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Lesley

Grey Matter

1.9.7

My coastie picks, the rhyme and reason, or lack of

Guest of the year went to Jim Marrs. I totally love Marrs and understand anyone who would chose him. I didn’t though, I chose Whitley Strieber. Whitley did two great shows, one with George and one with Art. Since Whitley is rarely on c2c this was a special treat for me. Even better was that neither show was a climate related show, they were almost totally pure alien/ufo stuff! For some reason I always find Whitley totally fascinating and yes, I realize not everyone does.

The regular of the year went to Alex Jones, I chose Linda Moulton Howe. Linda is the only person who is on every month and so far as I am concerned she comes with a great story each time. I love Alex, but a lot of his stuff is a repeat of stuff he reported on before and that I have heard earlier on his show and Rense.

The majority and I met on the theme episode of the year, the Bilderberger Roundtable. Really how can you go wrong with a theme episode like that? You can’t and that is why it was the winner. Alex Jones and Jim Marrs together, it doesn’t get much more awesome than that.

Newcomer of the year was where Lesley and the majority seriously part ways. I ended up hating the judgmental Brother Dimond and could not even listen to the entire show, as well as hoping he would never return to the air again, but others apparently liked him enough to give him this award. I chose Aaron Russo. Russo was the big pleasant surprise for me of the year 2006. Not only does he fit well into the conspiracy topics on c2c, he has had a truly fascinating life and is great at relaying the most entertaining aspects of it.

Oh, the robot head episode! Who could not love it? Being that it won Hoagland episode of the year, not many could resist it’s charm and that includes me. It was a throw back to those wonderful Hoagland episodes back in the early Art Bell days. Back before Hoagie became “science advisor”, he often had tales such as that, rather than just updating us on the space shuttle and other mundane stuff for 10 minutes a few times a week. How I long for those days and how happy the robot head episode made me!

Phillip Carlo was my favorite Ian episode of the year. I had heard Carlo on with George, but Ian had actually read the book and got so much out of Carlo. I especially like Carlo, but with Ian he was pure gold, at least in my book. Others chose Simon and the Necronomicon. I am a big H.P. Lovecraft fan and I had expected to like that episode a lot more than I did. I can understand the entertainment aspect of it, but I didn’t think it had much substance to it.

Pop in of the year was a tie between Dan Aykroyd and Gary Busey. I am not a big Busey fan, but he is very entertaining. At the same time, how he could tie with the greatness of Dan Aykroyd, I can only guess. I guess it is because Noory let callers take up too much time with their silly tales rather than spending the time with Aykroyd. Obviously, I chose Aykroyd, but I also will admit this was not the Aykroyd pop in that I had hoped for.

There was only one choice for me, for Coaster of the year and it was Richard C. Hoagland and his “I have proof, unlike ufologists” episode. Many of you will remember my rage at this episode and I will add that it should be equally shared between Hoagland and Noory, as both did their part to try and make ufologists look like idiots. Luckily, most can see through that and realize who the true idiots are.

The alt science Coastie went to Dr. Kaku. Everyone knows that I love Dr. Kaku, but I don’t consider him alt science. I consider him real science even though he is a theoretical physicist and so I had to pick another and it was one of my all time favorite c2c guests - Graham Hancock and his research into ayuhuasca. That is true alt science to me!

For alt history I chose another loser, which was the Da Vinci Code Roundtable. I had to chose that even though I loathe William Henry because I am a big fan of Sir Laurence Gardner and really there weren’t any alt history episodes last year that struck me as truly great.

Again, for conspiracy episode of the year I was different. I chose David Icke. Not only do I find Icke totally entertaining, but his appearances on c2c are rare making them all the more enjoyable.

Ghost episode of the year I gave to Brad Steiger. The winners ended up being a tie between the GIS and Joshua Warren, both excellent choices, but there is something about Steiger and his storytelling that I really enjoy and I had to pick him.

Outstanding achievement in Cryptozoology went to Loren Coleman and was one of the few that I also picked. Loren is just awesome and I could not pick anyone else. However, I would like to give an honorable mention to Linda Godfrey who I always totally enjoy when she is on with Ian Punnett.

Was anyone truly deserving of the prognosticator of the year coastie? They all seemed to be equally wrong and I decided to give my award to Sylvia Browne. She isn’t wrong anymore often than Dames, Morton, Hogue or any of the others, but she happened to be wrong in a very public, on air way and as a result she will probably never be invited back to c2c. I felt she deserved an award for being the only one who has had to suffer for being wrong. Dames and Morton will no doubt continue on c2c with their wrong predictions and never have to suffer the public humiliation that Noory gave Browne.

UFO episode of the year went to Paul Kimball and a big congratulations to him even though I didn’t vote for him. I picked Richard Dolan. I am a big Dolan fan, but I was also very happy with the way Dolan handled Noory when Noory kept trying to get him to bash other ufologists on air. Dolan handled the entire interview like a true gentleman and was very interesting and entertaining as well. For that reason I also gave Dolan Episode of the year, though it was a bit hard for me to chose between him and Timothy Good. Good was a close second for me.

So there you have it. Who I voted for and my own reasons for picking who I did. Chances are that there are some or many of my choices that you don’t agree with, but that is the great thing about c2c, it has something for everyone.

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