Natalie Mathis is a first responder in the war against the corporate greed that threatens to destroy the Chelsea. When she read on our blog about Stanley’s shameful ouster, she made up a bunch of buttons to show her support for the Bard family, and wore one when she was checking into the hotel.
Natalie, who works as a fundraiser for the Taft Museum in Cincinnati, was in New York to attend a 
book party for James St James’ “Freak Show”. She says she likes club kids and drag queens, which leads me to suspect that she is our kind of gal. Though her father keeps calling her because he is worried that some terrible fate will befall her on the mean streets of New York, she says everybody she’s met in the hotel has been really nice. (Hilariously, even she knew who the new guy was – “he’s that bald guy right?” – because he sticks out like a sore thumb.)
We need more tourists like Natalie. Everybody should wear a badge of support for the Bards when they check into the hotel – or better yet, a sandwich board! Which is why we are sponsoring a contest for Best Tourist Protest. Enter now by simply booking a room and showing up and demonstrating your support. Your prize? The satisfaction of being a cool revolutionary. — Ed Hamilton (Photo: Natalie with her "Stanley Bard is my Hero" button.)
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Sherill Tippins Op/Ed piece in today’s NY Times reminds us that when the Chelsea was built New Yorkers were facing a similar housing crisis. She writes, "The Chelsea was built to address this problem. A French-born writer, inventor, architect, and idealist, Philip Gengembre Hubert, introduced the cooperative apartment system to New York, specifically to free New Yorkers from the burden of overpriced housing and to encourage the cross-class intermingling neded to nurture a cohesive culture." Tippins also mentions how readers of this blog have responded with creative solutions as to how to deal with the recent hostile take over of the Chelsea. Here’s one of the more interesting.
Surely, if the Soho artists could get an entire neighborhood zoned just for artists, the Chelsea, with its landmarked status, could work with foundations, friendly investors,
artists-with-money, the Bards, and residents to create a zoned hotel for the arts.First, all current residents would be grandfathered in. No one would feel any pressure to leave.
Second, the transient hotel sector would remain, since it’s part of what keeps the Chelsea lively and at the forefront of public consciousness.
As for the residents: how about regulating a mix of 10% of residents unrestricted (any income level, any occupation); 60% artists; 30% middle and low income? The Chelsea Corporation could be run by an elected Board of Directors with the same percentages, and with Stanley as permanent appointee.
Maybe Ethan Hawke has a lawyer on retainer, or maybe there’s a lawyer-artist in the building (I think there is) who would find it interesting to look into that possibility, or a variation of it. And it does sound like something Bloomberg might find it useful to back, doesn’t it?
Frankly, it seems to me an improvement on the top-down system of a corporate-owned hotel anyway. The Chelsea was built as one of the city’s first co-ops. Maybe it’s time for it to return to its origins.
If anyone has more ideas please add them to the mix. Yesterday, a reader from Canada posted another idea on his blog.
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It’s time for me to take a break, and encourage you to read the news from around the globe. Listed below are stories that have been published since last Saturday.
MSN: 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, Update —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, Update – 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)
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A short time later all of the flowers are gone. (Thanks Artie) -
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Poet D
ylan Thomas’ house in Wales has been beseiged by raving real estate vultures hell-bent on laying waste to the historic structure in a psychotic frenzy of greed that can be satisfied only when they have squeezed every last farthing from the rubble strown lot upon which not one single-celled organism is suffered to draw breath and not one red brick is allowed to rest upon another. Oh, wait, that’s the Chelsea. But Thomas’ house is up for auction, I meant to say. -
Former Chelsea resident Sparkle Hayter and Arthur C. Clarke share the same literary agent. Thanks to that connection we are able to post this nice note from Arthur C. Clarke.Dear Russ,
Thanks for your email.
Please give my regards to Stanley and say I have many happy memories of the Hotel Chelsea.
It has been involved with many of the most important aspects of American (and world) literary and artistic history. On no account should the memory of these events be obliterated.
Please pass this to Stanley and anyone else who should be interested.
All good wishes,
Arthur
27 June 2007 -
Imagine a microcosmic landscape crackling with pigments of green and gold with electric frequencies of saffron-orange cradling circular pulsating “beings”.
Rupert Sheldrake has such a painting hanging in his study in Hampstead, London. It was this unexpected gift, given a few years back from Swedish artist Hawk Alfredson (who resides at the Hotel Chelsea) that beckoned the distinguished Prof. Sheldrake to the Hotel Chelsea this spring, 2007. It was the painting, and of course, an invitation to lecture at New York’s Open Center.Sheldrake’s material for “The Extended Mind” focused on his recent double-blind experiments regarding the presence of telepathic communication among conscious beings. As we exist among many different types of non-visible fields (electromagnetic and gravitational, for instance) Sheldrake believes that the natural selection of evolutionary habits working among these fields will one day be proved to play an essential part in any evolutionary theory, including that of physical, cosmic, mental as well as biological evolution. Communication delivered via telepathic means were the basis for two of Sheldrake’s best-selling books in recent years, A Sense of Being Stared At and Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home.
It was the beginning of springtime in N.Y. when the tulips around Washington Square Park were opening, thought to be whispering the name “Sheldrake” if one only chose to believe. A week before meeting Rupert in the hotel lobby I had come face to face with Deepak Chopra (talking business on his mobile) just in front of the Museum of Modern Art.
Both Chopra’s ayurvedic medical practices and Sheldrake’s important theory of “formative causation” have been influenced by Hindu spirituality, Quantum Mechanics and the Kabbalah. I quickly considered my near-collision with Chopra as a sign to look more closely toward the meaningful coincidences that were happening in my life and to consider myself ready for anything that (John C. Lilly’s) cosmic E.C.C.O. might be lying in wait to reveal.
I was preparing a four-day visit to Charlottesville, Virginia, with my husband that week to connect with a gallery that would be exhibiting my photographic work. Immediately, I came to realize that all plans were to be suspended when a tall man with a lanky gait quickly moved through the hotel lobby, heading full force to the elevator. He was familiar in a way that might be similar to a shape-shifter from a past life. “Excuse me, might your name be Rupert Sheldrake?” I asked.
“Why, yes.” Rupert replied quite simply.
It didn’t take long before we connected over the painting of mystical “circlings”. He remembered my letter which accompanied my husband’s painting and agreed to be photographed early the next morning, just before his scheduled radio interview. The photograph was taken in room #1024, known for it’s warm red walls, Edwardian furniture and lovely morning indirect light from the south.
I’ll always remember this picture of Rupert and think: “What if I had not been unusually aware of the power of synchronicity that week, set off by a mere collision at MOMA?”
One thing that Rupert doesn’t know (yet) is that for several weeks before we met I thought to myself that I wished to contact him in some way, just didn’t know the right way to approach the subject at that time since a couple years had passed without communication. The thought came to my mind several times regarding just what I might write as a friendly greeting, but my mind would encourage me to relax on following through. Somehow, my intuition understood that sometimes one must be patient and just wait for the right moment to arrive. (Happy Birthday Rupert)
Mia Hanson
Hotel Chelsea
New York
June 2007 -
The legendary broadcaster Joe Franklin stopped by today to greet fellow legend Stanley and to offer his support. Franklin stressed what a big part of New York City the Bard family is and that he is confident they will return. We call on all legends of the Chelsea to do whatever you can to support the Bard family and the community that they worked hard to create and maintain. (Thanks to Artie for the photo and the tip.)
