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It's a pleasant evening here in Boston, the Red Sox are on the TV in the background, long weekend stretching out ahead of me, all is right with the world this week. Let's try and keep it that way.
This week, we look back @ Coast to Coast AM's "Secret Door II" episode, amongst other highlights. We'll look ahead to the return of Lionel Fanthorpe and other offerings from Coast for next week. We'll skip over the mail bag, instead going right into looking back at the original UFO Roundtable and Richard C. Hoagland's new vaudeville act in Hot Newz.
It's a slightly light (on bells and whistles, at least) edition of the binnall report, but we try and make up for it with pithy commentary on Coast, which is our bread and butter, so it should be all good. Enough smashing of the 4th wall, let's rock.
The Week That Was
When we left off last week, The Noor had his hair greased back in an awful pompadour, rolled a pack of cigarettes into his shirt sleeve, donned his leather jacket and welcomed R. Gary Patterson and Jay Richardson to the show to talk about the Big Bopper Plane Crash. Despite rehashing this story for the umpteenth time, apparently they added some new spice to it, with Peggy Sue Gerron of "Peggy Sue" fame. This whole scene was a little before my time, so I skipped the bulk of it. I heard it was decent, though. Standard Friday into Saturday Open Lines followed.
Saturday on "Ian", IP was supposed to have Charles Ostman on the show, but nanoman was apparently sick and had to cancel. As such, Ian had James Delgado on for the first hour to talk about maritime mysteries and then had Charles Pellegrino on for the full show to talk about Biblical stuffs. We'll turn it over now to Lesley's C2C Rewind for the play by play, "I enjoyed Ian's first hour guest, maritime archaeologist James P. Delgado. Delgado talked about many different maritime mysteries and I have a feeling he will return for a full show sometime in the near future. ... Pellegrino was on just a couple weeks ago talking about the lost tomb of Jesus, but seemed to talk about other things as well during this interview. I didn't get to hear that much of it, but it sounded fairly interesting."
Saturday night on Coast to Coast proper, Art Bell got political with Michael Shrimpton, national security expert. The recap says they discussed Iraq and 9/11, which should explain to you why I didn't listen to this one. I like Art Bell, but I disagree with his point of view on 911 and national security, in general. After the much discussed "wingnut" episode and the Lauren Weinstein "devil's advocate" episode, I have zero interest in hearing Bell's views on politics, national security, or terrorism. A self inflicted gunshot wound to the grundel sounds more appealing. In essence, I'd rather enjoy Bell for his UFO episodes than find myself maddened by his political episodes which sully my opinion of Art, so I took a pass on this one.
Luckily, the show went back to esoterica on Sunday as Todd Standing was the guest, talking about Bigfoot. I wanted to like Standing, but he kind of got on my nerves throughout the interview with his endless Bigfoot hugging. We get it, Todd, you don't want anyone to kill Bigfoot. It got so annoying that I started to think that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if someone did kill Bigfoot, just so Todd would lose his mind.
Also, I was mildly put off by his insistence that he had awesome Bigfoot footage, but was holding onto it, for Bigfoot safety reasons. Argh. I will, however, give Todd kudos for quitting his job and dedicating himself solely to protecting the Bigfoot. That shows balls. Pretty good episode, but a little too "green" for my tastes.
Monday, Dr. Richard Bartlett was the guest, the topic was healing and energy, and The Noor was the host. Alternative health / science episodes usually fall far down on my list of preferred episodes, so this one got a pass from me. No buzz on it and nothing wacky (unless you count Jerome Corsi's 7th appearance of the year) in the first hour, despite my hopes.
Tuesday saw Michael & Kathleen Gear as the guests to discuss "cycles of doom" and mass extinction type events. For some reason, Noory was ultra conspiratorial during this interview, yielding hilarious results. At one point he dropped the old chestnut that the "powers that be" want the Earth's population down to 500 million and poor Kathleen sounded terrified. The Gears sounded more like burned out hippies than budding esoteric watchdogs, making Noory's continued suggestions of something nefarious afoot all the more amusing. Aside from that comical thread throughout the interview, there wasn't much else to it. Decent episode.
Wednesday, Noory had Craig R. Lang as the guest to discuss alien abductions. Lang was decent, but lacking that certain "it" factor to really make it compelling stuff. I tried listening to it live and again on MP3, but both times, it all came across as bland, which is saying something considering the topic covered. Maybe I was distracted by Lost or something, but I felt like there wasn't much to this one and it never really got out of first gear.
I have mixed feelings on Thursday's "Secret Door II" episode. For starters, leave it to C2C to take an idea that was great (surprise guests night) and immediately start to run it into the ground by repeating it far too often. (see : roundtable episodes). "Secret Door I" was 3 weeks ago, which is far too recent for a sequel. Also, Noory completely eschewed the use of the term "back door", which suggests someone clued him in to its anal connotations, depriving me of hours of hilarity. I do like the overall concept, so I'm dug the episode, despite my qualms and quibbles.
The surprise guests were, in order, Jim Marrs, Richard C. Hoagland, Jim Karol, Gerald Celente, Katherine Albrecht, and John Hogue. The surprise nature of the guests kept me from tuning out, but the overall trend is best described by Lesley, who said, "Each one has been slightly worse since Marrs." I couldn't put it any better myself.
Marrs was excellent, as always, covering UFOs, 911, and World War II all in a twenty minute, or so, segment. He's teasing a new book, which the fanboy in me is very excited about. Hoagland seems to have turned a corner, as he was very good. I'm talking hardcore, old school, "we're changing the world, dammit", Richard C. Hoagland. Noory gushed on and on about Hoagie's "track record", thankfully making this week's Hot Newz relevant at the last possible minute. One of the better Hoagland appearances of the year, but will probably be forgotten, given the nature of this episode. That said, I suspect he'll be all over Coast with this new story in the next few weeks.
Jim Karol was pretty good. He kept praising Coast and how great his life has been since he's been on the show. Apparently, he hangs out with Louis Turi and Gary Busey now, making me both jealous as hell and quite impressed. Karol also uttered one of the best lines I've ever heard on C2C, ever ... "Between your show [Coast to Coast AM] and Jackass The Movie, my career is taking off." You can't write stuff like that, folks.
I caught some of angry prognosticator Gerald Celente and he was fairly strong, as usual. I sort of zoned out towards the end, as Katherine Albrecht and John Hogue truly epitomized that downward trend that Lesley pointed out began after Marrs left the show.
Not as good as "Secret Door I", but still quite good. I suspect that if they take their time with producing "SD III", it may turn out to be excellent. Meanwhile, somewhere, Steve Quayle is wondering whose leg he peed on, as he's now been overlooked for both SD episodes.
Overall a decent week. Nothing stood out as particularly awesome, aside from that one measly hour with Marrs and Hoagland on Thursday. Bigfoot lover Todd Standing and the hippies that Noory scared were fun diversions, but not exactly classic episodes. The rest were barely noteworthy.
The Week That Is
C2C kicks off the weekend with what should be a very strong episode, as Linda Moulton Howe will be on-location at a UFO conference and she'll have Richard Dolan and Tim Good on for a discussion on UFO secrecy. Sadly, The Noor said this would only be the first two hours, which is disappointing, because it has episode of the year potential. Despite the shortened length, which may be due to the whole conference thing, I expect this will be an ultra strong episode, so long as LMH doesn't get in the way. I presume awful Friday into Saturday Open Lines will take up the latter half of the show.
After going AWOL last week, Charles Ostman is back on the schedule for this week's "Ian" on Saturday. From last week's binnall report preview, "IP has Charles Ostman, nanoman himself, to discuss the impending showdown of technology v. resources. Despite Ostman being tagged as the nanotechnology guy, he usually brings the alternative science goods for a variety of different disciplines. I expect he will live up to that reputation with a strong "big picture" episode with Ian on Saturday."
Saturday night on C2C, Art Bell goes to the "Quickening" well once more, this time with Brenda Ekwurzel, who will be talking about global warming and climate change. Could be good, since Art's a maniac about this topic, but it could also be kind of dry.
Sunday night sees David Sereda, yet again, appear on the show. Despite his last appearance coming exactly two months ago and this being his third full show appearance in about 4 months. But ... the host is Art Bell and he's been on a UFO kick for most of this year. He and David will be talking about "high level UFO disclosure", which should be good. Despite the slight Sereda overkill, I expect a strong episode here.
Monday night, the Noor goes halfsies with the show, first featuring Ryan Wood in the first two hours to talk about UFO crashes and then having Harry Helms in the second half to discuss secret government bases and the nefarious goings on at these places. I'm intrigued by this schedule move, which may turn out to be pretty cool. Both guests sound strong, so it should be a good to great episode.
Tuesday night, Maureen Caudill is the guest and the topic is "new science" and how it could be a bridge to the paranormal. Could be good, based on the material, but could also be rather snooze worthy. I'll give it a cautious chance.
Wednesday sees Stanley Alpert join the show to talk about how he was "kidnapped by a gang of NYC robbers and prostitutes". Sounds thrilling. He was also an environmental prosecutor, which sounds less than thrilling, so let's hope he stays focused on the kidnapping story. Dark horse candidate for best of the week.
That is until you get to Thursday, when C2C staple Lionel Fanthorpe returns. It seems like he's been on a lot, but it's actually his first appearance since July. He'll be talking about time warps, slips, and shifts. Perhaps he's got some kind of explanation for Noory's strangely dated movie references.
Looks like a good week, with lots of UFO stuffs and the other material is also fairly strong. No serious dogs in the bunch.
This Week in C2C History
4.14.2005 : Almost two years prior to this week's quasi-roundtable, C2C held it's first and only, so far, UFO Roundtable. This was back when the RT concept and style was still pretty new (UFO RT was only the 4th roundtable ever), so there were high hopes for this episode, which managed to live up to expectations. "Bringing together perennial C2C guest Linda Moulton Howe and three of Ufology's best Bruce Maccabee, Bob Wood, and Grant Cameron, there was a wealth of UFO knowledge available for discussion throughout the episode. The vast range of topics covered included UFO history, government intervention, disclosure, pilot shootdowns of UFOs, hypothetical "big question" analysis of the UFO phenomenon, and insider stories and leads for further investigation." (BoA's UFO Roundtable Round Up)
4.14.2003 : Joe Vee's favorite researcher, Mike Heiser confused and confounded The Noor by laying waste to Zecharia Sitchen's theories in an interesting episode, "Heiser said the Sumerian references to the Anunnaki do not point to an extraterrestrial presence. The texts "just don't support Sitchin's reconstruction," he stated. Further, his decoding of Sitchin's oft-cited cylinder seal yields a star and a constellation rather than the sun and 11 planets. " (c2c.com)
End Notes
There you go, folks. Another one bites the dust. Hope you enjoyed this week's read. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com, Joe Vee's brief springtime return continues with his latest missive, "Whither Ufology ?" Sunday, Lesley's C2C Rewind @ the Debris Field. Monday, Tina Sena's Esotericana. Tuesday, Lesley's Grey Matters. Wednesday, Khyron's The K-Files. Thursday, Hot Newz, with more origins of Ian Punnett. And, Friday, the binnall report, one more time.
binnallofamerica.com ... still rockin' in the free world.
On that note, I bid you farewell for another week. Have an excellent President's Day. Until you hear from me next week, this is binnall ... signing off.