Living with Legends

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  • All Tomorrow’s Parties: April 16 – 22, 2007

    Monday, April 16, 8:00 p.m.
    Lf Beat legend and renowed book store owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti will read tonight. $18.00. (Photographer Jean Pearson reports, via Rick LiBrizzi, that Ferlinghetti used to stay here at the Chelsea Hotel.)
    92nd Street Y, Lexingotn Ave at 92nd St., NY NY

    Lj Monday, April 16, 9:00 p.m.
    Singer/songwriter Libby Johnson will perform her magic. Maybe she’ll perform some of the songs she wrote while living here at the hotel.
    The Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St., NY NY

    Wednesday, April 18, 8:00 p.m.
    Patti Smith is all over town promoting her new covers album, Twelve.  Tonight you can catch her here in Chelsea at Hiro Ballroom.
    Hiro Ballroom, The Maritime Hotel, 363 West 16th St., NY NY

    Thursday, April 19, 10:30 p.m.
    Kino_front Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny say goodbye to Tuesday and hello to Thursday with Kino 41. Kino 41 starlets: Amanda Leopore, Lady Fag, Moondust, Furey and Andre J. Cine Sounds & Show:  Rufus Wainwright will give a special performance.  Life is Like a Movie. Stop by every Thursday for your close up.
    135 West 41st, NY NY

    Saturday, April 21, 8:00 p.m.
    Singer/Songwriter Keren Ann is doing a secret show over on Myspace.

    If you have an event appropriate for "All Tomorrow’s Parties" send an e-mail to chelblog@yahoo.com

  • Patti Smith’s “You Light Up My Life”

    Apropos of nothing. Patti Smith talks about what it means to be "punk rock" and performs "You Light Up My Life." I don’t know why she didn’t choose this song for her new covers album. (Source: ABC, "Kids Are People Too," 1979)

  • McBURNEY YMCA CONTINUES MISSION OF COMMUNITY DESTRUCTION

    What’s the matter jokers, didn’t you (the board) make enough money from the sale of the beautiful old McBurney building on 23rd Street?  The McBurney Y has a deficit for 2006 and they’re scapegoating the Health & Wellness program and are planning to “restructure.”  The fitness program is one of the strongest community-oriented programs remaining intact at the Y after the move from 23rd St. Sure, the people is this program complain a lot because the stereo is always broken, the studio mirrors were never properly installed, the studios aren’t ventilation, and they aren’t sound proof.  None of these things were problems on 23rd Street.  It’s ironic that the “restructuring” involves firing a senior staff person who was instrumental in placating members and helping the Y move to 14th St.  That’s loyalty for you.

    In addition, this “restructuring” would also have the effect of causing the defection of more long-term members—you know, the pesky kind who tend to stand up for their rights.  If the Health and Wellness program falls, expect further assaults on other programs where a spirit of community still exists. 

    Of course, this all sounds wildly counterintuitive: why would the Y want to destroy its own community?  Well, for whatever reason, the YMCA has, in the last few years, made the decision to abandon it’s mission of community service and enter the “family fitness” field.

    Attempting to reason with these bullies has proved difficult if not impossible. In order to counter this move, we need to pressure politicians at all levels to re-examine the YMCA’s tax-exempt status. Additionally, the Y has sold off several other buildings in Manhattan recently.  Where’s the money? — DM

  • Cut-Rate Bohemian Style Package Courtesy of Sony Pictures

    That’s right folks, if you book your tickets now for ‘Spider-Man 3’, released at ODEON MAY 4 and Poster ODEON will enter you into a FREE prize drawing to win a weekend to New York!* ODEON are offering one lucky winner & guest, courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing, the chance to spend 2 nights/3 days in New York, the home of Spider-Man! Our lucky winners will be put up in style at the world-famous Chelsea Hotel and will be given $200 spending money for their stay.   Please, $200.00 for a week-end in the Chelsea. Why don’t they just put them up in a Bowery flop house.  You could drop that much and then some in one evening of drinking at El Quijote.  Maybe they can swing down the stairwell in true Spider-Man fashion. What’s they spend on that movie about $300 million.  Can’t they at least spring for a room at the Gansevoort Hotel.

  • Robert Mapplethorpe at the Chelsea

    A blog reader from Chicago sent us a link to an article he wrote about artist Robert Mapplethorpe.  Included in his article is a photo of Robert in his room here at the Hotel Chelsea. Doesn’t look like they’ve upgraded the furnishings much since then.  One thing different is that they’ve cut down the size of the refrigators.  Presumably so you’ll use less electricity.  Another thing we notice is that he seems to have a closet and we are very envious since we don’t have one.  Perhaps we’ll ask Stanley if we can upgrade to Mapplethorpe’s old room but we’re not counting on it.

    Hi, I thought that you and/or your readers might enjoy the article that I’ve published about Robert Mapplethorpe (notes, photography, music audios and a photographic slideshow).  Keep up the good work, I’m a great fan of Legends!  Best wishes to all of you there.

    Ajgjl00013_580x435_2 

  • DJ Mark Moore & Dangerous Muse at Kino 41

    Susanne Bartsch & Kenny Kenny present Kino 41, Thursday, April 12, 10:30 p.m. Open Vodka bar from 10:30 – 12:00 p.m., This week’s show is by Dangerous Muse. Location: 135 West 41st St., NY NY

  • Eighteen Grapes, That Must Be Some Kind of a Record

    Former model Cleo Glyde claims to have subsisted on a diet of six grapes per day.  Staggering home after Gr_cleo3 a debouch one night at the fruit cart outside of the White Horse Tavern she collapsed at the Hotel Chelsea and was taken to St. Vincents.  Luckily for her she lived to tell the tale.  Now she has found her "happy weight" and learned to "say yes to everything."  That’s a lesson that the jaded bohemians have known all along here at the Chelsea.  (Source: Mademoiselle)

  • Rare Gay-Elvis Photo at Dan’s Chelsea Guitars

    Dan Courtenay, of Dan’s Chelsea Guitars, located in a storefront of the Chelsea Hotel, is a fascinating character and a great story teller with a wealth of information on life, Rock and Roll, and Img_0535 beyond.  I hung out in his store a few times over the course of a couple of weeks to get the material for the article that appears in this week’s Chelsea Now.  Though I’ve lived in the hotel for 12 years, since I don’t play the guitar I had never set foot in the shop before.  But I would definitely recommend popping in for a look: the guys who hang out there are cool and laid back, and the shop itself is a visual feast, filled with all manor weird, wacky old stuff.

                One of the coolest items, which I didn’t really get to talk about much in the article, is a picture of Elvis at about 13 in a slightly homo-erotic embrace with another young boy who would become, in adulthood, the president of the Elvis Presley Fan Club.  Dan says that the photo was plucked from the trash of the communist building across the street when they cleaned out their basement a few years ago.  ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons came into the shop one time and spotted the photograph and flipped out, saying that it was one of only six known prints of that shot.  He said it was by a famous African American photographer, who, it turned out, had had his studio in the basement of the commie building.  Dan can’t remember the name of the photographer, so if anybody can help out in this regard, it would certainly be appreciated.

                All the curiosities in the store have stories behind them, you just have to get Dan talking.  Also interesting are the outsider paintings of such figures as Bob Dylan and Son House.  They were painted by a homeless man from Memphis named Lamar Sorrento.  Spike Lee filmed them to use in his movie “Summer of Sam,” and then wanted to get in touch with Sorrento to secure the rights.  Dan was able to locate him by calling a homeless shelter in Memphis.

                As for the three death’s masks that adorn the support beams of the store, the one of Christopher Walken is from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and was used to make a fake head to be chopped off and go rolling around the set.  The Paul McCartney mask was apparently made by a plastic surgeon—or so Dan believes.  I forget the story of the Vincent Price mask, but ask Dan and he may tell you if he’s in the mood! — Ed Hamilton
    Dancorey

    Dancust

    (more…)

  • Help A Neighbor Out

    Plesh Neighbor/ blogger Crazy Fingers really wants to attend the sold out Phil Lesh show at SOB tonight or tomorrow night.  Can anybody help?  Afterall, Crazy Fingers provides a pointer to Phil Lesh’s recollections of a Grateful Dead show here at the Hotel Chelsea. 

  • All Tomorrow’s Parties: April 9 – 15, 2007

    Monday, April 9, 8:30 p.m.
    Gerald Busby, the monologuing composer will take to the stage to present another episode in his on-going autobiographical epic.  If we’re lucky, he might share another recipe by composer Virgil Thomson. Plus Matt Sullivan, Esther Lamneck and Gerald Charlotte Vierveyzer play oboes with digital effects and clarinet. Piano duo Stephanie Kai-Win Ho & Saar Ahuvia premiere Double Salt Variations by Philippe Bodin. By popular demand, an excerpt of The Gold Standard by playwrite Ed Schmidt & composer/pianist Jed Distler.  $15.00 Highly Recommended.
    Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street (betw. 6th and 7th Ave), NYC

    Tuesday, April 10,  Various Times at Various Venues
    Hoax, the moPoster_hoaxvie about the con-man Clifford Irving, who’s favorite hide-out was the Chelsea, has finally opened. In August 2005 the Hoax crew set up shop here on 23rd Street and filmed a few scenes inside of Capitol Fish & Tackle.  Who knew that a year later in August 2006 Capitol Fish & Tackle would be gone. Oddly enough the retail space is still empty.

    Thursday, April 12, 6:00 – 8:00,p.m.
    Reception for "c/o The Velvet Underground, NY NY," an exhibit commemorating the 40th anniVuversary of the release of The Velvet Underground and Nico. The exhibit includes: Warhol’s designs for Up-Tight, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable; The original artwork for the 1966 Boston Tea Party show; The famous 1966 acetate demo of The Velvet Underground and Nico – an album The London Observer has cited as number one in a list of "50 Albums that Changed Music"; Original Lyrics by Lou Reed from 1965; Original Warhol screen test film stills and photobooth pictures of band members.
    John McWhinnie@Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 40 1/2 East 64th St., NY NY

    Thrusday, April 12, 10:30 p.m.
    Kino_front Susanne Bartsch and Kenny Kenny say goodbye to Tuesday and hello to Thursday with Kino 41. Kino 41 starlets: Amanda Leopore, Lady Fag, Moondust, Furey and Andre J. Cine Sounds & Show:  TBD .  Life is Like a Movie. Stop by every Thursday for your close up.
    135 West 41st, NY NY

    Saturday, April 14, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
    Rally to help the tenants of 47 East 3rd Street save their building.  The landlord is seeking to evict all rent stabilized tentants in this building by using the "owner occupancy" provision of the rent laws. A state appeals court recently ruled that landlords can take as many apartments as they want for their own personal use. This case is redefining the law and could impact all NYC tenants.
    47 East 3rd St., NY NY

    173083176_39e6a1851b Saturday, April 14, 11:00 p.m.
    The incredibly talented Rosewood joins the fire eaters, side show performers and strip tease artists who make up the popular Le Scandal show, for a gender bending extravaganza. $20.00 (photo flickr)
    The Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th St. NY NY

    If you have an event appropriate for "All Tomorrow’s Parties" send an e-mail to chelblog@yahoo.com