Desert Oracle

06/22/2024

New episode for this Full Moon Midsummer Night, only on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-midsummer-nights-desert/id1251197422?i=1000659870323 (Radio in JT has repeats running, too.)

‎Show Desert Oracle Radio, Ep A Midsummer Night's Desert - Jun 21, 2024

06/06/2024

Sometimes it’s windy.

05/18/2024

Tonight, on the radio at 10 or on the podcast now:

Destruction of High Desert forest on public land has led to a 78% drop in pinyon jay populations over the past 50 years. The pinyon jay is the steward of the pinyon forests, for which the forest fe…

05/04/2024

Tonight we're talking ravens, fishes & loaves, and the soul-crushing indoor indoctrination of the Empire's State Religion. Sir James George Frazer, Pliny the Elder and the Gospel Mark are all involved, whether they like it or not. (And the "Bible Friends" podcast mentioned on this episode can be found here.) Thanks for listening EPISODE #222: RANTIN' & RAVIN' AT THE RAVEN'S FUNERAL…...

Tonight we’re talking ravens, fishes & loaves, and the soul-crushing indoor indoctrination of the Empire’s State Religion. Sir James George Frazer, Pliny the Elder and the Gospel Ma…

04/27/2024

Dr. John Milton Bigelow did not shy away from hard work or adventure. At the age of 46, he signed on as surgeon and botanist for the Mexican Boundary Survey, following the U.S.-Mexican War that fulfilled the gold-hungry manifest destiny of the Americans. This expedition of discovery took him through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Colorado deserts, where he catalogued the great variety of desert plants along with several other botanists — including C.C....

Dr. John Milton Bigelow did not shy away from hard work or adventure. At the age of 46, he signed on as surgeon and botanist for the Mexican Boundary Survey, following the U.S.-Mexican War that ful…

04/13/2024

This is EPISODE #220: STANDING WITH GIANTS, AT MARIPOSA GROVE. Mariposa Grove was a sacred forest for millennia before it became part of the U.S. Yosemite Grant, lovingly tended by Yosemite Guardian Galen Clark for more than a quarter century. Sacred groves and forests are protected for their spiritual and ecological importance. Such groves are found today throughout India (home of more than a million holy forests), Japan (many thousands of chinju no mori surrounding Shinto temples), and Ethiopia (35,000 primal forests circling Ethiopian Orthodox churches). ...

This is EPISODE #220: STANDING WITH GIANTS, AT MARIPOSA GROVE. Mariposa Grove was a sacred forest for millennia before it became part of the U.S. Yosemite Grant, lovingly tended by Yosemite Guardia…

03/30/2024

On this Easter weekend, let’s do our best to bring back the ghosts, the supernatural. Let us recognize and respect the mysterious entities that come not from some imagined, distant star system in the cold lifeless vacuum of space, but from right here where we experience them: backroads, mountains, spooky desert trails at dusk. Jesus loved wilderness and often talked to ghosts, after all....

On this Easter weekend, let’s do our best to bring back the ghosts, the supernatural. Let us recognize and respect the mysterious entities that come not from some imagined, distant star system in t…

03/20/2024

A favorite juniper with a fine shady spot even when the sun is blazing.

03/16/2024

The pyramids of Guinness 12-packs at our High Desert grocery stores reminded us of St. Patrick's Day coming up, but the grey cloudy skies and green hillsides of the Mojave Desert this month are reminders that the old pagan tales are with us still, wherever the landscape is haunted and strange. And that supernatural entities always gather in their ancient homes: wild forests, dramatic outcroppings of rock, and any lonesome place whipped by the winter winds....

The pyramids of Guinness 12-packs at our High Desert grocery stores reminded us of St. Patrick’s Day coming up, but the grey cloudy skies and green hillsides of the Mojave Desert this month a…

03/10/2024

This should’ve been our Christmas card. Maybe next Christmas. Maybe everybody gets a Desert Oracle Christmas card in December.

03/09/2024

The storms continue, the wildflowers begin to appear, and Chantel (our mysterious PCT through-hiker) probably made it to the Canadian border without any kind of Mountain Monster getting her, which is good. Also: What is the Voice of the Desert? This is EPISODE #217: VOICE OF THE DESERT Listen to the radio broadcast Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM…...

The storms continue, the wildflowers begin to appear, and Chantel (our mysterious PCT through-hiker) probably made it to the Canadian border without any kind of Mountain Monster getting her, which …

02/25/2024

Out where the gods live.

02/24/2024

Nothing is sacred unless we set it aside as sacred. As Americans rapidly abandon organized religion, and the formerly sanctified church and temple sites go up for sale as designer homes, where are the places that are truly sacred? The places set aside for contemplation, meditation, festivals, the rituals of life & death? There ain’t much. Not nearly enough. But that can be fixed....

Nothing is sacred unless we set it aside as sacred. As Americans rapidly abandon organized religion, and the formerly sanctified church and temple sites go up for sale as designer homes, where are …

02/17/2024

Where's the beautiful part, anyway? Well, start by walking about a mile past the last parking lot or dirt road or residential car-parts dump or informal halfway house or accidental pit-bull breeding farm, and keep going in the direction of the difficult terrain: the hills and the mountains and the boulders. Not the hills covered in radio relay towers, but the ones with nothing up there at all, nothing except more boulders, more spiky yucca trees that slash your arms, gnarled junipers and needle-armed Joshua trees, up to the craggy peak where the stately pinyons stand proud....

Where’s the beautiful part, anyway? Well, start by walking about a mile past the last parking lot or dirt road or residential car-parts dump or informal halfway house or accidental pit-bull b…

02/15/2024

We are releasing this beast from the Patreon Archives — where you can find many more Patreon-only/Patreon-first episodes). A month ago, our old friend & collaborator Matt Welch joined us by telephone from New York City to talk about a magical time in California. Between 1999 and 2002, a wave of "news bloggers" washed over the calcified Los Angeles media landscape, and the effects were both surprising and long-lasting....

We are releasing this beast from the Patreon Archives — where you can find many more Patreon-only/Patreon-first episodes). A month ago, our old friend & collaborator Matt Welch joined us by te…

02/11/2024

Our old friend and mentor Mojo Nixon passed away this week, after playing a blistering set of rock 'n roll for his fans aboard a hillbilly cruise ship. Tonight, we remember the showman, songwriter and deejay who was a towering figure in American underground culture for a long, long time. RIP Mojo Nixon. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon....

Our old friend and mentor Mojo Nixon passed away this week, after playing a blistering set of rock ‘n roll for his fans aboard a hillbilly cruise ship. Tonight, we remember the showman, songw…

02/05/2024

Got up the mountain and back before the storm hit.

02/04/2024

Posting more Bonus Episodes on the Desert Oracle Patreon. Here's a live show we lost & then found, huzzah:

Get more from DESERT ORACLE on Patreon

01/24/2024

January 2024, after the storm.

01/22/2024

For some of us, the only peace of mind comes in absolute solitude, in those still numerous places where the calamitous noise of our civilization is mostly kept at bay. Ask anybody who completed a long hike — such as the PCT up the Western Spine of America — what they loved most, what made it such an unforgettable time. …...

For some of us, the only peace of mind comes in absolute solitude, in those still numerous places where the calamitous noise of our civilization is mostly kept at bay. Ask anybody who completed a l…

01/20/2024

The first new Desert Oracle Radio of the year: The strange true tale of a missing child, a newspaper that hired a talk-show psychic to find that child, and the cops reporter who covered the grim & baffling end of the case. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written & produced by Ken Layne....

The first new Desert Oracle Radio of the year: The strange true tale of a missing child, a newspaper that hired a talk-show psychic to find that child, and the cops reporter who covered the grim & #…

12/23/2023

A wet winter is visiting the American High Desert this Week of the Winter Solstice ... which used to be the same day as Christmas and New Year's and the Birthday of Dionysus, until Big Government caused the chaos and disorder of the present. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written & produced by Ken Layne....

A wet winter is visiting the American High Desert this Week of the Winter Solstice … which used to be the same day as Christmas and New Year’s and the Birthday of Dionysus, until Big Go…

12/20/2023

Light up the tree, Winter Solstice is coming!

12/08/2023

Tonight's episode comes to you live from Los Angeles, where Desert Oracle Radio opened the show for "Seattle's Slowest," the legendary group EARTH on its 30th Anniversary Tour for the Sub-Pop album EARTH2, at Glendale's Alex Theater. Sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver; words by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. PS — SPOTIFY HAS REMOVED THIS EPISODE, SAYING OUR SOUNDSCAPE BACKGROUNDS USED IN EVERY EPISODE FOR SEVEN YEARS IS NOW A "CONTENT VIOLATION." PLEASE DON'T USE SPOTIFY TO LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST, IF YOU WANT TO HEAR NEW EPISODES. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written & produced by Ken Layne. This is EPISODE #208: LIVE FROM EARTH.

Tonight’s episode comes to you live from Los Angeles, where Desert Oracle Radio opened the show for “Seattle’s Slowest,” the legendary group EARTH on its 30th Anniversary To…

11/27/2023

"Known as the 'apostle of the cacti,' this advocate for the creation of desert national parks was named after this ancient Roman goddess ...." If that's a question you can answer, without even thinking about it, then you may enjoy this Thanksgiving Weekend episode featuring DESERT ORACLE TRIVIA NIGHT, something that really happened at the Tiny Pony on Thanksgiving Eve....

“Known as the ‘apostle of the cacti,’ this advocate for the creation of desert national parks was named after this ancient Roman goddess ….” If that’s a question…

11/18/2023

Looking down the barrel at 2024, from our perch in the High Desert. Mojave thunderstorms, the strange maxims of the ancient temples, Christmas-tree shopping ideas, and old+new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. This is our 9/11 episode: Season 9, Episode 11. Please consider supporting this show via our Patreon before we go belly up, it's hard out there. BUT . . . it also also likely time for a change....

Looking down the barrel at 2024, from our perch in the High Desert. Mojave thunderstorms, the strange maxims of the ancient temples, Christmas-tree shopping ideas, and old+new soundscapes by RedBlu…

11/11/2023

From the World War II years to 1965, the artist and humorist and hugely influential architect Harry Oliver published his Desert Rat Scrap Book from a hand-built adobe in the California desert. He called it "the only newspaper you can read in the wind," because the whole thing was printed on a single sheet of sturdy colored cardstock, folded down to mailing size....

From the World War II years to 1965, the artist and humorist and hugely influential architect Harry Oliver published his Desert Rat Scrap Book from a hand-built adobe in the California desert. He c…

10/27/2023

Here comes the ancient festival of Halloween, as the world begins to die again ... as it does at the tail end of every year. The leaves fall and decay, the green things wither, the sun hides away. And we remember the Dead. Tonight: Samhain tales of changelings and fire, and the Holy Mountain along the Mexican-American borderland. New (& classic!) soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver....

Here comes the ancient festival of Halloween, as the world begins to die again … as it does at the tail end of every year. The leaves fall and decay, the green things wither, the sun hides aw…

10/26/2023

The Mojave in Autumn.