Freestyle en la Iglesia

This is a story of modern times...

I sure have to say that today was a weird day. A couple of weeks ago, I finally came across some freestyle football players online. I haven't discovered any footbag players, but at least it's a pretty similar general idea. So every Sunday they meet at Bellas Artes. I went a fortnight ago, but couldn't make it again last week.

So anyway, I got down there and we started playing.

There are always some people walking by who want to have a kick around. Without fail, they kick the ball on to the road. It didn't really matter today as that part of the street was blocked for some reason.

I filmed a couple of short little videos with my camera. I have to start making more and more use of that, particularly for filming things. Anyhow - I didn't hit anything particularly special, no long runs. When you're playing with others though - it doesn't matter so much.

Particularly for me, I have been playing solo for six months now. I have really been missing the sessions with Caroline and Copey where you just call up and it's time to play. So it has been good to find these guys.

Here is a short little video of three of us playing together. I think these kind of videos are always fun. There are some great ones of Honza, Vasek etc. I filmed one a couple of years back with "Bevs" when he was visiting Canberra.

Anyhow. Our next stop was Plaza de Armas, which is the main square of Santiago. We were going to put on a bit of a show and hopefully get some bucks. We played a while, then a policeman signalled to me that I should come over. I partly played stupid (the other part was that I didn't really get it), and even now I wasn't sure what he meant. I think to stop blocking the pathway as too many people were watching.

That was only the beginning of the weird adventure though. We were able to play a bit longer, then went into the city centre. The some girls approached us and asked if we could do a performance at their youth event. por que no?

Well I can tell you exactly por que no, but instead we went there. It was some sort of "modern" church just across the road from La Moneda, the presidential palace.

The kind of modern establishment where they murmur to themselves (speaking in tongues???), place hands on each others heads and, a more rare element - perform some kind of fashion show in the middle of proceedings.

Aside from the language barrier, I honestly couldn't really understand what was going on. I don't think I would have got it if it was in English either. I will just say that they were all completely crazy. After the "fashion show", then there was some kind of contest where there was a crowd vote for the most popular, but yelling and screaming.

I think these were the exact types that old mate Jesus was throwing out when he cleared the traders from the temple. Anyhow, then there was some kind of dance off after the fashion show, and a couple of us presented our skills in that time. I have some video but I will have to make some edits to that, as it doesn't look so good.

So some of us headed for the exit, but then it was decided to stay. The deal that had been struck was these bunch of crazy people would give more and more likes to the page of the freestyle group. A deal worth it? Who knows?

All I know is that it was definitely the most strange place I have given a footbag demonstration. It even beats out the Castlemaine Prison!

Writing Writing Writing

Hi all

My real aim is to make this my "writing" blog, where I share all my exciting news about the journey of "becoming a writer". Honestly as well, part of that whole journey is showing of your stuff, but I really haven't been keeping up with that lately.

Some things I have been up to:

Richard Branson was in town - the articles I wrote were mentioned on the Virgin website in an article there called "Richard creates a stir in Latin America"

Went to an Olympic event at the residence of the British Ambassador 


Went to an event where a former Miss Universe was there - http://ilovechile.cl/2012/04/20/cecilia-bolocco-guest-honor-chile/54041

This weekend is the superclásico with La U and Colo Colo.

During the week I went to an ANZAC day ceremony at the residence of the New Zealand ambassador.

I have applied for a couple more writing gigs and am beginning to research into more ideas about freelancing and other ways of getting bucks for writing.

We have managed to get out of Santiago the last few weekends as well. I will write more on that later.

I will try and keep this much more updated and about my ideas and "career..." as a "writer".

My first cover

I sure have been busy this week. What I haven't even got the chance to write about is that I have my first ever cover of a printed newspaper.

Here is a photo of the bunch of the team at I Love Chile, with a few copies of the paper in hand.

I wrote a story about the retirement of Fernando González. Unfortunately I didn't get to interview him, but that might happen in the future. I also wrote a bunch of other stories in there. If you want to read a digital copy - click here.

I have also started teaching some English classes - my main one is with Héctor, a tattoo artist. We are having a daily conversation class as he prepares to head to Europe. A good bloke, we have some cool chats.

Crosses at Lollapalooza

I don't know if I have been living under a rock, but the first time I heard about Crosses was just in the last couple of days when I read an interview with Chino Moreno in La Tercera. On further reading it turned out they were playing Lollapalooza, which I was already going too.

We got a couple of press passes to go, which was nice of them, although we had to fight to get them.

So anyhow, I just watched a couple of clips this morning and thought, hey that sounds pretty good. I wasn't as into it as regular Deftones stuff, although I haven't listened to them in a fair while. Seeing them live though, I was thoroughly impressed.

The band have two drummers (I'm not sure if it's still the same, but I think it's a guy from Far and a guy from Dredg). There is a pretty big electronic element to the music (ie there are three guys playing samplers or keyboards at some stage in the band). It's more about an atmospheric sound than a sort of techno style though.

The best thing though that is that Chino was in fine form. In pretty good shape also, I remember developing a theory that his vocal performance depended on his always fluctuating weight. The performance was great though.

Today we went to a farewell lunch for a friend, Isabel, she will move to Buenos Aires, so we will have to go and visit sometime. I was actually planning to go to Argentina next week, to watch La U in the Copa Libertadores in Mendoza, but it was all too difficult.

Anyway, we went to the lunch and I ate too much, so I didn't really feel good, so I left the festival early. If I didn't have the press pass I would not go to the festival. Foo Fighters are going to be playing a 2.5 hour set tomorrow, which will be great. However, I am really wondering if I will bother going to the rest of the festival at all. Let's see...

Today I was just by myself and not so much in the mood for talking to people or making new friends. Mainly because my tummy was rumbling. Anyway, the point of the story is that Crosses were really good.

busy times

I have been pretty busy lately, doing a bunch of things for the newspaper, or for my own entertainment.

Right now I will just make a list of what I have been up to, and maybe in the future I will add some accounts of my journeys.

Last week I went to the Tesoros Humanos Vivos event, or in English "Living Human Treasures". This was the launch of a search for more "treasures". I did a short interview with the Minister for Arts and Culture, Luciano Cruz-Coke. The week before I had gone to an event with British minister Jeremy Browne, though I think I wrote about that already.

On Friday, I went up to La Serena. Actually I left on Thursday night and got there about 1am. I was thinking of just wandering around the town until I had to head off again, but decided to stay in a hostel. There was a HI there, so I stayed there. Unfortunately my "I used to work in a HI hostel" fell upon deaf ears. Always worth a try though...

The next day I went to the "Big Bang" event at Las Campanas Observatory. They are beginning the process of building the Giant Magellan Telescope, which is going to be a huge thing. I met many astronomers, the Australian ambassador and some other important people. There was also a free lunch, which is important :)

The hill behind me is Cerro Las Campanas, which they exploded in order to begin the building. While the explosion didn't make much of a dent in the mountain, they will be making 70 more blasts.

Here is a picture of me inside the current Magellan Telescope. This was pretty cool to go and check out, though it would have been even better to go at night, when the stars are in full force. The Atacama Region (where the telescope is) and much of northern Chile is renowned as being the best place in the world for star gazing. I would like to spend much more time getting outside of Santiago, and doing things like that are a good chance.

We have also been working on the next edition of the I Love Chile print newspaper. That should be out next week, I wrote a bunch of stories in there. I reached one of the goals I set myself a while back, and have written my 200th article on the ILC website. Here you can see all of my articles. I have been writing a lot less articles lately, as I have many more administrative tasks to do, but hopefully I will get back in to the writing mode again very soon.

I am also back to my studies, I have two more subjects to go until I have apparently Mastered the Art of Writing. By midway through the year I should have myself a Master of Arts (Writing). We are currently talking about practice-led research. To be honest I don't really know what I am talking about, but I am getting some good feedback from my tutor in the weekly discussion posts.

The best news story this week though, has been the similarity of former Energy Minister Rodrigo Álvarez, who quit on Monday. The guy looks exactly like George Costanza, and Jason Alexander even agreed on Twitter.

The worst news story was the case of Daniel Zamudio. That is not a pleasant story at all, and I don't know why there are neo-nazis in Chile. That's not something I am so interested in going into in my blog, you can read any news to know more about that.

Late yesterday afternoon I got an email from the boss asking if we could cover an "exclusive event" at Concha y Toro. They are a well renowned wine company, so of course I said sure thing. We had a full degustación, then some food afterwards. I got to meet some other writers and some of the people who run the company.

They have a sponsorship deal with Manchester United, which is very interesting from a sports management perspective. It also got some wheels turning in my head about some grand ideas involving world tours, footbag, freestyle football and a match between Man U and La U.

Speaking of La U, I went to the game (Copa Libertadores) on Tuesday night. They knocked Penarol from Uruguay out of the competition, with a goal in the final minute. The other team were not so happy and there was a bit of heave-ho at the end.

So that sums up pretty well what I have been up to. The next adventure: this weekend is Lollapalooza, and I have a press pass. Foo Fighters are playing a 2.5 hour set, that should be awesome. Unfortunately there are very few other bands on the lineup I actually want to see, but it should be fun to go along.

Write on...

Today I have been feeling fairly productive with my writing - I have begun work on some new projects and resurrected some old ones.

However, I did just take the thought that I had not written anything for my Masters or for my job, which are probably more important than these tasks. It's the weekend however, and these are the "on the side" projects, which I am hoping will grow and grow.

I am not going to post the links to them at the moment, because they are not ready - some are active, but not ready.

Anyhow - yesterday we went to an event, where some guys from Tumblr came along and talked to some artists about using Tumblr to spread their creativity. What I was even doing there is a good question - but I tagged along as Francisca was representing the architecture and design firm she works for.

I asked quite a few questions, as I do already use Tumblr, but I was interested particularly in using it for I Love Chile and for creating some things to promote footbag. So in my mind, I was thinking these projects as we talked. The first is quite simple - and I have set it up already. It is simply sharing information about freestyle footbag.

The footbag community has really not done a good job of promoting itself with the social media platforms that are already available. I am hoping this will change it - and also give a voice from within the community, but give it a worldwide voice.

The second (well, third if you count I Love Chile), will be something I think has a huge amount of potential if other people start submitting regularly. The concept will be quite open: South American Freestyle. This will be a mix of "extreme" or "freestyle" sports, pictures, videos, interviews, events, whatever. The key will be it will be all about South America. So either the action happening in South America, or South Americans making the action happen elsewhere.

The key to this is maybe some rich companies will come along and find some cool stuff they want to have as part of their event, then maybe they will get me to be a part of the event and give me lots of money... after all, you never know your luck.

Next week I am going to head to the IV region to check them starting work on a new telescope - they are going to make a big explosion and it's going to apparently be a game changer for astronomy. That could be an adventure anyway...I've never been to the north of Santiago and haven't really gone too far south, so I think it's time to change all that.

I would like to buy a camera too...it's something I've been planning for a while, but haven't seen anything really catch my eye for the right price. I don't want anything special, just something I can take a few snaps with, and something portable - but not with the low resolution of my phone.

Opeth are playing in Chile in a couple of weeks...At The Gates in a few months, and Soilwork too...plenty to be excited about.

We are having our housewarming tonight which should be some good fun. I will try and keep up to date with my new projects and let you know how they all go. Let's see what happens...

Skateventure through Chile and Peru

A while ago I came across the story of some Kiwi blokes that went through Peru and Chile, with a bit of a difference. They were doing their travel on longboards.

It sounded like fun so I got in touch. Here is the interview I did with them. I am going to be writing a story for the print edition of I Love Chile about their adventure.

1. Was this your first long distance (ie multi-week) skate trip? What inspired you to choose the location?

Yes it was actually, my friend Troy who also came on this trip had previously done a crazy trip from the top of Thailand to Singapore and I saw the great experiences he had, meeting amazing people, dodging elephants, past snakes and I thought that would be an amazing adventure to do. That really inspired me to get involved and I had heard many great things about Chile and Peru thought it would be a great place to explore.

2. Part of the aim of the trip was to promote sustainable travel - do you think you got that message across in Peru and Chile and what can everyone do to make their trip a bit more sustainable?

Yes well somewhat, sustainability is probably not as front of mind for people in South America as it is from where I come from. In saying that we received positive support for our goals and what the trip was about. In terms of what people can do, try to incorporate activities that don't require using vehciles or burning of fossil fuels. Obviously though flights and other transport are hard to avoid, so perhaps look at ways to offset the emissions from your flights through verified carbon credits.

3. What kind of sponsorship did you need to get your trip off the ground and how did you go about getting it?

We received a bit of sponsorship for equipment which helped us a lot, and the equipment was great and held up well considering it got battered around so much! We basically have a website and facebook following and approached a couple of cool companies to see if they would support our cause.

4. The three of you are originally from Christchurch - do any of you still live there and was there any effects from the earthquake there on your trip?

Yes, we have actually all moved up to Auckland since the earthquakes. But all experienced the earthquakes in Christchurch. We didn’t see any noticeable effects Chile, but in saying that we didn’t have an appreciation of what places may have looked like before the Earthquake happened so I couldn’t really say.

5. Where is the next skateventure? Is there anywhere you would not consider skating?

That’s the next question right?! Well to be honest I haven’t looked into it yet. Guy reckons something crazy like Antarctica could be the go, but we would have to create some sort of ridiculous board or wheels to do that. Do you have any suggestions?

6. How did you get involved in longboarding in the first place? What is the scene in NZ like and are the three of you involved in any other sports?

When I was at university I learnt to longboard, as it was a great way to get around the place. I had many other friends who did the same and I guess it just became a fun hobbieof mine. In NZ longboarding seems to be growing rapidly, with groups starting to form and even some downhill competitions are starting I believe. So it’s great to see.

7. Tell us some more about the carboNZero programme and your role in that

Well we help companies in around the world to measure, reduce and offset their greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint) with credibility. My role is to help businesses communicate the great initiatives they are implementing to reduce their impact on the environment and also to help raise awareness of what we do at carboNZero. So a cool job, with a company doing great things!

8. Would you consider another skate trip in Chile?

Yes for sure, the people were great, the roads were really good and the scenery was amazing. Chile was a great place for what we were doing.

9. You had your fair share of misadventures along the way, but what were some things you encountered that you could never have planned for?

Well one of the boys got attacked and bitten by a large pack off wild dogs near Tocopilla, we had to not go off the side of the road for 15kms when we crossed the Peru/Chile boarder because off rogue landmines...But really the one thing we didn't really plan for was the crazy reponses we had from people passing us by or people we met in villages. Some people treated us like aliens, others high fived us and others just tooted their horns angrily and wondered why three crazy guys were in their town on Skateboards! We also had to survive on biscuits for a few days, as in a few planned out villages we arrived at bad times and food access wasn't good etc so that was hard, and we actually ran out of sunblock one day and ended up having to rub dirt on our arms etc to stop getting burnt haha. A few desperate times you might say...

10. What has the media coverage of your journey been like so far?

There has been some good coverage here in NZ and Australia, I guess because it is a rather unusual story! But the support has been great, and we are stoked to be able to make a few people smile!

If you want to add anything more, that would be great.

Great, I guess that overall it was a hard trip, we had some hill climbs that lasted over 25kms but the people, the scenery and adventure that we had made it all worthwhile

Also if you could put a link to our facebook page that would be great, we'll be getting more photos, videos up soon for people to see if they are interested.

www.facebook.com/skateventure