The Beat Generation

Ned Buskirk says, “I thought you could help spread the word for this guy and help corral some support for the good work he’s doing in the Beat world.”

Here I go – begging for money. Please help in any way you can.

Folks – three years ago The Beat Museum opened its doors at the beginning of probably the worst economic time in most of our lives. We’ve been able to hang on by our fingernails – barely.  And I’ll admit to you it has not been easy.  In fact, truth be told, there have been a few occasions when money was so tight I came very close to simply shutting the doors and walking away.

And frankly, the reason I haven’t done it is because every other day it seems I have someone say to me – “Thank you for doing this.  Thank you for keeping this spirit alive.” And I’ll admit that kind of feedback buoys me. But it doesn’t pay any of  the many overdue bills and it doesn’t keep our creditors from calling demanding payment.

So, I’m turning to you – the core group of people who have helped make The Beat Museum possible from the very beginning. I’m asking for your immediate financial assistance to help us get through the next few months until the tourists start to return to San Francisco in the Spring.

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Strange Cargo approached me with a proposition: promote their t-shirts on this blog. They said that they’d mention this website on their Twitter, and that’s enough compensation as far as I’m concerned.

Strange Cargo offers several Beat and Beat-inspired logos on about seven colors of shirt. Included are Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson and Charles Bukowski. The designs chosen are iconic representations of each figure, but am I the only one who thinks the Burroughs needs to be scaled up a bit?

As an added bonus, the entrepreneurs at Strange Cargo have been nice enough to create a unique coupon code for readers of this blog. From now until February 21, 2010 you can save 20% when you enter the code “beatgen0809″ at checkout.

Thanks for reading.