[meteorite-list] Tucson 2001 Web Pages Are Up + Show Report

From: geoking_at_notkin.net <geoking_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:09 2004
Message-ID: <v04220800b6ad0ff4ab7d_at_[63.25.170.70]>

Greetings Dear Listees:

Whew! It took me a few days to recover from the Tucson 2001 show : )
Between the birthday party, the other parties, the auctions, the
barbecues, taking 200+ photos, a day trip out into the Catalina
Mountains, a day trip up to Phoenix to visit A.S.U., and catching up
with friends from all over the world, I hardly had time to buy
anything. And I stayed for ten days this year.

I've uploaded the "best of" pics to my web site, and written some
captions, so please take a look:

http://www.notkin.net/tucson.htm

Thanks to the multitude of Meteorite List members who joined us for
the annual Notkin/Arnold birthday party at El Charro on Feb. 1 (see
link, above, for pics). We love El Charro, and it has to be one of
the best Mexican restaurants on the face of the earth, but we've
grown too big for them, and next year we're going to have to move the
party to larger quarters. Steve Arnold and I booked two function
rooms for this year's party, and we immediately spilled over into two
more, and were still cramped. It was a great night, and Steve and I
very much enjoyed the opportunity to see old pals and meet new ones.
We'll just make sure that we have a little more breathing space next
year.

The weather was mostly fine, and the social calendar extremely full.
I kept meaning to take a day off to sit by the hotel pool and read
but I didn't ever get around to that. Great hospitality was provided
by many professionals, but especially the Reed brothers; Iris & Allan
Lang and Zarko Ljuboja; Jim Kriegh; Twink & Larry Monrad; Darryl Pitt
& Steve Schoner; the Jensen brothers; Michael Cottingham; Mike "the
wine" Martinez; Anne Black; Bruno Fectay & Carinne Bidaut; the very
festive and very large Russian contingent, particularly Ivan Koutyrev
& Vladimir Stepakov (with whom many a cocktail was consumed), and
Sergei & Vitaly. Some sort of dinner/gathering/party took place every
night, and I must have absorbed a year's worth of meteorite-related
discussion in a little over a week . . . not to mention the vodka.

A highlight for me was meeting the legendary meteorite hunter Steve
Schoner, especially since I'd just written an article about him for
the Feb. 2001 "Meteorite." I recognized him instantly, walked up and
introduced myself as "your biographer" : ) Dressed in a suit,
while assisting Darryl Pitt with the Sunday auction, Steve was
definitely best-dressed man in town.

Some dealers said business was "a little slow" this year, but at
least two told me that it was their "best Tucson ever." However you
cut it, deals were being made all over the place -- and nearly 24
hours a day -- with everything from 20 cent/g Sahara frags to
$1,000/gram+ Moon and Mars rocks on (and under) the tables. One of
just about every kind of weird and unusual meteorite seems to have
come out of the Sahara over the past year, so there was much of
interest for rare type collectors. It seemed like a good year for
stones all around, while Gibeons were even scarcer than last year,
and my favorite Sikhote-Alins were slightly up in price. Very few of
the old standard Canyon Diablos and Odessas were about, but several
dealers had large Chinga irons and Nantans. Several Moroccan dealers
who used to specialize in fossils now carry a modest selection of
stone meteorites, so if the classification issue doesn't bother you,
it's possible to find lovely crusted stones at a reasonable price.

Dorothy and Richard Norton were in town, with an attractive limited
edition hardback of their "Rocks from Space" (second edition), which
will be most desirable for serious book collectors . . . and there
were about 100 other cool things to boot, but this is probably long
enough for one post.

The only bad part about it all was coming back to 28 degrees in
NY/NJ. Oh well . . . only a few months 'til Denver.

Regards to all,

Geoff N.

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Geoffrey Notkin
Senior Art Director
Stanegate Studios, USA
P.O. Box 87, Jersey City, NJ 07303

Telephone: (201) 435-8888
Fax: (201) 946-1199

Email: geoking_at_notkin.net ammonite@aol.com
Web: www.notkin.net

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Received on Mon 12 Feb 2001 12:43:14 AM PST