one of my friends, who lived in NYC in the 80’s and 90’s, told me that part of loving NYC is about accepting that it’s always changing
constantly
old buildings being torn down
new ones put up
Love it or Leave it: it’s the way it is.
it’s OK to be at peace with that
but a bit more difficult when it’s happening to specifically beautiful places
(oh, if i ever could have seen the old Penn Station..)
a good friend of mine lives in the Chelsea Hotel
and it’s like a middle-eastern land-grab here
all of a sudden
SILENT halls
and strange security goons in the lobby
art disappearing
and when i read shit on the internet about it
they say they’re getting a designer who works for Holiday Inn to come in and re-vamp the rooms
REALLY?
it was just bought by some Moroccan Jewish real estate mogul
he bought the Sear’s Tower! and a million other places
and i don’t really get Real Estate
but i understand collectors
and i know how people are when they want to posses shiny bobbles
and that’s what keeps the world turning
really
desire…
and change
but this place is so beautiful
in its ramshackle way
i’ve been hanging out in the pent-house and roof for the last few years
and it’s transformed my relationship with Chelsea
(which formerly i could not stand to be in)
i had a client in one of the rooms once
i don’t remember which
but i’ve been in a slew of rooms because of my friend who lives here
and they are all different
so many characters
and of course… stories
it’s horrifying to think of it all being made commercially acceptable
by some collector money grubbing douche who hires some fuckwit famous for Holiday Inn
Really?
well
that’s just the way the world turns
but it feels kinda horrible to be in
and know a way of life is ending
ah…
on to the next…
2 thoughts on “rug pulling”
dennisatl
Desecration of the dissolute….
I once visited a pretty little town in N.C. about a job, and the church warden showing me around said the town was “preserved in the amber of poverty”… he was an English prof at Chapel Hill, and hence, poetic.
But if there’s money to be made, it seems nothing is safe.
Isn’t what’s happening to the Chelsea more “Disneyfication”, such as has happened to Times Square- something with a long-time seedy reputation gets a fresh coat of paint, the riffraff is chased out, and the tourist trade is given a safe, slightly racy experience in the “wicked city”. And of course, it’s not that the riffraff is gone- just a different, slightly less threatening class of them. (Hello! Donald Trump, et al)
(English teacher in me says…) I think you were trying for “baubles” rather than “bobbles”, but thanks for getting me to look it up, as now I know one definition is “a fool’s scepter”
Also thought “slew” of rooms sounded iffy, but found out “slew” and “slough” are quite different words, and you, appropriately, were using the Irish one!
Somewhere in Arkansas, there used to be a bridge over “Swan Lake Slough”. Somehow it says something about Arkansas.
Hmmm and then there’s Bill Clinton, who named his daughter Chelsea, but I bet will think the re-model of the hotel will be a good thing. “New money”, I believe it’s called.
All for now.
XX XX
“A whole slew” refers to a large number or quantity of whatever you choose to describe, and comes from the Irish word slua, for a crowd or army. A “slough”, on the other hand, I know to be a shallow, stagnant accumulation of water, generally with a muddy, sucking bottom. Slough, or slew in the United States, apparently, is related to the Dutch word slechten, which means to lower, to cut, to destroy. Also related to ‘to slay’. A Gaelic sloc is a pit or pool. Also akin to German schlucken, Swedish sluka, and Dutch slikken, to swallow. Think thick slick sucking slithy slime and you’ll get the idea.
dominicvine in reply to dennisatl
thank you, fascinating. you’re right: I did mean Baubles … but certainly Slewand not the past participle of To Slay…ohheaviness!I’ll have to bobble it…