[meteorite-list] re "Meteorite Man" UK TV program

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From: STUARTATK_at_aol.com <STUARTATK_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:35 2004
Message-ID: <a5.124bc201.27d1384f_at_aol.com>

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Hi all,

Thought List members might be interested to hear a bit more about last
night's meteorote-related TV program, as mentioned earlier this week by
myself and Rob.

I'm sure Rob will agree with me that it was a quite bizarre little
documentary! In shaky handicam Blair Witch style it basically followed a trip
by the "meteorite man", Andy (never heard a surname, maybe Rob will know) to
Morocco in search of Saharan meteorites, and his later efforts to sell his
finds in Paris.

The doc opened before the Morocco trip, with Andy standing outside a shop in
Paris, waiting for it to open. The shop was called "Galerie Alain Carion",
and inside Andy met with "The biggest meteorite dealer in Europe," Alain
Carion, who sat him down and examined some specimens he'd brought with him.
Didn't see anything he really liked, but agreed he would look at any other
pieces Andy found after his trip to the desert, then - after telling Andy no,
he'd never heard of his Moroccan contact "Idris" - took Andy downstairs to
his storage area, to show him some of his collection, including a huge thin
slab of gorgeously-polished Esquel.

Scene 2, and after arriving in Morocco, Andy spends a frustrating evening on
the phone trying to get in touch with the mysterious Idris. No luck, but he
is given another dealer to check-out, an "Ali"...

Scene 3, and Andy arrives in Zagora and after a solo piece to camera
describing the elusive Idris as "untrustworthy" and worse, the aforementioned
Moroccan appears at his car window. Idris is short, has tight permed hair,
and laughs like a hyena, I'm not kidding. Andy's travelling partner - never
seen on cmera - asks Andy what he thinks of Idris. "He makes me sick, to be
honest, but he's the best meteorite hunter in the Sahara, so.." Andy
recounts how his last deep-desert "hunt" with Idris was a nightmare; at one
point he and his companion "Joel" feared for their lives and were ready to
jump Idris and his friend, but they got back okay. Andy and Idris agree to a
pre-expedition meeting later that evening... but Idris fails to show, leaving
Andy to watch a lunar eclipse alone.

Scene 4: Next morning Andy decides to go and find Idris at his shop, and when
he gets there he is shown inside and is offered a large number of specimens
for examination. Some are clearly just rocks, others are possibles. There's a
lot of examination, weighing, banter and haggling (At one point Andy
expresses interest in buying one stone from a collection of several, and
Idris is not happy: "Why you choose? Mike Farmer buy whole bag! Whole bag!!"
! ) Eventually Andy buys several specimens, though he's not 100% sure if
they're real meteorites, and leaves, ready to go to his second meeting, with
"Ali". Only thing is, Ali lives 200 miles away, so Andy has to take a long
drive thru the desert... but that's okay, cos he's heard reports of a "fall"
in the area, so he figures he can check out the site along the way...

When he gets to the "fall site" he has a look around with his metal detector,
and finds some interesting-looking rocks, which are dark, and make his
detector ping, but it's an iron ore area apparently, and the dark coating, he
thinks, is just wind damage and "desert varnish". But he collects a few
anyway, figuring he can get someone to check them out later.

Scene 5: A sleep-ruffled Andy lies in bed, reading a battered copy of "Rocks
>From Space", planning the day ahead, which basically involves finding "Ali"
and seeing what he has to offer. Ali greets him at his bazaar shop - v roomy
and airy inside, unlike Idris' cat-swinging-impossible-here shop back in
Zagora - and agrees to look at Andy's finds. Ali examines them all VERY
closely, but isn't impressed, buys nothing, and suddenly can hardly speak a
word of ENglish, either... but he agrees that yes, he will look at any rocks
Andy finds out in the desert later.

Scene 6: Andy speeds off into the deep, orange Saharan desert in his Range
Rover, to meet up with a nomad called "Achmed" (I'm not making this up, I
promise!). But when he arrives at the agreed meeting place Andy gets the car
stuck in a deep sand drift, right up to its wheel arches, so all he can do is
wait for Achmed to arrive. The nomad duly appears out of the desert... on a
motorbike, well, walking alongside his motorbike... and spreads out a
collection of rocks on Andy's beached car's bonnet. Again, some look like
just rocks... couple of fossils in there too... but a few look reasonable, so
Andy buys them. Achmed takes off into the desert again, wheels spinning...
leaving Andy still stranded with his car. With no help in sight, Andy decides
to walk back to town, and come back the next day with help, if he can find
it. Luckily he can, and the next morning several townspeople accompany him
back to the car, and help him get it unstuck. Andy, obviously sick of dealing
with the likes of Idris and Ali, decides to deputise his new friends as
meteorite hunters, and shows them pictures in books, and also demonstrates
how magnets are attracted to meteorites. The nomads look at him as if he's
crazy, but agree to help him look the next day.

Scene 7: Andy is back at Ali's shop, and offers the dealer the specimens he
has found (if his deputies found any isn't revealed). Ali isn't interested
very much, but offers Andy some of *his* rocks instead. Andy examines them,
and while most are quickly discarded one catches his eye, an apple-sized
chunk of dark, glassy rock with a brownish-green tone. Even before he says so
in the voice-over, Andy is clearly thinking "Martian!!!" and seeing dollar
signs before his eyes, so after much to-ing and fro-ing he buys the riock and
begins his trip home, with Ali's sincere assurances that if the rock is *not*
a meteorite he will buy it back from him ringing in his ears...

Scene 8: Paris, Alain Carion's shop. Andy and Mr Carion are hunched over a
desk lamp, examinging the specimens Andy has collected / bought in Morocco.
Mr Carion quickly tosses the first few aside, confidently dismissing them in
tirn as "rock... just a rock..." confirming Andy's suspicions that the dark
surface material is desert weathering and varnish and not fusion crust. Andy
then hands over his "Mars meteorite", and waits for the verdict. "A rock," Mr
Carion declares, as confident as before. Andy tells him that Ali promised him
he would buy the rock back if it wasn't a real meteorite. Mr Carion falls
about laughing. I can't speak French, but I suspect what he said inbetween
guffaws was something along the lines of "Yeah, right..." ;-)

However, Andy's trip hasn't been in vain, because as the documentary ends Mr
Carion is on the phone arranging for one of ANdy's other specimens to be
analysed properly. Turns out that it's a rare howardite. Ironically, as Andy
points out to the camera, the howardite is one of the rocks sold to him by
Idris... so the guy he trusted least of all is the only one who has come up
with the goods.

Program ends...

... and that was it, really. Interesting stuff, with references to the shows
at Tucson and Denver... lots of lovely desert scenery shots, and some
heart-stoppingly big specimens seen in Mr Carion's downstairs room.

Lastly, in the immediate aftermath of yesterday's "meteor wrong" story about
a witnessed fall in York that turned out to be an exploding underground
cable, I was interviewed on my local radio station to talk briefly about
meteorites. The reported asked me, alarmed, "Does this sort of thing happen a
lot? Will it happen again? Should we be keeping our heads down?" I was *so*
tempted to say yes... but I did the right thing and reassured her.

Regards from a sparklingly-frosty UK!

Stu

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<HTML>Hi all,
 
 Thought List members might be interested to hear a bit more about last
 night's meteorote-related TV program, as mentioned earlier this week by
 myself and Rob.
 
 I'm sure Rob will agree with me that it was a quite bizarre little
 documentary! In shaky handicam Blair Witch style it basically followed a trip
 by the "meteorite man", Andy (never heard a surname, maybe Rob will know) to
 Morocco in search of Saharan meteorites, and his later efforts to sell his
 finds in Paris.
 
 The doc opened before the Morocco trip, with Andy standing outside a shop in
 Paris, waiting for it to open. The shop was called "Galerie Alain Carion",
 and inside Andy met with "The biggest meteorite dealer in Europe," Alain
 Carion, who sat him down and examined some specimens he'd brought with him.
 Didn't see anything he really liked, but agreed he would look at any other
 pieces Andy found after his trip to the desert, then - after telling Andy no,
 he'd never heard of his Moroccan contact "Idris" -  took Andy downstairs to
 his storage area, to show him some of his collection, including a huge thin
 slab of gorgeously-polished Esquel.
 
 Scene 2, and after arriving in Morocco, Andy spends a frustrating evening on
 the phone trying to get in touch with the mysterious Idris. No luck, but he
 is given another dealer to check-out, an "Ali"...
 
 Scene 3, and Andy arrives in Zagora and after a solo piece to camera
 describing the elusive Idris as "untrustworthy" and worse, the aforementioned
 Moroccan appears at his car window. Idris is short, has tight permed hair,
 and laughs like a hyena, I'm not kidding. Andy's travelling partner - never
 seen on cmera - asks Andy what he thinks of Idris. "He makes me sick, to be
 honest, but he's the best meteorite hunter in the Sahara, so.."  Andy
 recounts how his last deep-desert "hunt" with Idris was a nightmare; at one
 point he and his companion "Joel" feared for their lives and were ready to
 jump Idris and his friend, but they got back okay. Andy and Idris agree to a
 pre-expedition meeting later that evening... but Idris fails to show, leaving
 Andy to watch a lunar eclipse alone.
 
 Scene 4: Next morning Andy decides to go and find Idris at his shop, and when
 he gets there he is shown inside and is offered a large number of specimens
 for examination. Some are clearly just rocks, others are possibles. There's a
 lot of examination, weighing, banter and haggling  (At one point Andy
 expresses interest in buying one stone from a collection of several, and
 Idris is not happy: "Why you choose? Mike Farmer buy whole bag! Whole bag!!"
 ! ) Eventually Andy buys several specimens, though he's not 100% sure if
 they're real meteorites, and leaves, ready to go to his second meeting, with
 "Ali". Only thing is, Ali lives 200 miles away, so Andy has to take a long
 drive thru the desert... but that's okay, cos he's heard reports of a "fall"
 in the area, so he figures he can check out the site along the way...
 
 When he gets to the "fall site" he has a look around with his metal detector,
 and finds some interesting-looking rocks, which are dark, and make his
 detector ping, but it's an iron ore area apparently, and the dark coating, he
 thinks, is just wind damage and "desert varnish". But he collects a few
 anyway, figuring he can get someone to check them out later.
 
 Scene 5: A sleep-ruffled Andy lies in bed, reading a battered copy of "Rocks
 From Space", planning the day ahead, which basically involves finding "Ali"
 and seeing what he has to offer. Ali greets him at his bazaar shop - v roomy
 and airy inside, unlike Idris' cat-swinging-impossible-here shop back in
 Zagora - and agrees to look at Andy's finds. Ali examines them all VERY
 closely, but isn't impressed, buys nothing, and suddenly can hardly speak a
 word of ENglish, either... but he agrees that yes, he will look at any rocks
 Andy finds out in the desert later.
 
 Scene 6: Andy speeds off into the deep, orange Saharan desert in his Range
 Rover, to meet up with a nomad called "Achmed" (I'm not making this up, I
 promise!). But when he arrives at the agreed meeting place Andy gets the car
 stuck in a deep sand drift, right up to its wheel arches, so all he can do is
 wait for Achmed to arrive. The nomad duly appears out of the desert... on a
 motorbike, well, walking alongside his motorbike... and spreads out a
 collection of rocks on Andy's beached car's bonnet. Again, some look like
 just rocks... couple of fossils in there too... but a few look reasonable, so
 Andy buys them. Achmed takes off into the desert again, wheels spinning...
 leaving Andy still stranded with his car. With no help in sight, Andy decides
 to walk back to town, and come back the next day with help, if he can find
 it. Luckily he can, and the next morning several townspeople accompany him
 back to the car, and help him get it unstuck. Andy, obviously sick of dealing
 with the likes of Idris and Ali, decides to deputise his new friends as
 meteorite hunters, and shows them pictures in books, and also demonstrates
 how magnets are attracted to meteorites. The nomads look at him as if he's
 crazy, but agree to help him look the next day.
 
 Scene 7: Andy is back at Ali's shop, and offers the dealer the specimens he
 has found (if his deputies found any isn't revealed). Ali isn't interested
 very much, but offers Andy some of *his* rocks instead. Andy examines them,
 and while most are quickly discarded one catches his eye, an apple-sized
 chunk of dark, glassy rock with a brownish-green tone. Even before he says so
 in the voice-over, Andy is clearly thinking "Martian!!!" and seeing dollar
 signs before his eyes, so after much to-ing and fro-ing he buys the riock and
 begins his trip home, with Ali's sincere assurances that if the rock is *not*
 a meteorite he will buy it back from him ringing in his ears...
 
 Scene 8: Paris, Alain Carion's shop. Andy and Mr Carion are hunched over a
 desk lamp, examinging the specimens Andy has collected / bought in Morocco.
 Mr Carion quickly tosses the first few aside, confidently dismissing them in
 tirn as "rock... just a rock..." confirming Andy's suspicions that the dark
 surface material is desert weathering and varnish and not fusion crust. Andy
 then hands over his "Mars meteorite", and waits for the verdict. "A rock," Mr
 Carion declares, as confident as before. Andy tells him that Ali promised him
 he would buy the rock back if it wasn't a real meteorite. Mr Carion falls
 about laughing. I can't speak French, but I suspect what he said inbetween
 guffaws was something along the lines of "Yeah, right..." ;-)
 
 However, Andy's trip hasn't been in vain, because  as the documentary ends Mr
 Carion is on the phone arranging for one of ANdy's other specimens to be
 analysed properly. Turns out that it's a rare howardite. Ironically, as Andy
 points out to the camera, the howardite is one of the rocks sold to him by
 Idris... so the guy he trusted least of all is the only one who has come up
 with the goods.
 
 Program ends...
 
 ... and that was it, really. Interesting stuff, with references to the shows
 at Tucson and Denver... lots of lovely desert scenery shots, and some
 heart-stoppingly big specimens seen in Mr Carion's downstairs room.
 
 Lastly, in the immediate aftermath of yesterday's "meteor wrong" story about
 a witnessed fall in York that turned out to be an exploding underground
 cable, I was interviewed on my local radio station to talk briefly about
 meteorites. The reported asked me, alarmed, "Does this sort of thing happen a
 lot? Will it happen again? Should we be keeping our heads down?" I was *so*
 tempted to say yes... but I did the right thing and reassured her.
 
 Regards from a sparklingly-frosty UK!
 
 Stu </HTML>

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Received on Fri 02 Mar 2001 12:54:23 PM PST

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