Dan’s Papers September 24, 2010 danshamptons.com P age 19
Dan Rattiner
Dennis Lynch
Local Film to Debut
Filmmaker Dennis Lynch’s King of the Hamptons at HIFF By Nanci E. LaGarenne Work, Run, Truth. No, it’s not the title of a new movie—a male version of Eat, Pray, Love. It’s a metaphor for the life, so far, of King of the Hamptons documentary filmmaker, Dennis Lynch. I think, after our chat, that he wouldn’t mind my being so bold. He was that honest and honesty, as his idol, Billy Joel sings, “is such a lonely word…” You have to admire a man with dreams, especially one who remembers he had them and goes for it. In Lynch’s case it was baseball and movie making. Moviemaking won out, but not in a usual or easy way. And like all journeys of the soul, one often finds their way through others. So just like Frodo Baggins, searching for the ring, Gandolf appeared. In the form of Dan Rattiner. Lynch had been a longtime fan of this newspaper and its founder and his offbeat stories and elbow rubbing with the rich and famous. At the time Lynch was a summer resident of the East End, trying to be a husband and father and catch
the brass ring. He accomplished the fortune but family life suffered, as did his health. Being a 38year-old and having it all was not what it was cracked up to be, Lynch told me. “I didn’t see my wife and kids.” The dream of movie making was not happening either. “I was shuffling papers, making lots of money and I never had a camera in my hands. We had the big house, the cars, it wasn’t living.” He had an early ‘midlife crisis’ realizing what was important. He quit the rat race and started a video company he runs from home, home being East Hampton. “I’m here now every day. I see my wife and kids,” four of them (ranging in age from 2 up to 15). “We go to the duck pond, ride bikes with the kids, take the dog for a run on the beach. I’m putting up trellises in the yard, potting plants, normal stuff. I am in total bliss.” Lynch is also a sports nut and loves Cheez-Its. But he took the hard road to get here. And as you will see in King of the Hamptons, featured in this year’s Hamptons Film Festival (to be shown
on Monday, Oct. 11 at 8:30 p.m., UA East Hampton, as a “sneak preview”), he isn’t shy to share that. Lynch didn’t finish college and yet was one of the most successful businessmen around, playing with the big dogs. Money can’t give you your health or your happiness, Lynch learned, and family estrangements can eat away at a person. On the advice of his mentor (Dan Rattiner), he mended a fence in much need of repair. In fact the two men, ages apart (Lynch is 41, Dan is 71), made a bargain. “It is a pivotal point in the movie. I say to Dan, ‘You make up with him, I’ll make up with her.’” The “him,” would be Billy Joel, Lynch’s idol from growing up in Hicksville. “I wanted to meet him, but Dan wasn’t speaking to him at the time. I suggested he should. He called me on my own family matter. I owe him that. I respect the guy. He’s one of the greatest human beings I ever met.” They even hug at the end of the movie, Lynch tells me. (continued on page 20)
WHERE THE DOG GOES, YOU FOLLOW By Dan Rattiner Southold Town, up on the North Fork, has passed a new law which strengthens the older law dealing with dog poop. The dog poop law up until now just says that if your dog poops on the beach you have to take a baggie and pick it up and throw it in the trash containers there. It’s pretty straight forward. If you do not do that, there is a ticket that could be given to you by a police officer. It would be a violation ticket. You could have to pay up to $50 for the offense. The new ordinance just passed puts some teeth into the old law and broadens its scope. It says if your dog poops ANYWHERE in Southold and you don’t clean it up, you could be given a ticket that could result in a fine of up to
$250 and up to 15 days in jail. It also says that cleaning it up does not mean cleaning up the dog poop and throwing it down a sewer. That’s an offense too. It goes in the trash baskets. Down the sewer means that it eventually washes out into the bay and off into Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean to where the fish poop. There’s no ordinance against fish pooping in Southold Town waters, however. There are also, it seems to me, loose ends. What if your dog poops and you don’t know it? It only takes them about eight seconds to do that. What if, at the moment they decide to do that, you are distracted by a pretty girl or a buff guy walking by? Also, how do they determine just how far UP TO $250 the assessment
is? Does it depend upon the size of the poop? Does it depend upon whether you are not picking up the poop flagrantly or not? Does it depend upon the whim of the officer, and how you might have spoken to him when he whipped out his ticket book? I think this ordinance needs a bit of tightening up. There’s too much wiggle room. I hope it comes up at the next town board meeting so they can attend to these matters. So there are three guys in the town lockup. “What are you in for?” “Murder.” “And you?” “Ran a $100 billion Ponzi scheme.” “And you?” “Dog Poop.”