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Becoming an Indy Fan - Part 2: The Renaissance

At the time when I was playing the graphic adventure of the Last Crusade I would watch the film religiously whenever I was tired of playing the game, as I got older my school work took over and I was unable to spend as much time on my hobbies, i.e. Indiana Jones. Many years passed without much thought for my addiction to adventure and the Indy Universe until my 18^th Birthday, when memories of me walking around my neighborhood dressed in fedora, leather jacket and a crappy bit of rope I used as a whip came flooding back. My girlfriend has bought me the Trilogy box set as part of my present, need I tell you what happened thereafter?

The major part of this renaissance came around when I successfully gained entrance to Lancaster University, where I will graduate from in June 2004. My room on campus was, lets say of very poor standard, it had no TV reception, and no radio reception, but what I did have was a T3 Internet connection and so it began. I spent hours of each night and day when I had finished my work scouring the web for Indiana Jones related material where I discovered the Raven, here I spent a lot of time talking to fellow fans and swapping ideas and analysis over various Indy IV rumors that were floating about the net. Most of the rumors we now know to be rubbish.

Due to the lack of TV reception I found myself reading a lot more, and as a natural progression of this I began to order all the Indiana Jones novels off Amazon. I spent much of my free time in a café in Lancaster reading the novels and once again being fully captivated by the wonderful world that is the Indiana Jones universe. As I messed around on the Internet some more I came across the Indy Experience that a good friend of mine works on, I will mention no names but they know who they are. At the time the site was looking for a new staff member which the above-mentioned friend recommended me for, and the rest as they say is Archaeology, I must have got the job or I wouldn’t be writing this column.

Since joining TIE.c I have been brought to the forefront of the Indiana Jones world, through the site in the summer of 2003 I will get the chance to interview, Paul Freeman (Belloq), David Yip (Wu Han) and Julian Glover (Donovan). For this I have two people to thank immensely those being Aaron and Ralph, thanks guys for the opportunity to work on the No 1 Indiana Jones Website. We are No 1 for Interviews and No 1 for Content all over. It really is fantastic climax for any Indiana Jones fan, Thanks again guys, today a new column, but tomorrow we will be interviewing Harrison Ford, we’ll do it one day I promise.

December 2002:

Becoming an Indy Fan - Part I: The First Crusade

So here we are again, it seems years since I did my last column, we so far have looked at a real life Indiana Jones and the Indy Experience of one of our very own staff members. In this edition I am going to look at why Indiana Jones became such a passion for me...

It all began many years ago when I was off school ill, I was about six years old roughly, I was looking for something to do as I was incredibly bored, it was then my mum but a video tape on that my dad had got for me, it was taped off the television. The film on it was none other than The Temple of Doom, I was so enthralled by it that I watched the movie over and over again. This is my earliest memory of Indy.

The next couple of years of my Indy fan days are blurry to say the least, until the real clincher in my love for the Indiana Jones universe came about in the form of The Last Crusade Graphic Adventure. Few people seem to remember this classic now, but let me tell you it is still the best game ever made, challenged only by Fate of Atlantis. The games I have described here did not need today’s complex graphics to carry it along, it captivated the user with its sheer entertainment value, and fantastic storyline, when I think back now to my childhood its filled with memories of these games. I have to admit that the way the games captivated my imagination is one of my best kept childhood memories, after all things like these are what being a kid is all about right?

I was at Primary School at the time, this is similar to elementary school in the U.S. and I was growing up in the northern English countryside and my very environment which I still live in is filled with history and archaeology, you could quite literally swim in the history in the area I live. From a young age I was always interested in history, it was a natural step when you consider the environment that I was growing up in. Around the early 1990’s myself and a friend discovered our first dig site, we by accident had disturbed a Victorian refuse come trash dump, it sound awful but it was filled with archaeological goodies such as intact crockery, bottles and even on a rare occasion we would come across some 17th Century China Dinner Service parts, but to say the least some of them had seen much better days. This was a thrilling time for any kid and my interest of Indiana Jones was at its first peak. Also at this time I enjoyed hiking around the hills and moor lands in my area (and still do) for any young boy my childhood was rich and what some city kids would consider to be dreamlike. Just imagine the stuff we used to get up to ahh memories!!! For those of you who are interested some of the photos you see are from the area I live in. Also at the end of the second part I will be posting some links to community websites for my area so that you can see what I am discussing in greater detail, you may even see a few pictures of me in their dressed as a Victorian Business Man (don’t ask)!

November 2002:

NEXT WEEK: - Part II: The Renaissance

A Real Indiana Jones: TIE.c's very own, Greg Kulevich. To further our serried on the real Indiana Jones’ of this world we asked you to send it your very own Indy experiences, the best match to Indy was right under our own noses, of course I’m talking about the one and only Gregoire Defense. His real name is Greg Kulevich. Here is his story in his own words:

Physical similarities:

6' 2''
Brown hair, brown eyes
Caucasian
Got a scar when I was a kid by crashing my bike on the curb, and landing on my face. It is an Indy scar right underneath my lower lip.

Life similarities:

Used to have a Labrador retriever when I was growing up named "Greg." My real name is James Gregory Kulevich. I took my middle name Greg, and it stuck with me ever since.
I have traveled extensively with my father. For example: Mexico, Peru, A Monastery in Vermont, Chicago, Texas, Canada, (Basically every state on the East coast of the United States) Florida, North Carolina (Yeehaw! – Aaron), Connecticut, etcetera.
On out trip to Florida, we went to the Everglades. During the trip our group spotted a poisonous Copperhead snake. Been terrified of snakes ever since.
When I was about 5 or 6 I watched a program, about the Sphinx and the treasures of Egypt. From that day forth I have wanted to be an archaeologist! Archaeology became my life's pursuit. Everyone told me throughout my life that I will change my mind. I never did and never will. This is my passion! (I can explain it over e-mail, you just have to understand.)

My mother died when I was 7 from cancer. Afterward I was sent to boarding school. Experienced a falling out between me and my father.
Joined the Boy Scouts. I raised in the ranks, but I stopped at First Class, because I was more interested in blazing new trails and camping, than earning merit badges.
Was involved in a bike crash that left me with my prized scar.
Played the clarinet, saxophone and piano in school.
Also played on the football and baseball teams.
Learned to speak French.
Learned a little bit of Tigrinya (Eritrea).
Went to Mexico on Spring Break. Visited the Maya archaeological zones of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Sayil, Labna, Xlpac, Lotun, and Dzibilchaltun. (Mexico is one of the best places on Earth! Go there!)
Spent a summer in Natal, Brazil as a foreign exchange student.
Have participated in numerous archaeological digs. Most noteworthy are Hopewell Hopeton Works, Chillicothe, Ohio and Ephrata Cloister, Ephrata, Pennsylvania.
Tried to take 2(+) girls to my senior prom. (Ala, Scandal of 1920) And the result was disastrous!
Went to Peru with my father and brother. Whitewater rafted on the Urubamba River. Hiked the Inca Trail. Camped out in the Andes Mountains. Basically an experience of a lifetime. When I was at Machu Picchu, I was in my Indy gear. Well, I was standing on a ledge and this lady came up to me. I do not speak Spanish. She was pointing to her camera, so I thought that she wanted me to take a picture of her and her daughter. I preceded to reach for her camera but to my surprise her daughter came up next to me. She took a picture of her daughter and me! Then she gave the camera to the daughter and she took 2 pictures of me and her mom! Then I thought they left, but she took 2 more pictures of just me standing there! That was an experience as well.
After high school, I spent a year serving in the United States Army ROTC in the Military Intelligence Division. Learned a lot of basic combat and leadership skills. Advanced to the rank of Private First Class.

Learned to speak Arabic.
Got accepted to the University of Chicago!
Bought my fedora on the first day of classes.
I live in Shoreland, a hotel converted into a dormitory by the university. And I live on the 12th floor. It is a fact that Al Capone rented out the entire 12th floor for some reason (Mystery of the Blues).

Learned to read Attic Greek.
Met a famous Blues player named Walter Gentry in Chicago (Mystery of the Blues).

Read Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski. (Treasure of the Peacock's Eye)

"Well, so far, that is how my life has been like Indy's life. I am 19 now. I am at the University of Chicago studying Archaeology. I plan to go to Graduate School and study Archaeology, Archaeology of the Near East in particular, and Semitic Linguistics. I want to get my B. A. in Anthropology, my M. A. in Near Eastern Archaeology and my Ph. D. in Semitic Linguistics. It is my ambition to become a Professor of Archaeology and/Archaeologist in my life. Thank you for listening."

So there you have it, a real life Indiana Jones, I don’t think you can get any closer than that. But if you can do better please get in contact with us as soon as possible, there might even be a competition on the way with a bit of luck.

Until next time, yours in adventuring,

~ Peter

October 2002:

An Introduction...

Lets face it, if you are reading this column then the chances are you’re a serious Indiana Jones fan and more than likely you are wondering if the Jones lifestyle can in fact be real. The primary thing that we have to remember is that we are simply not in the same epoch as Indiana Jones was set in and of course the whole ideology is fictional, a work of art. Despite this it doesn’t stop any one of us living the Indiana Jones experience, there are real Indiana Joneses out there and in actual fact there was one man who almost fitted the bill of Indiana Jones exactly. This man was Roy Chapman Andrews. There was a post on May 2001 by Indy 4 on The Raven about Andrews who is now reasonably well known for his exploits in the 1920’s. If you want to take a look at Indy 4’s post the address is at the end of the column. Roy Chapman Andrews was born in Beloit, Wisconsin in 1884. Andrews had a desire for travel and adventure from his earliest days. "I was born to be an explorer," he later wrote in his 1935 book The Business of Exploring. "There was never any decision to make. I couldn't do anything else and be happy." Something many of you reading this article will feel. His only ambition in life was to work at the American Museum of Natural History. Raising money whilst working as a taxidermist he moved to New York in 1906 after graduation from Beloit College. Andrews was at first refused a job at the museum but persisted so much that he said to the director “You need somebody to scrub the floors don’t you. The director admitted that he did. Andrews took the job scrubbing floors proclaiming "but museum floors were different." A humble beginning for a man destined to become one of the museum's most famous explorers and later the director of the museum himself. More information on this real life Indiana Jones can be obtained from the web address at the end of this column.

So we should have some insight into the world of the real Indiana Joneses out there, its more easily done that most of you would expect. We all have our little own Indiana Jones experiences and that’s what this column is all about. I would like you to email me with your own experiences so that we can discuss them in this column. I know that this edition has only been brief but I will hope to have more material next time when we can discuss your adventures, no matter how small and further explore my own Indy adventures This will usually be a monthly column but I will see you in 2 weeks if the response to this request for your experiences has be good enough. Bye for now!