the final blog about our New Orleans trip is pretty much just about two things:

Music & Food.

and maybe not in that order.

on our 2nd day in New Orleans we took the street car up Canal St. it went almost all the way to the Fairgrounds. we didn’t really know where we were going, but we assumed that the massive group of pale, older, folding-chair carrying white people did. we followed the pack the 8 blocks or so and viola! the Fairgrounds and Jazz Fest awaited us.

it was sunny. and hot. and there weren’t many places to sit. we covered ourselves in sunscreen, camped out on the grass and started to watch music.

there are about 8 different venues that were simultaneously showcasing different sorts of music. each stage had it’s own theme (more or less). and each stage allowed for varying levels of intimacy. for example, on the “ACURA” stage, you’d be lucky to make out the performers features…if you could even make out their face. the “Heritage Stage” was one of my favorites of the festival. it featured local New Orleans musicians…and it was small, so I could get up close.

the Paulin Brothers Brass Band

after a couple bands it was time to eat.

crawfish Monica

mango freeze & boiled crawfish

the crawfish was pretty tough to eat. there isn’t much meat in each “fish” and getting it out is tricky. Teal and I eavesdropped on some other “out of towners” who were getting help from a “local.” step one, pull the heads off. step two, suck out the juices from the head. step three, pinch, squeeze and pull out the tail meat with you teeth. not an easy task. by the time we’d finished the 30+ crawfish I felt like I was just starting to get the hang of it… another basket and I think I’d be good.

sweet potato pie

some of the other bands we saw on the first day include:

Coco Ronicheaux and the Swamp Monsters
Groupa – Nordic Folk Collective
Steven Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers
Tribute to Louis Prima

Teal and I were both pretty tired after the first day…and our feet were even more tired-er. (hehe) so we decided to pick up some of those folding chairs that everyone was lugging around. best $10 spent. EVER.
(make sure to go into the CVS on Canal St. and pick some up if you go.)

the 2nd day was overcast, windy, and just a little humid. after the blazing sun and windless heat of the day before this was a welcome change. being able to unfold our chairs and sit down at a moment’s notice made it all the sweeter.

watching Buckwheat Zydeco

of course, the eating continued…

fried soft shell crab po-boy

pheasant, quail & andouille gumbo

even though we were tired, Teal and I stuck it out to the bitter end. our last stop was the Gospel Tent. there weren’t many people watching the act and we felt a little bad about leaving, but eventually we threw in the towel and headed back to our hotel.

some of the bands we saw that day included:

Hadley J. Castille Family & the Sharecroppers Cajun Band
Forgotten Souls Brass Band
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Gospel Inspirations of Boutte

along the way we tried to sell our chairs. there were still two more days to the festival and we figured SOMEONE on the street car would have sore feet from standing all day. but no one would bite! it was very curious. we ended up giving them to the front desk clerk at the hotel, hopefully they found a weary festival goer to hookup.

later that evening the whole family ventured into the French Quarter for an ice cream place that Teal had found called la divina gelateria. the night was hot and muggy. people were out and about, it felt like a real city.

one thing I really liked about New Orleans was the coffee. it was good. and it was good at any number of places. even the drip coffee at this little spot was excellent. after tasting numerous varieties of ice cream, we sat outside and enjoyed our treats. I tried to convince the clan to go get some Absinthe with me…but to no avail, so we headed home for some much needed rest.

black coffee & black pepper cherry gelato

our final morning in New Orleans we went back to Café Du Monde. it was just as good as our first visit. along the way we passed an art dealer selling paintings of the DOG that we’d seen all around the city including at Jazz Fest, on a big hotel, in various galleries, and in bus station ads.

rodriquez dog

smoking fish

our last stop before leaving was the famous Central Grocery where we purchased their equally famous “Muffaleta” sandwich…

Dad noms

it was quite a trip. we got to experience all manner of new food and new music. it was really special to try things that if we were back at home we wouldn’t have access to. New Orleans truly is an American gem. I highly recommend going there…and not just for Jazz Fest. there is music and food available on a daily basis there…in fact, it’d be hard to go and there and NOT experience it.

do you have any favorite food or music destinations? I’d love to hear about them!

-Luke

howdy fellow travelers of the intertubez!

hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend…it’s crazy to think that this time last year I was experiencing winter in Chile (read it here). this year, my big trip was South again. but instead of South America, I picked the American South. my family and I were going to New Orleans, Louisiana.

New Orleans has been at the top of my “places to go in America” list for many years. the history, the culture, the food, and the music have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. finally, the stars aligned and I was able to plan a trip to not only the city, but the famous Jazz Fest.

our first morning in NOLA we wanted to see the Mississippi…and have coffee and beignets at the world famous Café Du Monde. we walked along the river and looked at the birds, the auto ferry, and the joggers. it’s amazing seeing such an important body of water…it reminded me of seeing the Rhine. so much history in a flat, wide, and not very big river.

a statue by the river

nestled in the shadow of a dike, the café is surrounded by old brick buildings with wrought iron railings. the Café does only two things. and they do them well. normally I try to stay off the beaten path and out of the tourist traps, but I wouldn’t hesitate to go back here. I’d probably have gone here every morning if schedule allowed.

coffee & beignets

a painting in our hotel…just a little bizarre.

Jazz Fest didn’t start until the following day, so we took the street car down St. Charles Ave into the Garden District. this is one of the older residential neighborhoods I’ve ever been in…at least in the States. the area dates back to the 1800’s. it’s amazing to walk past a house and read a sign about how it was built during the Civil War…and it’s still being lived in! thanks to fires and earthquakes there aren’t many places like that in California.

a tomb in the historic Lafayette Cemetery #1

Mom & Dad

Teal checkin’ the interwebz

a house in the Garden District

Third St.

a tower of jasmine

besides the beautiful old homes and 100 year old oak trees, one of the things that I really loved about the Garden District was the smell. it really IS a garden. it is one of the lushest and greenest urban places I’ve ever seen. the entire area was filled with the fragrant smell of blooming plants. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much Jasmine in my life.

after walking around we’d developed quite an appetite… Teal had a list of notable local restaurants and after some discussion we settled upon Cochon. it’s a haute cuisine take on the local Cajun food that’s savory, rich and spicy.

pork & pickled watermelon

BLTO (the “O” is for Oyster)

dinner was incredible, but this was just the start. Jazz Fest was the following day and it promised not only interesting and eclectic music, but the food that makes New Orleans famous.

-Luke

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

A couple of weeks ago I went with some friends to the Annenberg Space For Photography. It’s a gallery and lecture space next to the CAA building, the talent agency affectionately know as the “Death Star” for it’s warm and cuddly atmosphere.

We were there to see photographer David Maisel give a lecture about his work entitled “Black Maps.”

When the lecture started, I was confused. Why was he showing pictures of oil paintings? I expected to see some of his work. It took me a while to realize that those WERE photographs.

In the simplest terms, David does high altitude aerial photography of the interaction between man and the environment. Scenes of mines, clear cuts, drained lakes, and expansive urban environments were the primary focus of his lecture that evening.

The confusion on the origin of the first images is actually something to be expected with his work. One of the reasons that he uses aerial photography is so that “nothing will tell you where you are.” By eliminating perspective and context, he forces the viewer to examine the image for the sake of the image.

This unearthly perspective also adds tension, chaos and a sense of “the lack of control” to the images. The best art marries theory and practice by having the themes of the work represented in medium. And these photos exemplify that, because in many cases they feature massive environmental calamities. The pieces from his “Lake Project” details the destruction caused by the draining of Owens Lake. The lake was drained to provide water to Los Angeles. In providing life to the city, the water department created an environment that produced toxic dust storms in the Owens Valley.

Is the environmental impact apparent from the photos or do we need to learn more about the circumstances that created what we are seeing? This is an element of the duality of Maisel’s work. On one hand there is a aesthetic beauty to the images, there is no denying the brilliant colors and stunning compositions. On the other hand they represent a wanton pillaging of the Earth and, in many cases, highly toxic and dangerous spaces.

But this is not immediately apparent as the forced perspective renders the photos abstract. Are we to judge the image alone, or the image in context? Do we see the beauty or the horror? David would argue that there is no need to separate the elements, they can exist together at the same time.

While his photographs seem to be an indictment against the practices of logging firms and mining companies, David strongly avoids this. He points out that many of the chemicals he uses in photography come from these mines. He is complicit in what is happening. And by viewing the photographs and by buying his book of photography, we too, as the audience become complicit. It’s a challenging concept and a bold statement that doesn’t limit itself to his photography.

“The audience completes the work” he stated. It seems like a given, but if photography is a form of perception, what makes it different from actually seeing something is the ability to share that perception with someone. And it raises the question without an audience would there even be art at all?

-Luke

All images © David Maisel. More can be found at his site, http://www.davidmaisel.com/

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.

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

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.