Hello from Sunset Park, where you truly can just Park anywhere, there are still those coin-operated unicorns in front of shops, and bakeries are 24/7. It feels like the NYC I pretend to miss.
Somehow we met, I gave you a strange URL, you gave me an email, here we are. This is Geistlist. I am Jacob Ford. Unsubscribe at the bottom.
That thing I asked you to save the date for last time is also toward the bottom: it’s a little party in a little bookshop on Saturday, November 1 in the East Village where you can buy a book I designed for a website I loved.
¶. Now: Ballistic Interests: Knurling, Elastics, Kevlar Implements Lunch & Learn
East of the Buttermilk Channel, listen for the noise and smell for fire
Rescheduled from the usual Saturday before Halloween due to influencer activity.
¶. Tomorrow 12–4pm: explore Cass Gilbert’s most boring building
Brooklyn Army Terminal, Sunset Park, NYC, free
It was built so fast he didn’t have any time to cover it in gargoyles or a secret ceiling basketball court¹, but it is incomprehensibly large with a train in the middle. Tomorrow, you can roam the 4 million square foot thing (plus the brand new Bush Terminal) and if you get lost it’s my job to rescue you.
¶. Sunday 7pm: remember Humans of New York?
Grand Central, Midtown, NYC, free
Colin Huggins, the grand piano player of Washington Square Park (and more recently Tompkins) will be playing the closing ceremony. Colin could also really use some cash right now, if you can spare a Venmo balance to @everythingwillbeok. Colin and I used to be window-facing neighbors.
¶. Monday October 27 7pm: Open VCR Night
Wonderville, Bushwick, NYC, free
Managed to snag Virtues of Negative Fascination via Survival Research Laboratory’s move. Bring something scarier.
¶. Unfortunately the same time: investigative corporate shoegaze twang
Nightclub 101, East Village, NYC, $24ish
Turns out you can still get discovered by NPR music writers. Read Adlan Jackson, then come hear him. But do reveal one alter to his other.
¶. Saturday, November 1 7pm: The Awl: The Book: A Party
Village Works, East Village, NYC, free or buy a book
An informal belated launch party for the book I designed for my favorite dead website, and also a general hangout for readers and writers of Flaming Hydra, all at the new old bookstore on my block. Please do RSVP, and consider a book preorder. I know they’re pricey, but I did manage to get them printed and bound in Minneapolis which I think is worthwhile.
¶. Unfortunately the same time: one-woman loop pedal vocal Scottish folk horror story hour
South Oxford Space, Downtown Brooklyn, NYC, $29ish
With fog.
∞. I was in Publishers Weekly
My sister Emma said I need to get new headshots.
¹ A funny fact about the Supreme Basketball Court is that, since it is wedged within the slanted roof, it disadvantages clean shooters because the typically ideal arc will bounce down. I could not confirm if that remains in-bounds.