Living with Legends
Hotel Chelsea Blog
Category: Ed Hamilton’s Slice of Life
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Florent was in the Meat Packing District before it was cool—or really when it was a lot cooler, before the neighborhood was taken over by Sex-in-the-City wannabees. The food is always great there (get the Moules Frites), as is the atmosphere. Ask for a table outside and watch the sun set. …
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The two desk clerks were laughing when I came in, though one of them, Morgan, was laughing the loudest. “What’s so funny?” I asked. “Henry just said a transvestite came in last night and said he was Stanley Bard’s son,” Morgan said. When I heard that I cracked up too. “So what did he look…
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I was talking to the painter Michael Bell and the poet Sheryl Rubenstein at the party for the one-year anniversary of our Chelsea blog. The New York light, orange at sunset, was streaming in through the west-facing window, much the same as it would have seventy years before when Thomas Wolfe lived in this very…
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Since the old McBurney Y closed down, I go to the New York Sports Club on the corner of 8th Ave. and 23rd St. I came into the locker room the other day at about one o’clock, and there was a neatly dressed young man of about thirty standing in front…
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Bonnie Kendall, with her exquisitely coifed red hair and painstakingly-applied make-up, always dressed to the nines to sit behind the desk and answer the phone, was something of an institution around here. Though she recently left us, hopefully for greener pastures, she’s difficult to forget. The other day I recalled a…
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Susan and I went to our favorite neighborhood diner for lunch one afternoon. There was a new waitress serving us, an Eastern European girl—you could tell by the garish make-up–and apparently it was her very first day. I ordered a split pea soup and grilled cheese, and when the soup arrived, the waitress gave me…
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My girlfriend Susan and I were in the Malibu Diner late one evening, on 23rd St., east of the Chelsea. There was a young guy sitting at the table behind me, looked like a bridge-and-tunneler, a Jersey guy. He was talking to two girls who looked like they were from Jersey as well. The man…
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Walking through the lobby on Sunday after-noon, I noticed that Jerry had a group of college students lined up for one of his Chelsea Hotel tours. In all the years I’ve lived here I never have gone on one, so I figured this was my big chance. Knowing that he wouldn’t reveal his…
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If you ever plan on entertaining a bunch of bohemians, skip the crudites and order more sushi. We’re still trying to finish off all of those damn vegetables. The blog’s first-anniversary party was held in Thomas Wolfe’s old room, now occupied by the photographer Julia Calfee, who was kind enough to let us borrow it…
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Hard to believe, but soon we’ll be celebrating the blog’s one-year-anniversary. It’s an excuse to re-post my favorite Slice of Life story. The Revelatory Work I found a purse in the shared bathroom one morning. It contained the usual junk that women carry around, and a wallet with an ID and forty dollars in…
Living with Legends 