[August 1996]

<!-- I think Paul O'Hearn now lives in New York, but before leaving for the Empire State he was a card-carrying member of the South Shore Posse while living in Halifax, MA. For a while he also made a really cool `zine, Extra Large, and was/is a damn good mini ramp & street rider...and his flatland skills would surprise you, too. -->

What made you decide to start making a `zine? Your design background?

Yeah, just my design background and school. I did one for a class project and ever since then I've wanted to do one, seeing other people's `zines.

John Maul wrote once that making a `zine is a thankless job.

Oh yeah, sometimes I guess.

How do you still get the motivation to make me look bad and do it on a regular basis?

Just something to do, really. I have too much free time, I guess, and I like doing it a lot. So it's just what I do.

You've done small and large sized, photocopied and color — what would be your ideal format, assuming to had no budget? I mean...

No budget? (laughter)

That's what we got now. I mean no limit — unlimited budget.

Seven colors, three different glosses...I don't even think...

How about realistically?

I doesn't really matter. The reason I change it up is to keep from getting bored — I get bored kind of easy, and as soon as I do something I don't like it afterwards. Like a day later I won't like it and I'll want to change it all over again. So I'll just keep mixing it up, keep myself from getting bored.

So what are you doing for #4?

That's a secret. Nah, it'll probably be 10 by 10, color photo on the front, black & white inside to cut down the cost, maybe good paper instead of newsprint. I'll never bind them myself again (like #3), that was the biggest mistake. It's a pain in the ass. But the hardest thing for me is distributing, `cause I don't like getting in people's faces saying "Do you want to buy a `zine?"

Me neither.

I hate it when people do that to me.

What do you think of most `zines you see? Do you get just riding `zines, or do you read others?

Yeah, I read other `zines. They're usually pretty trashy as far as quality goes, but I still like them anyway `cause it's something totally different that you don't usually see. I even like those with no design or anything; I just like it because that it's something that people do. If I know a `zine isn't going to have anything like that I won't get disappointed by it.

Don't go in expecting much design.

Yeah. Then you look at something like Orbit thinking it's gonna be good, and it turns out to be nothing but a yearbook (laughter). A high school yearbook, with little blocks with pictures. That was my first impression of it.

What do you think of riding getting popular? Selling out or no big deal?

I don't know, I can see it from both sides. It's cool `cause a lot of people are getting to know it. It's on TV more, like that Airwalk commercial, and the one with Hoffman. I guess it's cool. I doesn't really matter, though; it doesn't affect me, I just have fun.

It's not like whether it being popular or not would have any affect on whether I'd still ride or not.

Yeah. I just do it `cause I'm having fun, and I'll keep doing it `cause I'm having fun.

Anything else you'd like to bring up here?

Uh, I don't think so.

Peace to the South Shore Posse?