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  • Courtney Love Votes for Balazs to Take Reins of Chelsea Hotel, We Think

    While the writers of Courtney Love's blog, What Courtney Wore Today, clearly support David Bard in his bid to reclaim the Chelsea Hotel Courtney Love seems to have a thing for Andre Balazs — we think: 

    hmmmm…. We vote Mr. Bard. Clc just tells us “Its entirely unrelated.  I have my own property adventures to deal with and I’ve certainly learned a lot.  I hope that the residents don’t loathe Mr. B as i’ve heard.  In fact, if he bought it and clearly I’m not commenting on that, but I will say whatever is going to happen, has happened.  The Chelsea is special beyond belief.  I will only say that my Mr. B isn’t this terrible person they’re afraid of.  He’s a Courtneyandre
    good hearted lovely man and he takes care and respects artists on every level.  If he does start, hypothetically speaking, selling, and I’m not commenting further except to say he will be very choosy about who gets in, in the best way.  Socialites dancing on the roof? No. He’s too cool to let that happen, bluntly stated: we have presently some befuddling mega difficulties but I trust Mr. B with my life.  And no one there should.  If he were to choose it, be afraid of him.  His partners? That’s my problem but that will come out in the wash in my personal financial affairs.  I believe VF is finally doing a story.  Done correctly.  I am wary of them, but perhaps if that scenario unfolds, he is perfectly capable of growing like a quiet panther and terrifying them into the shadows.  No, Mr. B is actually a lovely good man.  I wouldn’t entrust someone with my life if I wasn’t 110% positive of their intentions and integrity in a matter this delicate.  That’s all.  The Chelsea is something of a civic concern.  A destroyer of place he is not.”

    Quite a recommendation for Balazs, although, if manager Arnold Tamasar is to be believed it comes a little too late.

  • From Hack to Big Steal: David Edelstein Reportedly Purchases Chelsea Hotel

    Edelsteincabride Current General Manager Arnold Tamasar has told multiple tenants that Tristar Capital, headed by former cab driver David Edelstein, has bought the Chelsea, reportedly for  significantly less than Madoff-victim Marlene Krauss’s asking price.  Condos to come.  Meetings with the hotel staff have been called to inform them that a new management team will be taking over immediately to assess and define the logical next step.  As the new buyers are said to be notoriously anti-union, employees here at the hotel have been told to be on their A-game or be fired.  “Look busy!” was reportedly Tamasar’s blunt directive.

                Tamasar was silent as to whether TMS pioneer  Krauss and her faithful servant David Elder had negotiated side deals of their own to maintain shareholder participation in the venture.  But we do hope we’ve seen the last of them.

                Edelstein seems a decidedly déclassé choice for the tony-coiffed Krauss, as he was the man who single-handedly destroyed the charm and allure of South Beach.  Perhaps destruction and scorched earth is their common ground.  Good luck in inking that deal, Edelstein.  Our advice for dealing with Krauss: watch your back.

  • Stanley Bard Offers to Buy His Own Hotel

    Our illustrious proprietor Stanley Bard, ousted from his mangement role along with his son David, in 2007 has recently announced publicly that he is willing to buy out the other Chelsea Hotel shareholders.  This is the Stanley_bard_getty--300x300 best news that the beleaguered Chelsea Hotel and its residents could possibly hope for.  Our only question is, what's the hold up.  Surely by now the shareholders are sick of losing money due to the incompetent "management" that we've all been suffering through lately. Now is the time to Bring Back the Bards!
    (NY Post)

     

  • Has the Chelsea Hotel Lost Its Will to Live?

    Chelsea Does Cara Buckley's article in the NYTimes (12/8/10) get it right on the money?  Are we really going to go  "quietly into the night?"  Is this the end of the line for the Chelsea Hotel's famous spirit of non-conformity and resistance?  Even if Michael Musto is right that our "legend has been slowly evaporating," has it really dissipated entirely?  When did we lose our famous ability to "inspire terror in the streets'?  Are New Yorkers "shrugging" at our plight out of unconcern or bewilderment?  How will history remember the present tenants?
    Ed Hamilton

    (photo: crawdaddy.com)

  • A Toast To Storme DeLarverie

    For those concerned about Storme Delarverie there is cause to celebrate.  First, she has moved from Oxford Nursing Home and is now living at CABS Nursing Home, a much nicer facility, where her needs can be better met and one of her good friends, Gladys Sille, is also living.  The location of the CABS Nursing Home is 270 Nostrand Ave.,Brooklyn New York.  It's at the corner of Nostrand and DeKalb.  If you take the G train it's between Dekalb and Bedford Ave.  

    Secondly, the Henrietta Hudson bar will host a gala in honor of Storme on Nov. 21 from 4:00 – 8:00 p.m.  100% of the proceeds will go to Storme, to take care of her day-to-day living expenses and incidental needs.  $5.00 or more donations will be accepted at the door.  There will be surprise musical guests and performances.  The Henrietta Hudson bar is located in the West Village at 438 Hudson.  Come to the party and toast Storme's continued well-being and long life.
    Storme invite 

  • Chelsea Hotel Used to Sell Levi’s in UK

    Looks like the Chelsea Hotel's new management has licensed the hotel's image for commercial purposes. As appalling as this is,  as well as injurious to the Chelsea Hotel's reputation, we suppose they have the legal right to do this.  On the other hand, one question that springs to mind is whether the artists whose work is featured in this ad campaign have been fairly compensated, if at all. (Watch the video and you'll recognize the work of familiar Chelsea Hotel artists hanging on the walls.)  Additionally, we don't understand exactly what the accompanying song, "White Power", by a band called Ezra Bang & Hot Machine, is about, or what it has to do with the Chelsea (or with Levis, for that matter.)  Sadly, the Chelsea Hotel, one of the most vital and enduring icons of underground culture, is now being co-opted by mainstream, commercial culture. We wear Levis jeans too, but they're the product of a multi-billion-dollar international corporation that in the end cares about only one thing, the bottom line.  (They've been accused of numerous human rights violations and their jeans aren't even made in the U.S. anymore.) On the other hand, the Chelsea Hotel has always been a family-owned, family-run, locally based business. The Bards didn't have anything against making money, but the hotel was never for sale to the highest bidder.
    Levischelseahotel

     (click on the image to enlarge)

     

  • Chelsea Hotel Basement Goes Starless

    If you were wondering what all that jackhammering in the basement was about, we now have the answer.  Our beloved Star Lounge is reopening on Saturday as “The Chelsea Room” (Wall Street Journal, 10/5/10).  Girder4 This will not be an ordinary club, but will feature exposed original brick from (of course) 1883, and 150-year-old wood from an upstate New York barn.  (So that’s the source of that manure smell wafting up through the air shafts!)  No mention yet on whether the dozen or so 20-foot steel beams they erected to shore up the walls they demolished will also be exposed.

          The club is being run by two guys named Artin Bey Archer and Marcus Bifaro, and we’re sure they can be trusted to run a orderly establishment that respects the rights of Chelsea Hotel residents.  On the other hand, Charles Ferri must be lurking behind the scenes somewhere, since he was unable to transfer his liquor license.

     Girder2      Other notable features of the club include vintage chandeliers—which must be hanging at eye-level, since the ceiling is only about 7 feet tall—and art work “found” in the Chelsea Hotel.

          Finally, according to Bifaro, drinks will start at what he apparently regards as the rock-bottom price of $13, since, “We don’t want to ruin people’s lives so they can’t pay their bills.”  Funny, we always thought alcohol was supposed to ruin your life!

    Earlier coverage of Charles Ferri & Star Lounge: Crackless Black Hole of Club Land, Hazardous Waste Company Clears Out Star Lounge, Chelsea Free for All, Chelsea Layabout's Cafe, Violence at Star Lounge, Chelsea Hotel Multi-Bar Scheme, Why do you Need a Liquor License?  Pick your Posion

  • Dee Dee Ramone Contacts Fan From Rock-n-Roll Heaven

    We found this paint Deedeetribute 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.

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      Deedeenote2

  • Zombie-Like, Chelsea Hotel Death Tourism Staggers On

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  • Fake Stores Needed at Chelsea Hotel Due to Failure to Attract Real Ones

    This entire place has become a parody of itself, i.e., faux, why not the signs?   

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