4.20.7

No time for funny business. In this week's binnall report ...

Thoughts on C2C's seven hour coverage of the VT shooting, Lionel Fanthorpe, and all the other offerings of the past week. Predictions on Stanley Alpert, Loren Coleman, and others ahead for next week's Coast. Preview of tomorrow's BoA : Audio return, featuring Tony Healy, direct from Canberra, Australia. binnall report mailbag bids farewell for now. Hoagland debunks Salla in our historical look back. And, C2C says "save the bee" in Hot Newz.

It's still 4:20 somewhere, Nooryheads, smoke 'em if you got 'em ...

The Week That Was

When we last left you, I was all cautiously optimistic about Linda Moulton Howe, on location at some UFO conference, bringing us special guests Richard Dolan and Timothy Good. I guess I was right to be worried, because just before the show started, Timothy Good was bumped and Jim Sparks was in his place. In addition to that subtraction, the UFO discussion was limited to the 1st hour so Noory and LMH could use the 2nd hour to fret about the honeybee story that won't go away.

Dolan was the lone highlight of this otherwise forgettable episode. Nice to see some on-site conference reporting, but I just wish they'd do a better job at it. Standard Friday into Saturday Open Lines followed.

Saturday on "Ian", Punnett's guest was Charles Ostman to discuss the future or something like that. I heard the last hour and Ian seemed goofier than usual. He and Ostman had good chemistry. Lesley's C2C Rewind fleshes out some more of the interview for us, "I only heard about the last hour of this, but it sounded like typical Ostman stuff, technology and the future of technology. Ian seemed to spice up the Ostman topics a bit by adding God to the equation."

Art Bell on the mothership C2C Saturday night had Brenda Ekwurzel on to talk about global warming. I totally skipped this one. Not much buzz on it, either.

Sunday night, Bell's guest was David Sereda to tell us about Boyd Bushman, who apparently is blowing the whistle on his days working for Lockheed Martin and designing UFOs. Interesting episode. Bell seemed skeptical, but enthused. Sereda was good, but a tad too earnest for my liking.

Monday night, for the first time in over four years, C2C broke the 5 hour barrier for a monumental seven hour special episode covering the Virginia Tech Shootings. C2C trivia buffs will recall that this episode falls second only to the mammoth 9 hour Columbia Crash Disaster special on 2.1.2003.

Originally scheduled guests Ryan Wood and Harry Helms were re-scheduled and the new guests were Daniel Amen, Howard Bloom, Larry Pratt, Lee Hamilton, Curt Lavarello, and Clint Van Zandt. Truth be told, I was kind of worn out on the VT story by the time C2C came on, so I only listened to about the 2nd and 3rd hours of this marathon session. So, I can't really critique the content of the episode, as such.

That said, I have a couple of observations. For starters, and this may have been as a result of the last minute scheduling, the lack of Loren Coleman on this episode left me flummoxed. The man only predicted the VT shootings three weeks ago and is just considered one of the foremost experts on school shootings, the world over. And it's not like they didn't have enough time for him in the seven hour show, so I'm hopeful it was a result of not being able to get him, rather than ignorance of his awesomeness with regards to this topic.

Speaking of which, my only other qualm with the episode was that I didn't think it was "esoteric enough" to warrant an ultra rare seven hour special. I know Noory likes to flirt with the mainstream and pretend C2C isn't the bastard child of the media, but I didn't really sense any clamoring for Coast's "different" take on the VT shootings, which wasn't all that different at all, save for some "pro-gun" rallying by Larry Pratt.

A Bigfoot is captured ? A UFO lands on the White House lawn ? Britney Spears adopts a Chupacabra ? Yes, these are seven hours worthy. I can't really fault Coast for their schedule on Monday, because they couldn't really go on with "business as usual", but seven hours is more than a bit too much. A straight four hour episode with these guests would have sufficed.

Despite my minor quibbles, overall it was an excellent episode for historical value alone. Decent guests, real emotion, Noory opening up about when he once gave a kid a swirlie, and seven hours of material will make this a front runner for a Coastie in December.

Tuesday, Maureen Caudill was the guest and the topic was psychic abilities. I listened to some of this, but I wasn't impressed much. Maureen seemed nice enough, but it was all too bland for my liking. After trying to be taken seriously for seven hours the night before, Coast then featured on-air spoon bending in the final hour, effectively setting back esoterica another decade or so. Decent episode, but a bit fluffy.

Harry Helms returned to Coast on Wednesday to talk about Secret Government Facilities. I'm not sure what happened, because I listened to this one, but now I can't recall much of note from it, except that Noory asked about the movie "Outbreak" and if it could really happen. For those keeping score at home, that film came out in 1995, so The Noor's almost caught up to the rest of us. Another middle of the road episode.

The week wrapped up with Lionel Fanthorpe on Thursday. First hour was Alex Jones, who was excellent as usual. He covered a lot of stuff and added the much needed conspiracy angle into the VT shootings that we'd not heard much of so far on Coast.

Fanthorpe was again very good in the full show interview. The time slips material was fascinating and my only real disappointment came when they finished talking about that stuff and then moved into Lionel Fanthorpe's Greatest Hits. I realize Fanthorpe is second only to Lemmy for God, but I do not need to hear his Spring Heeled Jack and Rosslyn Chapel stories for a fourth or fifth time (kudos to Lesley who noted Noory's SHJ fetish). That said, repeated Fanthorpe stories are still leaps and bounds ahead of some guests' first run material. Very good episode, as was expected.

Good week, propped up by the ultra strong VT Shooting Special on Monday and Fanthorpe on Thursday, which made up for the less than thrilling stuff in between. Adequate weekend material, for the most part.

The Week That Is

We kick things off tonight with a little Art Bell Open Lines action, as The Noor is off to parts unknown. Bell will have Evelyn Paglini on in the 1st hour to apparently take credit for prediction the VT school shooting. I expect the Friday into Saturday Open Lines that follow to be strong, since it's Bell hosting. Hopefully, we'll get a JC appearance too, since it's been a while since we heard from him.

Saturday on "Ian", IP's got a real winner on his hands with Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., who apparently thinks he is the Lindbergh Baby. Coming on the heels of Ian's interview with the guy who thinks he's a horse, Ian shows he's willing to entertain any weirdo with a story. Good for him. I suspect this will be surprisingly good, much like the horse interview.

Saturday night, Art Bell welcomes Dr. Janna Levin to talk about cosmology. Meh. I'm not a big fan of alt. science Saturdays with Bell, but they usually turn out better than they look on paper.

Sunday night, Bell has the previously bumped Stanley Alpert on to talk about his kidnapping at the hands of robbers and prostitutes. I think Ian would get the most out of Alpert, but Art should be able to really turn this one into something solid. Strong on paper potential.

Monday night, The Noor returns from his three day weekend with the C2C return, finally, of Loren Coleman to talk about cryptozoology. This only compounds my confusion over them not having Coleman on last week, post-VT shooting, but I guess they must have finally got a hold of him or something. If Noory fails to ask Coleman about the shooting, I will scold him next week in this column. Be forewarned, Noor. Most likely the best of the week.

Tuesday sees Richard C. Hoagland's better half, Dr. Robin Falkov, as the guest to discuss alternative medicine. Sigh. I'm sure this will be fairly dull and hopefully Noory will at least spend a little time getting some dirt on Hoagland behind the scenes. Does he always leave the toilet seat up ? Drink milk right out of the carton ? Insist on rewinding the Tivo after every Old Navy commercial ? These are the burning questions that Falkov has answers to. Expect a Hoagland pop-in and lots of talk about vitamins. Nary a mention of their sex life may cause deafness amongst some sensitive listeners, parental discretion is advised. Could be good to great, for sheer weirdness.

Wednesday, Richard Lawrence is the guest, the topic is contactee George King, UFOs, and Chernobyl. Off the top of my head, I don't know Lawrence, so this is a hit or miss episode.

TBA on Thursday. Your guess is as good as mine.

All in all, a very strong looking week. Coleman, Lindburgh Jr., and Alpert should be very good. The rest should be decent to good.

BoA : Audio, Season Two

This week : Tony Healy, "Yowie : In Search of Australia's Bigfoot"

BoA : Audio returns, with one of our most ambitious episodes yet, as Tony Healy, co-author of "Yowie : In Search of Australia's Bigfoot", joins the program, direct from Canberra, Australia.

We'll be delving into the Yowie mystery in-depth, following it's evolution from Aboriginal legend to modern day enigma. We'll discuss remarkable cases of Yowie interaction with everyday Australians, the Yowie renaissance of the 1970's, Australia's "other" mystery cryptid, the Junjudee, paranormal elements to the Yowie, and, of course, tons more, in this comprehensive, international edition of BoA : Audio.

His website is www.yowiefile.com

You can hear an MP3 preview of Tony Healy on BoA : Audio HERE (Just right click and then "save target as") or listen to it in streaming audio HERE.

Next week : Dr. Michael Salla, "Exopolitics"

Michael Salla returns to BoA : Audio for a full length interview to discuss Exopolitics. We'll be talking about the goals of Exopolitics, it's tenuous relationship with Ufology, and Salla responds to some of the critics of the movement. We also discuss 911, the Symington Phoenix Lights story, the recent release of French UFO documents (and Salla's surprising response) and tons more.

His website is www.exopolitics.org