Mark Maynard | anxiety

Art, Food, Sex and Trauma: Mark Maynard shoots the shit with the most important artists of our day… Episode 2: Rebekah Modrak

By Mark | May 4, 2014

In December, I posted something about a brilliant piece of satire directed at the company Best Made and its line of high-end, artisanal axes. The artist behind the work, who called himself Peter Smith-Buchanan, I thought, lived in New York. As it turns out, however, the artist lived just down the road… Today’s interview is […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Art and Culture | Also tagged artisanal goods, authenticity, axes, bearded entrepreneurial hipster outdoorsman, BEHO, Best Made Co., brand identity, class, coined phrases, cultural tourism, culture jamming, design porn, family recipes, gender, identity, illegal art, interviews, manly, parody, Peter Buchanan-Smith, Peter Smith-Buchanan, pioneer fetish, plungers, porn, Re Made, Rebekah Modrak, Risto Moisio, River in the Catskills, Shinola, shopdropping, Stamps School of Art and Design, taming the wilderness, Thomas Cole, toilet plungers, turkey croquettes, University of Michigan, ZaneRay Group | 28 Comments

Ypsi Immigration Interview: Heidi Jugenitz

By Mark | September 19, 2013

A few days ago I was introduced to a young woman by the name of Heidi Jugenitz. She, I’d been told by a mutual friend, was new in town, and, having read my blog, wanted to ask me a few questions. We talked briefly, and I asked if I could follow up with a few […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Mark's Life, Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 9/11, Affordable Care Act, Africa, austerity, big banks, Boxcar Children, Burkina Faso, Carthage College, Chicago, children's literature, Cote d'Ivoire, Cross Street Station, depression, Detroit Metro Airport, DTW, Eagle Scout, economic justice, Ecuador, Elijah McCoy, exercise, fear, financial crisis, financial reform, George Bush, health insurance, Heidi Jugenitz, human rights, Hurricane Katrina, hypersensitivity, income inequality, injustice, international aid, international travel, Kentucky, Linette, Masters of Public Administration, mental health, Nancy Drew, neurosis, New Orleans, Obama, Obamacare, OCD, panic disorder, pop-up retail, poverty, prejudice, public education, public health, racism, Rwanda, Sahel, segregation, Shadow Art Fair, sleep, Tanzania, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tulane University, University of Michgan, Vietnam, Vitamin D, vitamins, water, Water Street, Winsor McCay, Ypsi immigration interview, Ypsilanti Freighthouse | 8 Comments

Digging though the Hollywood archives: Ted Healy’s drawing of Wallace Beery, and Wallace Beery’s murder of Ted Healy

By Mark | February 23, 2013

Every once in a while, I’ve been known to go off on a tangent. Something obscure will pique my interest, and, for whatever reason, I find that I’m not able to let it go. (Does anyone remember my interest in the large school bell that was rung by the 19 year old Orson Welles in […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged 1932, 1937, Albert Broccoli, cross-dressing, Dinner at Eight, drag, Good Old Soak, Grand Hotel, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Greta Garbo, Hollywood, Jackie Cooper, James Bond, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Louie B. Mayer, MGM, murder mystery, Orson Welles, Oscars, Pat DiCicco, Phyllis Ann Beery, silent films, social anxiety disorder, Sweedie The Swedish Maid, Ted Healy, The Champ, The Hearts of Age, Thelma Todd, Three Stooges, Trocadero, unresolved mystery, vaudeville, Wallace Beery, Will Rogers | 23 Comments

California bans the pay-the-gay-away psychological torture of LGBT youth known as “reparative therapy”

By Mark | October 1, 2012

As you may recall, former Ypsilantian Josh Steichman told us earlier this summer that he was working on a campaign to see the so-called reparative therapy of minors outlawed in California. Well, this weekend, Josh and the rest of the Equality California team were successful. California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation that would […]

Posted in Civil Liberties | Also tagged AB 1505, AB 1700, AB 1856, anti-science, But I'm a Cheerleader, California, closet case, conversion therapy, depression, Don't Ask Don't Tell, EOS, Equality California, ex gay, gay, gay marriage, gay rights, George Rekers, homophobia, Jerry Brown, Josh Steichman, legislation, LGBTQ, lube, Magic Mike, Marcus Bachmann, Michele Bachmann, Michigan, pay the gay away, pray the gay away, psychological abuse, rent boy, reparative therapy, Rick Snyder, SB 1140, self hatred, suicide, Ted Lieu, therapy, UCLA, Vermont, Wisconsin, Ypsilanti water tower | 39 Comments

God Bless America

By Mark | February 7, 2012

A few days ago, I posted video here of Bill Murray, on the first episode of Late Night with David Letterman. I have no way of knowing how many people took my advice and watched the clip, which was absolutely brilliant, but it only garnered one comment. (Someone, making the case that he was still […]