Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

For the Love of Money

Writer Joe Ambrose has always loved the outré culture associated with the building,  so much so that he wrote, Hotel Chelsea, Manhattan, a book that includes interviews with William Burroughs, Paul Bowles, Herbert Huncke, Richard Hell and numerous Warhol collaborators. Ambrose is also the author of Moshpit Culture (2001), an investigation of covert punk culture from inside the moshpit, and Gimme Danger (2002), a biography of punk icon Iggy Pop.

What do you do?

I do all kinds of things within the arts. I work as a DJ and member of experimental hip hop group Islamic Diggers.  Islamic Diggers produced the Dutch East India/Sub Rosa 2CD, 10%; File Under Burroughs which features tracks by Brion Gysin, Bill Laswell, Herbert Huncke, Chuck Prophet, Marianne Faithfull, John Cale, and William Burroughs.  In 2000 Islamic Diggers organised NO EXPECTATIONS, an evening of 60s Super 8 movies by Anita Pallenberg. These films, featuring Pallenberg's pals like Keith Richards, Allen Klein, Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger and Brian Jones were shown at the  ICA and The Chamber of Pop Culture in London. I write regularly for www.outsideleft.com and www.thehandstand.org

When did you live in the Chelsea?

2001 and 2002.

What inspired you to live in the Chelsea?
After reading in the Protestant Times a dodgy piece which managed to make one of the most fascinating places in the world seem like the most boring, I thought about the Chelsea.  Despite the soporific nature of the article it reminded me all over again that the Hotel existed and, since I had to go to New York anyway, I decided to give the Chelsea a shot.  Frank Rynne reminded me that Miles, the counterculture activist and Allen Ginsberg biographer, had said to mention his name to Bard, who would then fix me up with someplace decent. Miles said Bard was an old sweetheart about whom he had nothing but good things to say.

Miles was right. Bard told me on the phone that he wouldn’t give me a reduced rate but that when I got there he’d charge me their lowest rate and ensure that I had a good suite. He was as good as his word, I got good rooms in the heart of Manhattan and was properly looked after. 

I stayed at the Chelsea Hotel as a sort of whimsical joke to, and on, myself. All my life I’ve loved the outré culture associated with that building, everything from the queer/junk-orientated Beat Generationers (principally Burroughs and Huncke) through to the punk rock mythology of the Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith and Richard Hell - scenarios also well tinctured with touches of junk and queerness. It would be fair to say that, insofar as I can be said to stand within any movement, I am happy to make my stand within the broad parameters of culture as defined by early Seventies New York punks.

What is your favorite Chelsea Hotel story?
This is one of my own Chelsea stories, from the book on the place which I'm working on.

Suicide King and One Eyed Jack, who lived in reduced circumstances in small rooms alongside one another on the Chelsea's teneth floor, were the best of friends.  Every Friday night they tried their hands at the poker game that Hannah Reed ran on the third floor.  So, when Suicide needed money one day, One Eyed Jack pulled out a roll of tens.

Later they fought because Suicide King refused to pay back the loan, though his circumstances had greatly improved.

"Un hombre duro!" Suicide King said sarcastically about his old pal, when Jack got annoyed and threated to do something about it.
"Despotico!" One Eyed Jack replied, sad to have lost his friend over so very little money.

Would you move back to the Chelsea?
Yes, when I move to Manhattan, which I will, though not in the immediate future.

The Stage (Continued from 6/14 & 6/21)

           III. A Threat.

It was inevitable that The Umpire should eventually run afoul of Magda.  A ballet dancer in the forties and fifties, now elderly, Magda was a tough old broad who had cultivated a life-long habit of never taking any shit from anyone.  Magda was famous for threatening junkies—with a pistol—who attempted to shoot up in her shared bathroom.

            I was sitting there in the lobby when Magda came walking through, dressed jazz-age cool, her hair in a snow white bun.  Though she wasn’t frail, she walked with a cane, perhaps for defensive purposes.  As soon as she caught sight of Magda, The Umpire began running through her usual repertoire of signs, unambiguously disparaging this time.

            Most people just ignore The Umpire, or else, if they’re feeling cruel, they make a series of their own gestures back at her.  Magda, on the other hand, advanced right up to where she was standing, and said, “Something bothering you, honey?”

Though showing, I thought, some distress, The Umpire continued to alternately hold her nose and give the old heave-ho.

“You got something to say to me?” Magda asked.

The reply was another series up hand signals. 

I cringed, half expecting her to assault the Umpire with her cane.  Instead, showing remarkable restraint, she marched up to the front desk, and said, “You better keep that woman away from me, or I’m gonna kill her.”

            “Ah, come on, Magda,” the manager said, in his Brooklyn accent.  “Give her a break.  She’s crazy.”

The Umpire had followed, either unafraid, or, more likely, compelled by her madness, and now stood nearby, making her signals behind Magda’s back.

            “I know damn well that bitch is crazy,” Magda said.  “I’m gonna kill her crazy ass.”

Ed Hamilton

All Tomorrow's Parties

June 27,  3:00 – 11:00 p.m. Suite 303, the hair salon of the Chelsea Hotel, in conjunction with Chelsea Piers presents WORK IT OUT.   April (in the photo) and the babes of  Suite 303 will be giving free haircuts on the West Sundeck at Chelsea Piers from 3:00 to 11:00.  You can't get addicted from just one free haircut. Entertainment by Scratcher, Damian Pierce, Jesus Speed, and DJ Mariano begins at 7:30.

June 27, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Charlie Houston celebrates the release of his second novel “Six Bad Things.”  In his first novel, "Caught Stealing" Charlie had the bad guys hole up at the Chelsea, so I asked him why.  Charlie replies, " First off, the Chelsea has all this great punk cache.  It's hard to create a fictional place that's going to evoke Warhol, The Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Sid Vicious and so on.  So why bother trying?  Also, I'm sure the security is all very up to date these days, but it still feels like a wild west kind of place.  The kind of place where a couple desperados on the run could hole up.  Short answer: the Chelsea is cool."
Junno’s Bar 64 Downing just off Varick

June 29, 7:00 p.m.

The Kettle of Fish reading series features Sarah D. Bunting, Matt de la Pena, whose debut novel Ball Don't Lie is forthcoming from Delacorte, and Bridgett M. Davis author of the novel, Shifting Through Neutral.

59 Christopher Street

                         

Starting July 1, stop by the West of the Moon Gallery and enjoy the fine paintings of former resident Casebeer.  The opening reception will feature music by Joe Myers, another former resident (Troubled Notes from the Hotel Chelsea). 111 East Aspen, Flagstaff Arizona

A Reader from Australia Writes...

I'm guilty of neglecting the visual artists.

Brett Whiteley.  A very important Australian painter who lived at the Hotel in the early 70s.  He seems to be a bit neglected in Chelsea history.  A recent doco (documentary) shown here about his widow, Wendy, included Chelsea footage.  Here is a link to the transcript of the documentary.  Stanley Bard talks about the Whiteleys. The Whiteley's may have lived with Vali, (Vali Myers ) I'm not sure- I hear different stories.  The Hotel has what is, I imagine, a very valuable Whiteley at reception. It is unusual in his body of work and seems a pre-cursor to his most collectible works.  The child that he and Wendy raised there, Arkie, was a very close friend until her bitterly unfair death about five years ago.  When you come visit I'll take you to the Whiteley studios. http://www.brettwhiteley.org/

Here is a transcript of an interview with

The 92nd St Y was snubbed too...

Earlier I blogged about the Chelsea being snubbed by The New York Times Literary Map of Manhattan. Now the 92nd St. Y is feeling snubbed too.

"The New York Times‘ interactive Literary Map of Manhattan—which cites places where “imaginary New Yorkers lived, worked, played, drank and looked at ducks"—got a lot of play in the blog world a few weeks back, but we couldn’t help but notice a gap in its coverage: Where’s the 92nd Street Y?"

More Meltdown Coverage

Author and former resident Joe Ambrose is in London covering Patti Smith's Meltdown festival.

"...Smith, as befits a woman whose remit is broad and attractive (seminal rock woman, authentic second wave Beat Generationer, anti-Bush polemicist), has chosen wisely. Amongst the many features of her Meltdown, she has brought the remnants of the LES/Chelsea Hotel/Nova Convention counterculture crowd to London in the form of Richard Hell, John Giorno, and Yoko Ono..."

Additional Meltdown Reviews
Patti Performs "Horses" in London
Patti Has The Power
It Was Ladies' Night
Hats Off to the Scream Queen
William Would've Loved It
Patti Smith/Steve Earle
Some Give a Song, Some Give a Life...

Chelsea Girls

The Guardian applauds Patti Smith's Meltdown festival which ended with: "...Smith's extraordinary reading of Burroughs's moving, retrospective introduction to Queer; she ends up on her knees, bellowing disjointed phrases, punishing the clarinet. Spaced-out, almost shamanistic intensity. Burroughs would have approved. And just what Meltdowns are meant for..." 

Sally Singer plays herself in Douglas Keeve's new film Seamless, which follows the lives of three young fashion designers trying to impress Sally and other industry super stars with their design know-how. 

The Green Bay Press Gazette recommends "Wacky Chicks: Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women" for your summer reading list.  The book features two Chelsea girls: Warhol muse Brigid Berlin and nightlife queen Suzanne Barsch.   It's worth looking inside the book just to read author Simon Doonan's description of Suzanne's Chelsea apartment.

5 Authors Who Don't Live at the Chelsea

Five authors made the annual Forbe's Celebrity 100 list: Dan Brown ($76.5 mil), J.K. Rowling ($59.1 mil), James Patterson ($27 mil), Nora Roberts ($28.8 mil), and Arthur Agatston ($16 mil).

The Stage (Continued)

II. The Umpire

There’s a middle-aged woman who hangs out in the Chelsea lobby and apparently can’t control her gestures.  (Maybe she has Tourette’s too; unfortunately, I’m not a psychiatrist.)  When you walk through the lobby she’ll let you know what she thinks of you through a series of hand signals: thumbs-down, up-yours, the finger, holding her nose: P-U.  Though she’s really more like a third base coach, giving the batter a series of signals, somebody once called her The Umpire, and the name stuck.  Though she usually expresses a rather negative opinion of people, sometimes The Umpire will actually give the safe sign, or the thumbs up, or even the OK sign.

            One day three tourists came into the lobby, three young women in pastels: two blonds, slightly heavy, and one brunette, thinner.  They were staying at the hotel, and had gone out for the day, but one of the women had lost her sunglasses, and now they had come back looking for them.  They looked around briefly near the chairs where they had been sitting earlier in the day.  But it wasn’t long before they noticed that The Umpire was sitting across the room wearing a pair of sunglasses that looked suspiciously like the ones that had been lost.  (They may very well have belonged to The Umpire, I can’t say for sure, but the tourist women thought otherwise.)  The women huddled and stood exchanging nervous glances, whispering amongst themselves.  They were intimidated by The Umpire, and were afraid to ask her about the sunglasses, because whenever they would look in her direction, she would give them the finger or make some other obscene gesture.  Finally, they decided to tell the manager.

            The Umpire had stood up and come over near the desk to wait for the elevator, so the manager didn’t have to go far.  He came out from behind the desk and asked her, “Are those your glasses?”

The Umpire nodded up in down in reply.

“You didn’t find those glasses sitting here in the lobby?”

She nodded her head back and forth.

The manager threw up his hands.  “Well, if she says they’re hers, there’s not much I can do.”

            As often happens, the elevator was taking a long time to arrive.  The three women, slightly dazed, stood there waiting for it with The Umpire.

Finally, one of the women, the brunette, the one whose glasses had been stolen, couldn’t take it anymore.  “Why are we going back up to the room to look for the sun glasses?!” she said.  “We know where they are!  She’s wearing them!”

            The other women tried to shush her and calm her down  I think by now they had begun to realize that The Umpire was rather off.

The brunette refused to be mollified.  “What?!  I’m just supposed to do nothing while she steals my glasses and then gives me the finger.  I’m just supposed to just lay down and take it?  I don’t think so!”  And she launched into her own series of gestures, imitating The Umpire: “Same to you!  Up yours too!  How you like them apples?”

The Umpire shrugged her shoulders, unfazed.  She gave them a final flurry of signs, and then, as the elevator had by now arrived, stepped on and left the women standing there in the lobby.  (Next Week -- A Threat)

Ed Hamilton

To Do List - June 19 - 26

Monday, June 20
6:00 - 9:30
Opening reception for painter Robert Lambert will be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Chelsea.  The Grand Ballroom was the home of artist Richard Bernstein until he died in 2002.

The Last Time I Saw Jean Michel Basquait by Robert Lambert.

Sunday, June 26
36th Annual LGBT Pride March 12:00 pm.
Celebrated Hotel Chelsea resident Storme DeLarverie  always retains a place of honor, along with other Stonewall Veterans, in a baby blue Cadillac near the front of the parade.  During her early career, Storme was the sole male impersonater of the legendary Jewel Box Revue.  And, she is credited with throwing one of the first punches during the Stonewall riots.
Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street to its final destination in the West Village.