Tag Archives: Shinola

Landline Creative Labs to feature artisanal, locally harvested, Ypsilanti-aged, hand-planed wood floors

By Mark | April 3, 2016

When news first broke a few weeks ago that Jesse Kranyak and I were in the process of buying 209 Pearl and opening Landline Creative Labs, we were interviewed for Concentrate. And, at some point in that interview, I said the following regarding my role in the building’s rehab. “My back is going, so I’m […]

Posted in 209 Pearl, Landline Creative Labs | Also tagged Best Made Co., Elijah McCoy, Jesse Kranyak | 20 Comments

Archival footage from 1970 suggests that Ann Arbor was once interesting

By Mark | April 14, 2015

As we discussed not too long ago in a thread about Ann Arbor’s proposed “Ambassador” program, there was a time in Ann Arbor’s past when it wasn’t wealthy business owners pushing for their own private security force, but the young people of Ann Arbor, who wanted to replace the cops with their own “people’s peace […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, History, Uncategorized | Also tagged Ann Arbor Ambassador Program, cops, Dustin Krcatovich, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, hippies, Psychedelic Rangers | 11 Comments

Telling shit from Shinola… It’s not as easy as you might think

By Mark | February 10, 2015

I don’t think I’ve ever weighed in one way or the other on Shinola, the somewhat controversial Detroit-based marketer of expensive watches, bicycles and notebooks. As I recall, I may have once noted how incredibly douchey I found the spectacle of four economic development professionals, at some point during a public forum on the future […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Detroit, Uncategorized | Also tagged authenticity, Bedrock Manufacturin, bicycles, bougie crap, cultural appropriation, Fossil, gentrification, handmade, luxury goods, manufacturing, marketing, Rebekah Modrak, Tom Kartsotis, watches | 92 Comments

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 […]