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July 30, 2009

Maui Oh, WOWIE

 I thought New Zealand was the most beautiful spot on the planet until I drove up high into the mountains above Maui.  On the way up there were hundreds of windsurfers and they looked like flocks of butterflies on the glittering aqua ocean.   Met the crew and the wonderful cast and saw the locations.  Had my hair dyed and was fitted for my wardrobe.  Bought my OWN hat---which I will keep.  My head was too big for what wardrobe came up with! LOL  Today I will fall into the Pacific and grab hold of a canoe-----Love filming the ending first!  God help me, I do love making movies. I'm ready for my close-up C.B.! Pictures coming soon, so please do stay tuned!  Damn sure gonna take my camera today!  Love to all---GS

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July 19, 2009

Goodbye Mr. Cronkite

I was ten years old in 1962 when Walter Cronkite began anchoring The CBS Evening News. He was a steady voice throughout the turbulent 60's and on up until his retirement at the relative young age of 65 in 1981.  By the time he retired I was living in Hollywood and actively pursuing a career in film.  It is hard to over-estimate his impact on history and the America that I knew and loved as a child and it is sad to note his passing.  Although delivering "straight news" was his goal, he would, on occasion, voice his opinion--always with a preface that this was his opinion, and America knew and trusted this man in a way that we will most likely never see again.  Certainly not in my lifetime.  He helped turn the nation against the disastrous war in Viet Nam and who can forget his reportage on the assassinations of JFK,RFK and Martin Luther King?  For those of us who grew up with him, his influence was profound.  There were only three television networks throughout all of my childhood and CBS was considered the very best in Television Journalism.
 
It is tempting to say that an era ends with his death but that era ended long ago and the final nail was certainly added the first time we heard FOX NEWS announce that they were "fair and balanced".  Walter never had to tell you he was fair and balanced.  You knew how he felt but his reportage was clean and factual.  Not the frighteningly Orwellian mess we have in today's advocacy journalism on both the right and the left. It was no secret how disgusted he was with the state of Television News.
 
As we say goodbye, I do hope his death will give the News Business a moment to pause and reflect on where we have been and where we are going.  How we get our news has forever changed with the onslaught of the Internet.  I pray we will find our way and that we will not lose the integrity of the Fourth Estate. The Press.  It is a vital ingredient in our democracy.  Where is it headed?  That is a question that concerns us all. Goodbye, Mr. Cronkite and thank you for your service to this great and troubled nation.
 
A day of rest today.  The weather is unseasonably cool and beautiful and I am going for a nice long walk in the park near where I live.  I am very grateful to finally be back in a home of my own and feel recovered from the emotional effects of the December 13, 2008 house fire.  I have so very much to be thankful for--not the least of which is the joy of getting to baby sit my youngest brother's three month old daughter tomorrow.  After all the years of living thousands of miles away I am so happy to be home.  My family has been supportive of everything I have tried to do and it is an enormous blessing to be back among them.
 
Now I can leave again and GO HAWAIIAN!!!!  A movie on Maui!  Tough job but somebody has to do it !!
Love to all !!  Arrive on Maui July 28th.....Back in mid August.  If the laptop holds I will certainly blog from the islands...

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July 18, 2009

Dream Mecca

I enjoyed a wonderful Summer evening at Dream Mecca last night..  It's an art gallery, working art studio and Melody Music@ Daniel Day Gallery/MelodyMadeit Inc. have created a wonderful space in the back for live concerts.  It was packed last night with a variety of artist's work on display.  I was there to see the work of Lisa Opielinski.  A large and diverse crowd enjoyed a concert, the highlight being Miss Melody Music with her clarinet backed up with a full band playing and Melody singing "Summertime".  A little piece of heaven on Birmingham's South Side.  Dream Mecca also offers custom creations in fabric, upholstery as well as fine art,sculpture and Wearable art!  I will be looking forward to the next event at Dream Mecca. Bought some art from Miss Opielinski and she and Kenn Alan Gann joined me at Highland Plaza for a light supper after the show.  Also LOVED the work of Palo Pallas--both construction pieces and paintings on canvas.
 
 
My brother Frank Scott came by to update my office yesterday!  It is very nice indeed to have a brother that specializes in computers and electronics.  I got very little of that ability.  Just did not turn up in my DNA.  Looking forward to babysitting Frank's daughter, my precious three month old niece,Miss Brooklyn Marie Scott.  Will keep her at my brother and sister-law's (Tammy) from 10 until 4 on Monday and I can't wait.  This little gal turns me into a babbling fool!  So wonderful to be around a baby again.  First in the immediate family in 14 years and we ALL want to keep her as often as possible.
 
More work on the French accent.  People keep sending me parodies (like Steve Martin or Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther movies!) but what I need is a bit more...subtle.  Watching "Gigi" and "French Kiss" today.  The goal is to have it down so solid that it goes unnoticed.   Got my E-tickets for Maui and Nashville and confirmation on my reservations for The Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown Ma. Sept. 24--28.  Lots of travel this fall and early winter. It has been so good not to be on a plane in three years!! (Almost three years) but I am ready to travel!
 
Had a  fun visit with my neighbor, Patty Pizitz.  "Pizitz" was THE upscale department store in Birmingham when I was growing up and Patty, well, to ME, Patty is a celebrity!  I used to take the bus from Bessemer into Downtown Birmingham as a child and go to the old Alabama Theater for a matinee and then shop at Pizitz and Loveman's department stores--all the while singing "Downtown" along with Petula Clark! Last night reminded me how much I love Southerners and The South.  It is indeed a complicated, strange and mysterious region--unlike any other.  It's also HOME.  As Winona's character in Beetlejuice said, "I, myself, am strange and unusual". I can identify.
 
Glenn, Suzanne & Susan Tassin
Glenn, Suzanne & Susan Tassin
 
It's going down to 60 degrees tonight or so the Weather Folks promise.  I wonder if it has EVER hit 60 degrees in Alabama in July.  I plan to go for a long walk if the promised cool weather really does arrive!
 
Hope everyone has a nice weekend.  My webmaster is working hard on presenting The WGS Gallery section of the web site.  We promise to have it up for viewing before I leave for Maui on July 28th.

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July 17, 2009

FaceBooking and Watching Maurice Chevalier

I have fallen into the oh-so-addictive world of FaceBook. Never liked Twitter much, but FaceBook has put me back in regular touch with friends from all over the world and especially all the folks I left after 30 years in L.A.  I chat equally with local friends.  It's like a shout out to a friend across town is the same as a friend in Berlin, or New Zealand or Tokyo or Nashville.  I LOVE this, being a social creature by nature and from birth. I found myself, last week, FaceBooking someone I was on the phone with!  Am I as sick as I think.  Yet another addiction to consider it's repercussions.
 
Actually writing letters in long hand to offline friends.  I think I am just addicted to communications in general.  The older I get the more precious EVERYONE in my life becomes to me.  I lost so many people in my thirties to AIDS that I hold on to all my dear ones and I hold tight!
 
Maurice Chevalier
 
Learning lines for FINDING GAUGUIN.  The executive producer surprised me yesterday with a date for my arriving on Maui a week earlier than I had expected, so I am listening to French accents i Netflix movies, my Samuel French dialect CD and my French "coach", Kitty Urquhart.  I will have the lines down with accent so solid that, hopefully, the accent will barely be noticeable.  THAT is the goal. Make it effortless.  Maurice Chevalier has the charm I want this evil art agent to have.  I want people to really like my character at first and then slowly reveal my treacherousness!   Must work every day for several hours to get where I want to be by the 28th of this month!

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July 16, 2009

Alabama Gay Community

Having grown up in Bessemer (side track homes all over the south-east: my step-father traveled for Goodyear Tire & Rubber), I am very glad to see leadership arising in Bessemer's Gay community in the works of Joe Openshaw (http://www.examiner.com/x-17183-Birmingham-Gay-Community-Examiner) who was my neighbor in Bessemer when I first returned home after 30 years in Hollywood and travel around the world.  We have stayed in close touch since I left Bessemer and moved to it's Big Sister City (Birmingham) after my house fire in Dec. 2008.
 
Joe has been a steady voice for all Bessemer residents as well as the emerging gay community on Bessemer's South Side.  Always on top of events, nationally and locally, Joe is a fine representative and a great source for ANYONE concerned with their hometown and local political events. His Bessemer Opinions Blog (www.bessemeropinions.com) will now concentrate on all issues affecting all the people in Bessemer, and the new Examiner site will be a clearing house of info on the gay community in Jefferson County, Alabama and, of course, nationally.
 
Jefferson County was in the forefront, good and bad, during the civil rights movement in the 1950's and it is proper and fitting that the struggle for equality under the law for Gay men and women have a strong voice here.  There are no more or less gay men and women living in Jefferson County than when I was growing up--the difference is that the younger generation of Gay people are no longer willing to lower their heads in anonymous shame.  There is less shame and more people willing to step forward and be counted.  Martin Luther King said, and I loosely quote him, "The arc of justice for all humanity is slow, but moves slowly forward"  Joe Openshaw should be acknowledged for what he is: a pioneer for Gay Rights in the heart of the heart of Dixie, Jefferson County, Alabama.  We are, indeed, lucky such dedicated journalists are at work because the American and world-wide press is in a time of great change and needs solid, trustworthy investigative journalism.  We have that in Joe Openshaw.  Please do check out his sites.
 
I’m working on my French accent.  Kitty Urquhart in Mountain Brook has been an angel and really helped me get a deeper understanding of the French people.  She studied in France as a young woman and now splits her time between Alabama and a farm in the French countryside outside Paris.  She has been  an incredible resource during my research before shooting FINDING GAUGUIN.  I am meeting so many wonderful folks in my hometown!  
 
Everyone stay Cool.  It's the 16th of July and the real heat (for Alabamians in particular) is yet to come!
 
Here's the link to the site that tells about my appearance in Nashville in October.

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July 15, 2009

Bruno

 Here's what I have to say about BRUNO.  I do not need the "ultra hip" telling me anything.  I do not enjoy watching people be ridiculed no matter what their beliefs.  This is a film some adolescents or adolescent-minded adults may indeed enjoy but as far as I am concerned the "artist" here has every right to "say" whatever he wants but I, thank heavens, do not have to spend money to see such over-hyped, hipper than thou, indulgence.  Plenty of fine films to see without this sort of idiotic meanness.  The joke is now oh so very, well, weary....
 
  Working with the marvelous Kitty Urquhart on my french accent.  I am very happy to be in "research and discovery" mode.  Love learning everything I can about the "world of the piece" before filming.
 
  Had a great photo shoot yesterday with the talented Elizabeth De Ramus.  Think..or rather, KNOW I have a great head shot from this shoot.  Below is the head shot I am considering as I move into the "older gentleman" phaze of my career.  The robe shot is just for fun. Wore that in Beetlejuice!  Took that shot atop the building in which I now own a home in Birmingham, Alabama.
 

 
   Counting the days before I leave for Maui.  I certainly will enjoy the work as well as the VACATION!
Happy mid summer to all!

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July 13, 2009

Thunder Boom Booms

 I woke up to the most delicious thunderstorm with hard, driving rain and lightening. Dawn came just so it could get dark again!. I remember growing up with this weather and loving it as long as F5's were not looming.  F5's tell 7.0 Earthquakes to SHUT UP.  Give me a quake before a tornado ANYDAY.

   Busy around the Shadix home this last week.  Jane O'Neal's GIANT BIRD OF PARADISE arrived from DNJ Gallery in L.A. and my brother, Ken Shadix and nephew Matt helped me hang it.  Brightens the place and I tell you , Jane's work just glows.
 
  Spoke with the exec. prod. of FINDING GAUGUIN yesterday.  The crew and director are all on Maui and busy as little bees.  I am doing research today--on Gauguin and the whole Impressionist Era today.  Working with Kitty Urquhart on my French accent.  We meet on Wednesday at 3pm in Mountain Brook and I will start to roll those R's and get cranking.  I am loathe to learn the lines until I have the accent down.  I know we will have a dialect coach on set but I cannot wait until I get to set. Have to do the prep here. Will have my dates this week, finally.

  Booked at The Waterford Inn in Provence Town, RI for The Tennessee Williams Festival Sept. 24-28.  My friend and mentor, David Kaplan founded this festival four years ago and this is my first time to attend.  Tickets are going FAST if you are thinking about attending. David directed me in "The Circus of Dr. Loa" (1985) and provided me with a film career by casting me as Gertrude Stein in "Dr. Faustus Lights The Lights"(1986)  Tim Burton just happened to be in the audience.

 

 Michelle Phillips will be on a Cruise off the Grecian Coast and had to bow out of attending Tim Burton's MoMA Opening November 22.  Going with my Sister and brother-law, Susan and Ed Gagne and my incredibly talented nephew, Samuel Glenn Teer, who will be in his senior year at The Alabama High School Of Fine Arts.   This should be a memorable installation at MoMA.  It is time to honor Mr. Burton.

Jeffrey Jones, Tim Burton, Glenn Shadix & Burgess Meredith
 
      Hoping to make it to Berlin to see Lena Guimont around Christmas and David Lara in Vienna by New Year's.  A heck-of-a-lot of traveling this fall!  Going to be signing in Nashville October 17 and 18.  I am ready to hit the road!
 
    Have a great week one and all----GS

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July 07, 2009

Man in the Mirror

  Okay, some can easily say and be understood when they complain about the amount of coverage the death of Michael Jackson has and is still receiving today.  I never met the man.  I worked in an adjoining sound stage at Culver studios for six weeks in 1987 and his trailer was about twenty feet from mine although it was completely surrounded by a wooden structure erected to keep a sense of privacy even on a security tight Hollywood sound stage. Never saw hide nor hair of the man.  Dick Cavett was convinced he'd had a tunnel dug from his compound to the sound stage south of us to shoot the "BAD" videos.  I knew many who knew him and I just want to say this.  I was 35 years old before the bright glaze of attention brushed by me briefly and I lived and worked and still am working after 35 years as a professional actor on stage, television and most prominently,film.  I would have been cold in my grave two decades ago if I had had four #1 hit records and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show at age ten. Trust me, and I loosely quote Madonna here, fortune beats the hell out of FAME and leaves it bleeding in a ditch. The memorial to this entertainer and humanitarian is over and it is time we move on,but just know how little we, any of us, know, what it was like to live in that man's skin, no matter what color it was.  Enough. RIP M. J. and Thank You.

   Rented "Lets Make Love" to study Yve Montand's french accent in that hideous film he did with the magnificent Marilyn Monroe.  What we do for love, money and attention.  I'm zonked out from 3 hours of CNN and  must sign off to get my beauty rest.  Leaving for Maui in a few weeks it seems... Love to all.

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