Interview with Juan Carlos

We shot Juan Carlos floating above Mount Shasta, for a millisecond and returning smoothly into the pipe. We filmed the BMX sequence at the Weed skate park in the strange forest fire evening light.

Juan Carlos is an insightful character as we dialogued on and off the camera about the nature of imaginative thinking. We are still figuring out what should be shared and left out.

We love the dialogue, but one thing is sur; the stunts will make the cut.

Interview with Charlie Tom

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview Charlie Tom, Red Hawk.
It is with the highest honor that I record his message.

Charlie Tom who turned 80 a few weeks ago is one of very few full blooded Karuk alive today. His path has been that of a leader in both traditional ways and the integration of those ways into modern life. He is humble and remains elusive to his title which most of us lacking cultural knowledge would misinterpret and then romanticise. He is a minister of the old ways, on paper.
Charlie Tom has been instrumental in getting federal recognition of his tribe. (The Karuk where officially recognized in the 80's). Among a long list of achivements, he has been involved in natural resource management, in protecting Mont Shasta's spiritual heritage and was instrumental in legalizing Native American ceremonies. Today he is a tribal elder, acts as a counselor/minister visiting jails around the country and is the holder of a lineage of traditional healers.
Sharp as a blade he patiently waited as I scribble my questions on to paper. (He cannot hear so well). Then answered insight-fully about subjects ranging from his 2nd WW experience to being a native in Siskiyou County.

Again I feel honored by this opportunity and now bear the responsibility of editing his message in a way that breaks down romantic barriers so to invoke a serious message and present a glimpse into a millennial strong lineage. "Uncle Charlie" is a teacher to many of us in Mt Shasta, the US and abroad. We owe everything to the ones who came before us. May we all become vehicles of the Great Spirit.

What it looks like in motion

Above you see an Iron Statue made by Dennis Smith. His interview will be featured in the Portraits. His work is Giacometti-like with a peace loving Marine Corp twist.

The Mountain is changing colors from pure white to defined features of volcanic rock. Two of these features are worth remembering for their spiritual value. The Madona's Tit is a jagged savior while the heart bears an eerie resemblance to an anatomical heart. To see them take a look at Shasta's South West aspect. Time is rushing forward and the amount of work to accomplish these portraits seems to stack up. We have accumulated a bank of landscape scenery with which we are beginning our editing. 

Interwoven in the process is the search for suitable music that reflects the message of the piece.

Indulge in a bit of audiovisual composition. These shots are from the Memorial Sculpture Garden combined with alpine conditions.

Metal Work In April

Funkynation

Time does strange things. It's proprieties defy common sense even going as far as needing its own field in physics. The illusion of motion comes from capturing a sequence of image and playing them back as to represent real time. I love that notion. Real time. In fact it is time scaled to our perception. While time lapse is nothing new, it blows my mind every time. Allowing me to scale out to a difference dimension by changing time.

Creating these time lapse take a lot more time then their result, and it requires a certain amount of patience. The key lies in learning to let go and set the camera like a trap; collecting the prize later. 

We leave you with the chore of imagining, churning glucose into funky aspirations inside your mind. 

Peace,

Pumalogy Kitchens 

Winter Shout Out

Inside the Pumalogy laboratories we are gearing up for post-production. We have been rearranging memory storage, formatting disk while juggling footage and archives. Data management is a major concern of ours at the moment as we are working with large file sizes. In a guerrilla fashion we are trying to paint a canvas with a quality production value while remaining small, mobile and inside the stories. So we are persisting out of our art kitchen and building the post production blocks for a smooth edit.

We have been living with the weather chasing storms and driving around the mountain for a good perspective of the oncoming front. After the sequence of endless wintery snow our skies gradually warmed up. But this march 2008 saw  a few stellar flakes and we were out with the Shasta Base Camp Crew collecting footage and stories from the front.

This message is a shout out to the winter who is giving way on the 21 to the next cycle. Farewell dark season and visit a few times before you go.  We will see you next year! As for the mountain, is the beginning of spring mountaineering.

Snow Cycle

We have been subject to endless snow. This is a very good condition for our endeavour; the backcountry is offering spectacular shades of blues and grays. Mix wind into an equation of dune like shapes and you get a quiet dimension of  stellar crystal magic. This is a type of snow flake that falls in a mystical hexagonal shape, unfrazzel and settling down on the ground in its purest form.

We also will resume sunrise missions when the sky clears up a bit.