As many of you likely know, tomorrow is 4/20, which is widely celebrated as a day dedicated to puffing those chronic herbs — and, no doubt, by a less desirable segment of the population, the birth of one of the worst genocidal pieces of shit in history that ruined the Charlie Chaplin mustache forever. The details regarding the coining of the term 420 — or 4/20 or 4:20 or 4-20, etc. — often gets a bit murky, with a lot of confusion and false information about it’s origin. It’s often attributed to being a California police code for a weed smoking violation (it’s not), or several other disproved/unverified tales and sources. According to several investigative articles, the real truth seems to be that it, most likely, originated around 1971 with a small group of high school friends in San Rafael, California who wound up becoming acquainted with The Grateful Dead, and it spread that way. But what about the day before? What about 4/19? Have you ever heard of Bicycle Day? For the uninitiated, I can tell you that it’s just as historic of a date in the counterculture world, and one with a lot less discrepancy regarding it’s origins and importance.

Albert Hofmann (January, 11 1906 – April, 29 2008) is the name of the late Swiss scientist credited as the first one to synthesize lysergic acid diethylamide (aka LSD-25) and documenting it’s hallucinogenic effects on the human body. He did so the old fashion way: by ingesting it. Although he first synthesized LSD on November 16, 1938, it wasn’t until 5 years later — on April 16, 1943 — when the chemist decided to re-synthesize and re-examine his discovery, that he accidentally absorbed some of the substance and experienced it’s effects for the first time ever. Overwhelming as it was, he returned to his normal state after only a couple of hours. Three days later on April 19th, he intentionally ingested 250 micrograms, not realizing that he would only require a small fraction of that, with the threshold actually being a mere 20 micrograms. The story goes that the availability of automobiles were restricted due to WWII, so, with the help of his lab assistant, Hofmann traveled home by bike and began tripping out of his gourd, during the process. It was this experiment that he documented, as the first person to ever truly hallucinate on the drug. That’s where the name “bicycle day” comes from and why it’s a legitimate cause for celebration.

Here’s a slightly more detailed, if not somewhat bias and sterilized, breakdown of these events in the form of a video by PBS digital studios.

The recreational use of LSD has often been closely associated with it’s application to perforated sheets of blotter paper. But while a large majority of the blotter acid that I had in my possession, back in the day, was simply on white paper, it’s also well known for having images printed onto it. Sometimes, it can be as minimal as a little repeating image (a UFO for example) stamped into each of the little respective squares/doses. Other times, it can be one much larger, elaborate picture that takes up an entire sheet with each little square operating as a individual puzzle piece helping to construct the greater image. Over time, this undosed paper has become viewed and collected as fine art, in its own right. One individual who has become widely known for printing and selling these printed sheets is Zane Kesey, the son of counter culture icon, Ken Kesey . Besides being the celebrated author of such novels at One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes A Great Notion, Ken was also the main subject of the 1968 Tom Wolfe psychedelic classic, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which chronicled Kesey‘s exploits as the head of a troupe of “day-glo crazies” known as the Merry Pranksters. As a student at Stanford University in 1959, Kesey would first volunteer as a test subject for LSD experiments being conducted at he Menlo Park veterans hospital. These tests were later revealed to be part of the infamous CIA funded mind control experiments under Project MKUltra. The Pranksters would be born after he went on to sneak the drug out of the facilities and distribute it among his peers, most famously during events referred to as “acid tests” for which The Grateful Dead would hone their chops as the house band.

Today, Detroit-based online publisher of fine art editions, 1xRUN, is paying tribute on the 75th anniversary of Mr Hofmann‘s wild ride with their Bicycle Day 2018 Print Series. Teaming with Zane Kesey to assist with the printing, the series includes over a dozen different images by several acclaimed visual artists, and/or 1xRun regulars, expertly printed onto sheets of blotter. This includes work from “Ben Frost, Brandon Boyd, Denial, Glenn Barr, Leni Sinclair, Luke Chueh, Mike Giant, Niagara, Ricky Powell, Tavar Zawacki aka Above, as well as “photographer Roger Steffens/The Family Acid who joins [them] for his debut RUN featuring 4 iconic images throughout his storied career, including a shot of… Ken Kesey!” Personally, I’m partial to Leni Sinclair‘s photograph of The Dead and Ricky Powell‘s old “Charles Street Shuffle” Beastie Boys promo shot, but there’s plenty to choose from.

You can check the entire series out now at 1xRun, by clicking HERE. Or simply scroll down and link through each specific image to purchase the respective print.