Wednesday, May 18, 2005

I Remember You Well In the Chelsea Hotel

So, yo, I sooooo live soooo totally close to the Chelsea hotel. We went out for some lychee martinis at the bar there and I always swoon a little as I near that place. See, my first-ever directing gig was when I did "Cowboy Mouth" at college and, as we all know, Sam Shepard and Patti Smith wrote it there, or at least based it on their experiences there, or whatever. And, dude, there's the whole Syd and Nancy thing. "Ron and Nancy got the house but Syd and Nancy rule" -- quick! Name it and claim it! (Dar Williams, "alleluia.")

So, I heart the Chelsea hotel mostly because of the Leonard Cohen song. Lyrics, babe. I've always adored this song, I think it's fucking brilliant -- "you told me again, you preferred handsome men, but for me, you would make an exception." Apparently, the song is about a one-night stand with Janis Joplin (but I always used to think it was about Patti.) Here's info on the Janis thing -- but also dig the original lyrics! Holy raw kickawesome SEX!

Anyhoo. I went to my friend's birthday party on Saturday night. We hadn't seen each other for a while; he's from the part of my life when i was W-I-L-D (the way Baby screams it to Johnny after he breaks the window so they can get into the car so they can drive to where it's easier to practice lifts in the water) and when I really cared cared cared about subversiveness and unrepressedness and art. I, um, I really miss that epoch. Really, really, rilly rilly. This birthday boy was the main catalyst for me to free myself and be myself and I miss both those days and that feeling.*

Anyhoodlerinos. I'm way tired and my pinched nerve is bad and my neck is all sorts of fizzucked and Logo continues to kick my ass (NOTE: launching June 30th! Logo is GONNAZ ROCK YOU SO HARDCIZZORE STYLLZ!) and I must away to sleep.

*Those were the reasons, and that was New York. I was running for the money and the flesh. That was called love, for the workers in song. And it still is for those of us left.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sooooo awesome to hang with you on saturday. I'm so happy you ended up coming. so much fun.

now that i'm at oxygen again, we totally need to do the chelsea martini/margarita hang.

oh, and that part about being the catalyst nearly made me weep.

Danny Pitt Stoller said...

Dylan mentions the Chelsea Hotel in a song too:

I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells,
I'd taken the cure and had just gotten through,
Staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel,
Writing "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" for you...

(from the song "Sara" which is on the Desire album)