Living with Legends

Hotel Chelsea Blog

recent posts

about

  • Film of Dan’s Guitars Shows a Slice of a Vanishing New York

         Well Michael Maher, the Australian documentarian who produced a film about the blog and the gentrification of the Chelsea and a piece about Coney Island, is at it again.  Be sure to catch his latest, a short piece about that legendary meeting place of musicians and eccentrics of all sorts in a store front of — where else but — the Chelsea Hotel.
         Highlights include footage of a guy trying to sell proprietor Dan Courtney a guitar, and of Johnny Cash’s son-in-law, John Leventhal, a regular at the shop, expressing the opinion that if he comes in enough times maybe Dan will give him one of these beautiful guitars!  Neighborhood fixture Vlad the Bluesman of 23rd Street puts in a brief appearance.
          Be sure to stop by the store and give Dan some business or just hang out.  Maybe Coby will play the banjo for you!  With the way things are going aroudn here Dan’s Chelsea Guitars may not be around forever.

    Mmdansguitar

  • Dubious Tribute to Marlene Krauss Scrawled on Facade

         What’s this hotel coming to?  First the barbarians were disassembling the staircase for souvenirs and slashing paintings for sport, and now they’ve taken to desecrating the outside of the building.  Its a problem of poor — or actually no — management.  Can you imagine anyone daring to pull such a stunt on Graffitiscrawl Stanley’s watch?  He would have hunted the hapless miscreant down and stood over him while he scrubbed the offending graffiti off with a toothbrush.  I can assure you of that!
         The offending scrawl lies outside of Room 219, which is apparently used for wild parties these days.  It’s the former home and office of the Cowboy Doc — if anybody remembers him — and more recently the Cowboy Artist had a show there, so apparently the spirit of frontier lawlessness still reigns in these parts.  But if you’ve got a cocklebur in your britches, partner how ’bout runnin’ shareholder David Elder out of town on a rail, instead of taking it out on the poor unoffending building? 
         Speaking of minority shareholders, I’ll betcha David Elder climbed up there and wrote that himself!  Probably he was trying to reclaim the spot from which his masked doppelganger dumped water on his head.  But what the "C" stand for?  Chump? Cretin? Maybe he thinks his dark mistress Marlene’s last name starts with a "C".
         How am I supposed to know what’s going on in his devious little peabrain?  The "C" also seems to have a superscript, but I can’t read it from the street.  Maybe once it’s enlarged that will clear up the mystery, but I rather doubt it! — Ed Hamilton

  • Another Heedless Act of Cultural Vandalism

         With the Chelsea Hotel in the hands of money-grubbing outsiders, and our favorite restaurant, Florent in the meatpacking district, set to close on Sunday, who could imagine it could get any worse. And yet the developers continue to shock and appall us with their brazen disregard for the cultural heritage of New York City.
         One of the latest cultural icons on the chopping block is 133-139 MacDougal Street, home since 1918 to the famou Provincetown Playhouse, which premiered works by Eugene O’Neill (said by some to have Ptownplay lived at the Chelsea) Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edward Albee, Sam Shepherd (Another Chelsea reisdent), and David Mamet.  The building was also home to the Liberal Club, and the Washington Square Bookshop. (We also recently ran into an acquaintance, Karl White, who we met a couple years before on the Algonquin Hotel walking tour, and he told us about a friend’s great aunt, Stella Hanau, who once lived at the Chelsea and was involved in the Playhouse in its earliest years.) (Photo courtesy of the GVSHP. Yellow area is the area NYU proposes to retain.)
         The building is owned by NYU, one of the most rapacious developers in the City.  The latest victim of their wrecking ball lies in the heart of the proposed South Village Historic District — which is probably why NYU is moving to demolish the building now, despite its obviously cynical support for the proposed designation.  After a huge public outcry at this heedless act of cultural vandalism, NYU added insult to injury by agreeing to preserve the facade and four walls of the theatre, a miniscule part of the entire building.  Do we really need another hidious dorm, or whatever it is they’re planning on throwing up, in the heart of the most beautiful and culturally significant neighborhood in NYC?
         Lets hope these Barbarians can still be stopped.  Hey maybe Marlene Krauss can sell them the Chelsea to use as a dorm!
         To learn what you can do to help, contact the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. — Ed Hamilton
       
        

  • New Rent Increases Shouldn’t Affect Chelsea Hotel Tenants

    New York City really has got it in for rent stabilized tenants as the Rent Guidelines Board just passed increases of 4.5% on one year leases and 8.5% on two year leases.  This is not the free market talking; it is, rather social engineering in its most repellant form, as the city sells out to the money interests who want to drive the working and middle classes out of New York . 
         Fortunately, the Chelsea doesn’t seem to be subjects to these increases.  Although the 4.5% per year figures applies to Class B hotels such as the Chelsea, most of our apartments were never registered with the DHCR – a prerequisite for legally increasing the rent. 
         Furthermore, even if you live in an apartment that has been registered, the Board has put a loophole in the law that works in your favor.  It basically says that if less than 85% of units in a hotel are inhabited by Rent Regulated Tenants, then the allowable increase is 0%.  This is my interpretation anyway.  The loophole is confusingly worded.  And as far as I can tell no major media outlets mentioned the loophole. The loophole may be intended to put the breaks on hotels that are aggressively forcing out rent-stabilized tenants, which, especially in SRO hotels, results in increased homelessness.
        So if you do get a increase in October – which is not out of the realm of possibilities given all of the money business that has been going on around here lately – be sure to consult a lawyer.  Various agencies in the city offer free legal advice, including the Westside SRO project. — Ed Hamilton

  • UPDATE: Demand for Payment Notices

    More people than originally thought have received "demand for payment" notices.  If you received this notice and cannot afford an attorney, please contact the West Side SRO Project ASAP.  You can contact them by calling 212.873.6600.  They are familiar with the situation at the Chelsea Hotel and can give you advice on responding to the demand for payment.

  • Edler Grins; Residents Cringe

    Just when things were pretty quite on the home front, several “demand for payment” notices have gone up on doors around the building. Some of the notices are for relatively small sums of money ($3,000). Perhaps people are traveling and simply haven’t paid their rent in a month or so.  So if you’re out of town, you may want to have someone take a look on your door.  I’ve been seeing David Elder in the lobby this week, grinning his shit-eating grin.  Perhaps this is why. He’s the guy who signed the demand notices.  We are still awaiting the arrival of a new manager at which point surely Elder will be banished to the Hinterland, never to darken our doorway again.  — Ed Hamilton

  • The Resistance Will Continue To Be Blogged

    It has been a year since minority shareholders Marlene Krauss and David Elder unwisely ousted the Bard family and brought in Richard Born and Ira Drukier to manage the Chelsea Hotel. Many of the Ghosts who had been resting peacefully in the basement and lobby for hundreds of years were not amused and resistance ensued.  Unfortunately, Richard Born and Ira Drukier were not experienced as ghostbusters and were therefore driven from the hotel in record time.
    Sit back, enjoy the show and get ready for round II.  We hear Marlene Krauss will have a new team of experienced ghostbusters in place soon.  Thanks to everybody who sent in photos. (Watch closely to see former director of operations Glennon Travis prove once and for all that he’s a Eurotrash Beachbum.) (More photos on flickr)

    https://static.photoshop.com/express/embed/pxplayer.swf

  • Layabout Lounge — Or Whatever the Hell Ferri’s Pipe Dream Was Called — Vanishes Into the Ethernet

         Wow, that was quick. No sooner had we mentioned Charles Ferri’s obnoxious proposal to put a "Legends Bar and Cafe" in the Chelsea Lobby, than the whole page mysteriously disappears from the Internet. (Ed’s note – Not really).  Marlene must have bitch-slapped Ferri all the way back to Dubai for that presumptious little gaffe!  Now she and her trusty sidekick David Elder can focus their energy on more realistic projects like the spa in the basement and the express elevator to the roof.  Not to mention the pay toliet in the old Balabanis’ Tailor shop.
         I’ll bet Marlene bitched out Elder for crashing at Ferri’s pad too.  Man, I almost feel sorry for Marlene, having to rely on such a dork to do her dirty work.  Amost but not quite! I pray that Almighty God, in his mercy and wisdom, binds them together with eternal and unbreakable bonds, and assigns them to manage a Hard Rock Hotel in Hell. — Ed Hamilton

  • Ghosts of Chelsea Haunt BD

    Well ain’t that a bitch.  It seems that BD, showing total disrespect for the landmarks commission in making the top story of their Greenwich Hotel too big and visible from the street, may now have to remove the offending structure from their building and start again.  And to add insult to injury, NY Times food critic Joe Frank Bruni recently panned the new restaurant Ago that they opened on the ground floor of the building.  (They made him wait 52 minutes for his reservation! Hey guys, get a photo of Bruni and shove it in all of your employees faces unitl it’s inprinted on their brain, okay?  (Is Glennon Travis your new maitre’d, or what?)
         We can only attirubte all of this misfortune to the bad karma you guys built up when you took over the Chelsea.  You dind’t seriously think our ghosts were going to leave you alone, did you?  They are like the Furies of the ancient Greeks! We have sent Sid and Dee Dee and Hiroya after you to dog you to your grave!  Ha ha ha ha hahaha!  — Ed Hamilton

  • Alejandro Escovedo Takes Us Back to 1978

    Former Chelsea Hotel resident Alejandro Escovedo has a new album, "Real Animal" set to be released on June 24.  He recently peformed "Chelsea Hotel ’78" at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.  A song dedicated to living at the Chelsea Hotel during the days of Sid & Nancy.