AND OTHER Ruminations-- this particular program features, or, depending upon your point of view, is unfavorably distinguished by, a certain percentage of oft-told tales. Dr. H. Owll is aware that he... tends to repeat himself. Awright, the spider story comes up every now and them, OK? You don't have to listen. But perhaps if you do you may yet find a curious value in their reiteration. Also Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bly... and KrOB! Yes, KrOB actually kame in this time. It was right in the middle of the spider story, in fact. Well, Sir or Madam, we didn't get Jett as we anticipated (see next week) but we had a fine time with KrOB. The refrigerator bulged with banana juice, with which we toasted future plans. The very next light we hosted Reloadio-- now that can also be heard (and downloaded) after the fact.

OR, CREATURES from the Margins. In this program we examine Giant Serpents of yore, companions of Leviathan. Big Monsters seem to be a recurring theme (one of many) on the show. We look in again on the historic X-Day in Florida at the Land of Id, a Nudist resort. Look, that is, through the audio medium of this podcast. The name Leviathan means "twisted in folds" --and so are we all at the late hours the show runs. Next week we hope to bring back Jett, our previous collaborator on many of these whatever-they-ares. We prominently feature the soundtrack to THE WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, sent to us by the Reverend Angry Larry from the Church of the SubGenius, and from Weirdsville Records. KrOB never did come in to drink his Banana Juice.

THE HOLIDAY PLAYLIST OF THE GODS, or, The Possibly Penultimate Podcast of Ask Dr. Hal! (see below). Yes, along with the usual agglutination of quasi-scientific speculation, historical musing and cracker-barrel philosophy laced with Poetick Recitations, we offer some of the most amazing Christmas covers ever recorded, guaranteed. Hate the Xmas Music jive? Well, so do we, but here you find elaborations on some of the most banal, overplayed Holiday Goulash (too-)often heard through in-store speakers during the frantic, last minute buying competition of desperate Potlatch Lemmings elbowing each other to plunge over the cliff into financial insolvency-- elaborations so creative that they actually recreate the joy in music as the mind dissects out the underlying tunes. It's all from the late Mikl-M's playlist. Like the late Pete Goldie, Science Advisor to the now-dormant live Ask Dr. Hal! Show, Michael M. left the planet just before the Pandemic set in, and there have been no gatherings for either one, as would be fitting and proper; nor can there be until the specter of disease has been satisfactorily banished and "gathering" no longer equates with "super-spreader." A tip of the Holiday Fez to Mikl-em, as he oft styled himself. This is a solo show. No KrOB came in, despite the offered lure of Banana Juice. NEXT WEEK-- There's a Holiday Party we may go to, so the year's last show may be a re-run. Or, we may come in and supersede the re-run, if we leave the party soon enough. In any event, to all who have listened or may continue with us in the future, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

AND OTHER OBSCURE LYRICS are highlighted as these podcasts approach their end-of-year number. These are interwoven with musical selections never before played on our program (as well as with some that have often been). No guest makes a live appearance. The struggle continues.

The taste of Korean Banana Milk is best described as delicately sweet, a gentle blend of banana and vanilla aromas carrying the flavor of cream with the lightness of milk. It smells—and tastes—almost exactly like a stick of Juicy Fruit gum steeped in milk. This might sound strange and off-putting, perhaps, at first, but if you can just give it a chance—- well, just sit down with your Banana Milk and really spend some quality time with it. Then, like KrOB, you just might find yourself falling in love with this supernal beverage. Perhaps the listeners would like to make their own version of Korean Banana Milk. They must remember to keep it cold, first of all. "Best served chilled" is what the typical juice box of Banana Milk says, and we agree—- the flavor becomes much more seductively mellow when it's been pulled straight from the "fridge." Either use ice-cold water, or use a frozen banana to make sure that final blended drink is really, really cold. Just make sure to use a high-powered blender that can handle breaking down the frozen banana into a sensuously smooth drink. Banana Milk has a distinctive texture: silky and rich in taste but thin and watery in "mouth-feel." It's not as thick and creamy as, say, a banana smoothie. Even though it uses pretty much the same ingredients, the ratio of liquid to banana plays an important role in achieving the proper viscosity. Now, a 2:3 ratio of water to milk dilutes the thick creaminess to that sweet spot when using a small banana, but of course, depending on the exact size of the banana in question, a little adjustment might be necessary. Add a touch more water or milk to taste, until you hit your personal sweet spot. To keep it super rich and creamy and more like a smoothie, skip the water and use only milk for the liquid portion. Both Maple syrup and honey do really well as sweeteners here: both have a secondary flavor aside from sweetness, which helps develop that mildly ethereal "essence of banana" vibe you're aiming to achieve. Use Maple syrup for a woodsy perfume, or honey for a floral note. Depending on the ripeness of your banana (we recommend a just-barely freckled one for that Juicy-Fruit banana taste), you can adjust the sweetness to your taste, keeping in mind that the same volume of honey is a little sweeter than Maple syrup in taste. Sweetened condensed milk adds a hit of dairy that heightens the natural sweetness present in the milk and banana. Surprisingly, to nail that pleasantly artificial banana flavor, you need to use pure vanilla extract, because for this recipe, cheap imitation vanilla extract just doesn't quite hit the target. If you have banana extract or banana liqueur on hand, adding in a tiny dash will get you that much closer to the real thing.

PRIOR TO CHRISTMAS-- IN NOVEMBER-- but the encroaching horror of Christmas and the ubiquity of widely distributed catalogs prompts a turn of the pages of one of the worst offenders. "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we see in Nature that is ours." A solo effort, and this, the bile and vinegar of solitude, prompts these bitter musings. With the usual prophecy, poetry and pedantry. The show on December 2nd must perforce be a re-run, since Dr. H. Owll will be at Patricia's Green in Hayes Valley, helping out the cat-worshiping cult of Holofelinity at showtime next week. On stage with a bevy of cat-costumed chorus girls, he will host the Cat Priestess Fashion Show after doing something of his usual act. There will be a DJ. The Cat-o-lith statues of David Normal, now installed, will be welcomed to the locus by a ribbon-cutting ceremony as a chorine with an oversized pair of ceremonial scissors will make the fateful snip. Learn about pre-human cat-centered civilizations and their downfall. Lectures will describe the extraterrestrial feline influence; KrOB will present a visual trip through the Cat Universe. Dawn Jian will bring the Rocker of Abundance. A Marching band, Mission Delirium will play. This event is open to all comers and FREE. Sponsored by Burning Man and the Hayes Valley Merchants' Association. It is in the open air, and COVID contamination unlikely. Nearby stores and restaurants will be open. Starting at 6:00, it'll run up to and probably past 10 PM. So, back here at the Studio, a re-run will be playing.

AND ADVERTISING upcoming events... a solo show. No guests, and a battle contra the eternal throb of amplified music from the by-Our-Lady Make-Out Room (directly) next door... par for the course, as we say. Listen to the beginning to hear of a veritable cavalcade (and that's the best kind) of bold and brave Art Events coming up with terrifying speed. See us at these-- see the fabled Fashion Show, featuring the fantastic, fervent, fanatical, flouncing, farthingale-free, felicitous, flesh-flashing, flirtatious, flock of fascinating Feline femmes-- the Cat Priestesses of Pussyopolis. Yes, really. Also we'll recite some Cat-related poems. There will be a Marching band... find out how to get there by checking out Cathenge, on Facebook-- or by just listening to the beginning of this show. Then, since you will be there, listen to it all-- the whole three hours, after we set the whole megilla into magnum motion. You will, subsequently, know what to do. As for this current episode, we then feature an interpretive performance of two of Clark Ashton Smith's poems, "Desire of Vastness" and, later, "The Star-Treader." If this sort of thing pleases you, plan to watch our TV-type show on Zoom (via Twitch) on December 11th. Go to: https://gonzotronics.net/adh/ and watch our last one-- watch ALL of them, by Yogg-Sothoth! What about Friday, December 2nd? Well, there will BE no show-- we will have a re-run installed while we're off pussyfooting with the Piquant, Puissant and Pneumatic Priestesses of Pussyopolis. You might as well come to this lewd, live lovely and FREE public event, if you tend to turn up your shapely, snobby snoot at a re-run. At the end we go out with Keats's "Ode to the Nightingale..."

STRIKES! And this is all BEFORE we get started. KrOB comes in and we chew the fat (down to the gristle) on any number of topics. Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, also known as the Pan Piper or the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin, is the title character of a legend from the town of Hamelin, in Lower Saxony, Germany. This story comes from the Middle Ages, July 22nd, 1376. It is the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure vermin away to their doom with his magically compelling pipe. When the Mayor and the Town Corporation refused to pay for this service as promised, however, the strange Piper retaliated by using his instrument next on their children, leading them away, as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore, and has appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, and notably Robert Browning. The phrase "pied piper" has become a metaphor for a person who attracts a following through charisma or false promises. The behavior of the town officials, though, seems to echo the current treachery of the contemporary Republican Party in the United States in year 2022. As for the strange story, there are many contradictory theories about the Pied Piper. Some suggest he was a symbol of hope to the people of Hamelin, which had been attacked by plague; he drove the rats away, saving the people from the epidemic, caused by the fleas of the rodents who passed the Bubonic Plague. In San Francisco one might view the 1909 Maxfield Parrish mural, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" at the Palace Hotel. Good luck trying to see it.

The earliest known record of the story is depicted in a stained-glass window created for the church of Hamelin, around 1300. Although this church was destroyed in 1660, written accounts of the tale survived. Browning's poem suggests that the ensorcelled children eventually climbed out of a subterranean region in Transylvania, where their descendants still live. When I was a little shaver I read a story, I think in the Saturday Evening Post, called The Martian Cathedral. In it, space explorers find a medieval cathedral on the Red Planet constructed by the now-gone Hamelin children. The rat figured prominently in the cathedral's elaborate carvings. Don't miss my next show online on Zoom and Twitch-- this visual performance is Sunday November 13th for those who go to: https://gonzotronics.net/adh/

THE RUDE OWL CRIED like a tell-tale tit. So scripsit Dylan Thomas, and so we have done again. But we also here focus on the (uncomfortably imminent) forthcoming Future. Especial Guest KrOB adds needed herbs and spices to the cauldron. Initially the future of Reloadio, an actual planning session is featured, Reloadio? The late Pete Goldie, expelled from this institution and cast into outer darkness, as when Satan was defeated by the Archangel Michael ("THIS greeting on thy impious crest receive!") in dubious battle on the plains of Heaven and flung headlong, flaming, from th'ethereal sky, with hideous ruin and combustion down... When this happened Pete built an actual radio station of his own in his attic. Well, sir, Pete, you know, is gathered to his fathers, but we fellow travelers have been, as many are following, appearing there for some time-- and now, by Jupiter! --we're consolidating, rebuilding-- creating a whole new studio... We discuss that. But then we shift into dismal speculation about the perilous state of the country and the national disaffection. KrOB n' me, we talk it all out, ranging over film, literature and personal matters (in the grand tradition of Roommate Radio). The extended kaffee-free klatch ends up lasting an extra hour. Soundscapes by KrOB exalt the final hour. We speak with pleasure of the incoming rain. November begins.

IS FEATURED, detailing the history, biology and habitat of more Fabulous species, with disquisitions on their legendary lore-- as well as a nod to Capital in its rawest floundering form, with advertising messages promoting Megalo-Mart, our new Sponsor. Megalo-Mart! The Biggest thing anywhere! (Formerly the State of Iowa.) Yes, in this episode we do cast our Church robes on the bare ribs of the Conspiracy. You may also hear in its entirety my address at the Starwood Festival in 2018 (pre-Pandemic) entitled, "Deflecting the Conspiracy." The divine music of Loop! Station-- Robin Coomer and Sam Bass. Tennyson's poetry, and that of Clark Ashton Smith. Who's that familiar voice, ranting and singing? Only Zacherly-- yes, him. After all, Halloween is... creeping up on us...

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.