The Pines Review

J O U R N A L O F T H E A R T A N D L I T E R A T U R E O F T H E O U T D O O R S P O R T S F O R O U T D O O R C O M M U N I C A T O R S

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

In Future Issues:

Sentence Wars, why some

writers can’t write.

New Technology

Travelling Outdoor Writers

Inside this issue:

Henry Herbert, aka Frank Forester, father of modern outdoor

writing $13.50

Dr. Randall L. Eaton Animal Behaviorist, Environmentalist, Hunter, Hunting Philosopher—Can He Save Hunting?

Editorial............................2 Letters ...............................3 Opinion ............................4 WHO WE ARE Mike Marsh ...................6 New OWAA E.D. .......7 FEATURE Randall L. Eaton ...........8 Does He Hold The Key? COLUMNS High On The Wild ..... 14 Kathleen Clary Miller Video World................ 16 Andy Lightbody Photography World ... 17 Jeff Davis Social Media .............. 18 Rachel Bunn FEATURE African Expedition Mag. Borderline Walk ......... 22 FEATURE Social Media History 30 News Feature Rep. Jim Moran .......... 33 New Threat To Hunting SHORT FICTION Missouri River Mist ..... 34 ESSAY Towards A N. A. Hunting Culture ........................... 36 POETRY Trophy Animals........... 40 Grizzly Mountain ...... 40 Sunset in January ..... 41 City Shaman ............... 41 New Products ............... 42 Calendar of Events ..... 43

More Awards?

I hope The Pines Review contribu-

tors entering their work in contests

win awards. I‘ve been thinking

about some other awards,

sparked by POMA‘s named awards: Grits Gresham Award

in the Shooting Sports, Homer

Circle Award in Fishing and

Fred Bear Award in Archery. Even with the

nearly 800 awards presented by state, regional

and national organizations for the outdoor me-

dia, I do not believe they are fulfilling their

role in the future of the outdoor sports.

Few of our awards attract attention outside

our media. Some outdoor media wags believe

that‘s fine, maintaining the road to preserving the outdoor sports is paved with slogans, spe-

cial programs and not good writing. All of our

awards, even the POMA Named Awards, are

important to the future but are missing a criti-

cal ingredient—a tool that generates appeal

beyond our industry. Find that tool and it will

grab the attention of industry‘s frontline to

consumers—the retailers—not just the sporting

retailers, but bookstores, chains and independ-

ent stores, the big box discount stores and the

general media.

I am advocating the establishment of a foundation to administer the ―National Out-

door Sports Book & Film Awards.‖ Given a

little time, good planning and administration,

these awards can make a difference.

Think about it. The National Book Foun-

dation has been handing out awards for 60

years and that little medallion seal, ―National

Book Award Winner‖ on a book‘s cover is as

close to best seller some authors ever get!

Even the ―Finalist‖ medallion seal is a cash

register‘s ―cha-ching‖ in the writer‘s loft. One might argue against another ―National

Book Award‖ (NBA) because the ―National

Outdoor Book Awards‖ (NOBA) are already

presented, but they are a waffle bootie award

and I rarely see these books on an Award Win-

ners table in a bookstore. Plus, searching the

list of NOBA winners did not reveal any hunt-

ing titles and the only fishing books were very

esoteric fly fishing titles. There‘s a lot more to

the outdoor sports, even waffle sports, than the

NOBA recognizes. I like the National Book Foundation‘s ap-

proach.

There are four categories for the NBA: Fic-

tion, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People‘s

Literature. Each award comes with a

simple, but extraordinarily elegant

statue that depicts a sheaf of folded pa-

per—the writer‘s paper, and a $10,000 cash prize. The NBA also presents one

annual ―Distinguished Contribution

to American Letters Medal‖ which

includes a $10,000 prize and a life-

time achievement ―Literarian

Award‖ for outstanding service to the Ameri-

can literary community. Each book award fi-

nalist receives a medal, certificate and $1,000.

WHY MORE?

For the past twenty years I have maintained

that a key to reviving outdoor literature so it can regain ―serious genre status‖ is that writers

must reach higher. We need to establish a

higher brass ring with greater rewards. We

must push our writers to go where Hemingway

spoke of in his Nobel Acceptance Speech—to

―try for something that has never been done.‖

For that we will gain quality writing others

will want to read, whether on a Kindle®,

Sony™, laptop, or on paper. How is not im-

portant, only that they read an outdoor adven-

ture that excites them.

Our annual awards are the pistons in the engine of our media. It is now time the outdoor

sports industry borrows the proven concept of

the NB Foundation. The American SportFish-

ing Association and NSSF need to create a

Foundation that will administer five annual

awards: Outdoor Sports Nonfiction, Outdoor

Sports Fiction, Outdoor Sports Poetry, Outdoor

Sports in Film, and Outdoor Sports Writing for

Youth.

No specialty subfields. Hire an artist to

design an inspiring trophy and a medallion. Make the presentations special. Promote the

winning books with the medallion, in store

displays, and effective publicity.

Our industry is blessed with truly great

writers whose work often is squandered. The

power of good writing is usually underappreci-

ated by its nearest audience. Move that work

out and help others find it so its voice can

move mountains. Our writers can do that,

given the opportunity.

Glg

Note: Hemingway was unable to attend the

awards ceremony so the US Ambassador read

Hemingway’s speech. Later, Hemingway re-

corded the speech for posterity and read-

ers can hear it online.

The Pines Review Editorial

Galen L. Geer, Publisher/Editor Drawing by Ron Vossler

The Pines Review Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Publisher/Editor

Galen L. Geer

Copy Editor

Pam Potter

Webmaster

Christopher L. Geer

Associate Editors

Danny White, Alan Bunn,

Rachel Bunn

Photography

Jeff Davis

Social Media

Rachel Bunn

Video

Andy Lightbody

High On The Wild

Kathleen Clary Miller

The Pines Review is published

three times per year: January

(Winter), May (Spring/Summer), and

September (Autumn).

Free Subscriptions: Free PDF/

email subscription to members of

outdoor media, outdoor industry.

Free PDF/email subscriptions to all

high school/middle school libraries,

and colleges, university libraries

as well as English/Creative Writing

Departments, instructors.

Paid Subscriptions:

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Print: $36.00 per year.

Single copy: $13.50+P&H:

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reprints of articles, essays, short

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Contributors: Contributions are

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© Copyright 2010 by Pen and

Page, Ink. All rights

reserved. No part of this

publication may be copied, printed,

or distributed by any means,

electronic or otherwise, without the

written permission of the

publisher.

Published by Pen and Page, Ink,

PO Box 31, Finley, ND 58230.

Email: penandpage@mlgc.com.

Phone: 701-789-0777

Cover Photo Provided by

Randall L. Eaton

Page 2

Editor,

Just received your latest The Pines Review. Thank

you (I'm being polite because I like you).

First this: "This publication also recognizes that the outdoor media‗s product, as a body of work,

is a literary genre and not a

side show

event." From your edi-

torial. (One quick comment: Have you actually

forced yourself to sit through any outdoor televi-

sion lately? "Sideshow" would be a good descrip-

tion of nearly all hook and bullet TV.)

And then your Zumbo piece (also tending to dis-

prove your editorial statement).

I sincerely hope you meant your piece on Zumbo

and the Internet to be a satire and funny as all get out because I laughed all the way through it. If

you were serious, that would make it even funnier

and explain why you are stuck in the Dakotas.

California‘s NRA fans tried to Zumbo-me over

my coverage of the lead issue here in California!

They tried to get me fired from all the newspapers

that run my stuff. Apparently, my friends in the

newspaper business are better than Zumbo's

friends in our industry, and my buddies told the

NRA guys to buzz off. But I've always had a tenuous love-hate relationship with the NRA

here, even though I'll always be a member and

have always supported them on everything. They

just continue to say some really stupid and

wrong stuff about the lead science, but we agree

about the needlessness of the ban.

Bestest,

Jim Matthews

Editor, Outdoor News Service

Jim,

At least you read it, that’s progress! Thanks for your comments. (I, too, am being po-

lite because I like you.)

Think our readers will react to your Op-Ed piece

beginning on the next page?

Glg, Editor

Not Every Reader is Negative! Editor,

Very nice articles! You definitely didn't put all

that together overnight. Thanks for the good read-

ing material.

God Bless,

Brad Lockwood

Outdoor Edge Cutlery

Brad,

Thanks, I hope you continue to enjoy The Review.

Glg

Editor,

Congratulations on this edition. I am eager to read

it.

Best,

Glenn Sapier

NSSF

Glenn,

Thanks and I’ll look forward to your comments at

the SHOT Show Press Room. Glg

(Continued on page 4)

The Pines Review Letters

ters must be submitted via email and the writer’s

full name, city and state must be included. The

publisher will withhold the name if requested.

Letters should be no more than 200 words in

length and are subject to editing for length and

clarity of content.

The Pines Review accepts letters to the editor on

any subject relating to the art and literature of

the outdoors and letters commenting on previ-

ously published letters, articles, essays, poems or

art. All letters submitted become the property of

The Pines Review and will not be returned. Let-

The Pines Review Letters Policy

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 3

Have an opinion about

something involving the

outdoor sports, the

outdoor media or the

politics affecting the

sports or media? Write

an Op-Ed piece up to

1000 words and submit

it!

All letters to the editor of The Pines Review must be submitted

by email. editorpinesreview@mlgc.com

Zumbo Feature Draws Criticism as Humorous “Satire” ?

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

The development of television was an

international effort that began in the

late 19th century and continues today.

After WWII the DuMont Television

Network began broadcasting in 1946,

NBC began in 1947, CBS and ABC

began broadcasting in 1948. By 1951

the entire continental USA was

receiving broadcasts.

Page 4

By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service

If there‘s a really good outdoor program on

television today, I haven‘t seen it. For the past couple of months, I have been forcing myself to

watch the channels specializing in hunting and

fishing fodder. I can‘t do it for long stints and

there are countless shows I can‘t sit all the way

through. They are that bad.

Now, I realize that all the shows depicting

hunting and fishing activities on the Outdoor

Channel, Sportsman Channel, Versus, and the

rest are really low budget ventures, but come

on. They all fundamentally boil down to 30-

minute advertorials to show off sponsor‘s prod-ucts on scammed hunting or fishing trips by the

show host. In between the show‘s segments, we

are bombarded with poorly done advertise-

ments from those same sponsors, in case you

missed the flagrant honking of the product by

the on-camera talent (and I use that term

loosely).

The formula for all these shows is the same

(I guess under the belief that you shouldn‘t vary

from a winning combination): Bubba, and it

seems like most of the show hosts are indeed

from the Southeast and speak with a mouth-full

-of-mush accent, stands in front of the camera

and talks. There are these talking head seg-

ments spiced throughout the show. The shows usually start by Bubba telling you where we‘re

going this week (which private ranch or guide

we conned into giving us a free trip). Some of

the shows get creative with these segments by

having Bubba in the cab of a truck or at the

wheel of a bass boat while he talks. But some

just park him in front of a wall somewhere and

let him talk. There is always a talking head

segment on what we‘re gonna kill or catch

early in the show. Then the most important

babble segments are usually scattered through-out the show. These are about the products that

are about to or have lead to the killing or catch-

ing.

After all that there‘s only a little room for

footage of wildlife we didn‘t kill or those really

creative shots of spray coming off the bow of

the boat before we get right to the catching and

killing. Volume seems to matter here. In the

fishing shows, it seems like you have to show

more fish caught in a half-hour segment than

you or I catch in a week-long vacation to Colo-

“The Winners Are” Draws Comments Editor,

Wow, I didn't know anyone actually

kept a count of awards received by

those in our industry. Did you com-pile the list?

The process of entering, judging and

receiving the awards requires a pon-

derous amount of time, money and

effort on the part of everyone in-

volved. When I see some of

my peers, or obviously my superiors

as indicated by the 10 awards won by

Eddie Nickens, in the same perspec-

tive as a set of baseball stats, it's

rather impressive. But I wonder, does

anybody really pay attention? Does it raise the recipient's profile or status?

It certainly is an ego booster to know

that your work has been judged ex-

emplary. It would be nice to

read or view more award-winners so

we could all see examples of contemporary

work judged to be exemplary as a gauge to

see how we could improve our own craft.

I'm very impressed by The Pines Review, espe-

cially since you mentioned it is essentially a

one-man show. Impressive.

Best,

Mike Marsh Outdoor Writer/Photographer

Mike,

Thanks and your profile begins on page 6 of

this issue. As to your question regarding

whether anyone really pays attention, read

the next letter and your question is an-

swered.

Glg

Editor,

Would you mind forwarding a copy of the

writer award list you published? It would help with my database of outdoor writers.

Thank you.

Brandon Butler

Battenfield Technologies

Marketing Manager

Brandon,

On its way and I hope it helps you in

your marketing efforts.

Glg

Letters

Watching Outdoor TV is Painful Experience Opinion:

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 5

rado or Baja. In the hunting shows, shotgun-

ners slaughter whole pen-fulls of pheasants or

bobwhites, and I swear the waterfowlers all

hunt around fields or potholes that have been

baited for weeks before the camera crew and host arrived. The big game hunting shows have

to show Bubba blowing a shot or two, having

the camera man spook game at least once, and

then end with a kill or two, frequently showing

poor field shooting.

I haven‘t found any shows that are actually

filmed on public land where you and I hunt

and fish. Most are on private ranches or lakes

or deep wilderness outposts, and they all fea-

ture a guide who has fished or hunted the par-

ticular area his whole life. It‘s his job to lead

the host to the holy grail of game and fish. There‘s not much on how to do things, or

where to do things, or how some things are

only learned with time.

Thomas McGuane, a novelist of some note,

wrote a collection of outdoor essays entitled

―The Longest Silence.‖ The title piece is about

the long investment in time, quiet time on the

salt flats, and the effort and mistakes necessary

to catch one permit on a fly rod. But all of the

essays, whether about hunting or fishing, re-

volve around how the blood sports are patient endeavors that require a life-long investment

of effort and soul. Outdoor television doesn‘t

get or doesn‘t know how to convey that ele-

ment, which ultimately is what attracts and

keeps us returning to these sports season after

season. Newcomers watching outdoor TV

think everything is about action, big bags, and

success when nothing could be further from

the truth.

After the catching and killing comes the

worst part of the shows: the celebrating. I have

been hunting and fishing for about 50 years, and I can honestly say that I have never high-

fived anyone after a fish was caught, and cer-

tainly not after a head of game was killed. I‘ve

never done a chest bump or a fist-clench, arm

pump. I don‘t know anyone who has. I have

put my hand on a son‘s shoulder after a fish

was landed or offered to shake hands after a

fine shot that humanely put part of our winter

meat supply on the ground. I‘ve marveled at

the beauty of a trout or stroked the feathers of

a quail before putting in my game bag. Prayer is more appropriate than a chest bump.

This celecrating is outdoor television‘s big-

gest abomination and a black-eye for our sport.

The hunters I know have reverence for the

game we pursue; I‘m not so sure about the

moronic guys on television giving high-fives

and fist-pumping after they kill a buck or stick

a big bull with an arrow. They‘re cheapening

the hunt, life, and good sense. Do you high-

five the vet after he gives a lethal injection to

an old hunting dog who has been a part of your life for over a decade? Do farmers celebrate

each time they lop off a head of a chicken they

have raised for eggs and soup? What about the

guy with the pneumatic gun in the cattle

slaughter house? Do you see those guys run

and do chest bumps at the end of a long day of

killing?

Television hunters don‘t get it. They blather

at the camera, honk their sponsors, catch and

shoot piles of game, and cheapen our sport. It‘s

just wrong from start to finish and sends the

wrong message -- especially to the non-

hunting community. I can only imagine what someone who

doesn‘t hunt or fish thinks when they stumble

on one of these Bubba shows. Polls continue to

show that the vast majority of the public be-

lieves that managed sport hunting and sport

fishing are legitimate activities. Since hunters

and fishermen are increasingly smaller minori-

ties, we need that support. But how much

longer will be have it? I‘m afraid our own out-

door shows turn more of them against us than

whack-jobs with animal rights agendas. We have met the enemy and he is us.

Unfortunately, long silences don‘t sell on

TV, and increasingly they don‘t sell

to an instant gratification society.

Outdoor sports may not be doomed

just yet, but I fear for their soul.

Pemba Islands, Mozambique

Photo and Copyright Galen L. Geer

Jack’s Cabin overlooks Southern Colorado’s Wet Mountain Valley

Mike Marsh Book Author, Magazine Writer

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 6

Jack’s Cabin A Mountain Retreat for Anglers, Hunters, Writers And Artists

A-Frame Cabin with a Spectacular view of Colorado’s Wet Mountain Valley. Cabin has two bedrooms, kitchen, living room and dining room. An ideal retreat for the writer or artist who needs seclusion to work yet access to nearby cities. This is also a great retreat for a family, couple or group needing a vacation. Cabin sleeps 1-4 adults (plus kids) and pets are welcome. Fishing and hunting are both within a short drive. Hiking from cabin is available. Canon City, Florence and Pueblo are all within 1 hour drive and Colorado Springs is less than 90 minutes away. 2 night minimum, $70 night, 1-4 adults, 6 night stay only $360. Monthly rates are seasonal. For information or Reservation: chas.clifton@mac.com , Phone: 719-784-3160. Web Site: http://www.jackscabinwetmore.com

Who We Are . . .

Submit yourself! Submit five hun-dred to one thousand words and two or three photos about yourself. Who We Are is a new feature in

The Pines Review intended to give outdoor writers, photographers & artists an opportunity to tell the other members of the outdoor sports community about them-selves. Veteran and newcomers are encouraged to submit articles. Send submission to:

editorpinesreview@mlgc.com with ―Who We Are Submission‖ in the subject line. Length: 500-1000 words Include 2-4 photos. Include both ―office‖ and ―outdoor‖ shots. Payment is on acceptance.

A lthough my father was not a hunter, his

encouragement at pursuing what I

loved blazed the trail to my becoming a

writer and photographer specializing in hunt-

ing, shooting and fishing. Curtis L. Marsh Jr. was an electrical engineer who enjoyed shoot-

ing as a casual pastime when not designing

missile guidance systems. His work landed his

family - my mother, Janice, and brothers Curtis

III and Rick, in Climax, N.C. I was 10 when he

bought the remnants of J.P. Morgan‘s quail

hunting estate.

My playground consisted of the caretaker‘s

cottage and its outbuildings. While the sur-

rounding landscape was changed from Mor-

gan‘s heyday of hardscrabble farms, the land-

owners took me under wing and allowed me to hunt the same territory a millionaire financier

once trod. The lodge proper had been torn

down for constructing other homes during

World War II.

I received a Daisy Model 25 air gun for my

eleventh birthday and a .22 Remington

510x .22 for my thirteenth birthday. As the

hunter in the family, over the years I came into

possession of heirloom weaponry from kinfolk

in Iowa. Gifts of guns were left for me under

the Christmas tree every year. My most be-loved possession, which actually possessed me,

was a working Irish setter named Red, who

arrived from Iowa when I was 14.

Also on my thirteenth birthday, my old man

gave me a copy of Robert Ruark‘s The Old

Man and the Boy. That was the day I became

an outdoor writer in spirit. My heroes became

the writers of national sporting magazines.

I devoured columns by Bodie McDowell in

the Greensboro newspaper. Bodie discouraged

me from striking out on my own many years

later after I had moved to Wilmington. But he

also tipped me off about writing a column for

the Wilmington Star-News, which I‘ve now done since 1994.

My arriving in Wilmington, Ruark‘s home-

town, was incidental. I had earned an Associate

Degree in Fish and Wildlife Management from

Wayne Community College and was working

in an unrelated field for the N.C. Dept. of Natu-

ral Resources. Once I moved to Wilmington,

writing about the same things Ruark found so

inspiring came as naturally as breathing. Dis-

satisfaction with what others would have con-

sidered a good government career inspired me

to write Quest for the Limit – Carolina Hunting Adventures, which was published by W.

Horace Carter‘s Atlantic Publishing. Horace

was an outdoors writer and newspaperman. My

outdoors columns also began appearing in

Horace‘s Tabor-Loris Tribune, which had won

the state‘s only Pulitzer Prize.

To gain publicity for my book, another edi-

tor, Fred Bonner, suggested I begin writing

magazine articles, which eventually led to writ-

ing a regional column for Carolina Adventure

magazine. I left the state agency for a civil en-gineering firm, but still found the work unsatis-

fying while recognition of my writing and pho-

tography grew. When my son, Justin, entered

the U.S. Navy and with the support of my wife,

Carol, I left the consulting firm to pursue my

dream.

I‘ve been a fulltime hook-and-bullet writer

since 2001. Mine is a volume business, which

at its peak produced more than 500 articles and

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 7

WHO WE ARE—Continued

800 images for magazines and news papers annually. My work appears primarily in middle markets, super-saturating North Carolina magazines and

newspapers. But I also contribute to some of the biggest hunting

and fishing magazines in the world. I‘ve produced more than 5,000 articles and three books and have a finalized book contract

on the desk. The working title is Fishing North Carolina – 100

Places to Fish Across the State. The publisher is John F. Blair.

It‘s been a wild ride, with the only regret a wish that I had left

my real jobs much sooner despite the recent media meltdown,

which has created a 40 percent decline in my writing and photog-

raphy sales.

I‘m using the downtime to restock my story bank. Whereas a

couple of years ago, I was having trouble hitting the woods and

water enough to feed my markets‘ demands, I‘m hunting and

fishing more and producing less. Media markets won‘t be dimin-

ished forever, so I‘m keeping on top of cutting-edge stories. When folks lose their jobs, they hunt and fish more while still

demanding topnotch information about their pursuits.

Embracing the ―new media‖ has taken a higher priority, so I

now have a Website, www.mikemarshoutdoors.com along with a

Facebook page and other social networking presences. So far,

these Internet experiments have taken more time and money than

seem worthwhile. But, hey, it‘s the future of media and I‘m going

to keep riding this old hook-and-bullet horse until she bucks me

off.

A non-profit organization I co-founded, the North Carolina

Public Access Foundation, Inc. (www.ncpaf.com) is stemming

the loss of oceanfront fishing piers and boat ramps. North Caro-

linian‘s have lost half of their fishing piers and no one knows how many marinas and ramps were converted to exclusive use

during the latest real estate boom. This project has taken an enor-

mous amount of time and effort. But I felt an obligation to give

the hunters and fishermen who have given me so much a way to

protect their heritage. I couldn‘t have slept at night if I hadn‘t set

up NCPAF, Inc. because I knew I was the only one who could

make it happen.

NCPAF, Inc. has already helped save Oak Island Pier from

going condo through monetary donations and public awareness.

It will soon be protected in perpetuity with a conservation ease-

ment dedicated to NCPAF, Inc. NCPAF, Inc. has also initiated, in

cooperation with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, an Adopt-a-Ramp program.

In the beginning, I thought becoming an outdoors writer

would benefit me through some incredible hunting and fishing

trips. While that happened beyond the wildest imaginations of a

13-year-old kid, I‘ve discovered as a 56-year-old man

that using the influence I‘ve gained from my constitu-

ents to help them help themselves is magnitudes more

important than the personal selfishness that began a

fledgling career.

Robin Giner has been named the interim Executive Director

of Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA), the na-tion‘s oldest national organization for the outdoor media. Robin

is only the second woman to hold that position in OWAA‘s 83

year history.

The organization‘s leadership has been searching for a new

ED since mid-March when Kevin Rhoades resigned after eleven

years with OWAA, although Rhoades did stay on as ED until

May 7. In his resignation letter, which was published on the

OWAA web site, Rhoades did not give any specific reason for his

resignation although he did write that he submitted the letter

―With no regrets . . . .‖

Rhoades also said that he had ―not applied for another position,

nor been offered one.‖ He did indicate that he planned to remain in the outdoor media field.

Rhoades is best known in the outdoor media community for

guiding OWAA through what was probably the organization‘s

most difficult period when a large number of its members re-

signed over a disagreement with the Board of Directors. Many of

the individuals who resigned had been active in OWAA through-

out their professional careers. The Professional Outdoor Media

Association (POMA) was later formed by those same outdoor

writers and photographers who left OWAA in the dispute.

Giner is well aware of the difficulties that plagued the organiza-

tion at that time, having served since May 2007 as OWAA‘s Di-rector of Membership and Conference Services. Prior to that, in

2000-01, Robin served as an Executive Assistant.

Between 2001 and 2007, when she returned to OWAA, Giner

was working in Chicago at the Urban Libraries Council. In a

short email interview with The Pines Review she explained her

work: ―I worked on their Programming and Development team

where we solicited grants to develop programming for the betterment of

large urban public libraries.‖

The current president of OWAA,

John Beath, is pleased that Giner is in

the ED position. ―I'm really excited to

have Robin Giner as our interim Ex-

ecutive Director. Robin has been an

excellent and valuable employee for

OWAA and will now have the oppor-

tunity to grow her professional career

with OWAA.‖

The organization will also be bene-fiting from Giner‘s Chicago experi-

ence and Beath is quick to point out it

is an added bonus. ―Robin has grant writing experience and some

great ideas to promote the growth of the organization.‖

According to OWAA officials their present membership is

hovering around 1,200 outdoor communicators and with Giner in

the interim ED position the leadership is anticipating a growth in

membership numbers and new outreach programs for OWAA.

Robin is a graduate of Northeastern Illinois University

(Chicago) with dual BA degrees, one in English Composition and

the other in Linguistics. Although unmarried, last year she adopted a year-and-a-half lab mix from the pound, explain-

ing that her dog is now ―her kid.‖

OWAA Appoints Interim E-D

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 8

C ontemporary hunters need a leader. Someone is needed to help hunters look inside them-

selves for a better understanding of why they hunt and their goals as hunters. This person

must shape more than a hunter‘s personal opinions but reach across society‘s broadest spectrum

and shape the non-hunting social groups‘ understanding of hunting. Many people believe that such a leader has come and gone in the person of Aldo Leopold and his seminal work A Sand

County Almanac. This book influenced millions of readers, many of them hunters, and brought

them closer to understanding hunting‘s connection to the environment.

Another writer who strongly influenced hunters was José Ortega y Gasset, the social philoso-

pher who expressed much of today‘s

hunting philosophy in Meditations on

Hunting. Another influential leader, one

who shaped political policy, is Theodore

Roosevelt. His philosophy about hunt-

ing, democracy, the nation‘s land and

wildlife, still dominates hunting and out-door philosophy.

Leopold, Ortega and Roosevelt are,

however, dead, and while their work

continues to influence today‘s hunters,

popular opinion among many in the out-

door industry is that hunting is entering

its final decades.

Some disagree. One of those is Ran-

dall L. Eaton, Ph.D, the leader of a pro-

hunting movement. The movement has

emerged from the Jungian psychology

which influenced the 1980‘s men‘s movement, which is often viewed as a

weak response to the powerful (and still

active) feminist movement that gained

popularity during the backlash to the

Vietnam War.

Eaton‘s movement is founded on the

principle that hunting is an initiation that

helps individuals recognize their inner selves and then transfer that recognition into wider circles

of social responsibility. The core of Eaton‘s belief system is not the Men‘s movement per se but

primitive societies‘ relationship to nature. In Rethinking Hunting, a short paper by Eaton, his first

paragraph references not only Roosevelt and Leopold, but Jefferson, Audubon, and Thoreau, and points out that each of them was a hunter. He also references Nobel Prize winners Jimmy Carter

and Nelson Mandela as personifications of hunting‘s influence on a person‘s development of an

inner peace.

Michael Gurian, an internationally respected authority on youth education, is another source of

Eaton‘s search for understanding of how hunting transforms the individual. In the ―Forward‖ of

From Boys to men of Heart, Eaton prints his interview of Gurian, focusing on the male transfor-

mation from boy through adolescence to adulthood, and hunting‘s role in this transformation.

Eaton asks Gurian about the effects of video gaming on adolescents and Gurian explains how

hunting creates less violence:

. . . playing video games creates more violence. The reason I say that goes back to na-

ture and how the brain works. . . . the more holistic the experience, the neural experi-

ence that the brain has, they lead to future holistic activities of that brain system or that neural web, so if I sit around and play a bunch of video game which are based on hunt-

ing . . . and I play those, but I never see the consequences—I never touch the liver of the

antelope, I never touch the squirrel—that‘s not a holistic experience, that‘s just a hunting

-war experience that‘s going on in my fantasy world, and I don‘t feel the consequences.

I don‘t develop any kind of respect or justice or decency or fairness from that kind of

experience.‖i

Does this man hold the

key to hunting’s future? Randall L. Eaton, Ph.D is

offering some insights

that some may believe

are too radical, but for

others he is the last hope

of the American hunter. By Galen L. Geer Publisher/Editor

Top: Dr. Randall Eaton during his years of studying Orca whales. Above: The cover of the multi-discipline publication he founded. Next Page: Speaking at the Onterio Federation of Anglers and Hunters Page 10: Signing books after a seminar. Page 11: In his home.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 9

Gurian‘s interview reinforces Eaton‘s phi-

losophy--the belief that hunting is a valid tool,

that a person who is a caring and ethical

hunter will be a better person. In the next paragraph Gurian explains the holistic experi-

ence.

But if I‘m hunting, that‘s a holistic

neural experience; I not only have to

have the skill to acquire the animal,

to kill the animal, I skin it, I take care

of it, I feel it against my body, I smell

it, I have the blood on my hands—

that‘s a holistic neural experience that

should lead to future holistic experi-

ences when I‘m faced with life and death again.ii

Eaton and Gurian agree that hunting‘s ho-

listic experience cannot be duplicated by the

video game experience because the games

exist only inside the mind of the participant

and the participant does not experience any

tactile induced relationship to the animal—

regardless of the game‘s technological sophis-

tication. In Eaton‘s view of contemporary

society there is an exponentially growing danger that humanity is lurching every closer to creat-

ing its own doomsday. In his ―Overview,‖ (xlvii-liv) Eaton begins with this mind-jolting state-

ment: ―That humanity may threaten its own survival and the viability of the biosphere is reason enough to question the influence of civilization on sanity.‖

Taking that statement on its own, a person would believe that Eaton is a fatalist over the fu-

ture of humanity, but in truth Eaton is an optimist who believes humanity‘s salvation exists deep

within humanity‘s anthropological psychic—hunting.

The Role of Hunting, Past Randall Eaton‘s campaign to create a movement to salvage hunting began when he was a fea-

tured speaker at the 1971 Game COINiii conference in San Antonio, Texas. His speech was a

plea for hunters to recognize their ancestral roots, and it was carried by the nationally by CBS

News. Other speakers at the conference included former Texas governor John Connally and the

award-winning actor Jimmy Stewart.iv

Eaton explained to The Review how a Georgia archery hunt had become one of the pivotal events of his life shortly before the Game COIN conference: ―. . . after many years of hunting

waterfowl and upland birds and a few meager attempts at deer, I bow hunted deer in Georgia

from a treestand for two days which aroused my alertness to an unparalleled level and profoundly

connected me to nature.‖v

The connection, for Eaton, was not yet complete. In 1975, four years after the deer hunt, he

decided to undertake a vision quest in the Cascades‘ foothills east of Seattle. That experience

made him realize his life was taking on new meanings, expanding his awareness of how he had

been living, that social pressures were forcing him into a somnambulistic state where the need to

be ―productive‖ was met without any meaningful benefits to his mental and physical being. ―. . .

a kind of poverty of the spirit that only wilderness solitude may mend‖ (Ibid).

Equipped with his MS and doctorial degrees in animal behavior and wildlife ecology, he still

faced uncertainties about his life—until he sought a vision—an intensely personal act. Today he believes young men should once again seek a personal vision as they make the transition from

adolescence to early adult. ―It ought to be a normal ritual for young men, as it was among north-

ern Europeans for millennia,‖ he said.

Following his vision quest, Eaton‘s understanding of himself and the world around him began

to expand. In response to Review questions he explained: ―I was studying Kidu (Jidu) Krishna-

murti, an Eastern teacher who professed no particular faith or path other than keen awareness of

(Continued on page 10)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 10

what is in the moment. . . . He taught that freedom lies in ob-

serving the self without judgment, with the same kind of alert-ness that a good naturalist or hunter gives to a bird.‖

During this period he went through a powerful emotional and

visual experience which he compares to a near death experience,

explaining that; ―. . . at one moment I felt I was climbing the

stairs, but when I reached the doorway, sensing that the answer I

was seeking was on the other side . . . I was snatched from this

body and dimension and taken on the greatest odyssey of my

life. Now mind you I had been an atheist since college . . . I re-

turned to my body knowing that what we are essentially immor-

tal, i.e. death is not annihilation, that there is nothing to fear. . . .

Not long after I began to study orca whales, giant dolphins with immense intelligence, the only dominant predator on earth that

does not make war on its own kind. . . . The orcas inspired me to

go out and teach that life is sacred and to honor it, which gave

rise to The Sacred Hunt video and all my work since.‖vi

Eaton‘s ―work since‖ has been focused on finding those con-

nections between people and nature, a direction that also marked

his earlier work, which included the design, development and

promotion of a wildlife park, the research and writing of a popu-

lar science book on

the cheetah that

received a National

Book Award and he has been a leader in

the revision of zoo

philosophy with

goals toward natu-

ralism. He founded

the extraordinary

interdisciplinary

scientific journal,

Carnivore, with

Nobel laureate, Ox-

ford professor Niko Tinbergen,vii on the

journal‘s editorial

board.

Dr. Randall Eaton‘s lists of accomplishments have lead him

to deeper understanding of the hunting rituals and practices of

early humans and today‘s primitive hunting/gatherer cultures.

Eaton believes that if contemporary hunters understand the

primitive hunter‘s relationship with nature they can share that

knowledge with larger segments of contemporary society, creat-

ing an understanding that he believes will ease tension between

civilization and nature and consequently between nations, social

groups and individuals. It appears to be an impossible belief, one that seems Messianic in ambition, but recent environmental

disasters point to a critical juncture between humanity and na-

ture. In his ―Overview‖ Eaton writes:

Hunting teaches us that, like all life forms, we are

dependent upon the integrity and viability of nature.

Though the hunt is goal-oriented, it teaches us that all of

creation functions by deeply interconnected processes

and that we are part of the process. It engenders a ―7th

generation‖ perspective,‖ making decisions today with

future generations in mind.viii

When Eaton speaks of today‘s civilization he points to the myriad problems besting it, and as his opening sentence for the

―Overview‖ proclaims, civilization‘s sanity must be questioned.

But Eaton is not a doomsday soothsayer preaching that humanity

is doomed—the opposite is true—in his writing there is opportu-

nity for a revival. His vision and work have led him in the direc-

tion of hunting. ―Hunting teaches us to be observant and to emu-

late nature and slow down, to ‗be here now‘ in the present mo-

ment. It teaches us that inner peace and sanity are possible in a

world gone mad.‖ (Ibid).

His proposition that hunting represents an opportunity to en-

courage people to save the natural world from the rape of its re-sources, and humanity from its own self-destruction, are not ―sky

-hooks of salvation‖ix but is the result of a life‘s work measured

in accomplishments and accolades. To reach that understanding

he has lived among and studied several of the world‘s remaining

primitive peoples. In one summary paragraph in The Sacred

Hunt he provides a clear window of insight into his hunting phi-

losophy:

Great intellectual humility is required now more than

ever precisely because human and world sur-

vival hang in the balance. To confuse histori-

cal reality with our emotional certainty about

how the world of tomorrow ought to be differ-ent from yesterday is to invite disaster.

The primal man has no word for the Sabbath;

neither does he construct a single place of wor-

ship. To him, life is divine, worthy of contin-

ual prayer, and his temple is the world.

Though he has been accused of reducing

God to the mundane, that is not quite true.

Rather, he sees all that is as a sacred expres-

sion of the one God. Civilized man sees God

and himself as divine, everything else as out-

side sacredness and most men not too sure about God. To refer to what lies outside civili-

zation, men invented words like savage, wild

and wilderness, but the primal man makes no

such distinction.x

Eaton sees a divinity in nature and through it to God. He

points out that the San Bushmen say that ―God is unknown, a

stranger; God created himself and no one can command him.‖xi

He adds that the San believe, ―He (God) created the water, earth,

air, and bush-food, and generally is regarded by the Bushman as

a supremely good being.‖xii Eaton believes that contemporary

hunters‘ foundational premises are not unlike those of the Bush-

men and other primal societies, and for proof he points to the eagerness with which hunters embrace environmental issues.

―Hunting not only leads to ahisma, avoiding unnecessary harm,

it also promotes stewardship of the living earth. No wild places,

no wild things, it‘s as simple as that! The hunter has been and

still is the foremost champion of the wild.‖xiv

Eaton (Continued from page 9)

(Continued on page 11)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 11

Most hunting spokesmen are satisfied with getting just that

message to the non-hunting public; Eaton has taken the message

farther, to the primal hunters, to demonstrate that hunters have

always maintained a close relationship with nature, and then he demonstrates that hunting is the most significant force for ending

the rape of earth. To understand this premise Eaton explores

Pastorlism‘s compounding negative effects on humanity as ani-

mal husbandry replaced hunting. The erosion of the connection

between humanity and nature, which is a product of pastoralism,

is causing young men to begin losing essential elements of direc-

tion with their lives. Writing in Chapter 5, ―The Story of Human

Development‖ in From Boys to Men of Heart, Eaton emphati-

cally states his hypothesis:

I have argued

since 1985 that we all are victims of the

patriarchal, pastoral

mythology of male

dominance and the

subjugation of na-

ture, which tore us

away from a rela-

tionship of respect

and admiration for

the animals, the

earth and one an-

other.xv Eaton‘s argument

against pastoralism

frequently dominates

his writing. Exploring

this he relates an ex-

perience of being on a plane when a young woman sitting beside

him noted the title of his book (The Sacred Hunt) and she ex-

plained that she had written her senior college thesis on hunting

as male initiation and she suggested Eaton read the writing of

philosopher Sam Keen.xvi Eaton‘s examination of Keen revealed

an extension of the ancient pastoralist philosophy that has haunted hunting.

Keen emphasizes the importance of men committing them-

selves to the ecological stewardship of a place. He believes

that there is no dignity for men unless they assume the role as

earth fathers and protectors of place. Keen knows that men

need to fully embrace life as interdependence, but for him that

movement is focused on other humans and on place, and it

does not originate from or encompass hunting wild animals for

food.xvii

Eaton‘s examination of Keen‘s work discloses a weakness in

Keen‘s philosophy that prevents young men from fully realizing

their connection to hunting and its role in their maturation. ―. . . he [Keen] insists that wildness first comes from identification

with the actual wilderness—mountains, forests, tundra, the

haunts of untamed grizzlies, undomesticated wolves, fierce cou-

gars‖xviii [Italics, mine].

Untamed grizzlies, undomesticated wolves? Strange ani-

mals? Unpredicatable dangers? These usages suggest that

Keen is a city boy, and judging from Keen‘s account of his

maturation, he did not grow up hunting or fishing. . . . Keen‘s

hunting instinct atrophied from lack of use. Wild animals fig-

ure into his mind as challenging confrontations, but apparently

not from directly participating with them in the food chain.

. . . much of Keen‘s definition of manhood is founded on civilized concepts from classical Greece, such as heroism,

which appear to reflect Keen‘s background in Western phi-

losophy. Heroes and husbandry both smack of civilization

and herding life; both are related to the domination and tam-

ing of wild nature, within and without [pastoral]. (Ibid)

Keen‘s philosophy has exerted a considerable influence on con-

temporary American male society and Eaton‘s efforts to counter

Keen‘s arguments are important to the hunting community be-

cause they provide hunters with foundational principles to

counter anti-hunting arguments. Eaton

points out that Keen maintains a criticism of hunting by arguing that hunting cul-

tures, being nomadic, could not create

complex culture. Eaton counters by point-

ing out that many hunting societies are not

nomadic and Keen‘s argument fails be-

cause hunters did have a surprisingly com-

plex culture, concluding that ―. . . the heart

of culture exists in the stories told about

creation, culture heroes, the behavior of

animals often as teachers, the place in

which people live and in resources, the

history of the society, the cosmos.‖xix Finally, to drive home his points about

Keen‘s ―absence of hunting‖ philosophy

Eaton points out that Keen‘s work is:

Like a Neo-Marxist anthropologist,

he paints a picture of women creating agri-

culture, which they may have done, but he imagines that it

was planning (planting) that give rise to mathematics and

science. While the eco-feminists may approve of Keen‘s

perspective, there is good reason to say he is wrong, that it

was hunting that promoted science and math. It is hunting

that calls upon formation of hypotheses, deduction and ex-perimental testing, i.e., problem solving. Even Einstein rec-

ognized subsistence hunting as proto-sciencexx.

The examination of Keen‘s entire philosophy provides Eaton

with an opportunity to delve into the conflict between the pastor-

alists [herding] and farming lifestyle by comparing the hunter‘s

spiritual lifestyle against that of the farmer, concluding that

―Long before any fields were plowed, hunters were keeping close

tabs on lunar, solar and seasonal cycles, as reflected in their cal-

endars and in their stories.‖xxi

Eco-Feminism vs. Hunters?

One of Eaton‘s most important, and probably controversial,

points of discussion is the debate between the eco-feminist who emerged from academia in the 1980s and hunters in general. The

decade of the 80s was a difficult time for hunting and men.

Eaton writes that one aspect of the eco-feminist movement that

has maintained its popularity is that men and male-centered ac-

tivities are guilty of all ills besetting society. ―Female anthro-

pologists have questioned time honored theories about the nature

of masculinity and femininity.‖xxii

(Continued on page 12)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 12

One academic on whom Eaton draws his sights is one of to-

day‘s most popular woman hunting writers in western culture—

Mary Zeiss Stange—author of Woman The Hunter.xxiii Eaton writes about Stange‘s proposition that women have always been

hunters, pointing out that she appears to have based her assess-

ments on her interpretation of ancient mythologies and the fact

that Pygmy women participate in a group hunt and that in the

Philippines the Aka negrito women hunt deer and wild pigs. In

both cases, Eaton argues against Stange‘s position, maintaining

there are serious disparities between Stange‘s arguments and

what, in fact, actually transpires on these hunts. Eaton also points

out that in any foraging culture women dot no kill any big game.

The feminist would like to be able to say that throwing

stones is encouraged by men or imitated by boys, or that

little girls are discouraged from throwing stones. The prob-lem is that there is no evidence to support that objection.

Little boys throw stones whether adult men throw them or

throw nothing at all. The shaping and throwing of stones as

weapons for hunting or defense may go back millions of

years among our ancestors. Its appearance at a predictable

age among human males indicates that it is firmly estab-

lished in the developmental blueprint of ―man the hunter,‖

but not in females.xxiv

Drawing upon his research, Eaton maintains that boys begin

throwing rocks between 4-5 years of age while girls do not.

Eaton does, however, support Stange‘s arguments that anthro-pologists have exhibited a strong and biased sexism regarding the

roles of men and women he also points out, ―that does not dis-

prove the theory that hunting and gatherer have been the primary

division of foraging labor between the sexes.‖xxv One of his most

important arguments against Stange is that he believes her theo-

ries posit that male hunters ―. . . feel aggressive or angry toward

animals we hunt for food. Nothing could be further from the

truth.‖ xxvi Finally, to prove his point Eaton quotes Eric

Fromm,xxvii the author of The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

in which (Eaton writes) ―that in the act of hunting, a man be-

comes part of nature again, and based on a considerable body of

knowledge about existing primitive hunters concluded that hunt-ing is not conducive to cruelty and destructiveness.‖xxviii As if to

prove Fromm‘s [and Eaton‘s] point a recent video posted by

PETAxxix purports to show Chinese fur farmers inflicting sense-

less cruelty on dogs and other animals raised for their fur. The

Chinese pastoralists, if the video is even partially true, proves

both Fromm and Eaton‘s arguments of the inherit violence of the

pastoralist compared to the actions of hunters.

Eaton’s Argument

Dr. Eaton‘s work and argument is not against the women‘s

movement in hunting and he does try to soften his criticism of

Dr. Stange‘s work. When he examines the archetypes of the ma-ture man in Chapter 7, ―Orion‘s Legacy: Men, Myths and Hunt-

ing‖ Eaton turns to the work of Carl G. Jung, the founder of ana-

lytical psychiatry. ―Jung understood that much of the uncon-

scious was the consequence of repression resulting from civilized

humanity‘s separation from nature.‖xxx This is, Eaton believes,

the core problem that contemporary civilization is struggling

with, and that it is having a long lasting and deeply negative im-

pact on young people, especially young men, throughout the

world. One of the failures he points to is the lack of a serious

study of the ―good‖ psychological aspects of hunting, and he

writes: Nowhere in a recent professional wildlife publication about

the future of hunting that examined anti-hunting sentiment was

there any discussion of the psychology of hunting, which is

surprising because anti-hunters have vehemently claimed that

hunters are sadistic and psychopathic. Psychologist Jim Swan

believes that one of the reasons that there has been a shift in

attitudes about hunting is a lack of study of the motivations for

hunting, but in this case he says, ―Despite vitriolic accusations

by some anti-hunters, there is no substantial psychological re-

search or writing to conclude that hunting in general is in any

way associated with mental disease. What evidence there is

supports just the opposite position.‖xxxi In Eaton‘s analysis of his survey of hunters he uncovers lay-

ers of evidence that the majority of hunters, men and women, are

actually reverent toward their kills. Taken with his personal ex-

periences, his vision quest, drifting away from hunting and in-and

-out of relationships until he returned to hunting and with that

return gained an understanding of what he wanted to do with his

life, have combined to have a monumental impact on his life—

and where he wants to take his work. Jim Casada, who is himself

a retired history professor and respected outdoor writer, has

known Eaton for twenty years and in an email to The Review

Casada commented on Eaton‘s dedication to a dream, writing, that Eaton is, ―inspiring and clearly committed to passing on the

legacy of love for the natural world and preaching the gospel of

what ‗connectedness‘ with the good earth can do for youth.‖xxxii

For Randall Eaton, this is what drives him—commitment to

the natural world and youth. He is firm in his belief that through

his vision quest and the subsequent vision, and the following

years of interaction with nature—from orca whales to the Bush-

men of the Kalahari—he has rediscovered the vital connective-

ness between humanity and nature that offers the greatest hope

for the future of this Mother Earth. Perhaps, in the minds of

some who would rather criticize than listen, Randall Eaton‘s mes-

sage sounds too Messianic for their liking, but on the other hand, as Eaton might point out, the critics have had their chance and

what we‘ve got for giving them the chance is war, oil on our

beaches, newly polluted rivers and generations of young men and

women who are searching for meaning in their lives. It might

just be possible that the meaning they need has been there all

along.

To Contact Dr. Randall Eaton

Readers interested in contacting Dr. Eaton may do so by any of

the following:

Email: reaton@eoni.com. Phone 513-244-2828

USPS Mail: 5128 Ralph Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45238

Text Notes i. R. L. Eaton, From Boys to Men of Heart, pg. xliii 2009. ii. Ibid. iii. COIN, Game Conservation International, based in San Antonio, Texas.

Eaton (Continued from page 11)

Bushnell v. Brunton Lawsuit Settled

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 13

iv. R. L. Eaton,Email Interview, Pines Review, May 2, 2010, 9:00 PM v. Ibid vi. Nikolaas, ―Niko,‖ Timbergen, (April 15, 1907 – December 21, 1988) A Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konard Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns am animals. Ethology s the study of animal behavior and modern ethology is credited to Timbergen. vii. R. L. Eaton, From Boys to Men of Heart 2009, pg. li

viii. “Skyhooks of salvation” a phrase used when describing an improb-able solution to a problem and used by someone to justify their state-ments or teaching. ix. R. L. Eaton, The Sacred Hunt, pg. 25-26. 1998 x. Ibid, 27 xi. Ibid xii. Ahisma: Do no harm. Originated in ancient India. xiii. R. L. Eaton, From Boys to Men of Heart, pg. 159. xiv. ibid, 48 xv. Sam Keen, American philosopher examining social issues. He holds graduate degrees from Harvard and Princeton. xvi. R. L. Eaton, From Boys to Men of Heart 2009, pg. 71 xvii. Ibid xiii. Ibid, 76 xix. Ibid, 77 xx. Ibid. xxi. bid, 79

xxii. Mary Zeiss Stange, has contributed to Bugle and many other publi-cations and is widely recognized for her work in encouraging women to become hunters. She was given the opportunity to reply to Dr. Eaton’s challenges to her work and she refused to do so, citing commitments for editing and other work. She did, however, send an answer regard-ing her assessment of Dr. Eaton’s work but when The Pines Review asked for permission to publish her reply she adamantly refused to give permission and did not offer any further explanation. xxiii. R. L. Eaton, From Boys to Men of Heart 2009, 84 xxiv. Ibid xxv. Ibid, 89 xxvi. Ibid xxvii. Eric Fromm, A German born psychoanalyst whose work included the seminal work Escape From Freedom (1941) which is the underpin-ning work of modern political psychology. In 1956 he published The Art of Loving, which is still a popular teaching text. xxviii. Ibid xxix. PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A radical ani-mal rights group that is opposed to hunting and nearly all other uses of animals. Past hyperbolic and false claims by PETA members weakens any claims they make against the Chinese fur farmers. Other, more reliable organizations, however, have made similar claims giving credi-bility to the PETA charges in this case. xxx. R. L. Eaton, From Boys to Men of Heart, pg. 101 xxxi. Ibid, 219 xxxii. Jim Casada, Email Interview, May 03, 2010, 6:37 PM

BRIEFLY Interactive Fishing & Regulations

Interactive fishing and hunting regulation guides for all 50

states can now be quickly and easily accessed at the website

huntnfishregs.com.

Guy VanDyke, vice president of sales for huntnfishregs.com,

explained ―Our [online] navigation tools will help users find ex-

actly what they need. Once found, the regulation guides can be

downloaded as PDF filed and then printed.‖

Visitors to the site also will find other useful tools to help

them plan their hunting and fishing trips. A user can buy a hunt-

ing or fishing license, find a hunter safety course, check out maps, fishing reports, weather/lunar forecasts and obtain contact

information for state and federal natural rescource agencies.

The founders of huntnfishregs.com, Guy VanDyke and Jeff

Hunt, each have more than 15 years of experience producing

hunting and fishing regulation guides. They also are avid sports-

men who know what is needed to plan a successful fishing or

hunting trip.

For more information visit the site at huntnfishregs.com or

contact VanDyke at gvandyke@huntnfishregs.com or

www.huntnfishregs.com.

Sportsman Channel is adding a fly fishing and a fishing show

to its second quarter lineup. The fly fishing show is Fly Fishing

Top 2 Bottom and will feature host Charlie Charlesworth with co-

hosts Donald Trump Jr., Joe Humphrey and Patagonia fly fishing

legend Martin Carranza. In this series the host and co-hosts will

seek out some of the western hemisphere‘s greatest fly fishing

destinations. The series will be broadcast on Mondays at 12:30

p.m., Tuesdays at 6 a.m., Thursdays at 5 p.m. and Saturdays at

10:30 p.m.

Flats Class TV will be focused on inshore fishing for species

including snook, redfish, sea trout and tarpon and the two hosts

for the program are Captain C.A. Richardson and Captain Ray Van Horn. Broadcast dates are: Mondays at 3:30 p.m., Tues-

day at 10 a.m., Wednesdays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 10

p.m.

After being in the court system for more than a year the Bush-

nell/Laser Technology, Inc., (LTI) lawsuit against the Brunton

Company has been settled.

The lawsuit was filed in January 2009 by Bushnell and LTI

against Brunton and other defendants for patent infringement and

the U.S. District Court of Kansas granted Bushnell and LTI a preliminary injunction against the defendants and prohibited

them from importing and selling certain laser rangefinder prod-

ucts.

The settlement permanently barred Brunton from selling the

infringing laser rangefinders and the company must pay Bush-

nell an undisclosed settlement amount.

North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, is now home to the

newest Pheasant Forever Chapter and only the second collegiate-

based chapter. Students at the state‘s two largest campuses, Uni-

versity of North Dakota in Grand Forks, and NDSU, are drawn

from a large hunting community with wide faculty support.

Sportsman Channel Fishing Programs North Dakota State Univ. Pheasant Forever

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 14

Catch and Release. I saw

it on bumper stickers when I

ventured into King Fisher Fly

Shop to obtain my first fishing license. It‘s the unspoken

promise, the word of honor

that you‘ll return any fish you

hook to its river so there will

be some left for others who

come to the trout stream. En-

tirely understandable—

commendable considering the

overcrowded sporting-contest

conditions found on the banks

of any river that runs through it. No one wants to deplete our

natural resources.

But where is the guts and

the glory in that? The barbe-

que and the boast? It‘s diffi-

cult when you‘ve lived as long

as I have to abandon the bas-

ket and the string of accom-

plishment held high for the

camera. Catch and release.

Never did that in salt water,

bobbing out in the ocean un-der the searing sun on my

brother‘s outboard.

When I‘d seen pictures of

fly-fishing, the fisherwoman

was standing, albeit thigh

deep in waders and wearing

an unattractive hat. Here was

involvement; the man I

watched on television was

casting over and over again,

his eye on something. But was I willing to don on all

that gear—the waders, the

boots, the vest—over dry

clothes, and stand in icy wa-

ter until I snagged a trout,

wrestled him in a watery

duel, then landed him, only

to let him go? Not to mention

that in the process of remov-

ing the hook from lip, jaw or

God forbid, eyeball, the oc-

cupation would become more relational than I had ever

intended. Could I engage that

closely with the hunted and

remain a hunter? Few things

taste better than buttered,

grilled trout with a good Char-

donnay. God would be my only

witness. Streams were not

wide enough for two to fish

across—and a private sort of

sport it is at that. I had seen

people spread out the length

of the river, stealthily glide

forward after a few casts, then

try again. Who would believe

I really caught one if I could-

n‘t bring it home? I‘ve always been a man-

ager, but despite my effort to

put each proper thing in its

proper compartment, I confess

that I am not the most vigilant

environmentalist on the

planet. I begin each day with

resolve but ashamedly admit

that I fall prey to avoiding the

extra mile to recycle.. If the

―paper and plastic‖ container

is not nearby, I cave to con-venience, aim for any old

trash can. Nor am I, despite

my painstakingly cautious

basic nature, as concerned as I

should be about important

edible species, and was once

witnessed sampling endan-

gered buffalo (back when it

was) from a menu in Mon-

tana.

So when I married a man whose nightly prayer is for

another salmon-fly hatch and

whose book collection in-

cludes twenty volumes dedi-

cated to understanding trout, I

was not only understandably

goal-oriented and determined

to grow adept at fly fishing,

but also certain I would want

to net and keep just one for

the barbeque. Even though he

faithfully practices catch-and-release as policy, there surely

are fishermen who sneak a

small trout for a celebratory

meal.

A River Runs Through It

had been a favorite book and

movie, the latter not merely due to Robert Redford‘s narra-

tion and Brad Pitt‘s acting.

From the moment I read Mac-

lean‘s words and was mesmer-

ized by the film‘s stunning

depiction of casting knee-deep

in the Montana wilderness, I

was hooked. I signed up for a

class. Formal instruction on

the sport as well as hands-on

casting would get me where I wanted to go. It was the sensi-

ble, logical step any arrange-

ment aficionado would take

before venturing into the wild.

Like the dutiful dog that I

am, still suffering from post

teacher‘s-pet syndrome, I

slipped easily into the class-

room chair. From my seat

(front row center) I could of-

fer undivided concentration as

I nodded to the instructor, thus exhibiting total understanding

of the intricacies of knot ty-

ing—a different microscopic

seven-step design for each

portion of the process: leader

to tippet to dry fly.

More passing years than I

can count flashed before me

that morning, as rather than

rapt and on the brink of dis-

covery with each new lesson, I was near comatose, incapable

of staying alert, craving Star-

bucks like a woman crawling

toward water in the desert.

Seems age had removed my

capacity to remain awake

while listening. Still I perse-

vered, my inborn tenacity not

to be assailed. Luckily, the

hours gave way to an after-

noon of casting practice where

I strove to excel in each se-quential step.

The lead fisherman

lauded my every move—at

High On the Wild With Kathleen Clary Miller

Kathleen Clary Miller

It’s All in the Letting Go or

How fly fishing altered my plan

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 15

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first. Having instilled a foundation of confidence, he began to

suggest that I was ―a bit stiff‖ and should ―loosen up and forget

the rules.‖ Forget the rules? I struggled to allow my natural in-

stincts to rise to the surface, but they battled with my basic per-

sonality; I am nothing short of stellar at following orders. So the instructional day ended with budding knowledge, but

although I could tie each knot and repeat every motion, I was left

with the haunting awareness that I wasn‘t graceful. I would not

resemble the piscatorial ballet I had seen in the movie.

A month later found me standing on the edge of Rock Creek,

christened that name for a reason: as if the current isn‘t enough to

wage with weakened thighs, the bottom is covered with mossy

boulders of every shape and size—not an inch of sand between

them. The first thing I had to let loose of was the shore. At the

casting lesson, we had anchored our steady stance on terra firma

as lines fell neatly in an arcing pattern. Here on mossy boulders

that bottomed the creek, I required no less than the grip of an octopus simply to hold my ground.

Next I had to unhand the notion that I was somehow supe-

rior, an expert who had attended classes that had birthed new-

found intelligence allowing me to camouflage my presence in a

river where I did not belong. Despite all my outdoor-catalog

clothing purchases I could not pull the wool over these altogether

perceptive creatures. Instead, I could only catch a brief glimpse

of them as they tauntingly revealed themselves—a flash of bril-

liance in their rise only to snub my pathetic attempt to create na-

ture with a man-made fly. Far from blending, I was still the inter-

loper whose false temptation seemed, even after hours of re-hearsal, awkward.

Lastly, I had to abandon still air. The formidable breeze

twisted unwanted knots with each toss of my line—few of the

classroom rules were at work here, and my frustration was not

unlike that of the pre-schooler who has mastered coloring within

the lines only to be handed a blank sheet of paper. Where were

my boundaries?

Then all at once I heard it. There are none. Loosen up; forget

the rules.

I closed my eyes to the staggering scenery that surrounded

me and sensed the weight of the rod as the line soared overhead.

Then, as soon as I felt it bow ever so slightly, I even forgot to cringe for fear of snagging an earlobe. My line snapped forward

and as I heard the soft whir of filament like quick wind through

branches. In that moment I was part of the dance. The catch was

utterly secondary to the art. As my whooping holler echoed off

sheer cliffs dotted with big-horned sheep, I opened my eyes.

I had let it go.

When several days later I landed my first fish, performed gentle surgery to remove the hook from his gaping jaw, and re-

leased him back to the ebb and flow of teeming life at my feet, he

rested there for just an instant, then swirled around my boots and

shimmered off into the glare of sun on clear water. I was the en-

vironmentalist I had always known I could be—it had somehow

come naturally. Why wouldn‘t I soothe a fellow creation of God

as I carefully extricated metal pain from his pouting lip, tell him

to return to his friends, and that everything would be okay? In

that moment, I soared high above recycling and best-laid plans to

a level of wriggling flesh and breathing gills—a creature with

eyes that looked right into mine as we were both released.

Some go fishing to count the number of tight lines and how many fish they net. And yes, there is an undeniable thrill in the

catching; I cannot pretend otherwise. But trust me; it‘s all about

the letting go. Really.

That first glorious moment I relinquished my prize, I was

reminded of a poem by Elizabeth Bishop that I used to teach in

my high school classes. Entitled The Fish, the poet describes a

trophy she has pulled into the boat; how, weakened from battle,

he no longer struggles; how she looks into his eyes that stare back

at hers; how, as she disengages the hook, she is suddenly en-

gaged. She notices bits of barb and line hanging from his lip—old

wounds inflicted by former entanglements, and she contemplates the heady victory that fills her boat—the trophy she realizes she

can carry home. All has gone according to plan…

―…until everything

was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!

And I let the fish go.‖ Read Kathleen Clary Miller’s blog and other stories: http://kcmillersoutpost.blogspot.com/. Her essays and stories have appeared in Newsweek Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The

Hartford Courant, The Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, Orange Coast Magazine, Missoula Living Magazine, Flathead Living Magazine, The Johns Hopkins Memory Bulletin, and The Christian Sci-ence Monitor. She was a regular columnist for The Missoulian—Western Montana’s Daily Newspaper. Her current monthly column ―Peaks and Valleys‖ appears in Montana Woman Magazine. She has contributed to NP Radio‘s On Point. She lives in Huson, Montana.

along since Jesus reached into

a fish basket and fed the hun-

gry!

This gizmo had straps, lanyards, color-coordinated

tags, sliders, attached grease

pencil/log board with date/

time/location input, dual

ground/boat/pier stake attach-

ments, and more whistles and

bells than a Rube Goldberg

mousetrap! I‘m not saying all

of these new tech innovations

are not something every an-

gler needs but the fish stringer script and production were so

convoluted, the message so

garbled and lost in music and

shock-value graphics, that I

could not understand the mes-

sage, the point of the com-

mercial or why I needed a

new fish stringer.

This is just one of the

many, many productions out

there using TV or video to

sell products or services. The myriad TV programs ready

for you to sit down and learn

all about hunting turkeys,

landing lunker lake trout, or

increasing your backwoods

survival skills are not much

different. Some of these

shows, featuring well-known

personalities, have been pro-

ducing a continuing series for

years and years! Virtually all of these programs begin with

lots of action, good music and

the promise that they are go-

ing to show you their adven-

tures and teach you to be their

equal the next time you head

to the field.

After 30-minutes, you‘ve

been inundated with

―whispering hunters‖ jabber-

ing to each other in the

field—where you can‘t under-stand a word they are saying;

or there is some grinning an-

gler telling the camera; ―Got

me another one and boy is he

a hawg!‖ Mindless entertainment?

To be sure.

Information I can use in the

field to better my own skills,

or teach me/introduce me to

new equipment, tactics, or

techniques?

Rarely.

The Cardinal Rule

I have written or co-

authored several dozen books, thousands of magazine arti-

cles, edited hundreds of issues

of leading outdoor publica-

tions, and produced hundreds

of TV shows, product tests,

commercials, infomercials

and outdoor corporate profiles

and the first and hard, number

one rule to all of the above is

each one must have a begin-

ning, a middle, an end and a

call to action. Sounds so simple, doesn‘t

it? Actually it is, and in the

history of multi-media that

rule has been the guiding light

for successful TV programs,

commercials and in every-

thing from print to broadcast.

Yet, it seems today that more

and more TV/Video produc-

ers are losing sight of those

simple objectives in helping viewers to learn ―stuff;‖ help-

ing manufacturers to show-

case their products to drive

retail sales; and of course

inspire people to get out and

enjoy the out-of-doors.

At college seminars and

guest-talks where I am trying

to convey this simple message

in 44-48 minutes to AV/TV/

Video students it seems that

many students hold dear to the idea that the production

value is the most important

element. At film festivals I‘ve

attended, whether at the col-

lege level or major film fests,

it‘s often the same.

In my own productions,

(Continued on page 19)

Having been in the maga-

zine/book writing, editing,

and TV/video field for more

years than I wish to testify to under oath, it never ceases to

amaze me how “easy” every-

one thinks it is to write an

outdoor-related TV/video

script, whether for a commer-

cial, infomercial or even a

non-commercial program.

If you‘re one of the many

readers saying that I‘m wrong

about this, all you have to do

is turn on any of the major network TV channels and

spend a little time watching

anything from the news to

sports or your favorite pro-

grams, I guarantee that within

a short time, you‘ll watch

major manufacturer commer-

cials that will leave you won-

dering WHAT THE...? Was

that all about?!!!

Just look at some of the

major car maker‘s ads. They spend so much time on show-

casing sexy ladies you‘d think

one supermodel is included in

your purchase price!

If you are an outdoor enthu-

siast and regularly watch any

of the major sporting/outdoor

channels the situation is even

worse! I recently saw a TV

commercial for something as

simple as a new fish stringer. You know… something to

hook your fish onto and put it

back in the water to keep the

fish alive?!!

Instead of being informa-

tive, educational and enter-

taining, the maker and/or pro-

ducer of the fish stringer

script took a fun, fast, musical

totally irrelevant approach to

try enticing me and other

viewers that this was the greatest innovation to come

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 16

Video/Broadcasting With Andy Lightbody

This gizmo had straps,

lanyards, color-

coordinated tags,

sliders, attached grease

pencil/log board . . .

More whistles and bells

than a Rube Goldberg

mousetrap!

Andy Lightbody

The outdoor writers I‘ve

met are an eclectic bunch;

diverse in age, gender, ethnic

origin, specialty, outlook, and personality. It is difficult to

generalize them with any de-

gree of confidence, except in

this single area:

They are lousy photogra-

phers.

Yes, yes, I know, some

are good – a few are even

very good. But the vast ma-

jority range somewhere be-

tween awful and ‗good enough.‘ (And don‘t for a

second tell me that a photo is

good because it won a con-

test. I‘ve entered contests,

judged contests, and watched

open judging of contests.

Placing in a contest where all

the photos are mediocre does

not indicate the winners were

good, just not as bad as the

competition. I‘ve also seen

excellent photos eliminated because of bad mounting,

printing, captions, and for no

discernable reason.)

For me a great photo is

one that has impact, an image

that makes a reader stop, and

stare, then linger on the im-

age, forget about everything

else in the room, and just let

the image take them over. The

best photos make the reader feel. Feel compassion, awe,

fear, amazement, excitement,

serenity, or elation. A great

photo compels a reader to

grab their friend and say ―Did

you see this?‖ A great photo

gets cut out, saved, or sent to

someone else. Great photos

live in the memories of the

readers, and touch a part of

their soul.

Great photos are hard to produce, and for even the best

full-time photographers, great

photographs are relatively

rare. But good photographers

will consistently produce good photographs. Let‘s say

that a photograph that is a

‘10‘ is a great photo, and a

‗one‘ is not publishable at all.

Good photographers always

work to try to get that 10. If

they don‘t get a 10 on every

assignment, you can still de-

pend on them to bring back

sevens, eights, and nines con-

sistently, every day. However, it seems that

outdoor writers will consis-

tently bring back twos to

fives, and occasionally pro-

duce a six or seven. I‘m con-

vinced the six or seven will be

a fluke.

I‘m not trying to go out

of my way to be unduly harsh

towards outdoor writers.

Communicating through lan-

guage and communicating visually are vastly different

skills, and are even processed

in completely different parts

of the brain (for both the pro-

duction and for the consump-

tion of the information). It is

the very rare individual that is

both a good writer and a good

photographer.

But just because a skill is

not inherent doesn‘t mean it can‘t be learned, developed,

or improved. I started out as a

photojournalist, and to this

day writing is a struggle for

me. Actually, photography is

also a struggle, but I enjoy

that tussle. For me, writing is

about as enjoyable as a swarm

of mosquitoes. I don‘t think

an average writer will start

spitting out photos that are

nines and 10s, but they can certainly improve enough to

turn their twos into fives or

sixes.

I‘ve seen outdoor writers

pull out a point and shoot camera, take a single frame,

and say ―Got it.‖ I know these

same wordsmiths work pretty

hard to get the right word,

phrase, sentence structure and

tempo in their stories. They

should do the same with their

photographs. And if I can

learn it, so can they.

I‘ll admit that I didn‘t

really pay attention in English class, which means that now

I‘m completely reliant on a

well-thumbed set of reference

books on grammar and writ-

ing. I can dangle a participle

with the best of them, and

when confronted with the lay/

lie conundrum I‘m ashamed

to admit I take the coward‘s

way out and just rewrite the

passage. I live in fear when

real writers start talking about transitive verbs, subjunctives,

and antecedents, because

without my books I‘m com-

pletely useless.

How then to convince

writers that they can easily

improve their photographs,

without boring them into a

coma with esoteric photo-

graphic jargon like eye trap, S

-curve, depth of field, circle of confusion, or grey scale

steps?

How about drawing

analogies between writing and

photography?

How writers can make

better photos:

Determine the purpose for

the photograph.

This doesn‘t have to be an

Intensive philosophical strug-

gle, just understand what you want to shoot, and why you

want to shoot it – just like you

would determine why you are

writing a story (or a part of a

story). Is this the main story,

or a sidebar? Is this the main

theme, or detail information

(Continued on page 20)

Jeff Davis

Photography’s World With Jeff Davis

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 17

I am not trying to go out of my way to be unduly harsh towards

outdoor writers. Communicating

through language and visually are different

skills.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 18

Blogger and social media guru Pete Cash-

more once said, ―Social media is the media.‖

Although some people are skeptical, I com-

pletely agree with Cashmore‘s assessment.

For centuries there was only one medium of mass communication: print. Then came photog-

raphy, motion pictures, radio and finally televi-

sion; each one of these is a separate and unique

medium. Now, there is the Internet which al-

lows us to combine all of these separate and

unique media into one that is easily accessible

worldwide.

I have run several seminars on the impor-

tance of using social media and the number one

question I am asked is, ―Why do

I need social media?‖ My answer

to this question is that social media is a wonderful untapped

resource for communicators.

Many people still believe that

social media is a place where

teenagers upload silly pictures

and discuss washing their dogs

or last date. However, social

media has become the best way

to engage the largest and most

diverse number of people in the

shortest amount of time. To put this in perspective, in 2008

nearly 83 percent of Internet users used some

sort of social media site during their time

online and that number has continued to grow

in 2009. Overall, researchers following the

trend maintain that nearly one billion people

are using social media!

There are many, many opportunities to en-

gage people through social media. Unfortu-

nately, writers and journalists have been the

slowest professionals to utilize this opportunity.

As an example, in my personal experience, as a child of the digital age, I know that I am up to

twenty times more likely to read a story or

open a link if it appears on Facebook or Twit-

ter. Rarely do I ever visit the Web site of a

newspaper, magazine or writer if their links are

not coming to me via my social media sites.

Despite the facts and figures supporting the

use of social media, many people still shy away

from its use. Common rationalizations for

avoiding any social media is they are afraid

other users will comment or criticize them, they do not want to be spammed, and they do not

want people to be able to see their personal

information. It is not uncommon for communi-

cation professionals who have not been ex-

posed to social media by family or in the class-

room to be intimidated. One of the greatest aspects of social media, however, is its ease of

use and user friendliness. Almost all social me-

dia sites are free to use, requiring only a valid e

-mail address for a person to join the site. As

for becoming a member of the site, most social

media sites provide new users with step-by-step

instructions and tips for getting started. The

simple design of the sites keeps them unclut-

tered and less confusing for new users. Another

useful innova-

tion for those

who find it too complicated to

check several

Web sites each

day, there are

a number of

applications

and Web sites

that provide

the means for

users to check

all of their social media

accounts from one place online.

Perhaps the most time consuming and com-

plicated part of using social media is getting

started. Despite the ease of creating accounts, it

takes time and effort to build a presence on any

social media site. Creating an account but never

checking it is the same as buying a steak but

never cooking it. Having an account on Face-

book does no good if there are no posts on it.

Social media is about interaction with other

users. If you are not interacting with other us-ers, you are missing the point of social media.

Building a presence in the world of social me-

dia requires making social media part of a daily

routine; whether in the office or at home, time

should be aside every day for posting and

checking sites.

The second most frequent question I am

asked by new social media users is, ―How

much time is this going to take each day?‖

Most of the time, users only need to spend 15

minutes a day checking sites. Fifteen minutes gives people enough time to read and reply to

Social Media With Rachel Bunn

Rachel Bunn

“Why do I need social media?” My answer is that social media is a wonderful untapped resources . . . . In 2008 nearly 83 percent of Internet users used some sort of social media.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

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Page 19

when I or the staff of Rocky Mountain Televi-

sion/Productions (RMTV) sit down to evaluate a

product, produce a commercial, or a TV/Video about doing something out-of-doors, we always

begin with the question; ―What is the production

supposed to accomplish?‖ Once that‘s determined

and the goal has been set, we develop 3-8 bullet

points that will be needed to fulfill that #1 Rule:

a beginning, middle, an end and a call to action.

When we‘ve completed a production we‘ve

learned that it‘s often a good learning curve for

everyone involved at all levels of production

(researching, scripting, videoing and editing) to

view the finished product with outsiders who

have no idea what is being presented to them. At the end of the viewing everything comes down to

one simple question… So what did you think?

Answers that come back saying, ―I really liked

it,‖ tells me nothing!

Answers that come back saying, ―That was

cool,‖ are equally uninspiring or lacking in value.

Instead, when viewers say that they learned

something, want to go out and try this for them-

selves, want the product, or are ready to book

their adventure at that resort or with that particu-

lar guide/outfitter then I know the program had solid production value, packed with information

and was obviously entertaining and held their

interest.

Helping Our Industry Outdoor product makers are probably the most

innovative group of people I have ever had the

privilege of working with. Forget the mousetrap,

these folks have come up with ideas that most of

us could never dream of in our lifetime. Certainly

some are indeed best categorized as when the

ridiculous becomes the absurd, but many others

are definitely on the list of new ―Must Have‖ products that help us better enjoy a host of out-

door recreation opportunities.

In today‘s tough economy, providing people

with better ways to enjoy the out-of-doors using

what they have in terms of dollars to spend, can

be a formula for success. Being in tune with how

to help these entrepreneurial wizards of small

industries get their message out to a buying pub-

lic with a buzz that builds sales, bookings for

outdoor trips or simply in better educating every-

one that there are new and better ways to hunt,

camp or catch fish, is the challenge that the mod-ern script writer/producer must struggle with for

today‘s TV and video.

Now, go watch your favorite outdoor shows,

the car commercials or products that are touting

that your life will be better with their product or

service. I promise that you will be a little more

critical and appreciative of those shows and com-

mercials that do convey a solid message and

when you‘re not—you can always say… WHAT

THE…? Was that all about?! Andy Lightbody and Rocky Mountain Television/Productions have produced dozens of award-winning TV/Video programs, including the most prestigious, Broadcaster of the Year 2009 Pinnacle Award from the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA). Questions/needs about TV/Video productions can be sent directly to him at info@rmtv.net

Andy Lightbody, Video (Continued from page 16)

comments, make comments of their own, and

check to see what is happening at that time with

other users. However, 15 minutes is not a rule—time spent using social media can vary from site

to site but 15 minutes is a good starting point for

the new users.

The New Tool of Choice?

Social media is one of the most important

tools to emerge from the Internet. Writers and

journalists, especially freelancers and those who

self-publish, can benefit greatly from its use,

whether using it as a research tool or for market-

ing their own work. It is a wonderful resource of

ideas for freelancers, easily replacing the old

―idea file‖ freelancers were urged to maintain in the pre-digital age.

What are people interested in? What do they

think about a particular subject? A quick search

around Facebook and Twitter can lead to interest-

ing and unusual finds that can become magazine

articles or even book projects. Secondly, social

media is really about self-promotion and interac-

tion. Publish a new book? Have an article in a

magazine that you want more people to read or

industry leaders to be aware of? Immediately send it out in a status update or tweet and receive

feedback from across the media site. The major-

ity of social media users may not be poetic but

they will provide excellent insight and analysis

into stories and ideas that become stories.

Finally, social media is fun. Because there is a

constant stream of news and information, social

media can lead you to some interesting Internet

discoveries. The most astonishing nature photog-

raphy I have seen was on a Facebook page and

many of the most interesting articles and stories I

have read have come to me via Twitter. Admit-tedly social media still has useless information

and viral videos but using it wisely can lead to

unexpected discoveries about people and their

interests that savvy writers can transform into

sales.

Social Media (Continued from page 18)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 20

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to support the theme? Is the photo to document

what is there, to capture an special moment, to

put in an album, to send to a friend, or so the designer has a cool background image to use as

a graphic? Determining the purpose will help in

deciding how to approach the subject. Every

photo need not be a prize-winner. If you are

happy with it and it helps support the story, it is

a good photo.

Have a point of view.

Are you trying to capture the reality and ex-

actness of the subject, or are you trying to con-

vey a mood? Are you trying to show reality or

communicate a concept? For example, are you

trying to show a garden so you can identify the variety of species, or are you trying to convey

the serenity that you feel in the garden as late-

afternoon light filters through the rows? Is the

landscape dramatic, or peaceful? Is the photo of

the hunter a portrait, an action shot, or are you

trying to show the ravages of time and weather

imprinted on his face? This is sort of connected

to determining the purpose of the photo (above),

but they are often separate items.

Build the photo like you build a sentence.

Just like a sentence, you need to have a noun in your photo – the main subject. In too many

photos everything is the same size, and on the

same plane. If everything is the same size it all

has the same level of importance to the viewer,

and it‘s boooring! If there are three people in the

photo, make one of them dominant—this is the

noun. You can easily do this by putting one of

them closer to the camera, with the other two

behind and to the side (the adjectives). In the

standard ‗guy with a dead deer‘ photo, too many

times the deer and the guy compete for attention,

because they are the same size, and on the same plane. Put one in front of the other, or one above

the other. Is the deer the subject of the photo, or

is it the guy? No writer sits down at a keyboard

and just starts typing, he decides what it is he

wants to say and intentionally structures his sen-

tences. It is the same with photography. Instead

of walking up to the scene and just taking a

photo, think about what the main subject is, and

what information you want to communicate.

Just like creating a paragraph, have only one

topic in your photo. How many words long is your average sen-

tence? Is it a good idea to have a sentence that

deals with three different subjects? Too many

photographs have too much information in them,

and just like a run-on sentence it‘s not a good

idea to make the reader work too hard to com-

prehend what is in the image. You may think

you need to include the hunter, the float plane,

the canoe, the cabin, the rifle, the dog, and the

cool cloud formation all in one photo, but that‘s

incredibly difficult to pull off. Give your reader only one, obvious, center of interest. Keep it

simple is great advice, and a rule that should

rarely be broken.

Don’t fill your story, or your photos, with

useless information. The photographic corollary is don‘t surround

your subject with dead space. The single biggest

reason many photos have too much information

is that the photographer is not close enough to

the subject. This technique for solving the prob-

lem has been around for as long as I‘ve held a

camera, and it‘s still valid: Compose your photo, then take the camera away from your eye, see

how far away you are from your subject, and

then cut that distance in half. Sometimes you‘ll

need to do this a second time.(This is a little

tough when shooting landscapes, but it certainly

applies when photographing people.) It is almost

impossible, with using standard cameras and

lenses, to be too close.

In far too many photos the subjects take up a

small portion of the frame, and they are sur-

rounded by huge expanses of beach, sky, build-ings, room interiors, or other background. When

shooting a picture you are concentrating on the

subject and you don‘t realize they are only tak-

ing up ten percent of the frame. After compos-

ing, look around the subject. If they don‘t take

up at least half of the frame, put the camera

down, walk off half the distance (or more) be-

tween you and the subject, and recompose. Fill

the frame with the subject. An iconic war pho-

tographer once said, ―If your pictures are not

good enough, you are not close enough.‖ He was

right, but unfortunately for him his career was ended by a land mine.

Provide an interesting point of view.

Writers make a conscious decision how to

present their stories to their readers. First person,

or third person; bulleted list, or narrative de-

scription, each choice has strong and weak

points. Writers pick an angle of view for a story

to make it interesting to the reader. It is no dif-

ferent in photography, except the photographer

must actually, physically, attain the point of

view, while writers have the luxury of being able to create it in their minds. Most people view the

world standing up, with a normal field of view

that is approximated by a 50mm lens. Any time

you show someone something from a point of

view they have never experienced it is inherently

more interesting. Get level with the subject, get

Photography (Continued from page 17)

Page 21

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Jeff’s Truisms of Photography

—The best camera to buy

is one that you will use.

—The subject is the

important thing–if you are

happy with the photo, it‘s

a good photo.

—Expensive cameras do

not necessarily produce

better photos. (A good

photographer will

produce better photos

with inferior equipment

than a bad photographer

can produce with superior

equipment.)

—No one ever asks a

writer what computer or

software he/she uses to

write with. (―That was a

great book–you must use

a really expensive

computer.‖)Having said

the above, there is no substitute for good

equipment, and . . . . .

—There is no problem in

photography that money

can‘t solve.

—If it‘s stupid but it

works, it isn‘t stupid.

—Don‘t let anyone

goofier than you drive the rental car.

—The important things

are very simple.

—The simple things are

very hard.

—Professionals are

predictable.

—Unfortunately, the

world is full of

enthusiastic amateurs.

—If your pictures are not

good enough, you are not

close enough.

—There are no absolutes

in photography. Rules

will improve your photos

most of the time, but if it looks better when you

break The Rules, go

ahead and ignore them!

under it, shoot it from behind, get a ladder for a

different view, use a wide-angle or telephoto lens

(if available). Different lenses change the per-

spective of the elements in the photo, providing a

view that is not possible for humans to see. Just like in a written story, give the reader a different

view, angle or perspective.

Simplify your subject

Lots of adjectives, over explanation, and flow-

ery writing can really get in the way of a good

story, and the same is true of a photograph. Take

your subject and isolate it from things that can be

distracting. Frame the subject against a natural

contrasting (dark or light) background, (often just

moving slightly can clean up the background).

Bring a background with you (black velvet,

paper, etc.), cast a shadow on the background, or move the subject (if possible). Use a telephoto

lens to reduce the background angle.

If you are shooting a large area, get low (so

the subject covers the background or the sky is

the background) or high on a truck, tree, or ladder

(to cut out the horizon) to control objects in the

background.

When you look through the viewfinder, think

of how you would describe the entire photo in

words. If you are using too many words on detail-

ing useless information in the photo, you need to isolate your subject to

a greater degree.

Use Foreground/

Background compo-

sition

Writers often use

supporting information

to build interest in the

main subject. This can

also be done in a sin-

gle photograph by

placing an object prominently in the foreground, while providing a

supporting object in the background. When done

correctly it does not make the photo busy, but the

photo now has two elements that support each

other. This provides an instant point of view,

while making an esthetically pleasing composi-

tion. Think of a fisherman holding a trout in the

foreground, with the winding river receding into

the background behind him.

Introduce tension into the photograph.

Good writing often includes tension. Good writers select specific words and phrases, and

organize them in specific ways to create that ten-

sion. It is the same with photographs, and once

you learn how to do it, it is simple and repeatable.

Square straight lines, especially through the cen-

ter of the photo, result in a static, and therefore

boring, composition. That‘s fine, if your intent is

to provide a photo that invokes a calm feeling in

your reader (like a lake horizon through a sunset).

However, static photos will quickly bore a reader

and have them assume the story is also boring. Don‘t minimize the impact that boring photos

can make on a reader. Every writer I know wants

people to read their work, and if the photos con-

vince the reader the story is boring even before

the first word is read, the battle is already lost.

Create a composition in your photos that cre-

ate tension (interest) inside the photograph. You

can do this by including diagonal or curved lines,

providing a path for the eye to follow, and mak-

ing for a more interesting, dynamic photo.

The Rule of Thirds is a classic compositional

tool. Separate the photo into thirds, both verti-cally and horizontally. Placing a subject on the

four intersecting points will provide the most

dynamic composition (in theory). Placing the

horizon or subject on a line one-third inside the

frame instead of the center will also add dynamic

tension. Placing the horizon in the center will

provide a static feeling.

Summary

Photography can be taught, and even the very

best photographers can be better. If you think you

are already a good photographer, work a little harder, learn something

new, and try to be better. If

you know you should be

better, work a little harder,

learn something new and

you will get better. You can

achieve better photographs

by remembering a few sim-

ple rules, by daring to break

the rules when you see a

better image, by getting out

to shoot, and learning from your mistakes.

• Develop a point of view, and determine

the purpose.

• Get close to the subject.

• Use different angles: up, down, some-

thing more interesting.

• Isolate your subject against the back-

ground.

• Use diagonals or curves to introduce

tension. • Use The Rule of Thirds.

Examine your results honestly and criti-cally.

Learn from your mistakes.

• Get out and shoot pictures!

Photo & © By Jeff Davis

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 22

David Hulme is taking a walk—a long walk—

around the borderline of Zimbabwe. It is a tortu-

ous test of human determination and modern

equipment. And, it is proof that the world still has

people who are willing to sacrifice their health, comfort, and safety for what they believe in. For

David Hulme, that belief is that Zimbabwe‘s Savé

valley is worth saving, and that the poaching of

wildlife must be brought to an end. Our philoso-

phy here at African Expedition Magazine (http://

www.africanxmag.com) is one that shares

Hulme‘s beliefs. That‘s why we contacted David

and offered to become the facilitator for his

dream, publish his story in our magazine, and

once completed, to publish it as a book.

Let me take you back to the beginning of the

relationship between African Expedition Maga-zine and David because it begins in an odd place for an adventure of this sort—the Accurate Re-

loading‘s African Big Game Hunting forum (http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/

frm/f/1411043). Because I am the USA Editor of African Expedition Magazine, and I‘ve made a

few safaris to Africa, I check into the Accurate Reloading forums on a regular basis. Just about

two years ago, David pitched

up on Accurate Reloading with

a posting about his dream. I

was intrigued, and wanted to

know more about what he was

planning, so initially we corre-

sponded by email. I told him that both the African Editor and

I were intrigued by his pro-

posal—so to the phone com-

pany‘s delight I phoned David

at his home in Zimbabwe.

David Hulme is the younger

brother of the highly respected

professional hunter and safari

operator with whom I am al-

ready acquainted, Jonathan Hulme, one of the

partners in the safari operation, Zambezi Hunt-

ers (http://www.zambezihunters.com/). When

David answered the phone, he mistakenly

thought I was interested in talking to his older, well known, brother.

―No,‖ I explained, ―I want to talk to

you about this Borderline Walk.‖

There is a wonderful blend of naiveté,

outdoor savvy, and inner strength in David, and

I picked up on it in the first few minutes of our

(Continued on page 23)

African Expedition Magazine And the Great Zimbabwe Borderline Walk OR How One Magazine Decided To Take A Risk With Adventure & An Unknown African Writer

By Alan Bunn, Associate Editor, The Pines Review

USA Editor, African Expedition Magazine

Photos:

Bottom left:

David Hulme as he appeared

when he began his Zimbabwe

Borderline Walk. Right: An elephant demon-

strates his displeasure at David

getting too close.

Far Right: David and Jephita

taking a break from their walk

to make tea and lunch.

Bottom Right: An uninvited but

welcome dinner guest.

David and Jephita have learned

that the wildlife will often ac-

cept them as part of the envi-

ronment as they walk. David‘s only weapon is a sheath knife

for cutting firewood.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 23 conversation. I was also convinced that his dream of a ―Walk‖ around the Borderline of his

home country was something that could be done—even in Africa. But before I pitched any of

the ideas to our African Editor, Mitch Mitchell, there was one thing I had to do—clear the air

over why I‘d left the African Hunter magazine a couple of years earlier. There had been some

pretty disparaging remarks posted on the Accurate Reloading site, and I knew he‘d read them, and also that I had not responded to them. I told him my reasoning, and he understood why I‘d

made my decisions even though my legal case was rock

solid—friends are friends. That case was closed and I

made my pitch.

―We want to publish your Walk in our magazine,‖ I

said, and then explained, ―we‘ll do it in installments.

Between our deadlines for each issue while you are on

your Walk you keep notes, and then when the deadline

is approaching you find someplace where you can write

an installment, and send it to us along with some pic-

tures you‘ve taken. We‘ll do the needed editing, select

some photos, and publish it, and we‘ll also pay you for each installment.‖

―Pay me!‖ he said, as excited as if I‘d offered him

the moon. I knew he had written for a smaller African

based magazine, but it turned out he had never been paid

one cent, or even thanked, for his work. The

only money he had earned as a writer had come

from the sale of his book, Shangaan Story, a

self-published memoir of growing up on a farm

in the Savé valley of Zimbabwe. He had com-

pletely sold out of his first printing and was

busy scraping the money together for another printing. I wasn‘t surprised that he hadn‘t been paid for his writing; in my years as the

Internet Editor for African Hunter, I‘d learned that few safari magazines will pay for the

stories they publish, because there is a long line of Robert Ruark wanna-be writers will-

ing to give their work away, just to get

their ―African Adventure‖ into print.

There was a little bit of give-n-take

before we reached an agreement, but part

of it was that we would help him get a

new edition of Shangaan Story into

print, although it would be a Print-On-

Demand book. Of course, we would pay

him for each installment of his story but, equally important, we would help him

gather together the gear he would need

for his adventure.

For More Than Adventure

The idea of taking a ―Walk‖

around the country came to David in the

sort of place where lots of ideas are exchanged—

a dingy coffee shop. For David this coffee shop

was in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe, where he

was sitting with his long time friend, Dean

McGregor, who actually proposed the idea. David explained to me that at first he didn‘t grasp

the magnitude of what his friend was proposing.

Over time, as the two men talked, the idea took

shape, but that was in 1996, now fourteen years

ago. In the years that followed, David ―grew‖ the

idea, although it wasn‘t something that he necessarily realized was growing in his brain. During

(Continued on page 27)

All photos accompanying this story are

Copyright, David Hulme, 2009

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 24

Book Review

In The Company of Adventure Book Review By Galen L. Geer

In The Company of Adventure by Jorge Alves

De Lima. 334 pages. 9 Color maps, 159 Black

& White photos. Indexed. Hardback. Trophy

Room Books, Box 3041, Agoura, CA 91301, USA. Price: $150.

My friend Bob Poos, who at the time was

the Managing Editor of Soldier of Fortune

magazine, was loath to celebrate his fiftieth

birthday by himself so the day before his birth-

day I agreed to drive from my (then) home in

Southern Colorado, more than a hundred miles

north to Boulder where the maga-

zine‘s offices were located. The next

day he was given an office birthday

party, and that evening Bob and I went drinking to celebrate the pas-

sage of a half-century of adventure.

That night, after a pleasant eve-

ning of sampling Boulder‘s beverages

Poos leaned across the table and

made a simple statement that has

stayed with me in the thirty years

since that night:

―You realize, my friend,‖ Poos

slurred, ―that you and I are of the sort

of people who could die now and still

have lived more adventure than most men can dream in a lifetime.‖

Throughout my reading of In The

Company of Adventure the words that

Poos said to me on his fiftieth kept

coming to the front of my mind be-

cause Jorge Alves De Lima had also

enjoyed a lifetime of adventure that I could only

dream of.

Jorge was born into Brazilian aristocracy and

wealth and he was educated in the United

States. He enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle that he could have easily maintained if he had fol-

lowed the path his father had planned for him.

Instead, in 1947 in New York Harbor he

boarded a small passenger ship that was bound

for London where he bought a Holland and Hol-

land .500/.465 double rifle, a military .30-06

rifle and a .30-06 hunting rifle and then set off

on his dream—to be an African White Hunter.

The difference between Jorge and most peo-

ple is he accomplished his dream—he became a

white hunter. He was in the right place at the

right time. By the fortunate convergence of politics, economics and the world‘s interest in

Africa, when Jorge entered French Equatorial

Africa the old order of colonialism still domi-

nated local politics and the stampede of tourist-

hunters that would follow on the heels of Robert

Ruark and Hemingway‘s second safari were

more than two decades away. Consequently,

Africa, especially that half of Africa from the equator south, still included vast tracts of land

filled with game and magnificent trophies. Af-

ter a few false steps Jorge managed to insert

himself into the world of professional hunting

and killed his first elephant—making that leap

from sport hunter to professional hunter.

But Jorge maintained a strong connection to

the ideals of the sport hunter. Early in the text,

on page 37, Jorge relates the story of a harte-

beest hunt. His brother and a wealthy uncle had

decided to join him in Africa for a safari (one

that Jorge hadn‘t planned for), and the two brothers were hunting Lord Derby Eland when

they came upon a small herd of hartebeests.

The two brothers decided to shoot two of the

animals for meat because both their camp and

the nearby village larders were empty. Both

brothers fired and two of the hartebeests broke

away from the herd. They crossed the boundary

between the free hunting zone and the game

reserve. Jorge explains that ―both animals were

mortally wounded and with no chance of sur-

vival‖ and they could not leave the animals to suffer. The two brothers went into the reserve

and killed the wounded animals. Most of the

meat was taken to the local village for distribu-

tion and the remainder was taken to their camp.

―I had followed the rules of proper sportsman-

ship and the fact that the final chapter of the

chase took place inside the reserve boundary

never bothered me.‖ This vignette of a single

hunt sets the stage for much of Jorge‘s text.

There is, in fact, an attention to sportsmanship

throughout the book and he frequently writes of

the importance he felt of ensuring that the meat from the elephant, rhino and other game that he

killed was properly distributed to the nearby

villages.

Jorge also explains that even with the liberal

licenses enjoyed by the white hunters and the

vast numbers of game, some hunters still killed

game to excess. Jorge, however, didn‘t have the

stomach for the sort of killing of game that was

modus operandi of some hunters. On page 90

Jorge writes about meat hunting cape buffalo in

Mozambique. ―. . . I had already shot what I considered a rather shameful number of buffalo.

They were so plentiful, that in a short period I

made a substantial profit. However, this indis-

criminate slaughter was not sporting.‖ What he

seemed to be searching for was a personal bal-

ance between the business of hunting and the

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

“In my reading of

adventurelogues one of

the elements I look for is

how willing th author is

to admit his failures.…”

Page 25

Award-winning author Jim Casada has completed his tribute to the finest wild trout fishing east of the Rockies—Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. All 448 pages are packed with the information that will inspire even the novice angler to fish the streams of America’s most popular park. A reader’s bonus however, is the incredible amount of history, human and natural, that is woven into the tapestry of the book, making it a pleasure to read and information filled. Softbound: #24.95 Hardbound: $37.95. $5.00 P& H Ea. Book Other Titles Available

The Lost Classics of Robert Ruark $35.00 and Ruark Remembered $40.00 Contact: Jim Casada Books, 1250 Yorkdale Dr., Rock Hill, SC 29730-7638

Ph. 803-329-4354, Fax 803-329-2420. www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

sport of hunting. He found that balance.

To Live a True Adventure

When he had finished with the meat hunting

episode Jorge returned to what he truly loved—

hunting elephant. Life for Jorge was good and he was living the life of adventure that he had

dreamed of as a child. The elements of adventure

that stand out in his personal history are not the

number of elephants he killed or the tons of ivory

he sold but the way that he lived his dream. When

other, less courageous men, were staying closer to

established camps Jorge was trekking deeper into

the bush and setting fly camps on the spoor of the

elephants he was tracking. When other hunters

would turn back from the onslaught of the tsetse

fly he pressed on. This does not mean he was stu-

pid about his hunting—on more than one occasion he writes about turning back when the odds began

to stack too heavily against him.

In my reading of travelogues and what I call

adventurelogues one of the elements I always look

for is how willing the author is to admit his fail-

ures as well as triumphs. I am not talking about

the fashionable mea culpa nonsense that has be-

come so common by today‘s weak writers, but the

honest-to-God-I-failed admission that make a re-

markable story much more rewarding to read.

That‘s the mark, I believe, of the true adventure story; you don‘t have to read very many of today‘s

―keyboard commando adventures‖ before you can

smell the rat of chest-pounding bravado. Jorge

does not pound his chest and he admits his fail-

ures, whether it is a poorly placed shot or not cor-

rectly reading the spoor and wind.

Sensing the Future

Given the time period he was in Africa, it is a

safe assumption that Jorge was well acquainted

with the stirrings of a new political climate. When

he began his remarkable adventure the smoke had-

n‘t completely cleared from World War Two‘s

battlefields and no one was expecting things in Africa to change, at least not until Africa was

ready for change. Early in Chapter Twelve Jorge

relates the story of his meeting with a Portuguese

nurse in a remote village. The nurse was ―a fine

young man in his thirties with blue eyes and thick,

black, well-trimmed moustache‖ (101). He had

been drawn to the nurse by stories of the man‘s

abilities as an elephant hunter. Their conversation

―centered on elephant hunting, lion and the future

of African colonies. That subject appeared to be

crucial to all residents of Africa, mainly to those

who loved it, had family there and wished to re-main. This preoccupation was subjugating the

hopes of many white men living in different parts

of Africa‖ (Ibid). Jorge writes that the end of the

colonial era was expected and was, in fact, the

dream of many, but no one expected it to end with

the colossal upheavals that would rewrite borders

and kills tens of thousands, if not millions of peo-

ple. Sprinkled throughout his text Jorge hints at

the gathering storm but unlike many authors of

that period he does not allow the political prob-

lems and their ramifications into the hunting world to sidetrack his purpose, which in this text is the

adventure he was living.

By the time a reader has reached the mid-point

of Jorge‘s book the question that begins to nag is if

the adventure Jorge is living can be sustained for

another hundred and fifty pages or, as is often

case, will the book become a tiresome repetition of

(Continued on page 26)

Jim Casada BooksJim Casada Books

Book Reviewers

The Pines Review wel-

comes book review con-

tributions. Reviews must

be for books that have

been released no more

than six months previ-

ously or will be released

within three months of

The Review‘s issue date.

Contact the editor before

submitting a review. Book review assignments

are not made to PR con-

tributors. Critical studies

of older books or the

works of authors are con-

sidered for assignment

and are not published as

book reviews. Qualifica-

tions for critical work

must be included in

query. Self-published books, whether Print On

Demand or bulk printing,

are given same review

consideration as all other

books submitted for re-

view. All books submit-

ted for review become the

property of Pen on Page,

Ink or the reviewer and

cannot be returned.

Publishers should send

books for review to: The Pines Review

PO Box 31

Finley, ND 58230.

For more information

contact the editor by

email:

editorpinesreview

@mlgc.com

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 26

the stories that have already been told, i.e. same plots but differ-

ent characters? There is a danger of this happening in this book

because we are reading how Jorge saw and lived his life between 1948 and the end of the colonial era. He avoids the problem al-

though there are some near misses because of the way that he has

constructed the book—it is not a liner text, thus the danger of

repeating a story is always present. In a liner text the author be-

gins at point A and writes through the events to point Z. The

letters between A and Z are the different stories the author wishes

to relate and because the stories are liner, one following the other

in chronological order, there is little danger of repeating the story.

Jorge‘s stories are based on a liner account of his Africa adven-

ture but he does not follow the straight path—he meanders be-

tween highpoints and on occasion he writes about an incident in

one story (chapter) and then repeats a part of that incident in an-other story. When writers are ―weaving a tale‖ this is where they

trip up themselves. One account does not match the next. (I‘ve

written more than one review of personal adventure stories where

I‘ve questioned the author‘s veracity because events didn‘t

match.) In my reading of this book that problem never crops up

and what is truly enjoyable about In The Company of Adventure

is that when Jorge does refer to something he always does so in a

slightly different viewpoint so the reader is treated to a confirma-

tion of the event previously told. Additionally, he takes an un-

usual risk of allowing his brother, Eduardo, to write a chapter

about the same hunt that he, Jorge, had written about earlier. The effect is pleasing to the reader‘s ear because it is as if two people

are telling the same story with different viewpoints.

There is one other ―standard‖ to which a personal adventure

text can be applied and I call it ―the Capstick effect‖ of the

―adventurelogue.‖ (See the sidebar for a more detailed explana-

tion.) In this approach to a story the author builds a scene with

successive powerful sentences then ends each paragraph with a

strong, compelling statement that drives the scene onward. An

example of how Jorge handles this approach to adventure writing

is the story of a lion that he killed—dramatically.

What an unforgettable spectacle that magnificent beast

was giving me, its mane fluttering against the wind and still uttering feeble but quite audible grunts. It seemed at that

particular moment that he was grumbling about life, ignoring

manifestations that were to be his death sentence. Busy with

his moans, he did not suspect my approach. We were sepa-

rated by less than 100 meters, and I was trying to leave my

position from behind in order to make a detour to his left to

aim at his shoulder. To close in was not my objective, be-

cause as it had happened on other hunts the negative conse-

quences of too close an encounter were still fresh in my

memory. The combination of my recent bout of malaria

added to my eagerness and excitement left me once more, somehow unstable, breathing with difficulty, and unsteady

hands. In order to regain emotional stability as quickly as

possible, I had to keep a cool head and exercise control over

my men, now excited to the extreme. The imminent danger,

the possibility of an abrupt attack and the loss of a great op-

portunity to conquer a splendid prize are always present.

Therefore, it is important for the hunter to control the situa-

tion, for these opportunities last only a few seconds. Success

and failure go hand in hand. Bear in mind that in the major-

ity of instances very favorable circumstances rarely repeat

themselves. (267-8) Tension, power, color, self-doubt blended with the au-

thor‘s determination to see the episode through to the end are all

present and with the last sentence there is no reader desire to stop

reading but a need to continue reading, to learn what the outcome

will be even though the reader already knows the author sur-

vived—but how? These are the powerful tools of good writing

being put to work by a skilled writer. By the time a reader has

finished with Jorge‘s book there is a sense of exhaustion, of won-

derment—just how in the hell did one man manage to live that

adventure?

In The Company of Adventure is worth reading, worth keep-

ing on the bookshelf and returning to on long nights when scud-ding clouds and forbidding weather move a person to keep the

hearth logs burning while the dog sleeps nervously between the

fire and his master. And, whether the reader is dreaming of ad-

ventures to come or remembering adventures of the past, this is a

book that prods the reader to think about life, just as Poos‘ fiftieth

birthday prodded him to think of his past adventures, and

mine, and then point out that we had many more to come.

The Capstick Effect

By

Galen L. Geer

I am fully aware that some people may balk at the notion of

applying a reference to Peter Capstick as a measurement of a text

such as the work of Jorge Alves De Lima. It may not be (in their

view) appropriate, but my assertion is based upon my research of

Capstick‘s texts. In my study of how an outdoor adventure text affects the

reader I found that Capstick had taken Hemingway‘s ―Iceberg

Principle‖ of writing and expanded upon it by a reapplication of

the principle to a succession of paragraphs, with each paragraph

resolving issues of the previous paragraph. Thus, because of this

pattern of constructing text, Capstick‘s writing had a pronounced

affect on readers. They continued to read his text because the

only way to obtain a resolution to each paragraph is to read the

next, and the next, and the next, but with the full awareness that

each paragraph would be, in part, unresolved. Capstick‘s trade-

mark as an author, then, is this constant building of anticipation by the reader.

Many Capstick readers have remarked that after they began

reading one of his books they were unable to put the book down,

regardless of their feelings toward the author ―because of the

anticipation of what would happen next.‖ Another, frequently

heard comment, is that after reading a Capstick book the reader

felt physically tired, as if he had been with him in the story. This

sort of tension building is a literary device commonly used by

skilled fiction writers but rarely by authors of nonfiction unless

they are falling back on creative nonfiction as their form. ―The

Capstick affect‖ is this paragraph building of sustained ten-sion in a nonfiction adventure text.

Book Review: Company of Adventure (Continued from page 25)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 27

our conversations, both on the phone and by email, David ex-

plained to me how he had started his life down one ruinous path,

realized the mistakes he was making and put his life back on the right track, all the while remembering, and often thinking about

the idea of walking around the Zimbabwe Borderline and some-

how using the walk to promote the two things he believes in,

helping his home country and putting a dent, if not a stop, in

poaching.

Chief among David‘s projects is the ―Hunters For Zimbabwe‖

program, a non-profit effort to help the desperate plight of the

indigenous peoples whose homes and villages Borderline the

Savé Valley. The goal is to provide community improvement

programs that will alleviate the local people‘s dependence on

poaching in the Savé Conservancy. He explained to me, and

wrote in his first installment, that

―These commu-

nity programs will

be transparent,

well-managed and

viable, and will be

all about produc-

tion, education,

and restoration:

the production of

food, by establish-ing irrigation;

education of the

people about wild-

life conservation,

the restoration of

community vital-

ity with an em-

phasis on creating

employment, child

welfare, health

services, and com-

munity infrastruc-ture.‖

What he wants to do resonated with African Expedition Maga-

zine, because we know that to protect Africa‘s wildlife, we‘ve got

to make it more valuable as a resource that produces income to

help the local people, than it is as an animal poached for food,

sold for biltong, or its hide, horn or ivory. If David Hulme‘s de-

sire to hoof it around his home country can make any inroads into

what we know is a desperate situation—we‘re all ears to help

him.

David is not all idealistic, however it might appear, beacuse he

also knows that if there are going to be any inroads made into Zimbabwe‘s poaching problem, the people fighting the poachers

need help. He asked me if we would include a system for dona-

tions to an anti-poaching fund on the pages of the magazine.

This is the beauty of the digital age; we could do that, and we

quickly agreed to do it. At the end of each installment is a page

with the linked donation buttons so readers can contribute to the

anti-poaching program. Of course, we also put a program to-

gether to sell T-shirts with the profits going to support the Walk

as well as the anti-poaching efforts.

The Tools Needed

For the first time in my life as a journalist, I would have to go begging. African Expedition Magazine is a young business and to

be honest, we did not (and don‘t) have the financial resources to

purchase the equipment David would need on his Walk. So, I

contacted my friend, Galen Geer, publisher and editor of The

Pines Review, and asked him how to go about contacting compa-

nies. I know that over the years Geer has been involved in a lot

of fund raising efforts and is not shy about asking for help. His

advice wasn‘t reassuring.

―Most companies get hit up for so much stuff,‖ Geer ex-

plained, ―they are going to ignore your request, or if they don‘t

ignore it, are going to ask for a pretty good case on your part.‖

He also explained that I had to put together a list of what

was going to be needed and

what the company would be

getting for their donation.

His last warning was that if

the company was more inter-

ested in trees than deer, they

wouldn‘t participate. His

warning was ―spot on‖ and I

learned a bitter lesson; even

though the goal of the Bor-derline Walk is to stop the

slaughter of African wildlife

by poachers, and to help the

impoverished and long suf-

fering people around the

Savé valley, the agenda of

the anti-hunting community

is one that will allow wildlife

to die if conservation is the

long term goal.

A week later I started my

search for gear to support the Borderline Walk. The first pieces of gear that I wanted to get for

David and his walking companion were good backpacks and

sleeping bags. They would each need a pack that was able to

survive the rigors of the African bushveldt for weeks at a time.

This wasn‘t a weekend hiking trip, so I turned to the well-known

American companies, The North Face and Kelty, figuring I might

as well try both at the same time. Both companies were inter-

ested in supporting the Borderline Walk, until they learned that

―Hunters For Zimbabwe‖ was involved, and then they beat a

hasty retreat. Finally, an African company, Red Mountain,

stepped up and offered their backpacks, leaving me to resolve the sleeping bag problem, which was solved by Jim Reid at Cole-

man®. A big and pleasant surprise was when Canon® Inc. agreed

to provide David with their PowerShot G-10 (http://

www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?

act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=17624) digital

Border Walk (Continued from page 23)

(Continued on page 28)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 28

cam-

era.

Gradu-ally,

the

other

prob-

lems

were

re-

solved.

The

last

concern we had, communications, was a big one, because there

would be many days when David and his companion, Jephita

Tumwi, would be several days walk from civilization if they

needed any emergency help. Again, the solution came from an

unexpected source; Iridium Communications resolved this prob-lem with their new Model 9555 Satellite Phone, complete with

2,000 minutes of ‗air time‘ (http://www.iridium9555.com/).

Then, Garmin Ltd. agreed to provide David with the Colorado

400t GPS All Terrain Navigator, just in case his exact coordi-

nates had to be determined (https://buy.garmin.com/shop/

shop.do?pID=11022&ra=true).

Death, Life and a Bushbuck David started the Borderline Walk on July 21, leaving from

Victoria Falls. He intended at some point in the next year or so,

that he and Jephita would return to the Falls, having completed a

walk around Zim-

babwe. At Afri-can Expedition

Magazine we‘ve

been closely fol-

lowing his pro-

gress. Each day

he uses his Gar-

min GPS to get

an exact fix on

his position, and

then he uses his

Iridium satellite phone to notify

our African office

of his position,

sending a text

message with the

coordinates. The

adventures them-

selves we don‘t

receive until he

sends, via email,

an installment

with a collection of photos.

I suppose that in any adventure of this mag-

nitude there will be occurrences of life and

death. Early on his walk, when the two of them

reached the upper reaches of Lake Kariba, they

stumbled onto a bushbuck ram that was caught

in a poacher‘s snare. Maybe it was serendipity

that put them there, but David knew he had to

free the struggling bushbuck; he also knew that

the bushbuck is a very dangerous animal for its

size. When he finally did manage to get the snare off the young ram, the bushbuck, by now

thoroughly disoriented, plunged into the croco-

dile infested water and became entangled in the

shoreline plant growth. David, ignoring the

danger, went in after the struggling animal and

pulled the bushbuck to shore.

Border Walk (Continued from page 27)

The bushbuck David Hulme saved from certain death. When the frightened and

disoriented ram jumped into the croc infested water Hulme went in and wrestled it to shore to save it from the crocs. Next Page: Eating with villagers and

bottom, the rangers posed for a photo before leaving on fateful trip.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 29

―Soon I had the buck on dry land and on its feet. Trying the

same method as before,‖ David writes in our September, 2009

edition, ―I pushed it away from me towards the bush, this time

instructing it to ‗go bushbuck, you are free.‘ Once again, the

bushbuck had a different plan and it turned on me, dropping its horns and charging from close range. Fortunately, I turned my

back at the last instant and received only a minor flesh wound in

the well-padded area where my left buttock meets my left thigh.‖

The bushbuck was free; David had a hole in his thigh and had

been thoroughly beaten up by the animal he knew he had to save.

The poacher‘s snare was destroyed and his reasons for making

the Walk were one again reinforced.

A few days later at the Matusadona National Park, where the

Tashinga Initiative—a volunteer organization that is the work of

Mrs. Lynne Taylor—has achieved impressive improvements that

includes a solar power system which provides power to a water

pumping and filtration system, plus lights, computers, and broad-

band internet, David was able to file another installment. He

writes in his story for the November, 2009 issue: ―As soon as I was made aware of that [broadband], I knew we‘d be spending a

few days. . . . One can‘t make a

living as a writer if one doesn‘t

submit articles eh? Actually, I

don‘t think one can make a living

as a writer anyway.‖

Continuing to recount the day

he writes: ―Dawn on September

9th promised a fine day and I was

up at the crack of it, determined to

get the Borderline Walk ‗Stage One‘ article completed, then post

updates and photos on the Inter-

net.‖

At 9 a.m., Jephita told him that

some Zimbabwe Parks and Wild-

life Rangers, who had just come

in from patrol, were about to cross the Umi River in a dugout

canoe, ―to do some shopping at the Umi crocodile farm store, and

that he thought he should go with them, to buy some supplies that

we desperately needed, like biscuits for example.‖

David followed Jephita outside to meet the Rangers and after he‘d passed out cigarettes, they told him stories of their encoun-

ters with poachers. ―There were six of them in total and they

were a jovial, pleasant bunch, as Zimbabweans tend to be,‖

David wrote.

Later, David pieced the story together and in his installment

wrote: ―The Parks guys had concluded their business at the croc

farm by 3 p.m., and were heading back across the Umi shortly

afterwards. On board the boat were six Rangers and Jephita. For

reasons still not quite clear, the front of the boat nosedived sev-

eral hundred meters from shore, and all its occupants were

tipped into the river. Of the seven guys on board, only five

made it out of the river. Four of the five survivors were res-cued by local fishermen, but no boat came for Jephita, and he

was forced to swim three hundred meters to shore. It was a

terrible ordeal for my young friend—he is not a powerful

swimmer, and everybody knows that the Umi is full of large

crocodiles. He told me that as he hit the water, he brought to

mind the lecture I have so often given him regarding what to

do in such a situation—keep calm, don‘t splash about

(crocs), don‘t attempt to help anyone else, swim breaststroke

slowly (conserve energy), and when tired turn over and float.

By keeping cool and doing what he should, and with the help

of an unidentified woman who shouted encouragement from the bank, Jephita survived the Umi boat disaster. I am so

relieved, so thankful, and so very proud of him.‖

The bodies of the missing men were found two days later.

Amazingly the crocs, which are found throughout the region,

had not mutilated the bodies. The incident has stayed with

David, however, and through it he has become even more

dedicated to completing his Walk. Saving the life of the

bushbuck, and later coming so close to losing his friend, have

heightened his sense of purpose for his Borderline walk. He is

continuing his Walk and we at African Expeditions Magazine are

going to continue publishing each installment. In the end there

will be a book and after that, it‘s anyone‘s guess. One thing all of us know, nothing will be the same, and all of us have grown be-

cause of David‘s ordeal as a writer.

Editor’s Note: If you would like to

read the installments in African

Expedition Magazine you can read

each one at the magazine’s web site:

http://africanxmag.com . For com-

plete information on The Borderline

Walk go to: http://africanxmag.com/

the_bordeline_walk.htm . If you

would like information on how to support the walk or for possible

reprints of the installments contact

Alan Bunn, the USA editor by email

at: editorusa@africanxman.com

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 30

The buzzword ―Social Media‖ burst into the lexicon

of computer language and the Internet in this decade but

its roots are found deep in the 1970s. The basic form of

social media is merely the communication between

peers through web-based technology. To understand what comprises social media, however, a person should

also be able to distinguish the differences between the

term ―Web 2.0‖ and ―Web 1.0,‖ because the former is

often used to describe and distinguish social media from

other types of Web sites and Web based material.

The concept that drives Web 2.0 is that people are ac-

tively engaging in discussions with friends, businesses

and even total strangers through the Internet, making it a

true yet virtual two-way street for communication. The

notion of a Web 1.0 was the somewhat more basic idea

that the Internet offers a means for information ex-

change, not discussion may have existed at some early point in computer development but Web 2.0 has existed

in one form or another since the mid-1970s. Realisti-

cally, though these communication outlets existed previ-

ously, and then in early program language, it has only

been in recent years that social media‘s popularity has been catapulted from the caves of geeky

computer hobbyists to the global phenomenon it is today.

Discussion Boards

The foundational form of social media, and the one that launched the social media revolution,

is the Internet forum, or discussion board. Based on the pre-World Wide Web Bulletin Board

System (BBS) that took root in the 1970s, discussion boards began appearing for the general

online computer public in the mid-1990s. The BBS required users to first log into a system then once logged in users could interact with one another through the postings of public and private

messages. While BBS was very similar to today‘s Internet system, each

BBS was hosted by a third party server and often encountered problems

when multiple users tried to simultaneously enter the system.

Emerging from the basic construction of the BBS that people would

be able to discuss specific topics among peers throughout the world,

discussion boards quickly took hold because they were one of the first

places strangers who shared common interests could have more active

discussions. These Discussion boards were short-lived, however, and

have waned in popularity with the rise of social networking sites and

their user-friendly construction. Some of the discussion boards were

often integrated into the new media sites rather than remaining on the web as a standalone site. Discussion boards did have a powerful influ-

ence on the evolution of social media, however, spawning a slew of so-

cial media mainstays including comment boards and Wikis, as well as

chat rooms and instant messaging.

Comment boards, today‘s most commonly used discussion boards,

are an integral part of most Web sites. Comment boards, unlike tradi-

tional discussion boards, are not a separate page, but are added at end of

another page for people to leave comments on either a product or a story.

Another important distinction is that discussion boards require a modera-

tor while comment boards rarely required a moderator. Historically the

emergence of comment boards on web sites follows the discussion boards‘ rise to prominence, appearing on Web sites soon after discussion

boards.

Wikis are Web sites that are contributed to and edited by the site‘s

users. The first wiki software was created in 1994 by Ward Cunningham

as a way to allow Internet users to edit and control data. Wikipedia, ar-

guably the most famous wiki, is a global collaborative effort to create an

What Do You Really Know About

The History of Social Media? Associate Editor and Columnist Rachel Bunn Provides an overview of the media’s history with some surprising information about the media’s roots in the computer age.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 31

online encyclopedia. Sometimes panned as an ―unreliable source of information‖ because wikis

are user created content that is constantly being revised, users are encouraged to validate the in-

formation before relying on it as a source.

The proliferation of wikis, comment boards, and multimedia sites such as Flickr, Picasa and

YouTube, have developed into a broad-based user driven media for the sharing of information, pictures, and personal histories; they allow the users and viewers to share and comment on pic-

tures, videos and music files.

Social Networking

Although the popular site Facebook might seem

like a new idea its roots go back 25 years, to 1985

with the online community ―The WELL.‖ The

WELL offered users access to Internet Forums and

email, and became the first site to allow users to

host their own personal web pages. The WELL and

the other free-hosting services that it inspired are

considered the pre-cursors to blogs as well as social

networking sites because they allowed users to pub-lish anything they wanted over the Internet.

By the mid-1990s, the Web sites Class-

mates.com and SixDegrees.com had evolved into

the revolutionary concept of user creating a page by

allowing them to create profiles and then finding

other site members with similar connections or in-

terests was taking over the online community. This

ability to make a connection with other users be-

came the foundation for all the social networking

Web sites that have followed.

By 2002, modern social networking was emerg-ing. Then in 2003, MySpace™, one of the most

well-known sites, was launched and by 2005,

MySpace had received more online views than

Google™. Initially MySpace was launched as a

Web hosting site, but only focusing on popular fea-

tures from other sites, such as Friendster® or Class-

mates.com®. To reach a larger community

MySpace‘s founding team decided to keep the Web

site free to engage other Internet communities.

Many of the original features of MySpace have be-

come the cornerstones of other social networking

sites. About me, comment boards, blogs, interests, groups and image uploading are among the features

you‘ll find in other sites. One feature of MySpace

that has yet to be replicated by its major competitor,

Facebook™, however is the MySpace music page.

Although Facebook has launched pages of its own,

MySpace music pages were designed specifically

for musicians, allowing them to upload songs directly to their pages. MySpace music is credited

with launching the careers of many well-known musicians, including Taylor Swift, Lilly Allen

and Sean Kingston.

The first major competitor to MySpace was the brainchild of Harvard sophomore Mark

Zuckerberg, who develped Facemash (forerunner of Facebook), a site founded by him after he hacked into Harvard‘s computer network and created an online directory of students living in

nine of the university‘s dormitories. Zuckerburg‘s idea behind the site was to determine how

attractive students living in the dorms were. While the Facemash site was shut down by the Har-

vard administration, Zuckerberg did launch Thefacebook.com™ in 2004 to create an online di-

rectory of students because Harvard did not have a directory at the time. His original concept of

(Continued on page 32)

Photos Page 30: Crabapple Blossoms © Galen L. Geer, 2009

Above: Tiger Lilly © Galen L. Geer 2009 Page 32: Crabapple Blossoms © Galen L. Geer, 2009

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 32

Thefacebook.com was to create online directories for college

students and provide them with a way to keep in contact through

the Internet. The concept was a digital world firestorm and The-facebook expanded its services to all universities in the United

States and Canada. In 2005, Thefacebook officially changed its

name to Facebook and opened the network to high schools. In

2006, Facebook was opened to all people over age 13 with a

valid email address; according to the Facebook press information

there are 400 million Facebook users worldwide.

Facebook does maintain differences from its rival, MySpace.

Users of MySpace are allowed to customize their sites using

HTML and other style sheets; Facebook only allows plain text

and users must customize their sites using appli-

cations and these applications include the popular

―Photos‖ app which allows users to upload pic-tures onto their profiles, ―Gifts‖ where users can

send other users virtual and real gifts and gaming

applications such as Scrabble, Bejeweled and

Farmville.

It is interesting to note that of the estimated

200 social networking sites worldwide Facebook

and MySpace are the most commonly used.

Blogging

Blogs evolved out of the popular web-

hosting sites that were common in the early

1990s. The first Weblog appearance was in 1994 when a student at Swarthmore College, Justin

Hall, began updating his Web site on a regular

basis. Initially Hall was providing helpful advice

and tips on navigating the Internet, later he began

adding intimate details of his life.

The term ―blog‖ was coined in the late 1990s

as an abbreviation of the original term

―weblog‖ (web+log). By the end of the decade

blogging had started to become popular after the

introduction of blog hosting software, including

Open Diary, the first blog site to allow users to

comment on other people‘s blogs. In 2001, politi-cal and culture commentary blogs were appearing

on the Internet in increasing numbers and today

bloggers have become a driving force in the cur-

rent political and cultural life of the United

States. Finally, in 2004, Merriam-Webster declared ―blog‖ the

word of the year.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites allow users to manage and organ-

ize bookmarks on the Internet. The first social bookmarking site

―itList‖ was launched in 1996 and allowed people to create public

and private bookmark lists. Within a few years other bookmark-ing software entered the exploding market, unfortunately, how-

ever, most of these dot-com firms lacked reliable revenue streams

and the bubble burst for them in March of 2000. In 2003, the site

Delicious (del.icio.us) created the idea of tagging, or assigning

specific words to information in order to make it more easily

searchable.

The evolutionary development of the bookmarking trend led

to social news sites that are a form of social bookmarking sites.

Users are asked to vote on news stories and other links to deter-

mine their ranking. Stories and links that are similar to higher

ranked stories and links are then retrieved for the user. Social news sites such as ―Digg‖ and ―Stumble Upon‖ are now used by

some publications to engage readers in other stories that might be

of interest.

Microblogging

Microblogs are the newest form of social media. The idea

behind microblogs is a more concise blog, usually answering the

question ―What are you doing?‖ Microblogs were initially called

tumblelogs because they were not well thought out or researched

posts, but rather examples of an endless stream of consciousness

writing. Microblog-

ging sites are well

known among their users for their popu-

larity with celebri-

ties. Currently the

most popular mi-

croblogging web site

is Twitter®, which

was founded in 2006

as a Short Message

Service (SMS). The

next entrant into the

microblogging world was Tumblr®, which

was created in 2007.

The initial idea

behind Twitter was

similar to a text mes-

sage, which also

uses SMS. Friends

would be able to

keep up with friends

through short mes-

sages posted to a

Web site or deliv-ered to a phone.

Tumblr is a similar

service; however,

Tumblr is more

closely related to a blog, allowing users to upload photos, video

and text directly onto the site. Twitter‘s users who want to upload

photos and videos have to use third party sites.

Microblogging is rapidly changing from a social networking-

based site to becoming more and more like an informational col-

laboration site. Users such as The New York Times and other

newspapers and magazines use Twitter to distribute news and information as well as gather news and information from millions

of Twitter users. Currently Twitter remains the fastest growing

social media site on the Web, growing its user base an incredible

1382 percent from 2008 to 2009. As for what will happen in the

next decade? --- Based on the last two decades --- That‘s

anyone‘s guess.

Social Media (Continued from page 31)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 33

L ast March, Jim Moran (D-VA) was named Chairman of

the influential House Appropriations Subcommittee on

the Interior, Environmental, and Related Agencies. As

chair of this subcommittee Rep. Moran will have criti-

cal oversight over federal funding for wildlife conservation, yet

he is a well-known opponent of hunting, trapping and gun owner-

ship.

During his congressional tenure Rep. Moran has

backed a number of anti-hunting and anti-trapping bills. These include an effort to ban the use of bait to hunt

black bears on federal land despite this practice being con-

sidered a valid management option by most wildlife pro-

fessionals. This action earned him the support of the na-

tion‘s leading anti-hunting group, the Humane Society of

the United States (HSUS). Currently he is supporting HR

3710 which would prohibit the use of body-gripping traps

in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Prior to his 1991 election to Congress, Moran was the

mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, serving in that position

from 1985 until 1990 when he resigned to run for Con-gress. Moran‘s Virginia district includes the towns of Al-

exandria, Arlington and Falls Church, and his base of party

support emanates from the large numbers of federal em-

ployees, information technology employees and political

interest groups who reside in his district.

Many people best remember him for his Congressional

house floor shoving match with former California Republican

Duke Cunningham. In the gun industry Moran is reviled for using

the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings for political gain, a charge he

denies. He also was severely criticized for anti-Semitic com-

ments at the start of the Iraq War, statements for which he later

issued an apology. Moran has been the subject of criticism for a conflict of interest over an MBNA loan and ethics issues over the

allocation of government contracts to the PMA group which do-

nated large sums of money to his PAC and supported his younger

brother‘s political campaign. He and several other powerful con-

gressmen were cleared by the House Ethics

Committee.

In a February 18, 2009 press release from

his office and published on his website he

(http://moran.house.gov) announced the forma-

tion, with Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), of the

―Creature Caucus‖ to promote animal rights issues in Washington. Moran stated, ―Animals

are sensate beings that deserve to be treated

with respect and dignity. I look forward to

building a consensus among my colleagues in

support of sensible animal welfare laws that

reflect our common values. Protecting animals

from cruel treatment is not a partisan issue.‖

Gallegy added that, ―Animal cruelty has no place in a civi-

lized society.‖

Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of HSUS said (in the re-

lease): "The newly constituted Congressional Animal Protection Caucus will help better align our federal policies with public

opinion, and we are excited to work closely with its leaders and

with the entire Congress to combat cruelty and abuse."

Moran‘s newfound influence with the Appropriations com-

mittee, which oversees funding for the Department of Interior and

its agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will

now play a larger role in the plans of organizations such as the

HSUS because the committee exerts powerful influence

over public policy on federal lands, where the majority of

Americans hunt both large and small game.

Congressional Chairmanship of Powerful Appropriations Committee Passes to Staunch Anti-hunting, Anti-gun Congressman Jim Moran

Above: Congress Jim Moran dem-

onstrates his support of the anti-

gun agenda by attending a

“Mayors against illegal guns

rally.”

Below: Moran receives the gavel

from the former chairman of

appropriations committee

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 34

beard and a deep, spooky gobble. The old bird

ignored all types of calling. He would occa-

sionally show himself, but never close enough

for a shot. Both Rodney and I had watched this in-

credible gobbler float through the river‘s fog,

always out of range. We even broke our per-

sonal turkey hunting ethics to only shoot gob-

blers in the spring and tried for a fall ambush

shot. The gobbler sent his younger toms for-

ward and stayed in the safe underbrush. We

started calling this phantom, ―The Mist.‖

Rodney almost had a shot at The Mist on a

crisp spring morning. We both called three big

gobblers down from a nearby ridge. The big

birds were chain-gobbling all the way in as we prepared ourselves for a possible shot. I was

looking down my shotgun sights at an easy kill

when a shadow passed over my head.

The shadow landed in front of Rodney. He

blinked hard under his camouflage face mask

to find The Mist had landed in front. He took

careful aim and started to squeeze the trigger.

The big gobbler stretched out his neck, looked

at Rodney a half second before the shot, then

stepped into a fog off the river, a fog we had

not seen. We stood up to find the gobbler had es-

caped, in fact, disappeared. We left the woods

with an empty game sack figuring he had one

heck of an escape route. Rodney said, ―That

damned bird was either smart or lucky.‖

I figured he was both.

I looked forward to the end of each hunt

because she almost always waited for our re-turn. I started talking to her like a friend, and as

time passed, her hand started fitting in mine

when we walked down the dirt road. Eventu-

ally we shared a kiss. Her lips were sweeter

than anything I had ever known. Her dark

brown eyes and neatly combed long brown hair

took my mind off turkey hunting and most

other things. She always smelled good.

I started thinking about her a lot—maybe

too much. I loved everything about her except

her stupid little barking dog. I should have shot

the little bastard. My life would have turned out differently.

One hot, late spring day Rodney and I had

business in town; we needed some money to

pay the bills. We had stored turnips in our fam-

ily root cellar all winter to be sold in the spring.

So we loaded some in the back of grandpa‘s

rusting ‘48 Chevy pickup and sold them from

the back of it while we were parked in front of

the local market. The store manager didn‘t like

it, but he knew better than to start trouble with

us. Late that afternoon, after going to the bank, I decided to stop by her house on the way

home. To my dismay, my brother wanted to tag

along.

We barely reached the bridge that crossed

She is gone. I watch the river current for a sign, any sign, but she is gone taking part of me

with her. Her face still looks back at me in every ripple. She was beautiful, and sparkling

sunlight off the brown water still reminds me of her beauty. I hate that damn river.

We would probably have never met except that her old man

owned some of the best river-bottom hunting on the Missouri River. Gobblers had ground-dragging beards on his property—and those were

the younger birds.

My brother, Rodney, and I quickly became friends with her old

man. We sat on his front porch overlooking the river and listened to him

playing an ancient fiddle, some eerie waltz or something. Her mother

had run off a few years past and never returned or even tried to contact

her husband or daughter.

I graduated from high school in the early 1960‘s and started

bouncing between meaningless jobs, shoveling manure or any other job

that would buy another meal. Rodney still endured the confinement of

high school, though he occasionally played hooky for our hunting trips.

She, too, attended his school and they occasionally stopped to talk in the hallway. He said she always asked about me. I started thinking about her

most of the time.

The amazing flock of turkeys that ran through her old man‘s

bottomland held a trophy bird with a remarkably long, shaving-brush

Short Fiction

The Missouri River Mist By Kenneth L. Kieser

Kenneth L. Kieser has been writ-ing for more than 33 years. He has several thousand bylines and his writing and photos have appeared

in most of America‘s outdoor magazines and numerous newspa-pers. His writing awards, include: 1st place in the 2005 SEOPA magazine section, the 2006 SEOPA Sharon Rushton Award and 2nd in the 2007 and 2009 SEOPA magazine category, plus

several OWAA awards for news-paper writing. His first western novel, ―The Trail of Death,‖ was published by La Frontera Publish-ing in September, 2007 and his second novel, ―Black Moon‘s Re-venge,‖ was released in early Oc-tober, 2009. This year Kieser is

being inducted into the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame as an Outstanding Communicator because of his writings and work with mentally and physically chal-lenged youth. He served on the OWAA Board of Directors and is an active member of the Western

Writers of America, SEOPA and the Missouri Outdoor Communica-tors. Kieser is SEOPA‘s current president until October, 2010 when he becomes chairman of the board.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 35

the river to her house when a scream rose above the noise of the

river‘s flow. We watched in horror from the bridge as she ran

down the bank and dove in to rescue her dog. The mutt had

jumped in to cool off and its collar became tangled in a wad of

floating brush. I swam the Missouri once on a bet and almost drowned.

Heavy current and undertow beat at my body while I struggled to

cross. Brush and trash, swept along by the river‘s flow above and

below the surface rubbed my legs in passing. I was always a

strong swimmer but I barely made it.

I don‘t remember running down the bank or jumping in the

river; it all happened too fast. I only remember the foul taste of

that brown water, a poison I tried to spit out. Rodney ran farther

down the bank, racing the flow while slipping in riverbank slime,

a mixture of quicksand and mud that could suck you under, sure

as the river‘s currents. I started pumping my arms and legs

across powerful currents that promised death if I quit. Brush and trash raked my sides as I fought the river‘s unseen

power that wanted to claim me. Submerged trash bumped my

legs. The pull started to drag me under; the monster was tugging

at my body. My panic to save her tripled my strength and I

plowed across the swirling, ugly flow. I made some progress and

saw her just in front of me at the tips of my fingers as I reached

and as the current shoved a log into the back of her precious

head, the blow driving her under the murky brown surface.

I reached the spot and dove repeatedly until my strength was

used up. She was gone. I could not grasp that; I probably was in

shock. I tried to return to where I thought she went down, but the current pushed me downstream, and I probably never was close

to saving her.

Once through the blackness, I felt cloth slip through my fin-

gers, at least I thought I did. I kept diving. Rodney‘s strength

saved me from joining her. Hell, I wanted to. I don‘t even know

how he reached me or where he came from.

They never found her or the dog. She joined others who have

made the river their final home. I did not attend her funeral, but

watched from a distant hill. She was not there so I had no reason

to be either.

I started dreaming about her brown hair floating in the river

and always woke up in a sweat. Sometimes I would see her brown eyes just under the water, looking at me. Other times I felt

her dress slip through my fingers, again to disappear into the

murky depths.

I lost my desire to sleep. Nightmares snapped me awake. . I

started drinking booze, all I could lay my hands on, anything to

escape. Rodney knew he could always find me, starring down at

the murderous current.

My father, an ex-Marine, decided a change of scen-

ery courtesy of the military would help. He thought I‘d

be sent to Alaska or Germany but Westmoreland and

LBJ had other ideas. I enlisted in the Army and was sent to Vietnam.

I was awarded medals for bravery, but truthfully just

didn‘t care. Most did not want to go on patrol with me in

the bush. They claimed that I took on a look scarier than

the V.C. regulars. My commanding officer soon separated

me from the rest before someone nuked my ass. The other

grunts started considering me a loose cannon that might get them

killed and soon I was alone—just how I wanted to be. I would

have been sent to the Looney bin, but one of the sergeants was a

hunter and he knew I was good. Charlie was good but a turkey or

deer hunter is better. My nightmares were the river and her—not the enemy. Char-

lie was good, but I saw enough of their terror tactics to learn how

they operated. Vietnam became my private game board. My bat-

talion commanding officer ordered my company CO to let me go

through the wire every night and then through the canal that bor-

dered our compound. Everyone knew I was expendable and no

one was better at scraping up information on what Charlie was

doing across the river. My trips into darkness were unofficial, but

we were losing men and my talents were needed. Sometimes I

left a little card with ―The Mist‖ printed in English and Vietnam-

ese, sometimes spiked in a gook‘s chest.

I loved the hunt back home, but this prey wanted to find me. Division said someone called ―The Mist‖ had a bounty on his

head. A Chieu Hoi who had been with the Viet Cong before de-

fecting to our side said the average Viet Cong soldier was fright-

ened and wanted no part of the reward because they had found

his card on dead friends and sometimes in their camps.

The Mist became a legend or superstition, a monster that

moved invisibly and silently through the jungle. Hell, I started

enjoying it but other soldiers started leaving Mist cards after a

firefight. It was time to go home, even if the Army had let me

volunteer for another tour.

After serving in combat I felt less ate up than most, at least I thought so. I was already scarred before I left the States. Viet-

nam faded quickly for me. I could not remember most of my

experience. My family welcomed me, but most folks in the town

passed strange stares and avoided me. I didn‘t care.

Turkey season opened a couple months after my return. By

now Rodney was married and building houses, but he insisted

that I join him on a hunt. Besides, he wanted to take me back to

the river bottom property to face my ghosts or something like

that; I just thought that he had been reading too many Reader‘s

Digests.

I had relived this hell every time I swam that damn river in

Vietnam. Sometimes when I swam at night, I could see her eyes and late at night, crawling in the putrid jungle floor, I‘d smell her

remarkable scent. Sometimes, swimming back across the river, I

felt her hand in mine, then her dress slipping though my

fin- gers in the river current. I had

to go back to

her. Part

of

(Continued on page 36)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 36

me was still in that river, just downstream.

The morning finally came. We walked down the dirt road in

pre-dawn darkness and across the bridge without speaking, shot-guns over our shoulders. I sensed Rodney watching to make sure

I was not going to come unglued. But he had nothing to worry

about. Now I was truly home.

I felt a strange joy while standing on the old rotting wooden

planks. Her brown hair and eyes glistened. Her lovely smell filled

my nostrils. And then she vanished when Rodney walked up be-

hind me and insisted that we go hunting. I stumbled off the

bridge and down the riverbank.

The river bottom property was starting to green up after a

long winter. Tiny green leaves filled the trees and the crows and

blue jays mouthed off to pass the time. The morning sun prom-

ised a warm day. Gobbling filtered down the trail. We quickly settled in. That

same fog started filtering off the river from the cool morning air

and warm sunlight.

Rodney was out of my sight, and I was positioned in the best

spot for incoming birds. He wanted me to take the shot while he

called on a slate and mouth diaphragm at the same time. He told

me not to bring a call, just my shotgun. I guess he wanted to get

me started hunting again. I never talked about Vietnam.

He started with soft hen yelps and clucks, which were

greeted by chain gobbling, the remarkable sound made when

three or four gobblers echo each other. Soon I was peeking through my camouflaged mask as a hole in the fog opened up and

a huge gobbler moved cautiously in my direction. I wondered if

he was kin to ―The Mist,‖ who would surely be dead of old age

by now.

The remarkable gobbler continued moving towards me, in

and out of the thickening fog. My shotgun‘s bead lined up on his

head as I waited for the right moment to shoot. His eyes moved

from side to side, searching for the hot hens sending out turkey

love chatter. He stretched his neck and I zeroed the shotgun sight

in for a clean kill. I started to squeeze the trigger when movement

caught my eye.

A large, dark shape drifted through the fog‘s hole behind my

turkey, a huge gobbler with an unusually long shaving-brush

beard. I blinked my eyes hard as two other figures appeared out of the fog, a brown haired, brown eyed girl and a little yappy dog.

She looked at me and smiled.

I jumped up to join them and stepped into a thick fog. I fell

into a pool of darkness; suddenly Rodney was kicking my leg.

―Wake up. Did you see the turkeys?‖ he asked. I rubbed my

eyes and looked to the spot where she had stood. The fog was

gone—if it had ever been there.

I started to stand up, but sat back down when he continued,

―I probably would have gotten a shot at the big gobbler if not for

that damned yapping little dog. I never did see the dog; did you?‖

I heard and saw the dog, or at least thought I did. But Rod-

ney heard it, so maybe I was not going crazy. Yet, he did not see it; he only heard it. Sometimes a yelping hen can sound like a

small barking dog. I just looked at him and said, No!‖ I turned so

he would not see the tears on my cheeks. She was gone again.

Time and decades passed like flowing river current. Rodney

moved to Kansas City where he could find more carpenter work

to support his wife and twin boys. The old man died soon after

the 1993 flood wiped out his old house. I stayed on the river

banks three days and nights during the flood to watch more of my

life slip into that dirty river.

The old man left me his property, an old pipe and his fiddle,

everything he had left in this world. I guess he considered me the closest thing he had to kin, and I would have been if she had

lived. Rodney helped me build a simple cabin where his old

house had been—right below the ridge where the turkeys gobble

on warm, spring mornings.

Now I spend every morning and evening sitting on the back

porch, playing a tune on that fiddle and staring at the river and

looking for that fog to return—for another look at those

soft, brown eyes and remarkable hair. I don‘t even care if

she brings that damned dog—I just want to see her!

The Mist (Continued from page 35)

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 37

T he November 2007 Na-

tional Geographic article, ―Hunters: For Love of the

Land,‖ was important for the

future of hunting. No doubt it planted seeds in the minds of

many people in the middle

ground who care about nature

and wildlife but who do not hunt. So it is a major success

compared to what has been for

the most part "a failure to communicate‖ by the hunting

community.

If Dr. Wade Davis, the an-

thropologist interviewed, had compared the way subsistence

hunters feel about animals they

hunt to how recreational hunters feel, the article would have been better yet. While we have a hunting tradition in

North America, we lack a hunting culture. Let me explain.

If you talk to people on the street who have no direct expe-riential or familial link to hunting about how Native Ameri-

cans feel about animals they hunt, nearly all will offer re-

sponses such as, "They respect animals,"

or "They have reverence for nature," or "They feel spiritu-ally connected to wildlife.‖

But if you were to ask these same folks about how recrea-

tional hunters feel you would get blank faces, i.e., no re-sponse. Dr. Bob Norton, retired professor of psychology at

University of Wisconsin at La Crosse actually did this (see

his new book, The Hunter: Stages and Ethics, Riverbend Press).

The combined effect of decades of TV programs and

movies along with articles and books is that the basic rela-

tionship of red people to wild animals and the earth is well established in North American cul-

tural life. When I made "The Sacred Hunt," I de-

liberately interviewed members of eight native

tribes so that the viewer would discover that rec-reational hunters and native subsistence hunters

use exactly the same words to describe how they

feel about animals they hunt. For anti-hunters this had a powerful influence, even converting some to

hunting.

In the questionnaire survey I conducted of 2,500 recreational white hunters, average age over 50,

men and women both, I asked them to describe

how they feel about animals they hunt; the three

most com-monly selected

words were,

"respect," "admiration,"

and

"reverence." And in re-

sponse to the

question about

what they did when they

killed an ani-

mal, 82% re-sponded that

they either

thanked the

animal or the Creator!

Sounds a lot

like native hunters. So why is our non-hunting community not aware of how we feel?

Because we don’t communicate about it among our-

selves. With few exceptions neither do we undertake

public rituals that honor the animals we hunt.

We talk about the details and events of the hunt, where

we went and our success or failure, the game we saw and

what Ted Nugent said to Geraldo on TV. We talk about hunting as a ―management tool‖ or about controlling game

populations, but we don‘t talk about how we feel about the

animals we hunt or why we actually hunt. My survey is the first ever that has asked truly fundamen-

tal questions, the responses to which reveal how spiritually

empowering is the hunt experience and why it is genuine education for us and good for our young people. The word

"education" means to "draw out of," not put into. The hunt

(Continued on page 38)

The Writings of Dr. Randall L. Eaton To understand the broad impact of

Randall Eaton’s work, it is essential to read what

he has to say about hunting, the outdoor message and the future of our world.

The following essay is Dr. Eaton’s response to a

National Geographic article.

The Conservation Ethic: Towards a North American Hunting Culture

By Dr. Randall L. Eaton

Photo & © 2008 Galen L.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 38

brings to the surface of our being critically important di-

mensions of what it means to be human. It connects us

deeply to the creatures and the earth and motivates us to take care of them. The survey also reveals that hunting

teaches us universal virtues ranging from patience and in-

ner peace to humility and compassion. And that is the im-age we need to create if we are to perpetuate hunting and

culturally establish its value and importance. That also is

what will get parents to send their kids our way.

There is much we need to do, and I think it has to begin

with educating our own ranks. Most wildlife biologists, wildlife professors, hunter ed coordinators, outdoor writers

and heads of hunter organizations cannot supply an accu-

rate definition of hunting or explain why we do it. All hunt-

ers know that hunting engenders respect for life and re-sponsibility as in handling firearms, self-restraint, honoring

property rights and so on. But how many really grasp that

hunting is not sport but instinct? Knowing that hunting is instinctive (for males anyway)

has serious consequences. If it is merely sport then boys

might just as well take up a different sport. On the other hand what if there is no adequate substitute for the hunting

experience? Shooting a deer is not at all the same as shoot-

ing a basket. A kill shot on the court is not like a kill shot in

the field. We do not respect or revere tennis balls, and nearly all hunters report that they feel sad about the death

of the animal. The use of the word "sport" has brought un-

told harm to hunting.

On the court you take the open shot when you have it. When you're in the field it‘s a different ball game alto-

gether, meaning that you listen to a different master than

your ego. We call it the heart. If there is anything that can change this world it is experiences that teach us to listen to

the heart. There is nothing that invites males down that

road like hunting. And that is why it is so very important to

the future of human life and the

environment. Once we hunters

raise to full awareness the true educational benefits that hunt-

ing has given us and better ar-

ticulate "the heart of the hunter" we have a chance of becoming

effective evangelists for hunting

and all it means. It‘s not sport. It is instinct that

has the potential of connecting

with the heart and transforming

us into better people. That's the bottom line. Hunting is a great

"product," but it is not selling.

We have to recall and repack-age it in terms that communi-

cate why we do it and what it

does for us and the world. We

do not hunt to control game herds or conserve wildlife.

These are significant byprod-

ucts. We hunt to connect with the original human in us all and

to profoundly connect with nature and wild animals. We

hunt to experience and celebrate the beauty, intelligence and power of nature and to learn about God. We hunt to

transcend the ego and become one with the environment,

and in so doing we come to know at a deep level that we

are as responsible for the world as we are for our self. From this profound experience the conservation ethic is born.

Dr. Randall Eaton has been studying hunting for 35 years.

Author of From Boys to Men of Heart: Hunting as Rite of Passage, published by OWLink Media in 2009, he pro-

duced ―The Sacred Hunt: Hunting as a Spiritual Path,‖ with

wildlife filming by Marty Stouffer and music by Ted Nu-gent. The film won 11 awards. Contact Dr. Eaton at 513-

244-2826 or at reaton@eoni.com. Learn more at:

www.randalleaton.com.

Eaton’s Writing (Continued from page 37)

Photo & © 1995 By Galen L. Geer

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 39

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The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 40

Trophy Animals

The animals I never killed

Lie in gutters and hang on walls watching me

Stand up from their graves and follow me down the road

The deer I never killed wonder why I refused them

They blink and ask, ―What kind of hunter are you?‖

In dreams I caress their hides

And feel their empty hearts beating

In coffee houses and truck stops

I touch the painted black noses

Of trophy elk and bears and say a silent prayer:

Next fall I‘ll pull the trigger. Next season I‘ll bring you home.‖

Randall L. Eaton

Grizzly Mountain coyotes hunt gophers in the meadow deer eat acorns

in the band of oak below the ponderosa near the top a cougar kills the deer

Randall Eaton

Photo & © 2009 Galen L. Geer

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 41

Sunset in January Closing moments slowly approach, catch you by surprise. Bright, glowing threads of tangerine stitched into a cold blue sky.

Colors morph through quiet stages, changing like dunes in a wind. Red paint flung on purple pillows, gaze long and the stain will blend.

Looking back reluctantly, hesitating at the door. One last tired smile, eyes cast to the floor. Gone. Poem By John Solomon Albuquerque, NM Photo & © By: Jeff Davis

City Shaman You were meant to live in cities And paint to the hills To make dreams for the steel-grey heart Resonating the sound of geese never heard You chant to saints and whores The song of another Kingdom.

Poem By Randall L. Eaton Photo & © 2009 By: Galen L. Geer

Products For Outdoor Artists, Writers and Photographers

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Last issue we told you about digital pens, for the outdoor writer. Here’s a notebook with waterproof paper that completes the set.

Page 42

Photo Book Replaces the Portfolio The photographer‘s portfolio has hit the dust-

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Copy albums directly from memory cards

for USB flash drives to internal memory with-out a computer.

USB 2.0 connection for transferring be-

tween computer and device.

Displays photo albums with name and

preview.

Optional displays.

Run automatic Full-Screen or Photo Book

Slideshows with adjustable time intervals.

Scroll photos manually with zoom and

rotate functions.

Supported audio formats – MP3, AAC,

WMA

Supported video formats – MJPEG,

MPEG-1, MPEG-4 SP.

Built-in 1 channel, 1.4W speaker.

Rechargeable Lithium polymer battery

with 2.5 hours of battery life.

Photo Book ncludes case, AC power

adapter, USB to computer, USB adapter to

USB flash drive, and Quick Start Guide. Priced at $189 SRP,

www.digitalfoci.com.

Waterproof Digital Pen Paper Rite in the Rain has a Field Book for writers

who take notes with a digital pen. The book

has a tough black Fabrikoid cover that will withstand the rigors of the field and the ages

are printed on "Rite in the Rain" all-weather

paper. Each sheet is pre-printed with the Adapx digital dot pattern for use in the cap-

turx digital data collection solution. What you

write in the Field Book with the Penx digital

pen (available at www.adapx.com) is trans-ferred seamlessly into your computer via Mi-

crosoft OneNote. The Universal Pattern for

notes and scaled drawings is printed with the dot pattern. 160 pages (80 sheets). For more

information on Rite in the Rain products:

www.RiteintheRain.com. For digital pens: www.adapx.com.

The Pines Review

Spring-Summer, 2010 Vol. III No. 2

Page 43

Classified

Advertising

Autographed Copies

Last Supper In Paradise

By: Galen L. Geer

$13.95 +$5.00 P&H Collection of short stories

set in modern Africa. ggeerpinesed@mlgc.om

Writer’s Retreat Cabin

For Rent A-frame cabin in scenic Wet Mountains of Southern Colorado. Rent by day, week or month. See our ad

this issue. Phone: 719.784-3160. Email: chas-clifton@earthlink.com.

German Wirehaired

Pointers Top quality pups. Three Paws Kennel

701.347.5246. Casselton, North Dakota

Free Newsletter Free monthly e-newsletter. Lists of books on turkey hunting, Africana, Archibald Rutledge. www.jimcasadaoutdoors.

com. Or write: Jim Casada 1250 Yorkdale Drive Rock Hill, SC 29730-7638 Phone: 803-329-4354 FAX: 803-329-2420.

Voltage Converters Travelling outside the USA? Convert 220v to 110v. $25 plus $5.00 S&H.

ggeerpinesed@mlgc.com Classified ads in The Pines Review are limited to 25 words; the rate is $10 per issue.

Events Calendar 2010

June: June 10-13: Outdoor Writers of America Assn., Rochester, MN.

Contact: Robin Giner, rginer@owaa.com.

June 17-20: Outdoor Writers of Canada, Whitehorse, Canada.

Contact: T. J. Schwanky, outdoorwritersofcanada@shaw.ca

June 20-25: Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival, Aspen, CO

Contact: Natalie Lacy, natalie@aspenwriters.org

June 22-26: Scenic Wildlife Photo Workshop at Rky. Mtn. Natl.

Park, offered by Rky. Mtn. Outdoor Writers and Photographers.

Contcct: Nic Showalter, photoworkshop@rmowp.org.

July: No Listing

August: Aug. 11-14: Professional Outdoor Media Assn., LaPorte, IN., Best

Western Hotel.

Contact: L.L. Dovey, lldovey@professionaloutdoormedia.org.

Aug. 18-22: Florida Outdoor Writers, Tallahassee.

Contact: Tommy Thompson, tommythompson@mindspring.com

September: Sept. 8-12: Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers,

Yellowstone National Park. Contact: Don Laine,

lainedbe@TaosNet.com

Sept. 13-16: Assn. Great Lakes Outdoor Writers, Ashland, WI.

Contact: Berdette Zastrow, bzastrow@nvc.net.

Sept. 24-26: Gun Rights Policy Conference, Hyatt Regency Hotel,

San Franciso, Airport, San Francisco, CA GRPC2010@saf.org

October: Oct. 6-9: SouthEastern Outdoor Press Assn., Huntsville, AL.,

Contact: Lisa Snuggs, lisa@seopa.org

November: No Listing

December: No Listing

2011

January: Jan. 18-21: SHOT Show, Sands Convention Ctr. Las Vegas, NV

http://www.shotshow.org

February: Feb. 17-20: NWTF National Convention, Opryland Resort & Con

vention Center, Nashville, TN www.nwtf.org.

March: Mar. 19-21: Mason-Dixon Outdoor Writers Assn., Rehoboth

Beach DE., Atlantic Sands Hotel.

Contact: Ken Tidy, Kptidy@comcast.net.

April: April 28-30: Tenn. Outdoor Writers Assn., Greenville, Tennessee

Contact: Gil Lackey, gillackey@bellsouth.net

May: No Listing

Events listing is free to writers organizations, conservation organizations and other groups with

events that are of interest to members of outdoor media. All listings are subject to editor’s approval.

Contact the editor at: editorpinesreview@mlgc.com.

Classified ads in The Pines Review reach the outdoor media.

(At the last minute) NWTF/FFA $5,000 Scholarship Award Recipient Tyler McGee, a senior at Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, California, is the 2010 recipient of a $5,000 National FFA Or-

ganization Collegiate Scholarship funded by the National Wild Turkey Federation.

McGee maintained a 4.0 grade point average while an active member of the High Desert Chapter of the NWTF, the school‘s FFA chapter, National Honor Society, National Spanish Honor Society, 4-H Club and is a competitive marksman, but that‘s only the

surface of his achievements. He is an active community volunteer, Captain of the Post in the Apple Valley Sheriff's Explorer pro-

gram, volunteers 120 hours per month as a deputies' assistant, tutors first grade students, teaches them what to do if they see a gun,

works at the local NWTF JAKES (Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship) events, and trains and certifies therapy

dogs that he takes to visit nursing homes.

The high school senior is frequently involved in community service projects. In 2009 he organized a pancake breakfast that

raised $15,000 to help a sheriff's deputy with a brain tumor pay medical expenses, and he's helped provide more than 4,000 books to

schoolchildren in his area.

McGee plans to major in criminal justice and pursue a career in law enforcement as a deputy or game warden. "I look forward

to teaching others about the shooting sports, gun safety, hunting and conservation, along with protecting our land and enforcing the

law in my career," McGee said. "I'm very grateful to the NWTF for helping me achieve my academic goals through this scholar-ship."

In addition to his $5,000 FFA Scholarship McGee also received $250 local and $1,000 state scholarships from the NWTF.

To be eligible for the $5,000 FFA Organization scholarship funded by the NWTF, applicants must support hunting, possess

strong leadership skills, achieve high academic successes and pursue a career in the natural resources field. To date, the NWTF has

awarded more than $3 million in scholarships.

For more information, visit http://www.nwtf.org/ or call (800) THE-NWTF for details.

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Paid subscribers may make payment by PayPal, check or MO to:

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Print Version: $36.00 one year $70.00 for six issues SEE PAGE 20 FOR FREE GIFT OFFER! Name:_____________________________________________________________________

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Henry Herbert, father of modern outdoor writing, wrote under the pseudonym of “Frank Forester.”