Through our diligent work, we have uncovered this confidential, highly encrypted communiqué between BD and its ad agency.
Living with Legends
Hotel Chelsea Blog
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On his Dorothy Parker website, our friend Kevin Fitzpatrick compares his favorite haunt, the Algonquin Hotel, with “the other great literary hotel in town,” the newly renovated Plaza. Though he is quick to apologize for this slight to the Chelsea, I feel that, upon due consideration, I have no choice but to reply: apology not accepted! Of course he doesn’t want to include the Chelsea in his comparison: the Chelsea is worth at least six or seven Algonquins, stacked on top of approximately 10 Plazas, with one Times Square Howard Johnsons on top like a rum-soaked maraschino cherry!
To right this egregious libel, we are reprinting his chart, while adding our own column for the Chelsea. (Time constraints prevented the addition of a column for the Time Square Howard Johnsons.) In your face Algonquin! We kick ass! Whoo hoo!!!! — Ed Hamilton -
We ran into Jack White the other night at the Chelsea, wearing a cowboy hat with a big white feather that made him appear even taller than he is, and a huge fur coat of a kind only a true rock star such as himself could pull off. If he was trying to go incognito, I must say he failed rather miserably! We wondered why he would grace our hotel with his presence, and now we know: he’s working on an album with Bob Dylan and wanted to soak up some of the rarified ambience of the legendary performer’s former haunt. Well, we’re confident that –even with BD in charge – he was not disappointed.
The two artists are working on an album of songs that Hank Williams left uncompleted at the time of his death — which is kind of funny since, isn’t it part of Dylan’s legend that he tried to steal a trunk of songs out of Woody Guthrie’s basement after the old folkie croaked? I think those songs were later recorded by Wilco – much to Bob’s consternation, I’m sure – but now, in a way, he has his revenge.
Oh, another Chelsea connection: Hank William’s granddaughter, Holly Williams, used to live here.
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Could it be part of Born and Drukier’s diabolical plot to deprive us all of the last shreds of our already tenuous sanity? The cars rattle by, one by one, like fully-loaded freight cars over a rickety old railroad bridge. Minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, the cars roll by, clackety clackety clack over the steel plates as my patience flows out like sand from the (blasted, noisy) hourglass of the days of my life.
Am I making any sense at all at this point? On Saturday we were awakened early in the morning by construction crews jack-hammering up the pavement. Oh well, it is New York; time to get up anyway.
The racket went on all day. Still, about standard. But the workers left the road torn up, the long hole—stretching from 8th Avenue to the hotel–covered by a hastily placed series of steel plates. And they haven’t been back since.One sleepless night was bad enough, but that second one was torture, and as I write this we are bunkering down for a third! We’ve called 311 repeatedly, as have any number of hotel residents and others on the street. We listened incredulously to their response: “we’ll send somebody to look at it in 10 days” (!!!!!)
Now, we’re no fools. We know they can secure those steel plates better than that. Better yet, maybe they can get back to work and finish up whatever it is they’re doing.
Our only suggestion to those of you who are suffering with us: Call 311 again if you haven’t already, and keep calling. That’s the only solution I can think of. Perhaps someone else knows another place to call and complain (like, whatever city department they are from). If so, don’t hold back on our account.
All joking aside, this has got to be bad for BD as well. An unsuspecting tourist checked into the room right next to us this afternoon—looked like a businessman—and all I could think was, oh you poor soul, you have no idea what’s in store for you. He’s probably from someplace quiet like Kansas too, He’ll no doubt be down at the front desk at 2 in the morning asking to be moved to a room on the back of the hotel. And if he doesn’t get it he’ll be asking for his money back. You can’t rent somebody a hotel room where it’s impossible to sleep.
So what about it, Born and Drukier? You guys are some real big shots and high rollers and all. Can’t you grease some palms or call in some favors or something?
In conclusion—literally–does anyone in the hotel have a revolver? I’ll generously spring for the ammunition, since I know we’re all going to be ready to blow our brains out before the sun rises again over our fair 23rd Street. — Ed Hamilton
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Milwaukee alterna band Fever Marlene wrote and recorded their second album, "White China" (Is that like the heroin man? Shades of Lou Reed!), over a four night stay in room 219 at the Chelsea . The 10 song album features a DVD documentary of the writing process and a photo journal. "White China" is set to be released on March 7, 2008.
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Mia Hanson called to remind us that today is the 5th anniversary of the death of the Japanese painter
Hiroya. At least for now some of his art remains on the walls of the Hotel. So when you stand and gaze at the crazy graffiti paintings take a moment to recall the life of the painter. I’m sure a lot of people have Hiroya stories that they may want to share so add them to the comments section. -
Chelsea Hotel residents were saddened to learn of the departure of fellow resident musician Adam Rushfield (aka Jaz Jericho), after a year at the Hotel. Though he’ll be missed, we’re sure he’ll do well wherever he winds up. Jaz gave a farewell concert last night in his room at the Chelsea and it was attended by many residents. If you see him on his way out, buy a CD (with cover art by Chelsea Hotel resident Hawk Alfredson) to remember him by.
The most recent casualty of the hostile takeover of the hotel by the minority shareholders, Jaz penned this appreciative farewell missive to his friends at BD:
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Long time telephone operator Amy Miller is retiring today after 30 years on the job. We were always glad to hear her friendly voice on the other end of the line. She will be sorely missed. Stop by the desk today and wish her well. Amy is shown here in a painting by Hotel Chelsea resident David Remfry.
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Though we usually don’t report on the movements of celebrities on this blog, it’s hard to let this one pass. On this past Saturday we saw former Chelsea Hotel resident Ethan Hawke walking down 8th Avenue with a very suspicious looking jacket. It was a old brown Carhartt, or something similar and on the back, slightly off center, was stenciled the legend: DD821. Now, to those of us in the Chelsea Hotel community this could be seen as a clear reference to Dee Dee Ramone, who lived for a time with his wife Barbara in room 821 of the Chelsea. But the really weird thing about it is that it appears to have been either created by, or more likely inspired by, the Japanese artist Hiroya, who often put his graffiti-inspired designs on clothes.
Hiroya, of course, was the wacky and obnoxiously self-promotional painter who died in 2003 after checking into the Gershwin and finding the accommodations lacking. He often wrote his name on his paintings with his room number appended, as in: Hiroya 820; and he would do the same for other residents.
The “DD” is also a plausible Hiroya construction (as is the off kilter placement of the slogan), but one of the reasons we think that the jacket is a fake is that Hiroya usually spelled Dee Dee’s name as DeDe. Another thing is that Hiroya would never use a stencil, and furthermore, the jacket would be liberally spattered with paint. So what gives? Did Ethan just haul out an old jacket and stencil it himself in an homage to Hiroya? Only his tailor knows for sure. Or maybe we’re just really too deep into this blogging thing and the answer is here!
The same day we were walking on 23rd Street and a girl looked up at the hotel and said, “Who the hell is Bard?” “Who knows?” said her unconcerned male companion. Maybe next time we see Ethan he’ll be wearing an equally cryptic Bring Back the Bards jacket. — Ed Hamilton
Living with Legends 
