i cant say that we are gearing up for the summers dates cause Debbie is out on the road and everyone else is here and there doing this and that but we are coming in the meantime i see that the Chelsea Hotel is about to be thrown to the proverbial dogs along with the rest of NYC, that is Stanley Bard the long long time manager is being ousted in what is likely an attempt to ‘update’ the hotel… this is really gruesome, for a lot of people the Chelsea was even more of an iconic landmark than CBs and to see it go the route of boutique hotels is a genuine loss… a few months ago Stanley old me he was being pressured to compete with these same boutique style places and he was concerned about not being able to give breaks to people in the arts… we at least have Dee Dee Ramones great funny book “Chelsea Horror Hotel” which should be on everyones list in the same vein i just saw an article in the NY Times about pastry chefs… in the accompanying photo we see a fellow with sleeve tattoos dressed all in rock style black clothes with the caption being something about pastry chefs now being tough customers etc… somehow i think that this thesis is presented backwards that the actuality is that everyone who is covered with tattoos and wears black rock and roll gear is not necessarily tough at all or that they are indeed as tough as a pastry chef… now least i get letters from cooks my point is just that we are firmly implanted in the midst of this cultural question… recently too i saw one of the local magazines (new your time out i think) with a whole episode (issue) devoted to the ‘death of hip’ idea… for the last fifteen years people i know have been musing over this idea; that is if EVERYONE is hip isn’t that the same as no-one… we have the trappings of hip rock and roll culture co-opted by the very-same commercial entities that 30 years ago were bent on keeping these styles far away from the mainstream… this stuff has become such a spin cycle… that elements of style and dress are so confused, maybe more so today than ever before there is no ‘in’ or ‘out’ any more… the really hip kids wear stuff that reminds me of clothing one would lose in the woods after getting from their grandmothers on Xmas. its perplexing that anyone would think hideous plaid button down collar sport shirts were ‘cool’ but i suppose its all about context so no i dont have anything to report, kids are great, today i think we actually saw an eagle but that was here in “the country” a few months ag we did see a hawk eating a pigeon in the middle of Thopmkins square downtown, he (the hawk) had a big crowd watching him…