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Why you won't hear me complain much about Airbnbs around Joshua Tree

Lately, vacation rentals have become a hot topic out here in the Joshua Tree area. With annual numbers of visitors doubling to three...

On the trail(s)

I must apologize for not slogging through the backlog of travel posts I owe this site. When the pandemic hit and halted much of my work,...

My book - Desert Dreams: 20 Years in the Mojave

I'm creating an oversized book detailing my experiences as a journalist, historian, and musician, living and working for more than two...

Coming this summer - Southwest Stories - The Magazine

This summer, look for the first quarterly edition of Southwest Stories, The Magazine - a new digital magazine with stories and...

Shanghai guests on Giant Rock Podcast

March 1, 2021: Join Steve "Shanghai" Brown on the Giant Rock Podcast with host Jeff Crawford, for a far-ranging chat about Steve's...

The Christmas Letter

The Christmas letter used to be a holiday season tradition of mine. There was always much to report for the year - the kids' progress in...

Virtual Visit: Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park is a constant presence in my life. I'm looking at its western mountains now. It's an enormous park, the size...

A report from my backyard

While the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the country this autumn, I'm going through the approximately 20 million photos I have taken.....

Yosemite - in the time of COVID-19 and BLM

The last time I had been to Yosemite National Park was as a kid. My parents had rented a cabin in Yosemite Valley somewhere - a...

Virtual Maui

I spent some time exploring Maui a couple of years ago with my favorite travel companion, my wife. We'd already enjoyed Kauai, and the...

Nessun Dorma

"Qui finisce l'opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto" Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o Principessa Nella tua fredda...

A busy autumn...

It's been one hectic autumn out here in the Mojave Desert. I've been working on getting Season 3 of Southwest Stories with the Two...

Tired of boring and shallow travel features? I have a solution.

Loving Nevada's Loneliest Road: Day One

When you write about travel, and produce a television series about travel, vacations often serve multiple purposes. So it was with this...

To those crying gun control

All I really knew about Steven Rogers when I saw this tweet was he was a commissioner for Nutley Township in New Jersey, and he was a...

Gone Trippin' - Saying Goodbye to the King of Surf Guitar

It was a bittersweet night at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano last Saturday, May 25, 2019. The night had originally been reserved...

Honoring the King of Surf Guitar, Dick Dale

Dick Dale, King of Surf Guitar, is dead. Long live the king! How can someone who influenced the very core of rock music ever truly die?...

Ride out with the Two Steves!

Those of you who drop by from time to time may have wondered where I've been this past month or so. In between working on important...

Dick Dale's touring is done

I'll let other folks write their histories of surf guitar king, Dick Dale. I actually hate writing about people I liked, loved, and...

The East Side of Death Valley

One of my favorite places to road trip is the eastern side of Death Valley National Park. The area is filled with incredible vistas,...

Join me for two weekends of great music and fun at the legendary Amargosa Opera House

So, I used to have this television travel show, Southwest Stories. This really great guy, who also happens to be a three-time NAMMY...

Waiting for the rabbi

The longer I live, the stranger this life becomes. Yesterday afternoon, I couldn't help but think about how strange our journeys in this...

Southwest Stories: Where the Old West Met the New

In this episode of Southwest Stories, we head up to Pioneertown, the Old West town that was never in the Old West. Instead, Pioneertown...

Southwest Stories: Highway 62 Love Song

From Morongo Valley, featured in our previous episode of Southwest Stories - Dig Your Own - we head up the grade into Old Town Yucca...

Southwest Stories: Dig Your Own

One of the things I wanted to do with our television show was to share some of the great things the hi-desert has right here at home. In...

Southwest Stories: Finding Felicity (and Yuma)

One of my favorite places on the planet is Felicity, California. Located in the Colorado Desert (actually, it could be in the Yuha...

Southwest Stories - Come Fly With Me

Lake Havasu has always been a favorite area to feature in our television productions. We shot one episode of our first season (under The...

In the Box

Some time ago, I was invited to go "In the Box" out at Fort Irwin, to witness Army training for desert warfare. We would spend the...

Erin's Garden

If you find yourself heading east out of Twentynine Palms on California Route 62, you'll quickly leave the "city," such as it is -...

Desert wildflowers herald coming of spring - in January

It may not yet be February, but with deep watering from December rains, wildflowers are beginning to bloom in the warmer parts of the...

Last chance to see Robolights on its home turf

Oh my! Imagine The Nightmare Before Christmas collides with Dia de los Muertos, while sliding into a 1950's space robot movie like Tobor...

My desert history

A lot of folks wonder how it is I arrived in the desert, and what kind of relationship I have had with the desert. That's understandable....

Getting desert mysteries right

With the recent fad status of Joshua Tree and the resultant influx of hipsters and fauxhemians, Airbnbsteaders and desert "experts" who...

In An Earthly Manner

I recently sat down at Desert Art Studio with artist Chuck Caplinger to talk about his upcoming exhibition, In An Earthly Manner. The...

Get thee to the Hawk's Head Tavern... or perhaps not

Update, February 25, 2021: James Riley's decision to sue school districts that have chosen to stop sending field trips to Riley's Farm...

Avoid the taxis at Newark's Airport

I recently flew into Newark Liberty International Airport. Arriving fairly late in the evening, I came out from baggage claim (where...

On the coming of autumn

Autumn is coming, here in the Mojave. The winds that are bringing Hurricane Rosa toward the Southwest signal its arrival. For the past...

The best fish & chips aren't in England... they're behind the Redwood Curtain

I love great food, whether it comes to me via a five-star fine dining establishment, a friend's kitchen, or even a food trailer parked...

Yachats - the perfect Oregon coast escape

I make no secret of the fact I love the Oregon coast. It is, after all, one of the most consistently beautiful coastlines in the world....

The Blakey Lion

It's there on the North York Moors, at the crossroads of ancient trails, and it's been there since the 1500s. The Lion Inn, or as I was...

Empty nest syndrome

I suppose, from the moment this spring when the pair of Cooper's hawks arrived in our front yard and began building a nest in the tallest...

Southwest Stories: The Road to Havasu

Join me and my crew as Southwest Stories heads east on California Route 62 for the Colorado River and Lake Havasu. We'll go kayak...

Fishing Lake Havasu - The Whole Story

Yeah, that's me, looking all sportsmanlike in a very cool Hobie fishing kayak. One could almost think for a moment I know what I'm doing....

David Smith on why we need people like Minerva Hoyt - and Pat Flanagan

Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent David Smith is an interesting guy. Ostensibly a bureaucrat overseeing management of our local...

Tijuana with Turista Libre

Ditch those memories of an apathetic "guide" reading his script in a monotone barely audible over the groaning and grinding of the bus....

Turista Libre: Trumpian dystopia and art, and a day exploring Tijuana - walls, food trucks & kitties

A lot of people are interested in art installations, whether it's Desert X or Burning Man, they flock to see a stunningly refined house...

The Vanishing Orcas

This world can be so damned heartbreaking. Case in point, today's story from the New York Times, Orcas of the Pacific Northwest Are...

Made with meraki - Mastrogiannis Distillery

When you think of Lakewood, Washington, an historic town in my old stomping grounds of Pierce County - the lush green setting of Fort...

Southwest Stories: Little Petroglyph Canyon, Randsburg & Ridgecrest

So, I'll just note here that working with the production company for our first season of "The Real Desert, with Steve Brown," was hellish...

High Seas Trading Co. - Awesome, American-made shirts

Yeah, yeah, I know - it's a picture of me. Well, sure it is. But it's a picture of me in a Dia de los Muertos aloha shirt made by High...

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