"Staying up for nights in the Chelsea Hotel writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you."
Bob Dylan, "Sara" (his wife)
"I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel You were famous, your heart was a legend You told me again you preferred handsome men But for me you would make an exception "
Leonard Cohen regarding Janis Joplin - “Chelsea Hotel No. 2,”
Lived there for a year in '93 or '94, I forget. It's a 'dark' building. I remember Stanley, a somewhat unpleasant little man. Had one of my episodic software breakthroughs there -- was obsessively diagramming object graphs in those days -- and did some art there too for which you will have to wait until I'm conveniently and appropriately dead. And no, the ghost of Nancy did not show up. Creepiest bathroom ever.
I had the pleasure of staying there for a couple of nights in 2008. The hallways smelt of burning incense. As I waited for the key to my room, I remember someone coming up to reception, saying that they'd like to film a documentary about the place. The guy just looked at them and said no, fuck off.
Patti Smith wrote about living in the Chelsea with Mapplethorpe in her book Just Kids, a fascinating picture of that scene in the 70's
I bet the Chelsea Hotel is white all over when you shine black light in there. I would never sleep in that cum dungeon.
NYC loves to glorify its days as a so-called artists' mecca while doing everything to make sure it'll never be that again.