If you are a fan of pugs, and a fan of Chelsea Hotel characters, Wednesday’s auction of items from the Brigid Berlin estate will ring all of your bells! Check out the pug portraits.
A couple of Billy Name monographs might be more to your liking.
Or maybe buy a music book or two.
The auction begins Wed, Apr 27, 2022 at 10am EDT.
The Bard family has been good to Patti Smith, helping her out at two difficult times in her life. The first time, in the late sixties when she was a struggling, unknown poet, Stanley Bard gave her and her friend Robert Mappelthorpe a place to stay so they could get out of the drug and vermin infested Allerton Hotel. The second time, in the late nineties, after the tragic death of her husband, Stanley came through with an apartment yet again.
It is with great sadness, therefore, that we reprint the following invitation, which showed up in our Chelsea Hotel mailbox just yesterday.
Patti must not know that the person sponsoring her upcoming event, Joseph Chetrit, is the same developer who took Stanley Bard’s beloved Chelsea Hotel away from him and his family. And surely she is unaware that this is the same Joseph Chetrit whose demolition crews recently gutted over a hundred historic Chelsea Hotel rooms. Finally, if she hasn’t been in some way deceived, we know there’s no way in hell Patti would give a concert in support of a man, Joseph Chetrit, who is presently trying to evict almost thirty Chelsea Hotel residents using both housing and Supreme court.
We love Patti and her music, and we would love to see her concert, just not under these circumstances. And so we call on Patti, now that she knows the truth, to cancel this event.
We found this paint ing and the accompanying note in the stairwell near Hiroya's "DE DE" painting. Looks like the faithful punk rockers are still flocking to the Chelsea. It also seems that Tara's dark pilgrimage was rewarded with a message from beyond. This is the first Dee Dee spirit story that has come our way, but we're sure there will be many more to follow.
Lost our lease! Everything must go! Stanley was famous for renting the room where Madonna shot her Sex book to Material Girl-worshiping hipsters with stars in their eyes. Lately, however, sex alone has not been paying the bills. In response, general manager Arnold Tamasar has revealed a new marketing strategy: Celebrity Death Tourism. (And maybe a little sex thrown in for good measure.)
For bargain basement prices, you can stay in the room where a drug-addled Sid Vicious killed a drug-befuddled Nancy Spungen—or at least a room with the couple’s infamous bathroom attached. And if you can’t afford to go the whole hog, the hotel now sells Sid dolls at the front desk. (Complete with tiny leather jacket, sure, but how about a tiny hypodermic needle? You’ll have to ask the concierge.) Wear your black fingernail polish and light a candle for the Romeo and Juliet of punk.
Substance-abusing punks not your cup of tea? Ask to stay in the tiny room where Dylan Thomas collapsed after a night of hard drinking at the White Horse tavern. Bet you can’t beat his record of 18 whiskeys! Speaking of lovable alcoholics, Charles Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend bit the big one here as well—a suicide, double the fun! (Don’t try this at home, kids! Though really, don’t try it here either.)
So, former Chelsea Hotel resident Ryan Adams has left New York because the New York Times was mean to him. Apparently they criticized one of his songs -- imagine that -- and said he needed to self- edit a little better. Well, don't we all. But how will moving to LA help? Can't the NYT still get ahold of his albums and trash them? And don't people in LA read the NYT? In this day and age I think they can even get it online. You can't escape the long arm of the NYT!
And what's with the papers in LA? Has he got them on his payroll? Or will he have to pack up and move again once they criticize him?
Well, you're always welcome at the Chelsea, Ryan. Somtimes I'm not sure whether or not we're even in New York -- but if you're like a lot of people here, you'll have no problem pretending you're on a different, friendlier and more human planet, altogether. (For better or for worse!)
What I'm really wondering, however, is how we can convince the NYT to be mean to Chelsea Hotel minority share holder Marlene Krauss so she'll move to Lapland or Tanzania, or blast off in a rocket to Mars. -- Ed Hamilton
It's been a whole year since Adam Rushfield lost his battle to stay at the Chelsea. He recently wrote to let us know that the Chelsea is still in his heart and in his music. Late last week, Jaz attended the Miami opening of "Chelsea Hotel on the Rocks," where he got to hang out with Stanley Bard, who was also on hand to enjoy the screening. Earlier in the day, Stanley Bard could be found hob nobbing with the stars at a press conference, where we heard he had a chance to talk about his side of the Chelsea Hotel management crisis. (The lyrics to Jaz's song "Stanley was the Patron Saint" are after the jump.)
Ken Kelsch, Willem Dafoe, Shanyn, Stanley Bard and Abel Ferrera
Continue reading "Jaz Jericho Continues to Support Stanley Bard in Words and Music" »
It must be getting close to St. Patricks Day, as we met these Irish rockers in the lobby over the weekend. Here's what they had to say about their stay at the Chelsea.
In case anyone wondered what we were talking about in our previous post about the Chelsea Hotel management falsifying construction permits, this should clarify matters. The pictures below were taken on Tuesday, after construction began in Bob Dylan's old room at the Chelsea Hotel (#211), where he lived in the 60s, writing "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," and so many other great songs from his Blond on Blond album. As you can see, the room, which prior to Tuesday's vandalism, looked much as it did when Dylan lived there, has been completely trashed. In addition to not having the required Certificate of Non-Harassment the illegally obtained permits are only for bathroom and kitched renovation. Obviously, much more than that is going on. Significantly, workers have torn down a wall with sledgehammers, exceeding the mandate of their permits. -- Ed Hamilton (Unsourced photo of Bob Dylan at the Chelsea Hotel)
(Thanks to a tipster for sending over the photos of the destruction.)
Continue reading "Bob Dylan's Room Desecrated by Corporate Vandals" »
Lost City rep
orts (and today's Post) that five old brownstones on West 28th Street are up for sale for $44 million, presumably to a developer who will tear them down and throw up another souless condo high-rise. What a great idea!
The buildings, at 47 through 55 West28th, are a part of the old Tin Pan Alley, and number 55 was home to anarchist Emma Goldman's Mother Earth magazine. If Emma could see all these stockbrokers running around like chickens with their heads cut off, I'm sure she's laugh her ass off. (via curbed)
(Photo: The Post)
We hung out with Don, Jess, Vinnie, Joey & Richard (all members of The Traumas) when they stayed at the Chelsea Hotel back in 
April. They were all really cool and totally loved the hotel and were excited to be able to afford to stay at this awesome place. I think that the only thing that would have made them happier would have been to get the opportunity to play a gig in NYC. (They were in town to attend a concert.) They even gave us a copy of their recent CD which really rocks and reminds us of The Ramones. We were saddened to learn from Don that Vinnie recently died. Most of the time that we were hanging out with the group Vinnie was busy writing in his song book, but he seemed like a really great guy and he wanted to know a lot about the hotel.
Don had this to say about Vinnie: "Even though Vinnie didn't have much to say and was writing in his journal/songbook most of the time, he didn't miss a word and was happy to meet a fellow writer that was living as a writer in a hotel that 90 percent of the music/books/poems and art that we are into have graced. We never got to play a show in NYC yet we kept true to ourselves and the Chelsea spirit and things were really taking off. He was older than his 24 years and must have been dealing with some heavy stuff however the Vinnie I knew was a quick wit, with a great since of humor and a very ironic world view. He was our Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop and John Lennon all rolled into one thing that was not a copy but a channel for what music should be and that all the "IT" bands of today seem to have lost...or never had. While I subscibe to the don't mourn the loss, celebrate the life ideal, I can't help feel such loss for a great friend and a very talented writer/songwriter."
(Photo: The Traumas in their room at the Chelsea Hotel earlier this year.)
at the Fletcher Gallery located in Woodstock, New York. Judith Childs writes to tell us about a new song inspired by the hotel. So, check it out! Judith writes: "Billy Squire dreamed about the Hotel Chelsea for years and ever since I took him up to the roof some years ago to play his guitar atop the hallowed halls, he has returned, from New Zeland, to stay here, to play here and compose his dreams. He just sent me a dvd of his new album which you can find by going to www.billysquire.net and then to Listen to Album. "Chelsea Dreams" is seventh down the list."
an over used word] Aus cabaret / theatre / singer performer has paid a visit to the famed Chelsea Hotel. He's currently playing Riff Raff in a brilliant production of Rocky Horror here- a role way way beneath his capabilities. Amongst Paul's talents he 'channels' dead divas including a remarkable Janis."According to newyorkology.com "Hair" will run for one extra week in Central Park. If you don't want to wait all day to get tickets you can always climb to the top of Belvedere Castle and enjoy the songs perfectly fine though the view is obstructed to say the least. The connections between the Chelsea Hotel and "Hair" are so numerous that we could never untangle them all, but for starters former resident Milos Foreman directed the movie and Galt McDermott wrote the music for the Broadway show. 
This spring, former Chelsea Hotel resident and member of the original "Hair"cast, Sharmange Leland-St. John-Sylbert was in town for the 40th reunion of the original cast. In 1966-67 Leland-St. John-Sylbert lived at the Chelsea Hotel, down the hall from Edie Sedgwick, in a small studio that was also used by a photographer as his dark room. She talks a little about her experience at the Chelsea in this video. During her recent visit she chatted with us about the big fire of 1966. According to Sharmange, one of the more memorable highlights was when the firemen broke through the floor while they were putting out the fire and spotted a stash of pot in the room below. The firemen call the police, which resulted in a couple of tenants getting arrested.
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