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  • When the Chelsea Hotel Mailboxes Go Missing The New York Times Notices

    Snapshot_001small The Bring Back the Bards campaign has taken root in another life thanks to the hard work and talent of Mykal Skall.  We're glad to have him on board in our ongoing fight to preserve the 125-year-old tradition of artistic freedom at the Chelsea.

    Thanks also to Saki Knafo for bringing Mykal's work, and our struggle, to the attention of a wider public.  And for minority shareholders Krauss and Elder, please be put on notice: when you desecrate this iconic hotel, the world is watching, and history will be your judge.

    One Correction to the NYT article: Bob Dylan's old room, 211, did not undergo renovations.  It was simply, and, I might add, illegally, gutted.  Management planned to renovate it, but they did not have the proper permits, so the DOB shut them down. — Ed Hamilton

  • Chelsea Hotel Minority Shareholder Will Single Handedly Save The Newspaper Industry

    At last we have good news to report. David Elder has come out in support of freedom of the press vowing that Chelsea Now will once again be welcome in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel.  Following a pro-Davideldercloseup Bard editorial Chelsea Now had been removed from the lobby, apparently because it threatened the stability of Elder's reign.  And then after a series of pro-Bard letters to the editor in a subsequent issue Chelsea Now disappeared from many of the paper boxes surrounding the Hotel.  Disappearing, once again, even after some of them were refilled. Don't be rejoicing yet although the Onion and New York Press have been present in the lobby this week together with a bunch of fliers there is still no sign of Chelsea Now.  Has Elder come down with a case of cold feet?  Stay tune to the blog for further updates. — Ed Hamilton

  • Greedy Gangsters Will Never Control the Heart and Soul of the Chelsea: Mykal Skall’s Virtual Chelsea Rules

    In an interview with Jeremiah Moss on the Vanishing New York blog, poet and musician Mykal Skall confesses that while most people come to NYC to see the Statue of Liberty or various other tourist attractions, his dream was to come to the city and stay at the Chelsea.  There will always be such rare individuals who don’t just automatically accept the Status quo, and since 1884, the Chelsea has been Virtualchelseapoetrygathering the place that has drawn them in. 
         Mykal, of course, is the man who created     the Virtual Chelsea on Second Life, with the noble purpose of raising awareness of the greed of the minority shareholders who want to to turn this place into a boutique hotel.  But as Mykal’s creation shows, though Marlene Krauss and David Elder may have temporarily seized the physical building that houses the Chelsea, they will never be able to gain control of the heart and soul of Chelsea. 
             It is the true artists of the Chelsea Hotel past, present, and future, who will always own that soul – people who are passionate about the unique traditions of the hotel, and loyal to the Bards, who created and nurtured those traditions.  Krauss and Elder and their cronies will never gain the trusts of the true artists, because they have no idea what makes them tick.       
         Hell, Krauss and Elder don’t even understand the BRAND of the Chelsea.  They keep trying to rent the rooms to Midwestern tourists on package deals!  That’s a bright spot, however, because it means they’ll continue to lose money until they cave in and Bring Back the Bards!
          Those of us left at the physical Chelsea will continue to fight the good fight so that those of you who dream of joining us will someday have your chance.  And in the meantime there’s Mykal’s virtual Chelsea to preserve the ideals that make this iconic hotel great.  – Ed Hamilton  (Photo: A gathering of poets at the Virtual Chelsea via Sharron Schuman's flickr)

    More Second Life Chelsea Hotel Coverage — Pixel Scoop, curbed, flickr

  • Part II: Send In Your Abbie Hoffman Stories

    Continued from yesterday. 

    For nearly a hundred years, Chicago had been a rallying site for Chelsea denizens–for the 1886 Haymarket Riots, the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and now the 1968 Democratic Convention.
    Here, Abbie, Jerry Rubin, Ginsberg  Ed Sanders, and others declared, Yippies would "take over America" Hoffman400_beo22885 and  "bring the war home."

    Abbie and Jerry Rubin began planning a "celebration of life" for  Chicago, as an alternative to Democrats' "celebration of death." After a meeting with them in his Chelsea Hotel room, Country Joe MacDonald agreed to sing his "Vietnam Rag" there  without pay–but, like many other musicians and social activists, he started to back out when Chicago started to look like a potential bloodbath.

    Despite the potential for violence, Chelsea alumni, friends and residents moved almost en masse to Chicago that August.  Abbie, Terry Southern, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Ed Sanders, Phil Ochs, Arthur Miller, and dozens more lesser lights led thousands of young protesters to Chicago. In a way,
    Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was there, too since, on her instructions,  following her death in 1964 her ashes had been interred near the graves of the Haymarket martyrs whose Chicago executions had radicalized Chelsea resident William Dean Howells nearly a century before.

    In the end, the celebration of life failed to prevent Mayor Daley from unleashing his police on the demonstrators. As Arthur Miller wrote, "Chicago, 1968, buried the Democratic Party and the nearly forty years of what was euphemistically called its philosophy."  Humphrey might as well have read his concession speech to Richard Nixon then. Chelsea alumnus Phil Ochs expressed the general Chelsea Hotel sentiment on the cover of his 1969 album, "Rehearsals for Retirement." It portrayed a tombstone with the words, "Phil Ochs (American), Born: El Paso Texas, 1940, Died: Chicago, Illinois, 1968."

    Abbie Hoffman and seven others were charged under the new Interstate Riot Act with crossing state lines with the intention of inciting a riot, but the Chicago courtroom became Abbie's greatest stage. In fact the trial was later adapted for stage and film, with William Burroughs playing the judge in one production. Country Joe MacDonald's description at the trial of his meeting with Abbie at the Chelsea provided some great entertainment as well.

    By 1970, the Yippies had branches in at least 70 cities, all dedicated to cultural disruption. Abbie, in his long-time role as caretaker to the outsider community in New York, regularly referred people in need of shelter to the Chelsea Hotel–such as the artist Vali Myers–and after 1972 often stayed there himself with his wife and their son, america.

    Law enforcement never stopped pursuing Abbie, though, and the Rockefeller Drug Laws finally got him. Two weeks before they went into effect, he'd been involved in a lawsuit that forced the NYC Police Department to destroy intelligence files on a million people. The evening that the new drug laws went into effect, Abbie was charged with intent to sell and distribute cocaine–a charge that now carried a  mandatory sentence of 15 years to life.  After six weeks in the Tombs, he was released on bail, and spent a quiet, happy Christmas Eve at the Chelsea. A few weeks later, he skipped bail and went underground, where he would stay for the next six years.

    Back at the Chelsea, Abbie's family waited, supported by a sympathetic Stanley Bard. Even while
    underground, Abbie continued to agitate on behalf of the environment and other social issues whenever he could.  But in 1989, depression overtook him. He died from a massive dose of  phenobarbitol and alcohol and was found, alone in bed, his hands tightly clasped around his face. He was 52 years old. — Sherill Tippins

  • Send In Your Abbie Hoffman Stories to Help Sherill Tippins Finish Her History of the Chelsea Hotel

    Dear blog readers, I am still collecting stories about Abbie Hoffman at the Chelsea Hotel, so if you have a story, or have any corrections to what follows, I'd appreciate hearing from you via the Comments to this post. — Sherill


    If it's true that certain buildings can communicate their character and something of their past to their current occupants, it was hardly surprising that Abbie Hoffman found himself drawn to the Chelsea in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  In Norman Mailer's words, the grandson
    of Lower East Side Russian-Jewish immigrants was "a bona-fide nineteenth-century revolutionary…a true socialist–a believer in progress," just like the people who created the hotel.

    Abbie discovered politics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1960. But, like Chelsea Hotel alumni Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Harry Smith, Phil Ochs,and Bob Dylan he was more fully galvanized by the music of America's outsiders–in his case, the social and political power of the gospel songs sung in a Negro church where he attended weekly political meetings in Worcester, Massachusetts. "There was something about singing freedom songs in a black church…" Hoffman wrote, "that summoned a spirit never to be recaptured."

    The power of the music took Hoffman to Mississippiin 1964, where he worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee–teaching,registering voters,and helping create a Poor People's Corporation for selling hand-crafted goods. Increasingly alienated by a too-conservative Democratic Party, he learned from Stokely Carmichael's "spoken R&B" how to set aside his college-educated intellectualism and speak out in a way that "let people experience feelings as well as thought."

    Moving to the Lower East Side in 1966, he met his future wife, Anita,as well as Chelsea habitués Allen Ginsberg, Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg of The Fugs, Jerry Rubin, Timothy Leary, and Country Joe MacDonald. Out of the conversations and debates he enjoyed with them, he realized
    that there was an opportunity here to harness the power of the youth movement and perhaps finally break the stranglehold of the corporate ruling class."Like freaked-out Wobblies," he wrote, "we would build a new culture smack-dab in the burned-out shell of the old dinosaur."

    Unlike the Wobblies, though, Abbie and his conspirators could do this by drawing on a decade's worth of communication techniques developed by the artists, musicians, writers and actors of the Fifties and Sixties,
    many of them at the Chelsea. Abbie could see that artists like Andy Warhol,
    Bob Dylan, Harry Smith, and others had already proved Marshall McLuhan's claim that information was culture, and change in society would occur as the flow of information changed.

    Abbie's means of attack would be through theater. Theatrical techniques, he wrote, would "allow players to connect directly, viscerally" with the public. He and his co-conspirators would "organize a movement around art," as the Chelsea's "founding philosopher" Charles Fourier had
    recommended–using the potent symbols developed by artists to draw people in and make social change fun.

    Beginning in 1967, Abbie–with Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs, The Bread and Puppet Theater, and many other fellow travelers–staged guerrilla-theater events designed for maximum political impact: dropping dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange; plastering the Times Square recruiting center with stickers reading, "See Canada Now"; throwing plastic bags full of cow's blood at visiting Secretary of State Dean Rusk; and simply declaring the war over and celebrating it in the streets, shouting, "Hip-hip-hurray!…If you don't like the news…make up your own." Then, in October, Abbie and 100,000 demonstrators "exorcised" the Pentagon, relying on exorcism techniques provided by the Chelsea's Harry Smith. The iconic image of one of them placing a flower in the barrel of a policeman's gun made that demonstration "the perfect theatrical event." "We were light-years ahead of the Living Theater," Abbie claimed. "We had taken it off the stage. We were not trying to represent it in art, we were trying to live it." Probably because of this demonstration, Johnson saw his power slipping and decided not to run again.  (To Be Continued….) (Video — Abbie Hoffman Makes Geflite Fish at the Chelsea Hotel, Christmas 1973)

  • The Life of Marlene Krauss Will Thrill and Astound You

    Meet Marlene Krauss, whose voice “sounded like it had been fed a steady diet of cigarettes and broken glass”.  Marlene Krauss has had a very exciting life.  So exciting in fact that Alisa Sheckley Kraussburn has written a novel recounting her youthful exploits.  (This is not to be confused with Scott Griffin’s forthcoming MARLENE KRAUSS: A LIFE, which will probably just revolt and disgust you.) We are keeping our fingers crossed hoping this novel becomes a huge bestseller.  The following is an excerpt from the novel, MOONBURN:

    Manhattan  

    is not the center of the universe. It only feels that way. But outside of the immense gravitational pull of that small island, there are whole other realms of existence.

    For the past year, I’ve been living in the town of Northside, which is two hours from the city but subscribes to an alternate reality. Winter arrives earlier and tests your resourcefulness. The moon is more of a presence. Your regular waitress not only knows exactly what you’re going to order, she also knows how much money you have in the local bank, the status of your divorce negotiations, and your entire medical history, down to the name of the prescription cream you just called in to the pharmacy.

    Yet there are also secrets that are easier to conceal here, buffered by trees and mountains and distance. The city may offer a kind of intimate anonymity, but the country permits other freedoms.

    The freedom to run around naked in the woods, for example. Which I do about three days a month, when the moon is at its fullest. Having lycanthropy, like having children, forces you to reevaluate the advantages and disadvantages of apartment living. Of course, I’m not talking from personal experience here—I don’t have children.

    But even though I accept that I’m better off in the country, it’s been a bit of an adjustment. Before I moved out here, trying to save my doomed marriage, I’d had a coveted slot as a veterinary intern at the Animal Medical Institute on the Upper East Side. And while the education I got there was top of the line, I’ve had to unlearn a fair chunk of it.

    In the city, people don’t purchase pets, they adopt substitute children to carry around in big handbags, or rescue surrogate soul mates who will wait uncomplainingly at home all day, then greet each homecoming with frenzied affection. If Basil the basset hound gets cancer, nobody blinks an eyelash at spending thousands of dollars on medical care, physical therapy, a specially designed prosthesis.

    Around here, it’s a different story.

    Northside dogs are considered animals, and they spend much of their day outside and unattended, having adventures that their humans know nothing about. There are exceptions, of course, but in general, country people love their dogs, though they don’t regard them as quasi-humans covered in fur. Northsiders acknowledge the wolf that resides within the breast of every canine, no matter how outwardly domesticated. “It’s no kind of life for a dog” is the verdict for most serious illness.

    Looking at the massive, gore-spattered rottweiler stinking up my examining room, I had to wonder who had it better: the beloved city pets who received constant attention and care, or their country counterparts, who had the freedom to follow their instincts and roll in decomposing deer entrails.

    “I don’t see or feel any cuts or abrasions,” I told the dog’s owner, a lean woman with work-roughened hands, leathery skin, and brittle, teased black hair. Her name was Marlene Krauss and she ran a hair salon out of her home. I could feel her sizing up my long brown braid the way a lumberjack sizes up a redwood.

    “In fact,” I said, double checking the pads of the rott- weiler’s large paws, “I don’t think this is her blood at all. Queenie’s probably just been frolicking in something dead.”

    “Oh, I don’t care about that,” said Marlene. “She’s always getting into something.” When she moved, I caught a whiff of stale cigarette smoke and some drugstore version of Chanel No. 5. If I’d been completely human, the combination would have been strong enough to mask the usual vet’s office odors of cat urine, bleach, rubbing alcohol, and frightened dog. If I’d been completely wolf, I wouldn’t have made any olfactory value judgments. As it was, I was smack in the middle of my monthly cycle, which meant that the scent of Marlene was getting up my nose and on my nerves…

    Looks like Marlene may have met her match!  It would certainly a being with supernatural powers to defeat her.   Click here to buy the book and help make it a bestseller!

  • All Tomorrow’s Parties

    Break open your piggy bank, there's no shortage of organizations with fundraisers next week-end:

    Saturday, May 2,  2:00 – 4:00 Bike Ride — Party from 4:00 – 6:00
    To join the Bike Ride to support Norman Siegel for Public Advocate meet at Washington Sq Park (Under the Arch) at 2:00 p.m.
    The after party is at 203 West 22nd Street (CHELSEA) from 4:00 – 6:00
    Bikeride2 

    Sunday, May 3,  1:30 – 6:00 p.m.
    The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s Benefit Committee invites you to explore the hidden interiors of Greenwich Village and the East Village by participating in our Annual tour of Village homes. The tour offers an exclusive look into some of the Village’s most spectacular and historic homes.
    Click here for tickets and tour info.

    Sunday, May 3, 2009 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
    Hudson Guild Adult Services will hold its annual Flea Market at its 119 Ninth Avenue location. Proceeds from the event will support its programs and services for older residents of Chelsea. The Flea Market will feature hundreds of items including crafts, jewelry, household goods, small appliances and toys. We will also feature a Food Court and are seeking food vendors to participate. A raffle will also be held with prizes included.

    Monday, May 4,  7:00pm
    Support the Reverend Billy campaign and the Rise Of The Fabulous 500 Neighborhoods.
    At La Luncheonette in Chelsea
    Please rsvp@voterevbilly.org if you are interested in attending.

    ENTERTAINMENT:
    A new play about the life and music of American composer Virgil Thomson will receive its world premier in NYC in May. The play is set in the Chelsea Hotel.  Oh Virgil! A Theatrical Portrait written by Wallace Norman in collaboration with Larry Alan Smith.  A two-week limited engagement will run May 1 thru May 10.  The play is produced by Woodstock Fringe in association with Judson Arts.  Opening night is Friday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m. (PDF)

    Judson Memorial Church
    55 Washington Square South
    (corner of West 4th Street and Thompson Street )
    FRI, SAT at 8pm, SUN 3pm

    Ohvirgil

  • Three Cheers For the Hotel Chelsea Heroin Addict Blog

    We came across this little gem when we were reviewing the Google search terms that people use to find Chelsea Hotel  blog.  Usually the searches are for something like “hot naked babes,” "chelsea hotel ghosts," or  “room 100 chelsea hotel”.   We’re not quite sure what to make of the user search for “ Chelsea hotel heroin addict blog” but we hope it means that there’s another blog around here somewhere that’s way more entertaining that Legends.   Glad to know that somebody else is gonna be taking up the slack.  Since it’s our four year blogging anniversary does this mean we can retire the Hotel Chelsea Blog?  (click on the image to enlarge)

    Herionaddictblog2

  • The Long Greedy Arms of Minority Shareholders Marlene Krauss and David Elder Do Not Extend to SL

    We hear that there's a lot going on over there at the virtual Hotel Chelsea in Second Life.  For starters, the "Bring Back the Bard" campaign has been SUCCESSFUL and as you can see from this screen grab Stanleybardsl Stanley Bard has been firmly installed behind the desk.   And, according to Mykal, the creator of the virtual Chelsea Hotel "I'm meeting actual hotel residents who have been in Second Life for some time! (did you know you lived in the midst of avatars?) This will help me to make the hotel even more accurate! As for rent? I plan on doing it the old school way… first of all real residents get dibs, secondly, your art is more important than your rent. Yes, it costs me a bit of money monthly to do this, but if it helps the cause of the hotel residents, it's worth it. If I could live there for real, I would.. this is my substitute for now… enjoy."
    Bbbsecondlife

  • Bards Reign Eternal in Virtual Hotel Chelsea on Second Life

    Been missing your mail?  Pick it up at the virtual Chelsea Hotel on Second Life, where they still have the old time mailboxes.  In a timeless hotel where Stanley Bard will always be the manager, cowboy artist David Combs still seems to be painting the lobby.  May he paint throughout eternity!  Though there’s a convenient cab waiting at the door, in an unfortunate oversight, there’s no Dan’s Guitars.  Maybe virtual Marlene Krauss has evicted them.  Ah well.  And actually, I lied about Stanley being there. (Maybe somebody has to create his character—they should get right on that.  If not, Arthur Nash will have to start a Second Life Bring Back the Bards campaign).  Gigi Travis and Wee Willie Tillie should join and then they can be dueling failures.
         Chelsea Hotel was created in Second Life by Michael Skall who has been "enamoured with the Chelsea Hotel for quiet a few years."  In an e-mail he explains his project:
           "Second Life (www.secondlife.com) a virtual online 3D world where all of the content is user created.  I regularly perform my music there live, but I've also created the Hotel there from several pictures that I took while there.  It's totally interactive, and even has one working elevator, that works sometimes… lol   I've also built a virtual lounge where the El Quiote should be, call it virtual poetic license.  I plan on hosting poetry reads there, as well as music.  "SL" is a great venue to get music and poetry out in almost real time to people all over the world….

       I would like your input if you see any way that this can help the cause of saving the Chelsea for what it should be?   I may be able to raise awareness, and even have benefits, but I don't know what else I can do to help your cause…
      I've attached some pics, and if you are or may get into SL (it's free btw) here's the SLURL you'll need to find it http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lanestris/57/149/99  The music is currently all Chelsea related, and if you click on the sign you get a history notecard, as well as the pictures and other plaques give a list of residents."
         There you have it! El Quixote has been replaced with a lounge for the poets and musicians to perform their work!  Well, better that it happen in Second Life than in First Life I say.  Here are the pics if you haven't joined the brave new world of Second Life.
    SL Chelsea 1_001
     

    SL Chelsea 1_005

    SL Chelsea 1_006