Best of Rebuilding Paradise

     Rebuilding Paradise was a zine I published (Xeroxed) from the early to mid 90’s.  It was a rudimentary zine that was fairly typical for the time period.   It consisted of a few observational essays, some bad poetry, some graphic manipulation, you know shit like that. 

     I made roughly 3 issues, the fourth issue was tiny and I numbered it 3.5.  I always expected to put out more but I never got around to it.  I was proud of what I made back then especially issue three but as I scanned these images I got to look more closely at the “product” and most of it just sucked.

     It was similar to looking at old issues of Keep Laughing.  In all honesty KL mostly sucked aside from the great cover art done by Greg Telles.  It was a good zine because it had dozens of contributors each with their own style and thing to say.  Just like the original Keep Laughing zine, Rebuilding Paradise had some moments of brilliance and a whole lot of filler.  But it's still worth remembering.  

     There's some good shit in there but I've decided to only post a "best of" Rebuilding Paradise.  Some of that shit is too corny to put out in public.  The writing is naive, badly proofread, and rather juvenile.  My writing has grown by leaps and bounds since then.  I like to think.  Still the graphics are somewhat entertaining and I was lucky to have contributors who were also good friends.

     I wrote an extensive article about the death of the LVHC scene from my perspective focusing on the bullshit divide and conquer scenario of anti-nazis versus the nazis.  I should have included that here but it's somewhat laughable in retrospect.  I did a ridiculous write up about why "Industrial Music" sucks.    As you can imagine it's really dated.  I have included the interview I did with Catapult because it's bordering on funny and they were a bunch of nice guys.  

     Anyway.  The scanner at the Independent Publishers Resource Center did no justice to the numerous photos included in this issue.  Maybe I'll try and scan them again some other day?  

Contributed by Shannon Hennesee

Contributed by Ryland Luss

Catapult interview #1

Catapult interview #2

Catapult interview #3

Contributed by Bobby Klepper

    I'm still convinced that anything we produce that puts a spotlight on our own lives is extremely valuable.  It's such a rare thing to read about the world we share together a world that almost no one else knows about.  Be it obscure music we both experienced, the desert and it's expanse, even the trash, the drugs, and the awful horrible memories we thought we'd never forget.  It's not something we can find anywhere but within yourself.   How odd to think how fragile and transient memories can be.  It is valuable.  It is worth the effort to record these things we hold dearest to our heart and to find new things that are equally as valuable.  Maybe people in the future will understand and learn by our example.  Or maybe they will be baffled that we would give a shit about such mundane bullshit?   

     Almost 98% of the messages we see in our lifetime are useless commercial messages which do more to distract and divide us.  Any expression created outside that framework is an important counter point to the bullshit we see perpetrated everyday.  The fact that such expression exists at all is contrary to the stream of manipulation that bogs down our lives.  It is important.  Even if it's moronic.  But let's be reasonable.  If you are going to take the time to express yourself be thoughtful.  Be intelligent.  Most importantly be truthful.  If you can't be any of those and you can only be moronic at least be funny.  And TRUTHFUL.    

    The following drawings (comics?) I made as a contribution to a zine in 1998 that never got published.  In fact I submitted these drawrings to three separate zines which never materialized.  The flake factor in zineland is on par with the flake factor in any other art medium.  Hovering at about 75%.  Here are my moronic ramblings finally exposed to public scrutiny.  Maybe it's a good thing they never got published?

Back cover of Issue 3

    The scanner I was using wasn't so great so I didn't include the photographs from this issue which is a shame because there are some really good ones.  If I can find the original master of this issue I'll try and scan those pics from desert shows, house parties, shit like that.