Stash Studios

Never Forever.

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe by Gerard Malanga

Tobias George

The Chelsea Hotel closed its doors last Friday for renovation. In approximately a single year, properly-funded tourists will run their fingers across newly finished walls imagining but never truly knowing the layers beneath.

Most often we associate the Chelsea with famous names and infamous incidents but that is simply what got the most press. At the core, the Chelsea was about the community.

Photographer Julie Calfee explains quite well in the short film Inside.  "It is possible to come live in the Chelsea Hotel without questions about your past, without a job, without any credit or credit card or checkbook. This unconditional acceptance has enabled so many to acheive greatness and so many others just to nourish themselves on the greatness of others who have made it. The concept of human dignity, based on a system of values which is not purely materialistic is synonymous with the Chelsea Hotel." - Julie Calfee, excerpted from Inside: The Chelsea Hotel. 

And as utopic as all that may seem for some, Julie also admitted to feeling at times like a fly in a spider's web when there was a risk of being eaten alive if she made the wrong move.

Built originally as an apartment building, the Chelsea became a hotel in 1899 and was the tallest building in New York. Now the fabeled spirit of the place will live solely in film, song, story, poetry, and photography. A few of these things are shared here. 

"Eyeing the traffic circulating the lobby hung with bad art. Big invasive stuff unloaded on Stanley Bard in exchange for rent. The hotel is an energetic, desperate haven for scores of gifted hustling children from every rung of the ladder. Guitar bums and stoned-out beauties in Victorian dresses. Junkie poets, playwrights, broke-down filmmakers, and French actors. Everybody passing through here is somebody, if not in the outside world." - Patti Smith in the S/S10 issue of AnOther Magazine. 

Ethan Hawke by Linda Troeller

In 2007, photographer Linda Troeller, former assistant to Ansel Adams and resident of Hotel Chelsea since 1994, published her experiences in Atmosphere. Each image is accompanied by a letter addressed "Dear Chelsea Hotel..." in which the photo subect shares what they love about the place, what drew them there and kept them all these years.

Milos Forman About Chelsea Hotel from DOX Centre for Contemporary Art on Vimeo.

We end with an extended  but fascinating video featuring a reminiscence of the Czech-American filmmaker Milos Forman, known perhaps most famously for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus. 

Enjoy,

Outstanding.

This strikes my heart on so many levels. Bringing real food, to real people, in a real place. Funny that this would be considered a novelty rather than a way of life. Outstanding indeed.

Handwork

I've been doing a lot of handwork this week and thinking about my family history and realizing that this business of building is more than a personal dream, it is a legacy.

Fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers built houses, roads, bridges, factories, furniture. Mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers also built houses, furniture, quilts, clothing, families, nourishment.

Manifesting something from within and creating by hand, from nothing is risky, exhilarating, difficult but ultimately satisfying. Odd in a way that we've become divorced from many of these tasks. Hiring out to specialists, even our folding and our meals.

I've never felt more in my own than when I was building or creating something whether a meal, a bag, a piece of furniture. 

This morning, Alabama Chanin shared a link to a thoughtful post from EcoSalon on How Handwork Helps the Brain. 

Enjoy,

[photos by G Griffin and C Schulke]

Loomstate

Liking the look and feel of Loomstate. Launched in New York City in 2004 by designer Rogan Gregory and Scott Mackinlay Hahn, Loomstate was founded as a casual brand dedicated to creating demand for certified organic cotton using socially and environmentally responsible methods of production.

Have a great weekend.

Sew. Sing. Surf.

Love the quirky little video the Sew & Sing gals put together to promote their surf clever, cool board bags. Today, as I am making a pile of custom-sized zippers for oiled wristlets from a 150 yard roll of zipper chain, I can totally appreciate their bag building business. 

Women supporting women. It's a good thing. Find a little more on Sew & Sing bags here.

Do what you love. The rest will follow.

  

Stag, In All Its Glory

[photo credit mine but found on www.stagaustin.com]

I've had to travel to Austin on business several times in the last few weeks, so I finally got to stop by and see Stag in person. Don gave the me the tour and asked me to snap a few shots for their blog. What a fantastic shop and a fun time. The staff is outstanding, helpful, friendly. Great vibe. The goods are so meticulously selected. I made it out with some vintage vinyl and other miscellany but I need to get back because there are a few articles that I'm kicking myself for leaving behind.

Thanks guys,

 

Detour to Sweatersworth

Great find from my friend Don at Detour. Check it out. Digging the dining room chairs.

 

Backyard Bill

[ photo credit: www.backyardbill.com]

Always love what Backyard Bill has to offer. Now the site is redesigned and featured is Adam Pedersen-Doherty. Adam is into collecting, free love and country living. Groovy.

 

Backyard Bill: Quetzal Saunders

via backyardbill.blogspot.com

  

Godspeed 45/60

 

My friend Cicero of Godspeed 45/60 contacted me this weekend while I was tipping back a few Micheladas. Funny timing on his part because I had just been talking about an increasing need for speed and my ideal bike.

 

Now that I'm recovered, I'd like to share a peek at his latest book with Kutty Noteboom, Rico Fodrey, John Copeland, Jeffrey Schad, Duane Ballard, Nelson Kanno, Josh Mills, Lock Baker, and Yoshi Kosaka.

 

Godspeed 45/60 is completely independently photographed, designed, and published. Hard bound and hard core. This book rocks. Great gift. Buy it.

 

Later,