On the Lower Frequencies Review

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(More customer reviews)With respect, I think the previous reviewer, Wayne Buzzard, misses the point.
This is a history of people who are not supposed to have political power--Latinos in the Mission, street punks, prostitutes, the homeless, drug users, youth refugees from other parts of the country--but who refuse to remain powerless. The subculture of zines, illegal shows, squatting, grassroots activism, and graffiti art is a testament to what is possible when people improvise in the pursuit of interests that will never find legitimacy in mainstream society.
"Entirely ineffective at enacting actual change"? Measured how? From what perspective? And for whom? It's true that reformist activists may not find much that's useful in this book. But it seems to me Erick Lyle cares more about the means of survival, inspiration, and alternatives available to people in his communities, than he does about reassuring society at large that its capacity for liberal tolerance and benevolence is A-Okay!
One of the book's strengths is that Erick Lyle seldom idealizes--he is heartbreakingly honest about the triumphs and failures he sees. This book is vitally important for that reason alone. It doesn't rely on fake hope or warm fuzzies. Far from simplistic moral lessons or propaganda, his stories are complex and informed, not to mention funny and often incredibly bizarre. They're about real struggles to stake out a place in the city against the fascist sweeps politely called "gentrification."

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On the Lower Frequencies is at once a manual, memoir, and history of creative resistance in a world awash with war and poverty. An icon on the 1990s zine scene, Iggy Scam traces not only the evolution of cities, but of his own thinking, from his early focus on more outré forms of resistance through more contemplative times as he becomes preoccupied with the need for a more affirmative vision of the future. In one of the book's key pieces, Scam celebrates the history and passing of Hunt's Donuts in San Francisco's Mission District. On one level an epitaph for a beloved hangout and on another a metaphor for the effects of gentrification, it's the untold history of an entire neighborhood in a single retail establishment. Whether handing out fake Starbucks coupons or dreaming of a future with more public art and punk holidays, Scam gives the reader inspiration for living defiantly.

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