By Mark | December 3, 2020
I was 13 years old on December 29, 1981 — the day that my great grandmother Minnie Wise Florian died in Liberty, Kentucky. I was with her when she passed, a few weeks after her 89th birthday. It was a traumatic night. My father was out, playing basketball with some old high school friends, and […]
Posted in Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged Arlo, cathartic, Charles Maynard, crying, Death, depression, family history, fatherhood, gratitude, Huron River, Minnie Wise Florian, OCD, suicide |
I know there are other things that we should probably be talking about right now, like the “wall of moms” in Portland or the flood of disinformation headed our way about vote-by-mail, but I feel, for the sake of my sanity, the I need to step back, and write about other stuff for a while. […]
Posted in Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged Abraham Lincoln, Arlo, assassination, astronauts, Bad Day at Black Rock, bicycles, black lives matter, business wig, Columbo, coronavirus, COVID-19, Detroit Tigers, Donald Trump, fuck, fuck the police, Greenfield Village, haircut, hammock, Henry Ford Museum, JFK assassination, John Dillinger, John F. Kennedy, last breath, leaf blower, Linette, Mark's health, OCD, pandemic, parenting, Pearl Harbor, Portland, racism, Smithsonian Institution, Spencer Tracy, Starkweather Chapel, Thankful Maynard, The Three Investigators, Thomas Edison, Three Investigators, Video Games, vote by mail, walking, wall of moms, Ypsilanti Farm Bureau |
By Mark | January 2, 2019
I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. I like the idea of being reflective, and giving serious thought as to how one might be able to do better in the year ahead, but, as a rule, I think they’re counterproductive, as they’re rarely kept, and just leave people feeling like shit. Perhaps more […]
Posted in Food, Health, Mark's Life | Also tagged aging, alcohol, back pain, beer, beets, BMI, calories, cancer, cold turkey, colonoscopy, dietary reset, diets, elimination diet, fat, fat shaming, flour, GERD, gluten, Health, kale, losing weight, New Year's resolution, OCD, processed foods, smoothies, sugar, sweets, vegan, weight issues, wheat, Whole 30, wine |
By Mark | January 1, 2019
I spent a good deal of time between Christmas and New Year’s Day working on our house’s front entryway. I’m not sure how the idea came to me, but, at some point before leaving work for the holiday, it occurred to me that, having now lived here for about 20 years, I should probably start […]
Posted in Mark's Life, OCD, Uncategorized | Also tagged Clementine, foyer, graffiti, house cleaning, Linette, love, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, tails |
By Mark | October 8, 2017
Before Amy Fusselman made a name for herself in the world of publishing as the author of books like Savage Park: A Meditation on Play, Space and Risk for Americans Who Are Nervous, Distracted and Afraid to Die (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), The Pharmacist’s Mate (McSweeney’s, 2013), and 8 (McSweeney’s, 2013), she produced the delightfully […]
Posted in Art and Culture, Special Projects, Uncategorized | Also tagged 8, Ace of Spades, Amy Fusselman, anonymity, Bernard Pivot, Big Black, Brooklyn Public Library, Bunnyrabbit, Butthole Surfers, Charles Foster Kane, Columbus, Connecticut, creative writing, cribs, D. Boon, Daniel Clowes, David Robbins, Detroit, Dishwasher Pete, Doug Biggert, Eightball, fear of rejection, Ford, Frightwig, hearing aid, Idiophone, Inside The Actors Studio, James Lipton, JC Penny, Kitty Kelley, Marlon Bundo, McSweeney's, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Michael Cera, Mike Pence, Mike Watt, Minneapolis, minutemen, Monkey Power Trio, Motörhead, New York City, Nicholas Spice, Nyatiti, Ohio, Ohio Edit, Ohio State, Pat the Bunny, Pete Larson, publishing, Pussy Galore, Redd Cross, rejection, resiliency, Rilke, Rosebud, sandpaper, Savage Park, Scrawl, self-publishing, slit gong, Sonic Youth, Stache’s, stuffed animals, The Untold History of Zines, Tower Records, underground press, William Powell, Yaddo, zine friends, zines |