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January 25, 2004
Happy almost February!
I’ve got good news and the bad news!
The good news is that the documentary has been accepted into the
Noise Pop Film
Festival in San Francisco. How fabulous is that? The bad news is,
it’s in San Francisco and I fear that most of you will not be able to
attend. But fear not, 2004 is the year of travel and hopefully I’ll be
the one for the road with One For the Road
in a city or town near you. If it all goes pear shaped and if all the
film festivals that I’ve entered hate the movie, I will offer to do a
‘living room’ tour and if you can squeeze me into your front room, I
will come over for a small fee, play the movie in your house and
perhaps nibble on some of your food and then, after some liquor, tell
embarrassing stories about Glenn. I’m joking of course. I won’t nibble
on some of your food.
I don’t have any details about the
Noise Pop Film
Festival in regards to the movie. I know some of you may want to
pencil the movie’s premiere in your diaries. But check their
website and my
website and we’ll let you know as soon as
we know. I’ve also entered the movie into film festivals in Colorado,
Nashville, Florida, New York City, New Jersey, LA, Phoenix, Chicago,
Austin, TX and a few others. We’ll let you know how it goes! I won’t
start hearing back from any of these until February and I’m starting
to feel surprisingly anxious. I’ve been catching the
Seabiscuit commercials
where Jeff Bridges
says, “When the little guy doesn’t know he’s a little guy, he can do
great big things.” I identified with that.
I never started this project with
lofty goals of becoming a ritzy filmmaker and I’ve never practiced my
Oscar acceptance speech. I just
sort of muddled through with my passion to tell Glenn’s story and to
share his music. That passion has been my compass. I made several
wrong, horrific turns along the way and learned lessons the hard way,
but I got there in the end and I’m hoping that the movie is good
enough to make it into film festivals. I just don’t know anymore as it
is impossible to be objective. Am I kidding myself? Do I think the
flick is good enough to get into film festivals? My movie is truly
independent in that it was almost entirely financed by credit cards
and the odd investor… it wasn’t made by Francis Ford Coppola’s
nephew’s neighbor or some sitcom star’s production company for a wee
one million dollars. My movie is about as independent as you can get!
I guess I never had an understanding of what I have been up against;
therefore, I thought I could take the movie to the toppermost of the
poppermost. (within reason that is.) So, I shall continue to plug away
with the movie until I hear otherwise! This puppy could be going
straight to DVD for all I know, but I’d like to try and get it seen in
an ‘unconventional’ venue such as the film festival circuit. I
consider it a victory that the movie is even completed in the first
place. What I’m hoping for is that Glenn’s music and Squeeze’s music
will just be on the radar again. It’s good music and people need
reminding that it’s around and available. There aren’t any decent
radio stations or video outlets to find good music anymore (am I
showing my age?) and I hope that my movie will inspire someone to
support Glenn and other artists of his ilk who are in similar
circumstances. That would make me very happy indeed.
In other news: I just finished
working on the UK show “The Grill” which will be airing on
Channel 4 in Britain. Funnily
enough, it will be airing in the same time slot that the Jack Osbourne
show was in: 12:50pm on Sunday afternoons. Doublecheck your
local
listings. The show stars
Vernon Kaye, a
presenter who I worked with about six years ago, at the beginning of
his career when he presented the Mag on
Channel 5. It was very strange to find myself working with him
again all these years later but it’s a funny old world. The most
fantastic news of all, is that the show has a segment featuring wacky
products from America and I managed to showcase
THE ROMPER SUIT! Yes, you UK
viewers will get a chance to see hunky model turned presenter Vernon
Kaye model his very own footed pajamas He was a dashing sight in top
to toe navy blue and he even sported the model with a
bootie hatch.
(the suits unzip at the sides for easy access when you’re caught
short.) What’s better than that you may ask? You have a chance of
winning them! Yes, the Grill are giving them away! So tune in and keep
your fingers crossed. You could be the lucky owner of your own romper
suit. You could start your club of three. (I gave Glenn one for Xmas
ages ago and as far as I know, he and his partner Suzanne are the only
romper suit owners in the UK.) I probably shouldn’t share any of these
insider tv secrets, as the romper suit might get the chop in editing,
but I think my lack of discretion will go unpunished. I wanted to give
the cool glennmovie listers in the know a heads up on the glorious
possibility of winning their own teletubby outfit. The show was
fantastic fun to work on and I hope all of you watch it and love it so
we can do another series.
I’d also like to share with all of
you the passing of my 1985
Toyota Corolla. On the way to work at “The Grill” last week, my
decrepit old heap of junk finally gave in and gave up and went out in
spectacular fashion. I was chugging along the highway at the fabulous
speed of 55 miles per hour (since it won’t go any faster than that)
and heard a horrifying noise coming from the engine. Well, after
sipping some much needed java since it was 7am on a Saturday, I did
what any other self respecting girl would do in this perilous
situation, I turned up the radio and sang along loudly to
Journey’s “Wheel
in the Sky”. Well, that worked for about two minutes until I heard
a fantastic pop and my car stuttered forward almost spilling my
coffee. (But my coffee didn’t spill since it was in the handy dandy
Glennmovie
travel mug!) White smoke began to billow out of the engine and my
little car limped off of the highway. Luckily, I was right next to an
exit and managed to get the car straight into a parking lot. A runner
from work was dispatched to come and get me and I had to say my
goodbyes to my little heap of junk all too soon. My mechanic later
said that it would cost thousands to fix and that I should just get a
new used car with that money, so I am now car-less in LA. For those of
you who don’t live in LA, it’s a bit like being on the Mississippi
without a boat. The only thing within walking distance of my house is
a 7-11 I did fine without
wheels in London and NY but LA is a different story.
I went out and looked at used cars
yesterday and came home practically in tears. It’s all so depressing.
You arrive on a lot, there are ten to twelve smarmy men circling like
vultures and as soon as you go up to one car to check out the tag, a
suit pops out and gives you the hard sell. I tell them that my
finances are limited and I can only afford something under a certain
amount and they show me the perfect car! It has everything I need! And
it’s only 13 grand! Huh? They just don’t listen to you and I think I’m
at a disadvantage because I’m a girl and maybe because I’m wearing a
concert t-shirt with a
Rockpile
badge on my jean jacket. Oh well, they probably take advantage of you
no matter what you wear. I had to get a rental car for this week while
I’m looking for a new used car and it seems like the
Starship Enterprise compared to my old car! My old 85’er as I
liked to call her, had the driver’s side window stuck halfway, so if I
went to McDonalds, I’d have to
squish the bag through the five inch opening in order to get it in the
car. It also took super human strength to roll up the window the rest
of the way and my left bicep is not unlike
Popeye’s while the right bicep is as weak as a
newborn kitten. My rental has zippy power windows and I often find
myself playing with them at stop lights. I can even roll down the
windows in the back if I want to!
My old car had the old fashioned
‘push button’ radio, which reminded me of my youth when I would drive
in my Dad’s Chevy Nova,
fascinated with pushing the buttons one after the other. But the
cassette player only played one side. If you wanted to hear the other
side, then you had to flip it over and press reverse in order to hear
it in a very muffled fashion. It was good enough for me. The ceiling
liner had long since deteriorated so if you hit the ceiling on the way
to putting down your sun visor, you would be coated with a lovely
yellow foam dandruff. I’m sure that driving this around LA for the
past four years has given me some sort of emphysema or ‘yellow lung’
but I put up with it in exchange for the freedom of cheap livin’ and
drivin’. Towards the end of her days, I was forced to refill the oil
every week and change the spark plugs every two weeks since the old
gal was burning oil faster than I could buy it so it was only natural
that she die shortly thereafter.
To get me over the depression, I
decided to go to the MINI website
and ‘build my own MINI’. I chose an electric blue metallic body with
Union Jack roof, global positioning system (I’m dyslexic and have
always wanted one of these as I never know where I am or where I’m
going!), and all the fixin's. It was very enjoyable to fantasize about
this and I highly recommend building your own MINI! Alas, unless I win
the lottery or my roommate decides to ‘work the corner’ on my behalf,
it is but a dream. And stick
Orlando Bloom in
there while you’re at it. Fab!
Well, I have to get back to searching
for new used wheels and will bid you a fond farewell. We’ll probably
send you another update soon with more film festival details as they
unravel, but don’t worry, we only stalk you because we love you. And I
am giddy with excitement over catching the US
VH1: Bands Reunited with Squeeze! Fingers crossed that VH1 will
spread the Glenn and Squeeze love! Have a lovely Valentine’s Day and I
hope Cupid gets you what you want. I think I’d rather have something
with four wheels than two legs but I wouldn’t say no to the latter.
Rock On,
Amy
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