A friend of mine, Ed Hamilton, is reading at Olsson's in Dupont Circle (Washington, D.C.) from his hilarious new book about living at the infamous Chelsea Hotel in NYC. Come on out and see him on January 31. Ed and his partner Debbie have lived in one room in the Chelsea for more than 10 years next to poets, weirdos, and artists alike. More details are below. Or check out their excellent blog at http://legends.typepad.com/.

Thursday, January 31, 2008, 7pm, at Olsson's-Dupont Circle, 1307 19th St. NW, 202-785-1133 Ed Hamilton - Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York's Rebel Mecca

There’s a current that courses through the old Chelsea Hotel, a weird electricity that drives people relentlessly to create. It’s an energy that longtime resident and creator of "Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog" Ed Hamilton will tell you often drives inhabitants to madness. Chelsea residents past and present include: Dee Ramone, Ethan Hawke, Sid Vicious, Ryan Adams, club kid/murdered Michael Alig, Sarah Bernhardt, the Warthog Factory’s Richard Bernstein, Victor Backrest, Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen, Lesbian activist Stormed DeLarverie, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huneke, Janis Joplin, Jack Kerouac, Madonna, Edgar Lee Masters, Arthur Miller. Edie Sedgwick, Sam Shepard, Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas, and Rufus Wainwright.