Hi friends.
Jacob Ford here. We’ve met at some point and I think you’re interesting, and somehow I got your email. That’s how you’re on this secret by-invitation-only email list.
It’s now outgrown the homely BCC field to become an actual bona fide newsletter with a CANSPAM Act-compliant unsubscribe link down there at the bottom. Powered by my friend Justin at Buttondown. But I assure you: this list is still highly exclusive, extremely underground, and very cool.
Right now I’m trying to save a tiny museum.
Not the one in an abandoned elevator shaft. That one’s doing okay. But you can always buy one of the catalogs I designed—we just did a second printing!
I’m trying to save the City Reliquary in Brooklyn, another small museum I’m involved with. Our collection houses seltzer bottles, schist cores, a photographic series documenting a chocolate milk carton that sat undisturbed atop a phone booth for 422 days, and a lightbulb from the Statue of Liberty’s torch that burnt out in 2006.
Last month I encouraged you to buy some challenge coins I designed as a fundraiser.
Talking points:
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The challenge coins finally arrived yesterday, but the coin producers thought my NYC SEWER hand-traced lettering was weird, and they replaced it with Helvetica. I’m seeing if I can get them redone, but maybe you lucky preorderers will get a special miniature numismatic NYC sewer manhole in the Swiss Grid style. We’ll see.
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Things were looking pretty dire back then. We, the board, were discussing plans to close. Now, things are dire with passion. Thanks to a lot of your generous orders and donations, we were able to survive just long enough to boldly re-launch our membership program.
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We need 300 members (or $3,000/month) by November 22 or we’ll have to close the Reliquary. Tell all your friends, tell all your enemies.
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I’m hosting a members-only party in the Reliquary backyard this Wednesday night.
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You have 12 hours to become a member and then RSVP to the party before I promote it to all the current members and it almost certainly sells out.
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This is not a virtual event.
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Beer and hand sanitizer on the house.
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Live music by my new friends Hannah & Paul of The Band Never Loses, who I met at a eulogy in Astoria Park.
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Bring an instrument or a magic trick or your latest poetry chapbook, I dunno. It’ll be a cool group.
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Ignore the $120 ticket price. Become a member first, then return to the event page. The price magically becomes free. If you do buy the $120 ticket, it’s credited toward 12 prepaid months of membership. Either way: it’s up to you.
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If the event is sold out, become a member anyway and I’ll throw you a second party.
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If you don’t live in NYC, I forgive you. But if you become a member anyway to support the Reliquary from afar I will add you to my family Christmas card list.
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You can cancel your membership anytime if you need to—please don’t be embarrassed. Even trying it for a month or two means a lot, and I’m working on future events like this to make membership worthwhile, even during a pandemic.
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Members and their households get in the City Reliquary for free, as often as you’d like to visit. And other benefits. It’s not just this one party.
City Reliquary dot org slash join,
Jacob Ford
Designer About Town