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Coming at you in the midst of the very beginnings of Spring, it's the binnall report. Just sitting back this week watching the wheels go round and round. Been an interesting week, not too often when something from esoterica gets some mainstream buzz. Kudos to Alex Jones and Charlie Sheen for transcending the glass ceiling of media coverage.
This week in the binnall report, we look back at last week's Coast to Coast AM episodes and ahead to next week's episodes. We look far back into the history of C2C and see what was going on this day in Coast history. We also take a look at the first quarter of '06 and the Coastie contenders so far. binnall report mailbag, of course, and we discuss the esoteric side effect of Noory's big wedding trip in Hot Newz.
So, without any further discussion, let's delve into the bidness at hand ...
The Week That Was
We left off last week with The Noor welcoming back Linda Moulton Howe for her usual monthly Friday night half-episode appearance. LMH was talking about the problem of the melting ice caps. I caught bits and pieces of this one, but wasn't too thrilled. I'm not a big environmental / weather follower. Standard Open Lines followed. And, of course, I was correct in my guess that the "special topic line" would be devoted to stories of luck.
Ian featured Robert Bowie Johnson to talk about ancient Greek mythology. I was mistaken last week, in that C2C will start offering Ian MP3s this coming weekend, not this past weekend, as I ended up not catching this episode. I'll be on the Ian bandwagon starting with this weekend's episode, I assure you.
Saturday Night Bell featured another great UFO episode with Nick Pope. I'd not heard Bell get into too much deep Ufology, other than the recent Peter Davenport episode, so this was a good one. I liked how Bell got into the more governmental issues related to Pope's work, instead of dwelling on too many specific cases. Good, fun, solid episode.
Sunday Night Bell featured James McCanney, talking about comets. I was really not interested in this one, but I gave it a chance and was totally blown away by how good it was. Art really pulled this one up to another level and this was the best McCanney appearance in quite some time. I loved how Art kept bringing it back to the worst case scenario of a comet hitting Earth and forcing McCanney to deal with that. Also hilarious was Art's constant referencing of various Discovery channel specials. Great stuff.
Monday, The Noor returned with Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby, talking about alternative medicine. Ugh. I listened to some of this and some of it was pretty good and esoteric, but there's only so much alt. medicine I can really get into. Some of his stuff about working with Clive Baxter was interesting as well. A tepid episode, at best.
Tuesday, Robert Temple joined the show to talk about ancient oracles. Pretty good stuff. I liked the stuff he had dealing with the oracles and how they doubled as attractions and income for ancient cities. The only downside to the episode was the bizarre repoire he had with Noory, that bordered on "creepy" more often than not. Otherwise solid episode.
Wednesday, Coast filled the TBA slot with Irvin Baxter to talk about end times prophecy. Just fantastic stuff here and easily the best of the week, based on sheer doom and gloom and frightening stuff. I'm not a fan of psychics, but I'll take a doomsayer any day of the week. This episode was steeped in esoterica, with Baxter's ruminations on how present events are fulfilling the Book of Revelations. A tad over the top with his religious beliefs, Baxter still held on to the show with his vivid research into End Times. I haven't heard an episode like this one in quite some time.
Thursday featured a patchwork of guests, first Charles R. Smith in the first hour, talking about a new ports deal that may cause controversy. I missed this one. Then Howard Ruff for the middle of the show talking about finance. This was decent, but a tad boring. I laughed when Noory welcomed Ruff back to the show and he said he'd never been on before. Oh Noory, you cad. Finally, The Noor brought out Alex Jones to talk about the big Charlie Sheen story that was making the rounds all week. I'm surprised Noory and Coast didn't have AJ on in the first hour, but I was glad to hear from him nonetheless. This Sheen story has been an adventure, that's for sure.
Decent week, a tad dry though.
The Week That Is
We kick it off tonight with The Noor and his Friday into Saturday Open Lines. No word on the pop-in yet, but it's been a while since we've had an extended Hoagland pop-in, so let's hope for that.
Saturday on Ian, Howard Luckman joins the show to talk about UFOs and Rock Stars. I wasn't terribly thrilled with Luckman last Summer on Coast, but this episode could be good. I'll finally be able to catch Ian in MP3 form again, so I'll be sure to listen now.
Saturday Night Bell is a replay of his show from 11.9.2003 with Dr. Simeon Hein, talking about crop circles. I was hoping for the Philip Corso interview he specifically asked to be replayed, but perhaps that will be next weekend.
Sunday night, The Noor makes a rare Sunday appearance, and he's bringing us the ever-repugnant "bad astronomer" Philip Plait. Ugh. Plait, you return to soil the show once again. Hopefully, Noory will bring up the fact that Plait fears Hoagland and still refuses to debate him.
Monday night, Noory has Heidi Hollis, who is billed as the "Dr. Phil of the paranormal". Um ... okay. She'll be talking about shadow people. Based on her description, she better have a 400 pound, gambling addicted, obsessive compulsive, soccer mom shadow person and she better tell it to pick itself up by its bootstraps (ala Dr. Phil).
Tuesday sees the long awaited return of David Icke to Coast to Coast. You either love him or you hate him and I, for one, enjoy the hell out of Icke. His stuff is usually pretty damned entertaining and I expect no less on Tuesday. Hopefully, he'll shed light on that rumour of government takeover of his website, a dubious story but I'm sure it will be enthralling. How can you not love a man who coins the term "totalitarian tip toe" ?
Wednesday is TBA. For the last three weeks now, it's been TBA Wednesday. So far, the guests they've plugged in have been killer. Will they make it three in a row ? We'll find out on Wednesday.
Thursday, another big name guests appears in the form of highly esteemed Ufologist Dr. Bruce Maccabee. Big Mac hasn't had a full C2C guest shot in quite some time and probably none with Noory. He'll be on to talk about Mexican UFO sightings and some Tesla stuff as well. Should be awesome.
Strong week, on paper, with two big name guests, albeit with a lackluster weekend.
The Coasties :: 1st Quarter Update
In lieu of a BoA : Audio update this week, we take a look @ the 2006 Coastie Awards. Presently @ binnallofamerica.com, we've tracked 18 strong episodes for the months of December '05, January '06, and February '06. You can find them
HERE.
Check 'em out and if you think I missed one from the last three months, drop me a line. We strive to represent the best and welcome all reader suggestions for whom should earn Coastie Contendership. You can send your thoughts here : tbinnall@hotmail.com Best to do it now while your mind is fresh, instead of in November when you can't remember who was on in February.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1
binnall,
Since you are a wrestling fan, do you like that ultimate fighting ?
Ed in Worcester, MA
I've been following the UFC since it's inception, though I'm not a huge fan of the actual fights. I've found it's evolution as a league and sport to be pretty fascinating. I think it will eventually surpass boxing as the nation's top combat sport and will only continue to get bigger. Despite the similarities to pro. wrestling, the "real fighting" of UFC is pretty distinct from rasslin, so I don't think that it'll put the WWE out of business anytime soon.
Letter #2
Tim,
Who will be some of the final guests for Boa : audio ?
Hannah in Long Beach, CA
You know I can't give that sort of information away, Hannah. I will say that I have been hard at work cultivating new interviews for the rest of Season One. I'll probably release a tenative schedule for the remainder of the year sometime in a couple of weeks.
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
3.25.2005 : Last year at this time, The Noor cashed in some frequent flier miles and headed out to Hawaii. For some odd reason, he felt it necessary to have William A. Gordon on as a pop-in to talk about "Ghosts of Hollywood", which made no sense given The Noor's location. He also spent the 2nd hour creeping everyone out with Jean-Noel Bassior, talking about some old TV show called "Space Patrol" that had an unusually obsessed fanbase.
3.24.2004 : The Noor took a trip down South, figuratively speaking, with Warren Getler, talking about the Southern secret society, the Knights of Golden Circle. Using a bevy of research and speculation, Getler said that the KGC, "may have buried caches of gold and silver back in the 19th century, that were worth millions. Getler described the KGC as separatists who wanted to protect their own interests in the US (i.e. their agricultural empires), but said they also had roots with European secret societies such as the Knights Templar." (C2C website)
3.24.1998 : Art Bell had news of another nutty group claiming to be hearing from God soon and he discussed it with his usual eye for detail, "The Tawainese Religious Group, God's Salvation Church, is awaiting an appearance by God on television, which their leader has said will happen after midnight. He is supposed to appear on channel 18 across the country at 12:01 am. Art wonders why God would pick a UHF station and what is he going to say." (artbell.com cd rom)
End Notes
And, with that, we wrap it up for yet another week. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I'm sure we'll have more madness than ever next week.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com, general updates and many a Feature Article on the Charlie Sheen flap. Sunday, smoker dave. Monday, an all new Trickster's Realm. Tuesday, Classic Grey Matters and other fun stuff. Wednesday, The K-Files. Thursday, the 2006 C2C Softball Team is revealed in Hot Newz. Friday, we do it all again with the binnall report.
Off to enjoy the lovely weather. Spring is my favorite season, so it's all good. Until you hear from me again, this is binnall ... signing off.