Twenty Third & Seventh

From my Desk. Carrie Checks in and continues the egomania! Buy my life on eBay!

I have been a bad blogger but a busy beaver!  Herewith, the latest news from Casa Carrie.

Nothing happened on January 23, I swear.  I did take a cursory look and with the only real event of note being an Arthur Miller opening on Broadway I chose to pass in favour of catching up.  Here's hoping that something interesting happened tomorrow.

Amongst things keeping me pre-occupied has been my big debut as an eBay junk trader!  This is somewhat pertinent as I am currently unloading 'collectibles' that I'm tired of moving from home to home. It might be that some of what I'm selling is inherently interesting to readers of this blog.

So far only a tiny amount of what I will part with is up for sale, I plan to drag it out. I'm saving some of my bigger guns like THE most collectible Rocky Horror recording in existence and a Frank N Furter covered magazine so rare that I've never seen it listed in any of the collector's guides for a little bit later.

Given that I have been so flagrant in self-promoting I'll offer a deal that you can't refuse. SUBSCRIBED readers of Carrie Bedsore's 23 & 7th [this blog!] can claim a 15% discount on any purchase and enjoy the best postage rate that I can find for you. You will need to let me know if you 'win' any of the auctions so that I can invoice appropriately.  The discount will apply indefinitely but I must reserve the right to rethink if the economics don't work as I hope.  I'll keep you all up to date here and of course, the newsletter will alert you to any changes.

To subscribe you need to find the email updates box in the chaotic side columns and type away.

While reserving the right to close the floodgates at any time if things get out of control, discount offers will apply to everyone who registers a subscription by midnight Friday 28th Australian time. [That's somewhere in the vicinity of Thursday night NY time, I think.]

A new photo-gallery is nearly ready to go.  This time it's a study of a graffiti art 'gallery' in a laneway near here. The Carrie Bedsore at Hotel Chelsea photos will be published eventually.  I've spent endless hours sorting but really can't settle on a way to curate them.  Sadly, I am neurotic enough to be compelled to establish a curatorial theme.

NURSE! Mme Bedsore needs medicine now!

with luck, this link will take you to a listing of what i've thrown at eBay so far.

Gallery Opening Two *Featuring the Mystery Kitty*

Now open for your consumption--- 'West 23rd St Darkly', a gallery of images of w23rd St by night as seen through a vodka haze by Mme Carrie Bedsore.

Select from the sidebar columns to enter the neon noir world of the Mystery Kitty

NEWSFLASH! is cherry ramone hiding out at the chelsea? CRIMEWATCH!

I don't know what to say about this...  Probably sufficient to say that I have had tangles with Cherry Ramone when she was terrorising the Sydney punk scene and that you have good reason to be fearful if you're in NY...  'Diabolical' is one word to describe the woman.

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Rueters:

An NYPD raid on the famous Chelsea Hotel yesterday, failed to snare international criminal mastermind, Cherry 'the Countess' Ramone.

"We have reliable security data that suggests Ramone has been living in a dumpster at the Hotel", said NYPD spokesperson, Officer Andreja Krupsky.

"We have to follow any leads that we can get, public safety is at risk".

Rumour has surrounded the 2002 disappearance of Countess Cherry for some time, with many claiming that Ramone was not dead as previously thought.  Speculation that Ramone faked her own disappearance has persisted in the smokier corners of Sydney's crime-dens.

"There have been enough alleged sitings of Ramone in New York for us to take these reports very seriously.  We will continue to remain alert and aware to the possibility that Countess Cherry Ramone is still at large and may try to cross international borders", said Interpol spokesperson Farley McKinley. 

"Ramone is a skilled criminal and mistress of disguise, she could have escaped from Australia unrecognised", he continued.

Forensic Psychotoxopharmicologist, Dr Kathy Scheindlin of NYU, is one of many who have no doubt that the Countess is in NY

"It appears to be a textbook case of regressive psychosis induced by unwarranted stimulation of the cranial cortex through excessive exposure to punk rock music", she said.

"In this case, the music has caused the victim to believe with utter conviction that she is the long lost Ramone sister. 

"Until this psychosis can be treated the public should avoid approaching Countess Cherry and immediately call authorities equipped to manage these situations.

Liza Minnelli, known to have associated with Countess Cherry in the 1970s, was holidaying in Bolivia and unavailable for comment.

Countess Cherry Ramone mugshot.  2002

Attack of the Pod People! In which Mme Bedsore is confronted by the terrors of a new technology...

I've discovered the seductive world of pod / vid / cast / vlog thingoes from Hotel Chelsea.  Read on...

It's cliche, no, that one has become old when pop music sounds like noise and new technologies are a source of intimidation?  Time for me to book a berth in the retirement home.

In yuppie speak, I have been on steep learning curve, gaining adaptive knowledge with which to continue to compete in a rapidly growing and changing market. Or I could say that, after a first encounter that ended in tears, I have started to get my head around Podcasting and Videocasting.  Damn shame I went and lost my big iPod in a cab but no iPod is needed anyway.

My motivation to master all this came from knowing that there are Hotel Chelsea podcasts and videocasts happening which I, Mme Carrie Bedsore, have been missing out on.

The action all begins here at Chelsea Hotel VLOGS and PODS or you can go directly to the content provider. with various extending links that warrant exploring.  The Pickers and Grinners VLOGcasts [?] arrive highly recommended, they remind me of early Abel Ferara films in an unsettling kind of  way.  Echoes of Holly Woodlawn undertaking her epic scavenging missions in Andy Warhol's Trash finish it off perfectly for my palate. [Holly pictured here. Hotel Chelsea? Any guesses?]

Look for appearances from Hotel Chelsea residents past & present, a newer, less sane twist on the Pickers and Grinners theme and lots more Chelseaness in the near future.  Gossipy types speak of multi-media collaborations with Living with Legends: the Hotel Chelsea Blog and 23rd & 7th.  Of course, we pay little heed to gossips.

To meet the host of your vlogiPodicasts visit the Snapfilms website and have a look for Luke Joerger.

Sydney Heatwave- administrivia

While it's all very well for Mme Bedsore to occupy her own personal Manhattan, no amount of wishful delusion can change something as fundamental as the weather.  Sydney has been enduring a slow bake under highest recorded temperatures.  Officially, we're back in the reasonable zone today but there is a lingering heat that makes it inappropriate to do more than sip Mint Juleps under the wisteria blooms.   In the absence of both wisteria and juleps, we have negotiated for alternating sprawled on the bed in front of the fan with evening cab-savs on the balcony.

Bushfires have made it to the edge of the city making the air all smokie, the eucalyptus edge is pronounced and makes one's eyes water.  We are quite safe from fire here, being at the heart of the city.  You are warned to treat international reporting with some caution, what I saw of CNN made it seem as though the entire city is burning.  The metaphor to present it would be something like... I live in mid-town Manhattan and the fires are on Staten- they're that far from my physical reality.  Thanks to those of you who have expressed concern, we're OK.

All that is to say that we're a little behind where we might have expected.  I know that I owe several people entries, links and such. You are not forgotten, merely stalled as my brain melts.

Welcome to our new subscribers- the underlings will be in touch about your CDs soon.

Some incremental adjustments have been made to the Chelsea Gothic gallery with apropros quotes added to give the whole thing a false visage of artfulness.

And now, consistent with the Festival day of the Goddess Pax, we are about to tip one more glass of cab-sav into the toxic waste channels we call a bloodstream and retire early.

Hot weather tried to kill my kitties!  Sensible creatures, they found the cold tiles to prevent themselves from combusting. [l-r Princess Hope Elizabeth von Cat and Count Pax Veritas]

Hotel Chelsea Resident or Psycho, Round One is Now Finished.

Results are in the sidebar.  The judge's decision is final and the smarty-pants who emailed to say "a psycho who lived at Hotel Chelsea" misses the point.  Arthur Miller observed long ago that the lunatics have taken over the asylum at Hotel Chelsea.  We will be clearer next time but 'mortgage burdened wage slave or Hotel Chelsea resident' just lacks zing to my ear.

Join our mailing list to be notified when the next round begins. We plan to make the next one that much trickier...