Renaissance man D-Xristo! stopped by the Chelsea to visit his friend, and fortunately for posterity his friend had a video camera. He is French, goddammit!
What do you do?
I am an art model, pet sitter, actor and singer songwriter under the name of D-XRISTO! 
What brought you to the Chelsea?
My best friend and talented photographer Michael Huhn who moved to Los Angeles came to New York on a business trip and stayed briefly at the hotel!
Had you heard of the Chelsea prior to your visit?
Absolutely!!! Sid Vicious from the Sex pistols stabbed his girlfriend to death there!
Did the Chelsea live up to its reputation?
Absolutely! It is such a mysterious place!
What inspired you to shoot your video in the Chelsea?
My friend decided to do it and I jumped immediately! It was a fantastic idea!
Do you think the Chelsea has a creative spirit?
Absolutely!!!
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There’s a review of the Chelsea on the tripadvisor site that really takes us to task. “Chelsea Hotel: Old & Crappy” the review is called. The reviewer talks about the old furniture and speculates that Stanley’s
purpose in retaining it is to give the place “the feel of when the stars stayed here.” 
I have news for you bucko, the stars are still here! The first time my girlfriend and I stayed here was back in the mid-eighties. The drawers in the chest were moldy and had holes rotted through them. Nobody in their right mind would have stored clothes there. We must not have minded too much, we came back. I don’t think the tourist minded it too much either, they indicated that they would most likely recommend this hotel to their best friend.
The tourist mentions that the Chelsea feels "errie." Yeah, that’s the famous Chelsea energy, chief. I never have thought of it quite that way myself, but everybody experience it differently, of course, and now that he says that, it makes sense. The owner, he says, seemed cool. I can see that too, I suppose. -
Last week, there was a lot of discussion about AOL’s decision to release details about user’s web searches. Despite efforts by AOL to remove the data, the database is still online. We decided to look into the AOL memory hole to see who was planning to visit the Chelsea. We expected to find artists and rockers, but instead we found some typical tourists.
Mystery Guest # 1 This tourist was very confused that AOL directed her to the Chelsea hotel in
Japan. Anyway, she isn’t going to Japan she’s coming to New York. U.S. Air was too expensive so she tried Jet Blue. She rented a car from Hertz. When she booked her room at the Chelsea she discovered that she needed to bring her own quilts and therefore quickly signed up for quilting classes. And, someone told her not to expect flowers in her room; she’ll be bringing her own.5114698
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Mystery Guest # 2 — This Indiana Hoosier thinks you need a passport to come to New York. Though he’s ready to retire, he’s still a sexual dynamo and he doesn’t want any of our
Slammin’ NY Babes slappin him with a paternity suit. He best beware of his wife’s deadly chicken salad recipe. It could be his last meal. -
MONDAY
If you really want to pick up an extra $200.00 FUSE’s hit show, PANTS OFF DANCE OFF is looking
for sexy women (over 21 only) to dance and strip for this fun TV show in its second season. They are shooting throughout the month in a midtown manhattan studio. (Your private parts will be blurred on TV). If you’re interested send an e-mail with DANCE in the subject line to fusecasting@fuse.tv. Attach a jpeg of yourself and include a phone number and email where you can be reached. Tuesday, Aug. 15, 10:30 p.m.
Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny invite you to HAPPY VALLEY TUESDAYS. DJ: Sammy Jo. Downstairs: D.J. Ryan and Kim Ann. Hosts: Miranda Moondust, Kim Aviance, Astro, Theodora Ladyfag & Amanda Lepore. Door: Andrea and Cynthia.
14 east 27 St., NY NYWednesday, Aug. 16, 9:00 p.m.
Burlesque Room. Drs
Open @ 8pm, FREE BEFORE 10pm DJ This ‘N DJ That will be spinning 80’s/Electronica/Trip Hop/Ambient. $5 Cover after, $7 BEER + SHOT COMBO ALL NIGHT
Serena’s in the basement of the Chelsea Hotel, 222 W 23rd St., NY NYFriday, Aug. 18, 7:00 p.m. FREE
The seminal New York punk band the New York Dolls play a free show. Their promoting the release of their first new album in thirty-one years.
South Street Seaport, Fulton St. at South St., NY NY
Saturday, Aug. 19, 11:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Readers spending the weekend in the Hamptons should take advantage of the first ever survey of Andy Warhol’s work on Long Island. The exhibit includes more than 100 pieces ranging from works created in the 1950s through the 1980s.
Guild Hall Museum, 158 Main St., East Hampton NY NYIf you have a relevant event you want featured on All Tomorrow’s Parties e-mail the information to chelblog@yahoo.com
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Celebrations were held throughout the land to honor Andy Warhol, who would have been 78 on August 6.
The USPS issued a new Andy Warhol commemorative stamp on Wednesday. The stamp features Warhol’s "Self-Portrait,1964." Better stock up now before they turn up for sale on e-bay! Update: Correction from the Post Gazette & a reader.The Allentown Museum held an Andy Warhol look-a-like contest. The winner was a 16 year-old boy. Lucky kid. Good luck with adolescence.
Over at Gothamist, you can view a clip of Nico and the Velvet Underground rehearsing at The Factory in 1966. No Andy, but what the hell. Nico actually lived at the Chelsea, instead of just turning up to bother Stanley with his cameras and a gang of wierdos now and again.
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The great singer/songwriter and poet Patti Smith sent along her reflections on the month of August. Patti lived in the Chelsea with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the early 70s. She returned to the Chelsea and lived her for a time in the late 90s as well. August 9 full moon. This is the day Jerry Garcia died. He was born on the first of August and passed away on the ninth, so it’s nice to think of that span as Jerry week. It certainly seems that he well deserves a 9 day week. So it’s winding to a close. I lit him a candle, listened to him singing Palm Sunday, and looked at his paintings in a big Jerry book.
August 2, the birthday of my sister Kimberly, was the anniversary of William Burroughs’ passing.
While in my old house in Michigan I found my seventy year old bottle of Chartreuse squirreled away. I
bought it in the eighties with him in mind. We promised each other we’d share a drink one day, but we never got around to it. I reread his Port of Saints and looked at a catalogue of his gun shot paintings. I traced my son and daughter’s names written in his hand on an old Christmas card.
Then I cracked open the Chartreuse and poured us each a shot. The green sugary liquid put me in mind of nineteenth century absinthe, so while I had my ritual drink with William, I kept in mind the likes of Paul Verlaine, Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud.August 3, on the birthday of Beverly Lee, a member of the wondrous Shirelles, Arthur Lee passed away. I met him a long time ago. He was just a little older than me. He was soft spoken with a vague criminal air. Forever Changes left its mark. I was in Michigan when he died and I walked down to the end of my dead end street and sat on a bench beneath a weeping willow. It was at least one hundred degrees but I still had my trusty black coffee, steaming fresh from Seven Eleven. I played back Amoreagain and Orange Skies in my mind. These songs of Love are so deeply rooted I can hear them as clear as if they were wafting from a turntable.
My son’s birthday rolled around. August 6 was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Over one hundred thousand people were massacred in that drop. Too many candles for one to light. I was back at my post on the bench looking out at Lake St. Clair. A huge Monarch brushed my cheek. I figured the butterfly, symbol of immortality, served to evoke them.
A few weeks ago I was in London. I visited a small bar painted green and lit with a green light. William used to frequent this joint some years ago. You can only enter through private subscription. I wasn’t drinking. I was just visiting. It was three in the afternoon. There were a few old-school characters nursing their whiskies. Suddenly, in the center of the friendly yet oppressive silence, one of them cried out "Syd Barrett is dead." This took me off guard. But the fellows spontaneously raised their glasses, issued a " here! here! Syd!" and then retreated into their private worlds. For that one moment they were of one mind. And I was with them, saluting someone I never knew. Someone who made music. Someone who loved Arthur Lee.
Today is my friend Betsy Lerner’s birthday. It’s the day the United States dropped an Atomic Bomb on Nagaski. It’s the day Hermann Hesse died. The day Jerry died. I have returned to the city. Children are racing up and down my street. We humans keep in mind. That’s what we do. Tonight is a full moon. Guess when it sets, I will get me a cup of black coffee, sit on the stoop, and contemplate the bombing of Qana, the miracle of love and Dark Star.
Patti Smith
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The artist Mary Anne Rose views the Chelsea as a Living Museum. Now there’s a suggestion: Stanley could establish a recommended donation for viewing the paintings in the lobby
and make some extra cash. Mary Anne and her husband, the late painter Herbert Gentry, embody the timeless bohemian spirit of Chelsea.
What do you do?I am an artist and art educator.
When did you move into the Chelsea?
My late husband Herb Gentry first invited me to join him in New York at the Chelsea (I was living in Paris at the time, where I had met him) . That “introduction” in November 1978 would become permanent. Gentry had come to the Chelsea many years earlier. (Photo: Mary Ann Rose and Herbert Gentry in front of the Chelsea from the archives of Mary Ann Rose.)What would you say are the main differences between how the Chelsea was when you first moved in and how it is now?
We are talking about 1978 through 2006. Well, of course, I’ve changed. I was so wide-eyed and excited and fascinated by the Chelsea the minute I walked in. It was another world. There was an older generation or two of folks alive at the time so it carried a palpable connection to living history for me. It was also a very friendly place. A different crowd of folks sat in the lobby in 1978. There were real
characters passing through the lobby late evenings that might keep a voyeur surprised and amused. American culture and New York was a different experience in 1978. I remember the French advertised New York as “le metropole moins cher du monde” which meant dollars were cheap. Those were transitional times, a very lively social period. You still felt how the Chelsea had been home to American bohemia, and a lot of the residents, memories and attitudes of earlier years lived on at the Chelsea . The French have a saying for this, the more things change, the more things remain the same.
The lobby was really pretty funky in 1978, the front desk area was sort of white painted plywood, forget the elegant dark wood look of today! The original Chelsea antique sideboards and benches in the lobby had different upholstery, but there were no flowers. Much of the same art was hanging in the lobby when I first came, some newer pieces have been added, but many are the same. That’s what really defined the place for me – a living museum!
How w
ould you describe your art?
I have spent a lot of time writing during the time Gentry was ill, and after he passed away. A little tight for physical work space, I’ve been forced to make a lot of creative adjustments. My art? I think of it as the roll it up and take it with you kind – originally, to facilitate painting and exhibiting on two continents. Visually-based, abstract and geometric modalities, Paintings on unprimed, unstretched linen, works on paper, drawings, prints.Who has influenced your art?
Clearly, living with another artist influenced me. But I was an artist before I met Gentry, and remain an
independent artist today. The artistic discourse is important and continual.
Has your work been influenced by any residents here at the Chelsea?
I believe one’s life is influenced by interactions with people and places, and this shapes who you are in entering the studio. My residence at the Chelsea extends over 28 years. At the Chelsea, one passes art on the walls, people in the elevators, and there is the city itself. My artist friends here? Doris Chase, long term resident and video artist, in particular shared a lot of her experience with me before she left.How did you meet Mr. Gentry?
We met in Paris at the Cite Internationale des Arts.
Identify some other artists who he admired and why.
Gentry went back to Paris in 1946 after serving in WWII, and lived many years in Paris, and then Sweden. Gentry came to the Chelsea thanks to the recommendation of the international museum director Pontus Hulten, who was a Swede and Herb knew him in Paris and Stockholm. Herb thought of it first as the place that European artists stayed. Gentry had grown up in New York city in the 1920s and 1930s, the Chelsea was perfect. Gentry admired many here at the Chelsea, of course those with French connections, Bernard Childs, Shirley Clarke, Virgil Thomson, Martine Barratt, many others. But Gentry was a personality, made many connections and impressions here that I still learn about! At the Chelsea, he congregated with writer Chester Himes, artists Romare Bearden. Bill Hutson. Bob Blackburn resided here in the final years. The Printmaking workhop was nearby. I worked there, too. Artists from Scandinavia and Paris stayed here, painters, musicians, short term and long. Writer Piri Thomas. Bernard Childs, Martine Barratt, and others. Ed Clark in the neighborhood. Theater, actor Kevin O’Connor was our next-door neighbor, then actress Cyndi Coyne and Theo. Gentry would meet for breakfast at Wellington Restaurant on Seventh Ave. — now Eros Cafe — and Chelsea Square at 23rd and Ninth Ave. He loved the funky donut shop and egg sandwiches at Eighth and 23rd. He had a café spirit and the neighborhood offered that to him.Describe Mr. Gentry’s art?
Expressionist. Always abstract, but enjoyed the figurative element that emerged in his work. Some of his ideas were based on a belief, even a faith, in the subconscious.Was Mr. Gentry’s work influenced by anyone he met or knew here at the Chelsea? Gentry the artist was already formed when he first arrived at the Chelsea. Most importantly, he felt very good here, and free in his lifestyle, and able to paint. The many people he met here all contributed to his art, because he was inspired by the human spirit.
Do you think the Chelsea has a creative spirit? I think creative individuals bring their creative spirit with them, and arrive at the Chelsea with this spirit as part of their baggage, so to speak. Because many such folks are gathered at the Chelsea, it becomes a safe and even, stimulating environment to work, share and acknowledge that creative impulse. It is a norm, rather than an exception.
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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 the hundred-year-old Chelsea Hotel. We thought about cat litter, since one of the women on the floor had a cat, but that smells more stale, it seems to me–and don’t they put disinfectant in that stuff? No, this smelled like somebody opened the lid of the trash bin and took a good long dump right in the can.Diapers, that’s all we could come up with. The people with kids that age live on the other side of the elevators, separated from the trash bin by two heavy doors, and so presumably don’t have to
smell it and are therefore less likely to care. On the other hand, they surely knew better; surely knew to seal those things up in a plastic bag.We weren’t the only ones bothered by the smell. One evening we ran into Sarah, the gray-haired costume designer, sniffing around out by the trash bin. She said she had complained to the people at the desk.
“So what did they say?” I asked.
“Oh, they didn’t take me seriously. They never do,” she said, as if she expected as much, a smile still enlivening her round, pleasant face.
“Maybe because you’re only paying $500 in rent,” I said, jokingly. She’d been living in the hotel, in a huge, rent stabilized suite of rooms, since the sixties.
“That has something to do with it, for sure,” she said.
Sarah was rather scatter-brained, too, I thought. Possibly they thought she was imagining things, or at least exaggerating.
“We’ve got to do something about it,” she said. “We can’t go on living like this.”
The upshot was that she asked us to call down and complain as well, on the theory that they were more likely to take action if more than one person bothered them.
My area of specialization is the bathroom, so my girlfriend was the one who called. The only one there at the front desk was the telephone operator, a kindly elderly lady named Anita. I could only hear half of the conversation, of course, but my girlfriend filled me in on Anita’s part:
“The trash really stinks, and somebody needs to come get it,” my girlfriend said.
“You know nobody’s gonna come get your trash honey,” Anita said. “You gotta take it out yourself.”
“No, the trash in the hall. It’s stinking.”
“Well, if you left your trash out in the hall, that’s why it’s stinking.”
My girlfriend hung up the phone, and said, “I don’t think they’re gonna do anything.”
“Why didn’t you explain it to her better?” I asked.
“It was no use,” she said.
She was probably right. That’s the kind of thing that generally happens when you complain around here: a sort of willed incomprehension. To accept that there was a problem would have required action. (Ed Hamilton) -
The Gramercy Hotel used to be a place very similar to the Chelsea, down at the heels and full of bohemians and bohemian charm. But then the developer Ian Schrager gutted it and threw the permanent residents out on the street. Now it’s an art hotel for the rich and jaded. Julian Schnabel, a sometime Chelsea resident (he has a studio here), and the ostensible designer of the Gramercy—he doesn’t like the term “interior decorator”–should have known better than to get involved in this project. But it’s clear why he did it: several of his paintings are front and center in the main rooms of the Gramercy, exposed to the gaze of rich potential collectors.
The hotel does look pretty good, I must admit, a fairly relaxing place to hang out. The
furniture appears comfortable, the lighting subdued, and the art on the walls is fairly standard and shouldn’t agitate or offend anyone. A lot of hard liquor will apparently be consumed here, as there are two bars: a large Rose Bar for prim ladies daintily sipping Cosmos, and a smaller, darker Jade Bar (why didn’t they just call it the Jaded Bar?) for the more serious lush. Hey Ian, can we come blog from your place? The walls and ceilings are lined with dark wood taken from old barns and mushroom crates.
The problem is, the Gramercy looks exactly like a million other boutique hotels and upscale restaurants in the city and around the country. No chances have been taken, leading me to suspect that Schnabel was hired simply to lend his name to the project. In the article I read in The New York Times, the author seems hard pressed to explain how, exactly, this place is cutting edge: it’s not futuristic like Schrager’s earlier hotels, but on the other hand it’s somehow supposed to be an advance on the dozens of other “art hotels” that have sprung up like mushrooms (maybe that’s where they got the crates!) in the last few years. There’s an art hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, of all places, that’s more cutting edge than this. For the rich wastrel looking for a fresh new hotel experience, this is going to be an unmitigated flop. My advice is, don’t bother.
Instead, wait until Schrager takes over the Chelsea! We just got rid of Capitol Fishing & Tackle after sixty-five years in the hotel, and so now there’s a huge space on the ground floor that he can fill with Schnabel’s art and turn into a really rockin’ bar. I’m sure he’ll want to redo the present lobby as well, kitschy and unboutique-like as it is. The permanent residents, of course, wouldn’t be allowed in either of these spaces, but what I’m hoping is that, instead of throwing us out, Schrager will let us use the service elevator to the basement where we can scurry in and out through the secret tunnel to less fashionable 22nd St. We all promise to be good bohemians and not speak out of turn and only make acceptable art.
Ah, what the hell. Gut the place. The current rumor is that we’re going to get a Duane Reade in the Capitol Fishing & Tackle space. Whoopee! Maybe we can get rid of El Quijote and get a Starbucks in here too. Death to those who would turn New York into a boring mega-mall! (Ed Hamilton) Related articles — Job Opportunities for Bohemians; Ian Versus Bohemia
