The Saturday Six Pack with Mark Maynard: episode two

saturdaysixpack2b

The second episode of the Saturday Six Pack on AM 1700 was, by all accounts, a success. I was kind of dreading it going in, as I didn’t have much planned for the 7:00 hour, but, as is usually the case when you open yourself up to serendipity, everything just kind of unfolded in a naturally, beautiful, organic kind of way. If you have a chance, I’d recommend listening for yourself. The first hour is a pretty intense… a lot of local history, not all of it pleasant… but then things take a turn for the weird once I open the door and put out the word that I need help finishing the six pack. If you listened at home, or called in to talk with me, or stopped by to talk in person, thank you. You’ll find my rough notes below. If you feel like actually listening for yourself, though, you can do so here.

[If you liked that, just click here to listen to episode one and hear ho it all began.]

OK, first things first… For those of you keeping track at home, this week the beer of choice was Fat Tire by New Belgium Brewing, and it took us two hours, six minutes, and thirty-seven seconds to finish all six off.

Now, here are my notes, for those of you who refuse to hit the button above and listen for yourselves. [images courtesy Kate de Fuccio]

We started the show with a theme composed by my old friend Dave Miller, who now lives in Portland. I didn’t listen to the track in advance, as I’d wanted to be surprised… and I was. Dave, who also happens to be in my one-day-a-year band, The Monkey Power Trio, had created a disturbing soundscape featuring the sounds of babies crying, and children screaming, under audio of me mumbling and sluring lyrics which, for obvious reasons, never made it onto Monkey Power records. Dave called in after we played the theme to talk about it. He said he’d been imagining it as the track that would accompany a memorial slide show at my funeral. He then told us that he was talking to us from the side of the road somewhere in Portland, delaying his daughter’s arrival at her fifth birthday party. You can hear the track here, if you like.

Right after Dave’s daughter asked him to stop talking on the phone, and take her to the party, I introduced our first guest, local historian Matthew Siegfried, who I’ve interviewed here on the blog before about Ypsilanti’s Native American past and the lives of former slaves in Ypsilanti. Our discussion, in part because of the calls that we were fielding, was kind of all over the place. From the University of Michigan’s questionable past with regard to Native Americans, to the lives of the “factory girls” who worked in Ypsilanti’s mills before the turn of the century, we really jumped around. One minute, we’d be talking about the Henry Ford’s enforcer, Harry Bennett, and the next we’d be talking about the life and times of escaped slave turned university president, HP Jacobs. (And, by the way, I was completely serious when I said that I wanted to raise money for a historic marker for Jacobs in Ypsilanti.) We talked trade unions, strikes, historic incidences of sexual harassment, and black communists in Ypsilanti’s past. We also talked a good long while about how the landscape we still see around us today was dictated by the all-controling, crypto-fascist Henry Ford. It’s all good stuff, and I’d encourage you to listen to the first hour if any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you. Here’s Matt talking about how he’d like to vandalize every statue of Henry Ford that exists, by adding true facts about the man.

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Peter Larson of Bulb Records fame, who’s probably our only listener in Kenya, wrote a special song for this episode of the Saturday Six Pack and sent it in. The more I listen to it, the more lovely I think it is. Listen for yourself…

[And now I’m thinking about asking other bands to write songs specifically for the show. That’s a good idea, right?]

The rest of the show is a blur. Things just started happening. It was like I was caught in an undertow. I remember there being a call from a guy who said that he was in bed. He said that the Saturday Six Pack was the best show on the radio, and, to prove it, he began turning the dial of his radio, so that we could hear what a lot of other stations were playing at that very minute. It was pretty persuasive evidence. Another guy called in to say that he’d been talking with me in his dreams. I asked him to come and visit me in the real world, and, a few minutes later, there he was at the door. And he’d come with a gift – a copy of his zine, Ypsi Underground, which we spent a while talking about. Here he is. His name is Colin Moorhouse.

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At some point there was a lull, and I said something to the effect of, “I’m going to need help finishing this six pack.” A minute or two later, I saw a man that I hadn’t seen for a few years approaching the door from the darkness. As I don’t think he lives in Ypsi, he must have been sitting outside somewhere, listening to the show in a car or something. He sat down, I handed him a beer, and we talked about being duped by John Edwards. Not too long after afterward, a family of four would come in, bringing us sweet potato fries from Red Rock. The father of the family, Ann Arbor-based photographer Peter Smith, told us that it was his wife’s birthday, so they’d chosen to celebrate at a restaurant close to the radio station, which is really surreal to me… the thought that our little show is actually driving commerce in Ypsilanti. Who would have thought?

There was lots of other stuff, but I don’t think I’ll give it all away here. I’ll just leave you with this photo of me, once again smiling uncharacteristically.

MarkHappy

Lastly, I’d like to thank AM 1700 owner Brian Robb for opening the station to me and allowing the weirdness to flow through it… and, of course, for playing the Flaming Groovies when I needed a bathroom break. If you get a chance, like AM 1700 on Facebook. I know that would make him happy. And he deserves to be happy.

This entry was posted in History, Mark's Life, Special Projects, The Saturday Six Pack, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

25 Comments

  1. Posted January 25, 2015 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    Matt Siegfried posted the following to Facebook after the show.

    Here a brief explanation of the theft and betrayal of Native Americans that led to the founding of UM and its placement in Ann Arbor that I mentioned in the show (they have the temerity to call it a “Native land gift”).

    From the UM website: Native Land Gift Which Made UM

    In 1817, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, Shawnee, and Wendat (Huron), inhabited most of what is now Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. In the fall of that year, a treaty was signed between Michgan’s Territorial Governor, Lewis Cass, and the Native tribes. In the treaty process, Governor Cass persuaded the Natives to cede 3840 acres of land, half of which was earmarked for St. Anne’s Church, and half for “a college at Detroit” in which the Natives would be eligible to enroll.

    While the territory had planned for a statewide school system centered on a university, no specific funds were allocated and no formalization of the plans to ensure eligibility for the university land was done. Judge Augustus Woodward, Father Gabriel Richard, and Reverend John Monteith finally drafted the act that founded the University of Michigan. The government appointed officers and commissioned a building in Detroit in 1821, but no classes were held due to the lack of qualified students.

    In 1837, land developers in Ann Arbor offered 40 acres on the edge of town as a new home for the University. The original Native land gift was sold and Michigan courts have since held that the proceeds of that sale remain part of the permanent endowment of the University of Michigan.

    Text from the commemorative plaque found on the UM Campus:

    ‘This plaque commemorates the grant of lands from the Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewadimi (Potawatomi), through the Treaty of Fort Meigs, which states that “believing they may wish some of their children hereafter educated , [they] do grant to the rector of the the Catholic church of St. Anne of Detroit … and to the corporation of the college at Detroit, for the use of the said college, to be retained or sold, as the said rrector and corporation may judge expedient … ” The rector was Gabriel Richard, a founder and first vice president of the corporation of the college, chartered by the territorial legislature as the University of Michigania in 1817. These lands were eventually sold to the beneift of the University of Michigan, which was relocated to Ann Arbor in 1837.’

  2. Posted January 25, 2015 at 10:57 pm | Permalink

    “If there’s a book that you’d like for me to read, just give me the name of it, and I’ll read it next time.”

    I’d forgotten about this. What a great idea. Just reading to people over the radio.

  3. Oliva
    Posted January 25, 2015 at 11:10 pm | Permalink

    I liked the show very much–and loved hearing Mark on Ypsi history and Pete’s song all the way from Kenya. Mark, i hope you always keep churning out wonder and delight via your enviable, idiosyncratic, beloved energy and imagination. What one person, appreciated and assisted by others, can do to make life better. Thank you! And for the music (Brian Robb).

  4. Posted January 25, 2015 at 11:36 pm | Permalink

    By the way, the Judge (Augustus Woodward) who may or may not have defrauded (he was also a banker) the Native peoples in the aforementioned piece, was the main investor (speculator) in Ypsilanti, buying the French Lots and platting the city where the planned Chicago Road would cross the Huron, undermining nearby Woodruff;s Grove. Not surprising, the land he bought turned over quickly. His is the namesake of our own, and Detroit’s Wooward Avenue.

    The land he bought, incidentally, was land claimed by Gabriel Godfroy and his trading partners in 1809 (the ‘historically’ understood founding of Ypsilanti. Those lots were claimed, not by virtue of title transfer from Native groups, as would be expected and was the (final) basis of most land claims (along with royal grant) filed. Godrfoy and partners were, in effect, claim jumping. The legal basis of the claim was to have improved and worked the land, a claim only attested to in history on this one occasion… and only by the business partners making adjacent claims. If UM and Ann Arbor starts that way, Ypsi starts this way.

  5. Posted January 26, 2015 at 12:25 am | Permalink

    Originally, my middle name was to be Siegfreid.

  6. Posted January 26, 2015 at 6:44 am | Permalink

    So you’re pretty much related.

  7. Matt Siegfried
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 7:10 am | Permalink

    Concerning the idea of a historical marker for Jacobs… we’re lucky in that Ypsi still has an active organization founded by Jacobs, Second Baptist. We should approach them. Even if they aren’t interested, I am sure we can find others who would be interested. We should also talk to Jackson State, and the history people in Adrian may be interested, as two of his daughters lived there for many years and were pillars of Adrian’s African American community. Just thoughts….

  8. Posted January 26, 2015 at 7:39 am | Permalink

    Nice!

  9. Anonymous
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 8:09 am | Permalink

    We live in a strange and wonderful little city.

  10. Kim
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 8:30 am | Permalink

    I’m happy to see the AM wars heating up. I’d almost given up hope that anyone would come along and threaten Thayrone X. It’s about time that someone came along and knocked him off his perch.

  11. Eel
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 9:01 am | Permalink

    Why was Pete exiled to Kenya, or did he go of his own accord? Either way, I’m imaging him living a life like Ginger Baker.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKy2nf2nISU

  12. Anonymous
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 11:07 am | Permalink

    It should be noted that Peter Larson did not find this interesting.

  13. Grandma
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 11:39 am | Permalink

    It scares me when you smile this BIG!

  14. R.T.
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 12:32 pm | Permalink

    I tuned in expecting a six pack fueled rant against Ann Arbor’s Ambassador program. What I found was talk of pancake griddles and former slaves working as janitors at what’s now EMU. This is not a bad thing.

  15. John Galt
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 2:33 pm | Permalink

    I refuse to listen until you get paid sponsors and make this show real. I need corporate validation.

  16. kjc
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 3:50 pm | Permalink

    pete’s music > pete’s comments.

  17. Mr. Y
    Posted January 26, 2015 at 3:59 pm | Permalink

    I agree. Pete should sing all of his comments from now on.

    Also, did you hear that he worked in the word “interesting”? Classic Pete.

  18. Kristen
    Posted January 27, 2015 at 2:47 pm | Permalink

    I stopped reading your site when I discovered OaklandCountyMoms.com.

    http://oaklandcountymoms.com/midlife-crisis-mom-motorcycle-mama-35443/

  19. Posted January 28, 2015 at 8:59 pm | Permalink

    I would like to come in and do storytelling sometime, Mark. (For realz, I’m in the storytellers’ guild and everything).

  20. Posted January 28, 2015 at 9:10 pm | Permalink

    I’ve got guests this week, Patti, but I’d be happy to have you come in at some point next month… What kind of story would you want to tell?

  21. Chris
    Posted January 29, 2015 at 10:40 am | Permalink

    http://instagram.com/p/ycMDS3vfRl/?fb_action_ids=10155149792935710&fb_action_types=instapp%3Atake&fb_ref=ogexp&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B785251028217297%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22instapp%3Atake%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%22ogexp%22%5D&fb_collection_id=486228154733719&ref=profile

    My taint sweats whilst listening to Episode 2.

  22. Mr. Y
    Posted January 29, 2015 at 12:35 pm | Permalink

    Ypsi listens. Taints glisten. The Saturday Six Pack with Mark Maynard.

  23. Posted January 29, 2015 at 1:35 pm | Permalink

    Thanks, Mark! It can be history or whatever you want. As long as I have some notice of the topic, I can generally cobble something together. Then I practice it as I drive between schools and look batshit crazy as I gesture wildly and laugh at my own wit. For real, let me know when you have openings :) I was a DJ in college and never quite lost the love for it.

  24. Chucks
    Posted January 31, 2015 at 12:27 pm | Permalink

    I can’t believe it took you 2 hours to finish a six-pack! If I had this show, it would wrap up in about 45 minutes.

  25. Posted January 31, 2015 at 5:21 pm | Permalink

    It’s hard to chug cold beer on a cold day.

2 Trackbacks

  1. […] I think that’s kind of beautiful. If you don’t believe me, just listen to the first and second shows. I think, if you do, you’ll get a sense of what I’m talking about… […]

  2. […] at 1:45, Colin Moorhouse – the man who claimed in episode number two to communicate with me in my dreams – came in to tell us about a recent visit to Ypsilanti’s newest downtown dollar store, […]

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