Aspen Vista

This blog has been sleeping since October-November 2012 when I had to drop everything and return to Santa Fe for personal reasons. It's June of 2013. Life is coming back to where it once was. In the meantime the focus has changed from BETWEEN LIFETIMES to ECLECTING WITH ORREN & ROBERT. Funding is the measure of moving forward. We have had to make some adjustments. 

Back in the forest in Santa Fe (Click image)

Yesterday, 21 Paraguayan women, victims of the international human traffic were liberated in an operation through the State Police in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Each of them is Maria in BETWEEN LIFETIMES / EL RIO DE LAS VIDAS. It is just amazing that this roller coaster keeps on moving as we live our parallel lives. We need to tell this story. And we will.

Far away at the edge of the world, our same world...

Today, we are searching for actors who can speak Spanish or Spanish speaking actors who speak English for the part of Jude. We found a few names and one surprise to me. 

One of Jude's lives

Yes there is a bit of German too, and Hebrew, and Arabic.

The quiet evenings in Montauk are such a contrast to the bustle of New York. It is evocative to step again in the ocean after having left Sayulita, Mexico in 2010, thousands of miles away, so far apart that as the season winds up here, it is about to start in Sayulita and Vallarta, at least 3000 miles fom Long Island. I was looking for locations in Sayulita for BETWEEN LIFETIMES, before I decided to film it in Paraguay. The two deciding factors were that I know people in Paraguay, and the escalating violence in Mexico.

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The sunrise in Montauk is... no need to explain. We were here on a private party to make the lighthouse part of the national monument registry. There were senators, socialites, and Montauk residents. Bill Clinton was mentioned, but he never appeared. The real treat was the lighthouse and the vastness beyond.

How can one explain a crazy afternoon? A very synergistic mayhem on 57th and 5th with Orren and Robert, right in front of Louis Vuitton and some happy fans. What a fantastic job by Yayoi Kusama!! The sparks of New York light up every inch of space... should anyone doubt which one is the best city in the world...

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Today, the experience at the Javits Center was just perfect. Orren and Robert were there with Alexis Bittar, the jewelry boy wonder from Brooklyn. Even Iris Apfel, the design and fashion maven came. Iris might just outlive all of us.People stopped for autographs. It was a little party within a party.

One happy get-together full of jewels...no pun intended

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The first leg of the trip to Paraguay started -Santa Fe to New York. Nothing lke a needed road trip to see the country and to feel the distance between the Southwest and the Northeast.

New Mexico of Course. Click on picture to enlarge

Had not seen that eastern fog in the early morning for a while. Click on picture to enlarge.

And of course Manhattan. 

And accomplishing several tasks every day as the countdown approaches for the Southamerican trek. 

Life is starting to fire up slowly again.  Mary and I went to the forest. For some reason I noticed the new growth. I guess it's reflective of new energy growing inside as well. I'm grateful.

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Quick trip and on my way back to Santa Fe from Miami, I made a quick stop in New Orleans. Where it all began, here in the United States, right on St. Charles Ave. It was good to see Jay at Loyola. I missed Claudio at the French Quarter. Another day perhaps. Just clearing out the residue from the Aztec saga. So, it felt good to later get lost in Louisiana, somewhere west of Lafayette.

Planing the rest of the year. Colorado in June. Paraguay in July/August, New York in September. We just bought another camera (Sony) and the slate arrived yesterday.

I emailed to a friend in Paraguay. She found a  wild life preserve that might come in really handy when we are on location there.


My move is coming to an end. I tossed many things away, found more pictures for locations, put many things away in boxes. It is time for a fresh reading of EL RIO DE LAS VIDAS.  But now, I am having a delicious dinner with my friend Gustav Alsina in his house in Cordova, NM., an old remodeled church --the perfect place to live for a set designer.

So how bad can things be? They just look that way in the moment. All happens for a reason. On the other side, things look bright. I am back to Paragweiss and Wisdom Tribe Films. This feels right. I wish Marie all the luck and fortune with the restaurant. I believe it is going to be a success. We gave it a beautiful facelift. I am proud of that. A good amount of experience in a very short time.

Yesterday was Maddalena's birthday. April 29. I asked Monta to visit her and take her a flower. 

I guess, having a restaurant with friends is a good way to test friendship. The universe has unusual ways of sending messages. After a few sad episodes, where the words money and fear play stellar roles, I will be bought out of 317 Aztec. That is not a place for me. And I believe I am being saved from something. It is time to move on.


On the good side of life, I might be able to donate 20 or 30 laptops to two organizations in Paraguay that work with children. One of them helps children with HIV/AIDS; the other with homeless children. There are bigger things than the "kitchen confidential" side of life. Human dignity and courage.

Having a Coffee house or a restaurant looks more glamorous that what it really is. We are there every day all day. It is time to re-focus the mind while in the midst of all these tasks so I can look forward to Paraguay in July (most probably). In the meantime, 317 Aztec will be a test to our strength, egos, fears, and ultimately our friendship. 
On BETWEEN LIFETIMES/EL RIO DE LAS VIDAS, my brother  Julio found some interesting locations. This in Guairá by Colonia Independencia.

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317 Aztec will open on 3/17. Not a bad thing to start in the year 2012. The place looks radiant.

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Back to 34th, a few more errands, one more meeting and dinner.  Tomorrow it's back to the land of enchantment.

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Carrie and I went to West Virginia to meet with some business friends. Beautiful Land. We passed by Harper's Ferry, where the Potomack and the Saskuahana meet. This is the place.

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On the way back to New York we stopped at Gettysburg. It is strange to walk peacefully right where people were shooting at each other and knifing each other to pieces.

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We are back in New York just in time for the last third of the Academy awards. Just like Woody Allen, we decided to watch it from home. :)

After a little hiatus from EL RIO ENTRE VIDAS, we reappear. I am busy with Marie and Alisa. We are taking over a coffee house in downtown Santa Fe. We have been cleaning it, fixing it , painting it, and we should open around March 6th with one of the best coffees in town and wifi to go with it.

But mostly cleaning for now. The good pictures will surface in one or two weeks.

Interiew with Bill Georgenas, a cross between Hieronimus Bosh and Jackson Pollock. Click on image.

Now, back in New York for a few days. Carrie and I are getting a second Cannon 5D on our preparation for Paraguay. So we are of to downtown Manhattan to B&H and we are coming out with a camera, adapters, and a few LED lights. Exciting.

Could not help it. Had to go to the Metropolitan Museum.

In the mezzanine of the Met listening to a classical string quartet with Carrie.

The strip-board for the breakdown is finished. I took the precaution of making it as well on a physical board. I don't want to find myself somewhere in the middle of nowhere and discover that the laptop decides to quit. I had a dream about that.
In the meantime, I will work on tension between two of the characters. We have to make a short with the new camera before we go to Paraguay. Let's make all of our mistakes here, not in the jungle. We have the right sound gear for the Cannon 5D.  After we have our production gear in place, we will work on our post-production landscape. 
This is the day I should have been on a plane to Paraguay, and solve every single issue in two weeks, including and especially actors and locations. Instead, we can breath a little while we strengthen ourselves. 

A good friend of my, and father of one of my dearest friends, renown artist Hermann Guggiari, died in Paraguay. He was a living legend there. Cheers Hermann. Sprinkle some of your talent this way.

We purchased our first Cannon 5D Mark II. We are now on the process of aligning our hardware to it. We have zillions of Nikon prime lenses. Hopefully we can use them with an adapter.  The auto focus worries me a bit, since I would like to do most of EL RIO ENTRE VIDAS on a moving camera. Let's see how much movement the Cannon can handle. One bridge at the time. In the meantime, with so much technology, I try not to feel like:

They are really smart