In an effort to collect as much information and gather as many ideas as possible, I contacted filmmaker James Repici. James is a Master’s Degree film student at Columbia University. I met him about 20 years ago when he was a fan of my eponymous band, Joe Popp. I saw him again for the first time since those old punk rock days at the now defunct Ding Dong Lounge about a year ago. He reintroduced himself and told me about the good fortune with his filmmaking career. He had recently won Best Florida Film Award at the Gasparilla International Film Festival for his feature Subprime. Both NYU and Columbia made him offers to come to their respective programs. He chose Columbia and relocated from Tampa to NYC.

I asked if he would meet with me to discuss ideas about my show. Yes he is 15 years younger than me, but his experience creating films far exceeds mine, so I thought I would pick his brain. I also wanted to hear from a creative person with a younger perspective.

We sat and had coffee at Cafe Amrita and he sparked a bunch of ideas. One specific idea is to get film school students from the locations I visit to help shoot footage. I want the show to have a D.I.Y. feel, but James insisted I am still going to need another person to point the camera.

James also thought the best way to gather interest is to actually shoot a test episode. I was already planning on doing this, but his enthusiasm cemented the need to get going on the planning of a destination right away.

Beyond his knowledge of visualizing and bringing a film to fruition, James is a straight up salt-of-the-earth dude and it was nice to chat with him about not only the past, but great things in the future. I am certain you’ll be hearing about James someday very soon…