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Updated 06/17/2014 |
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06/01/2006 11:09 p.m. Sitting in Sevierville, TN . . . heading out towards Charlotte tomorrow. Tons has happened since leaving Charleston . . . and we have plenty to share with our interested IslandHippie visitors! Soon we will post all of the pictures, stories, reviews and other relevant information from our last few days. We're forced to use dial-up at the moment, but also happy to have been "stuck" here the last couple of days. Mostly, we should thank Cynthia & Joe Foisset at The Old Town Cafe for feeding us like we were members of their family & right at home, Jim & the guys at Mullins Mountain View Auto Repair that helped with Matilda, and Linda for graciously accommodating a very special need during our brief but necessary stay at the Best Western Greenbrier Inn. More to come about these down-to-earth, caring & incredibly selfless people. Things really do happen for a reason. Thanks, y'all! 06/04/2006 5:34 p.m. Chillin' outside Williamsburg, VA for at least a few days. Time to take advantage of some good free WiFi, & post some updates for everyone. We've got several interviews to prep for, as well as others in the area that are still being scheduled. Staying put for a few days will allow us the chance to get a lot of the "work" part of things taken care of, before we get back on the road for more shooting. 06/06/2006 11:09 p.m. Leaving Williamsburg in approximately twelve hours. Heading through Richmond, but will stop for a few supplies. The next few days will be spent on the road shooting between Richmond, Washington D.C., and Baltimore. Then, we head to Smithtown, Long Island, New York . . . heading through Philadelphia & New Jersey on the way, with a few stops for some bands. Back to the present situation, we are in a KOA campground just off of I-64. Stopped here to get a lot of the business side of things taken care of while we could get consistent WiFi. The stay includes free high-speed internet, all hook-ups, laundry, heated pool, activities galore (no thank you, haha), etc. At least we had a nice place to get some things done, & get some electricity, water & sewage while doing so, without using our gas or the generator. Initially, we had been heading to Atlantic Beach to a different campground . . . which was listed on an "updated" website for things like that. When we finally got there, it was very deserted/shut the heck down. Ahhh, the journey continued. We had to turn around, & made the decision to go through Morehead City to Cedar Island. We drove the RV onto the ferry boat to go to Ocracoke Island, which is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. That was a lot of fun, and we got some really great footage. It took about 2 1/2 hours for the 23 mile boat ride. Then, we took a second ferry from the north end of Ocracoke Island to the town of Hatteras. We proceeded on through the Outer Banks and into Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. I slept (Jeff) as I drove (Jennifer) up Hwy. 158 further north through Chesapeake, Virginia Beach & Newport News, Virginia -- where we slept in a Holiday Inn parking lot. Also, while I was driving that night, I can't really explain what happened, but I got pulled over by a tunnel guard. Somehow, some way, I missed an imaginary (ok, I do realize it was probably really there . . . somewhere) "station 1" or "station 9" that I had been required to stop at before entering the big tunnel (under the Chesapeake Bay/James River area). I do NOT remember seeing ANY station of any sort, much less a sign, but lo & behold in the middle of the friggin' interstate, I saw a red light, & a car was stopped there, & a lady in uniform was talking to them. Then, she let them go. As I pulled up, she told me to pull over to the wall so she could talk to me. I was like, "Oh what the hell?!!" Turns out, she stopped me because I failed to stop back at that station, where I would have been checked over to make sure that our propane was off before entering the tunnel. Just safety precautions, but OH MY STARS! AND, I could barely understand her backwoods dialect, and she was not being clear what she wanted me to do. Jeff was asleep, & I woke him up to deal with it. When we left, she came over to apologize if she scared me. I explained it was no problem, but it was our first time driving an RV, & we are not totally familiar with things like that. Then, she let us go through the big tunnel. 06/10/2006 10:42 a.m. We're staying in a non-KOA campground just outside of Fredericksburg, while we wait on an equipment delivery before moving on. We'll actually be here through Monday, so that we are able to get some computer updates posted while stationary with WiFi, as well as being able to do some shooting of the gorgeous area around here. It's nice that we can just leave here (in our temporary home), head out to do some filming, and then return to our camping site nearby to work with what was just shot, post updates, plan for our next destination, etc. We have YET to cook a meal in Matilda, much less even use the microwave to heat something up. Personally, I (Jennifer) have never used a gas stove in my life . . . aside from stirring something for a friend while at their house. It's just easier, and probably safer, for us to grab our one big meal of the day at some random hour, and snack throughout the other times. In doing so, we have no big cooking/meal mess to really clean up here, in addition to having the computers & equipment set up, so it works for us! We work until we are starving, hit the road in search of a nice local place . . . and if all else fails, at least try to keep all fast food stuff as the LAST RESORT, then we come back with full bellies and start over again, until we can't keep our eyes open anymore. Then, we sleep, wake up, & start over again. Sounds tedious to write it out, but is really quite wonderful since we frequently are changing locations and meeting new people. BY THE WAY, we didn't take a photo or video of it (YET), but we found more incredibly saddening proof of why America's children are desperate for a REAL EDUCATION! First of all, it starts with having the EDUCATORS actually be EDUCATED themselves! Can you piss us off more than by doing something as blatantly ignorant as this? We drove by a HIGH SCHOOL in Massaponex, VA which had a sign out front telling the dates for "Early Dissmisal" and we about gagged. YOU MEAN to tell us that not only did the idiot posting the sign not have the education to notice, but neither did the principal or any other teacher working at that school??? LET'S GET REAL HERE! If the "educated" people that RUN the school are too dumb to notice immediately, which should promptly embarrass them into IMMEDIATE CORRECTION, then is it any wonder why our kids ACTUALLY MAY LEARN FACTS, DATES, EVENTS, VOCABULARY and SPELLING (to say the least) completely WRONG?? This is not my own first experience with this. Years ago during an election, my voting polls were at a local school. I was blown away at that time, also, by a "wall of vocabulary words" that clearly showed an incorrect spelling of a fairly normal word. What's worse is that I have zero involvement with either of the schools. and it pisses me off enough to say something. Yet, there is not a single parent whom this enrages? If my child went there, I would absolutely want to know who was accountable, and I would also want to know WHY the educators did not notice something so blatantly incorrect. For those of you who do not think that is a big deal, you probably wouldn't have noticed it either. Would you buy a house that was obviously sitting on a fault line? People need to WAKE UP and start paying attention to the education crisis. If you already think it is a huge problem, you can multiply that by 100 and probably still not scratch the surface of how bad it really is. PARENTS, TEACHERS & EDUCATORS need to step up to the plate and SAY SOMETHING when you notice an error like that! It makes you look just as uneducated if you do not! There is NO WAY I would or could have a child go to a school with such low standards. Climbing off my soap box, for now. Had to get that out! We've been bothered by it since we noticed it a couple of days ago. We had a huge discussion about it over dinner last night . . . well, that, and the pros & cons of schools providing condoms to students. (Zipping my mouth.)
06/22/2006 11:04 p.m. Finally an internet connection to give all those asking about my arrest in D.C. the skinny on what really went down. Well let's see, It started as a normal day as we left the Capital KOA, which is terrible and would suggest it to no one, and headed toward the District for some shooting. Jennifer was driving and I started as the cameraman. After navigating the perimeter of the city for a good 20 minutes or so, I decided that Jennifer's camera skills were superior to mine, which may have been true at the time but definitely not now (more on this later), and made her switch with me. So, now I am driving Matilda through the construction ridden streets of our nation's capital, which has more damn barricades than anywhere else ever, searching for a place to park. Searching, looking, having no luck, frustration setting in...deep breath...ok still looking for that damn spot. We're not a bus, but do we park where they do? We cannot fit in any of the parallel spaces because we are too f'n big! And there are cops EVERYWHERE! Now, around an hour and a half or so into looking for parking, we start to head up Capitol Hill. Pause, let me set the scene for everyone: A six lane road with all lanes being of at least normal width, on our left sides streets jutting off every 100 to 200 yards with a police car on each of those corners facing downhill, we are coming up that same hill. We begin up the hill at the very modest speed of 15 or so past the first cop and continue on. The second cop throws on his lights and begins to pull away from the curb. He pulls straight into my lane facing me and came over his p.a. and said, "You need to turn around." I am trying to talk to him with hand gestures and all to ask if he just wanted me turn around in the middle of the road. His answer is "yes." I did and began pulling down the hill but that son of a bitch was still behind me with his lights on. Everyone that was around was laughing their asses off as we got yelled at and had to turn around. I pulled over and waited as the first car we had passed threw his lights on and drove the 500 feet or so to the scene of the crime. They came up together, one at each window, and the first question was "Why do you guys have the windows so covered up?" Well a multitude of reasons asshole, such as we have a lot of shit that we like a lot and would like to keep...or how about it gets hot as hell in here without shades on the windows...or just it's none of your damn business! They proceeded to ask for license and registration, the second of which wasn't found until well after the fact, and to also let me know that RVs are not allowed on Capitol hill. Where were the signs telling us that? Is this some supposedly known-to-all law? There were a few moments of good conversation about the film as we waited on them to run my i.d. I was asked to step out of the vehicle after a few minutes and this is when I knew something was wrong. You are not asked to get out of your car during a routine traffic stop. I was escorted around the front of the Winnie where I was told that my license was suspended and I was being arrested for that offense. They then ran Jennifer's to make sure she could drive it away. As they were doing so more and more cops began to show up. I am sitting on the curb in handcuffs and police seem to be coming from every where. Even some chick cop that was on her way to lunch walked up asking questions. There were 4 or 5 cars, a motorcycle, and a couple on foot. All tolled there were NINE (9) U.S. Capitol Police that showed up to my arrest. Most of them were just walking around asking about the time and looking dumb and confused...especially the poor stupid bastard rookie cop that actually made the arrest. After a good 20-30 minutes on the curb and having found that Jenn's license was of course fine, I was escorted to a cruiser and put into the back seat where I was taken directly to the jail to be booked. Only a minute or so after I arrived, a bald black guy walks in wearing a t-shirt and shorts carrying a motorcycle helmet. He went around to behind the counter, saw me, and asked what I did. I told him, "I am obviously a horrible person because I am arrested and in handcuffs in jail." He came back with, "Aww c'mon that's not true." I said, "Of course it is, only bad people get arrested and have to go to jail, right?" "What gave you that idea?" he said. I just told him that I assumed that it should and does work that way for the most part (except when they pick on the forgetful). We carried on and had a few laughs between he, myself, and the 2 other officers that were present as we waited on the rook. One of my business cards had found its way into the booking area and I answered a few work related questions. this prompted me to say, "If I were a famous director I wouldn't be here right now." The black guy loved it and completely agreed saying, "you're right they would have just asked you for an autograph." Guess I got pulled over a little early. Then the arresting officer came back from doing some kind of preliminary report to begin filling out the official booking form. They asked my name and if I was known by any nicknames or aliases. One of the officers joked that it was IslandHippie because of my shirt, business card, back of Matilda. The arresting officer wrote it in and I just laughed thinking nothing of it and honestly trying to make the best of a bad situation. I was then patted down again and escorted through another steel door to an interview room where I was handcuffed to the wall and had to sit on a 10 inch wide bench. Then began the apparently arduous task of the paperwork involved in my arrest. I sat there chained to a wall as the bumbling moron of a cop tried to fill this shit out. The one thing to keep me in good spirits by now was that bald guy whom I now knew as Officer Wilson. He was still just hangin' around before he had to start his shift in booking. After his shift began, he took time out to fully explore our website while we both waited on the dumb shit to finish up the paperwork. He even went as far as to say that he would be sending us a sticker and then joked about getting everyone in the department to donate a dollar to get my license back. Just before Wilson came on there was a rather tall bald white guy working booking. I overheard him trying to locate someone that had lost their cell phone earlier that day in one of the museums in town. He actually found the guy after calling half the numbers in his phone and I was still there when it was picked up. These guys really know how to protect and serve, huh? Ok, back to the slow rookie piece of shit that kept me locked for at least twice as long as it should have taken. At one point, a good hour or so into the proceedings, this guy's captain walks in to check on his new man trying to completely ignore my presence at first and then when he does decide to talk to me is a complete asshole in all of his questions, looks, and gestures...like I am some fucking idiot that doesn't understand a word of English or what a damn traffic ticket is...the kind of ass that gives cops their bad name. And of course this is the commanding officer...all of 27, maybe. He actually did offer slow-ass help though, which was of course refused. I did manage to find out that this was only this cop's 4th arrest ever! No wonder it took him 3 hours to do a 1 hour job. So by now I am just there waiting on him to finish up all the while he keeps getting berated by Wilson for continuing to screw up the arrest forms. I stopped counting after he tore up the fifth copy. He tried to make the excuse that even some of the guys that had been there for 20 years still have trouble with the paperwork. BULL SHIT, ROOKIE!! Wilson obviously knew what the hell was going on...just admit to being inept. Still chained to the wall, I see Wilson begin typing at a computer to start the nationwide search for any outstanding warrants I may have pending (me being a terrible human being and all). He apparently gets to the part on the form that is the nickname and asks me if mine is IslandHippie. I said "not for real"...and his reply, "It is now!" So I guess if ever get arrested again I'll be able to tell a slightly different version of Ron White's "Tater Salad" joke. I will always be Jeff "IslandHippie" Partin thanks to the USCP! After being chained to the wall for a good two and a half hours, Wilson decided that I was no real threat to escape and took off those damned cuffs (metal and bone rubbing together does not agree). And since stupid-ass was so slow, Wilson took over the last part of that process as well. Thanks for nothing you tubby bitch. Jennifer just happened to show up about 5 minutes before my release in another display of her impeccable timing. Glad you came to get me, baby. So other than Officer Wilson, I could give two shits about the United States Capitol Police and the rest of D.C.! I could live without ever going back, however, I have a court date set in Washington late in August that will have to be moved because we will still be filming "Dream States." And before that I have to go back to Tennessee to take care of my suspension. Wish Jennifer the best of luck since she is our only driver now, for just a little while hopefully!
06/27/2006 12:30 p.m. We're in New London, Connecticut. We had to get out of New Jersey, where we stayed in East Brunswick for a few days. Where we stayed wasn't bad, but the driving there is really odd -- as far as turning goes. The roads here are set up a lot differently than any roads I have ever used. Plus, toll roads are all over the place in this area of the North. Wow. Some of them give us a normal rate, . . . some of them double what is on the posted sign, even going over what some trucks are listed as having to pay! I don't even know . . . don't ask me. I just pay & say, "thank you," . . . being raised well & all. Most employees at the toll booths don't even bother to look up at me, much less greet me or thank me for my money. I realize they see a LOT of people, but it is not my pleasure to pay the toll, so they should also realize that. I am the customer, in that respect, and deserve a little acknowledgment, I kind of feel. I'm sure I am not alone in that feeling. Since this is a behind-the-scenes website for the production of "Dream States," the visitors here get to see a lot of the personal ideas and viewpoints we have as individuals, . . . as people. Everything is not always pretty. Our purpose is to present what really happens on-the-road while filming. Most people do not spend as much time together day in & day out as we are doing. Most people do not jump into an RV for the first time ever, and attempt to cross the entire country (twice!) to write, direct & produce their first film . . . actually, most people don't try to cross the country in a 20+ year old RV, to say the least. Doing all of these things is and will bring about various new situations for us, which we will have to approach and solve in different (wrong or right) ways. While doing so, we want to share the realities of what happened from our points-of-view or how we felt. Some of you readers will identify with a situation, and understand the emotions behind what we write. Some of you may be offended. Hopefully, a lot of you will laugh, and with greater reason, will understand we are just expressing real, in-the-moment, human emotion. We're not out to hurt feelings or piss people off, but we can't always pretend everything makes us happy, either. We love our family & friends that remain very supportive, and are sorry to anyone that might not agree with what we say sometimes. We plan to have a message board or guestbook online very soon, so that all visitors will be able to share thoughts, comments or opinions with us as well as with each other. Thanks, everyone!
06/27/2006 7:54 p.m. My nose is really burning! I just about shot applesauce out of it (my first food-through-nose laughter experience) a few moments ago when Jeff made me laugh. I'd told him he could do the review for a particular restaurant, to which he replied something like, "the one that we hated, so that I can tear it apart?" . . . ha ha, as if that is "his thing" now. I am quite capable of ripping a place apart on my own quite well. By the way, what in the heck is "Head On" -- some weird product with horrible marketing at the end of, for one, "Wheel of Fortune" -- if anyone knows? They say you can get it at Walgreens. All it says is, "Head On! Apply directly to the forehead! Head On! Apply directly to the forehead! Head On! Apply directly to the forehead!" It is a freaky ad! Is it adhesive to hold on a wig? Zit cream? It's as bad as some of those old allergy medicine commercials that never made it clear what they were really for, until you asked a doctor about these random new medications advertised on television. This past week, we went to a fantastic show (specifically, to see "RPG") in Manhattan at CBGB's! Jeff's working on the review for that now, & we'll post a link here when it is finished. Right now, we are trying to post as many updates as possible, while trying to also modify the website for easier use and navigation. Also, Jeff is usually in charge of planning the route and securing a place for us to stay, with our security dog, Hannah. Motel 6 is fantastic for being pet-friendly. So far, so good . . . since we have been forced to stay in hotels this past week due to the electrical system completely going out on the RV, with a loud pop, & smoke pouring out of one of the outlets!! We have yet to decide what we will do.
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