7.29.7 : quasi binnall report

As I've been saying since this bizarre Summer began, the binnall report will be evolving quite a bit in the weeks and months to come. I've noticed that the addition of more lengthy "rants" at the beginning, instead of the "classic" style of just lumping them into 'The Week That Was', was taking a lot of time and pushing the deadline of the column further and further into the weekend.

It all came to a head this weekend when I was forced to cover the C2C Ouija Board "Special". Ugh. This thing was such a debacle of epic proportions that to truly distill the awfulness into text is a daunting task. Try as I might, I kept putting off writing the review, perhaps in hopes that the episode would age better over the weekend. It didn't.

So ... I'll get around to finishing up my blistering review of that sad night of C2C sometime on Monday evening (or so). The Great UFO Debate II preview will be posted sometime on Wednesday before the episode airs. The weekly C2C review and preview is going to be posted now, because it is getting painfully dated as it sits here, waiting for me to stop covering my eyes at the abortion that was the Ouija Board Special.

We're riding along on one spare tire this week folks, but we're still riding ...

The Week That Was

Aside from the Ouija debacle, the only other C2C show I bothered to listen to was the Sunday night show, featuring guest host Rollye James interviewing James Long about NDEs. I found Rollye to be a nice change of pace from the usual hosting fare we get from Coast. Apparently she's guest hosted before, because she mentioned it a few times during the show. She gets kudos from me for mentioning the C2C episode with Art Bell and the blind woman who had an NDE, which is one of my favorite episodes. The interview was good, as Rollye seemed to know the NDE subject pretty well. I'll endorse a follow up guest hosting appearance for her.

Of the episodes I didn't hear, I heard good things about last Saturday's Ian episode with Coleen Rowley, Michael German and Ray McGovern discussing the intelligence community. Also, Monday's interview with Konstantinos was said to be pretty good as well. It should be noted that this episode also featured a 1st hour pop-in from George Takei, leaving me to wonder which Star Trek cast members haven't been on C2C yet. (Shatner, I'd presume has not. Nimoy probably has.)

Other shows that filled out the week were Richard Moody Jr. on Tuesday to talk about earthquakes (no buzz on this one) and Sean David Morton (ugh) on Thursday to make "predictions" and pat himself on the back (with help from Noory).

Linda Moulton Howe and Open Lines were Friday and, on Saturday, Ian had Todd Standing on to discuss Bigfoot, in what was probably a pretty good episode.

The Week That Is

One other really good episode on tap for next week is Sunday night's show, which will be George Knapp interviewing John Lear. I expect this to be one of the better episodes of month, especially since with Knapp at the helm, it's unlikely that C2C can find a way to screw this up. Last year, Knapp hosted two of the best episodes of the year, so I suspect more of the same when he interviews John Lear tonight.

Monday sees Noory interviewing Dr. Charles Grob and Dr. Marilyn Schiltz about hallucinogenic substances. Could be good or boring as hell. Tuesday's guest is Lynn Marzulli discussing UFOs and the Bible. I'm sure Joe Vee is looking forward to that one. Wednesday is the Great UFO Debate II (sure to be excellent), Thursday is TBA (I'm predicting Ed Dames), and Friday is Open Lines.

Sunday and Wednesday are the keepers for the week, hands down.

Coming on Monday ...

C2C's Ouija Board Bait and Switch ... what little was good about it and all the stuff that was bad.

7.20.7 : binnall report preview

This week's binnall report will be posted tomorrow. I'm about 75% done with it, but want to be sure to give a good once over in the afternoon on Saturday before we put it up.

Here's a little preview of what we'll be talking about tomorrow ...

C2C's Art Bell Tribute Review :: The strong parts and negative parts of the festivus celebrating the creator of C2C. Which two guests "got it", which guest provided the most cringe worthy moment, the episodes unequivocal lowlight, thoughts on the "special topic line", the pacing of the three hours, and overall thoughts on where the episode sits in the pantheon of this year's shows.

C2C's Atomic Ouija Episode Preview :: A preview of the upcoming Coast to Coast AM "Ouija Board Experiment". The guest lineup, my confusion over what will be happening during the episode, two potential ways the show could play out, the esoteric backlash against the Ouija experiment episode and why we shouldn't just laugh at it, and the potential problems as a result of the episode.

Other C2C Stuffs :: A look @ the past week's shows (that I missed), a preview of next week's shows, and a look at the new C2C nostalgia spin off "Art Bell : Somewhere in Time".

End Notes :: Plugs for upcoming BoA material, maybe a preview for next week, and other stuff.

7.16.7 : Larry King's UFO Special

The Larry King portion of this week's binnall report ...

If you missed it, Larry King had his once-every-three-years UFO special on Friday night. LK featured a bevy of esoteric talking heads, including Stan Friedman, Jesse Marcel Jr., James Fox, Michael Shermer, Buzz Aldrin, Fife Symington, and, drumroll please, George "The Noor" Noory. You can find a transcript of the festivus HERE. Be forewarned that the transcript is awful and riddled with quotes being attributed to "Unidentified Male", which is actually indicative of the episode, itself, as it was a total clusterfuck, full of crosstalk, especially after esoterica's resident douche bag Michael Shermer showed up.

Running through stuff I saw that stood out to me ... Friedman, Marcel Jr., and Julie Shuster, on location in Roswell, kicked off the show to talk about Roswell. I want to hope and believe that Shuster's placement was a decision on the part of the program, and not her, as she was seated in front of a prop alien being lit by a strobe light (seriously). Wow. Way to denigrate Walter Haut's deathbed confession. Whoever thought that alien prop was a good idea for a background piece ought to be swiftly kicked in the grundel.

Also, Larry couldn't seem to get his act together with the cameramen, as he'd hold up a picture or a newspaper headline for the camera and it would take a good 3 minutes or so for the shot to change. It was cable access bad.

I actually changed the channel for a while and when I came back, James Fox and Michael Shermer were on with Friedman and Marcel. Shermer brought some toy aliens to, ostensibly, shit all over Ufology. He and Friedman were really going at it a few times during the show, which served as the lone highlights of the evening. Shermer would ramble on and talk out of his ass and make bold proclamations and then when Friedman would try and rebut his nonsense, he'd talk all over Friedman's response. He also kept dropping the term "probe", as an additional little dig at the UFO folks (what a clown shoe).

I missed Noory's grand entrance, but it looks like he and Larry only really exchanged pleasantries and spoke for probably less than two minutes. Larry did ask the hilarious and pertinent question of "what percentage [of C2C callers] are Kookyville ?" Noory estimated it to be ten percent. I'd say it is more like 33 to 40 percent, though I'm also including outright morons in that equation. (And let's not even start discussing potential Kookyville residents amongst the guests, the "science advisor", and Dr. Morgus.) I was fortunate enough to watch the show with a friend of mine, who is not a harcore esoteric cretin like me. His reaction to Noory was, "Is he wearing a wig ?" I had to explain The Noor's unfortunate reliance on a strange combination of "Just for Men" and shoe polish for his hair coloring needs.

We flipped back over to the show for the final 15 minutes and it just resembled a disaster scene. For starters, they mashed Larry King, Buzz Aldrin, Marcel Jr., Friedman, Shermer, Fox, Symington, and Noory around one table. Poor Stanton was so squeezed out, it looked like he was seated in the coat room. Everything ground to a halt as Buzz Aldrin rambled on endlessly, complete with a cheesy model, to tell some story that never really went anywhere. No one seemed to have a clue what he was talking about, including the folks who put up the graphics, and it ate up the bulk of the time I was watching at the end.

At the close, the final verdict was that Buzz and Shermer were anti-UFO, Friedman and the rest were pro-UFO. James Fox also embarrassingly just pimped his movie non-stop throughout the show and was the picture perfect cliche of the UFO guy with something to sell. (I will give him subversive kudos for managing to get on both this show and Nightline in the past week to schill his movie.)

All in all, it was an interesting hour, more so for the interpersonal dynamics of the show than the actual content. Way too many guests were featured and they could have done without Marcel, Shuster, Fox, and Noory and made for a much better showcase of views. Hell, a straight up Friedman v. Shermer episode would have been boffo. The lack of focus really became a hindrance as they tried to cover Roswell, Phoenix Lights, UFOs in general, and Buzz Aldrin into a 40 minute show replete with 8 or so guests and their requisite intros, outros, and ass kissing.

For all the people who appreciate any mainstream publicity for Ufology that they can get, I suppose it was a good thing. But I've a feeling this was yet another lateral step and that in two or three years, half of these faces and some new ones will return to Larry King and rehash the same conversation once again. The UFO topic should be a monthly one on King (and other programs), but will, sadly, instead be relegated to mothballs until the next flap or anniversary of note.

7.12.7 : She's gone.

C2C Coastriders forum ...

Time of Death : Approx. 6:55 PM (EST)

http://coast.premiereinteractive.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21214&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=2520

God speed, my sweet dear.

One era ends, a new one begins.

Hope to see you all @ www.theusofe.com

7.6.7 : C2C to shut down Coastriders forum

I received this e-mail today ...

Dear Coast Riders Member,

We're happy to announce a new daily Coast to Coast email newsletter, which will provide handy recaps, show info, and special audio links, to keep you updated on the show while you're on the go. In order to redirect our resources for this soon-to-launch project, we're closing the Coast Riders Message Board effective Thursday July 12th, 2007. This advance notice is being provided in order for you to save posts and information, and if you like migrate them to another system. Thank you for your participation in the board, which over the years has produced much spirited conversation. We look forward to communicating with you via our exciting new e-newsletter.

Sincerely,
Lex Lonehood
on behalf of CoasttoCoastam.com & Premiere Interactive Services

I'm stunned and saddened. The animated picture above pretty much sums up my point of view, with me (and the rest of the Coastriders) being the midget.

I had plans for this week's binnall report, but they've gone flying out the window (also much like the midget above).

You see, back in October of 2004, I started writing "the binnall report" on the Streamlink message board (back before it became "The Coastriders". From there, BoA was developed and grew up out of my work covering C2C. Eventually, BoA became it's own entity, but I always thought of the Streamlink forum like the old coffee hangout I used to have in high school. And now it's closing down.

I've started writing my reaction to this sad news, but I want to sleep on it, for now, as I'm going throught the five stages of grief over this and it's best to stop and catch my breath a bit. Things are much too crazy as this story just broke hours ago and I've been following the fallout on about 4 different message boards. Plus I wanted to talk about Art Bell retiring and Ian Punnett's show being folded and there won't be time for that @ 2 AM.

So ... binnall report to be posted tomorrow with an in-depth reaction to the C2C Coastrider message board being terminated, plus other stuff, of course.

God speed, Coastrider board. You were the birthplace of BoA and you will be missed.