Category Archives: Art and Culture

Deadline reminder, and words of encouragement, for would-be Shadow Art Fair participants

By Mark | April 17, 2012

As I think I mentioned not too long ago, this year’s Shadow Art Fair will be taking place at Ypsilanti’s Corner Brewery between noon and midnight on Saturday, July 21. What I think I neglected to mention, though, is that vendor applications close on May 1. So, if you want to be a part of [...]

Also posted in Shadow Art Fair, Special Projects, Ypsilanti | Tagged Amelia marks, fortune telling, gumbo, hugs, hugs n' gumbo, Molly Mast, Reverend Aitor, Ted Kennedy | 7 Comments

The Buffett Rule dies in Congress, but, like Tupac, and Jesus, it shall rise again

By Mark | April 16, 2012

I was all set to write about Tupac, and how I’d known that he was a hologram all along, but then I started reading about today’s failure by the Senate to act on the so-called Buffet Rule, which would have imposed a minimum tax of 30% to all individuals making more than one million dollars [...]

Also posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged Bernie Sanders, Buffett Rule, Chuck Schumer, class warfare, Coachella, Eric Cantor, holograms, income inequality, Jesus, Joint Committee on Taxation, Jon Kyl, Maine, Mitt Romney, national debt, payroll tax, progressive taxation, small government, small government Jesus, Susan Collins, tax loopholes, tax the rich, the growing gap between rich and poor, Tupac, Warren Buffett | 26 Comments

Jeff Clark on art, propaganda and graphic agitation

By Mark | April 15, 2012

Yesterday, during the Occupy Ypsilanti teach-in, my friend Jeff Clark, an accomplished graphic designer, delivered what I thought was a brilliant lecture on the graffiti produced by the Situationists during the May 1968 student uprising in France, and the incredible relevance their work still has today. So, if you have a few minutes today, and [...]

Also posted in History, Other, Politics, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Caine’s Arcade

By Mark | April 12, 2012

The following footage, of a little boy’s self-constructed fantasy arcade world, has been sweeping across the internet these past few days. Most people, from what I can tell, are attracted to the flash mob aspect — the fact that the filmmaker calls upon the hipster elite of Los Angeles, and their cleverly-named offspring, to venture [...]

Also posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Caine Monroy, Caine's Arcade, folk art, folk art environments, Los Angeles | 12 Comments

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine”… Happy Easter from Patti Smith

By Mark | April 7, 2012

Patti Smith recently announced that she has a new record coming out, which will include a track with Television’s Tom Verlaine. I don’t know that I’d mention it otherwise, as I haven’t heard it yet, but, since its release happens to almost coincide with Easter, and as it gives me a reason to quote one [...]