RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

What is it? Why it’s a “melon-Collie” of course!

 While working on the six hour radio show which will play on KABD-FM Saturday August 31st from noon to 6 central time (listen on-line at dakotabroadcasting.com) a lot of these old 70’s songs are sticking in my brain. This one in particular. Alice Cooper and “School’s Out” – which seems very appropriate! SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER!

 

Monday the 19th – PUPPY PANIC! – Just after noon I was on the road and heading to Marina Del Rey to a studio called Side LA for a videogame session. I had just been there last Friday so I was pretty familiar with the traffic patterns on the freeway that time of day. I wanted to leave plenty early to get to my 2pm session, and still allow time to hit the Chick Fil-A drive-thru for lunch beforehand. But right off the bat there were problems. The on-ramp that I normally take to the freeway was blocked because of some accident. Rerouting would cost me precious time; about 15 minutes. I drove over to the next on-ramp available (as did everyone else in our line of cars) and I finally got on the freeway. It took an hour to get to Marina Del Rey, but I did have time to get lunch. I was booked from 2 until 5, and had worked out the math in my head and figured I’d be back in good time to walk Roxy. As I figured it, she’d only be in the house about 5 hours on her own without a bathroom break. So I didn’t engage the services of a petsitter. But as we got deep into the session, it was becoming evident that I wasn’t going to get out of there at the scheduled time. There were a LOT of lines! It was a Marvel character that I had done before (years ago) so it was a lot of fun, but the clock was ticking. It went past 5. And then 5:15, 5:20 – and we still weren’t anywhere near done. I started to panic. By the time we finished it was a little after 6pm, and I had to make hasty exit. I’m not sure how the ending time for the session got mixed up, but luckily I was able to get a petsitter on the phone who said she could get to my house immediately to take Roxy out. I got on the freeway about 6:20, just in time for our lovely L.A. afternoon drive-time traffic. By the time I got home it was about 7:30. I’m REALLY glad my petsitter was able to come over! I paid her and then settled in and checked my e-mails. My old friends the Rux family from Aberdeen, South Dakota (they bought the house I used to live in – and currently still live there!) were in town on vacation, so we agreed to meet at Bob’s Big Boy for dinner. I explained to them that I was going to be a little later than I had originally stated. But it was a great dinner and we had a lot of fun. I’ll be seeing them again soon when I go back to Aberdeen for my upcoming class reunion. I got back home totally exhausted! I did a little work, grabbed a hot shower, and napped on the couch for a bit. When I got up I did a lot of auditions, typed out Wally’s Week, fed and walked Roxy, ate some leftover Chinese food and hit the hay! What a Monday!

Tuesday the 20th – BEAMING DOWN THE CAPTAIN! – When I got up at 1 I had an e-mail from KABD-FM in Aberdeen asking me to record a promo to promote the upcoming radio show I’ll be doing, “The Class of ’79 Reunion Rewind.” So I recorded that quick and sent it over to them. (By the way, you’ll be able to hear the show on-line by going to dakotabroadcasting.com and clicking on Listen Live on the KABD-FM side. The show is Saturday August 31st from noon-6pm Central time!) I walked over to Voice Trax West to begin assembling the segments for the show. We figured out it would be much easier for me to supply the station with “pre-mixed” segments for the show, as opposed to sending them over hundreds of individual elements that we plan on using. It was a blast assembling these segments and it got me excited for the actual show! I walked back home, did some work, and then drove to my seamstress Shelley’s house to drop off some fabric for a Starsky & Hutch Gran Torino bowling shirt I’m having made. I got some dinner at the Taco Bell drive-thru on the way home, and when I pulled in my garage I realized that the temps outside had gone down enough, that I could paint my Captain Kirk boots. Paint works better in a certain temperature, so I had to wait until it cooled off outside a bit in order to insure good, even coverage on the boots. The pair of boots I’m using for my upcoming Captain Kirk lifesize figure are vinyl cosplay boots I found that were reasonable priced. Using my own custom-made, leather Kirk boots for this type of usage just doesn’t make much sense. I sprayed on the first coat, and then went inside to grab a quick nap. I got up, gave the boots a second coat, and did my daily auditions. A bit later, I checked on the boots and they looked amazing! I dressed the legs by adding the pants and it really looked fantastic! I’ll be ready to take delivery of the finished torso from my effects guy Jim Ojala very soon! Then my hair guy Sergio Lopez will come do the hair, sideburns and eyebrows, and my seamstress Shelley will alter my Captain Kirk tunic to fit nicely on the mannequin. I made some lasagna and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad.” I’m LOVING this show!

Wednesday the 21st – HERE’S THE STRAIGHT TOOTH! – Later in the afternoon I drove to my orthodontist’s office in North Hills to pick up my newly fabricated dental appliance. The one I had made in the early 2000s no longer fit because of the recent dental implant I had installed a few months ago. This one was quite different, as I suspect the technologies have changed a bit in the orthodontic world since the early 2000s. I went home to check on the delivery of some fabric I ordered for a new bowling shirt I’m having made for the upcoming appearances at mid-September’s “Son of Monsterpalooza.” But even though I had ordered the fabric on August 2nd, the order was showing that it hadn’t even been printed yet, let alone shipped! I started to panic a bit, and I sent out several e-mails to the company trying to get some answers. If it doesn’t get here soon, my seamstress won’t have a chance to finish the shirt in time for the convention. I napped on the couch and got up later to do some work around the house. I did some more work on my radio show script, did my auditions, and then met my pal Sara for a late dinner at the Coral Café.

Thursday the 22nd – A MATTER OF SERIOUS ‘IMPORT’! – While checking my e-mails I realized I got an answer from the fabric manufacturer. Apparently the organic cotton sateen that I ordered with my custom print has been held up due to import issues. They’re having trouble getting the fabric in. But they assured me they should have some in by the end of the week. Hopefully they’ll get it printed and on its way to me early next week. That should work out fine. But any later than that would have been “difficult.” I walked to Voice Trax West again to do some more work on the radio show segments. What fun it was, and I can’t wait for you to hear how the show comes out. Of course it’ll be a lot of “hometown memory” type stuff that you may not understand, but the tunes I’ve selected for the show are some of the best of the 70’s! I walked back home, put Roxy in the car and drove to Paty’s so we could have a nice dinner on the patio. I had the top down since it was getting a bit cooler outside. As soon as we pull up outside Paty’s, Roxy starts whining and getting very excited. She KNOWS she’s in for some good, grilled chicken! I picked up a few packages at my box next door, and went home to get a short nap in. I got up later to do my nightly auditions, made some hot dogs, and watched an amazing “Mod Squad” episode! I simply can’t understand how Clarence Williams III didn’t because a HUGE star! He is an amazing actor!!

Friday the 23rd – “IT’S ALL IN THE —— TIMING!” – The maids arrived mid-afternoon to clean up Planet Wallywood, and when they left I started delving in on the mixed and mastered radio show segments I had just received from Evan the Engineer at Voice Trax West. I played the intro to each song, went over my script and rehearsed the intros to the music. I had to tweak the script in a few places to get the intros to fit, but it was a lot of fun! I timed the segments and got them ready to upload to the station in Aberdeen the first of next week. After a short nap, I got up and fed and walked Roxy, did some more radio show work, and then got some food to go at Denny’s. I came home to eat and watch more “Mod Squad” before bed.

Saturday the 24th – “HAIR’S” A FUNNY STORY! – Boy did it feel good to sleep all day! Later in the afternoon I went to my stylist Andie to get a touch-up on my color, and then I headed to the grocery store to get some supplies for that evening’s movie night. We watched a couple of Muppet specials from the third season DVD set, and then we saw a movie from 1989 starring Cheryl Ladd (from South Dakota, by the way!) called “Millennium!” I remember liking this movie quite a bit when it came on late-night HBO all those years ago. When my guests left I grabbed a quick nap, got up to clean up a bit, fix a few action figures that had fallen off my cabinet due to “old-age-weak-knee” syndrome, made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched an episode of “SNL” from the season 4 DVD set. After this one, I only have one more episode on the set and then I’m done. The cast changed after that season (some of them going off to Hollywood to forge movie careers) so I’m not going any deeper into “SNL” after this season. But after that, I’m going to start watching the newly released Blu Ray set of “Space 1999.”

Sunday the 25th – DOLE “KINDA” WHIPPED?! – Later in the day I got up for evening church, and then took my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley to Jerry’s Famous Deli for dinner. I took her back to her residence, and then I headed over to FedEx Office to get the second draft of my radio script printed. But because I had added color coding to some of the segments (for my own organizational purposes) it would have cost close to $90 to print the entire thing! Black and white was much cheaper, but with the color coding I needed it in color. Oh well. I decided to take it home and print it on my own laser printer. I stopped at my local fro-yo place in the neighborhood because I knew they had Dole Whip available. But when I went to fill my dish it came out very slowly and…oddly. The consistency wasn’t right. It wasn’t very creamy, but was more “icy.” It smelled good though, so I paid for it and went on my way. But after a few bites I could tell that the blend was off and I ended up throwing most of it away. What a letdown. Since the evening wasn’t quite working out how I had planned, I decided to go grab a nap on “The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe.” When I got up later I did my auditions to e-mail into my agents, continued mastering the audio files for the radio show (in preparation of e-mailing them to the station), organized my script, and went to bed. I had a VERY busy Monday ahead!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

My great-nephew-in-law is stunned when a signed photo from Kane Hodder as Jason from “Friday the 13th” shows up to surprise him. Thanks Kane! You made a young kid in the Midwest insanely happy!

The Captain Kirk torso after a brilliant paint job by Jim Ojala. Which will be soon added to…

…the Captain’s legs! Can’t wait to finish the puzzle!