Living with Legends

Chelsea Guest Sent to Pod, the “Replacement” Hotel

August 22, 2007

Now that BD Hotels is running the Chelsea, what exactly happens when a guest is unhappy?

On August 4, Thomas B. checked into the Chelsea and here’s what he had to say. It’s a pricey place for what they offer. Rooms are big, but rundown, first room they gave me was horrible, after some complain they gave me another one, which was somewhat better. At above US$200/night you expect way better rooms/bathrooms. The bed though is good, with clean linens. People at the front desk are not very nice either. I moved to another hotel.

So, I e-mailed Thomas B. and asked him where he went after he checked out of the Chelsea. Here’s his reply: “After Chelsea I went to the POD…”

Hmmmm, he left the Chelsea and went to the POD, a hotel owned by BD. It could be a coincidence, as they’re involved with about 20 hotels in New York, but if I were Marlene Krauss, I’d start asking BD a few questions about their customer service protocol. Call me crazy, but I feel certain Marley wants those Eurodollars to remain at the Chelsea. Afterall, she’s not a shareholder up at the POD.

(Oh, by the way, we all know what Stanely would have done if Thomas had told him he was unhappy. He would have sat Thomas down and convinced him that actually he was the happiest he had ever been in his life — and then Thomas would have lived here for the next 20 years.)
Ethan Hawke: “Chelsea Hotel is the last man standing”

August 21, 2007

Remember a few months back with Ethan Hawke stopped by to give David Elder a piece of his mind? He recalls that day in an interview with the Daily News. Kudos to Ethan for keeping the Chelsea Hotel and the hostile takeover in the news. Maybe he’ll take Jen Carlson’s suggestion and buy the hotel!

"I went over there to do an interview. I saw Stanley Bard, the manager, and I said, ‘What the hell’s going on?’ I just love Stanley. He’s taken care of me my whole life. And I love that place. Chelsea Hotel is the last man standing. It’s the last beacon of, ‘Not gonna fall to corporate America.’
More Trouble in Room 100

August 20, 2007

   We haven‘t seen hide nor hair of Chelsea Hotel layabout/board member David Elder in about a week. Here’s what happened. For all of these years Sid Vicious’ ghost has remained content to play games such as stopping the elevators on the first floor and holding the door open. If he’s feeling really spiteful he’ll make the elevator stop on every floor while he jumps off to go looking for Nancy. And Nancy’s ghost, as far as we know, has simply been bidding her time until she was summoned by Sid. But apparently something of cosmic significance must have happened in this building last Monday which allowed the ghosts of Sid & Nancy to reunite and run David Elder out of the hotel.

   Anybody who we’ve ever talked to who knew Nancy says that she could be a real bitch, so just imagine what her ghost would be like. She’s been laying in wait in that bathroom for two months listening to David Elder’s scheming to screw over the Bard family and Piri Thomas. All of those prank phone calls that Ol’ Snake Eyes was getting at 3:00 in the morning was pissing her off too. She didn’t mind the dead fish head that somebody left outside Elder’s door so much, but apparently she stepped in the dog poop and that really set her off.
   Posing as Elder’s girlfriend, the succubus Nancy came to him in bed one night promising to fulfill all of his deepest darkest desires. Unfortunately, David was too unimaginative to come up with any, so Nancy pulled the hunting knife from her gut and chased him naked and screaming down the hall. Sid, hanging out in the hall, was last heard screaming, “At least bring me back a pack of fucking cigarettes you wanker!” The shaken Elder sent the bellman up to retrieve his belongings and to mollify Sid with a carton of smokes.

   Some of the more skeptical among you may say that, no, actually all that’s happened is that David Elder has hopped on a plane back to LA, where the judge is scheduled to rule if he is fit to administer Piri Thomas’ trust (The judge will also decide if David Elder is fit to walk among humans.). — Ed Hamilton

(more…)
Sign of the Week

August 19, 2007

This framed inspirational poem was hanging on Stanley Bard’s office door when I got home from work Monday evening. Very puzzling. (Click to enlarge)
All The News That’s Fit to Print (And Then Some)

August 18, 2007

Since the hostile take over occurred in mid-June appx.175 stories have been published about the Bards and the famed Hotel Chelsea. Definitely, one of the most covered stories of the Summer. In my opinion, 99% of these stories show support for the Bards and the Chelsea hotel community. Below is a list of most of the coverage with links to many of the stories. And, the end is not in sight. Journalists continue to contact us on a weekly basis. Kudos to the media for continuing to follow this story.
Coverage Since July 14
Main Stream Media: New York Times, Village Voice, New York Observer, amNewYork, Newsday, Globe and Mail, New York Post, Irish Times, Speigel, Die Presse.com, Jetzt.de, Net-Tribune.de, Portada TERRA COLOMBIA, Stay Thirsty

Blogs: Gothamist, Gothamist, Gothamist, curbed, curbed, curbed, curbed, curbed, hotelchatter, Village Voice, Das Reise, Vivirlatino, Boca Pistola, pinkpignyc, Cassandranow, Village Voice, hotelchatter, hotelchatter,

Not Available Online: German Public Radio

EARLIER COVERAGE STARTS HERE: Week 1

MSM: New York Times, New York Post, Reuters, The Independent, The Age, New York Times again, news.com.au, Western Mail, The Australian, ABC News (AU), TVguide.com, washingtonpost.com, Village Voice, New York Post again, Chelsea Now, NewZealandHearld.com

Blogs: Gothamist, city.room.nytimes, Curbed, Gawker, Hotel Chatter, NY Mag.com, Bloggy.com, Larry Person, Found in Brooklyn, The Huffington Post, The Real Deal, ~~Newyorkology~~, Gothamist again, Curbed Again, Hoover Factory, Human Under Construction, The Wit of the Staircase, Contemporary Arts Review, Artsjournal, Chez Bez, Nikki Allen, Hochparterre International, Punk Turns 30, Hotel Chatter again, Ephemerist, I’m Not a Cat Lady, Mad Pilot, best year ever, NYMag.com again Bloggy Bloggy dew, Gothamist again, Hotel Chatter again, artloversny, dolphinhotel, Moon of Saturn,

Stories Not Available Online: International Hearld Tribune, Windsor Star (CA), Canberra Times (AU),

Week 2
MSM: New York Post, NYC Resident, BizBash, Fodors, Agence France-Presse, Metro France, South Asian Women’s Forum, India, Tiscali (uk), Show Biz & Style Inquirer, Tiscali Actualidad, Turkish Press

Blogs: Gawker, Curbed, Gothamist, NYMag, Hotel Chatter, LeVanguardia, Grumpy Old Bookman, NYMag again, Warhol Stars, NYMag again, Design Age, Guida USA, All of Me, NYMag again, Hotel Chatter again, Walking Turcot Yards, Blogs a part, Toll Booths and Train Stops, Disembedded, Do Not Feed Water Fowl, Newbie in New York, Moons of Saturn, Hoover Factory, Detroit Crazy, Guerrero Llevado Adentro, Entre le Uni i la Ciutat, Mr. Heng’s World, Artsy Fartsy, Robert Paterson’s Weblog, Disembedded again,

Stories Not Available Online: TV5 (france), LaVanguardia (2 stories in addition to the blog post), Italian TV (ran some footage from the 5/15 Australian documentary and updated the story)

Week 3
MSM: New York Times, Toronto Star, NY Post, The Villager, Raw Story,

Blogs: Finally, we don’t have to do all of the work: Living with Leeches, curbed, libero, nymag.com, racked, vagablond,

Not Available Online: 1010 Wins — The Joe Montone Show, Le Matin Bleu (Free Daily paper in Switzerland)

Week 4
MSM: Sunday Times (South Africa’s largest daily paper), Financial Times, New York Times

Blogs: The Shophound, (Shophound thinks we have a "buzz generating restaurant" in our future here at the hotel), Newyorkology, NY Mag, curbed, blogchelsea

(Thanks to Sparkle for a lot of these links.)
A Chelsea Friend in High Places

August 17, 2007

It’s good to see that some people have the same ideas that we have — that some places, the Chelsea included, are not just all about money. Sometimes, even with all of the money, you can’t improve upon perfection. In a recent interview in The New York Observer, Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society gives us his thoughts on the matter:

"I’m one of those romantics that love the Chelsea Hotel. I went there about 25 years ago just to say I spent the night there. I remember the room was fabulous, with this great terrace, and the furniture was like Route 66. Things are always in peril, you know? You can take and renovate the heart out of a place and improve the cash flow, and it just won’t have it anymore. The jury has to be out on that for a while."
Vali Myers: A Memoir

August 16, 2007

   The one-of a kind Australian artist and frequent Hotel Chelsea resident, Vali Myers, was undeniably a legend in her own time. Our deposed leader Stanely Bard, of course, has a soft spot for the free-spirited Vali. Speaking with Chelsea Now, Bard said, "Vali Myers was a very special person who had her own definite ideas, and I allowed her to explore them. I’ve always tried to have some flexibility."
   For thirty years, Gianni Menichetti, the author of this new memoir, lived with Vali Myers in the wild canyon of ‘Il Porto’—first as lover and willing slave, ultimately as friend, confidant, and protector.
   Vali spent forty years in semi-seclusion in a wild canyon in Italy, where she continued producing her minute, mystical, and passionate drawings. Tough as nails, she fought the local authorities who wanted to introduce loggers into the valley, after a long struggle succeeding in having it designated an Environmental Oasis. Finally, Vali returned triumphant to her native Melbourne, where she was recognized as an artist sui generis.
INSIDE: THE CHELSEA HOTEL

August 15, 2007

Julia Calfee has lived and photographed in the Chelsea Hotel for four years. "When I photographed at the Chelsea Hotel, I would be staying in a space or situation for hours. Time would pass and my presence would become less and less visible. Sometimes I would even disappear."

"People are always asking me what it’s like to live in the Chelsea Hotel. Not always easy. There are times I felt like a fly caught in a spider’s web, at risk of being eaten alive if I made the wrong move. This goes with living and working in the same place with a large extended, temperamental family full of artistic sensitivities and colossal egos, with long, exposed nerve ends — but there were also many moments of friendship, generosity, and complicity."

In an intimate style, INSIDE: The Chelsea Hoteldocuments not only the archetypes and atmosphere in, but also echoes from the spirits and ghosts of, the inimitable Chelsea Hotel.

Here’s a photo Julia took of us playing foosball many months ago. No spoiler here, it’s not in the book!
Holy Smokes, A Real Live Bohemian Sneaks In on BD!

August 14, 2007

Its taken two months of close scrutiny but we finally spotted a guest who must have booked his room while Stanley was still in charge. I’m sure that many of you who live here have noticed the tall skinny guy dressed in hippy garb sitting in the lobby for the past couple of weeks. Well, it’s none other than legendary Chicago poet and Guinness Book of World Records holder Lee Groban. When I spoke with him Saturday evening, Lee told me that incredibly enough, this was the first time he had ever been to the Chelsea. He was off to spend the evening at an underground poetry gathering on Bleeker and the Bowery and after the reading over to hang out with a couple of artist friends in the East Village. Just like the old days!

Lee gave me copies of a couple of his poems before he headed out into the night. As you can see, Lee figures if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It seems he’s still using the same typewriter that he used in 1981. Below is an excerpt from The Cure for Insomnia.
A Page From Chelsea’s History

August 13, 2007

Historian and author of a forthcoming history of the hotel, Sherill Tippins writes to remind us that the present era is not unique in New York history, or the history of the Chelsea Hotel itself:

NYC, hotelwise: With the economy soaring and plenty of freed-up capital circulating, investors started building ranks of fashionable new hotels. It became the biggest decade for hotel construction until the 1980s: 84 large hotels went up in NY from 1927 to 1933, increasing hotel space by 66%. Naturally, by the end of this cycle the supply far exceeded demand, resulting in price wars and a plunge in profits.

Then the Depression hit, and the hotel industry in NY was devastated. That’s when the beautiful mirrors, furniture and other decorative elements were stripped from the Chelsea, and the larger suites were chopped up into smaller rooms even more than they had been previously, all in an effort to keep the place afloat. By the time the Bards took over, a lot of irretrievable damage had been done.

The moral of the story: Plutocrats and developers can weather the ups and downs of the economy a lot more easily than historic buildings and their non-wealthy residents. Something to think about in this Twenties-type era of rampant expansion.

(My source for a lot of this: "Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture" by William Leach. A great book that touches on several sources of misunderstanding, I think, between Chelsea Hotel residents and the apparent intentions of the current members of the Chelsea Hotel board.)

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