"I Suggest That Ya Drive On I95"

Hi All,

The last month or so has been a wild ride, and I'd been meaning to sit down and tell to you all about it, but it goes kinda like this.

I ended up in New York doing a "pay job", when you do indie stuff, sometimes you need to, well you know, pay bills and sometimes little indies about foul mouthed baseball cards don't pay what you'd like.

It doesn't pay much.

It actually doesn't pay.

At all.

Okay, it cost me my own money to make that film.

It made negative money.

So anyway, whatever, like always we just keep going and maybe a hit or two would be nice. But this story is already going long and I just started, while I was in New York, I get a call from Ms Peachy Deegan of WHOM YOU KNOW. I'd been a fan of WHOM YOU KNOW for a while, so it was a nice moment to be featured in it by Ms Deegan and here's our piece we did together, we talked a lot, life, love, indie film, and simply doing all you can to try and balance everything. It's right here, and I'm thankful for such an in depth piece... and if you get the chance to have a look, please let me know what you think!

That very night, I talked to my old friend Mr "Radio Dan" Dan Delgado about film, and I was beyond thrilled to hear that one of Dan's radio affiliates was in beautiful Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I have some history in that area, I got my driver's license there as a goofy teen, I went to college around there, I got pulled over on the way to Millserville PA one time (shout out to the Millersville Police Department but seriously, please put up speed limit signs, a fella can't read minds) so we get cooking around the 30 minute mark there, and this was my third time on the Radio Dan Show, I probably should buy him a present. 

From there, we got on 95 south and headed down to Hagerstown MD for the Maryland Film Festival Premiere of "The Other Ripken", thrilled to do this one, so many good folks involved with it including Joe Carnahan, who did the A Team big screen film version but for me, I really enjoyed a smaller film he did called "Narc". Moody piece with Ray Liotta and Jason Patric. This was a good one.

I was grateful for the showing as I always am, though that week, I'd heard there'd been a venue change and I didn't know why. Turns out, the story was one of the theater owners took exception to the language we used in the flick. To be honest, I'm surprised that was the first time we'd actually gotten that complaint. But you know, we have the freedom to make the flick, and theater owners have the right to not show something if they don't want to. Either way we screened well and everyone at that festival was warm and receptive and I was very glad to be there.

So with that, we started with Cinequest in San Jose, CA in March 2016 and luckily screened consistently all over the place, playing Maryland was a great stopping point for me in April 2017. As much as I love the screenings and festival tours, it was time to get it out to the world, or else I'd just keep going with it on some never ending tour like the Grateful Dead (I love the touring life so I'd have no problem with it) but there's much more to do, I'm knee deep in 2 full length screenplays and one I reeeeeaaaallly want to film even if I get an 8 dollar film budget for it, it just feels right, I just need to lock myself in a room, turn off the phone, turn on the coffee maker and just get it all done, so in order to do that, it's best that I release "The Other Ripken" for free for all, because Timmy loves ya.

Though I will be caffeinated and pounding away on the keyboard for the next week or two, there are a few smaller flicks I may try and sneak out really quickly, including a stab at a little documentary, maybe I'll even sneak out on the road with it, like that old Bob Dylan lyric "but me I am still on the road, headin' for another joint..."

So here it is, enjoy THE OTHER RIPKEN! Please let me know what you think.

THE OTHER RIPKEN from ParkingLotFilms on Vimeo.

Take care and be good,

Tim