At the age of 11, I was the editor, publisher, chief correspondent, and paperboy for a mimeographed sheet called the “Eagle,” which reported all the news of my block in Lansing, Michigan. I believed this to be the most local publication of all time, until I saw 1544 West Grace, a seven-year-old zine that comes out two or three times a year and is devoted to life in and around a Lakeview two-flat.
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It is true journalistic minimalism, cranked out by upstairs tenant-janitor Larry Roth, a man fascinated by the itty-bitty details of life. One of the zine’s most popular features is “Money Count,” an analysis of the quarters Roth empties from the washer and dryer every six months. It lists the total from each machine, plus the year each coin was minted. Roth has gone on assignment to his closet, coming back with the revelation that it contained 14 pairs of casual pants. 1544 West Grace was the first and only magazine to score an interview with Sonia LaBoy, the building’s mail carrier; in the field of criticism, the zine’s incisive review of the 1996 phone book uncovered six businesses with the name “Larry,” proving that Roth’s interests extend beyond the building to his own first name.
Amazingly, Roth’s fascination with the minutiae of his life has found a worldwide audience. Among his 175 subscribers are readers from Japan and England, as well as a Vermont psychiatrist who wrote him, “I am a fan of the obsessive/compulsive nature of the manner in which you organize, inventory and analyze items both real and conceptual….It is truly a reflection of your personality as much as it is a chronicle of the goings on in your environs.”
Roth’s housemates are all subjects in 1544, but their reaction to the paparazzo treatment varies. Barry gave Roth a photo of himself on vacation in the Canary Islands for the Spring 2000 issue, but his roommate, Carin, runs away whenever he sees Roth with a camera. Peter posed on the couch with his sock monkey, but got upset at a gossipy item about his relationship with his girlfriend. Recently the vacationing Peter sent Roth a postcard that warned, “You’d better be careful what you write about me.”
