UPDATE: This is a fun piece by Mike Usinger, in which this story, and its author, is mentioned:
https://www.straight.com/city-culture/dear-facebook-friends-straight-is-still-thrilled-to-be-doing-print-and-giving-you-a
So you should go find a print copy of the current Georgia Straight. I have a story in it, first in a long time, and it's the first one you will find as you read the paper. Yes, they still print (monthly) and still have print-exclusive stories: I do not know whether this one will ever eventually make it online, so grab it while you can. I do have something of RELEVANCE to the Dan Scum story on the Straight website, but this ain't that. But they want you to actually pick up the print version, see? And I think this story is a good enough read that you'll want to do just that -- you can add it to your saved issue of Absolute Underground with Dan in jail on the cover!
Thanks to Cat Ashbee for the photo... she and Dan go back a ways and have apparently rehearsed it so she can get this pic just right:
This, by the way, is something Dan sent to show how his group cell in prison was laid out -- where you'd sit for hours at a time, assembling pens. Those are thin little futon you sleep on. No chairs, tatami mats. Both squat toilets and western-style toilets were part of his prison experience, though I can't recall offhand which was where. Maybe someday you'll read about his experience of squat toilets. They do take some getting used to!
There's actually a whole other feature to be had from our interview -- I'll keep you posted as to what happens with it.
Another detail I wasn't able to include in the Straight story, for those who are interested, is that Whitmore -- Scum -- WAS able to write letters to people and that he WAS able to get books, which he read a lot of (Michael Gira also did some heavy reading in prison in Israel -- we talked about that a bit here, but you might want to track down the print edition of Big Takeover for more; I forget what's where; the idea of formative experiences happening in prison is the subject of this Swans song. So far, I've interviewed three people who have done time - Scum, Gira, and Gerry Hannah).
(Actually I've interviewed four, that I know of, but one of them isn't public about it, so let's not go there).
Back to books: Whitmore got into John Grisham in prison, which seems fitting enough, since Grisham writes legal thrillers; I believe he told me he got about 20 of those out of the library at Chiba. He mostly read non-fiction like Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, and Richard Feynman. I am more of a lightweight with books, and haven't read Diamond at all. I don't care for Dawkins, based on what little I've seen, have him pegged as an elitist who gives antitheism a bad name (I'll take Chris Hitchens any day)... but if you haven't read Feynman (the character who had the bongos at Los Alamos, which you briefly see in the movie Oppenheimer; thanks to Charles Mudede for that detail, which I would not have spotted otherwise), there is a rather delightful story in one of his books, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," where he talks about his inability to get laid while working on the bomb, until he decided to take a more scientific approach to things. His QED has a very lucid, non-specialist/ non-math-nerd discussion of the more curious aspects of quantum electrodynamics, but I figure the musings of a sexually frustrated nuclear scientist will have broader appeal: if you're going to read one Feynman, make it this one:
And there was one other writer Scum mentioned, Victor E. Frankl, who has a concept in a book called Man's Search for Meaning that was relevant to the whole prison story: the delusion of reprieve. Where we talk in the print story about how he was in a bit of denial at first, hoping he'd be deported, until his lawyers told him he'd be inside for four years minimum, that's what was going on.
I'm kind of that way about my credit card debt. Anyone want to pay it off, it's about $21,000! I've carried that balance for years...
Anyhoo, you can also here a couple of samples of "acoustic scum" here and here. Dan is performing at Main and 21st as part of a street festival open-mic situation; you can also see two of the members of Powerclown doing a set, I think sans makeup, as well as something from Dan's brother. I'd aim to be there around 3pm. Just realize that you probably CAN'T do Stephen Hamm Theremin Man at Khats AND the Main and 21st event, both.
You can still make Sudden Darts and the Circus in Flames, though, later this morning. And of course Joe Keithley, tonight.
Have a fun July 5th, folks!
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