Twenty Third & Seventh

Hotel Chelsea Sordid Sex Shock

Apparently this woman shagged a Hotel Chelsea bellhop.  Gawker and Legends are already on the case. 

A few things concern me- there ain't no bell and the staff don't 'hop' for nobody!  If you're priviliged to get help with your luggage a large tip is suggested, it will be rewarded in invaluable local guidance.  More to the [utter lack of] point, I wouldn't be shagging the Chelsea staff in even the most desperate of circumstances.  Perhaps they have new staff.

george michael is in trouble again. couldn't happen to a more deserving ponce! After all the shit he has given Boy George for being 'too gay' over the years I'd be happy to see his career destroyed.  There is, IMO, absolutely no excuse for public sex of this kind in this day and age.  As Boy so wisely observed-- 'can't he use a computer'?

why do banks take 48 hours to process a payment TO a credit card while they can deduct money instantaneously?

can anybody explain the difference between an incursion and an invasion? if a tank rolled into my neighborhood i think the semantics would become secondary.

we hear reports that visitor rooms at the Chelsea have gone up in price.  a correspondent writes:

they have now gone from $250.00 to $275.00  Man oh man.  They are pricing out all the people
who made that hotel what it was!  Pretty soon the only people staying there will be rich boring tourists or Britney Spears.

and we're inclined to agree.  Negotiate like a New Yorker is my advice, it worked in knocking the price down for us.  Just be prepared for a stark room!

Liza Minnelli playing a whacked-out masturbation therapist is a freaky thought

I am My Own Wife is headed my way in the original production.  This review from the .au press has a major spoiler- be careful.

Still depressed at the idea that CBGBs will be gone forever.  An example of what happens when one becomes a parody of one's self.

Second Life is an overwhelmingly expansive and conceptually dense virtual world allegedly taking the world by storm.  It's worth a look.  I suspect that I'm a bit too old to grasp the paradigm.

Of the 147 million Americans on the Internet, 12 million have blogs.

Don't Waste Time Here

Our buddy Ed Hamilton's weekly piece in the Huffington post looks at what happens as Manhattan becomes too expensive for real people, go have a look.

Cowboys and Indians and to Hell With Art [extract]

I believe that, as creative people, we at the Chelsea Hotel offer, not just cultural products, but an alternative mode of living in, and of conceptualizing the world. This has nothing to do with any sort of political orientation on the part of our residents -- who run the gamut from right to left -- but in fact everything to do with an apolitical orientation in which difference is tolerated and respected. As the goal of art and literature is the understanding of self and others, so the creative person cultivates a life of self-reflection and empathy. In the Living with Legends blog, I often joke that this hotel is filled with nuts, and in fact we are all crazy by the standards of the larger society. But that doesn't rule out the fact that perhaps we have something valuable to say to that society.

Chelsea People in the News- Ed Hamilton.

Ed Hamilton, frequent contributor to the corporate crypto-propaganda blog Living with Legends has had his remarkable piece on Stormé Delarverié and the New York drag summit published at the Huffington Post.  If you haven't read it yet, hop on over.  It's a clever little piece that picks up on many of the dilemmas facing GLBT populations today.  I was left contrasting the living legend that is Storme with the recent assault on Kevin Aviance and wondering if we've really come as far as we would like to think.   

Aviance

All the Good Reading

All the good reaading is over at Legends today.

They have a feature profile of our own, cherished Randi Marx and a bit of yaddah from your never humble editor.

Chelsea Party for Living with Legends

There's some marvelous coverage of the Living with Legends first anniversay party over at Polis- we enjoyed seeing some familiar level eight faces very much.  Unfortunately, we had to politely decline this year's invitation- the leer jet is having a new gym and sauna installed and can't be used.

Click on over for a look at some fun who's who and what's what including all the great photography to be seen in the backgrounds. 

Happy Birthday to Legends: soon

Our esteemed neighbours at the fancy hotel up the road are soon to celebrate their first anniversary.  Only a year old and already a cyberspacial landmark- good going guys!

We fear that we shall have to make an urgent trip to Hotel Chelsea to talk the Legends crew through why there is no good reason to believe that Sid Vicious killed Nancy Spungen.  This is a duty we could suffer in a quiet silence!

How does one send a blog a birthday present?

The Hotel Chelsea Blog Celebrates Its One Year Anniversary

Living with Legends: The Hotel Chelsea Blog (www.hotelchelseablog.com) is celebrating its first anniversary on April 29, 2006. The irreverent blog turns the spotlight on roaches, junkies and fires, on obscure writers and artists, and on superstars connected with New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel. Legends was the first-ever hotel blog, and, as yet, the only non-corporate hotel blog in existence. New York, N.Y. (PRWEB) April 25, 2006 -- Living with Legends: The Hotel Chelsea Blog ( www.hotelchelseablog.com ) is celebrating its first anniversary on April 29, 2006. The irreverent Blog turns the spotlight on roaches, junkies and fires, on obscure writers and artists, and on superstars connected with New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel. Legends was the first-ever hotel blog, and, as yet, the only non-corporate hotel blog in existence. We started Legends last year because we saw the character of the neighborhood, and the hotel, rapidly changing around us. As the old bohemians were being priced out by gentrification, with no new blood to replace them, we feared that a century-old way of life was coming to an end. Before the chance passed us by, we wanted to document the wild, unorthodox, and still-living history of this unique and fascinating hotel. The Blog is an invaluable research tool for anyone interested in literature and the arts. Permanent features of the Blog include exhaustive links to stories about the hotel, to articles about its many famous residents, and to works of art and literature produced in the hotel. In addition, daily posts poke fun at the travails of the creative people living here, and comment on the current happenings at what has to be the wackiest building in the world. Though Legends is often accused of being corporate—due to its professional appearance and authoritative voice—it was launched as a labor of love by two long-time residents of the hotel. The writer Ed Hamilton, who pens the blog’s popular “Slice of Life,” column responds: “My stories are based on the day-to-day life at the hotel, and include the eccentrics who serve as inspiration for the genius of our more famous residents. I’m curious as to why anyone would think that Stanley Bard would pay me to write about junkies shooting up in the bathroom. I’m interested in the dark side of the creative dream – which I hope doesn’t exclude the humorous side.” The blog is read by former & current residents and hotel guests from around the world. Legends is of interest to scholars and fans of our more famous tenants, and to all those interested in art and literature in general. It may also help travelers to plan a memorable vacation. In 2005, Living with Legends was a finalist in Gridskipper.com’s World’s Best Urban Arts Blog competition. Daily features of the Blog include “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” an events list filled with art openings, book signings, and up-coming happenings related to the hotel. Tuesdays bring Ed Hamilton’s popular “Slice of Life” column, a chronicle of daily life at the hotel. On Thursdays you can read short interviews with residents and tourists, and find out what brought them to the hotel. About Chelsea Hotel: New York’s famous Chelsea Hotel, a National Historical Landmark, was built in 1883 as a luxury residential building. It became a hotel in 1903, playing host to the luminaries of the theatre world which was then centered around 23rd St. Over the years the hotel has been home to such literary giants as Thomas Wolfe, Dylan Thomas, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, William Burroughs, and others too numerous to mention. Artists who have lived here include Larry Rivers, Julian Schnabel, and Philip Taaffe. Andy Warhol filmed Chelsea Girls here. Musicians who have lived here include Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, and, more recently, Ryan Adams. And of course this is where the punk rocker Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. The Chelsea is operated by the Bard family, including the inimitable Stanley Bard, who has been in charge for over four decades. For more information, contact Ed Hamilton at 917-771-2957

Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog: An Unrepenant Chelseaphile

Link: Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog: An Unrepentant Chelseaphile.

The corporate bloggers over at Living with Legends must be getting desperate for material.  The latest profile interview published is with your humble editor.

I feel invigoratingly validated being written up in a real blog.

Except for the occasional party that lasted until dawn he was a great neighbor! We're fairly certain he'll pass through the Chelsea's doors again.  If he's lucky, he'll be in time for the reoccurance of that god awful stench.

Full Cast and Crew for Factory Girl (2006)

Link: Full Cast and Crew for Factory Girl (2006).

It is hard to know how accurate to consider this, the casting for Brigid Berlin, for example, contradicts other reports.  Sadly, the extras to be learned don't make Factory Girl seem any more promising.

I am not at all amused at the inclusion of Mary Kate Ashley Crack-Ho-Olsen, even if she does appear to be playing a fictionalised character.

It's curious who of the Warholites they have chosen to portray directly and who is disguised.  Looking at this I'm imagining that Billy Quinn is a version of Bob Dylan.  Others, Our Lady of the Bitchslap, Ondine; the Velvet Underground and fashion amazon Diana Vreeland are played 'by name'.

The presence of Julia Warhola and a character called 'Andys Priest' have piqued just a little curiosity.  How does Julia fit in?  Perhaps they are going to ignore that Andy all but kept Julia chained up in the attic- she was hardly a regular habitue of the Factory. Otherwise, the film is going to have to include scenes of Andy and Julia alone.  How does that fit with the Edie story? 

A Priest might suggest that Andy's deep Christian convictions get an airing but I have a feeling that his film isn't the kind to be exploring aspects of Warhol's career that are only now being consiered by art scholars.

The character that interests most is 'Junkie at the Chelsea Hotel'.  Undoubtedly another stealth marketing plan for the Hotel masterminded by Stanley 'diamond' Bard, Hotel Magnate and capitalist swine.  One might have thought that his crypto-propaganda website was sufficient to be going on with.

They might just as well send the reel cans out stuffed full of selected faecal samples and save the extra celluloid.

Lou Reed's disparaging comments on the screenplay seem to have been quite accurate.

Andy didn't kill Edie. Edie killed Edie with a lot of help from psychiatrists and their 'treatments'.  Can we just accept that and move on?

Mere Words- awesome music

A tip from a reader- a very insightful piece on Leonard 'i ate janis' Cohen.

We suspected we were in love with this blog as soon as we saw the title.  Mere Words, how sublime! We recommend wandering off for a look around.  I've made a quick survey and found respectful praise for Lou Reed and... erm... intersting things 'n that? Y'know?

I refuse to be articulate at 8pm on a no-school night...