Beat era poet Ira Cohen eloquently sets the mood for Abel Ferrara's new movie, Chelsea on the Rocks about the legendary hotel on 23rd Street, reciting his own verse. Ferrara, the downtown filmmaker who recently made Go Go Tales, one of the hits of last year's New York Film Festival, seems to want to mark the end of an era showing how the hotel is turning a corner from being a haven for down and out artists, writers and rock stars, and a locus for anyone coming to town with a yearning for bohemia or just wanting to be hip, to becoming a cash cow for a new set of corporate type owners. Famously, Sex Pistol's Sid Vicious killed Nancy Spungeon there, and then killed himself. What was it like in those glamorous years? Tenants used to say, you didn't want to share an elevator with this pair. They just might fall on you. Including interviews with Dennis Hopper, Raymond Foye, Zev Greenfield and others, the film is more a tableau of a historically rich and hash feuled milieu akin to the Beat Hotel in Paris in the late '50's and early '60's than a traditional documentary. Prior hotelier and art lover Stanley Bard famously gave Ethan Hawke a free room when his marriage to Uma Thurman broke up. The nostalgic mood is, we will never see his like again.
A photo of William S. Burroughs with Andy Warhol hanging out at the Chelsea is resonant. This marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Burroughs's iconic Naked Lunch. This guru of the beat movement will be feted at St. Mark's Church, New York University, Columbia University and School of Visual Arts., and will feature a group reading by Genesis P. Orridge, John Giorno, and Simon Pettet on Wednesday at St. Mark's Church, a panel of Burroughs influenced writers on Thursday at NYU including Penny Arcade and Jurgen Ploog. On Friday, Columbia University presents an exhibition of manuscripts at Butler Library as well as panels featuring biographer Barry Miles and Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset who first put out the outrageous Naked Lunch in America. On Saturday, at Visual Arts Theater on 23 Street, a film program including the East Coast premiere of the Danish documentary Words of Advice and excerpts from Alan Govenar's Beat Hotel is followed by performers and poets: Anne Waldman, Eric Anderson, and Michael McClure. Saturday Night Live's Hal Willner brings surprise guests to the table, hosted by yours truly. For more information: www.nakedlunch.org.
Comments