The author and 'countercultural icon' discusses his latest book, Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium, which details a fascinating intersection between art and the illicit drug market.
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What can be scarier than Halloween ghouls? How about a trip through the LSD underground?
Today, the Spotlight shines On Erik Davis, and this trip is no bummer. Erik is an author, award-winning journalist, and teacher in San Francisco. He is the author, most recently, of Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium_, a study of LSD blotter art. And that’s what he’s joined us to talk about.
Erik also wrote one of my favorite books, High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. His scholarly and popular essays on music, technoculture, drugs, and spirituality have appeared in many books, magazines, and journals. He is also one of the founders of Alembic, a center in Berkeley, California, devoted to meditation, movement, and visionary arts and culture.
Enjoy our talk about the hysteria surrounding LSD, the cultural significance and risks of the LSD blotter art trade, as well as the intersection between that art and the illicit drug market.
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[00:00:00] Introduction: Welcome to Spotlight On
[00:01:39] Early Days: New Haven and Concert Memories
[00:02:08] The DEA's Blotter Index and Cultural Documentation
[00:03:07] Law Enforcement and Underground Culture
[00:06:06] The Bureaucracy of Control
[00:14:13] The DEA's Internal Publications
[00:14:39] National Branding and Cultural Hysteria
[00:21:31] The Evolution of Blotter Art Collection
[00:25:28] Quality and Legitimacy in Blotter Art
[00:27:26] Mark McCloud's Collection Philosophy
[00:30:01] The Legality of Paper
[00:33:57] Contemporary Methods and Cultural Evolution
[00:35:17] Closing Thoughts
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Visit Erik Davis at http://www.techgnosis.com
Subscribe to Erik Davis's newsletter, Burning Shore, at → https://www.burningshore.com
Purchase Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium_and other books by Erik Davis from MIT Press → https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/erik-davis-8651
Bookshop → https://bookshop.org/contributors/erik-davis-85d580a1-0fa5-49d1-b7eb-e00f958ce3dd
Amazon → https://amzn.to/48wPqIS
Barnes & Noble → https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22Erik%20Davis%22?Ntk=P_key_Contributor_List&Ns=P_Sales_Rank&Ntx=mode+matchall
Powell's → https://www.powells.com/SearchResults?keyword=Erik+Davis
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Be sure to check out The Tonearm, our new magazine site featuring fascinating perspectives and conversations with creative people → https://www.thetonearm.com/
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