For all of you Beat poets out there looking for something to celebrate, William S. Burroughs’ 92nd birthday is coming up. Yes, he might be dead, but his spirit lives on in a small hotel in Desert Hot Springs, California, where a month-long birthday celebration kicks off on February 4th. Festivities at the InterZone Beat Festival include a Harold Chapman photography exhibition, performances by Husker Du singer/songwriter Grant Hart, slide shows, and various book exhibitions.
The Beat Hotel, just a ten minute drive from Palm Springs, was renovated in 2003 to celebrate the life and work of Burroughs. Each of the eight guestrooms is decorated with photos and artwork by the author, Beat era furniture, and a vintage typewriter. There is also an onsite library featuring various works and first editions of the Beat Generation.
The hotel was based upon the original “Beat Hotel” in Paris, at 9 Rue Git-le-Coeur, where, between 1957-1963 Burroughs, Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac and other Beat artists lived and dabbled. Burroughs wrote most of Naked Lunch there while Ginsburg penned his famous poem, Kaddish. Fans who would rather pilgrimage to the original site can still do so. The Parisian Beat Hotel has been renamed the Relais Hotel du Vieux and still accepts tenants. Don’t go expecting the ramshackled, opium den which so inspired the Beat Generation, however. The hotel has been upscaled with doilies and soft beds that are more apt to inspire The Bridges of Madison County than Howl.