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We're starting to get back on track here, folks. It's hot as all get hell outside, but I'm in the nice air conditioned BoA offices, so it's all good. Tis a nice relaxing Friday afternoon here, which is a nice change of pace after a few wild ones in the past month.
Much thanks to everyone who wrote to me with well wishes for my dad. I'm happy to say he returned from the hospital on Monday and is well on his way to a full recovery. Thanks again to everyone who expressed their concern.
This week in the binnall report, we look back at an interesting week on Coast to Coast AM that saw Gary Busey show up and Noory institute "Operation Floating Noory" (More on that later). We look ahead to yet another "Art Bell Returns" episode and some Hollow Earth goodness. I give the low down on BoA Reloaded, coming to binnallofamerica.com on 7.29. We dip into the mailbag for a BoA : Audio listener's thoughts on Steve Bassett and . We time travel back to a time when Stanton Friedman debated Seth Shostak on C2C and Art Bell railed against the Miss America Pageant. And, finishing up the week, we have the inside scoop on rejected C2C merchandise only in Hot Newz.
Step back, kids, we're gonna turn this mother out.
The Week That Was
When we last left our heroes, the Noor was about to host the usual Friday into Saturday Open Lines. The pop-in was R. Gary Patterson, talking about good old fashioned rock and roll. I'm a big RGP fan, but missed this one, because my schedule hadn't settled down yet. Creepy stories was the special topic line during Open Lines, for those of you keeping score at home.
Saturday, C2C pulled a fast one on me, by switching Ian Punnett back to hosting "Ian" and putting Ross Mitchell in the C2C proper spot, despite what they said on the website. Damn you, C2C and your confusing ways. Anyway, Ian welcomed John Rhodes to discuss reptoids and UFOs. Sadly, I missed this one. I have it earmarked, because I'm a big Rhodes fan and this sounded strong. Apparently, it turned into a little crypto party, as Mark Hall and Linda Godfrey stopped by during the show. No word on whether or not Ian turned to wearing a lampshade on his head, but experts say the chances are strong.
We turn it over now to Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field ()for the call of the action, "John Rhodes was Ian's guest and they talked about Reptoids. It was a fun and interesting show. Linda returned to tell her lizard man story and Mark Hall stopped by for a while too. Only Loren Coleman was missing to keep it from being a cryptozoological extravaganza!" Thanks, Lesley.
Saturday night on Coast proper, Ross Mitchell stepped in as host and welcomed Charles R. Smith to talk about North Korea and future weaponry. I only caught bits and pieces, but it was decent. A smidge too mainstream for my liking, but Charles R. Smith always brings the goods.
Sunday night, The Noor kicked off yet another six day week, this time welcoming Jeff Belanger to discuss ghost hunting. I was skeptical about this one, but it turned out to be pretty strong. Belanger didn't come in like he had all the answers and it turned out to be more like two friends talking about ghosts. Belanger's first hand accounts of some of his creepy adventures were great, notably the French catacombs stuff. One of the better ghost episodes I've heard in a while and not too polluted with stuff about "mediums" and psychics.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that we had an ultra small RCH pop-in during the first hour. Sir Hoags claims he has some breakthrough story about missing Apollo Films. Yes ! It's about time we got RCH's Summer Adventure for '06. For those of you out of the loop, every Summer RCH finds some new story that he revels in and then quickly ditches once the Summer ends. As far back as I can remember, in '03 it was the "smoking gun of Roswell", in '04 it was Dr. Formisano's life on mars announcement, and in '05 it was the Shuttle being damaged while in space. This year ... missing Apollo films. Like clockwork that RCH is.
Monday on C2C, Noory was beginning to flake about this Iran v. Lebanon conflict. He unveiled his wartime strategy : a floating schedule. (Typical for a Navy man.) Essentially it means that he may keep the pop-in for an extra hour and slice the hour off the "full show" guest, essentially halving the show. If and when this wartime strategy comes into effect, we'll simply dub it "Operation Floating Noory".
And Operation Floating Noory was in full effect on Monday, as he had the frantic Howard Bloom on for the first half to talk about the Middle East conflict and then had Jack Cashill on in the second half to talk about TWA Flight 800. I caught almost all of Bloom and he was as wild as ever. You've got to hand it to Bloom. He speaks with an air of authority that makes you feel pretty certain that we, as a species, are screwed. Good stuff, especially when they opened it up to callers in Hour Two and some of them tried to fight Bloom.
I missed Cashill, because I was too busy digging a bomb shelter after hearing Bloom. I presume Cashill was decent, but I've heard no buzz on it either way.
Tuesday, Noory welcomed Douglas Hagmann as the pop-in, but chose not to invoke Operation Floating Noory. Hagmann was on to talk about the Middle East conflict and how there may be Hezbollah sleeper cells in the US. Egads. I used to dig Hagmann, but after a while, his track record has suffered with regards to warnings of terror attacks.
The full show guest was Adam the Dreamhealer. Apparently poor Adam was the subject of a hit piece from ABC Primetime. Welcome to esoterica, Adam. The Noor asked a lot of generic questions and it made me wonder if Noory even remembered interviewing Adam last year. Anyway, I found myself disliking Adam as the interview went on. Something about these mystics and healers just gets under my skin, especially when they have books and DVDs to hawk to sick people who are desperate for a way to live.
It seemed like Noory didn't have much to ask him, as they went to callers an hour earlier than usual, which is a sure sign of a dog episode. I skipped out on the callers, because I didn't want to get depressed listening to sick people ask Adam for help, especially when I don't buy his "powers" for a minute.
Wednesday saw the Noor interview Maurice Cotterell about reincarnated Gods and the Holy Grail. Very Will Henry-esque and that could be either good or bad, depending on your opinion of Henry. Decent stuff from Cotterell, but it started to drag at some points.
The show was really highlighted by a all-too-brief moment at the end of the first hour when a lady caller asked Noory why he doesn't have a woman in his life. You could hear Noory blushing through the radio as he stammered a lot and didn't know what to say. One of the funniest moments on C2C in quite some time.
Just when I thought C2C couldn't get more bizarre, who shows up on Thursday as the first hour pop-in ? None other than Gary Busey, of all people. Outstanding ! There goes Dan Aykroyd's shot at Coastie greatness. Busey rambled, ranted, preached and sang and I loved every minute of it. He threw in a few great "Busey-isms" that Noory didn't seem to know how to react to. Then Noory goaded him into singing some songs and it was amazing. The only thing missing was Noory with a tambourine. Fantastic first hour, especially when Busey kept talking about how awesome Louis Turi was. It doesn't get much better than that.
The full show guest was Mark Hall to cover all aspects of cryptozoology, focusing on the thunderbirds quite a bit. Hall is one of the best crypto guys out there and this was an excellent episode. I never noticed before how much Hall sounds like Loren Coleman, but he really did on Thursday. Could Coleman's reign as 2 time Coastie winner be in jeopardy ? Possibly. Of course, The Noor had to push his "dinosaurs are alive" agenda once again and, sadly, Hall encouraged this line of thinking from Noory. Good God, Mark, don't encourage him.
Good week. Thursday was easily the best of the bunch, but it was kind of a weak batch overall.
The Week That Is
The upcoming week begins with The Noor lording over Friday into Saturday Open Lines. The 1st hour pop-in will be Ed Okonowicz to discuss "haunted objects". I smell a 2nd hour of callers hawking their crap to Ed. Sounds like fun. Standard Open Lines follows.
Saturday on Ian, IP welcomes Philip Carlo to talk about notorious murderer Richard Kuklinksi, who you may know better as The Ice Man. No, not old timey southern pro rassler Ice Man King Parsons, this is just the Ice Man, murderer for hire.
Ian usually hits them out of the ballpark when it comes to alternative history and pop history stuff. This is right up his alley. Carlo is a kick ass guest and rocked it out hardcore with Noory last Summer. I expect this one to be a keeper.
Saturday night, Art Bell has his 4th "triumphant return" episode this year. Boy, there isn't going to much money left in petty cash at the end of the year after all of these special "Welcome Back Art Bell" episodes. Anyway, Art managed to get his act together over there in the Philippines. I'm happy to hear he's on his way back to the airwaves, as the haphazard C2C weekend schedule was starting to get to me. Knock on wood that we won't have anymore technical difficulties to suffer through.
Art's guest will be notorious UFO contactee James Gilliland, ostensibly to talk about his far out ranch that has UFOs flying overhead all the time. When I first started listening to Coast, Gilliland was usually a hot ticket guest, but his act is kind of tired to those of us who have heard him all these years. That said, it's usually a fun ride for a brief while.
Sunday night, again from the Philippines, Art Bell will be kicking it old school from the host's chair. The guest is Dean Radin, talking about parapsychology. Radin is hugely popular within the inner workings of esoterica and a lot of folks I speak to who are hardcore researchers always put over Dean Radin. I expect Art will get a lot of fascinating stuff out of him, as Art knows Radin's work pretty well and is all about strange science.
Monday, The Noor returns with a special Border Security episode of Coast featuring Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen Project, and Jerome Corsi, making his 8th C2C appearance of the year. Sounds like a killer episode, though I'm not quite sure why Corsi is there. Perhaps a better fit would have been Frosty Wooldridge, but maybe he'll make an appearance as well. Should be good to great, albeit frustrating considering the US's lax border policy. Expect the righteous indignation factor to be amped up quite high.
Tuesday, Noory welcomes Mary Rodwell to talk about the science behind ET abductions. Hmm. I've never been a big abduction fan, but I'll give this one a shot because it could turn out strong. That said, she does seem to be involved in that whole "Star-Kids" farce, so this one could be rather lame.
Wednesday, The Noor goes sperlunking with David Standish, in search of the Hollow Earth. I love Hollow Earth. Seriously. It's one of my all time favorite C2C niche subjects. Usually when dealing with this theory, you get either a total nut or an amazing researcher. There's really no middle ground. Standish sounds like he will be the latter and this is the most promising episode of the week, for me.
Thursday, Linda Moulton Howe joins the show to talk about an EBE autopsy story that she has come across. Word on the street is that this is a very compelling story and should be top notch stuff. Last time Linda was on a Thursday, it appeared to be for a full show shot, but then it turned into a 2 hour affair. Will LMH be on for the full show or be relegated to pop-in duty once again ? Find out on Thursday.
Looks like a promising week. Phillip Carlo and the return of Art Bell should hold the weekend up strong. The Border Security episode, plus Hollow Earth stuffs, and LMH's wild story, make for a lot of good episodes in the upcoming 7 days. We'll see how they all shake out next week.
BoA Reloaded coming 7.29.6
As teased last week, I am in the midst of re-tooling BoA as I type this. We'll unveil all the improvements, both major and minor, on 7.29.6 @ binnallofamerica.com. Don't get too excited / worried, as it isn't anything drastic. Here's a little teaser of what's to come ...
We will have freshened up (or "digitally remastered") the following pages : "Guided Tour", "Feature Articles", "Columns", and "Contact".
We are also working on developing a new design for the set up of the "BoA : Audio" page, so that one may be totally revamped.
We'll be tinkering with the merchandise some, we'll have a Search added to the index, a link to binnall's myspace page, and Amazon ads promoting esoteric books. I will attempt, for the 3rd straight year, to get a blog of my own up and running, and we may even see some changes in theusofe.com ~!
And, of course, the BoA front page will be tighter, leaner, meaner, and cleaner than ever before.
I haven't even begun to dig into the RSS feed situation yet, but it is on my "to do list", I swear.
Feel free to share what you would like to see and to make suggestions for improvements while I am in the midst of renovating.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1 :
I really enjoy your show. I just listened to the Steve Bassett interview and found him to be extremely polarizing. He is a very partisan left winger and I found myself really turned off of his message because of his totally transparent haltered of the Bush Administration and I voted for Michael Badnarick in the last election. All the bad things in the world can't be laid at the feet of American conservatives.
Keep up the good work.
Dylan Much thanks for the high praise, Dylan. Nice name, by the way.
Strangely enough, I could've sworn that Bassett said he voted for Michael Badnarik as well. Irregardless, I am not inclined to speak much on Bassett's political leanings, especially whether he is too hard on the conservatives. I'm torn on whether or not he'd be just as hard on the Democrats if they were in office. I think we'll know in a decade or so. Until then, it is hard to determine whether or not it is from a predisposed hatred of conservatives or just railing against "the man" du jour.
Letter #2 :
Since I am a new addition to the coast riders I have never seen your report before Tim but I must say that was alot of fun to read!
What were you talking about season 1? Do you do a podcast?
BTW look for me to add you to my myspace friends!
C2C Streamlink member Saucalito Thanks for the props on the binnall report, Saucalito. I sometimes forget that we have first time readers almost every week and I wonder what they must think when they first discover us. I hope you stick around and enjoy the ride and feel free to check out our "binnall report" archives @ BoA, going all the way back to October of 2004.
Meanwhile, yes, I do have a podcast. You've actually discovered it while we are in our Summer hiatus, but you can check out 23 Guests, 33 Episodes, over 39 Hours of Underground Esoteric Audio that is contained in our archive. Just go to binnallofamerica.com and click the "audio" button @ the top of the page.
And, yes, I'd love to have you as a myspace friend. And anyone else as well, feel free to check out binnall on myspace @ myspace.com/binnall
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
7.21.2005 : Evelyn Paglini was the guest, doling out some witchcraft tips for us all and handing down some weather related predictions for the 2nd half of '05, "Paglini also updated her psychic forecast, declaring that the weather is going to become more extreme for the rest of the year. She sees quakes in California, Oregon and the Midwest and massive flooding in more than one state. She also predicted major fires between now and October, causing massive destruction in five states—California, Oregon, Arizona and in the Midwest. The stock market could take a tumble in October, and when it goes below 9,000, you'll know "we're in trouble," she said. " (c2c.com)
I can see perhaps the "massive flooding in at least one state" as a Katrina prediction, but the rest seem to be misses. Perhaps the venerable Aspie can help us out.
7.21.2004 : An all time classic episode of C2C. So good, just remembering it today will make me go out and listen to it again. The Great UFO Debate ... Shostak v. Friedman. A three hour knock down drag out affair that set a debate standard heretofore yet to be matched on Coast. If you haven't heard it, track it down, it's worth it. For the record, the final score of Fast Blast voting, "Stanton Friedman 57%, Seth Shostak 33%, Draw 10%." (c2c.com) Booyah, eat that, Shostak.
7.21.1997 : Art Bell is outraged by still more new guidelines in the Miss America Pageant : "For the first time Miss America contestants will have an option to participate in the swim suit competition. They say it is not supposed to be sexy anyway. Art says what's wrong with the swim suits being sexy. What is the point then." (artbell.com cd rom)
End Notes
And we call it a day with that. Hope you all had as much fun as I did this week. Luckily, we finished up just in time to enjoy the evening with as little stress as possible.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com, Wrath of Joe : Summer Series continues with Joe's take on Lynn Marzulli and the whole Nephilim theory. This one is a killer edition, trust me. Sunday, it's Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field and smoker dave. Monday, Trickster's Realm. Tuesday, Grey Matters. Wednesday, The K-Files. Thursday, Hot Newz. Friday, the binnall report.
Also, I'm happy to report that we will be adding another new columnist to BoA in the very near future. I'll be pimping it more next week, but this new guy is shaping up to be an outstanding addition to BoA and what I've seen of his work so far has been stellar. I'm sure the BoA readers will really dig it.
Now I am off to go do my Friday stuffs. I hope you all have an excellent weekend and a stress free week. Until you hear from me again, this is binnall, signing off.