August 7 – August 13 (2017)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

When I was looking through some old photos I found this of my dog Ralph, hanging out in his little cardboard box bed in the basement. He had a collar and tags, and every time he would shake we’d hear the jingling upstairs. It’s strange (and you can ask my folks about this) but even after he died we would still hear his jingling tags downstairs from time to time. Good ol’ Ralphie!

As we continue with our study of “story songs,” this is a really nice one from Crowded House. It’s called “She Goes On,” and it’s about a woman who has passed away. The singer tells the story about how they met (blame it all on Frank Sinatra) and their relationship, and how he looks forward to the day when “we see her once again. In a world without end.” Great song!

Monday the 7th – MOONDAY, MOONDAY – I’m not sure if it was the full moon or what, but I was really tired all day. I slept late, did some work, and then napped on the Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe for a bit. My pal Brittney Powell came over to help me do some work, and then we went to have dinner at Paty’s. I could hardly keep my eyes open. I got back home and put a cold pack on my face and napped on the couch a bit longer. When I got up later I felt a little better. I did a bunch of auditions, did a little photo editing, typed out Wally’s Week, and then went outside to walk Roxy under a beautiful full moon. During our late night walk through the neighborhood I enjoyed a nice cigar. It was a gorgeous night! I came back inside to do some more photo editing, and then made some buffalo mac and watched an episode of “Barnaby Jones” before bed. Strange day.

Tuesday the 8th – TOODLIN’ TUESDAY! – My contractor Electric Bob came over at noon to change out the bulb in the lighting fixture in my bathroom. It’s one of those complex units where you have to know just how to remove the unit exactly to get to the bulb. He did some other work in the house and we talked about his plan to repaint the ceiling in the kitchen. A few months back the shower in The Puppet Room had a leak, and the water went through my kitchen ceiling down below. Now that the leak has been repaired and the damage in the kitchen ceiling has been patched, I think the entire ceiling in the kitchen will need repainted. That means I’ll have to take down some newly installed effects lighting, as well as a lot of displays I have up around the kitchen. I’m NOT looking forward to that project! I worked on my photo files for a bit, and then went to the hardware store to get some supplies. I drove my mailbox to get my packages, and then headed over to Toys ‘R’ Us to pick up a few more of those Jakks Pacific talking Batman figures. The voice you hear in the toy is me, so I wanted to buy a few extras to give out as promotional gifts. Luckily, the store I visited had four, so I got all of them. My assistant Sara met me at Lancers so we could get dinner, and then I headed back home to relax and nap. Even though the sinus surgery I had a few months ago was successful, I still have some “fullness” in my sinuses from time to time. I can breathe just fine, but my allergies still inflame my sinuses a bit, which requires me to put cold packs on them to reduce the inflammation. I’ve asked my doctor about this and even though I’m on every nose spray known to man, this inflammation still happens. To make matters worse, when my sinuses flare up like that, my ears ring and I get a slight pain in my cheekbone area. I’m going to bring this up with my doctor at my next follow-up visit. I got up later to record an audition and I did some more photo editing. I posted a picture on my Twitter taken of Adam West and Burt Ward at an appearance in Las Vegas in July of 1990. In the photo, Adam is looking at the engagement ring on the finger of Burt’s fiancé Tracy. Burt and Tracy have been married for decades now, and Tracy contacted me through Twitter to thank me for posting the photo. I e-mailed her the other 8 photos from that day, and I’m going to send her a copy of the video we took as well. I think she’ll really like it. I made some chili and settled in to watch another episode of “Barnaby Jones.”

Wednesday the 9th – CAN THE CHILI! – At 2 in the afternoon I awoke from a bad nightmare. That’s it! No more chili before bed! At 3 I met my pastor at the Studio Café for a quick meeting about our Sunday evening church service. I went over to the hardware store to buy some more supplies, and then I went back home and talked to an old friend in Sioux Falls for about an hour. Since Sara scanned all of my old photos, I’ve been having a blast going through them and sending out pertinent photos to certain people. I e-mailed a lot of these pictures to my buddy in Sioux Falls and we had laugh after laugh looking at them together. I got a Tweet letting me know that the trailer for the new ’66 Batman animated feature was up. It will be Adam West’s final appearance as Batman, and Burt Ward, Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether will star as well. The Special Bat Villain in this film will be William Shatner as Two-Face. The movie is called “Batman Vs. Two-Face” (or BV2F for short) and will be released for download on October 10th, and a week later it will be out on Blu Ray and DVD. I’m blessed to be voicing two villains in the film; the Riddler again, and King Tut! I haven’t been able to say anything about it for a while, but now that Warner has made the official announcement I am free to discuss it. The irony of being involved in Adam West’s final appearance as Batman is an honor, but also humbling and sad. The irony is not lost upon me. When I first met him back in 1980 I never in a million years dreamed that I would get to play not one but TWO villains in his final Batman project. Life truly is rich. The trailer looks amazing and I truly hope the fans will love it as much as I did working on it. I recorded a few auditions and then grabbed a short nap. My new friend Carrie met me for dinner at 11 at Casa Vega. I brought her one of my hardcover Andy Kaufman books that I published, featuring photos of Andy from a concert he did in L.A. back in 1978. When I purchased the photos and negatives, I also bought the publishing rights. I also gave her a “Man On The Moon” cap. As a fellow Andy fan, she loved both of them! But as a surprise I brought over an actual Elvis Presley scarf that Elvis had thrown out to a fan at a concert decades ago. She loved seeing one in person. As it turns out, Carrie’s a night owl too, so we took a walk after dinner and enjoyed the evening. Since neither of us was tired I offered to give her a tour of Planet Wallywood so she could see some of Andy’s costumes. We sat a chatted into the night, until it was time to feed and walk Roxy. But she was going on a weekend camping trip for a friend’s birthday over the weekend so she had to get going. When she left I was exhausted and I hit the hay myself.

Thursday the 10th – CLOSING OUT THE WEEK! – Since Carrie and I had stayed up all night chatting about all sorts of different things, I didn’t have the chance to get much sleep. I had to be up at noon for a lunch meeting with my friend Amanda Wyatt at Warner. She is a top notch Voice Director and I’ve worked with her on many videogames. While I was there I stopped in to see my pal James in Post-Production Services. We chatted for a bit and then I went to my mailbox to pick up some packages. Since I was running on just a few hours of sleep, I was starting to feel it. I went home and slept for several hours to catch up on some rest. I get 8 hours of sleep a day, but because of my crazy body clock the 8 hours I get is in shifts; 3 hours here, 5 hours here, etc. When I got up later I was fully charged. I did a bunch of auditions, worked around the house, cleaned out Spooky’s litter box, organized my tax receipts, paid some bills, got a couple of deposits ready for the bank, and sent out my invites for movie night on Saturday. I still have a fair amount of bookkeeping stuff to do, but I’ll save that for another night. I fed Roxy and then we went on our late night stroll through the neighborhood. I came back inside and did more work around the house. I made myself a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box (YUM!) and watched another episode of “Barnaby Jones” from the season seven DVD set. So far there hasn’t been a SINGLE bad episode in this series. Amazing!

Friday the 11th – CLEAN DOG AND HOT DOG! – Though I got up at noon for my maids, they didn’t end up arriving until close to 3. But during the wait I got some work done, sent some important e-mails, and did a few things around the house. While they cleaned I drove Roxy to the groomer’s to get her a much-needed bath. Then I went to the hardware store to get a few more supplies, I dropped by the bank to make a few deposits, hit the drug store to pick up some needed items, and went to the grocery store to buy some hot dogs, buns and sauerkraut to make hot dogs on the grill later. Lucky me, because all of the items were on sale! When the lady told me the final bill was only $5 I thought she had made a mistake. But nope! The buns, dogs and kraut were all on sale that day! BONUS! I got back home and the maids were just finishing up. I talked to my folks for a while, and then I talked to my pal Edi. I worked on the computer while I waited for the time to go get Roxy from the groomer’s. I came back home and grabbed a nap, but got up later to reconcile corporate bank stuff, go through my bank statements, file my receipts, and do more general business stuff. I made some hot dogs on the grill and watched “Barnaby Jones” just as the day was dawning. When I took Roxy outside for a walk before retiring, I saw a very sad sight. A gorgeous black and yellow butterfly was on the sidewalk limping around. One of its beautiful wings had been completely shredded. I’m not sure how it happened; maybe a bird. I picked him up and set him in some shrubbery so he could be protected. Not sure if he was going to die or not, but it was clear he wouldn’t be able to fly any longer. And he was so beautiful too. Sad.

Saturday the 12th – AUGUST? REALLY?! – The weather was unseasonably mild and it was a gorgeous day. It wasn’t the usual stifling heat we’re used to for August. I got a few grocery items and then came back to put them away and get ready for movie night. My assistant Sara was out of town on family business, so I did all the set up myself. We watched the old 70’s movie “The Thing With Two Heads,” and it was a lot funnier than I thought it would be! When everyone left I napped on the couch for a bit, and then got up to do a little work, feed and walk Roxy, and then make my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watch another episode of “Hee Haw” before bed. I only have one more episode left in the DVD set and I’ll be sad to see it go. I’m going to start in on season two of “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” when “Hee Haw” is over.

Sunday the 13th – STAN AND DELIVER! – About mid-day I woke up and sprang from bed. I did a little work around the house before evening church. Roxy and I enjoyed the evening and our walk over to the church. The service called Spiritsong is undergoing a few formatic changes, and one of them is placing the entire band on the stage. I thought this was a marked improvement since the band looked and sounded terrific. My “adopted grandma” Shirley and I walked Roxy back home, and then Shirley and I took off to my seamstress Karyn’s studio to pick up some items she had been working on. Then Shirley and I had dinner at Paty’s, and I took her back to her home. I got back home and rested a bit, and then got up later to do my nightly auditions. It was a gorgeous, cool and cloudy evening. I promised Burt Ward’s wife Tracy that I would dig out an old video I shot of Burt and Adam together in Las Vegas back in 1990. And seeing this video sure brought back some memories. My friends Dave, Don, and Deb were there with me (the 3 D’s!) and this was back in the day when you could just walk around a collector show and shoot video of anyone and anything. And thank God too. Because I got some real gold! Stan Lee was at his signing table and it was so relaxed. You could actually chat with him and hang out. Those days are gone, for sure! Though Adam and Burt had healthy lines at their tables, there wasn’t the usual push and rush that had become characteristic in more recent times. It was a nice, relaxed time. But I just couldn’t get over how Stan Lee was just walking around on the floor of the convention meeting and greeting fans. This was before he needed a phalanx of bodyguards. I’m sure Burt and Tracy will really appreciate seeing this video; great memories! I made a pot pie and got set to watch another episode of “Barnaby Jones” as a beautiful “blue” morning dawned over Los Angeles. The overcast sky was absolutely breathtaking!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK