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Congratulations on finishing the manuscript! And I look forward to the occasional news and outbursts whenever the stars align, so to speak. Thanks. Peace.

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Mad love, Erik!

Been meaning to write and tell you that your Led Zeppelin book blew my mind as a teenager, utterly transforming and priming the interiors of my mind. I revisited that book recently, 15+ years later as a grown up, now professional record producer and realized how massively foundational your ideas were to my approach to production as both a profession and MAGICKAL ACT.

Love everything you have ever done and continue to do. You are much appreciated.

P.S. I still hope you get around to writing some more about Pynchon.

Take care

TP

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Thanks for the kind words TP. I loved writing that book, it was the most inspired and compulsive writing project I had, it just flowed out of me. There was something "magick" about the writing of it, and some of the lines still come back to me. I also wish I had made one tiny change in the last line and I can't stop thinking about it!

I think it was like the 18th 33 1/3 book, so I pitched the idea pretty early on. There were so many records I could have done, my more sophisticated side really hassled me about doing Led Zep when so many more hipster classics were calling. Then I had a dream that involved Jimmy Page, guitars, and ritualistic candles in a dark room...so my fate was sealed.

As for Pynchon that is a great example of what I mean: I do have a Pynchon essay, about California freakdom in his work and more specifically LSD in GR, but if I started on that thing it would balloon into An Essay, which is cool but I have to know what I am getting myself into. I like writing scholarly articles on occasion, and I may do the LSD/GR thing for one, since as far as I can tell it hasn't been addressed in the vast sea of Pynchon commentary and it is very interesting, and somewhat counter-intuitive. Thanks for the nudge!

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I have to finish High Weirdness, traded it for a massage in Oaxaca Mexico on Jan 1, 2020 as the Sun rose over the S. Pacific. Dolphins giggling.

Unfortunately, my subscription budget (fixed income) has already been spent on Matt Taibbi's substack.

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I totally understand! I do believe that Substack is more urgently needed as a source of fresh and well-researched political views, and most of my paid subscriptions are in that domain as well. But I can genuinely say I am just glad you are here, dolphin pals and all...

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Apr 2, 2022Liked by Erik Davis

Erik. I enjoyed this disclosure greatly enjoyable. Your industry is awesome.

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Apr 2, 2022Liked by Erik Davis

Words will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no words. The tricky part is where the time is coming from. Good luck with everything, Erik. Thanks for what you do. I appreciate your somewhat funky (old-school funk!) approach.

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“What a long strange trip it’s been” I’m sure you agree with that lyric. Your writing comes with a soundtrack buzzing in my subconscious, and visuals like messing with the album cover of Physical graffiti…n sticking to my sound metaphor an old podcasts you did with A.J Lees (mentored by a madman) popped back into my head where it seemed that old rascal Burroughs wanted in on the conversation, the crackle n scratches sounded intentional in that episode.

Looking forward to your new book! Always love the great talks! I’m very grateful for you!

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Hi Juan, thanks for the sweet words. And thanks for reminding me of that episode, that really was quite...peculiar, and not the only sonic peculiarity I have had on that show or in my life. Indeed one of the consistent meta-magical aspects of my life is how communications technology fails or goes wonky. Sometimes I feel I will never feel at home in digital writing, which is why most of my stuff before Burning Shore and early Techgnosis posts were in print.

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Hey man, I respect your decision and will continue my subscription. Recently I went through all my subscriptions to cut the unnecessary costs, but I kept burning shore. I get a lot of value from it and I think it will be a good thing to spread it to more people for free. Keep doing your thing! It always arrests my attention and creates new connections in me noggin.

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Thanks Tyler. Noggins are us!

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Thanks, Erik, I appreciate your straightforward nature. Excited for the next book!

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Ain't it interesting, how those tools drive us? The ability to look at the numbers (easily) makes us want to ... look at the numbers. Makes us want to degrade ourselves, our work, our worth. Since I do a fair amount of branding, strategy, & editorial content work to pay the bills, I have had to confront this over & over.

My conclusion: turning writers & artists into Numbers People is a bad feckin' idea. Marketing teams used to have wild & empathic minded creatives, with numbers-oriented project manager types to herd the cats. At Plazm we still operate that way in many of our projects, and it means we bring stronger creative & strategic to the table. We're not contorting ourselves for the latest metric, & it makes the work stronger.

Outside of Plazm, on my own, I have a minuscule podcast with a teeny-tiny mailing list, and only occasionally look at the numbers. I notice that the prominence of those dashboard tools (in this case, on Mailchimp) really draws me, makes me want to whore myself out as whorily as possible. It's like playing Whack-a-Mole at a carnival. You just wanna beat on those moles with the whack-em stick, wanna hit more & more & more of them. Playing Asteroids or Missile Command back in the day: make sure you never ask yourself *why* you want more points. It'd ruin the game.

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Good to hear from you Tiff. Your words are gold here. And I am glad you offer the example of Plazm, which acknowledges that this is not the only way to market or build a brand! That part of the trick is having some sort of numbers game in the picture somewhere but also making room for more creative approaches. Its like the tools are pushing us towards being total self-entrepreneurs, which means we need to internalize the business manager, the marketer, the bean counter, as well as the creative director, and the artist. Not only can most folks not do all those things, but for the artist/"creatives" it gets particularly difficult because the power of Money as Measurement (of worth, "success,") or even Numbers as Measurement (likes, retweets, etc) is such a successful and therefore dominant metric.

I suspect there is something generational here too. Rushkoff pointed out how the Gen X generation that all three of us share had and (at least to a degree) still has a deeply burned in resistance to "selling out", whatever that is exactly. This instinct, towards maybe an older and tattered idea of "authenticity" is basically absent in younger generations--not just not present but not even legible as a value. So it's easier to integrate these other competitive metrics because that's just what it means to be a self in the world now. its just the water we swim in, while to some of us ole punk rock raver kids it feels like oil.

Here I think part of the problem is generational.

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But it gets to the young'uns, too. Thus the high rates of suicide & anxiety. They have internalized the message — that more hearts, likes, $$, etc. means being a worthy human with a meaningful life.

It was already embedded in capitalism. Oldsters usually wanted our books to sell lots of copies (though okay, maybe some of us were happy to sell cassettes by word-of-mouth for our '90s bands, rather than go platinum on a major label).

But it does take some of the fun out of good ol' communication. We used to chitchat on The Well — I still do! Meaning is a real value there — and people would post to Usenet or whatever, not demanding hearts and likes and money. We made 'zines. For the money part, we could write for real magazines and newspapers, maybe get a book advance. I still do journalism work, for very little money. Anyway, I don't think it's just generational. We GenX'ers are just more attuned to how it fucks us up.

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Yeah, I kinda wish I had kept up with the Well over the years, that's a real treasure there and I can tell you appreciate it. And your logic is very familiar to me, in a way I don't think translates as much to the millennials, that sort of punk rock sacrifice/middle finger to certain aspirations. On the other hand you are totally right that everyone suffers from the psychic depredation inflicted. Generational thinking is usually dodgy, and there have been charismatic self-promoters throughout time. But it feels like there is something "special" about being the last analog generation, already into high school when the PCs started to really spread and video killed the radio star.

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And class, education, etc play into it as well. Of the younger-mid Millennials in my life, the ones I'm closest to are three kids who were raised with poverty and addiction. Two didn't graduate high school; one has (hooray!) just earned their Associates Degree (two-year community college degree). Watching them struggle in this world, I feel like the technology opened up new avenues in some ways, enabling them to expand some small-scale entrepreneurial efforts; it also seems to make them more self-conscious about presenting themselves as successful, positive, happy, blah blah blah. Drives me nuts. The greatest gift of Generation X is not having to pretend you're brilliantly satisfied all the time.

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PS: We are engaging in conversation here. If anyone is benefiting financially from that arrangement, I suppose it must be Substack, in some way. I am not paying you to post here. You are not paying me. What does that mean?

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Let me think this through: to the degree that us having a conversation here makes Burning Shore a little more lively and attractive to a potential paid subscriber, than Substack benefits. But because it is not advertising driven, that attention is not directly monetized. So I feel groovy enough about it!

That's one of the barrels They have us over: if you want to resist exploitation, one of the best ways is to monetize MORE of your unpaid labor. So an important plank of feminism is "emotional labor," or for POC the labor of having to explain what's fucked up to white people. "Thats not my job, and if it is, pay me for it." But then you have re asserted your rights by even further plunging into the transactional, actually increasing the "social surfaces" that are monetized or reckoned according to the universal measurement of money. At the same time, if you keep "doing it for free," then the platform ka-chings in the background. Burning Man is like this in a way: they built a platform, people pour a tremendous amount of time and money and energy into it for the luls and the luvs, and the org benefits (though they are pretty broke now after Covid).

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I am just gonna repeat this gem: "The greatest gift of Generation X is not having to pretend you're brilliantly satisfied all the time." A vexed and grumbly cohort for sure, but capable of great enthusiasm and joy, as well as a humility cap on how serious we could ever take our situation.

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Apr 4, 2022Liked by Erik Davis

you said 'customer'.

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Apr 4, 2022Liked by Erik Davis

Erik: Please please do the GR/LSD essay! Two of my favorite subjects - both mind altering as well. That's my 'nudge'..... at any rate, keep on keepin' it weird!

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Duly noted. I gotta let the dust settle around here a bit and decide where to place the thing. I have been meaning to reread Lot 49 and Inherent Vice as well...

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Erik, Thanks for this. I've been struggling with similar issues and, as usual, you've helped to clarify things, and I see a few new ways forward for my own lil substack venture. Thank you —again! Jay

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I am glad you commented here Jay. In the original version I wrote I praised Landline because of its warm informality, and the combination of passion and brevity and high quality links and comments. I think substantial Substacks are great too, but I love the conviviality you communicate on top of the ideas and suggestions.

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Reading what I wrote here it makes it seems your Substack is not substantial, which is not what I meant -- there is a lot of substance to it, just not dominated by long ass fuggin essays

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What is the meta- modern meditation center you are working on?

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Hey there. It is called the Alembic, and it is in Berkeley. We just opened our doors though it will take some time to build into a fuller schedule as we are testing the waters of in-person events like everyone else! But most everything will be streamed as well. https://berkeleyalembic.org/

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Jun 17, 2022Liked by Erik Davis

Thanks very much, Erik.

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Let us know when we can order the book!

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I really appreciate your entry, the Elephant LSD. As a 50-something guy who fairly recently returned to psychedelics after a 30 year hiatus, I'm sympathetic to your insights about LSD in the current US cultural context. As many old-school tripsters know, set and setting are of vital importance. Unfortunately, in my teens and twenties, set and setting were sorely lacking. Even then I sensed this absence. I tried to read The Psychedelic Experience couldn't make much sense of it. It was not until I participated in an ayahuasca ritual with a gifted guide a few years ago that I experienced the comfort of a safely held container and the potency of a ceremony that has developed over many centuries and hybridized for the demographics of the community. I'm especially fascinated by the extraordinary effects resulting from the entwinement of the tea and the icaros, which seem to bind together like ayahuasca and chacruna, working in concert as one medicine. Just as there is a techne to ayahuasca, which you rightly mention, I believe that there is a techne to set and setting, a techne that has been refined in the cultures in which plant medicines have played a core role in religious/spiritual life.Psychedelics and religion have an ancient history. But LSD and religion do not. (As a side-note, my high-school psychedelic source wrote a paper on the Grateful Dead as religion, then dropped out of Harvard to go on tour with the band.)

The icaros (and corresponding textile patterns) are said to be given to shamans by the spirit of ayahuasca herself. Beyond the Grateful Dead, Kesey's Acid Tests, and Burning Man/Festivals what parallels might there be for LSD? What small-scale ceremonial techniques have tripsters gleaned from their acid experiences? At the risk of ascribing agency to a chemical molecule, one might ask, What is acid telling us about how we can benefit most from the gifts it has to offer? In my teens, I always had a journey tape - Harold Budd's "Pavilion of Dreams" on one side and George Lewis's "Blue" on the other. Similarly, the Kuya psychedelic assisted therapy center in Austin recently commissioned musician Poranguí to record journey music sessions. Poranguí, who walks a highly disciplined spiritual path, composed and performed the soundtrack for Aubrey Marcus's documentary film Ayahuasca and his is Kuya Project collaborator, Amani Friend, of Desert Dwellers and Liquid Bloom, also have long histories as spiritual seekers and their music has clear references to plant medicine. In my experience, having a journey soundtrack was very helpful but it is not able to respond to a journeyer individually in the moment the way that a medicine guide/shaman can - to issue an invitation, to hold space, to protect, and support the healing and discovery process, to say nothing of integration...

Curious to know others thoughts on these ideas...

Expand full comment

I really appreciate your entry, the Elephant LSD. As a 50-something guy who fairly recently returned to psychedelics after a 30 year hiatus, I'm sympathetic to your insights about LSD in the current US cultural context. As many old-school tripsters know, set and setting are of vital importance. Unfortunately, in my teens and twenties, set and setting were sorely lacking. Even then I sensed this absence. I tried to read The Psychedelic Experience couldn't make much sense of it. It was not until I participated in an ayahuasca ritual with a gifted guide a few years ago that I experienced the comfort of a safely held container and the potency of a ceremony that has developed over many centuries and hybridized for the demographics of the community. I'm especially fascinated by the extraordinary effects resulting from the entwinement of the tea and the icaros, which seem to bind together like ayahuasca and chacruna, working in concert as one medicine. Just as there is a techne to ayahuasca, which you rightly mention, I believe that there is a techne to set and setting, a techne that has been refined in the cultures in which plant medicines have played a core role in religious/spiritual life.Psychedelics and religion have an ancient history. But LSD and religion do not. (As a side-note, my high-school psychedelic source wrote a paper on the Grateful Dead as religion, then dropped out of Harvard to go on tour with the band.)

The icaros (and corresponding textile patterns) are said to be given to shamans by the spirit of ayahuasca herself. Beyond the Grateful Dead, Kesey's Acid Tests, and Burning Man/Festivals what parallels might there be for LSD? What small-scale ceremonial techniques have tripsters gleaned from their acid experiences? At the risk of ascribing agency to a chemical molecule, one might ask, What is acid telling us about how we can benefit most from the gifts it has to offer? In my teens, I always had a journey tape - Harold Budd's "Pavilion of Dreams" on one side and George Lewis's "Blue" on the other. Similarly, the Kuya psychedelic assisted therapy center in Austin recently commissioned musician Poranguí to record journey music sessions. Poranguí, who walks a highly disciplined spiritual path, composed and performed the soundtrack for Aubrey Marcus's documentary film Ayahuasca and his is Kuya Project collaborator, Amani Friend, of Desert Dwellers and Liquid Bloom, also have long histories as spiritual seekers and their music has clear references to plant medicine. In my experience, having a journey soundtrack was very helpful but it is not able to respond to a journeyer individually in the moment the way that a medicine guide/shaman can - to issue an invitation, to hold space, to protect, and support the healing and discovery process, to say nothing of integration...

Curious to know others thoughts on these ideas...

Expand full comment