Glenn Evans – Part 3

FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T LISTENED TO YOUR PREVIOUS TWO EPISODES, YOU’RE AN ACTION VIDEOGRAPHER.

You could say that for sure. I’ve traveled to 68 countries, filming all kinds of TV shows for the History Channel, Discovery, and National Geographic. I do a lot of ancient architecture, endangered animals, and searching for treasure.

YOU LEAD THE KIND OF LIFE THAT I DREAMED OF IN HIGH SCHOOL.

That was my dream, too. I grew up in the 80s, inspired by Indiana Jones. I gravitated toward the camera because I wasn’t scholarly enough to become an archeologist.

My father bought a VHS camera when it came out, and I immediately started shooting movies, and luckily enough, my high school had its own editing system. 

My father worked in the toy industry as the vice president of View-Master. Even though we lived in Oregon, my father had connections in Hollywood. He really inspired me to get involved in the entertainment industry through the camera.

I went to the University of Oregon and then to the Brooks Institute of Photography in California doing underwater photos, leading to traveling and taking pictures of animals.

WHAT ADVENTURES HAVE YOU BEEN ON SINCE WE LAST SPOKE TO YOU?

It’s been tough with the pandemic. There hasn’t been a lot of international travel. I’ve been working around town in LA and got a wildlife show called Wildlife Nation on ABC on weekend mornings, hosted by Jeff Corwin.

We travel around the United States, filming the endangered animals and the people trying to protect them. We’ve gone to Florida, Montana, and Alaska, to name a few places we’ve been.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN FLORIDA?

In Florida, it was a lot about crocodiles. You don’t think about Florida having crocodiles. You usually think of them having alligators, but they have a saltwater crocodile, and it’s very rare.

We filmed the scientists protecting the saltwater crocodile and were heavily involved in a green sea turtle protection program. 

We also got to film with a great center that treats these turtles with all kinds of illnesses they get. 

We also filmed the Indigo snake, which is very dark black and scary when you first look at it. But this snake eats other venomous snakes and isn’t venomous themselves.

THERE IS AN OVERLAP BETWEEN YOUR SEEKING ADVENTURE AND PROTECTING ANIMALS.

I love animals. Animals are always themselves. They have no hidden agenda. There’s something refreshing about that.

Animals are very important; we must protect them so everyone can enjoy them.

DO YOU HAVE ANIMALS AT HOME?

I do. I have a big white dog named Ziggy. He’s half German Shepard and half Husky. We rescued him. He has one eye that is blue and one eye that is brown. He’ll be four this year.

LAST TIME YOU WERE HERE, YOU SPOKE OF SUNKEN TREASURE, SAVING LOUISIANA AND POSSIBLY THE UNITED STATES, AND THE AMBER ROOM. I’M EXCITED TO HEAR WHAT OTHER STORIES YOU HAVE.

I did bring a couple of items. I thought it would be interesting to bring stuff from my mom’s home in Oregon. Interestingly, some of the things I thought would be garbage ended up being worth quite a bit of money. 

I want to encourage people to go through their attics because you can discover some rare finds.

One of the finds I brought today is Spiderman comic book, where he is introduced to Venom, worth $18,000. I bought it for around $20 at a comic book shop in Hillsboro, Oregon. 

I started going through them and was putting them through this app to see how much they were worth, and this one came back as worth 18,000 in mint condition. Now I have to send it out to be graded, but right now, it is taking it up to a year because of the backlog. 

WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU?

The Bansky exhibit is in town. He does all kinds of crazy things and is a modern-day treasure creator. He’ll make a piece of art, and it’ll be instantly worth thousands of dollars.

He is the Robin Hood of modern art.

During his presentation of Dismalland, the first 500 people would pay to get in to see the exhibit, and they would get this ten-pound note that he created and autographed them. 

Even though he handed them out at his exhibit, he can’t cop to the fact that he made them because it would be counterfeiting. I bought them at an auction because I love Banksy, 

I’ve seen these for sale anywhere from $100 to $2,000. 

DO YOU WANT TO HEAR A CRAZY ART STORY?

There was a man from Toulouse, France, and he flips houses. He bought a house sight unseen in Toulouse in 2018. He goes into the attic of this house, and as he looks through it, he finds this horrific painting of someone getting their head cut off with a giant knife. 

He took the painting to Paris to have someone look at it; it turns out it’s the lost Caravaggio painting. It’s worth millions and millions of dollars.

The painting is of the beheading of Holofernes from the book of Judith. Caravaggio was a very interesting artist.

They were set to auction this painting off for $160 million, and two days before it was set to go to auction, someone came in and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and the painting disappeared again.

They say the painting will be visible in a public venue soon, but they won’t say when.

WOW. WHAT’S THE NEXT THING YOU BROUGHT?

I can’t leave you guys without bringing something from a crazy place with a story to tell. 

I married a woman from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and we travel there yearly.

I brought a very old wooden statue of Lady Ducarmel from the 1800s that may have been brought over on a ship, but the interesting thing about this is when the Portuguese colonized Brazil. The Portuguese were mining for gold in Minas Gerais, but if people didn’t want the gold to leave, they would hide in the church in Brazil. Sometimes they would hide it in statues like the one I’ve brought today.

HAVE YOU HAD IT X-RAYED?

I have not. I’ve looked at the bottom, and there are peculiar holes and interesting writing. This statue is a great example of artwork from Brazil.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD, IN ANCIENT STRUCTURES, IT IS EVIDENT THAT THEY’RE BUILT ON OLDER STRUCTURES. MANY OF THESE PLACES CLAIM THEY KNOW WHO BUILT IT AND WHY IT WAS BUILT, BUT IT’S CLEAR THAT EVEN TODAY, WE DON’T HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE THESE STRUCTURES. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS IN YOUR TRAVELS?

I have seen it. An example I’ve seen is Macchu Picchu, the Peruvian monument there. It is built with precisely cut stones. What is also fascinating is the irrigation they have in the buildings.

I’ve seen another example of this irrigation in Petra, Jordan. The smooth stones carved to get water to the citizens back then are amazing.

Egypt is another excellent example of stones being cut and fit together so tightly.

I have filmed people in Egypt taking large pieces of limestone and burrowing holes inside; take a wooden post and smack it with a hammer, and the piece of limestone will break cleanly in a precise line.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE DAGGER OF KING TUT?

It’s one of the newest things since this museum in Egypt has been x-raying and cataloging the treasures they have. They have this dagger they knew was found in King Tut’s tomb and that it’s made from iron, but not iron from Earth. The dagger is made from a meteorite.

They also believe the dagger is not from Egypt. They think it was a gift to King Tut’s grandfather.

 

SGV III

1. Comics VS Toys in Eagle Rock: They are great and very friendly. They offer a grading service and could tell me what the comics were worth.
2. Canterbury Records: They were very generous when I brought in my DVDs.
3. I love restaurants, and there are 8 Michelin star restaurants around us. I want to try Perle.