, 06 

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Out Again

The Blog-Of-Horror continues to roll on.  Check out Luke Joerger's wildly popular music video for Gnarls Barkley -- Who Cares?

Susanne Bartsch Will Not Be Stopped

Police seem to have accelerated their crackdown on clubs, spurred on in part by the arrival of yuppie condos in areas such as West Chelsea previously zoned for manufacturing.  As reported in the Village Voice, the Chelsea's own Susanne Bartsch had her Halloween Party at Avalon shut down on the pretext of overcrowding.  "The policemen were willing to send me out into the night wihtout a hand-bag, without money, without keys," she says, pointing out the hypocrisy of their action in the wake of Jennifer Moore's murder after she stumbled out of a club this summer.

Gentrification doesn't affect only the poor.  Bloomberg and the developers want to turn this city into a boring, suburban hell, where no show of difference is tolerated.  Susanne Bartsch will not be stopped. She's back in business.  ROOM SERVICE TUESDAYS....WITH KENNY KENNY...OPENING NOVEMBER 28....35 EAST 21. ST
A GREAT SPACE ATTACHED TO A STRIPTEASE CLUB.... 

James Tata's Chelsea Is A Failed Quasi-Bohemian Purgatory

Writer James Tata stayed at the Hotel Chelsea earlier this year. On his blog he wrote, "The Chelsea, you see, is a residence hotel, and such places have their share of interesting people. Like the guy down the hall from my room sitting in a folding directors' chair, wearing sunglasses...indoors. He gave off a vibe of never leaving the building. Or the woman who, one morning as I was going down the stairs, said, "You must not be from New York, because New Yorkers never take the stairs" in the dreamy, disconnected voice of the troubled. None of this bothered me too much..."  Well, of course, a few boheminans wouldn't bother anybody, but those rats scratching in the wall, that's a whole other story.  He ended his review by writing "between that faint but evocative scratching (of a rat) and the failed quasi-bohemians for whom the Chelsea is a permanent purgatory, my experience of the place didn't exactly make me feel like I was communing with Twain, Smith, Dylan, or Burroughs."  Thanks for rubbing it in dude!

What do you do?  I write technical manuals (for money) and fiction (for sanity).

What inspired you to stay at the Chelsea? In general, its legendary role as the place where so many works have been written, and, in particular, probably because of Bob Dylan's "Sara."

What’s your favorite Hotel Chelsea story? The one about Janis Joplin recounted in Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2," especially as sung by Rufus Wainwright.

Has your writing been influenced by any former or current residents?
Probably not. If only.

What was the best/worst thing that happened to you during your stay?
The best thing that happened was getting a room on one hour's notice. The worst was hearing a rat scratching inside the wall.

Do you think the Chelsea has a creative energy?
The Chelsea's vibe is more William S. Burroughs than Joni Mitchell, I think.

Would you stay here again?
Yes. Good rates, great location, and there's that Larry Rivers painting in the lobby. I feel very affectionate towards the strange stay I had there.  (Photo: Elvert Barnes Hotel Chelsea Set)

Art Vandals Must Die

We’ve always suspected that tourists considered Hiroya’s mural a kind of message board or guest book for them to sign.  Now we have proof!  Here’s a picture of three brazen scofflaws cheerfully flaunting their disregard for fine art.  What I can’t believe is that they were foolhardy enough to take a picture of themselves actually defacing the canvas!  Without a doubt our illustrious proprietor Stanley Bard has his crack team of bohemian profilers hard at work on the case at this very moment, and these despicable vandals will soon be arrested and brought to justice.  (George Bush recently legalized torture, and I’m sure we must have a rack or a thumbscrew or even an iron maiden socked away somewhere in the recesses of the basement.) Hey, art-terrorists, anybody can go to the painting and find your names, you know!  Worse, when Hiroya died we dumped his ashes down the stairwell, and doubtless you breathed in a few stray molecules while you were perpetrating you heinous crime, so prepare to be haunted by a raving Butoh performer for the rest of your miserable lives.  Go try this at the Louvre, you rotten punk philistines!