[Photo by Susan Cybulski]
Fortunately, a lot of people really enjoyed themselves quite a bit.
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shadow recap
Posted in Shadow Art Fair 9 Comments
advertising your business for free on mm.com
I want to conduct an experiment and I’m looking for a business owner in either Ypsilnati or Ann Arbor that might be willing to help me.
I’ve been doing this site for about 6 years now, and, other than the Amazon links on the side, I’ve never run an ad for anything that I wasn’t involved in myself. I’m thinking, however, that I might want to try accepting ads for local businesses. And, the first step, at least as I see it, is to see whether or not there’s really any value to be derived for a restaurant or retailer in doing so.
OK, here’s the background… The audience for this site has been growing tremendously this past year, and it looks as though we’re outgrowing the Hamtramck server we’re presently on. So, I’m going to have to move the site to a larger hosting company, and that means more in the way of monthly fees. So, I had this idea… What if I were to do something like run a coupon a month for a local business willing to offer a good deal for MM.com readers? I don’t know what I’d charge — maybe $100 for a month — and, in return, they’d either get a small coupon on the front page, or a link to a coupon at the bottom of every post during that month, saying something like, “This post was brought to you by the 99-dollar Casket Store, where MM.com readers Save in the Grave.”
And, if we take in more than we spend on hosting, I can do things for the site, like buy a new camera, or maybe even build a little studio in the basement with a ‘green screen’ so that I can make movies of myself flying around Ypsilanti on a magic carpet (or magic coffin, if the 99-dollar Casket Store wants to underwrite it).
Anyway, it’s just an idea at this point. I was just thinking that, if I did want to go that route, I should probably first see whether or not you cheap assholes in the audience would ever use coupons, or respond to ads. (I suspect most of my readers live in people’s garages, stealing bandwidth, and eating vermin.) So, I’d be looking for a restaurant owner, bar operator or retailer in the Ypsi-Arbor area willing to 1) make a decent offer to MM.com readers, 2) provide a decent looking web-ready image, and 3) share all the resulting data concerning redemption with me. (Assuming that multiple businesses want to participate, I’ll take the one making the more attractive offer in their coupon.)
Ok, let the “you’re an f’ing sell-out” shit storm begin.
Posted in Marketing 6 Comments
reflecting on the meaning of fame
Clementine used the word “famous” at the dinner table tonight. When I asked her what “famous” meant, she said “happy.” I shot a worried look at Linette, who was seated across the table from me. I was about to say something, when Clementine added the following: “…and that all of your bones come out.”
Seems like a pretty good definition of fame, doesn’t it?
Posted in Mark's Life 13 Comments
can drew barrymore stop feminist punk rock on wheels?
As some of you know, one of the new things that Linette and I had at the Shadow Art Fair was a hand-painted limited edition poster that I made on the subject of Drew Barrymore and the film she’s making here in Ypsi. I sold quite a few of them, which was cool, but, more importantly — and I hadn’t considered this when I thought the idea up – it made a lot of people stop and talk with me about Barrymore and her film who probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Among those who stopped were a few members of the Detroit Derby Girls.
It seems as thought “Whip It!”, the derby-themed movie that Barrymore is shooting here, isn’t so popular with everyone on the roller derby circuit. I suppose some of that could be expected, as producers have selected some Detroit Derby Girls to be a part of the production, and not others, but my sense is that it goes a bit deeper than that. The women I talked with seemed sincere when they said that they felt as though the movie could be “bad” for their sport.
Having read the script, two of these women felt as though the film “could” do contemporary roller derby a disservice. I didn’t press either of them for a lot of detail, but the sense that I got was that roller derby was portrayed in the film as something along the lines of professional wrestling, which, if you’ve gone to see a game recently, couldn’t be further from the truth. I went and saw the Detroit Derby Girls last year, and I was impressed by their athleticism and the seriousness with which they competed. I don’t know what I was expecting going in, but I didn’t think that it would be as — well — legitimate. Sure, the girls had funny names — like Black Eyed Skeez and Honey Suckit – and the refs wore outrageous costumes, but it was, when you stripped everything else away, real. The women were really competing. And, from what I hear, that’s not so much the case in “Whip It,” which presents modern roller derby as more campy. This isn’t an exact quote, but one of the women told me that they were afraid that the movie might set the roller derby movement, which in its current form is all about DIY female empowerment, back 30 years.
And, apparently, the casting choices made by the producers didn’t help erase any fears the derby girls might have had after reading the script. It sounds like the producers didn’t always take the best competitors we had here in Detroit to be a part of the project. They didn’t take, for instance, the athletic, full-figured women who excel at the sport. Instead, they took the smaller, more “attractive” Derby Girls to be on screen.
I think the moral of the story, if there is one, is that it sucks when Hollywood tries to make your sub-culture mass market-friendly. (I’m sure that, one day, there will be a movie about small-town bloggers, and we’ll all be portrayed as attractive, outgoing and whippet-thin.)
I should also mention that, across the board, I’ve only heard wonderful things about Ms. Barrymore. I talked with over half a dozen people on Saturday who had been in contact with her, and they all said that she was “the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being” they’d ever known in their lives… And, I should add, it wasn’t as though the derby girls I spoke with were completely against the project. They acknowledged that it was cool that the project landed here instead of in Austin. They just felt as though it was kind of a mixed blessing in that it had created rifts within their organization, and because it might hurt the public perception of their sport.
Oh, and I also sold one of my mock-hysterical “Keep Drew Barrymore Out of Ypsilanti… Our Salvation Will Not Be Found in Roller Derby” posters to a woman from LA who was in the area, shooting another film. I can’t remember the name of her project, but apparently it’s an indie with a hot up-and-coming female lead, playing an art student at UM. So, keep your eyes peeled — my poster may show up on a dorm room wall.
And, if you haven’t been to see the Detroit Derby Girls in action, I’d suggest taking in a match. (Do they call them matches?) It’s good fun for the whole family… Or, at least Clementine loved it.
Posted in Pop Culture 30 Comments
al gore at the netroots nation conference
I was going to post video of Gore’s appearance on “Meet the Press” this morning, but then I happened across this footage of Gore speaking in Austin, Texas yesterday at the Netroots Nation convention, and I thought that it was quite a bit more interesting and inspiring. Hopefully, you’ll agree.
[If you haven’t yet signed up to be on the mailing list for Gore’s “We Can Solve It” campaign, you can do so here.]
update: It’s probably also worth noting that it was 39 years ago today that Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. They said that couldn’t be done too, but, as it turns out, it was. And, I might add, it was fucking cool.
Posted in Other 4 Comments
