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Coming at you on the tail end of a very stressful week, this is the carnival of creepdom known the world over at the binnall report. Instead of bringing you down with my problems, I'll note the amazing weather we've been having lately. I don't really know what to make of it. One of the few highlights of any otherwise difficult week. Now if only we can make it through the winter without snow.
In this week's report, I attempt to look back at the past week of Coast to Coast, paying particular attention to the Pyramid Roundtable and Steven Hairfield's appearance. We look ahead to a week that has John Lear and Ann Druffel as highlights. We dig into the mailbag, then the C2C vault, and wrap it up with the usual madness, this time in the form of the Cee to Cee's in Hot Newz. Bit of a light week, kind of a post-Coasties valley, but a fun one nonetheless.
Since we're right up against the clock this week, let's just get down to business ...
The Week That Was
I caught as much Coast as I could this past week, but stresses on the home front kept me from really tuning into the show. I found that what I did catch was usually through a filter of my own present day issues pressing down on me. So forgive me if the reviews are vague or more biting than usual, it's just how things were this week.
When we left off last week, Ian Punnett was guest hosting for Noory in the Friday into Saturday Open Lines time slot. The theme of the night seemed to be animals living as humans, as in the 2nd hour, Jared Johnson was the pop-in guest to talk about a mockumentary he made about a man who turns into a horse. Following that, the special topic line for the night was about "Otherkin", people with non-human souls. I'm sure this allowed for any number of classic Ian quips throughout the evening.
With barely an ounce of sleep, IP jumped back into the host chair for the early show on Saturday evening. His guest was R. Gary Patterson, C2C's rock and roll guru. What made this a special evening was that RGP brought along some friends. We'll turn it over to Lesley's C2C Rewind for the play-by-play ... Ian and R. Gary Patterson! Could things get much better for a Saturday evening? Only if you added in film maker Dan Bliss and Jim Morrison's former brother-in-law, Alan Graham.
First up with Ian and Gary was Bliss who talked about the Elvis documentary he has been making. The big news that came out of that portion was that Bliss had tracked down the Elvis grave robber who is in the FBI witness protection program (for something else) and the grave robber told him that Elvis' dad Vernon had paid him to rob the grave because the city of Memphis wouldn't let Elvis be buried at Graceland. Thanks to that incident the city changed it's mind.
The next guest, Alan Graham told one of the funniest stories that I think I have ever heard. Graham wanted to make a movie about his brother in law Jim Morrison back before the Oliver Stone movie, at the same time he was working for Sylvester Stallone. Stallone got it into his head that he could play Morrison so he put on a fake wig and started singing Doors songs for Graham. Graham quite honestly told him that he had never heard anything like that before. Just the image of that in my head will probably make me laugh every time I think of it. A totally entertaining show from start to finish. As is the case on weekends, I only caught bits and pieces of the Saturday night Coast featuring Art Bell interviewing Lee Baumann about God and Light. Lesley says this one was actually a strong episode, "I had my doubts about this show, but it really ended up being pretty darn good and I liked Baumann."
Sunday night on C2C, Art had Lynn McTaggart on to talk about intention. I caught a fair portion of this one and it was pretty good. The only downside, really, was that it was rather "dry" for the most part. I can't really recall much of note from it, but that may be more my fault.
Monday night, The Noor was ready to rock it out, following his brief hiatus. His guest was Joyce Hawkes, discussing cells and healing. After the alternative science fest that was Sunday night's show, I ended up zoning out of this episode not too long into Hawkes interview. Can't say if it was good or bad, really, just another alt. science episode I didn't find too compelling.
I did hear Richard C. Hoagland in the first half hour, appearing to crow about the news story that NASA may have killed life on Mars back in 1975. These are always the worst Hoagland appearances, full of self righteous "I told you so" quips and a healthy dose of Noory inflating RCH's ego like it was a child's bath toy. More robot head, less Hoagland ego stroking, please. Hoags did say that the news was a harbinger for revelations about life on Mars coming in 2007. I'd be excited, but he once claimed they were going to make the announcement in a week (back in 2005) and that never happened, so don't get your hopes up yet.
Tuesday night, the guest was Steven Hairfield to talk about future events. I went out of my way to catch this one, but that may have been a mistake. For starters, Hairfield wasn't that fun, burned out hippy I thought he was in the last appearance and came across throughout this interview as painfully arrogant. Given that on his last appearance, he'd predicted 2012 was really 2006, you'd think he'd be eating humble pie, but no. To make matters worse, I don't even think this ridiculous 2012 / 2006 faux pas was even mentioned by Noory, so there were some in the audience who actually may have believed Hairfield.
I don't know if it was me bringing my own baggage from the week to this episode or if Hairfield has changed, but I just wasn't digging this one. Part of the problem was Hairfield's delivery, which bordered on Ed Dames levels of "I know this is going to happen" and we all know it is BS. That or the predictions were simply stuff anyone astute enough to read the newspaper could predict.
Wednesday night, instead of TBA, it was a Pyramid Roundtable, featuring Michel Barsoum, Christopher Dunn, Margaret Morris, and Robert Schoch. Let me get my qualms out of the way first ... a roundtable episode is an event. You don't just throw an event onto the schedule in the TBA slot hours before airtime. This is why the original Roundtable was legendary and the Bigfoot Roundtable is barely remembered (save for the antics of Biscardi). As with many of my complaints, I'm sure there is a perfectly valid reason for the way it was scheduled, having to do with mundane radio details, but I don't have to like it.
Onto the actual content of the episode, I'd say it was pretty good and I listened to the bulk of the actual roundtable portion (the final hour only had callers with two of the guests). As far as RT episodes go, I'd put a notch below the Knights Templar RT or Da Vinci Code RT. All of the guests were excellent and really knew their stuff, bringing a variety of different perspectives on the famous Egyptian enigmas. The problem was that it lacked those dynamic personalities that made the more legendary roundtable episodes so much fun.
Also, they focused a lot on the actual nuts and bolts of pyramid design, which grew tiresome after a while. I did enjoy the side discussion, however brief, on Coral Castle and the additional segment towards the end on Zawi Hawas. I'd classify this episode as one that we'll go back to and realize was much better it was than it was given credit for in its time (which is now).
Noteworthy is that Jerome Corsi was the 1st hour pop-in, firing up the 2007 Coastie Counter @ one appearance. Perhaps after RCH made his 2nd appearance of the year on Monday, they knew they had to have Corsi on to make it at least appear competitive for January.
Speaking of esoteric counters, not to be outdone, Steve Quayle was the full show guest on Thursday, kicking off the '07 Quayle Watch. Due to an early taping schedule for BoA : Audio, I had to head off to bed earlier than usual and ended up passing on the Quayle. SQ replaced Coastie Winner Walid Shoebat, who was scheduled, then was dropped. Due to missing the episode, I'm not sure if Noory ended up giving a reason or not.
Anyway, it sounds like Quayle was all over the map, with feet in both of his pools of thought : terrorism and giants. Mark my words, someday there will be terrorist giants and Steve Quayle will be considered a prophet. I'm a big Quayle fan, always have been, so I'll try and catch this one over the weekend.
All in all, a rather drab week, trending upwards around Tuesday with the Pyramid Roundtable and then Steve Quayle. Too much alt. science (notably the Saturday / Sunday / Monday trifecta), which hurt my already tepid enthusiasm.
The Week That Is
After what seems like months, but was really just weeks, The Noor reclaims the proverbial worn out easy chair that is Friday into Saturday Open Lines. Given that this is Noory's return to Friday nights, I expect something fun like the "I stepped on a spider" line, complete with an update from Dr. Morgus on his latest experiment, a JC rant, a Hoagland mid-show pop-in to talk about an obscure '60s TV show, and five minutes of Noory's new stand up act. Ahh, it's good to have The Noor back to kick off the weekend.
This just in : C2C.com reports that the pop-in will be Oliver Williams and "John Titor's lawyer", for an update on, what else, the John Titor story. The perfect extra ingredient for Noory's return to Friday nights.
Speaking of which, Private IP, (Ian Punnett to you and me), finally gets to host the early show after a good night's sleep. His guest will be Dr. Pauline Chen covering an insider's perspective on the medical industry. This has potential, as Ian lurks on the edge of alternative science and seems a bit of a gossip, so he'll enjoy hearing about how doctors don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom or some other salacious revelation.
Worthy of note is that someone @ C2C has a great sense of humour, as Peter Lance is scheduled for the 1st hour pop in on "Ian". Wow. That gives them enough time for Ian to ask how Lance has been and then to thank him for coming on the show. Seriously, though, I give Ian three questions, tops, maybe just two.
Saturday night on Coast, Art Bell has Ann Druffel on to talk about earth mysteries. I'm interested in what Ann's got on earth mysteries, but I'm also hoping for some discussion on Druffel's outstanding book "Firestorm", dealing with legendary Ufologist Dr. James E. McDonald. All I'm asking for is a segment or two, that would be so sweet. Altogether though, I expect this to be an excellent episode.
Sunday, Art brings back Kris and Ed Sherwood to talk about recent UFO sightings in the southwest US and English crop circles. Should be interesting, could be quite good.
Monday night, The Noor kicks off the week with Raymon Grace to help us cleanse people and places of negative entities. I guess blindly swearing at them doesn't work. Grace was on the show about a year and a half ago. He was decent, a bit wild, attempted some kind of "water empowering" exercise with the audience that even I played along with, so don't be surprised if he has you running off looking for yarn or Elmer's glue.
Tuesday night, it's TBA. Last week, I predicted, nay begged for, Jordan Maxwell and I got the Pyramid Roundtable. This week, I'm predicting Sylvia Browne. For real. I'm getting some kind of appearance where she's ostensibly going to make peace with Noory and it will turn ugly. Mark it down, folks.
Sure to be another classic episode, Wednesday night sees C2C legend John Lear return to the show. Much like his '06 appearance, Lear will be interviewed by George Noory instead of his old dance partner Art Bell. That said, this isn't The Noor's first time at the John Lear rodeo, so I'm not too worried. (So long as the Lear Test isn't played more than once, if that) John will be talking about the Moon and I'm sure it will be shadowy, riveting, and generally creepy as all hell. A can't miss episode, one of the few guests who gets that designation, but it's well earned.
Wrapping up the formal week on Thursday will be Gregg Braden to talk about his book "The Divine Matrix". The description of the episode is as vague as all get out, but Braden's done some good work with "The God Code", so I expect good things here.
Top to bottom, looks like a pretty decent week, highlighted by the much anticipated return to C2C for John Lear. Druffel and Braden should be good, the Sherwoods and Raymon Grace could be strong, and TBA could surprise us, so there's a lot of potential, on paper, there.
binnall report mailbag
Hey Tim, if I would have known you were going to be there at the book signing, I would have made it down to North Park, as it is only around 20 minutes away from me.
George is showing the years, but you look better than that little photo of you on top of the pyramid.
Streamlink member, Laia (This was a post in response to last week's coverage of the Noory - binnall Summit. )
Thanks for writing, Laia. I didn't know, for sure, that I would be attending the book signing until about a day or two beforehand, so I didn't have the chance to really hype it with the usual BoA aplomb. Noory claimed he'd be back in San Diego at some point, for those of you who missed out on The Noor in SD. And, I'll try to do a better job getting the word out if/when I make another public appearance. \
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
1.12.2006 : One year ago on Coast, they dusted off the old chestnut of esoteric radio : the debate. C2C favorite son Jerome Corsi faced off against Michael Ruppert in the Great Oil Debate. Corsi was pro-abiotic oil and Ruppert was pro-peak oil. And the hijinks flowed from there in this excellent episode. Here's the play-by-play from the 1.13.2006 binnall report :
Damn, this one was a battle. Ruppert came out swinging, including the hilarious move of pointing out all the typos in Corsi's book and having a side debate over the true location of Argentina (Central America or South America ?) Every time Corsi made a decent point, Ruppert would come back with a few more decent points in a far more aggressive manner. I think somewhere in the middle of hour 3, I lost a tooth just from listening to his hellacious war. Easily the best debate since the UFO Debate of 2004.
In the end, Corsi won the debate 62% to 38% for Ruppert. Despite his aggressive nature, Ruppert was humble in defeat. I think two things worked against Ruppert in this debate. First, his overly aggresive style probably turned off many of C2C "new age" (read : beatnik) listeners. Also, the C2C trend has been towards abiotic oil since late '05. Sure, Art Bell had a handful of "peak oil" episodes early in 2005, but Noory fired back with about three episodes on "abiotic oil" in the latter half of '05, so the C2C audience was probably swayed towards abiotic oil based on that. Plus, one of those abiotic oil episodes featured C2C favorite Alex Jones, to whom Corsi probably owes some of the credit for winning the debate. Nonetheless, fantastic episode. 1.12.2004 : One of the few, the rare, the not so proud, the guests booted by The Noor, Steven Gibbs was the guest three years ago tonight. You see, Gibbs invented a time travel machine and he was selling it for like 50 bucks. (Think of that scene in Napolean Dynamite). Anyway, Noory was outraged that Gibbs didn't offer a money back guarantee and, subsequently, booted him from the show, much to my delight.
This episode also holds the odd distinction of being the first ever Coastie contender that BoA tracked, "A guest so suspect that even Noory kicks him off the air an hour early. His story was so full of holes, it quickly devolved from thought-provoking, to laughable, to just plain sad by the end. Bonus points for his friend who called in twice and both times got disconnected."
End Notes
On that note, we close out another edition of the binnall report. Seems rather barren around these parts, but I suspect we'll be filling it up again in no time flat. Hope you enjoyed the ride this week.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com, we begin the process of chronicling the 2007 Coastie Contenders, starting with this past December's episodes. Sunday, Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field. Monday, R.Lee's Trickster's Realm. Tuesday, Lesley's Grey Matters. Wednesday, Khyron's The K-Files. Thursday, Hot Newz. And, Friday, we wrap up the middle of January with another binnall report.
binnallofamerica.com ... we've still got the new website smell.
Thanks for reading, folks, I gotta run. Until we meet again, this is binnall, signing off.