Once the preferred crash pad of the legendary rocker, the infamous Jim Morrison Hotel Room is an otherworldly visual experience, and a must-see for all fans of the Doors frontman.
Our journey begins on the second floor of the decrepit Alta Cienega hotel, which is known for its "we haven't upgraded this place since 1973, and don't give a fucckkkkk!" attitude. But that's ok, we didn't come here for mints under our pillows, decent service or fair guest parking (that'll cost ya $8 extra!) we came to soak in the aura of room #32, and boy does it deliver in the holy shit department.
So bright, so shiny, so colorful, so lizard kingy.
A first glance is guaranteed to hurt the eyeballs and make the brain melt away a bit. I liken the feeling to a digital camera trying to focus on a million multicolored dots as the sun begins to slowly go down; you simply don't know what to look at first and none of it really processes properly until you stop, gain composure and breathe for a minute.
As you begin to frantically dart around the room, jaw firmly planted on floor, you try to make sense of all of this madness. How? Who? What? WTF is that! Oh never mind...these are Jim Morrison fans I'm dealing with here. I get it now. All logic gets tossed out the window like an evil henchman in a Steven Seagal movie.
But seriously, this is truly one of the most photogenic places I've ever visited, so grab a camera (but don't tell the hotel managers, they forbid such ungodly behavior) and snap away. It's practically impossible to take a vanilla picture anywhere in this place, so even the most amateur photographer will end up looking like Annie Leibovitz when the night is over.
And as you guessed, there are plenty of Doors references, quotes, self portraits and song lyrics to gawk at. Not a fan of the music? No problem! 5 minutes in this room will turn you into a quote machine, no matter how obscure the reference is.
And as you've noticed, everything is tagged up in these parts, and I mean EVERYTHING. The shower, sink, lights, tables, TV, bed posts and insides of drawers have all fallen victim to the mighty sharpie. Even the air conditioner is in on the anarchy.
Plus, you've got these inspirational messages scrawled across the ceiling.
Happy fucking everyone! Just don't think about what these sheets have been through over the years...
But for some reason, the toilet sports nothing in the guerrilla art department. She remains calm, confident and unscathed.
Maybe Jim coveted the room's porcelain goddesses? or does his ghost (or the hotel maid?) diligently clean it up after every guest? Either way, this sparkly toilet, amongst the room's extreme chaos, will always remain a bigger mystery than that ham sandwich theory.
The room is also a bit on the musty side, but what did you expect from the man who once wore the same pair of leather pants for nearly two years straight? This is Jim's world we've entered, so suck it up and play by his dirty rules.
So is the room actually haunted by any actual ghosts? If so, I'd say it's more the spirit of Scrooge McDuck than that of Mr. Morrison, as suckers like me will continue to rent this thing out for $158 a night. You can also get a 5 minute glimpse of the room for the low, low price of $20! But you can't take photos! or buy a key chain for $10! And they said grifting went out of style in the 1980s!
Personally I think this whole scheme is brilliant. You take a really crappy motel room and allow guests to do all the grunt work for you. You'll never need to paint this thing, maintain it, market it (just search 'Morrison hotel room' on google) or even take care of it, we "artists" will do all of the work for you and the "vintage" quality makes it charming. The Alta Cienega should be pouring one out for Morri$on every night and thanking their lucky stars that he decided to make this his temporary home in 1960s.
But this room definitely delivers and is not to be missed by even the most casual fan. Somewhere up in the heavens above, Old Jim is lounging in his bathtub-- drunk off his ass-- and enjoying all of this, so stop by and then head to the Jim Morrison Cave for some more Doors action.
