Another place I Will Never Live - The Chelsea Hotel
October 16, 2013 4:03 PM Subscribe
Ugh, what a craptastic interface VF has for the slideshow. Cool pictures though, when I could get them to load properly, and/or find the navigation buttons.
posted by stenseng at 4:16 PM on October 16, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by stenseng at 4:16 PM on October 16, 2013 [5 favorites]
Nice to see these photos. I was in the lobby a couple of times, but never in any room.
I thought I'd list a few songs off the top of my head that have Chelsea Hotel references, but, of course Wikipedia has done that for us already.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:24 PM on October 16, 2013
I thought I'd list a few songs off the top of my head that have Chelsea Hotel references, but, of course Wikipedia has done that for us already.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:24 PM on October 16, 2013
I think this says more about me than anything else, but I'm pretty sure I recognize some of the interiors of the Chelsea Hotel (based solely on photographic viewings, mind you) faster than, let's say, 60% of the places I've lived.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:27 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:27 PM on October 16, 2013
See also the Oral History of the Chelsea Hotel, also from Vanity Fair. The hotel is currently in the process of being renovated/gentrified (Previously). The oral history has a lot of quotes from composer Gerald Busby, who was a protege of Virgil Thomson, who lived in a multi-room suite at the Chelsea Hotel. Busby did the music score for Robert Altman's 3 Women (1977) and acted in Altman's A Wedding. He lost a lover to AIDS and went through a dark period but got sober and started composing again. There is a documentary in progress about him.
posted by larrybob at 4:29 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by larrybob at 4:29 PM on October 16, 2013
I stayed there during a trip to New York in 2010, just a few months before it got sold and closed for renovation. I'm really glad I did.
posted by roll truck roll at 4:31 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by roll truck roll at 4:31 PM on October 16, 2013
As soon as I saw it, I knew this was totally the staircase that Natalie Portman dangles her legs over in The Professional. And sure enough, Wikipedia confirms it.
posted by figurant at 4:48 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by figurant at 4:48 PM on October 16, 2013
Stayed there in December 1969 while on tour with the Sons of Champlin. I was the roadie, and we were doing a show at the Fillmore East with The Byrds and The Nice.
The place was crawling with drug dealers and con artists. Somehow a voluptuous groupie who called herself Uncle Meat ingratiated herself into our rooms. Nobody wanted anything to do with her.
posted by Repack Rider at 4:49 PM on October 16, 2013 [6 favorites]
The place was crawling with drug dealers and con artists. Somehow a voluptuous groupie who called herself Uncle Meat ingratiated herself into our rooms. Nobody wanted anything to do with her.
posted by Repack Rider at 4:49 PM on October 16, 2013 [6 favorites]
I encourage everyone who can to check out Sarah Vowell's essay on the Chelsea Hotel in Take the Cannoli.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:53 PM on October 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 4:53 PM on October 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
12/17: Artist Philip Taaffe and Gretchen Carlson with their children in their apartment, #920. Taaffe and Carlson stole their children out of a previously undiscovered Diane Arbus photograph.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:56 PM on October 16, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:56 PM on October 16, 2013 [4 favorites]
Stayed a couple times, pretty barren rooms. Glad I was able to, and really wanted to live there. A nice place to live but I wouldn't want to visit too often. Something like that.
posted by sammyo at 5:03 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 5:03 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
I encourage everyone who can to check out Sarah Vowell's essay on the Chelsea Hotel in Take the Cannoli.
Amen!
posted by y2karl at 5:07 PM on October 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
Amen!
posted by y2karl at 5:07 PM on October 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
stayed there 3 times, last time in '09. it's one of my favorite places in the world. i know it has a grim, fucked up history in many ways, but damn... it just felt right, being there. i doubt i'll ever get the chance again. but i am glad it still exists, in some form.
posted by lapolla at 5:22 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by lapolla at 5:22 PM on October 16, 2013
Taaffe and Carlson stole their children out of a previously undiscovered Diane Arbus photograph.
Or a Stephen Spielberg movie. But then, Stephen Spielberg, Diane Arbus - what's the difference ?
posted by y2karl at 5:44 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
Or a Stephen Spielberg movie. But then, Stephen Spielberg, Diane Arbus - what's the difference ?
posted by y2karl at 5:44 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
My only tat was done on the ground floor at The Flying Dragon - and I got it done there only because it was at The Chelsea. The guy did a terrific job, too.
posted by droplet at 5:45 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by droplet at 5:45 PM on October 16, 2013
it's awful, seeing the lobby stripped of the art. painful.
posted by lapolla at 5:48 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by lapolla at 5:48 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
My favorite oddity about the hotel is that there is a pyramid apartment on the roof where once lived Jobriath.
posted by cazoo at 5:59 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by cazoo at 5:59 PM on October 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
There's something about this that gets at what bothers me about New York now. I'm sure there are real artists still living there, but an awful lot of the photos seem to me to be either the rich children of artists (Julian Schnabel's daughter) or in some other way the unearned inheritor of someone else's legacy -- Dylan Thomas and Virgil Thompson aren't here, but these new people are, who bought their way in and curate that legacy rather than create their own. The Chelsea Hotel isn't a place where struggling artists go to get a foothold anymore. New York isn't either.
At least it's not as bad as London's gotten -- both cities have an element of being a property investment hedge for non-resident zillionaires, with fabulous houses sitting dark 51 weeks a year (so has LA to some extent), but London is surely worse.
I wonder where today's Chelsea Hotel is? Portland? Omaha?
posted by Fnarf at 6:08 PM on October 16, 2013 [3 favorites]
At least it's not as bad as London's gotten -- both cities have an element of being a property investment hedge for non-resident zillionaires, with fabulous houses sitting dark 51 weeks a year (so has LA to some extent), but London is surely worse.
I wonder where today's Chelsea Hotel is? Portland? Omaha?
posted by Fnarf at 6:08 PM on October 16, 2013 [3 favorites]
Taaffe and Carlson stole their children out of a previously undiscovered Diane Arbus photograph.
That's funny.
And funnier because I hadn't looked at the kids at all so I wondered how I missed the cigs dangling from their lower lips.
I barely looked at parents other than to confirm it wasn't a FoxNews anchor.
Maybe I knew what the people would look like in all the pics, so I was looking at the place and I barely noticed the people.
posted by surplus at 6:15 PM on October 16, 2013
That's funny.
And funnier because I hadn't looked at the kids at all so I wondered how I missed the cigs dangling from their lower lips.
I barely looked at parents other than to confirm it wasn't a FoxNews anchor.
Maybe I knew what the people would look like in all the pics, so I was looking at the place and I barely noticed the people.
posted by surplus at 6:15 PM on October 16, 2013
...(Previously).
Yikes! My bad! thought someone who was in the community room where he works and in a hurry.
posted by y2karl at 6:25 PM on October 16, 2013
Yikes! My bad! thought someone who was in the community room where he works and in a hurry.
posted by y2karl at 6:25 PM on October 16, 2013
Hey, Vanity Fair, your fucking opinion-central survey popup won't go away.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:15 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:15 PM on October 16, 2013
I wonder where today's Chelsea Hotel is? Portland? Omaha?
Chicago?
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:19 PM on October 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
Chicago?
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:19 PM on October 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
I wonder where today's Chelsea Hotel is? Portland? Omaha?
Chicago? Detroit? East Cicero, IL?
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:20 PM on October 16, 2013
Chicago? Detroit? East Cicero, IL?
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:20 PM on October 16, 2013
Related and recommended: Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with Artists and Outlaws in New York's Rebel Mecca. It was such an entertaining read at the time, years ago in the throes of insomnia when my sleep-deprived brain could really appreciate the short story format.
I wonder where today's Chelsea Hotel is? Portland? Omaha?
If the Chelsea Hotel types who had a big internet presence half a decade ago on the periphery of my social circle are any indication, perhaps somewhere in California?
posted by quiet earth at 10:06 PM on October 16, 2013
I wonder where today's Chelsea Hotel is? Portland? Omaha?
If the Chelsea Hotel types who had a big internet presence half a decade ago on the periphery of my social circle are any indication, perhaps somewhere in California?
posted by quiet earth at 10:06 PM on October 16, 2013
I dated a guy that lived there, when I was a teenager. He was a freelance writer. Can't quickly find any references to him, his name is too common, and there are others more famous. I had no idea the place was special. It's funny, but at some point I realized that some of the men I dated liked that I was too naive to be "impressed" about things, and that I dated them only because I found them attractive. ;-)
posted by Goofyy at 10:30 PM on October 16, 2013
posted by Goofyy at 10:30 PM on October 16, 2013
I encourage everyone who can to check out Sarah Vowell's essay on the Chelsea Hotel in Take the Cannoli.
That essay was the reason I stayed there, years ago. I arrived late and the "receptionists" were two men with long hair who didn't see me immediately because they were busy headbanging to loud rock music. One floor in particular had a peculiar herbal scent. On my floor there was an abstract painting with a kneeler in front of it. My boyfriend arrived late and one of the guys at the reception called me "there's a guy here who claims he knows you... he says his name is...". Nothing like paranoid hotel receptionists to make you feel safe. It was mighty fun.
posted by Marauding Ennui at 2:39 AM on October 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
That essay was the reason I stayed there, years ago. I arrived late and the "receptionists" were two men with long hair who didn't see me immediately because they were busy headbanging to loud rock music. One floor in particular had a peculiar herbal scent. On my floor there was an abstract painting with a kneeler in front of it. My boyfriend arrived late and one of the guys at the reception called me "there's a guy here who claims he knows you... he says his name is...". Nothing like paranoid hotel receptionists to make you feel safe. It was mighty fun.
posted by Marauding Ennui at 2:39 AM on October 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
I stayed there once with my friend Marsha in the early 1990s. I loved the stairwell and saw my first genuine NYC cockroach there!
That wasn't the creepy part, though. The creepy part was being shown to our room by the bellman who told us it was his favorite room because it had the best water pressure. Like, am I going to step out of the shower the next morning to see you waiting on me to hurry up so you can get on with your day, fella?
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 4:03 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
That wasn't the creepy part, though. The creepy part was being shown to our room by the bellman who told us it was his favorite room because it had the best water pressure. Like, am I going to step out of the shower the next morning to see you waiting on me to hurry up so you can get on with your day, fella?
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 4:03 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Um, what exactly is "an artist-friendly luxury hotel"?
posted by willie11 at 4:40 PM on October 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by willie11 at 4:40 PM on October 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
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