True Anon podcast interviewed William Vollman. I had never listened to True Anon but I know of it as a well-known edgy podcast and the host Brace Belden is a friend of a friend. I knew of Brace who got a lot of news coverage a few years back when he went to fight in the Syrian civil war.
Brace and Liz Franczak, the cohost, came to Sac recently to interview Vollman, who has a studio in a barbed wire compound in Alkali Flat.
Vollman says he heard a story that the first mayor of Sacramento was murdered by a homeless man in Alkali Flat but that he doesn't know for sure. The only reason that's a bit curious is that from my understanding of his nonfiction writing, he's done in-depth histories, so finding that out seems like no task for him, but maybe he prefers not to confirm. Googling reveals the first mayor was William Stout, who served 3 weeks. Where's Bill Burg when you need him?
Vollman's place has been broken into a lot, he's injured right now because of it, or maybe he also has had a car accident? I'm not clear on that. He mentions Loaves and Fishes, as a place that many people hate but I somewhat take issue with that. I think back in the day Loaves was a little more controversial but it's so obviously needed now. I'm sure he means businesses but businesses there have either been there forever and know the deal or who the hell would move a new business into that area not knowing what you are getting into?
They are ostensibly there to discuss his wonderful article in Harper's (please read!). It about homelessness and grief, and is set in Reno. I love it even more because he mostly interviewed the guys in the Cal-Neva, so I can picture the setting easily. Sadly, the Eggs McNeva do not make an appearance.
The podcast interview is free-ranging and engrossing. I've only listened to part 1. I need to read some more Vollman, I've only read non-fiction short pieces, but of course he won the National Book Award for fiction (famously, the same night other Sacramentan Joan Didion was honored). But I have to finish fucking Middlemarch first!!!!!!
4 comments:
The first mayor of Sacramento was Hardin Bigelow, he was shot several times during an incident known as the "Squatters' Riot" (or, to use a term used by a friend, the Settlers' Revolt) which took place at 4th & J Street in 1850; because it was part of a pretty large protest, we don't actually know who shot him, but because the people who were doing the shooting were miners who had settled on plots of land sold to other people and claimed them as their own, I suppose they were technically "homeless men" in that they didn't own or pay rent on the land where they were staying. Sacramento had flooded a few months earlier, then burned down, and was basically just tents & shacks before that, so the homes of people who did own the land were probably difficult to tell apart from the "squatters."
Bigelow wasn't killed in the attack; he was moved to a hospital in San Francisco, where he died of cholera several months later. William Stout and Albert Winn served as presidents of the city council but were not elected, and Stout only held that role for a couple weeks, plus that was before the city was incorporated or the charter recognized by the state of California, so Bigelow is generally recognized as the first elected mayor of Sacramento.
Also, thanks for sharing the post about Vollman; I've read a few of his articles but his books are all lengthy and difficult so I haven't been able to tackle more than the first few pages of any of them; I've got his fiction work about the Cold War on my shelf with a bookmark on Page 7. I remember seeing him around Sacramento coffee shops in the 90s and early 2000s, but don't think we ever had a conversation. Definitely on the list of this city's great literary figures, though.
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