Scam, an icon of the samizdat zine scene of the 1990's, is equally at home on mainstream radio, where he has done several commentaries for This American Life. His "Secret History" traces the evolution of cities, for sure, and of neighborhoods, and of dissent, but also of his own thinking under the pressure of experience, from his early focus on the more outre forms of resistance, through more contemplative times as he becomes preoccupied with the passage of time and starts to articulate an affirmative vision of the type of society he'd like to live in and fight for. In writing, for example, on Reagan's death he feels relief that came from realizing that by the time Reagan had actually died, his teenage rage had ceased being the motivating factor in his life, that what keeps him going is the sense of what he wishes the world actually looked like, inter alia, public art, squats, free breakfast programs, illegal peace demos in san francisco, punk holidays (joey ramone day, in which people gather and do a secret santa exchange of mixtapes), even a booklist.

But he never seeks refuges in the abstract—in one of the book's key set pieces, "The Epicenter of Crime: The Hunt's Donuts Story," Scam celebrates the history and passing of a donut shop that was once a nerve center in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood. On one level, it's an epitaph for a beloved hangout. On another, it's a metaphor for the racial and economic tensions that can accompany gentrification. And on yet another, it's an untold history of an entire neighborhood via a single retail establishment.

Scam gives the reader inspiration for living defiantly in these times.

Erick Lyle (Iggy Scam) is a writer, musician, actor and zinester. Born in Miami FL, he's lived all over the United States, and resides mostly in SSan Francisco CA.

Throughout the 1990's, Iggy edited Scam, an influential zine that featured personal writing, politics, reports on protest events and interviews with activists and punk bands. He has been a frequent contributor to Maximum Rock N Roll; Error, edited by Sam McPheeters; the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the audio zine Long Ago and Right Now. He contributed an essay to the City Lights anthology San Francisco: The Political Edge and the AK Press anthology Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority. He has also performed several commentaries on NPR's This American Life.

Iggy Scam is also a drummer. In the 1990's he played with the band The Hidden Resentment. In the 2000's he began playing with Onion Flavored Rings, who released the CD Two Minutes Enlightenment in 2005.

As an actor, he appears in Greta Snider's celebrated film Portland, a tale of three zinesters travelling from San Francisco to Portland who encounter all kinds of unexpected adventures.