My son just left me at a coffee shop at the corner of 8th Ave. and W. 19th Street in New York City. I am amazed that he can find his way back to the NYU dorm that he is staying in. The only way that I can find my way around New York City, so far, is to hail a cab or tag along with someone I know who knows their way around, like Dale W. Miller.

Dale will be showing up any minute. He's been at a cymbal show, while Graem and I have been spending a chunk of our afternoon trying to hail a cab. It seems that it was easier in past visits to New York to get one of the orange vehicles to pull over, than it has been this time, so far.

We got one cab to pull over and the driver told me that if I didn't have an exact address in the East Village, then he couldn't find his way to the East Village. I was a little surprised at this, but I let him go. Graem said that I should have give him two sets of numbers: avenue and street.

The next cabbie that I hailed wanted to know the exact address of The Chelsea Hotel, which is where I wanted to go. Again, I was surprised. I thought the cabbie was supposed to know the city, and that was one of the advantage for "tourists" of taking cabs. I didn't realize that the cabbie might be dependent on you to tell him exact street numbers within neighborhoods. I guess, take me to Greenwich Village, is not good enough.

I wanted to spend Saturday night at the Chelsea Hotel. It is rich with writer history, and there is at least one "punk rock" incident that has occurred there that has added to the hotel's fame.

When I called, on Wednesday, the person answering the phone, told me that the only room available was a penthouse and it cost $585 for the night. My backer told me to go for it. She said that it would be a rich, once in a lifetime experience. I really wanted to ask if the room where Syd killed Nancy was available. I wonder if that room rents for more than just a regular room. I read somewhere that Burroughs wrote one of his books inside a room at the hotel. On a plack outside the hotel it says something about Dylan Thomas and a few other really famous authors, whose names I can't remember, had stayed there and written there.

(TO BE CONT.)