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March 12, 2003
Hooty Hoot from the land where palm
trees sway! Hope all of you are well and happy. There hasn’t been an
awful lot going on in glennmovie land due
to the fact that the evil flu that I thought I had turned into
full-blown pneumonia! A young lass such as myself was shocked to
discover that I had a pensioner’s disease but there you go. Life’s
funny that way. So, part of December, all of January and almost all
of February was spent in bed, on the couch or at my doctor’s office!
I now want to burn my once beloved leopard romper suit, since it is
pretty much all I have worn in the past three months. (My roommate Suzanna calls it the ‘kitty suit’.) It had become such a fashion
staple that I actually forgot I was wearing it when I answered the
door to the Fed Ex man. Strange looks were exchanged, but I couldn’t
be bothered to explain my sartorial choice. I love the footie pajama
suit since it is so darn warm. Because I was sick over a prolonged
period, I now enjoy the one zip ease of it all! This is why white
trash ladies wore (or wear) ‘housecoats’. I remember a brand name
housecoat from the local department store SEARS called ‘Zip and
Dash’. What a concept! Sadly, I was too sick for any dashing.
I’ve decided that with the coming of
a new month (March) and a renewed sense of finally feeling back to
normal, I would diligently get back in the saddle with the movie.
When I first handed all of the footage over to our original editor, I
merely gave him the tapes and then gave him an accompanying outline to
follow. Firmly led up the garden path by said editor, I believed that
the movie would at least be 80% completed by the time he got done with
it. Well, that wasn’t the case and after feeling sufficiently
swindled, I now think that I was partly to blame. An outline simply
won’t do. (and it didn’t!) I have to write a very specific script
for the next editor to work with and I believe this will help get
across what I want to say with the movie. I know it seems odd that
one would write a script for a documentary!
In order to write the script, I have
to transcribe all of the tapes, enter the transcripts in the computer
then do a “paper edit”. In other words, I have to cut and paste the
‘juicy bits’, i.e. the necessary bits of the story into a script and
try and sort the movie out! I have already logged all of the footage
from when I joined Glenn on the road in December and had a chance to
finally properly look at the footage that two
glennmovie.com volunteers shot at Glenn’s Texas shows. I had to
laugh at some of the footage that I saw from Glenn’s Dallas, TX show
because the marquee outside the gig featured Glenn playing that night
and then a wet t-shirt contest, also known as PJ’s Breast Fest, the
next night. What a shame they couldn’t have combined the shows…
imagine all the fun!
Since my bright idea of transferring
footage to audio tapes and THEN trying to transcribe them through a
tape recorder went down like a lead balloon, I’m now planted in front
of the TV/VCR in my room 24/7. There I am plopped, remote balanced on
one knee, while I type away at the computer, pause the tape, type,
rewind the tape, play the tape, pause the tape, type., etc… Imagine
doing this for about 40 hours of tapes. Also, imagine listening to
Glenn mumble/ramble… I mean speak for almost as long. Not the easiest
of jobs! I had one glennmovie.com angel
volunteer in TX kindly offer to help, but due to the bad tape quality
and Glenn’s unique way of speaking, parts of the transcription looked
like this:
Amy: “So Glenn, tell me
about your early days with Squeeze.”
Glenn: inaudible
I had another very lovely person
volunteer to help me. So rather than transfer the tape over as I did
with the TX angel, I just sent the actual videotape. I felt that I
couldn’t possibly allow someone else to go through the tedious, mind
numbingly boring hell that is transcribing so I immediately sent her 6
hours of tapes as fast as humanly possible! I was a virtual blur
running down to the post office for the necessary delegation. I’m
nearly finished and in spite of the pain, I wish I would have done
this a year ago. But that’s what happens when you’ve never made a
documentary before! You learn as you go! A friend emailed me from
Britain describing what I’m currently doing as “Donkey Work” and I
think that I’m going to rename the movie “Donkey Work”. That is all
that it has been thus far but I’m hoping there is light at the end of
the tunnel. My pal Doug asked me what I needed to finish the movie
since it’s taken over ten decades to complete and after giving it some
thought, I answered with the three M’s. Money, Manpower, and Drugs.
Okay, so that doesn’t start with an M, but it would certainly help!
I went to see a friend’s band
play here in LA and ended up running into Sam Jones, the director of
the documentary on the band Wilco. The movie is called “I Am Trying
To Break Your Heart” and his website is
www.wilcofilm.com.
I’m a huge fan of the movie and of his work so I immediately made
myself a pest and began grilling him on everything that came into my
head. I was Captain Question for as long as I could corner him. He
asked me, “So have you transcribed the tapes and put them in a
script?” I nodded sagely and said, “ Oh yeah. Of course.” I thought
this whole transcription/script thing was a new phenomenon! He was
immensely helpful and even though I only got to talk to him for about
15 minutes, we swapped some war stories and I think I learned more in
that brief amount of time than I have in the last year and a half! If
only he were around to counsel me on call.
One thing I forgot to mention in the
last diary update was the article that appeared in the Texas
newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman. I wrote an article on
house-sitting that appeared on October 24, 2002 but I didn’t receive
an actual copy of the article until rejoining Glenn on the road in
December. I knew the article had appeared since I had gotten a few
emails about it on the site. Great promotion for the movie and
glennmovie.com, I thought. A
glennmovie.com visitor emailed to tell me
that they loved the article, loved the website and loved Glenn. The
only hitch was that a caption in the article referred to Glenn as a
“faded British Pop Star”. Well, that’s not exactly selling GT to the
public but what can you do? Any publicity is good publicity? A fan
gave Glenn the article on his recent jaunt to Austin and Glenn laughed
heartily as he handed it over to me. There was a picture of me on the
RV that Glenn had taken (he’s still waiting for the enormous check
since he is now a published photographer) and the following caption:
“Semi professional house-sitter Amy
Pickard used her gigs looking after fine homes to help fund her
documentary about a faded British pop star’s unglamorous RV tour
across America.”
UNGLAMOROUS? So not only did they
refer to Glenn as a faded British pop star, but they decided to kick
it up a notch and refer to the movie documenting an “unglamorous” tour
of the US!!! WOO! Glenn thought it was unbelievably hilarious but I
was miffed and not a little annoyed. I suppose I can see the humor in
it… but.. uh.. not that much. I mean, okay, so we didn’t whip out the
champagne and tiaras at any point on the RV but unglamorous? RV-ers
everywhere would disagree.
Onto the news of
glennmovie.com friends:
I suppose the biggest news is the
addition to the Tilbrook family! Congrats all around and a hearty
welcome to the world to baby boy Tilbrook! By the way, his name is not
Zilbrook. The official name is LEON. So a big hooty hoot to Leon who
rounds out the rock and roll Tilbrook triad.
My friend Tammy Glover, who is
basically an unofficial producer of One For the
Road, is drumming with the 80’s combo SPARKS. I’ve mentioned her
several times before in the old tour diary. I’ve always seen a little
parallel between the Sparks path and the Glenn/Squeeze path (you know
the whole established artists now going the independent route thing)
and have followed the latest developments in their career with great
interest! You know, music bizzy stuff like who they’ve used as their
publicist and who they’ve gone with for distribution and promotion and
all that anorak-y stuff. (I’m always thinking of how Glenn might be
able to benefit from their good/or even not so good decisions in the
past!) The Sparks boys are just the nicest guys in the world and they
have worked super hard on their fantastic new album “Li’l Beethoven”
which has been getting rave reviews the world over! After working
harder than a hard working type thing, the good news is that it looks
to have paid off and Sparks are now signed to Chris Blackwell’s new
label: Palm Pictures! For those of you not in the music biz know,
Chris Blackwell is the guy who founded Island Records. He was buds
with Bob Marley and is a Huge Industry Giant while maintaining his
rock and roll grooviness, and apparently, he LOVED the new Sparks
album and wanted to sign them immediately! Cue glasses raised in
celebration and a little European tour! SPARKS play the Royal
Festival Hall in March so if you live in London, hop on down! Now I
wonder if Mr. Blackwell is a Squeeze fan! I know this former lead
singer who is really great….perhaps he could fly me down to his
mansion in the Bahamas to discuss funding a documentary…..oh well...we
can but dream. Visit the SPARKS website
www.allsparks.com
for more info!
Pete Thomas, drummer for Elvis
Costello and the Attractions is getting inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in March! Many of you will know Pete through Elvis’
music and of course, for his expert drumming with Squeeze for a brief,
but noble tenure in the 90’s. I met Pete in Ohio when I was running
my video show in ’92. We reconnected backstage at an Elvis show at
Shepherd’s Bush Empire when I moved to London and I’ve been pals with
Pete and his lovely family ever since! So congrats to Pete! If you
have a chance, whip out the old Elvis albums and thrill to his
drumming greatness on classic tunes like “Lipstick Vogue”, “I Don’t
Want To Go To Chelsea”, “What’s so funny about Peace, Love and
Understanding”, “New Lace Sleeves” and enjoy his continued genius on
the latest EC album “When I was Cruel”. (Let’s not forget “Third
Rail” as well!) Check out more on cheeky Pete at
www.petethomasdrums.com.
Pete’s teenage daughter
Tennessee is also a drummer and a groover and she has her own band
called The Like. (You may have noticed EC wearing an ‘I Like the
Like’ badge in Vanity Fair Magazine recently) Go to her website at
www.Ilikethelike.com. You’ll
like the like as well! The band is made up of Tennessee on drums,
Charlotte Froom on bass (Mitchell Froom’s daughter… Mitchell has
produced EC, Paul Mc and my faves Crowded House) and PLAY producer
Tony Berg’s daughter Z on vocals and guitar.
love those lucky teens and you
will too!
The
glennmovie.com friends are out there and working their buns off
and I’m happy for all of them! Life rewards action!
Back to the action of “One
For the Road”: After I finish all the transcription and all of the
script writing, I’m hoping to begin editing the movie in a few weeks!
I’m going to put the trusty plastic in place and buy my own editing
equipment and hope to complete OFTR in my
own home rather than trying to get someone to donate their equipment
(which I’ve already tried) or having to travel to someone else’s place
to edit. With the permission of my roommate, we are now turning the
dining room into an edit suite! I had to laugh… since I now have a
camera, I will soon have editing equipment… all of a sudden, whilst
living on dirt sandwiches, I’ve suddenly become my own production
empire! Today the dining room... tomorrow the world! I’m also trying
to come up with something fun for April, which is the first year
anniversary of
www.glennmovie.com!
Could it be that it was all so simple then... if we had the chance to
do it all again.. would we…. etc… Stay tuned!! Take care all of you
and thanks for your continued patience and support. Back to the
donkey work!
You Rock!
Amyx
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