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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Dig Deeper

• Visit Erik Davis at techgnosis.com
• Subscribe to Erik Davis’s newsletter Burning Shore at burningshore.com
• Purchase Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium and other books by Erik Davis from MIT Press, Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell’s
• Eight LSD Blotters That Defined Psychedelic Culture
• Inside the LSD Museum That the DEA Somehow Hasn’t Torn to the Ground
• ‘I’m high as a Georgia pine’: Dock Ellis’s no-hitter on LSD, 50 years on
• Dig into this episode’s complete show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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Today, the Spotlight shines On Paul Stache, co-owner (with his wife and partner Molly Sparrow Johnson) of Smoke Jazz Club, one of New York City’s premier live music venues. Smoke is celebrating its 25th anniversary throughout 2024 and Paul joined us to talk about the storied venue’s past, present, and future.

In addition to the club’s 25th Anniversary Celebration plans, we hit on topics like how their business has navigated the transition to a digital world, insight into managing an independent venue, as well as many of the amazing artists who have graced their stage over the years. Enjoy.

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Dig Deeper

• Visit Smoke Jazz Club online at smokejazz.com
• Follow Smoke Jazz Club on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
• Visit Smoke Sessions Records at smokesessionsrecords.com or on Bandcamp
• Smoke Rises: A Jazz Room Returns on the Upper West Side
• Smoke Jazz & Supper Club reopens (video)
• Harold Mabern “The Iron Man: Live at Smoke” (video)
• Smoke Jazz Club NYC: Talking with Co-owner Paul Stache

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, the Spotlight is going to shine a little differently. Instead of a single guest, we will have three segments dealing with the importance of local music scenes.

Our first guest is Shain Shapiro. Shain is a thought leader working at the intersection of music, culture, and urban policy. His book, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, came out last year on Repeater Books. Shain has defined a new way to think about the value of music and the creative economy in cities and places. He is the founder and chairman of Sound Diplomacy, a global research and strategy consultancy that demonstrates the impact of the creative industries on community development and economic growth. He is also the founder and executive director of the not-for-profit global Center for Music Ecosystems, where he collaborates with leaders and policymakers to foster policies that lead to social and economic development at local, national, and global levels.

Our second segment features trumpeter and composer Thomas Marriott, who takes us through the modern history of the Seattle jazz scene, with its current challenges and opportunities.

We end with Seattle House Mafia, a three-member DJ collective that tell tales of the evolution of Seattle’s dance music scene.

If you enjoy this episode, please let us know, and support live music wherever you are.

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Dig Deeper

• Visit Shain Shapiro at shainshapiro.com and follow him on LinkedIn
• Visit Thomas Marriot at thomasmarriott.net and follow him on Facebook and YouTube
• Visit Seattle House Mafia at seattlehousemafia.com and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), and YouTube
• Dig into this episode’s complete show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, the Spotlight shines On Brad Mindich, an entrepreneur who works directly with artists, athletes, and others in music, culture, and sports to expand their legacies and create powerful connections with their fans.

Brad currently does this work as the founder and CEO of Inveniem/Definitive Authentic, which helps its clients organize, catalog, present, and oftentimes monetize their archives directly to their audiences.

Brad has worked with Metallica, Def Leppard, Stephen Stills, basketball star Devin Booker, Monty Python co-founder Eric Idle, and many others.

Our conversation took some fascinating turns, exploring the concept of “pre-nostalgia”, the longing for a future that was imagined in the past. We discussed the powerful impact of nostalgia on individuals and communities and how it can evoke positive or negative emotions.

We also talked about the cultural influences and connections between various subcultures, particularly Rastafarianism, with its historical and social roots in and connection to Hinduism and Indian immigrants.

At its most basic, Brad’s work is about preserving cultural heritage, something his family has contributed to. Brad’s father owned the Boston rock station WFNX and was the longtime publisher of The Boston Phoenix, the fabled underground newspaper with roots stretching back to 1965.

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Dig Deeper

• Visit Definitive Authentic at definitiveauthentic.com and Inveniem at inveniem.com
• Follow Definitive Authentic on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (X)
• The Inveniem Company: Dedicated to Preserving and Expanding the Cultural Legacies of Bands, Artists, and Others
• What Happened to the Boston Phoenix?
• WFNX | The Music Museum of New England
• Behind The Metallica Black Box
• Dig into this episode’s complete show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.