Why do you listen?

[tertiaryimam]

Is it pure entertainment, and you don't really buy any of it?

is it to find "the truth"?

a little bit of both?

nostalgia?

When I first started listening to bell I believed probably every show. But I was 10. Ed dames was the guy who snapped me into reality. But, of course, art advertized for him big time, and I know art had to know it was all bullshit. It makes me also wonder what art is in it for. It's not for "truth". And it can't be for "money", at this point, I'd say. Hmmmmm.

[NefariousBanana]

Entertainment and nostalgia.

[DanTSX]

I enjoy the differing and conflicting viewpoints.  It is a unique format that is closer to home some nights than others.

[3OctaveFart]

I worked second shift and I appreciated its will to be weird.

That's sort of the problem now - it's not weird anymore.

[Centurion40]

Is it pure entertainment, and you don't really buy any of it?

is it to find "the truth"?

a little bit of both?

nostalgia?

When I first started listening to bell I believed probably every show. But I was 10. Ed dames was the guy who snapped me into reality. But, of course, art advertized for him big time, and I know art had to know it was all bullshit. It makes me also wonder what art is in it for. It's not for "truth". And it can't be for "money", at this point, I'd say. Hmmmmm.

Bit of both really.  It's titillating entertainment, gets the pulse up and the mind wandering. 

[Wintermute]

Reminds me of late-night undergrad days in the early 1990's. Was good to hear something similar again.

Today, the problem is that everyone is much smarter. The crack-pot guests really stick out. We all have much better bullshit detectors so people like John Leir and "witches" and "ghost hunters" are all sort of uninteresting.

So entertainment-wise... Dark Matter wasn't great for me. The CIA guy was the best guest Art had, and I was pretty pumped after that show. Finally had the feeling that Art Bell and the show were going to make it.

I had SiriusXM in one of my cars, so the actual outlay was just haggling to get free streaming out of them. I have nothing invested and was just happy to hear Art on the air again. In the back of my mind I wondered "how long can a 68yr old actually do night-time radio". I thought maybe 2 years, but it turns out the limit was 6 weeks. Who knew?

[UrbanFool]

I never get the ghost hunters and EVPs. I don't trust anything where someone has to convince me what I'm hearing. (Or seeing, as in the case of Hoagland.) My favorite person this past 6 weeks was Faddis. That was really awesome, but I wish he'd have elaborated on whether he thought Tom Clancy was murdered or not... he really skated over that one as if he hadn't even heard the news.

[West of the Rockies]

This basic question has been posed multiple times here... for me, it comes down to feeling like a kid again around the campfire at night.  It's fun to feel a little spooked, to ponder things "outside the norm"...  I rarely find any of the guests especially convincing, but compelling? -- often!  It's a mix of entertainment and information, with the scales tipped pretty heavily towards "entertainment".

[tertiaryimam]

In my case, I grew up listening to art. I sincerely believed in every guest at first. But I was 10, 11, 12, 13 until I started to figure some of it was bull. Its nostalgia, really, I've come to realize. Though I did like the new show, there was something that just wasn't the same. Perhaps it was just me.

This brings me to another question I must ask myself: of all art's regular guests, are there any I take seriously?

I think Terence McKenna was sincere, although I don't really take what he said all that seriously. He wasn't a huckster, I believe.
Robert Anton Wilson's cool, but he wasn't on that much.
All the quantum physicists and such are ok, too, but they really weren't there for anything too paranormal. Other than quantum realities.
John Mack, I think, was sincere but deluded.

Whitley Strieber is still an enigma to me. I have a hunch he may believe what he's saying, but be quite deluded nonetheless.
The foot doctor guy (Leir is it?) seems like a crank, especially after the whole Farrakhan thing. But I believed he was fairly sincere for many years.

But, wait, I'm talking about who I take seriously. Hmmmng.

I'm drawing a big goddamn blank.

Gary North kicked ass. I take that guy seriously.

[UrbanFool]

Leonard Nemoy was awesome but that should've been a lot longer.

[tertiaryimam]

Leonard Nemoy was awesome but that should've been a lot longer.

One thing that strikes is me is that vast majority of guests on art bell --- at least the regulars --- were full of it.

Does this mean the "paranormal" field, itself, is full of it? Or that there are some genuine researchers but they get glossed over, for whatever reason?

Hmmmng.

[walkindude]

Totally for the entertainment value.
A co worker turned me on to the show in like '96 or '97 when we weren't supposed to have radios in the shop!
It turns the monotony of working third shift into something bearable!

To me, it is the perfect radio show. It encompasses most of the subjects I've been interested in since I was a young child, and  the greatest thing about radio is it forces you to use your imagination.
Also, Art is the perfect host for such a show.
His ability to ask the right question at the right time always impressed me. That, and it sounds like a conversation instead of an interrogation, like Coast does now.

[Booner]

The Soothing Sounds of Art's Voice are better than benzos and Vic's combined.

[robertc1]

I think coast is rubbing it in. I listened last night to snoory and all the bumper music was like a 1990's Art show.