Date: November 24th, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving from The Beat Museum!

1). Happy Thanksgiving!
2). Thanks for Supporting The Beat Museum - now we’re here to help you!
3). Your Credit Card Information is Safe with Us.
4). Don “Ed” Hardy Event on December 13th!
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1). HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
This has been a difficult year for many. Through it all the growth of The Beat Museum, our physical space as well as our exhibition areas, has been solid. In fact, despite our most recent appeal for financial assistance, and thanks to the strong support of many people, The Beat Museum is moving into a very bright future! We have a lot to be thankful for:

We’ve been growing into our current location for over three years now.
Community support, here in San Francisco and from the Beat Community around the world, has been tremendous from the day we opened.
Physical improvements to The Beat Museum have continued steadily, so much so that the museum is very close to looking the way I’ve always dreamed it might one day look.
Our volunteers have donated hundreds of hours to help us get to where we are.
* While the depth and effectiveness of our own Beat Community grows we continue to operate in a lovingly lean way with regards to staffing.

There is so much for us to be grateful for here at The Beat Museum as we’re ready to begin our fourth year in San Francisco. The vision that we had when we began has evolved in a magnificent way to the point where we have literally influenced the lives of tens of thousands of people who have come through our doors.

Many other organizations depend on public funding or contributions from foundations or other institutions. At The Beat Museum we have always been self-sustaining through the sales in our gift shop and shipping books and other items purchased through our website. And it’s through the very generous support of so many of you and others like you around the world that has made this possible.

Thank you for helping us to keep this dream alive.

And Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone you love.
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2). THANKS FOR SUPPORTING THE BEAT MUSEUM. NOW WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU!
A few weeks ago we asked for the financial support of the people on our email list to help us make it through a difficult economic time. I am very pleased to report that many of you responded very generously and for that we thank you. Just in the last week we’ve received dozens of orders at Kerouac.com and numerous tax deductible donations at FFCE.org. All of this helps us to become more financially stable every day. We are very grateful that so many of you from all around the globe were able to assist us at this time of need.

IF YOU WERE UNABLE TO LEND YOUR SUPPORT EARLIER IN THE MONTH AND ARE NOW SO INCLINED, WE’D ASK (ONLY IF YOU’RE IN A POSITION TO HELP) THAT YOU CONSIDER CHIPPING IN AT THIS TIME.

AND PLEASE NOTE: we’re not asking for your rent or baby food money! If you’re having a tough time right now we completely understand. But if you’re still spending money on things you should NOT be spending it on, then please consider sending some of it our way.

Because we don't your milk money or your rent money. We’re asking for your BEER and HOOKER money! That’s right! The Beat Museum wants to help you save your marriage or relationship by encouraging you to send all your beer and hooker money OUR way!

So, there’s still time to help us out. Go to FFCE.org and make a tax deductible donation. Go to Kerouac.com and buy lots of stuff. We promise we won’t tell anyone you gave up one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins to help us out!

Yes, Jerry! Please help me save my marriage by keeping me away from hookers and booze.
I want to make a tax deductible donation to the FFCE.
http://ffce.org/donate.html

I want to buy cool stuff at Kerouac.com
http://www.kerouac.com/homepage.htm

The Beat Museum We’re here to help!
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3). YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION IS SAFE WITH US!
On a serious note, you may have heard some recent news reports about problems with various internet websites that accept credit cards as payments from their customers. In some cases customer information was compromised and used in a fraudulent fashion.

We want you to be aware your credit card information is safe with us regarding any purchases you’ve made in the past or will make with Kerouac.com. We have been accepting Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express online for fifteen years (since we began Kerouac.com in 1995). In that entire time we have never had even one customer’s credit card information compromised.

We wanted you to be aware of our long history with secure ordering via the internet so you can have 100% confidence when you place an order with Kerouac.com. We value your trust as much as we value your business.
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4). DON “ED” HARDY ART EXHIBITION AND BOOK SIGNING IN DECEMBER!
We normally don’t do events in December but this one is just too good to pass up! Back in February we met the famous tattoo artist Ed Hardy when he came to an event at The Beat Museum celebrating William S. Burroughs’ 95th birthday.

It turns out Ed Hardy, a protege of Sailor Jerry Collins, is a huge Beat fan! In fact he told me how he first read “Howl” and “On The Road” and “Bomb” back in the fifties when he was like 14 years old. Ed first came to San Francisco not long after that in the early sixties because of City Lights and all the Beat activity associated with the city. His tattoo shop is located just a few blocks away in North Beach. This is in addition to the 75 “Ed Hardy” retail stores that bear his name around the world! The guy is a walking Brand (he even has his own perfume!) and he’s the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet.

We recently ran into Ed at a publication party for his most recent book “Beyond Skin”, a beautiful 240 page coffeetable extravaganza featuring gorgeous full page images. We discussed the possibility of a signing and an exhibition relating his art to The Beat Generation and we’ve set the date for Sunday, December 13th at 7:00 pm at The Beat Museum.

Even if you can’t make the event you can purchase signed copies of Ed’s books on our website. Please note: given the proximity of the event to Christmas Day and the vagaries of the shipping business we can not promise delivery before the Holiday. We’ll do our best, but we make no guarantees. If you order early, however, and if Ed’s in town and can sign some books prior to the event, we’ll ship them on a first come first served basis. So if you do want one or more of Ed’s books signed and can live with the fact it may or may not show up before Christmas, order now.

Don Ed Hardy Event Announcement:
http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/events.htm

Artist Statement:
http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/edhardy-statement.html

Pre-Order Signed Books:
http://www.kerouac.com/cgi-local/cart.pl?db=edhardy.txt

So, mark the date: Don Ed Hardy at The Beat Museum, Sunday, December 13th at 7 PM. Be there!
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Thanks for supporting The Beat Museum!

Jerry Cimino






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