this add from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership totally pwns ALL the Super Bowl ads.

it’s quite possibly the best thing I’ve seen this year.

-Luke

howdy fellow intertubians,

hope the New Year has been good to you so far. so far, the majority of my creative output this year has been writing. and the lion’s share of that has been on a ZOMBIE feature screenplay. stay tuned for more details on that.

in the meantime, here’s one of my non-film creative projects from last year. for my birthday, my good friend Troy got me a vintage Nikishi frame and fork set. over the next several months I built a custom bike…see if you can guess the “theme” I was going for.

first up was spoking the rims (you can see the silver frame behind Johnny)

next I got the frame and forks powered coated, then many trips to Echo Park Cycles for parts.

because I was using a vintage frame, I had to find a vintage stem. at Coco’s Variety Shop I found an old Schwinn stem.

but I didn’t want any chrome parts…so I took the stem and seat post back to the powder coaters.

and that was pretty much it. some hammering was required to get the handlebars to fit in the stem…and later I changed my grips. but the bike was finally rideable!

here’s the finished, fully assembled bike on its maiden voyage.

looking forward to warm summer days where I can get some good rides in!

-Luke

Howdy,

Happy 2010 y’all. for the last several years I’ve been doing a “Top 10″ list for the year…I don’t limit it to movies or events or projects. It’s an across the board collection of what was most memorable for me.

Here’s the list for 2009. enjoy.

10.) Chris’ “Grapevine Fires” video

My friend Chris, 1/2 of the directing team “Walter Robot” made an amazing video this year. I’m not sure if a music video has ever touched me so emotionally. And it was something that came out of our writer’s group. Pretty awesome to see the process work with such wonderful results.

Watch it here.

9.) Star Trek, District 9, Moon, The Road, and Avatar

What an amazing year for Sci-Fi. From low budget indy to INSANELY high budget blockbusters, each film brought its own unique take and technique to science fiction. And each one of these films I could watch multiple times.

8.) Movie Ink

One Star Wars reference…one Spinal Tap reference. Tattoos are fun.

7.) XBOX 360

It’s been a good 10 years since I played video games…and I gotta say they are pretty awesome. Many fun nights playing with my director friends Lex, Mark, Josh, and Rylan.

Hollar if you want to pwn n00bs on xbox live sometime.

6.) Parents’ Architecture Visit

My Mom and Dad visited in the Spring and we took a multiday tour of Los Angeles architecture, including a impromptu and private tour of the Ennis House and the Eames House, pictured below.

5.) Sing It Loud Music Video

Getting to make a video with a budget was pretty awesome. There were production trucks there, MY production trucks…and I didn’t have to unload them. Having a full crew allowed me to focus on JUST directing…I’ve tasted blood. And I want more.

Read about the production here and watch the video here.

4.) Grindin’

Like many people, this year had its slow periods…but I filled those by writing and working on my own projects. I wrote 2 shorts, 1 feature, and numerous blogs about the filmmaking and creative process. I finished the 3rd season of ‘The Real Luke’ which included a fashion shoot. I directed a Coca-Cola commercial featuring The Real Luke, finished a short I started in college, and made a Super 8 travelogue for my trip to Chile. In December I directed an experimental short…expect that in early 2009.

Additionally I ran the LA chapter of SFSU Alumni and supervised development for a production company, going through over 170 scripts.

This was all done outside of the music videos I directed AND while working 40+ hours a week as an editor. Grindin’.

3.) Working With Teal

Earlier in the year I took stock of what I found most helpful in having an assistant. A big part of it was simply having someone who knew everything I was working on and would check in, encourage, and if need be harass me about the projects.

The person who understands me the best…and knows how to push my buttons the best is definitely my sister. Luckily she was willing to take the job.

2.) Thanksgiving & Christmas Dinners

This year I was fortunate enough to travel back to the Northwest for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. For each holiday, Teal and I did the cooking. It’s a real joy to work in the kitchen with Teal. Her creativity and skill in the culinary arts is something to behold. And feeding my family with delicious food? It doesn’t get much better than that.

1.) Chile Trip aka Chingón Aguilas: 2009

I turned 30 in 2009 and when thinking about my approaching birthday I knew I wanted to do something special. And for me, the best thing I could think of was to go snowboarding..and with a birthday in the middle of summer my options were slightly limited. In the Northern Hemisphere at least. So my friend Will and I traveled to the Andes for a snowboarding and travel adventure. The trip and snowboarding were both amazing. But one thing that really stands out was becoming closer friends with Will. A good trip can do wonders for a friendship and this was no exception.

And now, a special treat – the Super 8 travelogue from the trip. Premiering for the first time right here. Enjoy!

-Luke

Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving my intertubian friends!

Recently I’ve made a few updates to my website. First off, I’ve added an “archive” page. There you can find my older music videos, short films, commercials, and of course…The Real Luke. Check it out here lukeasa.com/archive.

I’ve also taken advantage of YouTube’s HD abilities and uploaded Voxhaul Broadcast’s “Rotten Apples” video in High Definition. It really looks amazing. Just a few years ago I was so anti-youtube. The quality was bad, it took forever to stream, and it seemed like the site was lowering overall expectations of image quality. But now, I have to admit – using their site for an HD file provides a quicker and more accessible viewing experience than a quicktime of equal quality. For standard definition or smaller files, I still prefer quicktimes. But for HD…youtube’s options look really good.

And…here’s a trailer for the Super 8 film that I shot in Chile last summer, “Chingón Aguilas: Turn It To 11.”

Check out the videos full screen, they really look great.

-Luke

so early today I got an email from an acquaintance regarding a contest that a large HUGE mega corp is holding.

here’s the message:

Subject: Microsoft 7 Shorts Contest for $$$

My friend, [NAME REMOVED] told me about this contest. He works for [NAME REMOVED] and they are recruiting videographers to create extremely short (7 second!) videos about Microsoft Windows 7.

Here’s the deal:

They’re sending videographers a free copy of Windows 7. You then need to make up to seven different 7 second videos about one of the new W7 features. Each clip that gets accepted will earn $50 (so, if you submit a string of 7 short videos that are decent quality, you’d get $350 upfront). In addition, the 10 best videos they receive will each earn an additional $700 bonus (good odds, because they don’t expect that many entries), and ALL of the videos will have a chance of appearing in a national MSFT Windows 7 campaign.

Would you be interested? Anyone who wants more info should email [NAME REMOVED]

Good luck!

Seriously? $50???

Doritos…yes the snack maker DORITOS is giving away 5 MILLION DOLLARS. Check out this article in USA Today.

Wait, what am I saying, this is actually a GREAT opportunity for a director with real vision to show off unlimited creative potential and the awesomeness of Windows 7 AND make some serious loot in the process.

Now where did I leave my VHS-C camera?

-Luke

So a while back I got an email from an account executive at dbdchile.com. Someone at their Japanese office had sent them the street mag that my Real Luke pics were in (check them out here). They wanted to chat with me about making a vintage inspired Coke ad. I was into the idea, and even better the job was going to shoot in Winter… i.e. July.

A chance to escape the SoCal heat, go snowboarding, and film a Real Luke ad in July??? Yes please!!!

On the flight to Santiago I ended up sitting next to a wild haired, tattooed German guy. His name was Wilhelm Von Schmakënbrau. We talked a lot about art, music, and incidentally snowboarding. Wilhelm is quite the artist. He has exhibited or performed all over the world, from Berlin to Johannesburg, from Mumbai to Tokyo. It’s hard to classify his work, the best I can come up with is Metal Infused Post Deconstructionist Performance Art. But it’s not to hard to describe it, basically he “blows shit up with sound.” It’s pretty badass. He’s pretty vigilant about keeping it strictly PERFORMANCE based and spends hours everyday searching youtube to eliminate any clips of his work that may have popped up. If you could say anything about the Germans, it’s that they are thorough.

After 14 hours in the air and 3 hours going through customs, we’d become pretty good friends. I needed a camera person, so I asked if he’d like to help me with the production. He was a little resistant, it being “commercial” and all, but when I explained the character of The Real Luke – a Post Industrialist Waldenian on a Vision Quest – and that we would be shooting on Super 8, he was hooked.

The shoot went smoothly, and the client notes were surprisingly simple. The only problem was getting a dang copy of the piece. My best guess is that Alessandro, my account rep, left the agency. He’d been mumbling something about a kayak trip in Patagonia. I’ve been scouring the web looking for the video and it finally popped up online. Some dude (well, it’s the internet, so who really knows) posted a bunch of weird beverage ads from South America… and mine is in the mix!

Hopefully I’ll have a pretty quicktime online soon, but until then – click here for the youtube video or watch below!

really, calling this an ad hardly does it justice. it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of media I’ve seen in a while.

it probably helps that I’ve been editing my snowboarding film from Chile for the past few weeks…and subsequently winter has been on my mind.

this ad is an excellent representation of the feeling that we snowboarders (and skiers) have in the fall. the cold air and changing colors brings anticipation to our days. we visualize the lines that we’ll be riding. we are filled with the expectations of the excitement and fun that the winter will soon bring.

in this spot, those daydreams are visualized in a wonderful and mesmerizing fashion.

well done.

Zimtstern “Leaves” from Zimtstern Snowboarding on Vimeo.

-Luke

p.s. the “making of” is worth watching as well.

Zimtstern “Leaves” – Making-of from Zimtstern Snowboarding on Vimeo.

It was another late lazy morning. Hey, give me a break. We were on a tight schedule for 6 days! Breakfast at 8am!

I sat in our windowsill, read, and drank the complimentary coffee. It was peaceful and relaxing looking out at the mountains and down on the people going about their days. There wasn’t too many people out…probably because it was Sunday.

Eventually we wandered next door to a breakfast type spot and had some brunch. I had a quiche and salad. The salad was sliced tomatoes, avocado, and iceberg lettuce all neatly arranged like the slices of a pie. The tomato and lettuce were pretty gross. Perhaps it’s the wrong season for them? The avo tasted super good on the quiche though. Of course we each had cortados. It had been pretty clear that this was going to win out as the trip’s “Official Beverage.” (narrowly beating out rehd-büll)

We took a walk to a park I’d seen on the free hotel map. We saw a place to hop over the fence and in the spirit of adventure took it. The park didn’t seem to be a normal park, we saw a few clay tennis courts, then a few more, then a gated entrance. Oooooh maybe it’s a private tennis park? We shot a little film of people playing on these brilliant brick red courts w/ the grey Andes looming behind them. Then we sauntered out.

Along the way back I started taking picks of all the footprints, tire tracks, and paw prints in the sidewalks. I’d NEVER seen so many. All around Santiago people just walked through wet cement. They weren’t even writing their names or drawing bad anarchy symbols – they were just wandering through.

Somewhere along this road we also saw a guy trimming his lawn…with hand shears. really?

We got back to the hotel and were a little early for our airport departure…but we didn’t really have enough time to do anything besides check the intertubes and leave. So we did.

The route back to the airport was super easy. No losties.

Along the way, we drove past that section of river w/ all the trash on its banks. And there were multiple soccer games going on next to it. And the people watching the games must have been cold…cause they were burning the trash. Multiple open trash fires in a major city. Hmmm…might have something to do with why the air is so polluted.

We were too early for Delta. We couldn’t check in. The girl told us to come back in a couple hours…not that there were CLOCKS anywhere or anything. sheesh.

So we went to a little cafeteria type place and played some table football. It was a pretty close game. heh. I don’t think I’ve played that game in at least 10 years. It used to be the default thing I’d do whenever I went to a restaurant.

Will ordered a pepsi and a milkshake. They were both pretty gross. I had a glass of water and a beer. The water was totally undrinkable…probably why the other drinks were so foul. The water in our hotel was good…and the water in Farellones was awesome…but not at the airport.

Eventually we could get in line. It was a pretty massive que…since no one could check in early. Thanks Delta. We met a painter named Steve. He split his time between Studio City and Santiago. We chatted about a variety of things. One of the more amusing moments was when we told him about the Chileans complaining about other people’s Spanish. He laughed and said they had it all turned around. THEY spoke bad Spanish. If you wanted to learn it, he recommended Columbia.

Past security we had a pretty sweet meat sandwich and papas fritas meal. Some young American kids came up and talked to us. They noticed us in line with our snowboards and wanted to know about our trip. See – that’s a normal travel sort of experience.

After that we had just enough time to buy some Lucky Strikes and head for the plane. We’d be waking up in Atlanta.

——–

Atlanta was pretty miserable in the morning. Hot, muggy, and we waited in line after line. It took forever to get our bags, then to get through customs, then to get ALL my film and their cardboard boxes individually swabbed for explosives.

One guy did come up to us and ask if we were Pro Skaters. That was kinda cool. The rest of the time we occupied ourselves by planning what scams we could run to get to “Easy Street.” Most involved slipping and falling and then suing “Atlanta” or “Chile.” There were some other ideas…but I’m not posting those on the internets for people to poach!!!!

We were really pushing the time to make our connection…we didn’t do the “Home Alone” run through the airport, but we moved as quick as possible. We didn’t get food, go to the bathroom, have a smoke, or get coffee.

On the escalator up to our gate there was a woman blocking the entire step. I said “excuse me.” She turned and looked and me, then turned around and didn’t move. I said it again.

Then we tried it in: French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Japanese.

That’s SIX languages. She didn’t move.

We got off the escalator and walked quickly past her. I walked a *little* too close and “accidentally” ran over her foot with my rollie bag. Oops.

Will was proud.

Buuuut. We missed our flight. Epic fail Delta. Epic fail.

Well at least I rolled over her foot. And we now had time to get some good ol ‘Merican breakfast; bacon, eggs, and grits!

Delta squeezed us on the next flight. The guy next to me freaked out whenever we hit turbulence.

Soon we were back in 90+ degree Los Angeles, sweating our balls off. It was just a little bit confusing to go to sleep in Winter and wakeup in the middle of Summer.

A cab ride home, a shower, a short rest, then I took Will back to the airport. On the way home I stopped at the Apple store and got a new iPhone.

Bitchin’ Eagle bro. Bitchin’ Eagle.

-Lukw

p.s. Stay tuned for the Super8 film coming soon…I think I finally found a track to use…

Even when I’m up until 5am I still feel a little guilty about sleeping in. Less so on vacation though…

I’m not sure when we got up, but it was later than breakfast time. I stumbled down to the bar and ordered a cortado, some empanadas, and then waited for the intertubes.

The plan for the day was fairly loose. In the guidebook there was a downtown walking tour mapped out. I modified it a bit so we wouldn’t have to change subway lines. We packed up, grabbed the super 8, and headed towards the nearest subway station.

It was a bit of a walk. The subway didn’t really run out in our direction. If I ever go to Santiago again I’m not going to stay in Vitacura. It was like we were staying in Beverly Hills. A couple blocks away from our hotel was a street w/ expensive boutiques. The house and apartments were all really nice. The whole area was pretty new. Too far away from the action.

It makes me wonder about the girl that recommended this area…I wonder what she’s like?

Anyhoo, as we walked we stopped to film a fountain and some street performers. We got a snack at a “Big John’s” convenience store. My small bottle of coke was like 30 cents. See! This is what I’d been missing. At the ski area everything was basically “American” prices. It must have been pretty expensive for regular Chileans.

The subway was pretty easy to figure out. Get your tickets at the window. Feed the ticket into the machine (kinda like in Japan). Stand on the platform and wait. One side went downtown, the other went…um…not downtown. The cars were clean and bright. As we got further towards the city center the car filled up, but never to an insane amount. It was a Saturday after all.

We exited the subway and stepped out into the low evening light. I LOVE winter evenings downtown. The yellow glow shooting between buildings, the erie grey of the shadows, the crisp air.

This area was old. I mean, the city has existed since 1541. (holy crap) I just looked that up. Wow, I was guessing 1700’s. The buildings had that solid rock look with ornate cravings that you could imagine a craftsman working on.

I started us walking in the correct direction and we started to wander. If we saw a street that looked interesting we went down it. We stumbled upon a major walking street full of shops, vendors, performers and people.

And not only that…it had…the very first…public…CLOCKS. And more than one! (wait for the film…)

We passed several different young ladies singing to pretty large crowds. I think they were selling CDs too. And they had their own gas generators to power their PA’s.

Will bought a churro…I warned him against it. Who knows when they last changed that fry oil? Apparently it was delicious…and he paid for it later.

As we headed North towards the river we entered a slightly seedier part of town. It was interesting how quickly that became apparent. It wasn’t dangerous, but the character of the area changed. Then in front of us we noticed an elevator up a hillside. Yeah…an elevator up a hill.

People were going up it, and we decided to join it. It looked like it might lead to a park or something…if my memory of the guide book served me correctly.

It did. The elevator opened up to this strange mix of a garden, park, and castle. It was pretty amazing…and the views were out of this world.

We were wandering around at the top, taking pictures, trying not to stare at the couples making out when the first Chileans talked to us. It was two young guys, probably in their late teens or early 20’s. We talked about why were were in Chile (snowboarding), how beautiful Chile was, and then they tried to sell us drugs.

At least I thought they did. Will thought they were only making conversation about how cheap and awesome Chilean Joints were.

I think they are selling ice cream?

This hill top is called Santa Lucía Hill.

(click for bigger pans)

By the time we made it down the hill it was night. We walked down the nearest largest street to get our barring and just happened to come across the subway stop we needed. But we were both wicked hungry and decided to look for something to eat downtown.

We ended up at what can best be described as a Chilean Greasy Spoon. It was a little tiny diner. As you walked in there were cubes on either side. To the right was the chef’s area, to the left was the cashier’s. Then in the back 20 or so seats were crammed in a strange mix of tables, booths, and counters.

The proprietor was very friendly. He spoke to us in English and asked us about our trip and what sort of food we liked.

“Carne y queso” was Will’s response. The man laughed.

We both ordered the “Lo Pobre”…Will with steak, me with Chicken. It’s a grilled piece of meat, topped w/ a fried egg, and served with fries. A pretty dang good meal. Will had a Coke (which are as good as “Mexican” coke) and I had a Chilean beer that I’d tried at La Parva.

The food was awesome. We headed back towards our hotel full and happy.

After naps we headed out. It was almost 2am…but people were out until at least 4:30 last time, so we should be good right?

We took a cab to a new area, one that seemed to have more bars. The first place we went to – totally empty.

So we walked to place number 2. Along the way we stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for a snack. And there were NO donuts.

No donuts in a Dunkin’ Donuts. WHERE WERE WE, CRAZZZZY TOWN?!?

The club area was pretty cool. 4 or 5 places in one little courtyard. We sat down in an outdoor area and ordered some nachos. Will got a redbull and I tried to order a redbull and vodka.

Backstory on redbull. If you order a “redbull” you get a blank look back. They have NO idea what you are talking about – even if you point at the redbull fridge. This happened multiple times to us. So we’d learned to pronounce it “rehd-büll.”

I shit you not. “Redbull” nothing. “Rehd-büll” prompt drink delivery.

So here I ordered a “Rehd-büll con vodka.” Nothing.

I said “Rehd-büll” and the guy nodded. I said “con vodka” and I got a blank expression.

The waiter motioned to hold-on and he went and got a woman. She said to me in broken English “I’m sorry, but we don’t have Vermouth.”

uh what? Will and I looked at each other with a WTF expression.

I repeated myself “Rehd-büll con vodka” and she said “ooooh vawd-ca.”

yeah, seriously.

It was like no one had ever ordered this drink before. Between the two of us, we’d probably had this drink in 6 or 7 countries. But in Chile, they were completely confused by it. And they had other redbull + ___ drinks on their menu.

After our drinks and snack we headed to another club for more libations. But they just had last call. It was barely after 3am. Oh well. The whole night was pretty much a bust, but at least we tried.

We headed back to the hotel…tomorrow we’d be leaving for the US.

July 10th. My birthday. It was the 2nd time I’d celebrated my birthday overseas. The first time was 10 years ago. My family was in Corsica in the mountain village that the Guidici’s hail from. Poggio Di Nazza is hundreds of years old and it’s built on dozens of different levels. In Corsica, the locals lived in the mountains so that they could see the invading armies approaching and run into the hills. Pretty much everyone controlled the island at one time of another…The Greeks, The Romans, The Moors, The Genoese, The Nazis, and now…The French.

On the evening of the 10th we were in a bar and the locals learned it was my birthday. They spontaneously broke out singing “Happy Birthday.” It was a special moment.

In Chile I was greeted by Clara and Jessica with wishes of felix cumpleaños, hugs and kisses. Then Clara brought me out a piece of cake with a candle and sung “Happy Birthday” to me in Spanish. Outside of being home with my family, I’m not sure I could think of a better birthday breakfast.

We packed up our things and then went out to get a few Real Luke pickup shots. I’d thought about the shoot that night and realized I wanted to do a couple things differently. The light was a little different, but for the shot needed it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Then we said our good byes. “Estoy triste” Clara told us as we prepared to leave. We were sad too. It’d been a great week with this wonderful ladies.

The drive down was pretty chill. Well, as chill as it could be with the hairpin turns, lack of guard rails, and Chileans coming up for the weekend with a loose concept of “lanes.” Pretty much guaranteed if we encountered a car coming up hill – it would be in our lane.

The is a great example of how steep the road was. See those three roads that look like they are RIGHT below us? Those are parts of the same road we are on…yeah.

In some ways it reminds me of the roads to ski areas in the Los Angeles area…cacti along the road.

We stopped at the bottom of the hill and gassed up. Then unsuccessfully looked for any thing that said “Ski Farellones,” or “La Parva, El Colorado, or Valle Nevado.” Where was all the tourist crap???

One of the places we looked was called Mall Sport. It was a giant mega mall that had a shop for every outdoor activity. And that’s not hyperbole. They had shops for everything from boating to knives to skateboarding to golf. And they had many facilities to try out the various gear…as the pictures below will attest to.

We left there and headed towards Santiago. The google directions we downloaded seemed fairly straight forward…but we were soon to learn that what google said and what the SIGN said were not always the same thing.

Our first problem came when we passed our exit. It was supposed to be “Americo Vespucio,” but the sign only said “Vespucio.” Was that the same road? We saw signs for other “Vespucios” further down the highway, so weren’t sure if we’d gone far enough. The road signs listed another one at “19.” Was that in 19 KM or was that exit 19? We continued down the highway figuring it would be easy enough to turn around if that next exit was the one.

It wasn’t that easy.

We got off the freeway and there was no clear way back on. Plus it was one of those spots where multiple freeways were crossing – so I feared that even if we got back on the freeway, we might get on the wrong one. Which would only compound our problem.

This ended up not being an immediate problem since we couldn’t get on ANY freeway. We drove down the street through a lower class residential area. There were a lot of people out walking around and going to a park that bordered the freeway. There were the requisite dogs…and even some horses. After about 6 blocks we realized we took a wrong turn and flipped it around.

Somehow we made it into a slightly more commercial area and seemed to be heading away from the road. Will suggested we turn back around. I agreed. We were pretty sure we were above the freeway…but were unsure if it was the correct one.

We turned around and saw an on-ramp. We took it. As we drove up towards the freeway we finally saw a sign. It was the right road, Corso Norte!!! High fives all around.

When we exited Vespucio we headed the wrong way. Getting off the freeway and onto the correct road THAT THE EXIT WAS FOR required a u-turn and 4 other merges or turns. We ended up going the wrong way. The options would be labeled north/south at the first turn…but not at the 2nd…by the 4th we were completely turned around.

As went over a giant hill and away from the river I realized we were going the wrong way. Again.

We took the first exit and Will quickly realized that the there was NO on ramp the opposite way. As we got BACK on the freeway going to wrong way (it was at least on purpose this time). I figured that the signage of the exit w/ an “X” on one side must have something to do w/ the availability, or lack there of, of onramps to the freeway.

On the US State Department website it says something like “traffic signs in Chile differ from those in the USA.” But is there a list of these signs? No. Does my guidebook have them? No. Am I the first person to get lost in Chile??? I’m gonna take a wild guess and say “no.”

Finally we were on the correct road, going to correct direction. In no time at all we were at our hotel, checked in, and relaxing in the nice, clock free room.

However, the LOBBY of the hotel did have the only clock we’d seen up until that point.

Our batteries recharged we headed out. Both Will and I liked to walk around new cities, so that is what we did. It was a beautiful winter day in JULY. The light was golden and low. The air was crisp and cool. We headed towards the city in search of some food and cortados.

Along the way we stopped to film some motorcycle delivery drivers. There were a TON of them and they fascinated me. They were basically riding dirt bikes and about 50% them were wearing slip-on loafers.

We grabbed a quick snack of chips from a street vendor. We never saw any “real” street food…lots of carts selling stuff, but it was all packaged goods. Probably for the best…at least as far as our stomachs were concerned.

As we sat on the ledge of a fountain and ate our chips, a young man was giving a woman a Tarot card reading on the other side. I never saw anyone beggining for money in Chile…but there were LOTS of people performing and entertaining out on the street. You’ll see the performers and delivery drivers in the film…coming soon(ish).

After coffee we met some friendly streets dogs. There were a group of 4 of them that we found in a park. We played with them a bit and they seemed to love the attention. Keep in mind, we were basically DOWNTOWN. High rises around us and these random dogs, just hanging out. They weren’t mangy or dirty. They weren’t thin or hungry looking. They were friendly and smart. They’d wait for traffic signals to change – and would watch us to see when we would start across the street.

They walked with us basically all the way to our hotel…and that was a good mile away.

Naps were followed by a trip to an alright restaurant for dinner. It was basically the same sort of food that we had at La Parva. It was tasty, but nothing really out of the ordinary. We went back to the hotel and rested up for our night out. I had a recommendation from a Chilean who lived in the US of a fun bar/restaurant.

The cab we got into didn’t have seatbelts…or a working first gear. The driver would make turns from the middle lane. It was pretty awesome.

El Barril was the spot. It was super packed and seemed to be in a transition from dinner to bar. There was a band playing that oscillated from Mariachi music to Karaoke, to Rock-a-billy covers. It was a little odd…but the people there were LOVING IT.

The drinks were strong. You could smoke. But no girls would make eye contact with us. Rare for Will and I…and especially rare when traveling. Two white guys with mustaches and tattoos. We obviously weren’t from there and usually that works in our favor. But apparently, not in Chile. Never did figure that one out.

Neverless, we stayed until 4am. We talked about life, snowboarding, BS…just a good hangout. It’s nice when you are traveling with someone and on Day 7 you still have things to chat about. That wouldn’t be possible with everyone…

We grabbed a cab back to Hotel and after some myspace/facebooking we crashed.

A full day in Santiago lay ahead of us.