Hotel Chelsea in Second Life documentary: I am working on it ....

... patience please!

Episode 3 of “The Drax Files: Made in Second Life” will explore the wonderful community around the virtual Hotel Chelsea, situated since 2009 on the mainland.

a fine day on the SL mainland

I have interviewed many residents of the hotel, taped live shows of magnificent performers, I even talked to the original builder, Mykall Skall.

Mykall is sharing the dirt on Chelsea …

I am sitting on 10 + hours of raw interview audio, not even started transcribing yet, and the story keeps growing and growing as I do more research.

Sullie in her 2nd floor apartment

Hotel Chelsea (in the physical realm of Manhattan) was such an important place and the folks who lived there (Leonard Cohen, Arthur C. Clarke, Mark Twain!!) since it opened in 1884 …

Bob Dylan did not bring his elephant no no no but Sullie does

… as well as the folks who facilitated this absolutely unique atmosphere of creative freedom (which is quite often simply a freedom from the necessity of wage slavery!), especially former manager Stanley Bard, are all total legends!

Angelus van Engelen is embracing art and life (and great suits!)

And at least for me the SL Hotel Chelsea is equally important because it is the perfect symbol of many activities that are more essential than ever in these dangerous times:

• appreciating as well as making art, experimenting with art for the sake of it, in a playful way, ignoring impulses (coming from inside our own heads quite often!) to be solely outcome oriented and focused on this “efficiency” thing …

• dedicating time to community, caring for one another, applying mutual aid or adjacent concepts (no need to read Kropotkin to egange here but it is definitely a good book!) …

and finally (a variation of the previous point about community)

• resisting authoritarianism by sharing strategies, places of support, little wins, but also grief, pain and all the rest of it…

I feel like a broken record when I talk about Second Life but the fact of the matter is this digital universe, made and primarily operated by its residents, is one of the last spaces of algo/surveillance-free expression on the internet.

Rutger offered me tea but no shrooms!

News flash: It is mask-off for the tech oligarchs, we are witnessing a quasi coup - in real time - in the “cradle of democracy” (yes, that is the term I was taught in High School in Germany, back in the late 80s, about the US of A!!).

If there is such a thing as justice above the streets … ahhh one can only hope …

But we can still congregate in SL, we can rent a room at the Hotel Chelsea, talk to our neighbors there, go down to La Quixote Lounge for a good show …

a frog values music

… or hang out at the Blue Angel Poet’s Dive round the corner to listen to (and even read aloud) poetry.

Blue Angel !!!

Is this escapism?

Kayly’s water colors = only in SL!

I think not: it is much more a recharging of batteries with the kind of fuel the techno-fascists can never provide and it is something we are doing in the physical realm already: connecting with others and conversing. Solidarity and expressing such. Be it casually on the bus or in the store. With family, friends, colleagues, care givers.

JudyLynn has a gallery near Chelsea but lives in the suburbs. Why? We will find out!

Reflecting, sharing, hoping, getting ready to fight.

Fight for humanity.

We might be home bound but we can still connect and harness this energy.

The vibes at the SL Hotel Chelsea are continuing the tradition of the “real” Hotel Chelsea as the Manhattan landmark regretfully is falling victim to ever-accelerating gentrification.

No gentrification in sight (yet!) on the SL Mainland though ….

No gentrification = devils with wings can still afford the fee to get into the club!

So in closing - before I get back to transcribing interviews: I want to thank the many people involved in the SL version of Chelsea have opened up to me about their passion.

I hope you forgive me that I will take a bit more time than usual to put together the next episode in the series.

Meantime: here is a little piece I made for the official SL YouTube, featuring then owning manager enola vaher - rest in peace - back in 2019 👇

See you in-world …