9.23.7 : binnall report

Ah, yes, I have already abandoned "binnall thoughts" in favor of returning to the classic name "binnall report". We just have too large an archive of "tbr" to switch over to a whole new name for essentially the same column.

A little of this and a little of that in this week's column. I'll start rolling out some serious info on BoA : Audio : Season III, we'll talk about Jaques Vallee finally showing up on C2C, Art Bell returning to guest host Coast, and my various Pop Culture thoughts for the week just past.

BoA : Audio, Season III is coming

To be more precise, BoA : Audio, Season III will be premiering on 10.20.7, a little less than a month from today. I'm happy to report that our season premiere guest will be, as always, the venerable Jim Marrs. Of course, I'll have a full preview of the interview as we get closer to the premiere, but the gist of it a lengthy discussion on the re-issue of Jim's book "Psi Spies", which details the US Army's remote viewing program. Along with that, we'll find out Jim's thoughts on the past year in Ufology and 911 research and where both fields seem to be heading.

I've already taped another interview and have several waiting to be scheduled. We're hopeful to have the bulk of 2007's interviews taped before the premiere episode, which should make it easier to produce the show this season. Also, the official logo for Season III will be unveiled sometime around the beginning of October.

Along the lines of guests, I am pulling out a call to any hardcore BoA : Audio listeners to chime in now with your request for returning BoA : Audio guests. We've featured around 50 different esoteric minds on the show, ranging from up-and-comers to bonafide legends. But the question is, who do you to see back on BoA : Audio ? Drop me a line and let me know, as we fine tune the guest list for Season III.

So ... 10.20.2007 ... BoA : Audio, Season III begins with Jim Marrs talking about Psi Spies.

I Want My Jaques Vallee

There was enormous buzz all last week over the re-emergence of Jaques Valle on the esoteric scene with his appearance on Coast to Coast on Monday night. Many websites, that normally gloss over C2C's fare, made a special point of posting news of this big interview. Kudos to C2C for, finally getting some positive buzz out of the hardcore esoteric community. After a Summer that included a disappointing Roswell episode, the infamous Ouija Board debacle, Art Bell "retiring", and six Jerome Corsi appearances, this was a welcome change of pace.

Of course, it wouldn't be C2C without them putting their unique "spin" on the evening, as Vallee was only the solo guest for the first hour of the interview and then was joined by Paul Smith for the rest of the night. The bulk of the discussion with both guests centered around Remote Viewing, so the much anticipated "Vallee on Ufology" topic was tragically cut short. I can't blame Coast for this one, though, as I suspect that Smith probably played a hand in getting Vallee on the show and it does appear that Vallee is more interested in RV than UFOs nowadays.

Regardless of that, the night was so good that my only real quibble lies in the fact that Vallee sounded so much like Dr. Louis Turi that it was distracting. Obviously, we must blame Louis Turi for this. Somewhere in the last 10 years, during Vallee's self imposed Ufological exile, Turi swooped into the "plucky Frenchman" gimmick in esoterica. It's disgraceful and I demand that Turi drop the French accent if Vallee plans on staying in esoterica and doing interviews again.

That first hour was radio majic and Noory did a fine job during the interview, to the point that I can't think of any Noory blunders to poke fun at him about. The rest of the night was also quite good. Vallee had a unique air about him, in that everything he said carried a lot of weight. C2C media whores Richard C. Hoagland and Jerome Corsi could learn a thing or two from the near hysteria that Vallee's appearance caused.

I'm not sure what came out of the interview, regarding Vallee's retirement situation (i.e if it is coming to an end or not). Let's hope that he decides to stick around for a while. The esoteric media has changed and there are many places that would like to have a good chin wag with the esoteric icon.

Bell Returns ... Again

Okay ... who had "99 days" as their pick in the Art Bell Un-Retiring Pool ?

That's right, the mysterious and reassuring creator of C2C, Art Bell will be back from his self-imposed exile on Friday night (9.28) as he guest hosts for The Noor and interviews Graham Hancock. I'm not sure what caused this impromptu guest host appearance for Bell, though the 4th Friday of every month is Ian Punnett's "Mr. Belvedere Fan Club" meeting. Anything that bumps out Noory-hosted Friday night Open Lines is alright by me.

Hopefully this news of Bell's guest hosting spot will help to settle down some of the fervor that his surprising re-re-re-retirement caused in early July. I'm just wondering how many of the guests that Coast trotted out for the "Art Bell Tribute" feel just a wee bit silly, since he will manage to host yet another episode less than 100 days since the tribute. I know I'd be pissed if I worked at Premiere and chipped in $5 for a "Thanks for the Memories" ice cream cake.

Don't get all excited that Bell will be hosting C2C on any kind of regular basis, though. For starters, George Knapp just announced last weekend that he'd be hosting Coast every 3rd Sunday of the month and I wouldn't be surprised if Rollye James is penciled in for some kind of similar deal. With the folding of "Ian" and the creation of "Time Fishing with Art Bell" (or whatever they are calling that archive show), it's highly doubtful that C2C would undergo the logistical nightmare of Bell coming back to do weekends as he did for the past few years. I suspect the earliest we'll see him after Friday will be in late October for Ghost to Ghost.

Be that as it may, mark down the return of Bell as yet another step forward by the critically challenged C2C. First they manage to convince Vallee to appear and then they bring Bell back for a one night shot. Could we be seeing a turnaround @ C2C ? Stay tuned.

End Notes & Pop Culture Thoughts

Next week, I'll preview the Mass Monster Mash, which I hope to be attending in early October. I'll also talk a bit about what I like so far during this new Fall TV season, including the return of Heroes and the debut of Kid Nation. Plus, we'll discuss Art Bell's C2C return. And, of course, other esoteric hijinks.

A look @ my scorecard from last week's Emmy picks ... 2 out of 13. Ouch. I really should get credit for two more, since I wanted to pick Katherine Heigel, but instead picked "don't care". Also, Lost's Terry O'Quinn winning was really close to my pick of Lost's Michael Emerson. So let's call it 4 out of 13, with an asterik.

One prediction that I did make that panned out was the victory by Evel Dick on Big Brother 8. My favorite characters always get eliminated between 5th and 3rd on these shows, so finally seeing my favorite win was entertaining as hell. Congrats to Evel Dick for winning and putting on a hell of a show all Summer.

Quickly now, my pick for Survivor : China is the gay flight attendant or the NYC waitress (if she can get her act together). There, we have it on the record.

Till next week.
TB

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.

Noory / binnall Summit

(Excerpted from this week's binnall report)

Yes, kids, it happened.

So, I was in San Diego from 12.14 to 12.28 and, during my visit, none other than George "The Noor" Noory was also in town for a "Worker in the Light" book signing.

Keeping the details to a minimum, suffice it to say, there was a decent sized audience of creepy to not-quite-so creepy Coast fans in attendance to meet and greet with The Noor. After a brief Q & A period, featuring such gems as "Where did you come from ?" and "Thank you for the bumper music." (That's not even a question, sir), Noory got around to signing books. During the Q & A, I wanted to stand up and ask Noory an actually relevant question, but I was afraid of being bludgeoned to death by a horde of angry Nooryheads.

Following a lengthy and surreal wait in line, which saw me meeting someone who is apparently a BoA : Audio listener and taking a pic with him. (Yes, I'm a quasi-celebrity now. I can die in peace.) I finally met The Noor.

Think of Ralphie from a Christmas Story after he finally gets up there to meet Santa. What does one say to a Nighthawk ? Well, first I told him my name. Then, he just about jumped out his chair and yelped, "Tim Binnall !" in his trademark Noory "excited" style. Apparently, he knows of binnall. That exchange ranks up there with some of the strangest experiences of my life. I wasn't quite sure what to say after that, but we gabbed for a brief moment while the Nooryheads behind me in line cursed my name for taking so long. And then I was whisked off, away from the rarefied air that surrounded the leather jacket clad Noor.

I wouldn't be surprised to see our talks continue with a follow up Noory / binnall summit sometime in 2007.