Some people use high-performance cars as a reward, a status symbol that they give themselves when they’ve ascended another rung in their chosen profession. However, they often neglect to consider the high-performance aspect of their purchases, and a Google search will yield images and video clips of novice drivers spinning out (or worse) in their six-figure speed machines. Many have the romantic notion that driving fast requires only three things: a powerful car, reckless abandon and a dollop of God-given talent. But the truth is, that combo is a sure recipe for disaster (and natural-born drivers only exist in movies). If you’re laying out serious cash for a precision automobile, you should consider investing in bringing your behind-the-wheel skills up to speed as well. While driving schools may seem like an expensive indulgence—averaging around $1,000 a day—they could save your life. And, at the very least, they’re a bargain compared to what you might otherwise spend on speeding tickets and on lawyer’s fees, trying to get those points back on your license.

You can find countless driving schools around the U.S., offering a variety of styles and levels from basic safety and accident avoidance to full-on advanced racing technique. There’s no one definitive course, and there’s no such thing as too much instruction. While only a handful of cardinal rules exist, some of which you learned in driver’s ed class (e.g., “where you look is where you go” and “turn into a skid”), they can take a lifetime to perfect. And if you can’t apply them at high speeds and in stressful situations, they’re just more useless information lodged in your brain. The key? It’s all about practice. There’s a well-documented correlation between relaxation and reaction time: The more comfortable and tuned-in you are behind the wheel, the quicker you’ll process and react.

A quick 90-minute drive from downtown Los Angeles, Danny McKeever’s Fast Lane Racing School at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California, is one of the most highly regarded schools in the United States. Founder McKeever has been teaching people to drive fast since 1967, and, as the official instructor for Toyota’s annual Long Beach Pro-Am for the past 28 years, has taught scores of celebrities (Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, Patrick Dempsey, George Lucas, Adrien Brody, Keanu Reeves, Ashley Judd and William Shatner) how to push themselves to the upper limits. Beyond the Hollywood name-dropping, a more telling anecdote about McKeever’s expertise may be this: When it came time for Indy 500 winner and American racing legend Parnelli Jones to send his wife, Judy, and sons, Page and PJ, to race school, he enrolled them in Danny’s class.

Fast Lane offers three levels of classes: a get-your-feet-wet half-day course, a full-day introductory course with plenty of track time, and a three-day intensive SCCA accredited program that counts towards getting your amateur racing license. Even the half-day class can be a good primer for someone who’s bought his dream car but has no idea how to drive it. Students take the course in a supercharged Scion TC from the school, but they also, in one of Fast Lane’s best features, have the option of using their own car. Nearly half of attendees bring their own high-performance autos, getting the chance to explore the limits of their vehicles under the watchful eye of experienced instructors in a controlled environment.

The day starts with Danny holding a weathered Lotus 18 steering wheel and standing in front of a dusty chalkboard. During a short classroom session, he introduces some of the fundamentals of track driving, such as the ideal hand position on the steering wheel, locating the apex of a turn, and identifying braking points. Even this brief introduction contains a deluge of terms and concepts that could use immediate reinforcement, and thankfully, we soon head out to the track to bring this material to life. For the rest of the day, the “Streets of Willow” track (the little brother to the legendarily fast “Big Willow” track) will be our classroom.

We grab helmets, tighten ourselves into the five-point harnesses in Danny’s Scion TC, and roll off the pit lane. After one lap behind an instructor, the green flag drops and we are given room to explore. It’s a little daunting, like being thrown into the deep end on the first day of swimming lessons. You feel like you’re off on your own, but make a mistake and you’ll quickly find out how closely Danny’s instructors have been watching. The teachers are a group of seasoned drivers who don’t need to sit on your lap to know what you’re doing. With their eyes closed and from hundreds of yards away, they can identify a bad shift or a late brake, just by hearing the sound of the engine, and they’ll immediately step in to identify and correct any missteps.

It’s this mix of freedom and expert guidance that makes Fast Lane special. While some schools use a paint-by-numbers approach that’s about connecting the dots (with orange traffic cones strategically placed around the track) into the correct driving line, Danny creates drivers who are able to start to see the line for themselves after some stumbling. Driving fast has always been associated with rebellion, and this school recognizes that imposing a set of rules on individuals prone to rebel is the best way to get them not to learn.

More empirical types may find Fast Lane’s style a bit too loose, but for someone like me, who’s always been averse to rigid structure and was educated at a conceptual art school that didn’t give out letter grades, it’s the ideal environment. It’s a method that fosters a sense of self-reliance and adaptability, builds trust between student and teacher and unites them in a long-term goal: to learn how driving lines change with speed and track conditions. You want to get better, not because an instructor’s yelling in your ear but because finding the right line and thus going faster around the track is just plain addictive fun. You find there’s always have room to improve, and it’s not about going as fast as possible. As Danny says, “Sometimes you don’t have to come in first place to win; winning can be accomplishing something that you never thought you could do.”

Now that we’re sufficiently hooked and tires are screeching but before exhaustion and growing hubris pose a danger to ourselves, we’re led around the track for a cool-down lap and return inside. The bug has bit some students who are wide-eyed and eager to scarf down lunch and head back out, while one student has found this isn’t for him and he’s better suited for the middle lane—all the better to discover this here than out on the road. Those who remain enjoy a box lunch and delve deeper into the art of driving as Danny, back in front of the chalkboard, reviews a few of the morning’s concepts and introduces a few more.

As we file out for the afternoon session, most students head back to the track but groups of three at a time are directed to meet Danny at the skid-pad (a flat asphalt slab that, as its name indicates, is for skidding). After a water truck thoroughly soaks down the blacktop, we hop into a tiny compact with a 4-cylinder engine that’s only slightly more powerful than a lawnmower and Danny proceeds to demonstrate both forward and reverse 180’s. In this tiny clown car, what makes Danny McKeever a special instructor becomes obvious. As he pirouettes this little box from 30mph in reverse to a full 180 degree turn, he proves unequivocally that driving well isn’t relegated to the six-figure super-tuned speed machines. At the same time, he also has a giant grin on his face, like it’s the first time he’s ever done it. Danny is obviously one of the lucky few who still has a blast every day at work even after nearly half a century. As he’ll tell you, “I started teaching in 1967 but I didn’t get paid for it till 1987,” and it’s completely believable that if the checks stopped coming, he’d still keep showing up. Les Unger, a Toyota national motorsports manager who’s worked with McKeever for the past 28 years, says, “Danny’s low-key personality, knowledge and sense of humor enable him to form an individual bond with each racer. He’s a highly trained professional who exhibits integrity and class.”

Finally, the two California Highway patrol officers whom I’ve been grouped with (who are here to fulfill part of their high-performance driving education requirement) and I get behind the wheel. While learning how to do a 180 can seem like fooling around, it’s also a maneuver that could be a life-saving way to right yourself out of a spin. When it’s my turn, I’m urged by Danny to go faster and in reverse. Trusting that his instruction will hold up, I hit the point to jerk the wheel to lose tire adhesion and initiate the weight transfer to spin the car around. Before I know it—and with some help from Danny to right my hand position and to quickly shift into neutral—the car comes to a halt and we’re facing the opposite direction from where we started. Half-dazed and surprised that it worked, Danny, the police officers and I all start laughing. I want them to wet down the blacktop again—I could do this all day. It’s the kind of maneuver that I’d usually look over my shoulder for CHIPS officers before attempting, not high-five them after completing. It’s classic McKeever, an invaluable lesson disguised as 100 percent fun. Are there more advanced and technical classes out there? Of course. More formal instruction with a nicer logo and a gift shop? Sure. More fun? I doubt it.

By the end of the day, I’m probably a few seconds faster around the track. More importantly, I’m much more confident and relaxed, counting the days till my next track session. As the day winds down and we talk in the parking lot, the sound of vintage Shelby Cobras and Porsche 911s driven by more experienced drivers at top speeds on the Big Willow track echoes in the distance. Over Danny’s shoulder, a thick cloud of dust spontaneously belches up from the horizon as one of the classic roadsters veers off track at Big Willow’s infamous descending radius Turn 9. As the cloud is taken up by the Santa Ana winds and dissolves into a perfectly cliched bronze Southern California sunset, Danny turns and smiles. Knowing that the driver’s slip wasn’t a serious accident, just a little overzealous off-roading, he wryly utters the age-old racing quip: “Someone just ran out of talent.”

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“The Arrangement,” E!’s newest scripted show, is the delicious peak-behind-the-curtain we’ve all been waiting for. Set in present day, the show follows Megan Morrison (Christine Evangelista), a young, up-and-coming actress who’s offered the career boost of a lifetime: an arranged marriage with Hollywood’s number one heartthrob. If you immediately thought back to TomKat (RIP), the seemingly orchestrated pairing that rocked the early 2000’s, you’re not the first skeptic to entertain that connection.

Lexa Doig, a Hollywood veteran who plays the wife and business partner of a conniving Hollywood producer on the show, is no exception—she admits to asking herself the same burning questions about Tinseltown as the rest of us. “I’ve been doing this for 25-years, but I’ve done it [while living] in Canada,” Doig explained. “A lot of these things are urban myth to me as well, being somewhat removed from Los Angeles; it’s all conjecture and rumor.”

Doig lives in Vancouver with her husband Michael Shanks (who is also an actor) and their two children, and life in Canada is essentially a pleasant escape from the “company town” of L.A. For Doig, publicity stunts aren’t a typical occurrence, and her circle of friends expands past people in the entertainment industry. Although as conjecture has it, it seems these things actually do happen in real life. “There’s one point where a stealth marketing campaign is revealed to Megan. I don’t know for sure, but I’ve heard it from multiple people [in L.A.] like ‘Oh yeah, that happens all the time,’” she said.

On the show, Doig’s character is Deann Anderson, and her on-screen husband is a key player in the “stealth marketing campaign” viewers will eventually see unfold. “When I first read the script, one of the things I did like [about Deann] was this monologue she had at the end of the pilot where she’s explaining what it takes to make it in Hollywood; it was really funny,” Doig said. “I thought ‘Wow, people actually talk like that!’ And they really do. [Writer/creator] Jonathan Abrahams told me he was given that exact speech once.”

Taking on Deann is definitely new territory for Doig. Her other job is playing Talia Al Ghul—the daughter of the super villain Ra’s al Ghul and love interest to Batman—on the CW’s Marvel sensation “Arrow.” The most trying difference between the two roles? “The accent,” Doig quickly concluded. “Honestly that’s the toughest one for me! I did an English television series and thought since I’d lived there, I’d be able to nail this English accent without a ton of work.”

Main Image: JSquared Photography

“One day there was a huge thunderstorm as I happened to be crossing 23rd Street at 7th Avenue,” said biographer Sherill Tippins at a recent book signing at the Strand. “I was jumping over a large puddle and looked up to see the Chelsea Hotel, storm clouds roiling overhead, when suddenly a huge bolt of lightning crashed over the hotel! After that I thought, how could I possibly ignore this omen? The Chelsea Hotel is ordering me to do its bidding.”

With its ironed gables, peaked roofs, and red brick chimneys, the beautiful West 23rd Street behemoth has housed some of history’s most famed writers, poets, musicians and artists. And though the once decadent building has become dusty and dilapidated over the decades, passion for the Chelsea Hotel still lives on.

It picks up with the book that resulted from Tippins’ encounter, Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Hotel. Filled with fascinating stories about the hotel’s residents, including Thomas Wolfe, Arthur Miller, William S. Burroughs, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Janis Joplin among many more, the novel depicts the building’s far-reaching influence on the art, plays, films, books, music. In short, the Chelsea Hotel changed New York City culture as a whole.

Originally meant to be a utopian community based on the writings of philosopher Charles Fourier (he believed that the ideal “phalanx” consisted of many different types of people coexisting together regardless of wealth, social status or occupation), “architect Philip Hubert tried to make the Chelsea an experiment in the city, creating a shell within which every possible type of New Yorker would be forced to interact with the others,” Tippins tells DuJour.

Though it would be a stretch to call the Chelsea Hotel a “utopia” by any means, the philosophy behind the structure did echo through the decades as New Yorkers of all ages, professions and backgrounds continued to call it their home. Now, the hotel is experiencing a period of change—once longtime manager Stanley Bard was ousted from the board in 2007 and the hotel was sold outright in 2011. But the 80-some residents who live there—and Tippins herself—remain hopeful. “I refuse to be pessimistic about the current state of the hotel,” she says. “I feel that no matter what, the Chelsea survives.”

With the future of the hotel hanging in the balance, her book is just as timely as it is endlessly fascinating. Below, 10 of our favorite moments in Chelsea Hotel history.

1. Though Nancy Spungen’s notorious murder remains the most well-known mystery that stemmed from the Chelsea Hotel, countless others also lost their lives within the walls. Among the victims: society lady Almyra Wilcox, found dead of an overdose next to a half-written love letter; artist Frank Kavecky, who committed suicide after being robbed of funds for the Hungarian Sick and Benevolent Society; Etelka Graf, who severed her left hand before leaping to her death from the fifth floor window; and rock photographer Billy Maynard, beaten to death in his eighth-floor room.

2. Art enthusiast Peggy Guggenheim once arranged a luncheon to introduce the then-unknown Jackson Pollock to a dining room full of wealthy art collectors, where the artist proceeded to get incredibly drunk and got sick on the floor. Peggy’s sister, Hazel McKinley, famously suggested that the hotel staff cut out and preserve the square piece of carpet, claiming it would someday be worth millions.

3. The rooms—and animals—in the Chelsea hotel were as eccentric as the inhabitants themselves. Composer George Kleinsinger imported twelve-foot trees from Madagascar and Borneo to transform his studio into an actual jungle, complete with exotic birds, a monkey and an eight-foot-long snake. Dancer Katharine Dunham routinely held dance rehearsals in her studio, and once brought two full-grown lions up in the elevator to make her Aida rehearsal “more real.” She was shortly thereafter kicked out of the hotel.

4. Along with bringing modern art to America with the 1913 Armory Show, artist Arthur B. Davies lived a scandalous existence in New York City. Juggling two different wives unaware of the other’s presence, Arthur B. Davies rented a room at the Chelsea Hotel where he could keep his young mistress. The teenager would sing opera while modeling for the artist, according to lore. Davies’ extensive art collection, and his knack for inspiring wealthy art enthusiasts to collect modern art, would later lead to the creation of the Museum of Modern Art.

5. Arthur Miller’s entire affair with Marilyn Monroe was deeply connected to the Hotel Chelsea. While trying to decide whether to start an affair with the superstar, he visited a drunken Dylan Thomas at the hotel—his affair began with in the next few days. Following their messy divorce, Miller returned to the Chelsea to recover from the fallout. Monroe committed suicide while he was living in a permanent suite at the hotel, and the playwright went on to write After the Fall. The main character of Maggie is widely believed to be based on Marilyn Monroe, although Miller claimed he didn’t intend that at the time.

6. Beat Generation characters like William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg were regular guests at the Chelsea Hotel, often gathering to discuss new literary ideas. After a night spent drinking heavily together, writers Jack Kerouac and Gore Vidal had a one-night affair in the Chelsea Hotel. “Lust to one site, we owed it to literary history to couple,” Gore Vidal would later write of the evening. Both writers encouraged the night clerk to preserve the registry, where each signed their real names, claiming they’d be famous someday.

7. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was largely written at the Chelsea Hotel, and scenes from the movie were directly influenced by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin’s “Dream Machine.” The kaleidoscopic tube used light to correspond with the brain’s alpha waves to mimic the hallucinatory effects of doing acid, opening up the mind to new ideas without needing to actually take drugs. Kubrick intended to hypnotize the audience in the exact same way, through the use of spinning, dancing, psychedelic shapes that appear in astronaut David Bowman’s journey through space.

8. Inspired by the diverse rotary of residents and visitors in the building, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey thought the Chelsea Hotel would be the perfect location for a film shoot—but were kicked out of the hotel before they even finished shooting. When a switchboard operator was unable to tell that Brigid Bernard’s performance as a drug dealer making connections over the phone was actually an act, the police arrived and demanded that Warhol’s crew leave the hotel. Luckily, the directors had already filmed enough footage for a six-and-a-half hour film which was later split in two and played side by side, audio rotating between the two. Chelsea Girls was screened directly in the hotel, and later became the first underground film to be run in an actual art theater.

9. One night when returning to his Chelsea Hotel room, Leonard Cohen noticed that Janis Joplin was riding in the elevator with him. Curious, Cohen asked her who she was there to see. When she said she was looking for Kris Kristofferson, Cohen swiftly replied, “Little lady, you’re in luck—I am Kris Kristofferson.” Joplin cackled in response and the two returned together to Cohen’s suite, their night later recalled in his song “Chelsea Hotel No. 2.”

10. Drug use was so rampant in the hotel that the first floor was designated the “junkie floor,” where hotel staff could better keep an eye on some of their more questionable guests. Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious were among those moved downstairs after a hotel clerk found them wandering their room in a druggy haze, completely oblivious to the fact that their mattress had caught fire from a lit cigarette. Unfortunately for the tragically fated duo, their move to the first floor couldn’t stop the tragic events that left Nancy Spungen dead from a knife wound in her Chelsea Hotel bathroom and Sid Vicious dead from an overdose weeks later, in possibly the greatest unsolved mysteries that the Chelsea Hotel has ever seen.