Living with Legends
Hotel Chelsea Blog
Category: Ed Hamilton’s Slice of Life
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The lobby of the Chelsea Hotel is the vortex of the building’s fabled madness. I rarely spend much time there, since, well, my tender psyche can’t withstand the heavy spiritual and paranormal onslaught. But one night I was feeling particularly reckless, and I so I had a seat in the middle…
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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…
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Capitol Fishing Tackle, which has been in its present location on the ground floor of the Chelsea Hotel for sixty-five years, is moving at the end of July. Since we’d never been in there before, my girlfriend Susan and I figured we should visit the store at least once, and maybe…
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Hiroya, the crazy Japanese graffiti painter with wild black hair who used to stand in the lobby in paint splattered suits and accost tourists with boasts of his artistic prowess, left several paintings behind in the hotel when he died. Two of them, replete with crosses, caskets, and the symbolism of death, and heavy on…
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The most beloved–and enigmatic—character ever to grace the halls of the Chelsea is of course our illustrious proprietor, Stanley Bard. Among his many endearing qualities, Stanley possesses a congenital inability to admit that anything bad has ever taken place in the hotel. There are no roaches or mice, and certainly no junkies have ever lived…
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Susan and I were walking up Eighth Avenue late one Saturday night. Susan was wearing a brown t-shirt that said Ciao Manhattan! As we approached the Hudson Diner we noticed a pretty girl in a floppy hat and a blond bob haircut sitting at an outdoor table sucking on a milkshake. She kept staring at…
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https://legends.typepad.com/GlassHouses.mov
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There was a new guy staying next door in the transient room. “I hear him out there,” my girlfriend Susan said. “Open the door and see what he looks like. Maybe we can interview him for the blog.” It was late at night and she had just settled into bed. I didn’t feel like talking…
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There’s a large, shady garden on top of the Hotel Chelsea, complete with flowers, bushes, and fully grown trees, one of which has taken root in the roof itself, sending its roots down into the apartment below. The garden is surrounded by a brick wall, insulating this idyllic retreat from the swelter and commotion of…
Living with Legends 