My "Stalking Rich Mackin" Article Now Available Online

With the Church of Euthanasia documentary soon becoming a reality, I have decided to organize and archive my journalism work which focused on Boston and Cambridge's small press and performing arts scenes. This will give me a chance to go over old notes in my file cabinets. With luck, I can revisit and write about a few topics I wanted to cover before finances, the dwindling small press market and life changes forced me to stop.

I re-published my first piece on the Church of Euthanasia a while back, but today I'm linking a PDF to an article on a figure in the scene I wrote the most about.

Though he would likely be the first to argue this, Rich Mackin was clearly an influential figure in Boston over a decade ago through his Book of Letters series as well as his zine Protests are Your Best Entertainment Value (PAYBEV). The third issue of the latter zine had documented the Church of Euthanasia's previous attempt to infiltrate the WBOS Earthfest at The Hatch Shell, where Mackin passed out his "Litter a Park for The Earth" pamphlets.

I first interviewed Rich  for Lollipop Magazine back in 1999. I would continue to cover him in various ways with various levels of success. I will repost the Lollipop article eventually, but I wanted to start with what could be described as a tribute piece to Rich, something I wrote as a way to give props to the person who got me involved in all the smaller and richer stories of the city.

Eyeball Magazine was published by Christopher Sharpe, writer, director and publisher who was ambitious in his scope. Originally called Indymedia, he had to change the title quick before going to print due to the emergence of the Independent Media Center/Indymedia organization.

Presto chango!

My essay "Stalking Rich Mackin" (who eventually signed my copy of his book Dear Mr. Mackin with the added note, "Stop following me!") appeared in the first issue of Eyeball in late 2001 and was my first small press writing gig that paid me and did so promptly. I am grateful to Sharpe for giving me a venue wile Eyeball lasted for the too-few issues that it did.

So without any further ado, click to read "Stalking Rich Mackin."

Rich Mackin at the April 24, 1999 Earthfest, posing for me 
while Ian MacKanon addresses passersby in the background.