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July
1, 2002
It’s a lovely, sunny day in Hollywood and I’m home watching
a lovely, sunny day in Wimbledon. Brit boy Tim Henman is battling
ahead and I find myself pining for the land that dentistry forgot.
I used to live in Fulham, just a hop, skip and a few tube ride jumps
away from the tennis capital of the world and remember watching the
matches at the local pub with Pimms in hand. Enough of this reminiscing….here’s
the latest in Amy land.
We
have started editing the movie! (cue band and appropriate striking
up motions) It’s going to be a very long, hard road ahead but
I’m happy that we found someone who’s up to the task.
His name is Martin, he’s a Beatles fan (can’t be bad,
right?) and I just found out the day before yesterday that he used
to edit the Rick Springfield TV series "High Tide". I’m
taking this as a sign. I’m also taking the Martin thing as a
sign as it is the name of my first and only beloved kitty cat (now
deceased, but when he lived, he was king of all beasts and just as precious) and it’s Glenn’s middle name. Perhaps I’m
gleaning a bit too much from whatever this may represent in the cosmos,
but whatever gets you through the night, right?
As
for my repeated Rick Springfield references, I suppose some explaining
must be in order for the UK folks. Rick Springfield was my teen idol
growing up and because of this, he will always have a place in my
heart. So for you UK ladies, Rick is my David Cassidy or my Jason
Donovan? Frightening, I know. Rick had a mega hit in the early 80’s
with "Jessie’s Girl" and I don’t think he ever
quite caught on across the pond.
Back
to the movie: Martin is busy watching every ever-lovin’ minute
of footage that we shot (bless him) and is digitizing it all into
his computer in order to do the first cut. First cut. What a glorious
ring those two words have! A few months ago, it seemed a million years
away. I try to keep things in perspective when I get overwhelmed with
the process. If you would’ve told me a year ago that I’d
be taking a year out of my life to work on a movie about Glenn, I’d
say you were crazy. Here I am, all these months later and I’ve
been on the road, shot the movie, gone through all the footage and
been on the road AGAIN and next year at this time, I’ll have
a completed
poptastic theatre filling, festival loving documentary. All proper
like! Sometimes I want to skip the hard work and go straight to the
cake and ice cream part! Then Martin reminds me that when all of this
is over, I’ll be taking the glory or the BLAME. Good to have
someone keeping me grounded. I’m hoping to get the first cut
in about three weeks or so and will of course, keep you updated. Depending
on this first cut, I may be writing the diary from the bridge with
one leg over…but I’m hoping I will be writing a giddy
entry full of praise and optimism.
Squeeze
are currently number 9 in the UK album charts with their Greatest
Hits Compilation BIG SQUEEZE. (if you want to buy it, which you should,
go to www.quixoticrecords.com and check it out!) I love that I live
in a world where Squeeze are in the charts alongside Eminem and David
Bowie. I have been listening to the Big Squeeze since it arrived in
the post and I must say, it’s unlike any other Squeeze compilation
that I own. The bonus Disc 2, B-Sides Story is amazing. I’ve
never been a collector of Squeeze (or a collector of anything since
nothing is ever enough and my income level has always been less than
most) so the CD is like a whole new Squeeze CD. Well, gee, I suppose
it actually IS a whole new Squeeze CD, but I think you know what I
mean. It is a great summer soundtrack and has replaced my (gasp) Elvis
Costello on my stereo! Can we have a round of applause please for
the songs "Introvert", "Up Periscope" and "Who’s
That"? Now for those of you horrible people who have not yet
purchased the Big Squeeze…let me tell you that the song Who’s
That is now my new all time fave Squeeze song and makes the whole
compilation worth buying. The lyrics are as always, amazing and Glenn’s
vocal rivals anything Ray Charles ever belted out. Glenn+Piano=Love.
I am astounded that Glenn surprised me on this track. I thought as
a fan, he couldn’t do that anymore and damn, if he didn’t
go and sing his English arse off on this one. I knew he had soul whilst
burning through an acoustic version of "Voodoo Chile" but
this song practically turns him into an old bluesman in my eyes. Blind
Lemon Pie Tilbrook…or maybe we should call him Hobbling Pecan
Pie Tilbrook. Er..maybe not. Press “Play” and then “Repeat”,
please miss. And let’s hear it for Chris Difford!
I
have a reliable source who tells me that Chris is currently in solo
album mode his own bad self and is hoping to tour the land with Elvis
Costello soon. We have a link to his site from our Links page so you
can visit him and share your love. Tell him Amy sent you!
It
is now Monday and the Who are playing just around the corner from
me at the Hollywood Bowl. I was very saddened to hear the news about
John Entwistle’s passing but was somewhat comforted over the
fact that he died with his boots on, as they say, getting ready to
tour with his kick-ass rock band and gearing up to attend an exhibition
of his art work. (Not to mention he was “in the company”
of a local female “entrepreneur”. So, he died with his
boots on AND in the saddle, as it were! My new hero! - jp) Bless him.
My friend Star, worked diligently all weekend painting a skeleton
like pattern on her sweatshirt in honor of the Ox and is wearing it
to the gig tonight. I look forward to hearing about the show from
her since it is sure to be an emotional concert. I tuned into VH1
to see if they had any tributes to the man himself and was horrified
to hear the supermodel presenter call him "Johnny Entwistle".
Is it just me or did he NEVER go by the name Johnny? I wanted to smack
her and it was as if she was saying Johnny just to appear cool and
ROCK. All I wanted to do when I was growing up was to work for MTV
and then VH1 and now it’s just all so hideous and wrong. Of
course, if they gave me some fantastic presenting job and played Glenn’s
videos, I’d be waving the flag in a heartbeat!
Speaking
of jobs…it looks like I’ll have to get one. Oh, the depression.
I’ve been "unemployed" for the past year, the savings
have dwindled, the phone calls to Granny for an emergency rent donation
have reached their expiry date and I fear it is time to sell my soul
and walk amongst those with steady paychecks. I don’t really
want to work on some crappy tv show 9-5 and then work with Martin
on the movie weeknights and weekends….that would tire my little
heart out…as well as take my focus off of the Glenn project,
but what can you do? I suppose a job couldn’t be so bad. Just
think of all the things I could buy…like food! Accessories!
UK music magazines!
I’m
going to be attending a James Taylor concert tomorrow night thanks
to a donated ticket by my pal Suzanna. It will be my first concert
at the Hollywood Bowl and I’m very excited. We’re taking
a picnic and chilling on the lawn whilst listening to the soothing
sounds of JT. I’ve never been a huge JT fan…he’s
a bit too mellow for me but I do respect the man. I was going to pass
out Glennmovie.com flyers at the gig but think I’ll be better
off targeting the Neil Finn audience.
Speaking
of Neil, there are four main “music men” in my life: Paul
McCartney, Glenn, Elvis Costello and Neil. Neil is a god. I’m
going to see Neil’s LA show on Friday and Saturday. I’ll
be passing out flyers spreading the Glenn gospel in the hopes that
it will generate awareness for my movie, the website and for Glenn’s
solo album. Neil is playing the House of Blues on Sunset. I hate seeing
gigs at the House of Blues since they are all so corporate and pretty
much run by Satan but you gotta go where your man plays. One of the
reasons why I loathe the House of Blues so much is that they refused
to let us shoot any of Glenn’s gigs while we were working on
the doc. Don’t get me wrong, the employees were absolutely lovely
and apologetic but trying to get permission to shoot a gig there is
nearly impossible. I tried explaining to them that it’s not
like Glenn’s Bono or anything….he’s playing a small
gig, we’re a small operation and we just want to shoot his gig
and they still said no. I think if we were some mega movie offering
them a hefty percentage of the profits for the movie, they would’ve
been more understanding and cooperative.
What’s
happening with Glenn you may ask? I have no idea would be the short
answer. I traveled to Buffalo, NY a few weeks back for Buffalo Bill’s
40th birthday party and got to hang out with Glenn and Suzanne one
last time before they flew back to the UK. Glenn’s appearance
at the party was a complete surprise to Bill (who is, can you believe
it, a BIGGER Squeeze fan than me!). We had rigged up a fake video
message to show Bill at the party…the VCR "wasn’t
working" and then Glenn marched through and sang "Happy
Birthday". Bill was absolutely STUNNED. It was unbelievably precious.
Imagine digging Squeeze since 1979 and then having Glenn play your
40th birthday party! Bill was so happy it actually brought a little
tear to my eye. Glenn then played a few of Bill’s fave songs
(Maidstone and Pulling Mussels from a Shell) and then set the guitar
down to mingle. After many glasses of red wine were downed, Glenn
strapped on his guitar and the remaining stragglers of the party gathered
round for a fun sing along. My pal Doug came with me and we all participated
in a very painful but unbelievably fun version of “Perfect Day".
I think we sang a few other songs…maybe Monkees or something
but I don’t remember. Like I said, we had a few glasses of red
wine. The party continued out in the parking lot in the Cruisemaster
where brandy was busted out and Don, Bill’s friend and ours,
proceeded to lose all ability to use verbs in his sentences. When
we asked him how he was doing, he responded "I Fine." You
know you’ve had too much medicine when you can’t talk
in complete sentences and when you have no eyelid control. I think
I had an entire conversation with Don while his eyes were closed.
Saying goodbye to Glenn and Suzanne the next day at Buffalo airport,
where we first began our documentary adventure last November, was
surprisingly emotional for me and a few tears were shed. I’m
sappy that way. But I bit my lip and waved to them as they went to
the gate. "I Fine!" I squeaked. Don’t know when I’ll
see them both again…perhaps in the autumn. If we get the movie
completed in October, I’d love to take it over to London to
show it to them in person but that’s far too far in the future
to think about now.
I
went to San Juan Capistrano last weekend to catch the lovely and talented
Steve Poltz play his heart out to the crowd when he opened for Dan
Hicks. It was fun seeing Steve again (his website is
www.poltz.com)
and he had all of us singing and laughing and you can’t ask
for more than that. He’s a hunk-a-hunka burning folk love and
might be touring with someone we all know and love in the near future.
When he mentioned that his CD was for sale at the merch stand in the
back, I felt some sort of Pavlovian instinct to dash over and sell
them but alas, I was not ‘on the clock’.
That’s
all the latest gossip for now. I’m just working on the movie,
working on getting a job and looking forward to seeing Neil Finn in
concert! Hope all of y’all have a happy 4th of July and I’ll
post a new entry soon.
Later
Potaters!
Rock
on,
Amyx
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