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. Written & hosted by Ken Layne.
October is the time for ghost stories, in this season of growing darkness. Tonight we are visited by a mysterious geist, in an ancient old city that is notorious for such restless spirits. ALSO: Details regarding the October 20, 2023, show at Jacumba Hot Springs and the October 29, 2023, edition of Campfire Stories live at the Tiny Pony in Yucca Valley. Haunted new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written and produced by Ken Layne. This is EPISODE #201: HORRORS OF THE NIGHT.
Well look at that, it’s Halloween again. Remember when they said on the news or whatever how Halloween was finished, because this was no time for a holiday that, uh, remembers the dead?
Tonight we’re joined by New York Times-bestselling author Tod Goldberg, who has written such acclaimed desert crime thrillers as The Low Desert, Gangsterland, Gangster Nation, and Living Dead Girl.
Here’s a treat: If you’re listening on Z 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree/Yucca Valley/29 Palms tonight, we’ve tucked in a second episode that’s from our recent Campfire Stories bonus podcast. So if you missed that one on the feed last week, you’ve got two new episodes awaiting on the airwaves. Or stream it live on Z1077fm.com!
The ill counsel of a desert place, that would be howl’d out in the desert air . . . .
Night has fallen on the desert, in this spookiest of seasons. Tonight we travel by the power of darkness and disinformation to Archuleta Mesa, in the Jicarilla Apache town of Dulce, New Mexico. We’re going down, beneath the mountain, to see if the reptilian aliens and the gray aliens and the Air Force disinfo agents are really having gunfights down there, again.
It’s a Halloween Full Moon weekend and you better prepare for something else that’s coming up quick: the Great Conjunction of 2020. When Saturn and Jupiter grow ever closer in our night sky, until their Great Conjunction as winter solstice arrives, on December 21. With guest C. Del Desierto telling tales of counting eagles in the Anza-Borrego wilderness. With new sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver. On the FM radio from Amboy to Zzyzx (Fridays at 10 p.m. on Z 107.7 FM), or streaming from Z1077FM.com or streaming via Tune In or get the free podcast.
We’re hanging on to Halloween like a gila monster, with our spooky broadcast from Friday night. What exactly happened to Jim Sullivan, the now-beloved singer-songwriter who was barely known in the 1970s and then disappeared in the New Mexico desert? Music writer Jason P. Woodbury joins us to talk about the re-release of Sullivan’s self-titled 1972 album; Jason wrote the liner notes for this Light In the Attic Records release.
Then we are joined by L.A. witch/journalist Laura Bolt, to talk about the magic of autumn and the spooky scene in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree.
If you want to come to our events, take a look at our Events Calendar, and maybe come to November 7 Campfire Stories at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs, 7 p.m. this coming Thursday at the Commune firepit. (Use the code DESERTORACLE to get a room discount.) And yes we have a Patreon now, which means we are humbly seeking your membership to support Desert Oracle Radio, our Desert Oracle field guide, and all the curious events & performances we do up here in the desert.
We are still digging out from the Great Hi-Desert Deluge of October 2018. In fact, officials at Joshua Tree Town Hall are considering renaming the village “Dirt-Pile City,” in honor of the scenic and massive dirt piles piled alongside every road, as the bulldozers and earth-movers work all day every day to try to patch the hundreds of miles of gullies and ditches and death holes created by the violent storm.
The dirt and sand and grit and boulders and dead animals had previously been located in the mountains surrounding town, but one insane all-night thunderstorm managed to move quite a lot of the stuff in the mountains to the middle on Highway 62 through what we charitably call “Downtown Joshua Tree.”
We tell our own version of the local legend of Private Dirt and Sgt. Sand, and we hear from Phoenix schoolteacher Jenny Russell talking about a graveyard she discovered in South Phoenix—from her appearance at our Valley Bar show in Phoenix put on last summer by Aquarium Drunkard.
Subscribe at iTunes or wherever you choose to get your podcasts. Or better yet: Listen live at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley, Pioneertown, Landers, Morongo Valley, Flamingo Heights, Wonder Valley—”from Amboy to Zzyzx,” and across the Great Mojave Wilderness!
