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EPISODE #251: THE AUTUMN EQUINOX

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September 22 is the day and 11:19 a.m. is the hour when Fall finally arrives in the Mojave Desert. Add an hour for Nevada and Utah, which both share a little of the Mojave with California and Arizona. While it’s still hot on the desert floor, the mountains are cool and the aspens are changing color. Too far from the aspen groves? If you’re in the desert, there are Fremont’s cottonwoods somewhere near you, and few trees have such fantastic fall colors.

This is EPISODE #251: THE AUTUMN EQUINOX, with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert, Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM..

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EPISODE #250: MONSOON MOOD

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On a monsoon evening, the sky streaked with golden bands, tropical clouds drawn up from the Sea of Cortez, everything is vibrant, delirious light. No sound but the crunch of boots and dog paws in the sandy wash lined with desert willow and Mormon tea, before we climb up to the mesa, up through a high-desert forest of Joshua trees and Juniper. We sit for a while, at sunset, great Apollo blazing over western mountains.

ALSO: Visiting the Temples of Isis in Egypt, with the great historian, philosopher, and High Priest at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: Plutarch! This is EPISODE #250: MONSOON MOOD.

Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert, Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM..

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EPISODE #249: WALKING THE WILD LANDS WITH HENRY DAVID THOREAU

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A centuries-old conspiracy regarding Soothsayers’ Oaks in the Bible, and a long walk in the woods with good old Henry David Thoreau.

This is EPISODE #249: WALKING THE WILD LANDS WITH HENRY DAVID THOREAU. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert, Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM..

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EPISODE #248: MAPPING THE MOJAVE WITH COL. HENRY WASHINGTON

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Out here in the Great Mojave Wilderness, we’re always talking about Section 6 or Section 33 or Section whatever it is, but how did we get that system, that public-lands overlay? Who did the work? Tonight we tell you about . . . well, not the father of our country, but his nephew. The nephew of our country. Col. Henry Washington, the man who surveyed and plotted the baseline and the meridian back in the 1850s, the defining lines by which all other property in Southern California is measured. He named a lot of desert landmarks, too. Like “Old Woman Springs,” that’s one of his many desert place-names still on the maps and on our minds, nearly two centuries later.

This is EPISODE #248: MAPPING THE MOJAVE WITH COL. HENRY WASHINGTON. With fitting desert soundscape by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #247: HIGHWAY 247 REVISITED

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Photo by Ken Lund: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/8603750124

People will come to the Mojave on purpose, in summertime, and then they get sad because they can’t go outside without bursting into flames. A couple of summers ago, a guy died in Death Valley just from riding his motorcycle outside. Overheated. The 120° heat no less lethal just because it was blowing all over him at cruising speed. He just dehydrated and died.

This is the time of year to stay in the car with the A/C blasting. Do your sightseeing with a seatbelt on. How about a historic and scenic ride on the entirety of SR-247? From Yucca Valley to Barstow! A beautiful drive with stops for good food, through the great Mojave wilderness. Plus, we’ll tell you the history of the highway and many of the sights along the way.

This is EPISODE #247: HIGHWAY 247 REVISITED Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays. Photo by Ken Lund.

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EPISODE #246: PROTECT OUR WESTERN LANDS!

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“God bless America. Let’s save some of it.” — Edward Abbey

One of the senators Utah sent to Washington has slipped a very evil scheme into the big federal budgeting bill, language that’s vague enough to allow the beginning of the sell-off of our Western Public Lands. Including National Forests. Not including national parks, monuments, etc., but very much including Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands.

In fact, that’s what this senator, “Based Mike Lee,” titled this section of the Senate legislation: MANDATORY DISPOSAL OF BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT LAND AND NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LAND. No.

This is EPISODE #246: PROTECT OUR WESTERN LANDS! Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #245: DEPLOYMENT FROM TWENTYNINE PALMS

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The Mojave gets slow in the summertime, not much going on. So there was much excitement when the word spread on that early summer night: The Marines were shipping out to Los Angeles. Rumors of troop carriers and white buses, full of Marines with full kit, ready to go, and deeply annoyed to be called back to barracks, early on a Saturday night. But, it was something to do, somewhere to go. Everybody wants to get out of the Mojave in summertime.

This is EPISODE #245: DEPLOYMENT FROM TWENTYNINE PALMS, with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #244: WHO DID THE SNAKE EAT?

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SNAKE MOJAVE SNAKESGIVING DAVID LYNCH WHY

The reality of knowing the wild animals on your land is knowing that they generally live upon an accelerated timeline. Each spring’s new crop of Mojave cottontails and rock squirrels will shrink down to one or two lucky buddies by late summer, with the rest succumbing to reckless road crossings and red-tail hawks and rattlesnakes . . . the local ravens feasting on the remains, if there are any. 

This is EPISODE #244: WHO DID THE SNAKE EAT? with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on Z 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #243: THE MAD BOMBER OF TWENTYNINE PALMS

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Guy Edward Bartkus, Palm Springs, Twentynine Palms, antinatalism, terror attack

The maniac who blew himself up outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic is our latest High Desert dingbat to make the national news. Luckily, those injured in the Palm Springs terror attack have been treated and released from the hospital. But who bombs fertility clinics? Meet America’s worst new subculture, the violent anti-natalists, and their new hero from Twentynine Palms.

This is EPISODE #243: THE MAD BOMBER OF TWENTYNINE PALMS with geographically appropriate soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on Z 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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