Mark Maynard | 2013 | April

Thanks to all of you who made seed bombs with me yesterday

By Mark | April 27, 2013

I woke up this morning with stiff, frozen claws for hands, after a day filled with mixing clay and rolling out seed bombs. It started over lunch, with an intense seed bomb making session at a local school, and ended along the banks of the Huron, at the kickoff of Totally Awesome Fest. Thanks to the efforts of all those folks who helped out, we now have approximately 350 seed bombs, and I hope to more than double that by the time May Day arrives… Here are a few photos snapped throughout the day, some taken by me, and some taken by folks at Totally Awesome Fest… If you didn’t have a chance to help out, and would like to, let me know. I’m thinking about mixing up a few batches and going down to Water Street to roll them up into balls tomorrow morning.

Those who would like more information about Ypsilanti’s May 1 seed bombing event are encouraged to check out our Facebook page. Also, the audio quality is pretty terrible, due to the gusting winds we experienced a few days ago, but there’s now video on Youtube of native plants expert Jason Tallant and me, shot on Water Street, discussing the project with a school group… And, it’s not required, but, if you’re planning to join us on May Day, and would like to either RSVP, or share the event with your friends, you can do so here.

[note: The photo with the beer can was taken at Totally Awesome Fest, not at the school.]

Posted in Agriculture, Mark's Life, Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged Jason Tallant, native plants, seed bombing, Totally Awesome Fest, Water Street | 2 Comments

Tracking down Patrick Elkins and forcing him to talk about Totally Awesome Fest 9

By Mark | April 25, 2013

Last year, when Patrick Elkins, the densely-bearded, enigmatic recluse behind Ypsilanti’s Totally Awesome Fest, called a press conference to announce the line-up for the annual fertility ritual masquerading as a city-wide music festival, I was the only person to show up. And, as you might recall, it didn’t go well. This year, unsurprisingly, there was no press conference. In fact, aside from a scant mention at AnnArbor.com, there’s been almost no information available to those of us who aren’t in the hipster elite. Patrick, I was told by a mutual acquaintance, had “gone underground,” and was unwilling to speak to anyone, outside his cult-like band of wide-eyed followers, about the event. Well, I decided to hunt him down. And, thanks to a tip from a well-placed source, I was able to find him at the Tap Room last night. What follows is our impromptu interview.

And I know it doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense, given the story I shared above concerning how this interview came about, but here’s a link to a slightly different version of the above interview.

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I’d be bringing seed bomb making materials to the Totally Awesome Fest kickoff event behind VG Kids on Friday evening. So, if you’re one of the people who wrote to me, asking when you could help with the bomb making, there’s your answer. [More on the Ypsilanti seed bombing initiative can be found here, for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about.]

A schedule of Totally Awesome Fest events can be found here.

Posted in Art and Culture, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged Ben Miller, Ben Miller's take-home fashion show, Dan Florida, manicures, Patrick Elkins, seed bombing, Tap Room, thickly-bearded local troubadours, Totally Awesome Corp, Totally Awesome Fest, VG Kids, Water Street, Ypsi festivals | 28 Comments

Water Street work day…

By Mark | April 24, 2013

I’m exhausted, and I need to go to bed, but I wanted to thank the 20 or so people who showed up today, in spite of the snow and freezing rain, to prepare our acre of Water Street for next Wednesday’s big seed bombing. Given how terrible the weather was, I was sure that I’d be working alone. I can’t express to you how happy I was when I looked up and saw other people walking toward me with shovels. There’s still a bit of work to be done this weekend, but I think we’re pretty much set. The spotted knapweed has been dug up, the garbage has been collected, and the target areas have been marked. All that’s left is for the remaining soil (in the marked target areas) to be turned over a bit, so as to better accommodate the seed we’ll be sowing on May Day. (We got most of it done, but there are still a few areas that need roughing up.) If anyone is interested in helping with the final push, I’ll probably be on the site Saturday at some point. You’re free to drop by anytime you like, though, and spend some time turning over soil… Thanks again, everyone, for helping to make this a reality…. And I don’t know if the name will stick, but, in the back of my mind, I’ve begun to refer to this little piece of property as the Iggy Pop “Raw Power” Wild Plant Preserve.

Posted in Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged Iggy Pop Raw Power Wild Plant Preserve, native plants, seed bombing, Water Street, Water Street Redevelopment Project | 9 Comments

STATUS REPORT: The Seed Bombing of Water Street

By Mark | April 22, 2013

We now have almost everything we need to carry out the seed bombing of Water Street on May 1, as you can see from the above photo, which I just snapped in my living room. The seeds arrived today from Native Connections, and, on my way home from work, I purchased 100-pounds of red clay powder from Rovin Ceramics. (I thought that I was going to have to buy the clay online and have it shipped, but I kept searching and finally found Rovin, which is a subsidiary of Motawi Tileworks, through a tip from someone at the Ann Arbor Art Center. Not only were they great people to work with, but we saved quite a bit of money by not having to ship the clay across country. So, we’ll have a little more cash left over than we’d expected, with which we can buy shrubs and the like to augment the plants we’ll be growing from seed.) I also bought a tarp, six dust masks for those individuals who will be mixing the dry clay, and a couple of slingshots, which I thought might be fun to launch seed balls with.

Here’s what we’ve spent thus far.

Clay: $42.40
Seed: $306.92
Dust masks and tarp: $51.82
Slingshots: $33.55
TOTAL: $434.69

And, as of today, we’ve taken in $676.80 from the 27 donors who contributed to our FundRazr campaign. (Thank you so much to all of you. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I launched the campaign, and it was incredibly cool to see us zip past our goal in less than one day.) After the FundRazr and Paypal charges, which were $56.83, that gives us a total of $619.97 to work with.

And, after the charges incurred today, which I outlined above, that leaves us with $185.28.

I’m sure there will be a few more incidental charges here and there, but I expect that we’ll end up spending the bulk of what remains at Wildtype Native Plant Nursery later this spring. (Bill, the owner of Wildtype, has some ideas for shrubs and other plants that might work well with the forbs and grasses we’ll be planting on May Day.)

So, now we need to start focusing on making seed bombs, and preparing the site. I hope to have a little more clarity tomorrow, after I speak with representatives of the two schools that have expressed an interest in being involved, but I’m thinking that we’ll need to set up a few seed bomb making events over the next several days, and at least one site prep day. (My hope is that the students, who are looking for an opportunity for project-based learning, will help not only with the seed bomb making and throwing, but also with the math… marking out our seed bomb target areas, figuring out how many bombs we’ll likely get from 100-pounds of clay, and therefore how much seed to put in each, etc.)

If you’re interested in helping, and haven’t already, please join the Seed Bomb Water Street Facebook group, as that’s how I intend to distribute most of the details from here on out. And, speaking of Facebook, there’s also now an event page for the May 1 seed bombing, in case you’d like to see who else is planning to attend. (As of right now, it’s only me.)

And, one last thing… The seed bomb throwing is just one of a few different things that will be taking place on Water Street come May Day. I don’t have a comprehensive schedule, but I’m told that events will be taking place from noon onward, culminating in a pot luck at 5:00, so, if you’re coming to toss seed bombs, you might also want to bring a dish to pass… I hope to see you there.

Posted in Agriculture, Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged Ann Arbor Art Center, forbs, FundRazr, grasses, May Day, Motawi Tileworks, native plants, Paypal, pot luck, red clay, Rovin Ceramics, seed bombing, Water Street, Wildtype | 6 Comments

I heard someone today say, “We know that he did it. We’ve seen the video. We don’t need a trial.”

By Mark | April 21, 2013

I should preface what I’m about to say by noting that I’m not a conspiracy theorist… at least when it comes to last week’s bombing in Boston. I suspect it’s probably the case, given what I’ve read thus far, that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev carried out the attack that cost three individuals, one of whom was just eight years old, their lives, and wounded over 100 others. Between the surveillance footage that shows men who appear to be the brothers leaving backpacks at the bomb site, and the statements of the man whose car they hijacked a few days later, who claims that they confessed everything to him, I don’t imagine it’s likely that we’ve got the wrong guys. And, if I’d harbored any lingering doubts, I suspect they would have evaporated a few nights ago when, after throwing bombs at the Boston police officers pursuing them, Tamerlan charged the officers wearing a suicide vest. With all of that said, though, I find it absolutely amazing that, over this weekend, I’ve heard so many state that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was taken into custody after the death of his brother, isn’t deserving of even the most basic rights afforded us by the constitution. From arguing that he shouldn’t be read his Miranda rights, to saying that he should be spirited away to Gitmo without a trial, like an enemy combatant, I’ve heard it all this weekend. I’ve even heard people suggest the he should be summarily executed.

As terrible as last week’s Boston bombing was, this is what’s been keeping me up… this realization that people don’t seem to care about the rights that our ancestors fought so hard to secure, not just for those who were likely innocent, but for all people. Maybe it’s the fear that comes as a byproduct of terrorism. Maybe we’re so terrified that we just don’t care. Or maybe this is what happens in a society that’s come to accept that, with increasing frequency, we send weaponized Predator drones into other countries, to wipe out whole families on our behalf. Or, maybe it’s a function of today’s technology. Maybe, if we’d had cellphone video of Timothy McVeigh walking away from the truck he’d loaded with explosives, we would have been demanding his head on a platter as well. Regardless of why it’s happening, my sense is that we’re not going to move beyond it anytime soon. In fact, I suspect we’re going to start seeing more of it… God help us all.