The Chelsea Hotel Party

Do you ever have one of those nights whose very existence is so special that you are are stunned and that you know you will remember for the rest of your life? Friday evening was one such night for me.

With the help of our dear friend Musa Gurnis (wondrous smile), the eternally generous Sparkle Hayter (working on her computer pre-fete) organized a party for me at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street. Not much hasn’t been said about the Chelsea. Sparkle lived there for many years and one of her Robin Hudson books (The Chelsea Girl Murders) is set in the hotel. For the party, Sparkle rented a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on the 8th floor that has been lived in by the likes of Viva and Ethan Hawke. There were flowers and lovely spreads of food and more varieties of liquour than I have fingers and toes. But most important were the people.

Dozens of Sparkle’s old New York friends came (that's her with Victor Navasky), as well as a swath of our Paris friends, all of the people from The L Magazine, and Musa’s New York circle too. Every last one of them was engaging and eccentric and a joy to be around. The party went until 4 and though there were many moments of high excitement and melodrama, there was only one really scandalous event which must remain anonymous for the next several years at least, though I do tip my hat to Musa’s friend Joshua who deftly resolved a delicate situation.