Last weekend, shortly after having returned home to Michigan from New Mexico, where she’d moved some six months earlier, Ypsilanti artist Kim Demick passed away. While I considered Kim a friend, the truth is I didn’t know her terribly well. I think we first met at the Shadow Art Fair about 10 years ago now, […]
Posted in Mark's Life, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Amanda Edmonds, Blake Reetz, cancer, Dan Hussong, dancing, David Ketchens, Donald Harrison, EAT, eulogy, Everyone Loves Raymond, fabric art, food, generosity, hair, Helen Harding, Jean Henry, Jefferson Market, Kim Demick, Margot Finn, Marti Gulkeisen, New Mexico, resiliency, Shadow Art Fair, Sleater-Kinney, Walt Whitman |
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 […]
Posted in History, Uncategorized | Also tagged American Studies, axes, Best Made Co., distressed clothing, jeans, Nordstrom, prison, prison apparel, Robert Berkhofer, stupid trends, The White Man's Indian, University of Michigan |
By Mark | February 21, 2016
Every year, at about this time, Patrick Elkins, the director of Ypsilanti’s Totally Awesome Fest (TAF), calls a big press conference to formally announce the coming festivities. And, every year, invariably, I’m the only member of the professional press to show up. This year’s press conference, which took place yesterday evening during a hijacked karaoke […]
Posted in Ann Arbor, Art and Culture, Detroit, The Saturday Six Pack | Also tagged Aimee Adams, Alanis Morissette, Albatros, Amber Fellows, Autumn Wetli, Ben Miller, Ben Miller's take-home fashion show, brilliant troubled musicians, Devin Leatherman, festivals, free music events, Fundrager, Hollis Coats, Hollis Knight Coats, India, indie music, international travel, Jim Cherewick, karaoke, Karaoke Jamming, Karen Dalton, Logan Schaedig, Manhole, May Day, Maypole, Nathanael Paul Romero, Patrick Elkins, Powell's, press conferences, Riot Peddlers, Sibylle Baier, Stef Chura, Stefyoke, ventriloquism, Ypsilanti |
By Mark | January 19, 2015
I excused myself from dinner tonight to go and hack away at my beard. It had been bothering me for a while, and I felt that a change was in order. So I took a pair of scissors from the medicine cabinet and started cutting it away from my face in massive, white clumps. After […]
By Mark | September 21, 2014
I don’t know if it’s brilliant or stupid, but, earlier today, when reading about some folks who got dressed up in ridiculous costumes and walked around London’s Fashion Week hoping to be photographed by fashion writers, it occurred to me that it might be fun to just pick a date, and put the word out […]
