Big Yellow Taxi

 

You don't see one of these every day! 

UPDATE:

Based on the number of vintage cars in the area, safe to say some kind of period piece was being filmed near the Hotel Chelsea! Anyone know which? 

Return of the Chelsea Hotel

 

Has anyone checked out the new (and presumably improved) Chelsea Hotel? For years we've been hearing about a "luxury reboot" that was often in limbo, but it seems it's really up and running now, if Sandra Bernhard is to be believed. I haven't spent much time there since the Blondie photo exhibition celebrating the band's 40th anniversary back in 2014, so I'm overdue for a visit. 

My favorite thing about the place has always been El Quijote restaurant. According to The Wall Street Journal, the famously bohemian hangout -- an old haunt of Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol and countless others -- is back and timelessly intact -- but now the sangria is top shelf. (Shocker.) 

Keep reading BELOW.

I Remember You Well, Chelsea Hotel

Did anyone catch the iconic Hotel Chelsea awning out for a spin yesterday in the East Village? A new documentary, "Dreaming Walls," catches us up to date at the legendary lodging -- where we used to celebrate birthdays at El Quijote and go to art shows in the lobby -- until it closed for more than a decade for renovations. 

Deadline writes:

“It’s a film of encounters and the people we met, we love them,” explains Maya Duverdier, who co-directed the film with Amélie van Elmbt. “We wanted to talk about these lives that have been in the shadow, in a way, of the bigger names.” 

The bigger names range from Mark Twain in the 19th century to Oscar Wilde in the early 20th. Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, composer Virgil Thomson, Jack Kerouac, Thomas Wolfe, Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, Stanley Kubrick and fellow filmmaker Miloš Foreman, and the artist Christo, have all been associated with the Hotel Chelsea in one way or another. Andy Warhol shot films there. The Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious may or may not have stabbed his girlfriend to death there in 1978. But the filmmakers believe the lesser known residents may be just as responsible for creating the Chelsea aura.

Keep reading HERE.

Note: It (mostly) reopened in May!

Remains of the Day (01/31)

6sqft: This couple has made 220 square feet work for 24 years in a Chelsea Hotel SRO 

HuffPost: Mitch McConnell thinks Democrats are trying to steal elections by allowing people to vote

Vanity Fair: There's yet another Trump-Putin meeting we didn't know about

Philadelphia Magazine: Forget Pizza Rat -- Philly's Pretzel Rat is the next rodent celebrity

Instagram: CNN's Natalie Allen has a hot son

Gr8er Days: 30 classic documentaries that were snubbed by Oscar

Boy Culture: Out candidate Pete Buttigieg on whether American is ready for a gay president

The Fix: The next generation of voters is more liberal, more inclusive and believes in government

Baseline: Rafael Nadal finally popped the question

The Washington Post: Senate backs McConnell’s rebuke of Trump’s military drawdown plans in Syria, Afghanistan

Towleroad: Locker Room 101 -- Soap dropping for dummies

The Randy Report: First an armed lunatic at Comet Ping Pong and now this bullshit?

Greg in Hollywood: Start doing your tongue exercises, guys: Showtime is reviving "The L Word"

OMG Blog: Michael Angels and Keith Roenke are fully naked in "D'Agostino"

New York Post: Woman arrested for masturbating in public picked up where she left off in back of police car

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Hot Cat of the Day: These Milos Raonic and Larry lookalikes need to take this show on the road!

Hotel Chelsea Luxury Reboot in Limbo

Some news about the famed Chelsea Hotel, which has been closed to the publc for the past three years. Plans to turn the famed former home of Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, Arthur Miller, Sid Vicious and Jack Keruoac into a luxury hotel have unraveled, with majority owners parting ways with partner Ed Scheetz after the project turned into a money pit. What comes next is unclear. It's doubtful it will remain the bohemian residence it once was as Page Six reports that the building could now be turned over to boutique hotelier Richard Born, known for the Bowery, the Maritime, the Mercer, the Greenwich and the Pod. 

Page Six saysScheetz, who owned a piece of the property, is out following a cash squeeze and disagreements with the majority owners — activist investor Bill Ackman, Leucadia National Corp. chairman Joseph Steinberg and real estate investment firm Wheelock Street Capital.

They took over in 2013 and planned to convert the run-down red-brick building into a luxury hotel and condos. Adding to the construction problems, more than 80 tenants in rent-stabilized apartments have refused to move out.

A source tells Page Six, “The place is a mess. They’ve spent a lot of money, but they are still right in the middle of construction. It might still need another $150 million.Then there’s a complex situation with the tenants, who are very litigious. It has become a hornets’ nest. Ackman and Steinberg hired bankers to explore selling it, but it didn’t sell, so they have been talking to other hoteliers.”

They started discussions with Ian Schrager, but were unable to strike a deal. Schrager confirmed to Page Six that he had been in talks over the Hotel Chelsea, but walked away from the project.

Page Six says Born is now in negotiations to take over the management and buy a stake in the Chelsea, telling the gossipers: “We are talking with the owners, but it is premature to say there’s a deal.”

Read the Hotel Chelsea blog HERE.

Blondie Photo Exhibit at Chelsea Hotel Held Over Until Oct. 6

Great news, Blondies. By popular demand the 40th anniversary exhibition of Blondie photos at the Chelsea Hotel Storefront Gallery has been extended until Oct. 6. I wrote about it HERE -- and now the friend I visited the show with has written a wonderful piece about it for The Daily Beast HERE. 

You're welcome!

A Visit to the Blondie Exhibit at Chelsea Hotel

My favorite photo -- so candid, and so not seen before!

Felt like Christmas morning -- getting an import 12" single of  "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence Dear" from my mom -- attending the Blondie exhibition at the Chelsea Hotel Storefront Gallery Saturday night with my friend Tim Teeman. While as a superfan I could complain about a few things -- if Chris Stein really shot so many photos of  Debbie and the band back in the day, why are so many of the images in his new book ones we've seen so many times? (even the cover image of his NEW BOOK is rehashed! -- it was arguably the perfect presentation for medium to casual fans who may have missed some of these gems the first few (hundred) times around. Photos by Bob Gruen, Annie Leibovitz, Roberta Bayley, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bobby Grossman, Mick Rock, David Godlis, as well as Stein, plus vintage T-shirts and a display case filled with ephemera, made for a fascinating visit. And sure, the videos they had playing on a loop started to replay while we were there -- and we weren't there THAT long: this is a band that released the first-ever VIDEO ALBUM, so why not include all of their videos?! -- but I hadn't been in a room that was covered from wall to wall in Blondie memorabilia since I was a teenage boy in Arizona, so what's not to love?

Best of Blondie dress

I've been to a foam party at the Palladium back in the day, but can you imagine this?!

  

Debbie meets Duckie Dale

This must be from when Deb and Chris appeared on Glenn O'Brien's cable-access show, "TV Party." He's The Style Guy for GQ now

Always the hottest Blondie boy, who knew Clem could be so coquettish? 

Was she on E?

Remember what Debbie said about insuring her Warhol?

Tab Hunter was still dreamy when he shot "Polyester," for which Debbie and Chris provided the soundtrack. This was, like many, in "Making Tracks" though

There was a back room dedicated to "fan art," which apparently includes fans of Bea Arthur

My friend Tim had never seen the "Island of Lost Souls" video -- one of the handful they selected to play -- and probably wishes he never did. (OMG!)

I was so swept up on the moment that I broke down and bought the band's new double LP, which is one disc of re-recorded classics (yuck) and one disc of new stuff (mostly yuck), but includes a bonus DVD of a classic 1977 performance at CBGB during which Debbie rocked a pair of Coca-Cola pants!

Hotel Chelsea Celebrates 40 Years of Blondie

Here's a peek inside the opening gala for the photo exhibition celebrating 40 years of Blondie going on now at the famed Chelsea Hotel. Nice to see Sting and Trudie Styler on hand. 

The New York Times' T magazine has a nice piece on Chris Stein's new book of photos -- many on display in Chelsea -- HERE. 

A few faves:

Blondie 40th Anniversary Exhibit

Details about this gift from the Chelsea Hotel HERE.

Chelsea Hotel to Celebrate 40 Years of Blondie

I'm not sure it can get much better than this. In celebration of the iconic band's 40th anniversary, Jeffrey Deitch has curated an exhibition featuring images of Debbie Harry and the boys by Bob Gruen, Annie Leibovitz, Roberta Bayley, Mick Rock, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bobby Grossman, David Godlis, and Blondie’s own Chris Stein. The news release promises the exhibition will "be a survey capturing Blondie’s iconic 40-year history, incorporating photography, ephemera/memorabilia from the band, as well as video -- and I promsie I will be lurking around the lobby, where the exhibit will be on display from September 23rd through the 29th, from 1-8 p.m. daily.

Gothamist has a sneak preview HERE.

Lost Bohemia

The writing has been on the wall for years, but it's now official: Hotel Chelsea has become a boutique chain property. Read HERE.

What the El?

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York hears the legendary Chelsea Hotel restaurant El Quijote -- where we have one of the best birthday dinners for Michael of all time -- is closing next. Please say it isn't so. Read HERE.

Nancy Spungeon Died Here

With the holidays fast approaching, you might want to check out “Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel,” Sherill Tippins' new book about the fabled hotel where cultural icons like Thomas Wolfe, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, Edie Sedgwick and others found inspiration. Order HERE.

An Oral History of the Chelsea Hotel

Where the Walls Still Talk 

Via Vanity Fair:

Tales from the legendary hotel-slash-commune that housed Jackson Pollock, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith, and Sid Vicious — told by residents like Rufus Wainwright, Betsey Johnson, R. Crumb, and Andy Warhol.

Read HERE.

Taylor vs. Goliath

What's becoming an all-too-familiar New York story ... about Taylor Mead, an 88-year-old poet and pal of Andy Warhol, who is battling his millionaire landlord on the Lower East Side to remain in his $380/month rent-stabilized apartment that he has called home for 34 years:

Mead’s friends suspect [real estate mogul Ben] Shaoul wants the poet to evict himself. “It’s going to kill him,” said Clayton Patterson, a neighborhood activist and longtime friend. “This is elderly abuse. It’s pretty Third World when you think about it.” 

Mead is one of the last survivors of the Beat generation. He performed in several Warhol movies, including an hourlong silent film that starred only his buttocks. He was the focus of a 2005 documentary and performed weekly at the Bowery Poetry Club for nearly a decade before it closed last year. The old artist can barely stand. When he’s not watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Judge Judy” and sipping chocolate milk, he’s writing poems. He can only leave his apartment, a trek from the top floor, a few times a week.  

Keep reading HERE.

Meanwhile, the drama never ends at the Chelsea Hotel, where a gas outage has left hundreds of residents without heat -- more snow is on its way!!! -- and City Council Spokeswoman Christine Quinn ripping the building's new owner. (He's also being fined.) Read HERE.

What a Dump

Things have gone from bad to worse at the Chelsea Hotel, where City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined the Chelsea Hotel Tenants Association on Saturday to protest the new owner of the famed 23rd Street building, which is said to have become a moldy, asbestos-ridden dump. Read HERE.