livingproof #4: rehearsal.

On the surface, my life seems just like anyone else’s. These are the things I do: I eat, drink, sleep, listen to music, watch movies, and read books. I work at a local record store, I do research at the university, and I attend class. I eat cold pizza for breakfast. I drink warm beer if someone forgot to put more in the fridge. I grimace at the pile of dishes in the sink, then walk away without washing any... Read more.

Part of an interview with Geoff Merritt, of Urbana-based Parasol Records.
We started out as doing just mail order. I had moved to San Francisco briefly for a couple of months and didn’t have a job, so I was buying records and then I started selling them through Goldmine. That was the beginning of it. And then when I moved back, my friend Brian (who runs Bus Stop Records) moved here and we started Parasol for real at that point. I lived in an apartment, I had record bins everywhere. Then I bought a house in ‘91 and that’s sort of when we decided that this would be the start of Parasol. At that point we had put out our first four 7”s, and then everything sort of picked up from there... Read more.

You know how everyone remembers where they were a) when the Twin Towers fell, b) when Kurt Cobain was shot, and c) when they had their first kiss? Well, for me it was a) in my bedroom sorting clean laundry, b) I was in the 9th grade and had just gotten home from school with my friend Nick, and c) in Karen’s basement, under a blanket... Read more.

stats

first printing (pre-release): 50 (green numbers)
second printing: 300 (red numbers)

size: 5.5x4.25 (quarter-letter wide)
pages: 80
cover (pre-release): plain paper, black and white laser print
cover: gloss white cardstock, single-color print (blue)

reviews

Loop Distro: A return to the more familiar quarter-size for Mr. Mall, in this fourth edition, subtitled ‘Rehearsal’. His well-formatted thoughts flow from page to page, and time to time, as he discusses life in Pennsylvania, life in Chicago, and the time and distance between these two places. His stories often drip of nostalgia, but with enough underlying direction to keep you reading. Living Proof often has a couple mentions of girls, crushes, and failed romances, and this issue follows up on that, as well as giving us lots of other topics (Thanksgiving, traveling, the hotness of musicians…). After reading this, I feel I am witness to Andrew’s understanding of himself, via his understanding and reflection on his past.

NewPages Zine Rack #30: It took me awhile to get into this zine. It looks really nice and is very nicely produced, including dramatic photos of southeastern Utah landscapes, but I wasn’t finding anything gripping in the text. That is, until I reached about page 21, where Andrew wanders into a thoughtful discussion of homesickness and nostalgia. And while the ideas he writes about aren’t earth-shattering, there’s a simple truth to them that rang true with me. After reading this section, I was feeling better about the zine, and so I read on, enjoying the interview with Geoff Merritt of Parasol Records, and Andrew’s sprawling personal examination of love and heartbreak that winds through Utah, Colorado, and my native state of New Jersey, unearthing a few similarities between Andrew’s story and mine, namely the churchgoing childhood and the familiar towns we both traveled in and around while growing up. So, Living Proof grew on me, proving it’s worth reading deep enough into a zine to have a chance to revise your first impression. My conclusion: this is a welcome indulgence for perzine junkies.

Punk Planet #70: Andrew is all over Living Proof, ‘mentally masturbating’ on subjects all relevant (irrelevant?) to life. From his theorizing on surrealistic art in a museum exhibit to melodramatically musing on success to love, his childhood and politics, Andrew doesn’t leave a stone unturned. Living Proof is intelligently written, sincere, easy to relate to, and filled with nostalgic yarns, though it is an exhausting read for one afternoon.

Xerography Debt #18: My favorite thing about Living Proof is that you can open it up at random and start reading anywhere. There are even occasional large-face bold phases to draw your eye and pull you into the ongoing narrative. Filled with stories about music, friends, crushes and neighbors, these tales inform and flow into one another with the indistinct nature of thought. Music is the recurring theme here though, whether it’s about making mix tapes, learning to play an instrument because musicians are hot (and everybody knows it), or opinions about downloading songs, music is the defining element in Andrew’s life and hardly a story can be told without music playing a role. This zine is slick, attractive and well-constructed (just like a hot musician) with a few nice photographs throughout. As a straightforward perzine – devoid of gimmicks or fancy themes – Living Proof is one of the best.

Issues:
#1: Crisis. [samples]
#2: Rebound. [samples]
#3: Genesis. [samples]
#4: Rehearsal. [samples]
#5: Rapprochement. [samples]
Available for $3 each. Ordering info.
Sanitary and Ship is free.

Reader, I think I might owe you an apology. You probably picked up this zine thinking it was going to be another installment of the Livingproof perzine, a series engages in the dissecting of failures in romance and the place of underground music in such a narrative. This zine doesn’t exactly follow that format. Indeed, upon first read, you may feel like I hoodwinked you into reading a paean to my favorite band, whom you likely don’t care about and may be disinclined entirely to check out after finishing the last page and closing this zine (or throwing it down in disgust partway through).... Read more.

It wasn’t hard to find a place to stay when I first moved to Chicago: my freshman year roommate Brad had an extra bedroom in his Lincoln Park apartment because his roommate had abandoned him for the summer. I could only afford to pay half of my share, but that was better than Brad paying for the whole thing himself. We shook hands and I moved in two days later. I spent that first Chicago summer exploring the city, both formally—I had a job canvassing pedestrians around the city for Greenpeace—and informally, as I learned my way around the CTA, started meeting people, and hung out at bars and rock clubs... Read more.

Semi-Related Links:
Fall of Autumn
Punk Planet
Sanitary and Ship
Splendid
WLUW
Zine World

Sometimes, when the end comes, it’s right on time. But very rarely do things end when it feels right. Too often the end is a surprise, it catches you off guard, and you’re left in the dust struggling to make sense in your grief. Not as often, but just as difficult, is the end that drags on, milking your patience and sympathy until you’re actually happy the end has come when it finally does arrive. It’s a relief, in those cases... Read more.