Audio:

Good morning friends, faithful listeners. As ever this is Lemuel Huppe at Desert Waves. What a beautiful morning it is! I’m looking out my window, the sun is shining and there is very little wind today. Watching a gecko sunning itself in a rock, I wish I could join it, but I’m also looking forward to today’s show.

It’s that time again where I set you a fun little challenge. All of today’s music has a common theme, see if you can figure out what it is. I can’t promise to wait until the end of the show to tell you the answer so get your guesses in soon! Are you ready? Listen carefully, we’re about to begin.

music break Louvin Brothers - Great Atomic Power, U2 - Where the streets have no name

What are your plans for today listeners? After the show, I plan on going for a walk around the perimeter fence, sit for a bit at the Red Rock, then spend a leisurely afternoon on my new taxidermy project. It’s a coyote tea party. Can you imagine such a thing?

I’ve enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the letters you’ve been sending in, listeners. It’s been fun getting to know all about you and your hobbies.

Richard in Coober Pedy has sent a picture of his magnificent collection of glass eyes and prosthetic tongues, by far the best I’ve seen, and Castor in Arizona has sent in a napkin poem:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear jack shit.
The falconer's abandoned it.
Its wings begin to cramp and it expires.
A muddy wall of water hits the states:
A couple B list actors drown.
There's consternation all around.
It takes its toll on our insurance rates.

Surely these disasters are inaugural;
Such cataclysms signify a change.
Change! Galvanised from sluggish equilibrium
I strain to see beyond the desert sands
And catch a glimpse of some monstrosity-
A heartless, limbless, bland eternity.
Its gaze speaks movingly of tedium
It creeps across the globe, wending its trail
Through piles of paperwork and forms for council tax
My eyes flick shut again - but now I know
Back in the world monotony remains
And here at least there's damn fine coffee
Bitter enough to do for me
Who could deny capricious gods their games?

Thanks Castor. That was just swell. Keep writing in listeners, I love hearing from you.

music break REM - It’s the end of the world as we know it, Kate Bush - Breathing

And now a shout-out from Wormwood - ‘I must. I'm so glad it was you.’ Enjoy.

Strange audio

music break Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes, Everything Everything - Get to Heaven

I hope you’ve been picking up on my theme listeners. I hope I’ve not been too subtle. A few of you have gotten in contact with ideas, your imaginations have really been working hard. I can tell you that the answer is not ‘the colour red’, nor is it 'the feeling of scorched lungs' or 'never-ending fields of ash'. But you're getting close with that one. Keep trying.

Ad break Are you ready for your life to change this November? After November 25th nothing will be the same. We’re telling you three times. Everything will change November 25th.

music break Johnny Cash - When The Man Comes Around, The Decemberists - Calamity Song

[Hey guys it’s Elliot Gentile coming to you live from the streets of Hollywood, it’s STAR WATCH! Oh my god I have the biggest news! I was walking down Sunset Boulevard towards Little Armenia when I heard tyres screeching, guns firing, the works. Then this bright red car goes speeding past me and crashes into the Arby’s! A few guys on motorcycles drove up holding some kind of special forces shit, pointing it at the car, but then this backwater sheriff came out of nowhere and took them all out - bang! Bam! Then he helped the guy out of the red car and who is it but Demetri Anders! Whoever this Jesse Hargrove guy is, he’s a real hero. Back to the studio!]STAR WATCH is not affiliated with, or aware of, Desert Waves.

music break Imagine Dragons - Radioactive, Uriah Heep - Come Away Melinda

While we’re on the subject of hobbies, listeners, I’d like to read out a letter I received from Ishani in Exelsior who certainly sounds like she is living the dream.

“Dear Lemuel,

I always love to hear about the other people who listen to your show and learn about their lives and interests, so I thought I’d write in and share a bit about what I do. I’m an artist. My medium is paint, brush and canvas and my subject is that most visceral reaction to abject terror wrought from the human vocal cords. In other words - I paint screams! There is nothing more satisfying than taking brush to canvas and capturing that singular moment in thick and vibrant oil paints. I also paint gasps, but they look better in water colours.

Hope you enjoy my gift!
Ishani”

Well Ishani I will enjoy this magnificent painting you’ve sent me. It sends a shiver down my spine just glancing at it. I get the impression that it’s a man’s scream. A man who has been stuck in a small dark space for days and days. Who is wasting oxygen with every desperate attempt to be heard. Chilling, and beautiful. You know what I think I will hang it up during our next music break, over the broadcast mixer, so that I can look at it every moment I’m recording.

music break Muse - 2nd Law: Unsustainable, CAN - Mushroom

I can’t wait any longer listeners. I’m going to have to tell you what today’s theme has been. First let me read you some more of the incorrect guesses. Hopelessness, the apocalypse, bombs, alien invasion, massive internal haemorrhaging, nuclear war. All good tries. The correct answer: parallel worlds! That’s right parallel worlds. I have to say I’m quite proud of that one. It really kept you guessing. Well done to everyone who did get it right. You don’t get a prize but here’s a round of applause for you.

clapping soundbite

music break Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun, Nena - 99 Luftballons