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Wow. 2005 ... over. I don't know what to say. It's been quite a year. Hope your holidays were swell. I've never liked this little patch between Christmas and New Year's, but at least it's almost over.
It's time, my friends, for the final binnall report of 2005. Thanks to all who have been along for the ride through the year. I think '06 will be bigger and better than ever for the BoA franchise.
Enough gushing and trying to pontificate on what the year means, we've got to mull over this week's offerings from America's #1 overnight talk show and what they plan to serve next week as well. We look back at past end of December Coast episodes, I speculate on all things 2006 in the mailbag, we get an update on BoA : Audio, Season One, some exit polls on The Coasties as the counting is underway, and, best of all, it's an annual tradition, Noory in a diaper in Hot Newz. (Don't say you weren't warned)
The Week That Was
When we left off last week, C2C offered us three rebroadcasts in a row. Suffice it to say, I skipped all three, having caught them before. For those of you neurotic types, here's the episodes they re-ran.
Friday ... Open Lines with a Dr. Morgus pop-in. Sounds like radio food poisoning. The episode originally aired on 10.15.2004.
Saturday ... an Ian Punnett rebroadcast quilt consisting of Katherine Albrecht from 10.1.2005 (a mere 3 months ago, mind you) and Steve Quayle from 8.20.2005. The Quayle stuff was good, one of the better Punnett episodes of the year. Katherine Albrecht was, I believe, giving an update on some anti-RFID rally. I believe at the time I pledged $1000 for her cause if she burned her bra at the rally. Alas, I'm still sitting on that grand.
Sunday ... Another very good episode was rebroadcast as Art Bell talked to Michael Drosnin about Howard Hughes. The episode originally aired on 1.11.2005 and here's what I had to say about it in "the binnall report" : "Thankfully, I did catch all of Michael Drosnin's appearance on Sunday. Excellent stuff and deserving of Coastie contendership. Some complained that Drosnin spent not enough time on Bible Code and too much on Howard Hughes, but I enjoyed the change of pace from the normal Bible Code antics. Based on the criteria of "selling the book", Drosnin was a sucess, for me at least, because I'll be picking up "Citizen Hughes" sometime this weekend as it sounded fascinating. Bell contributed huge to this episode, as well, his stunned interest in the topic usually mirrored my thoughts at just the right times."
Monday, The Noor finally graced us with his presence after disappearing over the holidays (which lends credence to the rumour that Noory is, indeed, Santa Claus). Anyway, Noory had Mike Heiser on to talk about The Da Vinci Code phenomenon. Heiser had an amazingly deep perspective on it that was pretty sweet. From there, they discussed a bunch of stuff ranging from Sitchen debunking and general UFO / ET stuffs. Solid episode.
Tuesday saw Noory welcome Paul LaViolette on to talk about the galactic super wave. I'd heard of LaViolette from Alfred Webre and his work on the wave is interesting. Sadly, it didn't translate all that well to me via the radio, which was disappointing. I'm not sure if it was the complicated nature of the theory or what, but I had a hard time following. I did enjoy his stories of SETI dissing his work. Typical Seth Shostak foolishness. Notable was the hilarity of Noory pronouncing LaViolette's name about 4 different times in the introduction. You go, Noory.
And ... then I skipped the next two episodes. The post-Vacation, mid-holiday season has wreaked havoc on my life. Here's the rundown on them for the collectors out there. Wednesday saw first Robert Felix ("Ice Age Guy") as a pop-in. Felix is the antithesis of all things I like on Coast, so this was a proverbial kick in my grundel. Then came Lauren Weinstein, whom I've heard on Coast numerous times. Weinstein is an expert in techno spying, which freaks me out as it is. He's also a man named "Lauren", which alone makes him odd enough to appear on Coast.
Thursday rounded out the week with Mayan madness as John Major Jenkings guested to talk about the Mayan Calendar and 2012 (what else ?). As I alluded to last week, 2012 is beginning to remind me of Y2K in a big way.
Sorry I missed those last two, we hope to have the good ship tbr on course next week.
The Week That Is
Interesting week ahead and perhaps the closest to a "theme week" we'll ever see on Coast. We start off tonight with a very special Friday night Art Bell hosted episode. It's an annual tradition ... Art Bell's New Year's Eve Predictions I. C2C braintrust went with their programming from last year, which split the show into two parts and will include another Bell hosted episode on Saturday night. Good stuff. I'm in favor of this move, because Art was always trying to rattle off last year's predictions and take new predictions and not much pontificating went on. Now it can be so.
Sunday night, Noory confirms my deepest fears, he has a psychic fetish. Seriously, take a look at this line up. It's the Predictions Special ... eight guests ... Joseph Jacobs, Dr. Louis Turi, Merlin Project, Hans King, Sean David Morton, Gerald Celente, Robert Camp, and Aaron Donahue. My God.
I like Aaron Donahue and Turi, of course, but the rest are your run-of-the-mill C2C snake oil psychics we've grown to loathe over the years. Gathered in one place for one night only (until Noory's In Demand special airs). Despite the general ilk that will be appearing, I'm all in favor of a New Year's Day Psychic Marathon from Coast. It's so cheesy, it just might work.
However, given that it is New Year's, it's time for a little tough love for our friend George Noory. George, if you are reading this (or having some lacky read it to you), sit down. Listen carefully. Almost no one likes psychics. They're slimy, smarmy, 99.9% wrong, usually quite ugly, generally repugnant, quite often laughable, less cool than they think they are, weasily little trolls. The type of people who will claim to know what will happen and find losers who will listen and believe and then bilk them out of their money. And, if they are not, they are stuck with that stigma by the better part of the esoteric community and surely the mainstream at large. So ... ease up on the psychics, no one believes them. (As an aside, you should fire whoever came up with this In Demand special, because unless someone hits a major prediction right, it's a total no win for you. A UFO Special would have been boffo and would have saved your credibility big time.)
Now, back to our usual programming, Monday we travel back to the days of pyramids and cats worshipped as Gods when Edward Malkowski stops by to talk about "Earliest Egypt". I'm not sure if that is any older than "Ancient Egypt", but we'll find out on Monday.
Tuesday, Sylvia Browne steps up to take her shot at making a blockbuster 2006 Prediction. I'm not sure why she isn't part of the Predictions Special, but something tells me she may be a "Psychic Diva". When you're a regular on Montel, you don't share a show with Sean David Morton.
Wednesday, we take a break from the crystal ball action and look at UFOs and the Media with Keith Morgan. I'm unfamiliar with Morgan, but fairly familiar with the topic. Should be interesting. That reminds me that C2C should have Terry Hansen, now that he isn't being trumped by Katrina.
And, finally, on Thursday, we get yet another "look ahead" at 2006 with Glynnis McCants. Glynnis is actually fairly entertaining and she usually unleashes some highly sexually charged innuendo at Noory, which is amusing as hell.
Friday, Open Lines, though I'm going to predict a Hoagland pop-in where he makes insane predictions for '06. And, shockingly, one of them will come true.
binnall of america : audio, Season One
We're in a bit of a lull this week, most likely not offering anything for y'all and, if we do, it will be a compilation "Best of" type dealie.
Some big things have come up in the last 24 hours that will be huge news in the next few months for us.
Meanwhile, next week, we expect to be back on track, but as is our standard, we will not announce any names until they are in the can. The holidays have been rough, but once January starts, we've got a bunch lined up for the Winter of 2006 as we heads towards the close of Season One.
The 2005 Coasties Are Coming
The votes have almost been entirely tallied. We have been forced to do a recount on one award (Alt. Science) where there is a tie for first and second place amongst four different episodes.
The results will be released this evening @ binnallofamerica.com and the message boards where the Coastie ballot was posted. Thanks to all who participated.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1
I finally got to hear one of your radio broadcasts and it was with Stanton Friedman(n)? I got the impression that there aren't all that many brave souls working in this venue and the disinfo has more money. LOL I visit Lesley's Debris Field almost everyday well everyday and her links to you moved me over for a visit. She never seems to know if you will have "your" stuff up by the time she posts. Maybe you could give her the heads up or all of us by posting to the comments section on her blog when you're ready for the rest of us.
eric
Ah eric, thanks for writing and thanks for the props on the audio series. While there may be more money in disinformation, I'd like to be able to look myself in the mirror when I get up in the morning and if I pursued disinfo as my calling, then that would be tough.
Meanwhile, I'd be lucky if I knew when my stuff was going to be posted @ BoA, much less be able to give Lesley the heads up. A lot depends on my schedule each weekend and there are always events which come up and change the course of events for me without much warning. The best I can say is that new episodes of BoA Audio are almost always posted around primetime Eastern time. Most other updates are done either at approx. 8 AM (ET) or in the evening. The best thing to do is to check BoA and then check again later to see if it's been updated.
Letter #2
binnal,
Any predictions for 2006 ?
Nancy in Topeka, Kansas
Hmm. Let me see. First of all, we can assume that binnallofamerica.com will get bigger and better. I would be happy to see BoA : Audio make the leap to a "real" radio station at some point, '06 sounds like as good a year as any. (Any radio executives out there reading this should contact me.) Expect more interviews with the big names in esoterica from binnallofamerica.com, irregardless of how we get them out to you. Don't be surprised to hear rumours of a "binnall book" as well, but that may be because I am the one starting the rumours.
Of course, I will predict top notch material coming from Khyron and Lesley, as they never seem to disappoint. I've a feeling Lesley may break some big story, as she is on course to become an even greater force in esoterica. Khyron, I'm sure, will amaze me with something surprising each week @ his site and his voice as a writer will make some waves ... perhaps in Hollywood.
Noory's pay per view special will bomb, but there will be at least two sequels. Hoagland will harp on about something insane and we'll listen, mouths agog. Surprisingly, though, he will actually be on C2C less than this year. Ian Punnett will leave C2C sometime in the Summer. Art Bell will increase his schedule to four times a month. A popular C2C guest will die mysteriously. One psychic on C2C will get something right and become the golden boy of Coast for 2006. binnall will be featured on C2C and will earn Noory's love or wrath.
I won't bother making any "world predictions", as I'd just look foolish when they didn't come true. I have some self respect (unlike most C2C prognosticators making the rounds this time of year).
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
12.30.2004 : Ah, one of my favorite joys of all, mocking a wrong psychic prediction. On this day last year, C2C brought us "Psychic" Sylvia Browne with her predictions for 2005. Among her predictions were "The economy will rebound a bit in the beginning of the year and then pick up more steam by mid-year. Unemployment will go down, and in the stock market, the medical technology field will do particularly well, she said. Weather-wise she forecast that Florida and North Carolina will be hit hard in 2005. " (C2C website). Those are just vague enough where I'm not sure if they came true or not. Perhaps someone else can enlighten us.
12.30.1999 : Y2K hysteria is in full effect 6 years ago as Art Bell conveys the news of the day : "The military plans on straddling the USS Topeka over the international date line so 1/2 of the sub will be in 1999 and 1/2 will be in 2000. Russian and U.S. military officials are monitoring the skies for inadvertent missile launches due to Y2K. Another explosives theft has been reported in Fresno. An AP story reports 4200 blasting caps being found on a man when he was pulled over for a traffic violation. Art mentions that he is getting two different slants on y2k, emailers saying hoarding is taking place and CNN reporting the opposite. Art says at midnight he feels we are in some danger of brown outs etc. but after that he doesn't think alot will occur til people go back to work on Monday." (artbell.com cd rom)
12.30.1997 : This goofy story from 8 years ago with Art Bell : "A med student sends Art a letter saying a woman called the poison control center because she caught her little daughter eating ants. The med student assured her that eating ants is not harmfurl and no need to bring her into the hospital. The lady calmed down, then mentioned she had given her daughter some ant poison to eat to kill the ants. The med student then told her to bring that child in immediately. True Story. " (artbell.com cd rom)
End Notes
New Year's ... the one time of year you can see Noory in a diaper. (I hope.) May you all have a safe and festive New Year's holiday.
Plugs : Ragtag offerings over the holiday from Yours Truly, for which I am eternally sorry. Something special @ BoA on Saturday, I'm sure. Sunday, smoker dave. Monday, Noory Story Showdown II Champion is named. The final News Watch has been postponed to 1.8.2006, where it will finally be laid to rest. Tuesday, Grey Matters. Wednesday, The K-Files. Thursday, Hot Newz. Friday, we do it all again right here in the binnall report. binnallofamerica.com ... 2005's Darkhorse Esoteric Website.
Time to waste what's left of '05 and start preparing the masses for 2006. May all your New Year wishes come true.