Cultivating Outrage

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Katmai National Park (Summer 2000)

Bear in a stream feeding Kaflia Bay
In 2000, I won a bear-watching trip to Alaska in a sweepstakes that I didn't even know I had entered!

Somewhere, I had read about Bears magazine, and I bought a subscription for bear-loving Victor. I didn't know that they were having a sweepstakes where some new subscriber would win a bear-watching trip! I was shocked when I got the email telling me I had won. After calling them, I convinced myself that it wasn't some sort of scam.

The only bad part of it was that Victor -- the one who obsesses over bears, the one for whom I bought my subscription, the one indirectly responsible for my winning the trip -- couldn't join me. (Instead, in 2006, Victor and I went bear-watching in British Columbia. Update: Victor finally joined me for a repeat of this trip in 2019!) My friend Jerry, who was already planning to be in Alaska visiting his brother at the time of this trip, went along.

It was a fantastic trip. Photos and a map are here, and four of my video clips are on YouTube. And here is the text of the Bears magazine story about the trip.

On the first day, we glimpsed Timothy Treadwell at his tent in Hallo Bay. (Our guide knew who he was.) He walked away from his tent when he saw us. In 2003, he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by bears at that same spot. Werner Herzog made a 2005 film, Grizzly Man, about it all.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Autographs - Ian Whitcomb

Ian Whitcomb

(Index of autographs)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Autographs - Edmund White

Edmund White

(Index of autographs)

Friday, April 6, 2012

Autographs - William Samelson

(Click the image to enlarge it.)
William Samelson was one of my Hebrew teachers at Temple Beth-El when I was a boy. His first novel, All Lie In Wait, is based on his personal history as a Holocaust survivor who was in Nazi labor and concentration camps at the age of 11. Click here for a 7-minute video interview with Dr. Samelson from 2007.

(Index of autographs)

Monday, March 26, 2012

Index to autographs

For a general introduction to my collection of author autographs, click here. For a note about the science fiction authors, click here. Here is a complete alphabetized link list:

Autographs - Ray Bradbury

Besides enjoying his work, I've always admired Ray Bradbury for living in Los Angeles without driving a car. (See also my note on Frank Herbert.)

On the other hand, I'm with Cory Doctorow on Bradbury's silliness about others riffing on his titles

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Frank Herbert

I heard Frank Herbert speak at Rice University in 1972, while I was an undergraduate there. What I remember best about his talk was that he asked everyone to pledge never to buy a new internal combustion engine automobile. (Search for "combustion" on this web page, and you'll find the pledge.) I've always been known for my hatred of automobiles, and I jumped at the chance to take the pledge. (I've honored it, too, only buying used cars until 2006, when I bought my first new car, a hybrid Prius.)
(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. (Chip) Delany is one of my favorite writers. I own more books by him than by any other author. I've read his science fiction, his memoirs, his other non-fiction, his literary criticism, and his porn.

On a visit to New York City, I happened to spot a notice that he was going to be signing this new book at a Manhattan bookstore while I would still be in town. I bought the book, got his autograph, and asked if he ever visited Los Angeles. He basically said, "Not if I can help it."

(Index of autographs)