Tag: Clarence E. Smith

Tales of Power: Carlos Castaneda’s Links to the Palm Springs Desert Museum

by E. Breck ParkmanSeptember 23, 2021 • 7 Comments

Ed. Note: Don Juan Matus was a Yaqui sorcerer who helped launch the New Age movement. He may have been an invention of author Carlos Castaneda, but even so he helped teenagers everywhere believe they could turn into blackbirds and…

C.E. “Smitty” Smith and the Glory Days of the Palm Springs Desert Museum

by E. Breck ParkmanSeptember 11, 2021 • 2 Comments

Ed. note: Like many museums in the pandemic era, the Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly Desert Museum) has been struggling of late. When things are wobbly, it often helps to return to bedrock. What did we first love? What was…