RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I love dogs. I love Elvis. So why not? THANKYAVERYMUCH!
This song was an accidental discovery. I was searching for another Dido song and this one came up. I love it! “White Flag!”
Monday the 7th – MAGICAL MONDAY! – When I got up at noon I called my pal Mike at the Auto Doctor to see if today would be a good day to bring in my Gran Torino to see if they could diagnose the electrical problem with the dashboard lights. When he said to bring it over, I called my pal Clay to follow me over there to drop it off, and give me a ride home. Just before Clay arrived, the manager of our Association came by to look at my roof leak. He said the roofers would be over this week to fix it; in plenty of time before the next storm to arrives. Clay showed up at 1:30 and followed me to the mechanics. Then we drove to Chin Chin to have a quick lunch, and walked next door to Voice Trax West to do a quick session for one of my regular clients. Clay is an aspiring Voice Actor, so he jumped at the opportunity to see a commercial session happen. When it was done Clay drove me to my auxiliary garage to pick up my Mustang, and then I went to the post office to mail some stuff. I got back home to feed the pets, napped a bit, and then got up later to get ambitious about getting all my 2018 tax stuff stored in the garage. I’m talking receipts, pay stubs, payroll statements, EVERYTHING! Luckily I was able to squeeze it all into one of the plastic bins that are already in the storage area. It’s a hassle, but it’s all part of doing business, I guess. Then I spent a little time in the garage sorting through eBay stuff and getting it ready for sale. I went back inside and did a bunch of auditions, typed out Wally’s Week, made some Buffalo Mac and watched a few more “Taxi” episodes. 2019 is getting off to a GREAT start!
Tuesday the 8th – ELVIS @ 84 – Today would have been Elvis’ 84th birthday. My dad, who was born just weeks after Elvis, will be 84 later this month. But today was the day I had to go get the implant in my #14 position. It has been a long time coming since I had the extraction done last April, and other augmentation procedures. But today I’ll get the actual implant embedded into my jawbone. Then it will heal for 3 months, and I’ll get a post installed in the implant, and then a crown fitted on top of that. By April, I’ll have a big, beautiful new tooth back there again! Once I was numbed up, I heard (not felt, thankfully) the incision being made in my gum. It’s a sound I can’t really describe, but you know it when you hear it. Then I felt like a piece of marble under the chisel of Michelangelo. The Dr. started chiseling away bone to make room for the new implant. It’s a fascinating procedure and I wanted to stay aware of everything that was happening. Once the way was cleared, then the drilling starts. The implant is very tiny, but must be drilled in gently. WHIRR WHIRR WHIRRR…then a little futzing, then…WHIRRR WHIRRR WHIRRR. Once it was in, he added a little more “bone” to the area, stitched my gum over the implant to help it merge with the bone and tissue, and I was good to go. Fascinating. Even though it’s only local anesthesia, when I finish with one of those procedures I’m a little “fuzzy in the brain.” I headed to my pharmacy to get my prescriptions filled, and while I waited I headed next door to Panera to get some lunch of soup and mac and cheese. While I was there I saw the legendary Walter Koenig reading a book in a booth. I didn’t pester him, but I kept thinking how cool it is to be in L.A. and see legends like that just kicking around town doing “normal” stuff. Oddly enough, at a table close to me, was a paparazzi guy. The reason I knew he was a paparazzi guy was because he was talking loudly on his phone about making a deal with an actress at a restaurant to pose a certain way when she left the establishment. Good grief. I thought it was ironic that he was sitting less than a few tables away from an authentic legend and Sci-Fi icon, and didn’t even know it. Ha. Some paparazzi! I headed home to ice my cheek, even though the swelling wasn’t very bad at all. A week before the surgery I took a healthy dose of Arnica Montana and Bromelyne, two supplements which mitigate swelling and bruising. I took my drugs and napped. I got up around 10 to list some eBay stuff and take it easy. I did a few auditions and walked Roxy. It’s really cold out again! I came inside, made a tasty pot pie, watched a few “Taxi” episodes and turned in.
Wednesday the 9th – THE HEALING BEGINS! – I heard a commotion outside my bedroom window and I got up. It was time to take another anti-biotic anyway, but I realized quickly it was the roofing guys fixing my leak. Excellent! But when I went to the sink to wash my hands there was NO WATER! I called the manager of our Association to ask why, and he said a trash truck had hit a water main in the complex and knocked out water service to about 12 buildings; mine included. Thank God I didn’t have to be anywhere, because I would have had to show up unshowered! So I sat around and didn’t do much of anything, just let the healing begin. The stitches this time around didn’t seem to be as annoying as the ones in the past. I napped on the couch for a bit, got up later to feed the pets, did a few auditions, and then went to bed. I was still bleeding a bit, so I wanted to stay ahead of that with some of the gauze patches they gave me. When I got up later I paid bills, reconciled my receipts, and did a little work on the mouth for my next puppet project; Oscar the Grouch! I made some lasagna and watched a few more “Taxi” episodes. But just before I headed to bed on early Thursday morning, my oral surgeon’s office called me back to address the continual bleeding I was having. They said not to worry, as it was normal. She also said there was a bit of infection when they opened me up. Strange. She said it could have come from anywhere. Around 10am, I went to bed.
Thursday the 10th – PUPPET STUFF! – Right around 3 I sprang awake and felt like attacking the day. I got some gas in the Mustang, got some lunch at the Burger King drive-thru, and went to my buddy Jim Ojala’s studio to work on a few new projects. First, I wanted him to make molds of the eye pieces I did for my Rowlf the Dog puppet. That way I won’t have to make them from scratch if I decide to make another one down the road. Secondly, I wanted to inspect the William Shatner Captain Kirk head we’re making. It’ll be constructed from a plastic Captain Kirk mask that bears a strong resemblance to Shatner. I need a Kirk figure as a companion to the Spock figure I did a while back. He cast the Kirk mask in clay so the imperfections could be worked out before it’s cast into the permanent mold for the final head piece. We also discussed a few questions I had about how to make my Oscar the Grouch puppet work. The moving eyebrow mechanism was particularly troublesome. But Jim had some great ideas that I’m going to start working on soon. I picked up the mail at my box, then headed home and napped. I got up later and did about 20 auditions, worked a little bit on my Oscar mouth, made some chili and watched a few “Taxi” episodes. It was a gorgeous, “blue” overcast morning!
Friday the 11th – WONDERFUL WATER FROM THE SKY! – The maids arrived around 2 to clean Planet Wallywood. Once they left I did a little work, recorded a few auditions, then napped some more. When I got up later I got some groceries, stopped by Denny’s to get some food to go, and headed home to beat the next rainstorm. I spent several hours in the garage taking photos of eBay stuff as it began to rain outside. It was a blast working in the garage while it poured outside. I came back inside, fed the pets, took Roxy for a very quick walk, and then ate my Denny’s while watching a few “Taxi” episodes from the fourth season DVD set. Just before I turned in early Saturday morning, I felt my stitches come out.
Saturday the 12th – DAMMIT, JIM…! – Shortly after 3 I got up and headed to my neighborhood craft store called Kit Kraft to get some more acrylic domes for Oscar’s eyes. The ones I gave to Jim Ojala didn’t stand up under the intense heat of the vaccuform machine, so I had to get some more. The idea this time is, to pour a plaster-like substance called Ultra-Cal into the domes to make hard shapes that will withstand the vaccuforming process. I picked up what I thought were the right domes and headed to my mailbox to get my mail. In my shipments was my new Dr. McCoy 12” action figure from QMX. This will go with the Kirk and Spock that I already have on display. The McCoy likeness is so far the closest to the actual actor. Kirk is pretty close, and Spock is actually pretty far off. His face is too long and he looks more like Herman Munster than Mr. Spock. But this McCoy is amazing! It even comes with his complete medical kit, and even a tiny pinky ring that DeForrest Kelly used to wear on the show. Now THAT’S detail! I dropped off a comforter at the cleaners, then went to get some groceries to pick up a few items that the store in my neighborhood didn’t have in stock when I went shopping the night before. At the store I saw my old pal Mike, who was the Floor Director on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” It was great seeing him again. We talked for a few minutes, promised to get a “Tonight Show” reunion going someday, and we went about our shopping. I got home and unloaded the groceries, and even got a short nap before movie night. When I put the acrylic domes up to my puppet head, I realized that, not only did I get the wrong type of domes, they were the wrong size! So I need to go back to Kit Kraft on Monday and get the right ones. We watched the movie “Bean” from 1997, and I was surprised that I was the only one who had seen it. But everyone laughed hysterically at the Chaplin-esque character created by the U.K.’s Rowan Atkinson. When everyone left I grabbed a short nap, then got up later to work on displaying my McCoy figure. I fed and walked Roxy, made my traditional Saturday Night Super salad, and watched another episode of “SNL” from the third season. This one was hosted by Chevy Chase. It was fun to see his return. And at this point in 1978, he hadn’t done any of his famous movies yet.
Sunday the 13th – OUTDOOR IS OUT?! – My neighbor Caroline and her niece Emma and her mom Isabel met me for lunch at Paty’s at 2. It was fun catching up with them. I came home to meet up with my pal Brittney do get a little work done, and then I napped from 6:30 to midnight. I think the painkillers my oral surgeon prescribed knocks me out quite a bit, because I feel the need to sleep more than my usual “spotty” 8 hour sleep schedule. I was pretty tired. My “adopted grandma” Shirley said she would be having dinner with family and wouldn’t be at evening church. That was totally cool because I was too tired anyway. Later I got up to do a bunch of auditions, worked on-line researching some images for an art project I’m doing, I sketched a little bit, and realized that I really wasn’t feeling very “with it.” I wasn’t sick, exactly. I just wasn’t feeling it. So I e-mailed the producer of an anime cartoon I was scheduled to record for on Monday afternoon and asked if we could reschedule to next week when I had the oral surgery further behind me. I was excited to hear that the episode of “Hollywood Weapons” I and my Gran Torino were involved in last summer had aired recently. I checked the Outdoor channel’s schedule and made a note of the times the episode was going to repeat. But when I went to my DirecTV, I discovered that I didn’t have the channel! RATS! I made a Tombstone pizza, watched a few more “Taxi” episodes, and hit the hay.
And how was YOUR week?!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
The eagle has landed. Implant embedded in the #14 position. All is good. Over.
My amazing new Dr. McCoy figure joins the other two figures in my display case. Kirk is waiting for the arrival of the Scotty figure in a few months!
Here is the rough Kirk face I’m working on with Jim Ojala, in its very early stages. A lot of finessing and sculpting needs to be done to add skin texture, smooth out imperfections, scale back the ears, add eyelids, etc. It should be amazing!
