howdy hi,

one of my ongoing projects has been update my flickr (www.flickr.com/lukeasa). I have 7 years of back photos…so it’s taking me a while. once they are online and organized I’ll be posting groups of my favorites on here. until then, here are just a few misc. production pictures.

-Luke

“new media,” “internet distribution,” “going viral,” what do they mean and, more importantly, how does one utilize them?

these are questions that I’ve been exploring, investigating, pondering, and testing the past couple years.  there are millions of people watching videos online everyday. and out of those millions there must be thousands that would be interested in my latest music video or short film, right?

so how do I find those thousands?  or how do I find the hundreds that will attract the thousands that will attract the tens of thousands and so on?

the methods I’ve been working on recently include: posting and interacting with people via my twitter account, my blog, updating and maintaining my mailing lists which includes several Yahoo filmmaking groups, posting on facebook/myspace, and directly contacting blogs.

in marketing an internet video, blogs seem like one of the best bets.  they represent a “reputable” 3rd party which adds legitimacy to your project.  it’s one thing to say “hey, check out my video, it’s AWESOME.”  it’s another to have someone you don’t know say “hey, check out this video, it’s AWESOME.”  additionally, a blog will have its own unique set of readers… a group that you probably don’t know and wouldn’t have access to it.  if one of them likes it and passes on to ten of their friends and one of those ten likes it passes it on, well, you’ve effectively promoted your project in true grassroots fashion.

for my snowboard travelogue, “Chingón Aguilas: Turn it to 11″ I set out to do this for the first time.  the first question to answer was, “who is my audience?”  I figured that fans of Chilean snow sports, snowboarders, and lovers of Super 8 filmmaking would be interested in the project.  with the help of my intern Mustan, we searched the web for blogs that  fit those categories AND had history of posting videos.  He would compile a list of potential sites, then I reviewed and contacted the ones that I thought were a good fit.

the responses were overwhelmingly positive, people liked the film. But I didn’t just want them to just say “cool film”…I wanted them to post the film on their sites.

of course, anytime you put yourself out there, you risk getting a response like this from www.angrysnowboarder.com.

Luke,

What do you want me to tell you? That it looks like a bunch of guys went and shredded Chile and didn’t even venture off into the real terrain most people should go there for? Or that it’s all filler and like zero thriller?

I’ll be honest it doesn’t do shit for me as a snowboarder, writer, or someone that has had some whacky ass trips that have been documented. To me it just seems like 2 guys went to chile had fun and shot it in super 8 (sick medium that I love personally) but over all isn’t something I’d ever care to watch again. I love raw and gritty shit classic example is I love what June and Esthera are doing with Peepshow when that movie came out I was like, “holy fuck an all girl shred flick I can actually stand to watch”. My .02 cents is you got skills with a camera either next time show the turmoil of getting there and shredding or show me the goods none of this artsy fartsy shit. Also more metal in the edit, the world needs more metal. Running free by Maiden would have been a good one.

interestingly enough, some of the things he didn’t like about the film were the very things I was trying to accomplish.  but that’s besides the point… if you share your work with strangers, you have to be prepared for some of them not to like it.

of course, some of them will really like it.  another site, www.shayboarder.com, liked the film enough that they interviewed me about the trip and filmmaking process for their blog.

here’s a little excerpt:

Often snowboard journeys are undocumented travels, lost in our memories and shared secrets between friends. Snowboarders from California Luke and Will shared their journey in a super 8mm film for the world to see and while many Chilean travels are left to the pros, I enjoyed the passion and creativity that came out from their film.

I caught up with Luke to find out more about their travel experience to Chile and how they documented the experience in a short film.

read the rest of the interview here.

and from Shayboadrer’s interview the site www.shredunion.com tweeted about the post & film, sharing it with their 2,300+ followers.  those are 2,300 potential viewers that I didn’t have access to before!  I’m not sure it went too much further than that, but all and all I’d call it a successful first foray into the world of blog promotions.

promoting and distributing short form projects on the internet is something that I’m still learning and experimenting with.  I’d love to hear any experiences, thoughts, or stories you may have!

-Luke

hello fellow dwellers of the intertubes!

I’ve just finished a new music video for Grand Vanity’s song “Got A Nerve.” the band is composed of Greg and Dani Jong, a husband and wife duo that I first met on the Procession’s “Major & Minor” video (watch it here.)

the video was a lot of fun to make, the Jong’s have a great attitude and since it was pretty low budget, I got to work with friends. that is, I had to convince people who like me to come work for free or cheap.

since we were going to be pushing the limits of our budget, I wanted to make sure the video was well planned. a month or so before the production, I went to Van Nuys with my Canon Powershot and shot some tests which I then cut into an animatic.

here are some clips from that test.

intro test

stop motion test

soon the week or the production was upon us…unfortunately the Jong’s came down with the flu. being a performance video it was kinda important that they were in good shape for filming, so we pushed the video. this is never a fun thing to do. once you change dates, the availability of crew and gear can change drastically. and the later we were going to shoot, the worse the weather would be.

yes, this is Southern California, but it does rain here. and the closer you get to the end of the year, the more likely it will rain. but this time, fortune smiled on us. between our initial shoot day and the day we shot it got cold. cold enough that the leaves changed.

leaves before

leaves on day of shoot

this isn’t something we could have planned, but it totally worked in our favor. the potential negative of delaying the shoot turned into a positive that enhanced the mise-en-scène of the video.

the shoot itself went smoothly. no one hassled us at all, which was great since we were shooting IN THE STREET without permits. this means that if anyone had a problem with us shooting they could report us to the police and the police would shut us down. thankfully, Saturday morning in Van Nuys is a pretty mellow place.

you can see a woman walking her dogs stopped to say “hi.”

this was my 2nd video with the director of photography Brett Pawlak he shot the “Come Around” video. it was good getting to work with him again. since we were shooting on a long lens, we were pretty far from the band and would often chat during the takes. listening to the audio tracks cracked me up. maybe someday I’ll cut together some choice lines. until then, you’ll have to be satisfied with a pic of our sweet kicks.

Tony Federico came on board to produce. this was also our 2nd project together, the 1st being the Rotten Apples video. many of these pics are ones he snapped on set. it’s pretty great working with someone who has an even more ridiculous mustache than me.

early morning Tony

the day consisted of much walking around Van Nuys, some stop motion shooting, a bit of green screen, and ended with a short narrative scene. this “house” was actually a small, detached guest room in the backyard that the Jong’s used as their recording studio. add a knocker and a coat rack and viola! another location. part of this scene we had to film after the sun went down. luckily the small lighting package we had did the trick.

to celebrate the shoot I treated a few of the guys to a pretty awesome meal at Umami Burger.

a big thanks to Ben Ceccerelli, Steve Romero, Andrew Drapkin and AJ Ullman for their help with the post production. these guys have all helped me with numerous projects and I couldn’t keep doing what I do without them.

enjoy the video! (quicktime here)

-Luke

p.s. the next day, Tony, Brett and I would be going on an adventure… we had the camera package for the entire weekend, so we decided to shoot a little short film. a couple posts on craigslist, many headshots, and a few phone calls later we had our talent…

more on that once it drops. until then, here’s a teaser pic from that shoot.

hey there,

here’s a little animation of me animating a stop motion segment for the Greg Jong AKA Grand Vanity “Got A Nerve” music video…

the video should be finished soon, so stay tuned!

-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

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.

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.

This was our “off day.” A day to relax and rest up. We’d been riding pretty hard, at high altitudes, in the middle of summer and were pretty sore. We didn’t really sleep in, since breakfast was at the same time…but we did get to laze around.

moonset

After breakfast and a few cups of coffee I grabbed the Super 8 camera and set out to record some B-roll. I wanted to get out before the light was to bright and high in the sky. I took with me a roll of ASA 50 and one of ASA 250. As I walked around the sleepy mountain village I shot houses, dogs, hitch hikers and vistas. It was still a bit of a mystery how the footage would turn out, but I felt like I was exposing it better.

Back at Lomas we hung out by the fire. Surfed the intertubes, stretched, etc. Laura and Paulo showed up with a bunch of groceries and more wood for the fire. After unloading the food, Clara walked over to the fireplace and threw ALL the plastic bags into the fire…right in front of us.

The pollution in Santiago was making a bit more sense. In fact, the air in the Farellones was often thick with pollution…I remember a Toyota Yaris driving by and its exhaust being so brutal that it took the air out of my lungs. This is a car that in the US is super clean and super efficient. But here in Chile…things were different.

One of the dogs that “didn’t” belong to Clara…this one she called “Negras.”

For lunch we went to a Pizza shop / Bar that we’d tried to visit a few nights before. The food was good and the people were friendly. We noticed that BELOW the restaurant was another lift of El Colorado – plus a snowboard park and boardercross course. We debated going there for an afternoon session, but after looking at it for a while realized that the park wasn’t actually open. So it wasn’t really worth it.

After lunch we tried in vein to find some souvenirs. It didn’t seem like anywhere had a “Ski Farellones” t-shirt or a “La Parva” headband. The very idea of such seemed strange to them when we asked. It was odd especially since I saw stickers on cars from US ski resorts and people wearing hats from places like “Alpine Meadows.” I guess they didn’t do “logo” apparel here.

The “cloudy” area in the distance is really the smog covering Santiago.

Another napping dog…he had the right idea. We went back to the lodge and crashed out.

We got up just as the light was getting really good. I put on my Real Luke clothes and grabbed the Super 8 and the black and white film I brought. Will filmed me acting out a little spot…I’m going to keep WHAT exactly I was filming a surprise. But rest assured, you’ll see it soon.

Dinner was nice and hearty. We had a cheesy, eggy, meaty souffle sort of thing. And a meringue pudding desert.

We went back to the bar, Las Montañas…this time it was open – but oh, so empty. I think the only other people there were dudes our age. *sigh* I had another Pisco Sour – this one was made completely different. It was a blended version of the drink I had before. It wasn’t bad, but I think I prefer my whiskey sours.

Tomorrow we’d be going pack to La Parva and maybe doing an interconnection to Valle Nevado…