Who: Bob Rosenthal, Ada Calhoun
What: Celebration for the paperback publication of Cleaning Up New York: The ’70s Cult Classic (the Little Bookroom, March 2016, $12.95)
Where: Rizzoli Bookstore, 1133 Broadway at 26th St., 212-759-2424
When: Wednesday, May 18, free, 6:00
Why: “$60. I needed $60 in three weeks’ time. I was out of a job so the idea of doing temporary work just popped into my head. I called a friend who had once done cleaning jobs and he told me to call up Everything for Living Space.” So begins Bob Rosenthal’s 1970s cult classic, Cleaning Up New York, which features the rather lengthy explanation on the front: “In which our hero coffees up with a pill, fortifies himself with some (pocketed) weed, and mops and waxes his way through weird vibes, domestic dramas . . . and seduction.” Rosenthal, who documented his time as Allen Ginsberg’s secretary for the Local East Village blog a few years ago, will be at the Rizzoli Bookstore on May 18 to talk about Cleaning Up New York with Ada Calhoun, the author of St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street (Norton, November 2015, $27.95).