Not too long ago, as you may recall, I shared a few family stories here that had been handed down by my great grandmother’s cousin, Mattie Belle Wise (1892-1992). Well, I’ve got another family story to share with you today. This one, however, comes from my recently-discovered fourth cousin, Stephen Wise. [Stephen reached out to […]
Tag Archives: axes
The story about my great, great grandfather nearly severing the leg of his brother with an axe
Today in fashion… buying the perception of of having done a hard day’s work
In about ’91, as an American Studies undergrad at the University of Michigan, I had the occasion to take a class at with professor Robert Berkhofer, the author of The White Man’s Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present. While I don’t remember a great deal about what we covered in […]
Be nice to the visiting design nerds
My recent ‘axe vs. plunger’ discussion with artist Rebekah Modrak has made it to the popular website Design Observer thanks to an article by former New York Times Magazine columnist and author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, Rob Walker. And, as often happens in cases like […]
Art, Food, Sex and Trauma: Mark Maynard shoots the shit with the most important artists of our day… Episode 2: Rebekah Modrak
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 […]
Artisanal toilet plunger or iconic felling axe… Can you tell which is parody?
Peter Buchanan-Smith is the founder of Best Made Co., a high-end New York-based design boutique specializing in the production of items like this $350 artisanal American felling axe. The model above is called “Challis” Here’s how Best Made describes it: “Dependable, versatile and with a rich and powerful history, the American Felling Axe is the […]