Desert Oracle Radio

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The Haunted Highway Jun 02, 2023

Show notes

There are no visitor facilities. Roads are mostly washed-out jeep tracks. There is no water. And there's no way out, unless you come back the way you came in. The state line between Nevada and California is unmarked in the Mojave Wilderness, so it’s up to you to know what’s legal or not. Do not make a mistake.

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And thanks for supporting this ad-free podcast via our Patreon page.

This is Episode #189, "The Haunted Highway," with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thru-Hiking With Tahquitz May 19, 2023

Show notes

Where is she, tonight? It has been a month and ten days since she mailed this postcard from Idyllwild to Joshua Tree. All we can do is hope that the monster did not put an early end to her Pacific Crest Trail adventure, as so often happens in those movies with Reese Witherspoon. Because there's a real monster in the mountains around San Jacinto Peak, a real monster who murders people & eats their souls for dessert. It is called the Tahquitz.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

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Space Radio (A Broadcast) May 12, 2023

Show notes

Tonight we are joined by Joshua Tree bookseller & publisher Jean-Paul L. Garnier of Space Cowboy Books, along with a transmission from poet & sci-fi author Michael Butterworth.

To hear an earlier live broadcast with J-P Garneir and Ken Layne, just call up Episode #065, one of our occasional hour-long shows from 2019. The Micheal Butterworth exhibition at Art Queen opens on June 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

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The Nature of Color & Vision Apr 28, 2023

Show notes

The waxing moon is moving through the constellation of Leo, Mars is fading, and Venus hangs heavy in the western sky. Venus seems enormous, especially late at night, low over our western mountains. Meanwhile on the desert floor, and splashed brightly up the desert hillsides, wondrous carpets of yellow and orange and violet wildflowers delight the eye & the soul.

This is EPISODE #186 of Desert Oracle Radio, The Nature of Color & Vision, by Ken Layne and with lush new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free radio show via patreon.com/desertoracle.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who By Fire, Who By War Apr 15, 2023

Show notes

It's a beautiful spring in the desert, which naturally makes one dream of heading off to war. Maybe a secret war, a guerrilla war, an unknown soldier, wounded deep in psychic battle, like Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, like Che in Bolivia, like good old Ambrose Bierce headed to the deserts down in Mexico for one last campaign, one final outrage. With moody new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver and a travelogue from ancient Damascus, where Saul/Paul stumbled into town after being blinded by the impossible lights over the backroads.

Thanks much to those of you who support this program on our Patreon, and for listening over these many years.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hoppy Easter, From the Desert Fathers Apr 07, 2023

Show notes

On this Good Friday —which wasn't so great for the protagonist — let us be enlightened by the strange koans of the Desert Fathers. These were the 5th Century CE monks who started the whole "move to the desert" trend, leaving their elite lives in the cities for the hardship of a tiny hole dug in a limestone cliff.

With new spring soundscapes by our own musical monk, RedBlueBlackSilver, and hosted/written by Ken Layne. We wish you a very somber & festive Snakesgiving, as well. Thanks much for supporting this show on our Patreon page!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Treasure of Owens Lake Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

During these many months of heavy rain & thick snowdrifts, we look around the southwest and notice all those playas, those alkaline dry lakes, blessed with a sheen of fresh water . . . and we remember this used to be a land of lakes, not so long ago.

As the last Ice Age came to a close, some 12,000 years ago, immense freshwater lakes covered much of what we now call California and Nevada. What a paradise it must’ve been, with people living in pleasant villages on the shorelines, lots of big game for food and fur and leather, everybody zipping around in tule boats made of our famous marshy bullrushes, this was true from the Great Salt Lake to the middle of Nevada to the long valleys on either side of the great mountain ranges.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

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Awe & Fear in the Holy Wilderness Mar 10, 2023

Show notes

Apologies if you hear the wind whipping around on the roof of this little radio shack out here tonight. There’s some strip of metal the previous owners tacked down to cover a weak spot in the roof, and it’s slapping around the swamp cooler. And until your host robs a bank, well it’s going to stay that way because that's the only way to get the ten grand the roofing company wants. It’s all right. It’ll dry up in time.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wolf Woman, Wild Woman Feb 25, 2023

Show notes

Tonight we escape the freezing late-winter West and enjoy some time in the piney forests on the Tennessee River, in the Alabama counties where a strange visitor brought horror & dismay over the long hot summer of 19&69.

Thanks for supporting this program via Patreon.com/DesertOracle.

Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written & hosted by Ken Layne, and broadcasting tonight at 10 in Joshua Tree on KCDZ 107.7 FM.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Green Comet Feb 03, 2023

Show notes

"What could it be? There was no balloon and there were no aeronauts. Some strange phenomenon had occurred in the higher zones of the atmosphere, a phenomenon of which neither the nature nor the cause could be explained. Today it appeared over America . . . ."

Tonight we take a look at the life of George Ellery Hale, pioneering astronomer and the father of Palomar Observatory . . . where the mysterious new green comet was discovered, only 11 months ago and visible in the skies this week. Thanks much to our supporters on Patreon for keeping this radio show & podcast on the air!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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