It has been raining for seven days straight here in Boston. I'm developing a serious case of prune hands. Thankfully, the basement of BoA HQ has not been flooded and only 2 interns have drowned and that was a result of us forcing them to get coffee for us when the storm was at its worst.

Can you smell the holidays ? They're right around the corner. And so is Coastie season. Expect some Coastie madness to begin in about a month. You've been warned.

Meanwhile, we delve into the usual debauchery this week, scouring C2C for the good bits and lamenting the bad ones. I slip a trivia question in along the way (an ode to tbr classic "C2C Trivia Time" ?) and do the usual stuffs as well. I'm skipping out on binnall report birthday bash, as time constraints have forced that onto the backburner for next week. But don't be sad, we've got all the greatness as usual ...

The Week That Was

We left of last week with The Noor welcoming Douglas Taylor to talk about his encounter with an alien and then Open Lines. I bailed on this one early, as I was all set with hearing another "ET encounter" story. From what I understand, it was pedestrian at best.

Saturday Night Punnett rocked the kasbah with first Katherine Albrecht popping in to talk about RFID. There is an odd little trend developing with IP as Saturday host, I call it the "throwback". Punnett brings the previous week's guest on in the first hour to do a little "update". Normally, I'd crap on this, but it is actually pretty clever. Having done interviews, myself, I know there are often things you forget to ask or questions that come from listeners after the interview, so having a follow up the next week allows for tying up loose ends. So, kudos to IP or whoever came up with this concept, it works.

The full show guest was Mary Roach, talking about human cadavers. I listened on and off to this episode and it was pretty good. Ian wasn't the quivering woman I expected him to be when they talked about dead people, so that was a tad disappointing, but otherwise solid stuff.

Sunday featured a rebroadcast of Art Bell's interview with Dr. Paul Moller, inventor of the "Moller Sky Car". Taped 10.25.2003, this was decent at the time. I have a hard time believing if a "sky car" ever gets produced, that Moller will have anything to do with it. And here we are two years after the interview and there's no sign of any sky cars where I live.

Monday, The Noor returned to action with Neil Slade, talking about the brain. Full disclosure on my part, I totally blew this episode off, taking advantage of the extra time I was afforded via Columbus day and got a jump start on preparing this week's BoA : Audio. I asked for opinions from theusofe.com's posters and here's the best review I got, direct from baemark :

"I wasn't impressed. He clearly knew little and often admitted it. He seemed to be not an expert on how the brain actually works, rather, he just read a bunch of stuff about the brain and uses this to practice pseudo science.

It was sort of like a 3 hour Time Magazine/Newsweek article."

Ouch. Slade dissed by baemark. I love it.

I was back in the swing of things come Tuesday and just in time to hear from Mary Ann, the Ghost lady. First, I tried to get through that first hour with Dr. Emoto, but couldn't deal with the translating and Noory's hokey jokes. Anyway, Mary Ann was pretty good. She had some neat stories on her interactions with ghosts and what her clients are like. I always find myself overcome with envy when I listen to these episodes, as it seems unfair that guests can talk to ghosts and spirits and I can't.

Wednesday was, as expected, an excellent episode with Alex Jones and his webmaster/co-researcher Paul Watson. I was psyched to see Watson get the invite to the "big dance", as he's one of my favorite Alex Jones Show "regulars". I think he brought a mellow style that co-existed with AJ's rabid nature quite well. And, thankfully, AJ rose lived up to my expectations, bringing some good info regarding "peak oil" , staying focused and not swerving into too much tangential stories. Watson also impressed.

Kudos to Noory's C2C for becoming the "mainstream skeptic", attacking bird flu and peak oil and showing that they are farcical scares. I can't help but wonder what peak oil lover Art Bell thought of Wednesday's episode, but I think we can all agree he most likely didn't even listen.

I had high hopes for Peter Lavenda on Thursday, but was slightly chagrined, through no fault of Lavenda, whose research into the occult is awesome. I thought Noory was hampered by having to cater the episode to more "casual" esoteric fans, covering previously covered ground (most notably that second half hour, which was like esoterica 101) or asking basic questions that probably didn't tax Levenda much ("what's the story with the 33rd degree of Freemasons"). Otherwise, it was an excellent show when Lavenda could cut loose and really bring out some solid new info. His stuff regarding "the nine" and the "roaming bishops" was awesome. Close tie with the "peak oil" episode as best of the week.

The Week That Is

We kick it off with Open Lines tonight. No word as of now on who the pop-in will be. To speculate would be an exercise in pointlessness.

Saturday, it's all about the Punnett, baby. He's got Stephan Schwartz on to talk about Remote Viewing. We all know there are two kinds of C2C remote viewers : the loonies and the credible ones. From what I can gather from the preview, it looks like Schwartz falls into the "credible" camp with the slight possibility of turning loony.

Perhaps one of the oddest episodes I've seen in a while is on tap for Sunday. First hour is live Noory doing the usual Noory first hour stuffs. Then he replays the 9.21.2003 episode of C2C with Evelyn Paglini, talking about the occult. Not sure what to make of this scheduling, but it is interesting.

I wonder if anyone out there in "binnall report land" can tell me what other episode also featured a live first hour Noory, followed by a replay of an older episode. (The answer will be given @ the end of "The Week That Is")

The Noor keeps the vibe going on Monday with Mark deMucha, appearing to talk about Tesla. I'm all for a Tesla guest, so my ears are perked up for this one. deMucha's website suggests some sort of conspiracy related to Tesla, so I'm even more interested. If we get run-of-the-mill Tesla stuffs, I'll be disappointed. If we get Tesla goodness, I'll be psyched.

Tuesday ... TBA. Ugh. C2C continues to thumb it's nose at "The Week That Is". No idea yet who the TBA will turn out to be, but I am pulling, once again, for a Jordan Maxwell appearance. The man deserves another full episode, C2C, give him what he deserves.

After a somewhat lengthy absence, C2C returns to the "Roundtable" format on Wednesday. John Tenta would be proud, as they'll present to us "The Earthquake Roundtable", featuring C2C stalwarts Stan Deyo, James McCanney, and Jim Berkland. Each of the three panelists are C2C regulars, so this should be quite an episode. I'm more than a bit worried about the niche topic of just Earthquakes, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Expect a Quake Roundtable Preview @ BoA sometime before Wednesday night.

Billed as "one of America's favorite teachers" (what about my mom ?), Kenneth Davis returns to C2C on Thursday to shed some light on Halloween and the makings of its many myths and traditions. Some may recall Davis from a great first hour July 4th shot a few months back. He's got a full episode to stretch his legs and dig into Halloween. Should be very good.

The answer to my quasi-trivia question a few paragraphs back ... the last time Noory hosted a live first hour and rolled out a replay following it was back on 5.21.2004, covering the death of beloved C2C guest Eugene Mallove. Noory hosted the first hour live with Mallove's widow and colleague and then played the February 2004 Mallove episode of Coast for the rest of the show. Classic.

binnall of america : audio, Season One

Big thanks to all the great websites out there who have discovered and helped promote BoA : Audio, Season One. I have my interns compiling a list and we will have it available soon for thanks and kudos. To all those silly folks who haven't dipped their toe into the BoA : Audio, Season One pool, time to dive in.

This Week : Part 1 of my interview with Greg Bishop, author of "Project Beta", one of 2005's most talked about UFO books. In this lengthy first installment, we talk about how he ended up writing the book, Bill Moore's role in the book and his impact on Ufology, how much credence there is to popular concepts like MJ-12, Roswell, and Dulce Bases. We also discuss the character of "Falcon" from "Project Beta" and his relationship to the infamous Richard Doty. Also in this portion is details about Bishop's meeting with Doty and an exclusive story that didn't make the book that was told to Bishop by Bill Moore. All that and tons more. His website is www.excludedmiddle.com

Next Week : Part 2 of the Greg Bishop interview, where we continue our discussion on his book and Ufology in general.

binnall report mailbag

Letter #1

binnall,

what religion are you ?

Bruce in Richmond, VA

Geez, Brucie, getting rather personal, are we ? I was raised Roman Catholic, but am not a practicing Catholic. The best way I can surmise my religion is that I am a student of all religions, subscribing to no one in particular.

Letter #2

binnal,

Are you still going to that UFO convention in Las Vegas in November ?

Peter in Providence, RI

Thanks for asking, Peter. I'm still working out the details of my November schedule and will know for certain soon. I recommend those who can attend the UFO Crash Retrieval Conference III in Vegas in November, to do so. As I said, I will soon know whether or not I will be able to attend.

Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com

This Week in C2C History

10.14.2004 : Just in time for Halloween, The Noor brought in Dave Considine to tell some scary stories about demons and exorcisms : "One case he worked on involved a woman who purchased a condo in Montreal and began having the inexplicable experience of having her hair yanked out of her head by an unseen force. A visiting dog also had patches of hair yanked out. In a case Considine investigated in Newburgh, NY, the family reportedly saw a disembodied head turned upside down looking down at them. While at the house he saw floating "ectoplasm" which looked like black human hair, but would disappear if you tried to touch it." (C2C main archive)

10.14.2003 : If you like zany crap, then this was the episode for you. It was all about Penny Kelly, who met a bunch of elves on her farm and formed some kind of alliance with them. Kelly had a level of detail related to her story that was among the best of the C2C folks with outlandish stories : "Described as being 20-24 inches tall, she said the elves were an "ageless" and "ragtag" bunch (sometimes as many as 12 or 13 would appear) and had "huge pointed ears." Kelly said she had a history of being in contact with beings from other dimensions, such as "The Robes," who she likened to "little monks," that she encountered after her Kundalini awakening in the late 1970's. " (C2C main site)

10.14.1999 : Art Bell had both Richard C. Hoagland and Tom Van Flandern on to talk about a bunch of different stuff. Some quotes from the recap that show that RCH hasn't changed all that much in the last 6 years : "Art asks Richard about a CBS report that says the Russian States have 23,000 nuclear warheads and we only have 12,000" and "Richard talks about an image taken from MIR of objects over Turkey" along with "A caller asks Richard if he feels there is a connection between hyperdimensional physics and radionic devices." (From the artbell.com CD ROM). Ahh, Hoagie, you never change.

End Notes

That does it for this week's binnall report. Hope you enjoyed the ride.

Plugs : Tomorrow, Part 1 of a huge interview with Greg Bishop, author of "Project Beta". This week's installment is an hour and a half of discussion on both his book and Ufology in general. Sunday, Saturday Night Punnett and smoker dave. Monday, News Watch returns. Tuesday, Lesley's Grey Matters. Wednesday, Khyron's ghost files. Thursday, Hot Newz. Friday, we do it all again with "tbr".

Meanwhile, we are in negotiations to bring in a new columnist to BoA and we have begun alerting our visitors to BoA-esque works that are posted at the blogs of respected BoA writers Khyron and Lesley, so there will be more content available to BoA visitors. This week, we provided you with links to Khyron's look at Alex Jones on C2C and Lesley's "C2C Rewind", a tbr-esque perusal of all things Coast for the week. I highly suggest you check those features out.

In the meantime, you'll be hearing from me next week as usual. I'm going to go play in the rain.