Another One From The Basement

Here's another gem I found in that old box of letters and shit that was sitting in my basement.  This thing is probably around thirty years old.  It was a *work wanted* flyer from a self-proclaimed *fat slob* named Doug Holland.  Besides being fat and a slob and a general laborer, Holland was also a Prominent Figure in the 1990s zine scene (the oddball penpal movement in which oddballs published their own xeroxed magazines and then traded them through the mail to other oddballs who would then praise them in their own oddball magazines, etc., etc. in a DIY Literary Ponzi Scheme), first as the publisher of Pathetic Life, a monthly diary-type zine chronicling his low-rent San Francisco existence, and then as the William Randolph Hearst of zines with his Zine World, a zine devoted to reviewing other zines. Holland had a crew of oddballs volunteering to write the reviews.

The Holland Zine Empire probably lasted 5 years or so before he mysteriously vanished for 25 or so years before reappearing on his current internets page, in which he re-posts entries from the old Pathetic Life zine, as well as movie reviews and links to news articles documenting sex crimes committed by self-proclaimed Christians. Holland, for some reason, has always seemed to have a grudge against churchianity. He now seems to have acquired an additional grudge against MAGA. He also has a terminally ill roommate who can’t exit this plane of existence fast enough.

I tried calling the number on the flyer to see if I could hire Holland to clean my basement, but the number is out of service. Apparently Holland is now *retired,* living a comfortable hermit’s life care of his monthly Social Security stipend.

On two or three occasions over the past couple years I attempted to interview Holland about the old zine days and this and that, but he declined.

I always enjoyed reading Pathetic Life. It was a humorous, thoughtful, well-written account of lonely low-budget American life.