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Production notes from the Director, Amy Pickard
 

June 1, 2002

I was able to catch up with Jake and meet his lovely future wife and the RV made it out of Ohio safely with the newly repaired windshield wipers and I have been back in LA now for a few weeks and trying to get back to normal. Spent the first week sleeping not unlike a narcoleptic. Also checked in often with Glenn and Suzanne who informed me of a few highlights and lowlights and I was able to glean the following:

1. Toronto-Glenn led the crowd on one of his walkabout singalongs and stopped in an alleyway where the Police were parked. I thought for sure the story was going to continue with Glenn being led away in handcuffs for disturbing the peace but was pleasantly surprised to learn that the cops actually were singing along to the words and let Glenn climb aboard the car while they turned the lights on! Just between you and I, the Rick Springfield reference of the Don’t Talk to Strangers video immediately popped into my head but I daren’t share that with anyone else.

2. Glenn drove the RV through the streets of NYC giving his pals a Big Apple Tour of their very own. Having experienced Glenn’s ‘interesting’ driving skills and risk assessment, I would have to say that this would have been a white knuckle tour.

3. Zan ended up spraining her left ankle. Crossing over some roadworks, her foot got stuck in some big crater and as she twisted her ankle, fell head first into freshly laid tar. Poor thing called me up to tell me of the bad news. "Guess what just happened?" was her first question to me. I think this is a bad way to start since there were so many unbelievable things that happened on the tour so far. With a Glenn Tilbrook tour, you just never know! I went through every scenario: Glenn sprained his other ankle, he wrecked the RV, he got arrested for busking, the RV broke down, Glenn broke down, etc….Then she told me. Poor little thing. She phoned me from the Soho Grand Hotel where her foot was elevated with ice and I felt so unbelievably sorry for her that I wanted to hop on a plane and take care of her. The next best thing to being there was CORN. Clearly. So, I called up Café Habana in the Village (corner of Prince and Elizabeth) and had them deliver CORN to Zan and Glenn with a Get Well Soon scrawled on the delivery menu. You’ll notice that the Soho Grand Hotel is linked on this site…well, it’s because they were overly generous to us when we stayed there while we were making the movie. Please go and stay there if you go to NY. Lovely people and the hotel is full of Squeeze loving staff!

4. They blew a tire as they were pulling into a rest area which luckily, had a service station nearby. They were late to the New Jersey gig but were dealing with the whole thing with typical good humor.

5. They encountered a swarm of bees which caused them to find dead bees everywhere afterwards. According to Pete, the king of pest control on both sides of the Atlantic, they were killer bees but I don’t know if he was telling tall tales. Any bee is a killer bee to me and I was actually grateful that I wasn’t a part of the "When insects ATTACK!" episode.

6. Glenn nearly drowning. I hope he doesn’t mind me telling this story: Staying at Bill’s holiday beach home, Glenn thought it might be clever to take a refreshing dip in the sea to cure his hangover. Well, he was right. Nothing like a near death experience to sober you up. As he swam back to the dock, he realized that he had no energy whatsoever. Thankfully, he was able to struggle to the ladder but found he couldn’t summon any energy to climb up. Add to this, the embarrassment of everyone watching him from the house. I made the joke that he must’ve had a Captain Kirk-like moment of: "Can’t…find…strength…need…help!" The ladder was covered in barnacles and since Glenn had the upper body strength of a kitten, was forced to drag himself up against the ladder, cutting and scraping his entire body in the process. He mustered a final burst of energy to throw himself up onto the dock and then limped meekly back to the house where Jeff apparently stood and said, "That wasn’t exactly Man from Atlantis was it?" It still makes me laugh as I think about it.

6. The last night of the tour in Nashville! I got a phone call at around 1am West Coast time from Suzanne who was feeling very merry. (could it be that they were calling me at 3am????) She was very sweet and said that she wanted to call to wish me a happy end of the tour! Steve Poltz then got on the phone and slurringly shent hish love to me among other thingsh. He then passed the phone over to Glenn. I’d like to relay our conversation for you now.

To be fair, he sounded utterly exhausted and trashed but happy. He’s a man of few words that Glenn….until you get him onstage and then you can’t shut him up. Bless him.

What else is new besides the end of Glenn's infamous Spring tour?

I have just seen Elvis Costello and the Imposters rock the heck out here in LA on two different occasions and it was unbelievably amazing. He had some horrible band called Autoloux open up for him and I couldn’t help but think how great it would’ve been to have Glenn open up on these dates. I was struck with the groovy marketing idea of printing out some flyers with the Glenn movie site on them as well as info on Glenn’s solo album and then passing them out to the Elvis fans. Similar target audience, right? Cue me spending an eternity at Kinko’s til the wee hours and getting 2000 fantastic flyers made up! My friends Suzanna and Matt helped me stand on Hollywood Blvd. And pass them out to all Elvis concert goers. The Kodak theatre wouldn’t let us pass them out inside or we could’ve gotten the word out to a lot more people but we did what we could and if it gets one person to be aware of Glenn’s solo work then it will be worth it. Encountered a lot of people who weren’t aware that Glenn was out and about in the music community but once I told them that not only was he out and about but he was going to be featured in an upcoming documentary, they freaked out with joy. Just as I felt that my efforts were worth it, some guy came up to me and started asking me a million questions about the movie. I answered them patiently and then he says to me, ‘What do you do for sex?’ I suppose that’s what you get for passing flyers out on Hollywood Blvd.

And what’s new with the movie you may rightfully ask? We are in the process of trying to edit the movie together and are hoping to have it cut by October. I have gotten several emails asking me when the movie will be done and when folks can buy a copy. Here’s the deal: When we finish the movie, we will first take it around to film festivals. After that, we’ll take it around to various TV outlets. Then, if possible, we’ll make it available to the public on DVD. As you may well imagine, given the independent nature of the production, it’s extremely difficult to come up with any specific release dates. I want to thank everyone for their interest in the flick and the website and I’ll still be posting diary entries. This is just the last one from the Spring GT Tour! Thanks again-I’ve had a blast! We’ll rap soon, I promise.

Rock on,
Amyx

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