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Twas another of those haywire weeks for me, between business and personal affairs coming at me from all sides, my old friend C2C fell, more often than not, by the wayside. But, I can't complain, because the stuff I was dealing with was the groundwork for future BoA adventures and you'll be hearing about them in the coming weeks and months in this space, I'm sure.
Anyway, this week, we look back at the past week's C2C offerings, including an awesome episode featuring Richard Dolan and a humorous one with Ed Dames. We look ahead to a week full of potential goodness, including a 911 Special and discussion of UFOs of USSR. We dip into the mailbag with an odd missive about Biscardi and smashing the 4th wall of the binnall report. Meanwhile, the BoA : Audio, Season Two header emerges this week, with details on upcoming announcements re : our audio series. We look into the C2C vault and remember Pamela Anderson's brief Coast appearance and Dannion Brinkley's brain aneurysm. And, of course, we celebrate 100 editions of the infamous Hot Newz with the massive Hot Newz #100.
So we have a potpourri of oddities for you this week. I hope you dig the smell.
The Week That Was
We left off with The Noor kicking off September with Marc Zicree and early TV star Bill Mumy. They talked about The Twilight Zone and other sci fi stuffs. Standard Friday into Saturday Open Lines followed.
Saturday on "Ian", IP welcomed Marc Stevens to discuss Shadow Warfare. The buzz on this one was that it was another slam dunk from Punnett, who has earned some serious critical acclaim for his work this Summer. Sadly, I missed this one, but it's going into the pile of episodes that I intend to backtrack and check out when time allows.
Saturday night on C2C proper, Art Bell was reunited with C2C workhorse Will Henry, to talk about ancient technology. I had high hopes for this episode to surpass the usual blase fare that is the Noory / Henry dynamic. As has been the custom around here for a while, we turn it over to Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field for the play-by-play on how this episode went down, "Art's guest was Will Henry. Most of you know by now that I don't care much for Henry. This was a typical Henry show as far as I could tell, him spewing historical inaccuracies. Then again, I didn't make it past the first hour. Art did question him slightly, but not enough for my taste. I would like someone to actually ask him where he got certain information instead of just assuming it was from a reputable source. I don't mean to be too hard on him, I use to find him somewhat entertaining, but after all the Dreamland shows he has done I am just completely bored with him." Ouch.
Sunday night on Coast, Art brought back another C2C staple, the notorious Ed Dames, "remote viewer". I managed to catch about half of this episode and thought it was entertaining in a perverse way, but not particularly enlightening. It never ceases to amaze me that every time Dames shows up on Coast, he claims to have had some "breakthrough" with his remote viewing, but it never ends up producing anything tangible to prove it. Yet, he comes back and does it again every time. Unlike many who just get infuriated that he does it, I can't help but laugh at the entire thing. Good episode if you don't take Dames seriously anymore (which ought to be 99% of the C2C audience, but is probably only like 33% sadly).
Monday night, The Noor was back in action and his guest was Jeff Danelek to talk about ghosts and reincarnation. For starters, I missed this one, so I don't have any first hand perspective on it. That said, there was a surprising amount of good buzz on this one over at the Streamlink board, so it sounds like Danelek brought the goods and, from what I am hearing in the chatter, Noory did a better than average job. So, I'd give it a recommendation, noted as "don't overlook", to those who, like me, missed this one.
Tuesday night, one of my personal favorite Ufologists, Richard Dolan, joined the show to talk about UFOs and secrecy. A flat out excellent episode and one of the best editions of C2C that I've heard in quite some time. I expect, once again, that Dolan will be well represented in December's Coastie vote for Best UFO Episode of '06 with this gem.
Ultra props to Dolan for going after Seth Shostak after Noory asked him about the Greer / SETI fiasco. Poor Noory sounded like someone kicked his dog after Dolan ripped Shostak a new one. Noory falling all over himself to fawn over and defend Shostak was sad, but not surprising.
What was surprising was Noory's brutally frank take on the Disclosure movement, suggesting that he's had enough of the proclamations from that camp. Dolan was fair, as usual, and brought a strong "outsider" perspective to the UFO enigma that is sorely lacking nowadays. In short, an outstanding episode covering a wealth of UFO topics without a serious agenda being pushed. Highest recommendation I have to check this one out, unless you are a diehard UFO skeptic.
Wildcard Wednesday (TBA guest) turned out to be Ken Hanson, talking about lost Bible texts. I was right in the thick of a bunch of stuff, so I was forced to skip out on this episode. I didn't hear much, if any, buzz on Hanson, so I can't say much about his portion of the episode.
However, I am thankful that C2C finally brought back Peter Robbins to the show and they were only 8 months late for the 25th anniversary of the Rendlesham Incident. Way to be asleep at the wheel, Coast. Anyway, Robbins is top notch and one of the best speakers in the entire field of Ufology. I would have gladly taken 3 hours with Robbins instead of Hanson and giving Robbins a mere 20 minute segment borders on criminal. He, and the Coast audience, deserve a full episode appearance on the show as soon as possible.
We wrapped up the week on Thursday with Robert Young Pelton, who was on to cover the strange trend of private contractors being used by the military (i.e. mercenaries). I did catch a good portion of this interview and enjoyed it thoroughly. Pelton's anti-journalist stance was a nice twist on his research and his hand's on perspective was fascinating, including his stint as "bullet bitch". Noory went to callers after the first hour, which is usually the kiss of death for a guest, but Pelton kept it together well. The only downside to the interview was Pelton's faulty phone connection and the premature aborting of the interview after two hours.
Good to great week, with one five star episode, Dolan, that is an absolute keeper, and a few strong episodes peppered in there (Danelek and Pelton). Sorry for my lack of coverage this week, folks, just one of those times when things come up and Noory and company have to take a backseat to real world issues here on Planet binnall. I expect we'll be back in the swing of things next week and poring over the minutiae of C2C as we are wont to do.
The Week That Is
Looks like a pretty good, on paper, week ahead for C2C. We start out with tonight's episode, featuring a tribute to "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin. I was surprised to see that Irwin had indeed appeared on C2C before (8.6.2002). Thankfully, we'll be hearing that interview tonight on the show and remembering Mr.Irwin and his contributions to our weird world. God Speed, Croc Hunter. Standard Friday into Saturday Open Lines follows.
Saturday on "Ian", IP has Michael Trudeau on the early show to talk about a cashless society. Unless Trudeau is a total dog, I expect Ian to have some good stuff here, providing a "voice of reason" to the entire paranoia, deserved or undeserved, revolving around mankind's ever dependency on technology.
Saturday night on C2C proper, Art Bell has an update from the unique team of former C2C singles guest stars, Dr. Simeon Hein and "Human Calculator" Scott Flansburg. They apparently teamed up and tried to produce their own crop circle. Sounds mildly interesting, could be better if Art gets into whether it is a good idea or not to make bogus crop circles.
Sunday night, the Greer / SETI fiasco will surely rear its ugly head again, as Art welcomes Dr. Steven Greer for the full show. Greer almost always had lots of big name dropping, lots of veiled references to shadowy intrigue, and lots of mind bending implications about the UFO phenomenon. Some folks really hate Greer, but I don't mind him too much and usually find his stuff pretty fascinating.
Monday night, C2C commemorates the 5th anniversary of 911 with the 911 Special. Featured guests will include David Hawkins, Victor Thorn and Lisa Guliani, and David Ray Griffin. Being a student of the 911 Truth Movement, there are some stunners here, as far as guest choices go. First of all, no Alex Jones, which is a big surprise, considering Noory's fawning over him ad nauseum. Sadly, no Jim Marrs, who just put out an outstanding 911 book. Not surprisingly, no Webster Tarpley, who C2C continues to ignore, despite his presence at the top of the 911 research heap.
The biggest surprise would have to be Thorn and Guliani, who are behind the infamous WING TV, which has gone after C2C on more than one occasion and has a "no hold barred" look at esoterica that one would think would keep them on the "blacklist" of C2C guests. It will be very interesting to see how controversial their segment gets.
Tuesday, Robert Schneck joins the show to talk about his new book, which deals in bizarre stories that can be found in the nooks and crannies of America. This is a dark horse episode that could be very good, especially if Schneck brings his best material with him.
Are the powers that be finally listening to binnall ? We can't prove that ... yet, but we do know that this week's TBA is again on Wednesday, making it, once again, Wildcard Wednesday. Now if only Coast would adopt the title and use the TBA to their advantage like I've been suggesting for months.
The week finishes up on Thursday with Philip Mantle coming on the show to talk about the alien autopsy footage and Soviet UFOs. I'm not so much interested in the AA stuff, but the Soviet UFO stuff should be killer. Mantle is co-author of the excellent book "Dark Skies" (with Paul Stonehill), so I expect some seriously good material being presented on UFO stories from behind the Iron Curtain.
Top to bottom, it looks like a solid week, covering a lot of the C2C hallmarks with strong guests for each niche.
BoA : Audio, Season Two
Only a sick animal like me could possibly hype an announcement of an announcement, but that's pretty much what we are doing in this space this week.
Next week ... we announce the BoA : Audio, Season Two Season Premiere date & guest. We'll also announce some of the big names who will be appearing throughout the Fall portion of this Season. So be ready to have you socks blown off ... next week. The wait for information is almost over, I assure you.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1
Biscardi exposed as money-grubbing hoaxer
http://www.beckjord.com/biscardi/
I swear to crap, I get some of the strangest e-mails. This one here was perhaps one of the most barren e-mails I've received to date. Just this link and the header regarding Biscardi. No additional comments, no name signed at the bottom, nothing. Talk about weird.
Anyway, I thought the world knew that Biscardi was all about the bling bling and not the Bigfoot. But, I figured I'd share this letter with y'all, in case you forgot Biscardigate from last year. Good to see 'ol Tom is up to his usual tricks.
Letter #2 :
Binnall, that was a fun read.... I enjoy reading someone elses view of what they heard on coast to coast.
It seems everyone takes away something just a little different from each show. Well some guest's everyone has the same response like WTF and OMG what BS. I really enjoyed "This Week in C2C History", brought back some good memories... LOL
Thanks again for your addition to CTC.
C2C Streamlink member Intowishon Aw shucks, Into, thanks for the props. You raise an important point, in that each week's ramblings by your's truly are just my opinion on the show. Sometimes, folks write to me to disagree with what I said or to defend aspects of the show that I often crap on (like Open Lines). I always enjoy hearing from people who disagree with my take on certain Coast episodes, because they sometimes have me looking at things from a different light.
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
9.8.2005 : A strange pop-in if ever there was, that almost slipped through the cracks if it weren't for her huge ... concerns. "During the opening segment, actress Pamela Anderson expressed her concern about the pets left behind in New Orleans. " (c2c.com)
9.6.2004 : A mixed bag of predictions from one of The Noor's favorite psychics, Joe Jacobs, "The year 2005 will see an increase in medical problems, he said, with mounting health issues taxing our hospitals. There will also be difficulties in '05 related to water, with increased flooding as well as security problems in ports, Jacobs stated.
He sees Bush being re-elected, though there will be reports of voting machine tampering. The whereabouts of Osama bin Laden will be "finalized" in the next 2-3 months, he said 9.8.1997 : Longtime C2C listeners may recall when beloved C2C regular Dannion Brinkley went down with a brain aneurysm. Art Bell held our hands through this worrisome time in C2C history, with nightly updates including this one, towards the end of the crisis. "Dannion Brinkley is scheduled for a MRI Tuesday morning. The bleeding in the third aneurism has stopped, which he attributes to your prayers. He is still facing a rough road with a number of clots in his brain. If they do not dissolve he may have a stroke. Art speaks to him about twice a day." (artbell.com cd rom)
9.8.1998 : Art Bell on baseball, "MacQuire is the new homerun king. Art feels he is a pretty decent guy and seems like a guy that really loves the game and his family, like it used to be. Art isn't really a baseball fan, but is pleased with this milestone. Art thinks baseball movies are exciting, but baseball itself is boring." (artbell.com cd rom)
End Notes
That does it for this week's edition of the binnall report. I'd certainly call it "light", but also I think we'll look back on this week's installment as "the calm before the storm". There's lots of big things in the pipeline, I assure you, and I'm just chomping at the bit to unveil them soon.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com, Hoags to Hoags AM and The Corsi Counter are updated. Sunday, Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field & smoker dave updated. Monday, Ralph Molesworth's Tall Tales. Tuesday, Lesley's Grey Matters. Wednesday, Khyron's The K-Files. Thursday, Hot Newz. And, Friday, we do it all again here in the binnall report.
binnallofamerica.com ... esoterica's dirty little secret.
I'm off to salvage what's left of Friday. I hope your transition from Summer to Fall has begun smoothly. Until you hear from me again, this is binnall ... signing off.