The best thing about the pandemic for me was that it kicked my home-bound ass into gear. Having completed High Weirdness, and suspended Expanding Mind, and gotten sick of publishing my newsletter on Mailchimp, I started a Substack publication, or newsletter, or almanac or screed-feed or whatever you want to call it. I named the thing Burning Shore, from a line about California in the Grateful Dead song “Estimated Prophet,” and I like to say it covers “Consciousness Culture from a California Perspective.”
I really enjoy writing these shorter-but-not-always-short, snappy-but-sometimes-ruminative pieces, which emerge in the liminal zone between essays and reviews and think pieces and riffs. I started out writing more about my California youth and family background, and hope to get back to that, but California, its shores decidedly burning, is also a great lens through which to contemplate our highly weird apocalyptic times. You can just dive in, but some of my favorite posts include “The Poison Processor” (about AI and writing), “Griffin Sees the Light” (about the legendary psychedelic poster artist), “Fire Doctor” (an animist paean to poison oak), the self-haunt guide “The Practice of Paranoia,” and a two-part series on “Freaks of Color” (1 and 2).
You can sign up to Burning Shore for free by clicking the pop-up box that has probably already risen to the occasion on this page, though I would be remiss if I did not let you know that paid subscribers also get the monthly letters column “Ask Dr. D.”, which folks really seem to dig.
