OR, A MYTHOLOGICAL MENAGERIE, though by no means a comprehensive one. The biology and habits of the Griffin (Falco leonis serpentis), Aramaspians, Monopods, Hippogriffs, Physeters, Scolopendrae, Satyrs, Centaurs, Fauns, Sirens, Lamiae, Wood Nymphs and Naiads (with insights derived from recent personal experiences with these latter beings in which Fate seemed to cast me in the role of Silenus)-- all may be found here. Works of ancient Naturalists and other authors. How saintly was St. George? (Not very.) In addition to Pedantry, Poetry-- from Clark Ashton Smith, Tolkien, Thomas Hardy and others. We take a call from a Listener. Il Penseroso performed in its entirety. The Great Sea Serpent, with local and personal connections. The world's largest free-roaming arthropod and its habit of pushing the tops off trash cans to feed on the contents (it's big). Ball's Pyramid Island in the Tasman Sea, and the giant Phasmid insects, thought extinct, found there by explorers. Their reintroduction on nearby Lord Howe Island. Archival Material liberally also featured-- the live Ask Dr. Hal! Show of yore. Not a dialogue, but necessarily a monologue. We have plenty more where all this comes from. Three hours.

HASHES OUT the State of the Show. October is a month of transition here on the program. We look forward to upcoming Halloween and speak of seasonal matters. Other things emerge, such as a loving reminiscence about the deep universe of candy and all forms of confectioner's sugar. Later, Dr. H. Owll performs John Milton's poem L'Allegro. The two similar and contrasting poems, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, explore in generic terms the ideal pleasures appropriate to contrasting philosophical approaches. In particular, L'Allegro celebrates the spirit of Mirth and Levity, Euphrosyne, through the traditional Theocritan model. Old hat, you say? Well, maybe now, sure, but in the Seventeenth Century a very fresh development of the Pastoral ideal. The poem is playful, actually, and is set within a rural, countrified scene that allows the main character, Milton the poet, to connect with folk stories and fairy tales in addition to various comedic plays and performances. There is a sort of progression from the pleasures found in L'Allegro with the pleasures found within Il Penseroso. Besides being set in a traditional form, there is no poetic antecedent for Milton's pairing. It's difficult when reciting this work not to veer unconsciously into its twin-- to slip from L'Allegro into Il Penseroso without intending to... But I got through it without doing that. The poem invokes "heart-easing" Mirth and other allegorical figures of joy and merriment, and extols the active and cheerful life, while depicting a day in the countryside according to this philosophy. Mirth, as one of the Graces, is connected with poetry within Renaissance literature, and the poem, in its form and content, is similar to dithyrambs to Bacchus or hymns to lovely Venus. (Never insult that Goddess.) However, the pleasure that Mirth brings is moderated, and there is a delicate balance between the influence of Venus or Bacchus achieved by relying on their daughter, presented in a strangely quasi-sexual context. So watch out, because in some show coming up, you will hear the entirety of Il Penseroso, which is even longer. Some fun, eh? 180 minutes.

BEGIN THE SEASON. First the poetry of Yeats, then this solo presentation also featuring short stories from Clark Ashton Smith (A Rendezvous in Averoigne) and Richard Matheson (Drink My Blood), read by Dr. H. Owll. A rendezvous where, now? The medieval province of Averoigne was located in the Southern half of France, the Northern half of that territory dominated by the walled city of Vyones, site of an impressive cathedral. In the Southern half could be found the town of Ximes; the main road of Averoigne ran between Ximes and Vyones in those days, straight through the thick, dark forest that blanketed the province. A river called Isoile still flows from the mountains in the northern part of the province to feed into a swamp in the south. Other towns and villages located in Averoigne include: Moulins, Les Hiboux, La Frenâie, Touraine, Sainte Zenobie, and Périgon. In the forest can be found haunted ruins, such as the Château of Fausseflammes (visited during the show) and the stronghold of Ylourgne. As for the Matheson story, it tells of one "Jules Dracula" and his quest for transcendence. All seasonal, all likely to be repeated. 3 hours pat-- Dr. H. Owll had to get up early (for him) the next day and go abroad by daylight, fortunately on an afternoon when clouds obscured the destructive solar force.

...WITH KrOB. Poetry of Keats and Blake. Music of Robin Coomer and Sam Bass as Loop! Station. Dylan Thomas. Some of the now-discontinued Hour of Slack with Reverend Ivan Stang and co-conspirator Lonesome Cowboy Dave. Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren. "Psychedelic" Radio commercials and announcements. Entrance of KrOB. Identity of entity on Peach Soda can. Possible medical complications of frequent Banana Juice imbibing. The Coca-Cola company and its internationally known logo. Will the RV Page ever return with its key to podcast episodes? The probable future of "Reloadio." Cruella de Vil's sense of Style. Psychology of the Giant Desert Centipede of the Southwestern Desert. Excerpt from Coleridge's "Dejection: an Ode." Concession stands at Arizona Drive-in theaters of the past. The Castro Theater's downhill progress. "Rock 'n Roll Dude" infestation? COVID and its terrors. The story of the Fisherman and the Genie, from the Thousand Nights and a Night, retold. Gorilla Suit Movies. Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue. The career of gorilla-suit actor Charles Gemora in Old Hollywood. Stuart Gordon's version of THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM. The new underwater AVATAR viewed with alarm from afar. And more!

...WITH ADDITIONAL KrOB KOMMENTARY later on. Also with the usual Poetry, Pedantry and Platters Profligately Put into Play. No re-run this time, but the genuine article. Clark Ashton Smith kicks the proceedings into starting. I offer one of mine next... With the voices of Pete Goldie, Philo Drummond, Michael Peppe-- it might as well be the Good Old Days of this stuff (pre-Pandemic). By the time we get to the end, KrOB, entering the Studio at the height of next door's thumpa-thumpa, and I are discussing the coming plan by Radio Valencia brass to... install a surveillance camera in the studio, fixed on Yours Truly. Pretty coercive, eh? Not Innocent until Proven Guilty, but the Code Napoleon: Guilty until (perhaps) proven Innocent. Isn't this supposed to be some kind of Pirate Radio? How about that Bohemian freedom and defiance of Authority? Oh, it's a free, mad life. Why, I oughta... Seriously, folks, this ain't a positive development. And in the final hour (hour 5), we discuss the possibility that the place may already be "bugged" (by Cimex lectularius). To itch his own.

A RERUN from 2019. Too much exhaustion from this year's return prompted this show's placement. From September 2019. We try to keep going. (Emperor Norton photo credit)

OR, BIO-TRAGEDY at Lake Merritt... This episode doesn't start until about 13-15 minutes in. Before that there is... nothing. No music, no content, but absolute Blankness, out of whose oblivion is born this succedaneum show about a real local biological crisis. Substitute Host Jett appears and then truly soars with a documentation of, and interview about the tragic loss of aquatic life in Oakland's Lake Merritt. Special Guest Damon Tighe, naturalist with focus on Lake Merritt, appears on the program for the first time. His level of awareness of lifeforms is astonishing: plants, fungi and animals-- and not just whatever beings are in the Lake Merritt area.

By now you may've heard about the devastating algal bloom/red tide that caused massive life die-off in the lake and many other areas of the Bay, affecting at least 80 miles of shoreline. Jett walks at the lake nearly every day, even if only walking along its shore on his way elsewhere, and quite some time ago truly fell into love with that local environ; he finds the tragedy deeply affecting. Sunday, the 29th, at first astounded by the sight of dozens of Bat Rays - the first he'd seen even one - swimming along the margin of the upper part the western shore, he then realized they were not just aggregating for food. None of them were doing any feeding, in fact, despite the presence of thousands of small fish swimming around them. Their gills were visibly agitated, hyper-active and clearly gasping for oxygen. Starting Saturday night, the bloom, which had been seen to be present in the lake for several weeks, has simply expanded-- and continues to consume oxygen. The 'bottom' end of the lake, by the channel that ferries the tide to and from the bay, became covered with thousands of small, dead fish of several species.

By Monday, all of the Bat Rays were dead. Thousands of striped bass, another fish Jett had not witnessed there before that day, lay dead on the bottom. Tens of thousands of dead small fish were noted. He watched bivalves perishing, wading birds picking up and spitting out dead bodies: a Horror show. Walking the lake, working to grasp the hugeness of the tragedy, Jett spoke with many people clearly in shock and wondering what had happened.
Fertilizer run-off from farms in the Central Valley increased due to lack of rainwater, various waste-waters from Alameda County, the recently warmed Pacific Ocean (the Lake communicates with the salt-water Bay), along with many recent hot, sunny days, cause the disaster. Essentially, climate crisis and human ignorance, which are one-and-the-same anyway, drive the problem. Special Guest Damon has spent much time observing and documenting lifeforms via iNaturalist, its website and app, and through the efforts of a few local citizen-scientist groups. Dr. H. Owll will soon be returning from the desert. He approved this (5-hour) message.

FEATURES POETRY, PEDANTRY and a musically augmented presentation of Clark Ashton Smith's incredible horror tale "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis." Among the poems heard in the episode are some by Dr. H. Owll. We also read more from Monsieur Cioran's trenchant A HISTORY OF DECAY. And so it's off to this thing in the desert for the 23rd time. You know, it says right on your ticket that You May Die if you attend this event. If so, then so be it-- which would make this podcast the last indeed of these things. We'll install reruns for the next few weeks, but if we're lucky, KrOB will accept our invitation to absorb the time with his exceptional skill. See you all on the other side!

WITH DISCOURSE UPON GRYPHONS, DRAGONS AND ARAMASPIANS (the latter topic causing KrOB to fall asleep)... These are found among our bullet-points tonight. We hear Stang, Onan and Rev. Fanboy. The Aramaspians, a legendary tribe of one-eyed people of northern Scythia, lived in the foothills of the Riphean Mountains, variously identified with the Ural Mountains or the Carpathians. All tales of their struggles with the gold-guarding Gryphons in the Hyperborean lands near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind (Geskleithron), had their origin in a lost work by Aristeas, reported in Herodotus. John Milton elaborates on this account in PARADISE LOST. Later, absorbing KrOBbian soundscapes take us to 3 A.M.

THE NOTED STAR WARS-BASED BURLESQUE SHOW, playing through October at the Great Star Theater in Chinatown, is discussed, following some moments with the late Dr. Ygrundas Quimby, Jr., Dr. H. Owll's younger brother (obit. 2002), when, unexpectedly, KrOB appears bearing delicious Banana juice, Peach soda and crunchy Coconut Buttercrunch cookies. A feast for the Inner Man supports a feast of recondite criticism. We move to an in-depth consideration of Allied Artists' THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (anyone ever hear of a small, or even medium-sized Behemoth?), 1958. Pure KrOB content brings us through an extra hour.

SAID THE "SPIDER KING..." Louis XI, whom superstitious folk claim actually had the ability to transform himself into a giant spider, said it all the time. An absurd belief, that. Pure peasant superstition, heh, heh... But what IS the true meaning of this cryptic utterance? We mention the subject, then veer into BULLDADA, the SubGenius critical method of deriving philosophical messages and praxis from old, "cheesy" Monster Movies. Aand we are immersed in this, when-- Pasque Dieu! KrOB comes in-- and the Show takes a far less unwholesome turn, running an extra hour. Coming soon: DJ Justin Credible may pay us a call. With: Clark Ashton Smith, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, E.M. Cioran, and Others.

ICE CREAM PARLOR, long gone except for the Proustian enshrinement in the halls of Memory. And Café Neutron, called in this Archivally layered "Bob"-cast "Café Neutrino," since that's the way we used to talk back in those carefree days. Beginning cut off, end cut off-- here we've a 3-hour chunk of "artfully" re-packaged Essence in the Palimpsest of Shows (our usual method). Gold and diamonds gleam for the attentive and sympathetic among the dross, some may still believe-- and we earnestly hope they do, though discouragement is a mighty and enduring edifice. The divine and compelling voice of the exquisite Robin Coomer with Loop! Station cuts the hawser and sets us adrift on this viaggio. Coming up in August: the next iteration of the Podcast show from https://gonzotronics.net/adh/ will air, our sincere hope and expectation, on the 14th of that month. Watch this space, and make sure you avoid giving your love to no one at all.. May your ghosts, and ours, be happy.

FLITTING FROM TREE TO TREE-- (Wyvern illustration shown) these get their "day in court" on the Show. Other recurring iterations of obsession naturally rise to the surface of discussion, an inevitability when there are no guests to distract the Moderator. In a phylogenetic sense, all volant beings "learned" to fly in the same way-- the only way: from the trees down. Flying reptiles exist-- the Draco volans and its kin, flying snakes and the like. Now we mention these amphibians of the airy realm. They are on the way to full mastery of the air, such as is enjoyed by such robust flyers as flying foxes and other chiropterans. 'Nuff said. With: Bob Nelson, the late Pete Goldie, KrOB, Puzzling Evidence, the late Don Joyce, Jhim Khennedy...

AT ONCE, or be checked eternally by Verification software. Instead, relax, kick off your shoes, get yourself a refreshing beverage and tuck in to a reminisce-heavy program with multiple recorded excerpts from the towering edifice of previous shows-- and inspirational readings from the text of E.M. Cioran, "the last worthy disciple of Nietzsche." Aand KrOB comes in and endures the extended hours. The first Podcast since Dr. H. Owll returned from the soi-dissant "Real X-Day." There will be more...

IN DOKTOR H.OWLL'S ABSENCE, taking calls and helming the program. With: poet/visionary Art Goodtimes, and the Spirit of many a previous iteration. Something new, and something old. Something is always required. In programming, one must "feed the Monster." He does not go hungry here. Thanks, Jett!

...FOR ALL PRESENT: Dr. H. Owll, Jett and KrOB. The "RV" Soda Fountain prevails. Under its stimulus we eventually chat about the terrifying political landscape. We doubt that we traumatized any of our late-night listeners with this topical shift, though there are those who never care to look at our Apocalyptic problems. Broadway musicals, Werewolf and Vampire movies, Ophidian taxonomy, toad venom and Shakespeare... the rest of the time is devoted to a heterogeneity of subjects often raised before. Don't miss the obligatory Aunt Bertha part. The next few shows will be classic re-runs, ideally supplemented with the presence of Substitute Hosts. Dr. H. Owll is on the eve of a long journey from which he may not return, but if he does, his next show here will be July 1st-- four days before the REAL Real X-Day (July 5th, of course)...

ARCHAEOPTERYX NO FRAUD - San Francisco (May 27) The notorious theory that a form of Panspermia, not Darwinian evolution is the driver of morphological changes among species over time was mentioned-- though not endorsed --on the Ask Dr. Hal! Radio Valencia podcast the night of the 27th as the esoteric show staggered into beginning, reports and memories tell us. Present were Jett and (after a mere 20 minutes) KrOB himself. The originators of the theory have defamed Archaeopteryx lithographica by calling it a deliberate Piltdown-style fake by cultish scientific malfeasers. But in fact, an entirely new type of this enantiornithine has quite recently been unearthed according to its discoverers. Are they working overtime turning out new Archies around the clock? It seems that only 12 specimens have ever been found before now-- and all are from the late Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany, dating back approximately 150 million years. Now, Dr. Martin Kundrát from the University of Pavol, Jozef Šafárik and co-authors have identified a NEW species of Archaeopteryx — named A. albersdoerferi — that is closer to modern birds in evolutionary terms. This is because it appears "more bird-like." One might argue simply that more avian features, present in all, fossilized for the first known time in this specimen. And a splendid time was had by all. Let's hope KrOB gets his archived podcasts back from the Ether, after another destructive glitch from in-house dithering devices has made them "unavailable."

HALF A CD PLAYER BEATS A PUNCH IN THE NOSE-- an episode graced with multiple attendees in addition to the usual and expected multiplicity of audible voices. Guests included Joyce, Kimmie Joan and Jett. You also hear from the late Don Joyce, Puzzling Evidence, Jim Khennedy, KrOB (on Archival disc), Mobius Rex and others. We went on until 3:00 AM, a total of 5 hours. All during that time, we Koncentrated on our Komittments to our Kourse of Action. Oh, K? Just how obvious might it be?

OR BLOODMOON, as some write it-- this solo effort is a harbinger of that Astronomical event of the evening of May 16th. Whoops-- Saturday's Reloadio has been cancelled, again. Too bad we promised it would happen in our introduction, but the problems are apparently beyond our control. With: Zacherley, Bobby "Boris" Pickett (and his Crypt Kickers), Michael Peppe, KrOB, the late Pete Goldie, Puzzling Evidence, Mobius Rex (Bob Nelson), Dr. Philo Drummond, Peter Sellers, et alia. Surface features of Pluto discussed and enumerated. A Capella singing. This one will probably be rerun in June while we are traveling.

DISCUSSED, ORDERED AND... delivered? A 3-way colloquy. How to eliminate painful leg cramps-- the "Charlie Horse?" Just... drink pickle juice. Yep. Thanx and a tip o' the Ask Dr. Hal! Fez-Chapeau to "Flash" Hopkins for that one. All sorts of valuable hacks like this. Jett vouches for the Painful Pinch technique. Next door, the roaring club thunders and rages, crescendo-ing and subsiding, surging and falling back. We outlive its sounds, though, because this episode runs for five solid hours. Fortunately, KrOB brings us in some Banana Juice a little after Midnight. Unfortunately, he discovers the vast landscape of technical failures presently plaguing Radio Valencia. HTML error? Who knows-- this show might not even be playable. Why not find out, by giving it a try?