Mark Maynard | 2014 | November

Just one week after the midterm elections, an all out assault on the EPA has begun… This is what we get for not voting

By Mark | November 20, 2014

Just after winning reelection a little over a week ago, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell announced that his top priority would be to “rein in” the EPA. That’s right, the incoming Senate Majority Leader, when telling his constituents what he intended to do with his newfound power, didn’t mention the fighting for the middle class, or fighting against the likes of ISIS, but his intention to defund and limit the power of the Environmental Protection Agency, the organization charged with making sure that our water is drinkable and our air breathable.

And it looks as though he’s not alone in his desire to cripple the agency on behalf of America’s oil and gas industry. Just yesterday, the House passed H.R. 1422, better known as the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2014, in a vote of 229 to 191. The legislation, if it were to be passed by the Senate, and signed into law, would essentially make it illegal for scientists to provide testimony in support of the EPA. That’s right. According to Salon.com, “experts would be forbidden from sharing their expertise in their own research — the bizarre assumption, apparently, being that having conducted peer-reviewed studies on a topic would constitute a conflict of interest.” Or, in the words of Andrew A. Rosenberg, the director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, “Academic scientists who know the most about a subject can’t weigh in, but experts paid by corporations who want to block regulations can.” [Republican Congressman Chris Stewart of Utah, a co-sponsor of can be seen sponsor of H.R. 1422, can be seen in the photo above, on the floor of the House, arguing in favor of the bill.]

Thankfully, it doesn’t look as though the H.R. 1422 will make it to the President’s desk anytime soon, as the Senate does not have plans to introduce similar legislation. And, even if they did, President Obama has said that he would veto it. Still, though, I think it’s a good indicator of what we might expect over the next few years.

For what it’s worth, some of our elected officials are fighting back. Democratic Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, for instance, had the following to say to his Republican colleagues in the run up to the vote on H.R. 1422. “I get it, you don’t like science,” McGovern said. “And you don’t like science that interferes with the interests of your corporate clients. But we need science to protect public health and the environment.”

Sadly, though, thinking Americans didn’t care enough about issues like this to turn out at the polls in significant numbers during the midterm elections. And, as a result, instead of focusing for the next several years on things that really matter, like decreasing our dependence on petroleum, and building our alternative energy capacity, we’re going to be spending our time swatting down these back door attempts to defund the EPA and silence our scientific community. It’s absolutely sickening. But it’s not at all a surprise, given that we live in a country where a climate change denier like Jim Inhofee, who has said on the floor of the Senate that “global warming is a hoax” and compared the EPA to the Gestapo, could lead the Senate Committee on the Environment.

It seems to me that it would have been a hell of a lot easier to have beaten back these anti-science corporatists at the ballot box, as opposed to in the street, especially given that they own the police and the media. But we have no choice at this point… Inhofe just recently said, “I will do everything in my power to rein in and shed light on the EPA’s unchecked regulations,” and we need to be prepared to do the same to oppose him. We need to do everything in our power to rein in his power and protect the EPA. It won’t be pretty, but we’ve got to be in the streets for the next two years, fighting our asses off. And, in November 2016, we need to do what needs to be done at the polls. There are no unimportant elections anymore. And, contrary to what you may think, there really is a difference between our two parties.

Posted in Alternative Energy, energy, Environment, Uncategorized | Tagged Andrew A. Rosenberg, anti-science, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2014, global climate change, Global Warming, H.R. 1422, Jim Inhofe, Jim Inhofee, Mitch McConnell, Science, Union of Concerned Scientists | 11 Comments

Art, Food, Sex and Trauma: Mark Maynard shoots the shit with the most important artists to live within a five minute walk from him… Episode 5: Jim Cherewick

By Mark | November 20, 2014

Local song and dance man Jim Cherewick, when he’s not singing and dancing his way into the enlarged, slowly-beating hearts of Americans everywhere, can generally be found hunched over napkins and the like, feverishly scratching away, making what he refers to as “art.” Well, I caught up with Jim on one such occasion and forced him to respond to the following questions as part of our Art, Food, Sex and Trauma series… Enjoy.

MARK: What kind of name is Jim Cherewick?

JIM: It’s a proud name. A strong name. A name that looks great in gold, stone and sky… sand, not so much. I’m named after my dad.

MARK: And, like most people, I suspect that you live somewhere, right?

JIM: With the exception of a brief stint in Ann Arbor, which lasted one year, I’ve been living in Ypsilanti since 2004. Hot potato renting. I move every year. I do it because I like spending money on utility bills. “The bigger the better,” I always say.

MARK: Do you have a problem with commitment, or is it something else that keeps you moving? Are you, maybe, asked to leave for some reason? Excessive sobbing? Purposefully loud lovemaking? A disturbing combination of the two?

JIM: No problem with commitment. I just get bored very easily. (I’m a bit antsy, if you will.) However, I do think moving is the most stressful thing that I can think of, without a doubt. I can easily compare it to highschool homework. Which is kinda why I signed up for another year at this house I’m at currently. “I’m so tired of running, Mark.” I wish it was the latter though… “Ahh, love… when two souls meet, and the neighbor hears and hates it.” I do love a good cry, however. Excessive sobbing? No thanks.

MARK: You lost me at the high school homework comment. Are you saying that, for you, homework was as stressful as moving? And, if so, what the fuck kind of high school did you go to?

JIM: You and me both. What I meant was waiting to the last possible second, then just half- assing… who am I kidding… quarter-assing it… to the finish line. Not very organized planning. Shit show every time.

MARK: What brought you to Ypsi ten years ago, and were did you come from?

JIM: My adventure began in Brighton. I just graduated Schoolcraft College with an Associates degree in graphic design and was approaching mental breakdown. No kid should live with his folks after high school obviously, but I commuted during college and saved up money. My brother Steve had moved to Ypsi with his buddies and I always came out here for weekend parties. Since it was me and my two sisters still living with our folks, I knew it was time to get the hell out of Dodge. I lived with my sister Emily on College Place and Emmet, kitty corner from my brother and his friends. On that street is where it all began for me… my one year living/moving routine.

MARK: Did the other siblings ever make it to Ypsi?

JIM: I come from a 7 sibling family. I’m in the middle. My older sister Julie moved here before we did. My younger sister Celia moved to Grand Rapids.

MARK: Shall we start with art, food, sex or trauma? It’s your choice.

JIM: Damn… I do like sex art, but food trauma? So many stories. Let’s go with sex art.

MARK: What’s the the sexiest thing you’ve ever drawn?

JIM: A self portrait?

MARK: Are you asking me?

JIM: No?

MARK: I don’t understand… Why don’t you just draw a self-portrait, send it to me, and I’ll post it here. Then we’ll let America decide how sexy it is. Sound good?

JIM: You’re the boss. [See sexy Jim to the right.]

MARK: Are you ready for a hypothetical?

JIM: Yes. Always.

MARK: You get a late night emergency call from Miley Cyrus. She’s here in Ypsi and she desperately wants a face tattoo designed by Jim Cherewick. You only have five minutes to draw something. What do you draw? And where do you tell the tattoo artist to place it?

JIM: A stormtrooper helmet on her entire face, as if she was wearing it. Also I’d be doing it from memory and I’m not very good at drawing those guys. My second choice would be the words “please love me” as a mustache above her lip. Last idea, her cell phone number on her forehead. [See the stormtrooper helmet tattooed over the face of Miley Cyrus to the right.]

MARK: OK, here’s another one. Your best friend calls you and asks for your help disposing of a body. What do you tell him?

JIM: “Lemme get outta my work clothes,” I say. Then I call 911.

MARK: Why, do you know a dispatcher at 911 who can help get rid of bodies? Or are you saying that you’d turn your friend in?

JIM: Turn him in on a dime. Friend or not. Family, however…

MARK: Has anyone ever paid you for sex?

JIM: No.

MARK: Have you requested compensation, and they just refused? Or has the subject just never come up?

JIM: Ha ha ha ha ha ha… Next question… Unless, by “compensation,” you mean eggs and toast.

MARK: Do you ever eat fruit while lovemaking?

JIM: No… but I’ve eaten fruit while going to the bathroom.

MARK: Was this a one-time occurrence, or is this something you always do? Do you keep a fruit bowl on your toilet tank?

JIM: No but I like that. (Writes down “toilet fruit” on palm.)

MARK: What’s your favorite kind of pie?

JIM: Peach pie, Boston cream pie, pizza pie.

MARK: In that order?

JIM: No. In order, it would be; pizza pie, Boston cream pie, peach pie.

MARK: Is that ascending or descending?

JIM: Defending.

MARK: What’s the worst pie you’ve ever eaten?

JJIM: Cherry pie. It was so tart it made me rethink my life goals.

MARK: You have life goals?

JIM: Had. (Looks out window at passing homeless man.) stay on course.

MARK: Have you ever had a near death experience?

JIM: I’ve had some close calls while driving, but who hasn’t? I’ve also had out-of-body experiences. 80% of them were during speeches that I was giving in school. Every time the view was the same. I was looking into the classroom from the hallway. “Who’s that kid with the shaky voice reading from his notecards? Someone should let him sit down, give him an A for effort. C’mon, buddy, it’s okay. He drew a great picture of a cheetah though.”

MARK: I too have been involved in a number of public speaking incidents which left people in the audience visibly shaken and confused. I don’t think, however, that I’d refer to any of them as having been like out-of-body experiences. When I hear the phrase out-of-body, I think complete serenity, like you’re just floating above the scene, watching it unfold. My experiences were the exact opposite of that. They were total, full-body panic attacks. No escape… Are you telling me that, in times of great stress, you can just disconnect and float away? If so, that’s awesome.

JIM: There’s always panic, and then, “Oh, let me pass out already, and wake up on the couch at home, watching The Price is Right.” no serenity brother.

MARK: What’s the best Ypsi rumor you’ve ever heard?

JIM: That Andy Garis is going to return someday and save us all. I’m hopeful.

MARK: We need to send an R2 unit into the bar where Andy’s working now in Ann Arbor, and have it project a tiny holographic image of you saying, “Andy, you’re our only hope.”

JIM: No… there is another. Bona Sera’s logo in blue holographic light.

MARK: I have no idea what that was in reference to? Are you out of body right now?

JIM: Just another Star Wars reference, sorta… kinda… always.

MARK: When was your last physical altercation?

JIM: I’m not a fighter, but a lover… of avoiding fights altogether.

MARK: Tell me about your art?

JIM: I’ve been drawing since I can remember. Robots, ninja turtles, video game levels, more robots. Art classes were both my sanctuary and my Thunderdome.

MARK: While you eschew altercations in real life, you choose to describe your art class experience as Thunderdome-esque. I find that interesting.

JIM: I was safe there from locker room bullies and gym class jerks. Art class was me battling and proving my self worth… and drawing stuff.

MARK: Were you bullied a lot as a kid?

JIM: Well, I was picked on weekly.

MARK: Kids are wicked. It’s a wonder that any of us survive childhood.

JIM: Seriously. I want a rematch… but not really.

MARK: What does your family make of your work?

JIM: They encourage me to pursue it for a career. I would like to do that. I should probably take some classes to sharpen up these fangs.

MARK: We’ve already established that you don’t charge for sex. What do you do for a living?

JIM: To pay the bills, I work retail. I scan boxes in a backroom, with a tune in my heart.

MARK: What’s the tune?

JIM: I’d like to say its usually a Jason Molina song. In reality it’s probably Smash Mouth’s Allstar… I have no control of my brain jukebox. It runs in the family.

MARK: What was your first experience with death?

JIM: My Grandma died and I saw her in the coffin. It reminded me of the electric grandmother movie. Very odd. A turned-off robot. it was heartbreaking and terrifying.

MARK: I’m not familiar with “the electric grandmother” movie? Was it an afterschool special? An “adult” feature?

JIM: It felt like an after school special. Same eerie vibe as A Watcher in the Woods, but with a touch of A.I.. Apparently it was based on a Ray Bradbury book.

MARK: I’m not as familiar with your music as I am with your art. How would you define it within the context of your drawings? Are there similar themes being explored?

JIM: I recently had a person use the phrase, ”hauntingly beautiful.”

MARK: You heard a person use that phrase? Or you heard a person use that phrase in response to your work? Those are two different things.

JIM: In relation to my song work. “It makes me wanna close the curtains, pour a glass of wine, and have a listening party,” she said. I paint small vignettes of scenes or interactions between people and places. Moments that hop around. Perspective always changing. Stream of conscious writing really. Most times, I write something, then I read it later, and realize that I’ve hit the nail better than I would have if I’d tried to say something directly.

MARK: So, would you say there’s any commonality between your recorded and written work?

JIM: Stream of thought. Brain drain, faces and interaction. Similar, but different, animals.

MARK: What’s the worst meal you’ve ever eaten?

JIM: Wow. Maybe black eyed peas, when I was little. I remember me and my brother smuggling them in napkins and tossing them in the toilet. I’d eat that now, though. One time I had ginger and noodles at an Asian place in Athens, Georgia around 12 years ago. I only had one bite. I remember comparing it to Pine-Sol cleaner. Terrible. I’m not really a ginger fan. I’d probably eat it today, though. My palate has changed quite a bit.

MARK: So your palate has evolved to be more accepting of household cleaners?

JIM: Only if you’re buying.

MARK: What’s the last thing that you ate?

JIM: A Mr. Good Bar. I do cook food, though. I swear it’s true.

MARK: Do they still make those, or are you living off of Halloween candy from your youth?

JIM: They do. Such a cartoony wrapper. It reminds me of Wonka bars… Different colors of course.

MARK: You told me you’d make a new header for this site. But you haven’t. Do you lie often?

JIM: Sometimes projects that are free get put on the back burner.

MARK: Like sex?

JIM: Exactly. (Swish.)

MARK: Is there anything that I might be able to help you with? Do you require any advice?

JIM: I need to find a better job. Tell the world that I exist. Tell me that I exist. Share my music. Buy me a beer. I need a hug… I feel better. Thanks, Mark.

MARK: I hear that they’re opening a dollar store in Ypsi. People seem excited about. I searched the company online once, and discovered that, on average, they pay their people four-cents above minimum wage. Maybe they’ll have some boxes that need scanning. As for hugs, can I get back to you after I see your sexy self-portrait?

JIM: I feel I did my work in retail. This angel needs its wings now.

MARK: Please complete the following sentence… “If I could travel back in time and make love to any historic figure, it would be _______ .”

JIM: I’d like to woo the heart of Debbie Harry from Blondie, or a gal more akin to my personality. I sound so distinguished, chicks dig that.

MARK: Is there anything else that you’d like for people to know about you?

JIM: I’m not above shameless promotion. GYMSEE @twitter @instagram @soundcloud.
If you need art or music, hit me up. Also, I’m still rocking out in my bands Wicker Chairs and Congress. If ya want something different, follow us gang!

[Top photo courtesy Victoria Weeber.]

Posted in Art and Culture, Special Projects, Ypsilanti | Tagged after school special, Andy Garris, art food sex and trauma, black eyed peas, Blondie, Brighton, bullying, cheetah, Congress, cool drawings, creepy drawings, Debbie Harry, drawing, eating during sex, electric grandmother, Family Dollar, fighting, fruit, Halloween candy, high school, interviews, Jim Cherewick, Miley Cyrus, Mr. Good Bar, out of body experience, panic attacks, pie, Pine-Sol, prostitution, public speaking, Ray Bradbury, Star Wars, stormtrooper, toilet fruit, Wicker Chairs | 12 Comments

Antiques Road Show: historic Ypsilanti edition

By Mark | November 19, 2014

A few months ago I received an email from a fellow by the name of Roger Pellar. He’d apparently read my interview with historian Matt Siegfried about Ypsilanti’s Native American past, and was hoping that, through this site, I might be able to help him identify a few artifacts that he’d uncovered while making his way across Ypsilanti with a metal detector several years ago. (He also wanted to know where he could donate these pieces once they’d been identified.) So, we began trading emails, and, just yesterday, he shared the following two photos.

The first piece, according to Pellar, was found about ten years ago on the banks of the Huron River as it passes along Frog Island. The object, he says, is carved bone. And the metal component appears to be made of silver. He suspects that it’s Native American in origin. If it is, my guess would be that it was relatively recent, given the design and construction of the metal piece, which appears to be some kind of clasp, but I’d welcome other input.

The second piece, which appears to be a belt buckle, was found about ten years ago as well, when the City was tearing up our downtown streets in order to replace our aging water mains. According to Pellar, this piece was found beneath Miles Street, just north of Michigan Avenue. His guess is that it might in some way be connected to a pre-Civil War militia. My guess is that it might have belonged to a member of an early Ypsilanti Fire Company, but, again, that’s just a wild guess. (An image of the buckle’s back, if it helps, can be found here.)

All input is welcome.

One last thing, regardless of what we discover about these two artifacts, I think it’s incredibly cool that Pellar has decided that they belong in the hands of a local organization and not in his own collection. At a time when, I suspect, most people would be tempted to put such items on Ebay, and see what, if anything, they might be able to get for them, I think that’s worthy of praise… Who knows, maybe this will be incentive for others in our community to come forward and share their finds with us.

Posted in History, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged artifacts, Frog Island, historic artifacts, Huron River, Matt Siegfried, metal detectors, native american artifacts, Roger Pellar | 14 Comments

Detroit gets the Daily Show treatment, looks stupid for shutting off water to the poor while keeping it flowing to non-bill-paying golf courses and professional sports franchises

By Mark | November 18, 2014

Earlier this year, as I’m sure you’ll all remember, a decision was made by the powers-that-be in Detroit to terminate water service at several thousand residences. This, we were told, was absolutely necessary, given the fact that the City was insolvent, and could no longer afford to provide services, even critical ones, to those who refused to pay their bills. And, with that, an international shit storm was born. The United Nations opened a human rights investigation, and news crews from around the world descended upon the City, where people had literally taken to the streets in protest of a policy that not only deprived Detroit’s most vulnerable citizens of clean drinking water, but also threatened to bring about a public health emergency as toilets across the City began overflowing. Well, it would seem the national media, after a bit of a hiatus, is showing renewed interest in the story. The following appeared last night on the Daily Show.

The Daily Show
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For what it’s worth, the shut-offs haven’t ended. There was a brief reprieve once the story first went national, but it didn’t last long, and, according to the Lansing State Journal, there were 5,100 new shut-offs in September, and another 4,200 in October, bringing the total since January 1, 2014 to 31,300.

There are three things I liked about the above Daily Show piece quite a bit. First, I liked that they pointed out the hypocrisy of cutting water to Detroit’s poorest citizens while allowing it to keep flowing to private golf courses, and the homes of the Red Wings and Lions, in spite of the fact that they owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Water Department. Second, I liked the old white guy demonstrating how he needed water on the golf course in order to wash his balls. And, third, I loved the following exchange between the Daily Show’s Jessica Williams and Nolan Finley, the Detroit News editorial page editor.

Finley, to his credit, pretty much admitted that he came across badly in the segment, saying a few days ago on Twitter that he was just happy not to have fallen for their trick and accepted the water they kept offering him over the course of the 90-minute interview.

If you have a moment, and would like to know more about the ongoing water crisis in Detroit, I’d suggest that you watch the video I shared earlier this summer from the Netroots Nation conference in Detroit featuring Abayomi Azikiwe of Moratorium Now!, Meredith Begin of Food and Water Watch, Monica Lewis-Patrick of We the People Detroit, Jean Ross of National Nurses United, and Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, who, by the way, was leading a petition drive in 2009 to “make water affordable and stop shutting off the water of low-income people” in Detroit. (The session, titled Turn on the Water! How Locals are Fighting Back Against the Shutoffs, was moderated by Peter Hammer, the director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University.)

I know there’s a temptation to see this as something other than a civil rights issue. It’s easy, I know, to see this as an example of lazy Detroiters, once again, looking to game the system. I’d argue, however, that it has more to do with the cost of being poor in America than anything else. Wages are dropping. Cost of living is rising. And utilities, especially in rapidly-depopulating urban communities like Detroit, are becoming more costly to those who remain. It’s a proverbial perfect storm. I know people like to look at Detroit with scorn and horror, but I really do think that we’ll eventually begin to see this everywhere, as the American middle class slowly disappears.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Detroit, Uncategorized | Tagged cost of living, Jessica Williams, Nolan Finley, The Daily Show, water, water bills | 9 Comments

If I ever use the phrase “Drink the Kool-Aid” again, please do me a favor and kick me in the teeth

By Mark | November 18, 2014

36 years ago today, a charismatic, and increasingly paranoid Jim Jones commanded the assembled members of the Peoples Temple, who had followed him from the United States to the jungles of Guyana, to take their own lives by ingesting a cyanide-infused knock-off of Kool-Aid called Flavor-Aid.

Despite the fact that Jones can be heard referring to their deaths as acts of “revolutionary suicide,” on audio recorded that night, the truth is, very few of the 909 Peoples Temple members who died that evening took their lives willingly. As we’d learn in the months following their deaths, they were forced to ingest the cyanide at gunpoint, and those that refused were either held down and forced to drink it or injected with the drug.

My friend Robert Helms, the editor of the zine Guinea Pig Zero, reminded me of this fact today, when he forwarded a link to an interview with Julia Scheeres, author of the book A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown, about the use of the phrase “drink the Kool-Aid” in contemporary culture as shorthand for mindlessly following leaders and trends. Here’s a clip.

…I was writing a satirical novel about a charismatic preacher who takes over a small Indiana town when I remembered Jim Jones was from Indiana and Googled him for inspiration. I then learned that the FBI had recently released its files on Jonestown. These included 50,000 pieces of paper that agents had collected from Jonestown after the massacre and almost a thousand audio tapes. Once I started browsing the materials, I couldn’t tear myself away. This story seemed more urgent to tell than a religious farce.

The more I understood what actually transpired in Jonestown, the more offended I became by the notion that Jones’ victims “drank the Kool-Aid.” I felt a duty to defend them, to tell the true story of what happened in Jonestown. The central argument of A Thousand Lives is that Jim Jones murdered his congregants — it was mass murder, not mass suicide. He fantasized about killing them for years before they moved to Guyana and lured them there by making them believe they could return to California whenever they wanted. Once he had them sequestered in the middle of the South American jungle, he refused to let anyone go. “If you want to go home, you can swim,” he told disgruntled residents. “We won’t pay your fucking way home.” I found many heartbreaking notes from residents begging Jones to let them go home, offering to send down paychecks for the rest of their lives, etc. The hardest to read were from parents who, once they realized Jones was intent on killing everyone, were at a loss for ways to insulate their children from Jones’ madness. A third of the 918 people who died in the Jonestown massacre were minors. They didn’t “drink the Kool-Aid;” they had it forced down their throats….

A 12-year-old girl named Julie Ann Runnels kept spitting the poison out, so two of Jones’ lieutenants forced her to swallow by it by pulling her hair and clamping their hands over her nose and mouth. She did not “Drink the Kool-Aid.” She was murdered—as were all the 303 children who died that night. We need to stop disrespecting Jones’ victims with this odious and wildly inaccurate phrase…

I’m not sure if it’s a phrase I’ve ever used here, but, if it is, I’m sorry. Scheeres is absolutely right. And I promise not to ever do it again.

[The image above is from Time Magazine. It shows one of the tubs full of cyanide-spiked Flavor-Aid surrounded by dead bodies. When I was a kid, I have a vivid recollection of finding this issue of Time Magazine in my parents’ bathroom and reading the article about the Jonestown massacre, which, until that point, I think had been kept from me. I remember the images of the dead bodies, and a comment about how it was even worse than it looked, as, in many areas, the bodies we stacked three deep. I remember the fact that over 300 of the dead were children. It made a huge impact on me as a kid. And, when I think of Jonestown, it’s always the first thing to come to my mind.]