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  • Super Chelsea Bonus Supplement Polybagged For Your Annoyance

    When we got The New Yorker (Sept. 4, 06) in the mail this week it was stuffed in a plastic bag together with an idiotic-looking supplement called “Fashion Rocks” with a picture of pop-culture luminaries Beyoncé and Jamie Foxx on the cover.  Boy, this magazine sinks lower with every issue, I thought. I was about ready to toss the supplement in the trash, when, on a whim, I decided to flip through it.  There amidst all the other puff pieces—worthy of Vogue or Teen Beat, but hardly The New Yorker–was an article on Edie Sedgwick written by, of all people, Patti Smith!  It was written to Edpatpromote not only the long overdue Sienna Miller-as-Edie Sedgwick movie, but also Patti’s own book,  also scheduled to be released sometime before the cows come home, if we can believe an e-mail we received from the publisher.

                In the article, Patti tells of how she saw Edie’s picture in Vogue and tacked it up to her wall alongside John Lennon, Maria Callas, and Arthur Rimbaud—a claim which I find rather odd, but what the hell.  Patti donned a miniskirt and tights and went to New York to emulate her heroine—and wound up, of course, becoming something much different.  Edie was long gone by the time Patti and Robert checked into the Chelsea, but, says Patti, “…the specter of the Chelsea Girls still haunted the historic hotel as much as Dylan Thomas and Oscar Wilde.”
         (Oscar Wilde?!  First we’ve heard of him being associated with the Chelsea.  We asked  our friend Sherill Tippins, who’s writing a history of the hotel, and she said it’s highly unlikely, that as far as she knows Wilde was last in America in 1882.  The Chelsea was built in 1883, opening in 1884.)

                Patti’s book, Just Kids: From Brooklyn to the Chelsea Hotel, is about her time with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and, although her editor says she doesn’t know if the book will include anything about the Chelsea, I’m not sure how it could be avoided.  (They lived together at the Chelsea, in case you didn’t know. )  Perhaps Patti is angling to be the second woman to have a plaque on the front of the hotel.

                I’m glad I didn’t throw out that supplement.  Significantly, at least from our point of view, this week’s New Yorker turned out to be a Chelsea Super Bonus Issue.  In addition to the Patti piece, the supplement includes articles about Bob Dylan (specifically, about a new Twyla Tharp play based on his songs) and Courtney Love, and a picture of Sid and Nancy in an article about Punk Fashion.  In The New Yorker proper there is another article about Dylan (this time about a book, Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews), two Allen Ginsberg Poems, and a listing for a new documentary about Andy Warhol.  (The Chelsea is hot, I’m telling ya!)  We may renew our subscription after all.

         But really, please, Chelsea material or no get rid of the trashy supplement. (Ed Hamilton)

  • All Tomorrow’s Parties: September 4 – 10, 2006

    Tuesday, September 5, 10:30 p.m.
    Fs Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to Patrick McMullen’s after, after birthday party. DJ: Fisherspooner (DJ Set with Warren Fisher & Joe Kane) downstairs; DJ Ryan & Kim Ann. SHOW: Sister Dimension (The Return of a Legend).  hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Astro, Theodora Ladyfag, Charley & Amanda Lepore.
    14 East 27th St. NY NY

    Thursday, September 7, Jg_1
    Andy Warhol’s “Sleep” (1963), a three-hundred-and-twenty-one-minute film of the poet John Giorno (Click here to read John’s story about taking LSD at the Chelsea) snoring away is whittled down here to a snappy forty-two minutes.
    P.S. 1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER, 22-25 Jackson Ave., at 46th Ave., Long Island City

    Friday, September 8, 1:00 – 6:00 p.m.
    Mz_linestudio_1 Michele Zalopany’s new exhibit opens at Esso Gallery.
    Esso Gallery and Books, 531 West 26th St., NY NY

    "The Materialization of Sensiblity: Art and Alchemy," opens today and features works by 18 artists, ranging from a 1966 folded polyurethane foam sculpture by John Chamberlain and Andy Warhol’s helium-filled Silver Clouds (ca. 1966) to Teresita Fernández’ Burnout (2005) and Dean Byington’s Tourmaline (2006). Yves Klein’s Table bleue will also be on display.
    Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, 535 West 22nd St., NY NY

    If you have a relevant event you want added to "All Tomorrow’s Parties," e-mail chelblog@yahoo.com

  • Ghosts Walk The Corridors

    For all you history buffs who read this blog, a 1984 interview with Stanley Bard, originally heard on Bb_2 CBS radio’s BookBeat, is available online as a podcast.  Click here to play!  When asked why he thinks so many writers come to stay at the Chelsea, Stanley credits the buildings high ceilings and the sound-proof rooms.  Stanley also talks about Brendan Behan and how he was too big of a drunk to live anywhere else.  The interviewer briefly discusses the bronze plaques on the front of the hotel–all of which, we’d like to point out, are dedicated to male writers.  Fortunately, that situation will be recitified later this month when Stanley dedicates a brand new plaque.  (Not much room left, so we’re curious as to where he’ll put it.  Will a lesser star be thrust aside?)  Click on through to find who will be the first woman to receive a plaque here at the Chelsea.

    For readers who prefer contemporary podcasts, check out Live from the Lobby.
    Porta do Chelsea

  • Ryan Tomorrow: Chelsea Reeks and Seeths

    Although Ryan, who recently celebrated his birthday in Room 112 of the Chelsea, may not know it, this room has been immoraltized in verse. In Angels Knocking on The Back Door, by Carol Greenberg, we read:
    Jake the bellhop delivered
    We all got drunk hooray
    Someone walked on the ceiling
    Fell down in room 112
    We collected the plaster
    Called it "Destruction"
    It hangs in a musem somewhere

    What do you do?

    I’m an Art Director for a company in NYC called The Barbarian Group. I also run a brand called Youth Rt112 of Tomorrow (www.youthoftomorrow.net), and work as Photo Editor for Box Magazine. In addition, I’m a photographer. (Photos from Ryan’s Hotel Chelsea flickr set.)

    Has your art been influenced by any former or current residents of the Hotel?
    Hmm- that’s a tough one. I mean, The Sex Pistols have been a vague influence on my youth, which helped shape my art…but at the same time, they’re not the best example of a Chelsea Hotel ‘resident’.

    What inspired to conduct your photo shoot at the Hotel Chelsea?
    It was my birthday, and my girlfriend came down to the city to spend it with me. I’d never stayed at the Chelsea, and now that I live in Brooklyn I don’t have much need for a hotel. But this was a special occasion – she was about to go on tour, and we were going to be apart for months.
    She’s got a classic style, and it fit very well with the room we were given (#112, right off the garden – a Rt1122 ‘quiet’ room for the couple provided by the management.). We had been out on the town, and when we got back we decided to do an impromptu shoot. Not much setup or planning, really. She brought the dress and the smile, I provided the lens.

    Do you think the Chelsea has a creative spirit?

    It positively reeks of creativity. On our way out the next morning, we ran into a film crew on their way in. It’s hard to imagine one building so seething with that old New York verve.

    What was the best/worst thing that happened during your photo shoot at the Chelsea?

    Hmm…I guess there really wasn’t a ‘worst’ thing…besides dead batteries. It just came together so fluidly. One of the shots I really wanted didn’t come out, but i got so many I liked.
    As for the ‘best’ part?…well, I’m a gentleman. I’ll leave it at that.

    What’s your favorite Hotel Chelsea story?
    I have to admit, Leonard Cohen’s "Chelsea Hotel #2" played more than once during our shoot. That’s a pretty great little story right there.

    Will your Chelsea photos be published in the future?

    I’m not sure. Really, my photography is my own, and I’m glad that so many people seem to like it, but as of yet I haven’t been pursue to publish. I would like, one day, to have some prints done up.

  • Hedda Lettuce Helps Out

    According to the Wall Street Journal, bloggers face a difficult decision: to go on vacation once in a while, or to just keep blogging everyday until the undertaker pries their cold, dead fingers from their keyboards.  Well, we faced that choice this month, and decided to keep on blogging!   For the first time in several years we’re not going to spend the last two weeks of Summer hanging out in P-town. At Friendofbears first, we were a little bummed out about this, but then we discovered Hedda Lettuce’s blog.  For those of you who don’t know, Hedda is the big green drag queen who often performs right down the street at East of Eighth.  This summer she’s in P-town doing just what we’d be doing, blogging about the old dead Chelseaites in their P-town summer haunts. 
    I decided to take a delightful guided trolley ride through city to see some of the sights I may have missed during my stay. The tour guide was a woman named Penny, a 50 something heavyset dyke with a terrible smokers cough and a flat non-interested way of speaking, which did not do beautiful PTOWN justice. I don’t think she was wearing her teeth either, because at times during the ride she was almost inaudible, but luckily the views from the trolley were breathtaking making her self-induced speech impediment a minor annoyance.

    I learned so much from Penny, but one of the greatest discoveries was that Eugene O’Neil and Tennessee Williams wrote some of their greatest works at the popular watering hole the A HOUSE? For those of you who are familiar with the AHOUSE it is a PTOWN institution that has been the place to dance for several decades. In it’s early years it was a bar and guesthouse and I am sure O’Neil and Williams did more drinking at the AHOUSE than writing. Mr. Williams probably between cocktails made a pit stop or two at the Dick Dock (legendary gay cruising area) on occasion to help him get over a bad batch of writers block.

    Now we know we’re not missing a thing! (Eugene O’Neil lived in painter George Chemeche’s room, by the way.)

  • Patti Smith Reviews Bob Dylan’s New Album

    Well I was sitting on my window sill, watching the sky shifting, when a messenger arrived with
    a copy of the new Bob Dylan album.  I gave old Glenn Gould a rest and put Modern Times in my Bdmt_1 player. To this day, it still feels funny sliding a CD in place instead of setting a record on the turntable. It was always exciting, that first moment, when the needle Pslo connected with the vinyl groove. The first CD I ever heard was an experimental one, a long time ago, with Rainy Day Women on it. I just shook my head and said "nope. it will never take off. nobody will give up playing records." Nostradamus I am not.
    In any event, there are two handsome portraits of Bob in the packaging. I like the song called Ain’t Talkin’.  Like walking alongside Bob hearing him thinking. It was nice to get a special copy brought to my door.  It kind of made up for all those bus rides in the mid-sixties, through Camden into Philadelphia, to stand for hours in line just to buy a copy of Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde. It was always worth it though. I was never disappointed. (Photo: Smith at Lollapalooza, 2006)

    Modern Times aside, I am just writing to say I have been working more on the website and will be making some changes in the next week. I had been kind of negligent for a while as I did a lot
    of traveling and have had a lot on my mind.  But I promise to be more active.  I am adding another version of Qana on the site. Just a live late night practice tape. I mispronounced it when I did it myself but it was the only version I had and I thought the sentiments were more important than the pronunciation. I have a penchant for  mispronouncing, so sorry about that.

    So I hope you will check the site out. I will try to put new stuff up every day or two. It’s a good communication base. Hope to see you there. Well I’ve got to go clean out the refrigerator. A good idea is  to put an open new box of Arm and Hammer baking soda on one of the shelves. It cuts odors. Not that I’m implying anything.  all good wishes, Patti Smith

    You can catch Bob Dylan in concert on Saturday, Sept. 2 at Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.
    Patti Smith’s new book, "Just Kids: From Brooklyn to the Chelsea Hotel" will be available in stores October 1.

  • Unknown Flophouse Mistaken for The Chelsea

    A play called “The Love Doll” has just finished its run at the Philipstown Depot Theatre in Cold Spring, NY, wherever that is.  The play is set in the “infamous” Chelsea Hotel — – though I can’t imagine what they mean by that – situated on 23rd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.  Apparently, in this play, a Doll man who lives with a life size blowup doll attempts to commit suicide by boobytrapping his room.  Now, for the life of me, I can’t image how anyone could suggest that such loathsome perverts would ever be allowed to set foot in our fine hotel. This is not the Chelsea we know and love and Stanley Bard would never allow such behavior.  Most likely, however, since they got the address wrong, they probably got everything else wrong as well.  I can only conclude that they are unfamiliar with the city, and that these events took place in an entirely different building.  They speak of the Chelsea as the scene of “madness, mayhem, and finally joy,” but those of lucky enough to live here of course know only the joy.  (Ed Hamilton)

  • Sathima Bea Benjamin’s SongSpirit

                Our Chelsea Hotel neighbor, Sathima Bea Benjamin, has just released a new CD, SongSpirit, Sbb on Ekapa Records.  Interspersing old jazz standards with her own original songs, the CD covers almost her entire career, from an early recording with Duke Ellington in Paris in 1963, to her latest session in Capetown in 2002.
                Sathima has a very fine voice, which can range from the sweet, upbeat and buoyant, as in “Ah Sweet Mystery of Life” and “I Only Have Eyes For You,” to the smooth, sultry and sexy, as in the Ellington piece, “I Got it Bad and that Ain’t Good” and “Lush Life,” both of which really evoke the feel of the smoky night club.  I’d have to say that “Lush Life” was one of my favorites on the CD: I listened to it over and over.
                Three of Sathima’s own songs appear on the CD as well.  I particularly liked “Children of Soweto,” with it’s cheerful, uplifting folk beat, and “Africa,” a moving evocation of returning home to her native South Africa after years of Exile.  In the latter, with the haunting Saxophone of Carlos Ward echoing in the background, Sathima sings, “I’ve come home to feel my people’s warmth, to shelter ‘neath your trees, to catch the summer breeze…”  Also of note on the piece is the piano of Onaje Allan Gumbs.
                Sathima is married to the great jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, and the selection she recorded with him, “It Never Entered My Mind,” is another of the highlights of the album.  Ibrahim’s delicate, tinkling piano sounds almost classical on this piece.
                Yet another highlight of the CD is the bittersweet “Indian Summer,” with its evocation of love that almost was, and of the promise of dreams that will never come true.
                If you like jazz, or even if you don’t, you can’t go wrong with this CD.  It’s mellow and relaxing and provides a welcome break from the jarring dissonance of the city.  The CD rewards repeated listening, and stands as an eloquent summation of Sathima’s lifelong body of work. (Ed Hamilton)

  • All Tomorrow’s Parties: August 28 – Sept. 3, 2006

    BdmtMonday, August 28, 12:00 midnight
    Bob Dylan will premier his first album in five years, "Modern Times," on XM Satellite Radio.  Beginning on Tuesday, August 29, fans can purchase a copy of Modern Times at select retailers. The artist’s 44th album features 10 new songs recorded this winter with Dylan on keyboards, guitars, harmonica and vocals, accompanied by his touring band.

    TuesdayDthorse, August 29,
    After winning the Budweiser Irish Derby, Dylan Thomas is the favorite to win the Juddmonte International Stakes being run today in York.  So head over to the nearest OTB parlor and place your bet before they close them all down.

    Tuesday, August 29, 10:30 p.m.
    Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to Happy Valley Tuesdays. SHOW: LAVINIA DJ: Princess & Dan Cacioppo Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Astro, Theodora Ladyfag, Amanda Lepore & Dirty Martini.  Door: Andrea and Cynthia. 
    14 east 27 St., NY NY

    Friday, September 1, various times
    Warhol4 Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film opens tonight at the Film Forum.  It’s the US theatrical premiere of Ric Burns’s 4-hour epic.  Narrated by Laurie Anderson. With Jeff Koons as the voice of Andy Warhol. Featuring interviews with art dealer Irving Blum, curator Donna DeSalvo, diarist/co-author Pat Hackett, art critic Dave Hickey, writer Stephen Koch, Jeff Koons, Paul Morrissey, George Plimpton, art historian John Richardson, and Warhol’s brother John Warhola.
    Film Forum, 209 West Houston, NY NY

    Saturday, September 2,
    Harry Smith’s early abstractions will be shown along with some of his other short films at the Anthology Film Archives later this month, but for those readers who just can’t wait you can already enjoy some of his early abstractions on youtube.

    If you have a relevant event you want added to "All Tomorrow’s Parties," e-mail chelblog@yahoo.com

  • Featured E-mail of the Week

    From a rocker in Maryland:
    Just wanted you to know how much I enjoy the blog…it’s alot of fun to read, I find myself laughing outloud at work…and sometimes I really need that! Thanks once again for linking the blog I wrote about the Chelsea…even if you did take it a little out of context!! …. Maybe next time I’m in town you could ask Stanley to give me a discount…HA HA! Keep up the good work. And thanks for giving me my Chelsea fix when I’m home. This is why we write the blog: to help the people in Maryland make it through the workday!

    A librarian from Brooklyn weighs in: I really enjoy reading about the Chelsea on your blog. I loved that there was an entry that looked into the AOL searcher profiles, awesome idea!! I also just watched the Entourage episode about the Ramones project. Cool!

    A new reader who enjoys torturing librarians writes:
    I notice some of my favorite writers listed on your site. Here’s a fun game to play:

    Call up your local library and tell them that you’re looking for a book. Tell them it’s a kids book…by Charles Bukowski. Then just wait a few seconds for the long pause. Then say "Yeah, I think it’s called ‘Notes from a Dirty old Man to little kids’ or something like that."
    I have a friend who is a librarian and she hates me for doing this stuff to her.

    A reader from Canada:
    I kind of like the idea of the Chelsea Hotel being old and crappy. None of this refurbished business.
    Of course, in my head, I’m writing in a room there, the curtains are dusty, the room is clean but it’s not the Hilton….which is exactly why I would be there. 
    n’est pas?      Our point exactly!  Old and Crappy is best!