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Ahh. September 1st. Wow. Time flies. It's actually quite scary. 'Twas a great week for me, as two items I'd anticipated all Summer arrived in my sticky little hands : the new Bob Dylan album and the new Jim Marrs book. Two of my personal heroes producing new material at the same time, you can't beat that. The Dylan album is outstanding, no surprise there. The new Marrs books is fascinating so far and as hefty as his trilogy of classics, which is a pleasant surprise. I'm looking forward to digging into it this weekend.
Meanwhile, this week in the binnall report, we look back at the past week of Coast to Coast AM, featuring a triumverate of excellent guests, Whitley Strieber (again), Alexandra Robbins, and Pat Buchanan (of all people). We look ahead to another solid looking week of Coast, including another Ed Dames episode and the return of Richard Dolan. We dip into the mailbag for the first solid teasers regarding BoA : Audio, Season Two and my recap of the Summer of '06. We look back in C2C history at their coverage of Hurricane Katrina, replete with endless Hoagland appearances. And, in a special Hot Newz, your humble author is lampooned by The Noor. (Not really, but this is what we think it would look like).
Wrapping up the Summer of 2006, this is the binnall report. Smoke 'em while you got 'em.
The Week That Was
When we ended the binnall report last week, The Noor was about to take the stage once again with Friday into Saturday Open Lines. The pop-in guests were Galeeshea Mikael and Raheem Kadash, who were on to talk about "Walk Ins", which is some kind of thing where spirits take over people's bodies or something. Sadly, I missed this pop-in, as it sounds just retarded enough to amuse me. Standard OL followed, featuring the "fear of sleep" special topic line.
Saturday on "Ian", IP had Marc Stevens on the show to discuss having a "no state" form of government. I ended up skipping / missing Stevens, as it sounded a tad too bureaucratic for my tastes. I did catch part of the first hour, which featured Ian doing voice comparisons between "Simon" (from 8.12.6) and Peter Levenda (who some claim is "Simon"). God damn, Ian, you once again live up to the billing of best thing going on C2C right now. A throwback to allegations from two weeks ago, complete with voice comparison ... that, my friend, is bad ass. IP, serious kudos to you for the genius move.
Re : Marc Stevens, we'll turn it over to Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field : "The full show guest was Marc Stevens. Stevens thinks we need a legal system based on the free market rather than laws. I thought that was what we had? Anyhow, Ian really held Stevens feet to the fire and I can't blame him. That being said, I don't want to totally trash Stevens because he had many interesting ideas. However, his idea of insurance companies enforcing the "non-laws" didn't make much sense to me since I have had dealings with insurance companies."
Saturday night on C2C proper, Art Bell was supposed to have Rick Strassman on the show as full show guest, to talk about the psychedelic drug DMT. Strangely Strassman had to check out after like a half hour because he had a "cold". No word yet on whether or not said cold was due to excessive Brazilian toad licking. In his stead, Art turned the rest of the show into what Sunday's show was scheduled for : alternative dimension Open Lines.
Strassman's illness and the premature OL left us with a very special episode of C2C on Sunday night, as Art extended 1st hour pop-in guest Whitley Strieber to full show guest, giving us two Strieber episodes in 4 days on C2C. With any other guest, that may sound like overkill, but with Strieber, it was excellent. Kudos to Art for the great idea.
Some folks are already using this unique situation to compare Noory and Art's hosting abilities, but I have to warn y'all that that is a misguided comparison. For starters, Art and Whitley are old friends and have done countless interviews together, while Noory's interview with Whitley was his first full show Strieber interview ever. Hardly an even comparison.
That said, I did enjoy the Bell version much better. I think it was because of the awesome chemistry between Art and Strieber. They were like two old jazz musicians and all the listener had to do was sit back and enjoy. Excellent episode that allowed Strieber to expand on stuff he'd talked about earlier in the week without too much redundancy.
As if the signs at Staples and the endless clothing ads weren't enough, The Noor confirmed that it was, indeed, Back to School time on Monday night as he welcomed the vivacious Alexandra Robbins to the show to discuss her book on students titled The Overachievers. Thankfully, Noory didn't dwell on Alex's previous book "Secrets of the Tomb" for too long and allowed almost the full interview to be devoted to the new book. Sadly, that didn't allow for discussion of her other book, "Pledged", and the naked pillow fights contained therein.
Anyway, Alexandra put in a solid performance, talking about the students profiled in her book, while still leaving a lot of twists, turns, and surprises for the folks who haven't read it yet. Bonus points for her turn as auteur, discussing how she went about putting the book together and her way of talking about how she shaped the story. The only downside, really, was that Noory kept interrupting to ask about old movies about school, like "Lean on Me" and "Back to School", showing once again that his pop culture reference index is stuck somewhere around 1989. Fun episode and a nice change of pace from the usual geopolitical groaning and alt. science kvetching we've gotten the last few weeks.
Tuesday's episode was tailor made for Ian Punnett, but sadly Noory was the host. He did a good job, though, but I just kept thinking how Ian would have ruled the night had he been host. The guest was Tim O'Brien talking about Robert Ripley, founder of "Ripley's Believe it or Not". The first part of the interview was excellent, with lots of discussion on Robert Ripley, the man, and how his empire of oddities came to be. Strangely, they then brought on some creep who is going to try and perform some stunt lifting 2 million pounds in 24 hours and the episode sort of went off track there. Another fun and light episode, but not as intriguing as the previous night's fare.
Wednesday, Deborah Blum was the guest and the topic was the science of ghosts and mediums. Blum apparently studied and profiled a lot of European psychic debunkers from the turn of the 20th century and brought a lot of fascinating information about them to the interview. A nice alternative history mixed with esoterica to create a fine blend of radio magic.
Noory, meanwhile, kept putting over how genuine the C2C audience and their ghost stories were and then decided he wanted Blum to critique each caller's ghost story for believability. Wow. Way to encourage the hoaxers, nuts, and liars to call in and ruin a good time. I shut the show off before I had to endure any stories from C2C listeners, so I can't say how that "experiment" went.
Thursday, we wrapped up the week with the most politically mainstream guest C2C has had since Ralph Nader in 2004, former presidential candidate and political pundit / talking head Pat Buchanan. Buchanan has suprisingly been making the esoteric talk radio rounds the last few weeks, including an appearance on the Alex Jones Show, of all places, so it was pretty cool to hear him on Coast.
I'll be honest and say that I only heard the first hour or so of the interview and haven't had time to hear the rest yet, since it only aired last night. But, what I did hear was all sorts of excellent. Buchanan was on to talk about his new book on immigration and he knew the topic inside and out. You could tell he'd done a ton of research, as he was busting out facts and anecdotes like there was no tomorrow. Noory was also spot on excellent on this episode, perhaps betraying that he misses his days as a "serious journalist". No word on whether or not Buchanan touched the sticky subject of a 911 conspiracy, but I doubt it.
The buzz on the episode this morning was that it was stunningly good, so if you are holding out because it's Pat Buchanan, don't be afraid, you won't be disappointed.
All in all, it was a good to great week of Coast episodes. Strieber, Robbins, and Buchanan were all top notch and will almost certainly net Coastie nominations. You can't complain much when you get a week like that.
The Week That Is
We kick it off tonight with The Noor bringing back his old friend, Twilight Zone guru Marc Zicree along with ancient TV star Bill Mumy of "Will Robinson" fame. Sure to be a hit amongst C2C's sci fi fan base. Friday into Saturday Open Lines follows.
Saturday on "Ian", Colin Beavan will be on the show to talk about "shadow warfare" on the part of the US in World War II. Ian, the emerging master of alternative history C2C, looks to add another feather in his cap with this one. Looks to be a strong episode.
Saturday night on C2C proper, Art Bell will have Will Henry on the show to discuss ancient technology. Art loves technology and he seems fascinated by various antiquities, so I'm expecting some solid stuff here. Noteworthy is that Henry hasn't been on with Bell in four years and has logged an astounding 15 episodes with The Noor as host in the interim. I expect the Bell / Will reunion will breathe some new life into Henry's, at times, tiresome material.
Sunday night on C2C, it's a guest who is no stranger to having Art Bell as host, the controversial Ed Dames. I'll admit to liking Dames more than Sean David Morton, but that's like a choice between dog poo and cat poo. Dames at least makes some creepy or scary predictions, instead of the overall smarmy lounge lizard act we get with SDM. Plus there is always the question of whether or not Art will feel like calling Dames out on his infamous gold prediction, though I'm still not quite sure what the status of that prediction is.
Monday on Coast, The Noor returns to the helm and welcomes Jeff Danelek to the show to talk about ghosts and reincarnation with an emphasis on science relating to it. Sounds intriguing. I'm unfamiliar with Danelek, so it could go either way. Call it a darkhorse for the week.
Tuesday on C2C, it's Richard Dolan talking about UFOs and government secrecy. Dolan is best remembered for being the author of the excellent book, "UFOs and the National Security State". He is widely considered one of the best UFO guests out there and always does quite well in the annual Coastie voting. It's been a year, and then some, since Dolan appeared on C2C (save for a half hour appearance last November), so I expect great stuff here. Strongest contender for potential best of the week.
Wildcard Wednesday is in full effect as it's TBA once again. The inordinate amount of TBA guests this year has not been lost on most hardcore fans. I just wish they'd utilize it more, instead of just glossing over the fact that they have no guest lined up yet.
Thursday, we wrap up the formal week with Robert Y. Pelton, talking about military contractors. While, on the surface, this may seem like a terribly boring topic, it's a little known fact that the military farms out a lot of work to these private contractors and it's actually quite a fascinating story in a lot of ways. I suspect this will surpass low expectations and turn out to be quite good.
After a few less than stellar weeks (save for the Whitley Strieber double shot), C2C bounces back with a strong week ahead, starring three big name C2C guests (Henry, Dames, Dolan), two darkhorse potential gems (Danelek and Pelton), and possibly another in a string of strong alternative history episodes of "Ian" (Beavan). On paper, this is a well put together week and I'm looking forward to it.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1
binnall,
C'mon, enough's enough. How bout some info on the next season of BoA : Audio.
Kevin in Oakland, California Kevin, you slay me. The best I can do this week are the following teasers ... there will, for sure, be two 2 part episodes. There will be a guest who has never been featured on Coast to Coast before. There will be one guest who I'd been trying to interview since December of last year. There will be at least one returning guest from Season One.
Hope that's a small taste of what's to come. As always, more details forthcoming sooner than you think.
Letter #2 :
So how was your Summer ?
Chris in Charlotte, NC Meh. In two words : too fast. I'm not sure if it was because of work or stress or that I am getting older, but this Summer went by faster than any I can recall. When I was younger, the Summer meant something, now it's just another season. And, strangely, I'm actually more looking forward to the Fall, when BoA : Audio kicks up again, when my favorite TV shows return, and things settle down from the overhyped commercialism that is Summer in America.
I did discover some great new TV shows this Summer, like "Tabloid Wars", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and rediscovered "Big Brother". I saw one great movie, X-Men 3, and one crappy one, Clerks 2. I spent a good deal of time with my family, which is always nice. And, I enjoyed the Red Sox season up until about 2 weeks ago. All together, it was rather run-of-the-mill, but I knew this would be a transitional Summer more than any big event type Summer.
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
8.31.2005 : Tragedy struck the US, as the Gulf States were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. During serious times of destruction like that, there's really only one man to turn to ... C2C science advisor Richard C. Hoagland, of course. (What, you were expecting someone qualified ? ) "Of course, Richard C. Hoagland appeared throughout the show to rant about "Weather War". Of the three nights appearing (so far) this week, this was Hoagland's worst. His updates weren't particularly news laden and seemed suspiciously like he was parroting whatever he'd heard on CNN in the last hour." (binnall report, 9.2.2005)
9.1.2004 : What would C2C be without far out Biblical theories ? You tell me. Thankfully, we had Stan Tenen on Coast two years ago today to give us his interpretation of the Good Book. "The text of Genesis, he said, can be looked at like a woven structure, where meanings are seen in the pattern, beyond just what the words spell out. This structure is like a software program that once activated in your mind can be a path to a higher view or enlightenment, he explained." (c2c.com)
9.3.2003 : Speaking of far out theories, take a gander at this episode from a little over 3 years ago, featuring Illuminati whistleblower George Green, trying to alert the world (with help from aliens, no less) that the NWO was on its way. You gotta love it. "his tale included access to a diabolical elite circle that seeks to carry out "Plan 2000," whereby the Earth's population will be reduced to a scant 200 million. Additionally Green receives telepathic information from ET's hailing from the Pleiades, who get his attention by creating a telephone-like ring that he hears." (c2c.com)
End Notes
Like the last charred wiener on the BBQ, this week's edition of the binnall report is finished. Thanks for riding along once again.
Plugs : I can't say for sure what is on tap for tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com. I'll have to hassle Joe Vee tonight to see if he'll have anything for us, otherwise, I may fill in the rest of August's Coastie Contenders. Sunday, it's Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field & smoker dave updated. Monday, R.Lee's Trickster's Realm. Tuesday, Lesley's Grey Matters. Wednesday, Khyron's The K-Files. Thursday, Hot Newz #100 ~! And, next week, the binnall report, once again.
Farewell, dear Summer of '06. I'll miss the barefoot walks in the grass, the Country Time lemonade ads, the sun setting at 8:30 PM, and all the other stuff I associate with Summer. I hope y'all have a great Labor Day weekend. Have fun and be safe.
Until you hear from me next week, this is binnall ... signing off.