is also known unto us as War on Earth. The Entity of Los is the fallen (earthly or human) form of Urthona, one of the four Zoas, and the embodiment of human creativity and inspiration. He is referred to as the "eternal Prophet" and creates the visionary city of Golgonooza. Los is regularly described as a smith, beating with his Hammer on a forge, which is metaphorically connected to the beating of the human heart. The bellows of his forge are the human lungs. Los's emanation, Enitharmon, represents spiritual beauty and embodies pity, but at the same time creates the spatial aspect of the fallen world, weaving bodies for men and creating sexual strife through her insistence upon chastity. In the Book of Urizen (1794), it is revealed that Los and Enitharmon have a child, Orc, who is the embodiment of the spirit of Revolution.
The name Los is, by common critical acceptance, an anagram of Sol, the Latin word for "sun". Los is also the plural form of the Spanish masculine definite object marker el, and El is a generic name for a god in biblical Hebrew and related languages. Such innovations are common in many of Blake's prophetic poems. We quote (and, sadly from momentary memory lapse) mis-quote from the Prophetic Poem, Milton.

AND OTHERS impinge upon our own during this episode. A little of Sir Thomas Browne in there. Archival gems from the Archival Dungheap. Ulro is the state in which William Blake believed many are trapped. It serves a purpose, but only living in this space is limiting. It’s defined by quantitative information, prioritizing measurement and tangible data while ignoring anything on the other side of the restrictive walls of the material world. When solving logistical problems, this form of imagination leads to rational solutions. However, it doesn’t extend to problems related to questioning the true essence of life or contemplating death. That’s where the next condition of consciousness adds worth. In Blake’s mythology, Urizen, seen in his artwork, was the god of reason and was the architect of Ulro.

--A SHOW FEATURING THE WORDS of William Blake, as well as a welcome visit from KrOB. We touch on exotic Theology. Parade of the Nine-Pound Spiders. David Normal at the Festival of Demons (more spectator than participant, yet to look is to participate). A Friday night when KrOB came by and settled in. Archival Material. "Sometimes a thousand twangling Instruments about mine ears, and sometimes Voices." --St. Caliban

AND DESCRIBES HIS CURRENT WORK with the City of Oakland. This show properly begins at 03:00. Before that there are transient streams of music. Jett, no stranger to long-time listeners to this program, dilates upon his experiences in and expectations of the town of Oakland. We find ourselves in agreement on most topics.

Of all esoteric and forbidden practices, Necromancy is the most spiritually despicable and may condemn the Operator to eternal death of the spirit, or perpetual servitude to the forces of decay and dissolution in the voyages of the animating Nomen. We speak here of the ancient rituals communicating with or summoning the Dead, primarily for divination-- gaining hidden knowledge or foretelling the future-- or manipulating life forces. Historically rooted in Assyrian, Babylonian, and Greek traditions, it is frequently associated with the most reprehensible spectra of Black magic, raising the unwilling dead and abnegating all ordained and just essence. We know of many varieties. There have been Spirit Summoners, like the Biblical Witch of Endor, who specialized in the calling up of the deceased as apparitions or visions to gain information. Others have called themselves Death Knights, who vilely used Necromantic magic vampirically to drain the vital force from others to empower themselves or heal. Still different are the unwholesome Operators we name Liches, undead Lords who have, or are seeking, immortality, often known for commanding legions of revenants or skeletons. These are Soul Manipulators who specialize in moving, storing, or binding souls into objects (like the Golem of Prague) or other bodies. Ritualistic Circles performed in desolate locations, usually graveyards or ruins, to protect the practitioner, may be employed, using parts of corpses as ingredients in charms.
Originating with ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Graeco-Roman practices, universally condemned by major religions as an abomination or blasphemy, this evil science is rightfully disdained by those who are not fatally, spiritually corrupt beyond redemption. And it often appears ineffective, as is sometimes the effort to raise this show from the dead.

AGAIN WE outline the cause for hope that for SubGeniuses the blessed X-Day may still be on its way. The help of THE VAULT OF SLACK is offered and gratefully acknowledged. We go for a time into the Election frenzy during the madcap campaign for the coveted office of ShowBoss. All this and much, much more. Featuring a perfect plethora of previous voices. But we hope in future to dodge or deflect the Fellow in the Bright Nightgown. How successful does anyone suppose this will be? All regard to the persisting inhabitants of the Old Chatterbox...

THOU RISEST in the East and fill'st ev'ry Land with thy beauty-- Thou art Beautiful! Splendid and Glorious, Great and Exalted over ev'ry Land. O living Aton, Thou who wert first to live, how beautiful art Thou! An appreciation of our Star, Sol (or Arbol, in the first [Angelic] language), with a discourse on His anatomy and destiny. We speak of the Supernova phenomenon and of the life of the stars in general. A discussion about punctuation follows, including Dr. Philo Drummond expressing orthographic prejudices and practices. Julius Caesar's prose style. The cat, already a miniature. The domestication of Felis Catus in Ancient China. On the Stegosaurus and its dietary habits. The sea-dragon who menaced Andromeda, daughter of Casseopiea. Lines from Sir Thomas Browne's Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Buriall. The death of Herakles from the treachery of the dying Centaur, Nessus. Eventually KrOB visits. With: Puzzling Evidence, Michael Peppe et alia.

--THE THOUGHTFUL, MELANCHOLY MAN. The quieter pleasures of intellectual contemplation get a shot. Melancholy, goddess personified, is outfitted in black. Why? It is "staid Wisdom's hue." So when you graduate from school or University you wear a black robe. Because supposedly, now you know something, you have knowledge. Why does Hamlet wear black? That was the color of Prince Memnon's sister, and also of Memnon, king of Ethiopia, son of Tithonus by Aurora, who during the extended Graeco-Trojan controversy advanced with a great host to the relief of Priam, King of Troy. He (Memnon) was among the many slain by Achilles. Or how about "that starr'd Ethiop queen--" Cassiopeia, wife of Cepheus, another ruler of Ethiopia, after having triumphed over all the beauties of her age, dared to compare herself to the Nereids-- some say to their grand representative the Sea-Nymph Thetis herself, which proved to be a bad move. To demonstrate Divine displeasure, an enormous sea monster or ocean dragon was prompted to make an appearance to throw the result of their indignation against Cassiopeia into relief. The mis-spoken Queen was commanded by the Delphic Oracle to atone for her unfortunate blurted solecism by exposing her daughter, Andromeda, naked and chained to a rock to be devoured by the monster; but you will recall that Perseus delivered Andromeda from the giant creature, and then even worked successfully behind the scenes to get Cassiopeia to be taken into Heaven, now appearing nightly among the constellations. That's why Milton calls her "that starr'd Ethiop queen." So there you have it: Memnon, his sister, their father Tithonus, Cassiopeia, the beautiful Andromeda herself-- all persons of color, as they say. Black, staid Wisdom's hue.

OR EXTRATERRESTRIAL personal auditor-- the liability that the concept will intermittently become plausible is not an unlikely predicament for the Natural Philosopher. Not questioning the legitimacy of invention, we prefer to approach emotionally conflicting, rational examination-deflecting tropes in this arena with our flapadoodle detectors at full strength. We tend to believe that this intrusive, inquisitive alien is best viewed as another imaginative personification of the active but clandestine subconscious mind, or God, if you like your Bible story. This being done, we may revel in the vitality and value of speculative projection, a procedure which invariably adds recognizable true worth, not mere uncertainty. Besides, maybe it actually is an alien after all. Well, here we present a solo excursion, one which is considerably augmented by a wealth of archival material. Like participating in a dissociative chain of vaguely related thoughts, the ends of Typhon's tentacles may be followed toward His center-- a pleasurable exercise, and it is our hope that the offering will refresh. Another time we will bring up the curious fact that Bettie Page worshiped seven gods. With: poetry of Coleridge, Clark Ashton Smith and, somewhat messed up in this rendition in the second stanza, Dylan Thomas.

COMPRISE ARCHIVAL RECORDINGS among other things. Here, we fish a few out of Time's Abyss. The year ends here with a little lag. Time is precious, as we know. It’s the one resource we all appear to have in equal measure, yet it is reported that many feel as though they never have enough of it. Despite the fact that studies like the American Time Use Survey show that the average American, that guy, has at least four and a half hours of leisure time a day, many of us find ourselves constantly saying, “I don’t have time to do the things that are important to me.” So, it is not unreasonable to ask-- what’s really going on here? Why, with all this free time at our disposal, do humans struggle to use it in ways that bring a mere modicum of joy, full-blooded satisfaction and fulfillment? Beware: without chronometric self-discipline, we let Time slip away through our fingers. The truth is that without the proper focus we can’t begin to control time. It’s a finite resource, and once it passes, it’s beyond retrieval. But what we can control is what activities we are involved in-- Slackless or Slackful-- Sakkak or Sallack --as time runs through the hourglass...

AND TRAVEL, which they say broadens one. Just another thing They say. They say this, They say that. Chrysopoeia and argyropoeia, the turning of base metals, such as lead or copper, into gold and silver, They now say may actually be accomplished. Physics now (reluctantly) acknowledges that Dimensional Transmutation, a physical mechanism providing a linkage between a dimensionless parameter and a dimensional parameter, may, under the appropriate conditions, be subject to evocation.
Nuclear transmutation, the conversion of a chemical element or isotope into another chemical element or isotope, is simply a matter of altering or exchanging subatomic particles via directed bombardment.
We have returned from our travails, but ill from exposure to unknown pathogens. Time may heal the body, but the sorrows of the spirit can linger to the grave, and, according to religious people, beyond. Well, we're back in harness. Home is the sailor, home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill.

THAT KILLED THE POPPYCOCKALORUM and the Cockahoopatrice-- beware these. We see some value, that's the ticket, in persisting strongly against such croaking, compromising entities. "If the fool will persist in his folly, he will become wise." --Blake. Of course, one must remind oneself to acknowledge responsibility for the potentially maladaptive general effects of your un-deflected folly's persistence... When I Lay Dead in Thessaly, by Clark Ashton Smith. We feature an article from THE VAULT OF SLACK, current issue; the topic is recalculating the advent of true X-Day in accordance with the recent prophetic analysis espoused by Rev. Trixie von Mothersbaugh. Giant Spiders in Louisiana, again. KrOB appears and we talk shop. Dr. H. Owll also dilated upon that famous Arizona renegade outlaw, the Apache Kid. The lore of Arizona is always of interest. It includes accounts of "Indian massacres," or, as we call them today, Native American Direct Actions.

--A STORY by Charles G. Finney, read and interpreted by Dr. H. Owll, gives us our title for this episode. Providing this presentation, we ask sympathy for one Crotalus atrox, a creature rarely accorded any by the bulk of the population. And, archival material used in the "palimpsest" show collation method supports this original narrative. With: Mobius Rex, Chicken John, KrOB. Jeff Robins. Michael Peppe, Clark Ashton Smith, VJ Pussycat, William Ernest Henley, Stan Freberg and the late Dr. Ralph Fielding Snell.

AS PROFILED in Top-Secret SubGenius Mandatory Memoranda --is the subject of our sermon. We particularly dilate upon the efficacy of the three-by-five card in putting these SubGenius Church/Cult Principles into magnum motion. Poetry of Clark Ashton Smith. And then KrOB comes in. Monologue becomes dialogue. We close at 1:00 AM as usual, but KrOB takes command and continues...

AFTER THE FIRST HALF HOUR, or The Button Got Me Again. Yes, once again, while entertaining guests in the Studio, we forgot to press the infernal Red Button-- a necessary ritual if you want your show on "RV" to be heard. At 31:50 the real show begins-- up to then you're listening to last week's show. After that-- KrOB and Yours Truly are talking about Joe Laudati's GWANGI tribute film (forthcoming) when suddenly the TRUE SHOW for October 24th 2025 begins. Guests are Underground Cartoonist and fine artist Appel Berry and African Cyberpunk author Nikhil Singh, whose recent works include the novel CLUB DED and its sequel DAKINI ATOLL (both recommended) as well as a Graphic Novel. First the enchanting Appel interviews Dr. H. Owll about some of his more disreputable episodes, including exploring caves, forbidden tombs and underground spider-haunted tunnels, not to mention grave robbing (few people, in most cases, can get me talking about this stuff). We speak of the clandestine Archie Comics erotica online and other comics-related topics. The second part is a conversation with Nikhil (at 1:23), who reveals various strongly held opinions. An information-heavy show in a conversational mode-- what we aim for in this show. SORRY about the missing first half hour-- no one regrets it more than us. WHY do they HAVE that Furshlugginer button, anyway? If you forget to push it, your show doesn't happen-- it's like the lever in the mad scientist's laboratory which, when pulled, causes the whole thing to blow up. Why install such a device in the first place? An informed public wants to know. We close with a reading from CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN magazine, issue #42, based on an article by David Yuers with Editor Don Smeraldi, "The Many Shapes of Horror.."

IS SAID (BY BORGES) to be one of the most beautiful book titles in all of literature. We spoke a little of this, but were checked by the unexpected (and welcome) appearance of KrOB. We still discussed ramifications of the story of Sindbad the Sailor's Voyages as we ventured into a mutual favorite, Harryhausen's notable THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD. And there's more poetry and pedantry along with the usual interspersed Archival Recordings. The Dream of Alexander the Great also features, which was itself a dream... We talk of the East and the West as they are found in the Noosphere. Problems in the filming of WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (that film is itself a problem) creep into the conversation. How a snipped-out coupon from a Silver Age SUPERMAN comic book for an amusement park ride was received-- an Eyewitness account. Reminisces about Castleberry's Bar-B-Cue Sandwiches as part of the Drive-In Snack Bar array in the long-gone earlier day may be heard. Well, we urge listeners to hear and see our NEW show on Twitch (via Zoom) on Sunday at 6:00 PM...

--AN EXAMINATION BY BORGES from SEVEN NIGHTS. We begin with W.S. Merwin's "Leviathan," a translation of an archaic Early Christian (Anglo-Saxon) poem. Then we set forth to examine the phenomenon called Nightmare. Soon Borges is in control, informing and cross-referencing in his familial fashion. Perhaps this topic is one more suitable for those of us who principally occupy the night. Borges was a founder, and principal practitioner, of postmodernist literature, a movement in which literature distances itself from life situations in favor of reflection on the creative process and critical self-examination... Widely read, and profoundly erudite, Borges was a polymath who could discourse on the great literature of Europe and America and who assisted his translators as they brought his work into different languages, influenced by the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Franz Kafka, but his own fiction "combines literary and extra-literary genres in order to create a dynamic, electric genre," to quote Alberto Julián Pérez in the DICTIONARY OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY. Pérez also said that Borges's work "constitutes, through his extreme linguistic conscience and a formal synthesis capable of representing the most varied ideas, an instance of supreme development in and renovation of narrative techniques. With his exemplary literary advances and the reflective sharpness of his meta-literature, he has effectively influenced the destiny of literature."

In his preface to LABYRINTHS: Selected Stories and Other Writings, André Maurois wrote that Borges "composed only little essays or short narratives. Yet they suffice for us to call him great because of their wonderful intelligence, their wealth of invention, and their tight, almost mathematical style. Argentine by birth and temperament, but nurtured on universal literature, Borges... [had] no spiritual homeland."

Nearly unknown in most of the world until 1961, in his early sixties he was awarded the Prix Formentor, the International Publishers' Prize, an honor he shared with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. Prior to winning the award, according to Gene H. Bell-Villada in BORGES AND HIS FICTION: A Guide to His Mind and Art, "Borges had been writing in relative obscurity in Buenos Aires, his fiction and poetry read by his compatriots, who were slow in perceiving his worth or even knowing him." But soon a collection of his short stories, FICCIONES, was simultaneously published in six different countries and he was invited by the University of Texas to come to the United States to lecture, the first of many international lecture tours. His lasting appeal to us partly results from his prodigious erudition, which becomes immediately apparent in our podcast-- the multitude of literary allusions from cultures around the globe that are contained in his writing. "The work of Jorge Luis Borges," Anthony Kerrigan wrote in his introduction to the English translation of FICCIONES, "is a species of international literary metaphor. He knowledgeably makes a transfer of inherited meanings from Spanish and English, French and German, and sums up a series of analogies, of confrontations, of appositions in other nations' literatures. His Argentinians act out Parisian dramas, his Central European Jews are wise in the ways of the Amazon, his Babylonians are fluent in the paradigms of Babel." From the sublime then to the ridiculous as we engage in quoting our earlier presentations. A hideous "earworm" is indulged as we recall the smarmy music and lyrics to a crass children's cartoon show. From there we take several leaps into the poetic world of Clark Ashton Smith. How about Stan Freberg? We have him too. A sufferer from Roderick Usher Syndrome, Dr.H. Owll takes refuge in a recording of the old Live Show back in the Chicken John days. We present Shelley's "Ozymandias." Finally the Arachnologist within prompts a recitation of Whitman's "A Noiseless, Patient Spider." Do join Dr. H. Owll on his own upcoming show The Ask Dr. Hal! Show, The Home Edition. This will be presented at 6 PM Pacific, 9 PM Eastern on Twitch via Zoom, easily reachable at askdrhalshow.com on Sunday, October 19th. Join us afterward at our interactive post-Show Chat Room...

OR, DR. FRANK BAXTER, C'EST MOI! We discourse on that lengthy molecule, DNA. Y'know, we're still reverberating over here from the colossal disaster of our last week's show. That was when I forgot to press the Red Button, a portion of technological obfuscation inflicted upon our helpless, innocent show. Only the latter half was salvageable. Our show, The Thread of Life, is about heredity, DNA and how it works. The inspiration comes from early mental molding as a viewer in elementary school (Flossie Wiley in Urbana, Illinois) when shown the Bell (Telephone) Science Series, wherein the affable Dr. Frank Baxter gave me an overview of Genetics for the first time. The screenplay was by Rowland Barber, a writer perhaps best known for the 1960 novel The Night They Raided Minsky's. Owen Crump directed; Robert McKimson, Warner Bros. cartoon animator and close associate of Bob Clampett, directed the animation. Want to see a truly kool kartoon? WATCH the next episode of The Ask Dr. Hal! Show, The Home Edition on October 19th, 6 PM-- we're showing UPA's The Telltale Heart.

BEFORE THEN it's just from a rerun of last week's show. We were putting out a show, KrOB was visiting-- when suddenly we realized that WE HAD FORGOTTEN TO PRESS THE FURSHLUGGINER RED BUTTON! You see, they have this inexplicable set-up here where you have to press a red button or your show won't go out. Why, no one can say. We'll use the notes to recreate the first hour and a half when we do the next one. But here are two hours of non-rerun. It is to be hoped that someone heard us after 37:50, which would have been around 11:37 PM on Friday... Press red button when starting, blue button when ending.

AS RELATED BY EARLIER AUTHORS. The emphasis tends to be on the monocularity of the Aramaspii more than their cephalothoracic configuration, but their observed enmity to the Gryphons comes in for more than a mention. And, there's the 700 mile-long Eel. David Seville and the genesis of the three performing, ullulating Neotamias obscurus. Stan Freberg does "Heartbreak Hotel." Polyphemus's family tree. Janor shows Aunt Bertha his candy cane. There is a mention of Liquid Chicken. Finally, we dilate upon the obscured prophecy concerning the Perytons, strange inhuman creatures fleeing the Atlantaean catastrophe. Their plumage may either have been blue or green.