Sunday, January 31, 2010

Tucson Gem Show – Let the excitement begin!

Well – I’m on the ground in Tucson – today is the opening day for several shows. This is the first thing I saw as I entered the Pueblo Show at the Riverpark Inn…

She knows how to find her way around the Tucson Gem Shows!

She knows how to find her way around the Tucson Gem Shows!
















Open and waiting to see your shining face are:

Madagascar Mineral’s Gem Show at the Norcross – Madagascar Gallery

ABC Direct East and ABC Direct West

1820 Oracle Wholesale Show - yes – it is at 1820 Oracle

African Art Village

Globe X Gem Show at the Days Inn

Granada Avenue Mineral Show

Howard Johnson Gem and Mineral Show at – you guessed it the Howard Johnson

JG&M Exposition – Michigan Street and Simpson Street

JOGS Gem and Jewelry Show at the Expo Center

La Quinta Gem & Mineral Show at…La Quinta Inn

Rapa River Gem & Mineral Show

Rock, Gem and Lapidary Show & the Main Ave. Mineral and Fossil Show at 1201 Main

Tucson Showplace

Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show at Mineral and Fossil Marketplace, Quality Inn and the Hotel Tucson City Center (formerly the InnSuites)

Executive Inn Mineral and Fossil Show at the Best Western

G&LW Tucson Gem Show at the Gem Mall and the Grant Inn

Mineral and Fossil Co-op

Pueblo Gem and Mineral Show at the Riverpark Inn

Tucson Electric Park Gem and Mineral Show

Tucson Electric Park RV Gem Show

American Indian Expo at the Flamingo Ballroom

Fine Minerals International

To Bead True Blue at the Doubletree Hotel

…for more info on these shows visit the Tucson EZ-Guide or pick up your copy at the shows.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

EZ-Guide Exclusive: The Meteorite Men

We want to give you a sneak preview of some of the exclusive articles in the Tucson EZ-Guide - first up Lisa Marie talks with the stars of the hit Science Channel show "Meteorite Men"...

Meteorite Men The Meteorite Men!

By Lisa Marie Morrison


Back in 1998, an unlikely duo met in Odessa, Texas to do a little meteorite hunting on the way to their first-ever visit to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows. Geoffrey Notkin and Steve Arnold had hunted together before, but they could not have expected that ten years later, they would be starring in their own cable network series. Nor could they have predicted the integral role the gem and mineral shows would play in the development of the show Meteorite Men.

In the interim years, Notkin and Arnold would develop reputations as world class meteorite hunters, collectors, and dealers; each establishing their own successful individual businesses. Geoffrey, who is also a widely published science writer, eventually moved to Tucson after becoming enchanted with the desert during his trips to the shows. Geoff and Steve continued to meet each other year after year at the gem and mineral shows and developed great friends and colleagues from within the international meteorite community.

In 2005, Steve Arnold unearthed a 1430-pound Brenham palasite meteorite from a wheat field in Kansas. The news media quickly picked up on the story of this historic find. Then in December 2007, while reading a feature article in the Los Angeles Times about Steve, Ruth Rivin (executive producer at the production company LMNO) recalled a similar clipping from a different periodical. Ruth, who also generates new show ideas for LMNO, contacted Geoff to ask if the pair would ever consider doing an ongoing television series about meteorite hunting. “Having filmed episodes of Cash & Treasuresand Wired Science, and enjoying the experience immensely, Steve and I had already worked up a series proposal,” Geoff recalls. “We were confident there was enough interesting content in the meteorite world to produce three or four seasons of a TV show.”


With the 2008 gem and mineral shows right around the corner, LMNO Productions decided to send Elizabeth Meeker to Tucson to shoot a demo reel. They filmed on location at the InnSuites in the room Geoff’s company shares with Anne Black of Impactika Meteorites and in the scenic foothills of the Tucson Mountains. A five-minute film reel from that day impressed LMNO Productions who signed an exclusive contract with Geoff and Steve.


The idea of a Meteorite Men series was shopped to a number of cable networks and in July of 2008, Science Channel expressed keen interest in the show. They ordered a one-hour special, and in May of 2009, “the pilot episode ofMeteorite Men, Science Channel brought viewers to the farm lands of Brenham, Kansas as Notkin and Arnold searched for pieces of a large meteorite that fell to earth thousands of years ago.” (Science Channel press release.) After airing, the show was picked up by the cable network for six one-hour episodes.


Geoff and Steve had been busy brainstorming ideas of where and with whom to film each episode. “We thought of all the people we’ve met or got to know better over the years at the gem and mineral shows,” Geoff recounts. “Friends and colleagues like Twink Monrad, Sonny Clary and Ruben Garcia. We thought of expert meteoriticists in the field such as Drs. Art Elhmann and Laurence Garvey, academics who could explain the complicated science of meteorites to the viewing public, and complement field guys like Steve and myself.”


The premier of Meteorite Men aired Wednesday, January 20, 2010. Science Channel will run one episode a week for six weeks. The first three episodes overlap the gem and mineral shows and the co-stars have screenings planned for friends and colleagues. “This is the first full TV series ever to combine meteorite hunting, adventure and science. We’re excited to share it with the world,” remarked Steve.


Filmed in and around the Tucson area, the premier episode follows the team’s search for the elusive Tucson Ring meteorite. Coming back full circle to that fateful gem show trip in 1998, the hosts return to the scene of the crime in Odessa, Texas for the second episode of the series. And a rare witnessed fireball in February 2009 over West Texas is the focus of the third episode. “In fact, it was February 15th, our last day of the 2009 gem show, while we were packing up the room at the InnSuites, that I heard about the fireball that would become the Ash Creek meteorite,” Geoff says. “In many ways our television series had its birthplace at the Tucson gem show.”


Both Geoff and Steve will participate as vendors this year at the Tucson gem and mineral shows. Notkin’s company Aerolite Meteorites holds court at the Hotel Tucson City Center (formerly the InnSuites) in room 230, where he will be displaying a wide assortment of meteorites and related collectables. And in another first, Steve will be in room 141 at the Riverpark Inn for the Pueblo Gem and Mineral Show offering the faceted extraterrestrial peridot gemstones found at one of the sites featured on the TV program. More information on the series can be found at www.meteoritemen.com and at twitter.com/meteoritemen.


Follow the Meteorite Men:

Facebook

Twitter


Reprinted with permission from the Tucson EZ-Guide and Xpopress

Tuesday, January 12, 2010


It is with great sadness that we report – via the RoskinGemReport Newsletter dated January 11, 2010:

Say Goodbye to Colored Stone Magazine

In a recent conversation with David Federman, Colored Stone Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, the magazine will soon be no more. David says this includes the print version, the on-line magazine, and the e-mail newsletters. It appeared as if the bi-weekly e-newsletter and on-line magazine were going to replace the print version, but obviously that was a wrong assumption on our part.

——————————–

There has been no info from the Colored Stone website…Colored Stone/Interweave are the producers of the massive Tucson Show Guide

We have no idea at this time how this will affect the Guide.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Come and see the shows...


We love the Gem Shows and Swap Meets - but there is a lot going on in Quartzsite! the Chamber lists these events - from an Author's Fair to the Fire Department's Pancake Breakfast...all part of the Quartzsite Experience!


AUTHOR'S FAIR
Jan & Feb 2010
READERS' OASIS BOOK STORE

DESERT GARDENS 9th. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL
GEM, MINERAL & JEWLERY SHOW
JAN. 1st 2010 - FEB. 28th 2010

The Main Event
Jan. 9th 2010 - Jan. 24th 2010
Steam Engine Show
Jan 22nd - 23rd - 24th 2010

20th Annual Hi Jolly Daze parade
JAN 2nd 2010

TYSON WELLS ROCK & GEM SHOW
JAN. 1st 2010 - JAN. 10th 2010

NEW CHRISTIE MINSTRELS
Jan 10th 2010 (two shows 2pm & 7pm)
QIA BUILDING

TYSON WELLS SELL-A-RAMA
JAN. 15th 2010 - JAN.24th 2010

Blythe 23rd Annual Bluegrass Music Festival
Jan 15th - Jan 16th - Jan 17th 2010

BIG TENT....SPORTS, VACATION & R.V. SHOW
JAN. 16th 2010 - JAN. 24th 2010

44rd Annual Q I. A. POW WOW
JAN. 20st 2010 - Jan 24th 2010

BIG TENT....HOBBY CRAFT & GEM SHOW
Jan 27th 2010 - Jan 31st 2010

BIG TENT CLASSIC CAR SHOW
Jan 27th 2010 — Jan 31st 2010

4th ANNUAL Willpower/Pawpower ATV PARADE
FEB 13th 2010

QUARTZSITE FIRE DEPT. PANCAKE BREAKFAST
Feb 13th 7am - 10am 2010
QUARTZSITE FIRE STATION

TYSON WELLS ARTS & CRAFTS FAIR
Jan 29th 2010 - FEB. 7th 2010

Show listings courtesy of Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce