Crazy Fingers

Qdoba is now open

Qdoba has employed this gentleman, whom I observed at 23rd and 8th (northeast corner) at 8:30 this morning, to help spread the word.  (As if the eyebrow-threading sandwich-board people were not already annoying enough!)

Ben & Jerry's goes the way of Krispy Kreme and Burgers and Cupcakes

The Ben & Jerry's on 23rd Street in Chelsea (between 7th and 8th, closer to 8th) is closing.  Today is its last day in business.  It joins Burgers and Cupcakes and Krispy Kreme in the junk food carnage of that block of 23rd Street, which I guess makes sense in a neighborhood with such a high per-capita number of gyms.  (I mean, how many guys are going to walk out of David Barton Gym or New York Sports Club and stop off at Ben & Jerry's on the way home.)

I know I have ranted against chains moving into the neighborhood, but Ben & Jerry's is so, well, righteous.

Icky national chain replacing Bright Food Shop

The national Mexican food chain, qdoba, is replacing neighbor-owned Mexican-fusion Bright Food Shop at 8th and 21st, across the street from my apartment.  Today, that location is listed as "coming soon" (click on New York) on qdoba's website.  When we were in Florida, one of the owners of Humpy's pizza told us the landlord wanted $25,000 a month for the space.  That's a lot of burritos.  Chelsea is one step further down the path to becoming the world's largest open-air shopping mall.

Update: qdoba is owned by Jack-in-the-Box.

More about the Family of Unlimited Devotion

A commenter asked last night if I had any other information about the Spinners, or the Family of Unlimited Devotion.  I mentioned them in a post in December.

Coincidentally, I stumbled across this tonight while I was sniffing around for information about the Dead's performances in Telluride, Colorado, 20 years ago.  Those performances coincided with the Harmonic Convergence.

I have no way to reach the commenter.  Maybe he or she will see this.

Big changes on 23rd street

Today, the New York Post reported that the Communist Party is renovating its headquarters on 23rd Street and renting out some of its space to capitalist commercial enterprises.

Worse, across the street, Stanley Bard has been forced out of his management role at the Chelsea Hotel.  My buddies over at the Hotel Chelsea Blog report that the new management company is the same one that was involved in the conversion of Covenant House into the Maritime Hotel.  The Maritime and the Chelsea are very different kinds of hotels.

The Chelsea hosted some of my favorite artists.  Look at the right sidebar, and you'll see links to some of my posts about the Grateful Dead staying and playing at the Chelsea (they played on the roof!).  Not to mention, Bob Dylan ("I stayed up for days, at the Chelsea Hotel, writing 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' for you.") and Joni Mitchell and David Barton.

I lived at the Chelsea for a short period.  I commented on the Hotel Chelsea Blog today:

I landed in Chelsea after ending a 14-year relationship in August of 2004. My head was spinning, and after a month of sleeping in my office and hooking up randomly when I wanted to sleep in a bed, I walked in to the Chelsea and spoke to Stanley. I described my situation and he said "I have exactly what you need." It was a hot-pink room with a window facing an air shaft. It was quiet, and comforting -- a womb, really. I was finally able to get some sleep and figure out how to reorganize my life. I was a total stranger, and Stanley did this for me. Yes, the front desk lost my absentee New Jersey ballot and I had to get a court order to be able to vote against Bush, and yes, Stanley wouldn't let me leave when I wanted to, forcing me to stay (and pay) for an extra few days, but I'll always be grateful for the way he thoughtfully took me in.

Aside from all that, the loss of the Chelsea as we know it is the symbolic end of the neighborhood we love.

Maybe this is why "Chelsea" has not been illuminated on the sign lately.

Bright Food Shop (1990-2007) and Kitchen/Market (1985-2007)

Two more of the businesses which have shaped the special, unique character of Chelsea are gone.

Overnight, signs appeared in the window of Bright Food Shop (circa 1990) announcing that it, and its sister, Kitchen/Market (circa 1985), would close.  Also, by the time I passed by this morning, a makeshift memorial had started to form.

Both businesses have been fixtures in the neighborhood, two of the original businesses on the 8th Avenue strip that made Chelsea Chelsea, both serving unique, delicious food, which Brian and I love.  Some of our earliest dates included meals at Bright Food Shop.  The signs emphasized how much the owners loved doing what they did, and they encouraged us to patronize locally owned businesses.  Click the picture (above) to open a larger image, and read the signs.

Update #1: BlogChelsea reported this news yesterday.

Update #2: The NY Sun has an article about this.

New bike lane on 21st Street

There's a new bike lane on 21st Street.  I'm very pleased that I live at the intersection of northbound and westbound bike lanes!  If you look at the map of Manhattan bike lanes, you'll also see that it includes an eastbound bike lane on 20th Street.  (Transportation Alternatives has a bunch of maps of interest to bikers.)

This is what I saw Friday morning, looking west on 21st Street.

By Saturday morning, it looked like this.

And it crosses 8th Avenue.

Chelsea neighbors featured on Australian television

Chelsea Hotel residents Ed and Debby Hamilton (the people behind the Hotel Chelsea Blog and BlogChelsea) were featured in an Australian television documentary about the gentrification of our neighborhood.  It focuses on what's being lost as more and more of our real estate turns into luxury condos.  It also features their "frienemy" Cindy Gallop, who is presented as a characiture of who is moving into the neighborhood.  (My mental image is a hedge-fund guy with a wife who doesn't work and two kids under 5.)  If Cindy weren't rich, I figure she'd just be an eccentric bohemian (possibly homeless -- I mean, her apartment is more or less a stationary version of a shopping cart filled with extraneous possessions).  Linda and Ed wrote this and this about a party Cindy threw to build bridges to the "old" Chelsea community, many of whom are still pissed off about the conversion of the old McBurney YMCA building into the David Barton Gym and luxury condos.

Definitely do watch the thing, though.  There's some great camera work and excellent images of the neighborhood.  It totally made me want to live in the Chelsea, which is a desire I have, to varying degrees, from time to time.  (Brian and I need a one bedroom and a private bath.  I wonder how doable that would be.)

If you liked Ed in the Australian documentary, you'll love him in the short film "Sid's Room."  Sid's room is a reference to room 100 in the Chelsea Hotel, in which Sid Vicious' girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was killed

New Chelsea condo development named for a slave owner

There's a new condo development in Chelsea, named after Clement Clarke Moore, who is credited with writing "A Visit from St. Nicholas."  Moore's family's country estate, which was called Chelsea, contributed both the land and the name to our beloved neighborhood.  Clement Clarke Moore was on the faculty of the General Theological Seminary, and donated the land on which it sits.

Moore opposed abolition and owned slaves.  I'm glad I'll often walk by a building which bears his name.

More media coverage of the cupcake

There was a FOX 5 truck in front of Burgers and Cupcakes this morning. It was there at 5:30 when I went to the gym, and at 7:30 when I was walking to the PATH, there was a reporter inside interviewing someone. Perhaps this is ongoing coverage of the rotating cupcake controversy.

The Phil Lesh show I didn't see

If you've been following my desperate attempts to get a ticket to see Phil Lesh at SOB: I didn't get in last night.  My friend George did; he texted me at 12:30 but I was already sleeping. 

I didn't even go downtown to see if I could find a ticket.  I chose, instead, to spend the evening at home with Brian rather than pursue what I thought would be a wild goose chase.  After all the networking I did, I figured if I were going to get a ticket for under $100, it would have already happened by 7pm.

The Weight reports:

So Phil's friends are finally revealed to be axeman and now regular friend Larry Campbell, blues guitarist Larry McCray, Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz, Trey Anastastio band vocalist Christina Durfee, and drummer Jaz Sawyer.

I found a clever review with a Waiting for Godot theme.  The author concluded:

I’ve seen less-than-stellar Phil shows, and I’ve seen some bad Phil shows (featuring Paul Barrere and Billy Payne or Barry Sless and Campbell), but this was clearly the worst of the lot. It wasn’t so much that the bad parts were horrible, it was more about everything being so damn dull and pointless. Even those lousy shows in the past had some true peaks, but this show had no peaks at all, just a lot of low plateaus and valleys. I can’t fault McCray and Sawyer because they tried hard, but they were both out of their element and were too unfamiliar with the music to succeed in their roles. Phil could have made it easier by tweaking the setlist to play to their strengths, but he went the opposite way, and they couldn’t really handle it.

Perhaps tomorrow will be better, especially if Molo recovers from his encounter with bad sushi. However, I don’t know that one day of rehearsal will cause a miracle here. Of course, rumors abound for Tuesday’s show, citing possible sit-ins from everyone from Warren Haynes to Trey Anastasio to Elijah. (Word has it that all three will be free after sundown.) Truthfully, I don’t know if such prospects will be enough to lure me back for one more night. I just kept waiting for something to happen on Monday, but Godot never arrived.

And this, earlier in the post:

When “St. Stephen” began, two very odd things happened. One, the intro was destroyed and they started over. Two, this was the only time in my life that I heard the opening notes to “St. Stephen” and thought “No, please don’t play this song!” I was deathly afraid of what McCray and Sawyer might do to this classic.

I think I'm still looking for one for tonight.

Looking for 1 ticket to Phil Lesh at SOB tonight or tomorrow night

In the event that anyone reading this has an extra ticket for Phil Lesh's performance at SOB tonight or tomorrow night (or some other way to get me in the door), I'd love to take that ticket off your hands (for cash, of course).

Phil Lesh, bass player in the Grateful Dead, is coming back after his treatment for prostate cancer.  He's doing that at SOB, a 400-person-capacity club in SoHo, tonight and tomorrow night, with his band Phil and Friends.  Things like this don't happen very often.  I'd love to be able to go.

Please contact me via email if you can help.  Thanks!