RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
Roxy found her tennis ball and was very excited! I just thought this was a great picture of a VERY happy dog with her ball!
My buddy Elliot Lurie (former lead singer from the 70’s band Looking Glass) released the first video from his live session on New Year’s Eve at Planet Wallywood. It’s a new song he wrote called “You Shine,” and it’s very catchy. I was singing it all day Sunday as I was prepping my house for the “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys” shoot. There are 3 more videos to come, and when they’re released I’ll let you know! But for now enjoy, “You Shine” by Elliot Lurie!
Wednesday the 20th – IT’S BACK! – Tuesday night through Wednesday I worked through the night putting my movie and publicity stills in 3 ring binders. Prior to this organizational coup, I just had them all stuffed in various boxes. This was a much better way to store them. But when I finished my work I realized that I still needed 3 more 3-ring binders. At 10am my pal Bodie came to get my spare set of Gran Torino keys. If you read my previous week’s Wally’s Week you know that my 1974 Gran Torino was stolen on Friday night January 15th from my pal Bodie’s shop. We didn’t know where it was for 3 days or if we’d ever get it back. But it was found on Martin Luther King Jr. Day completely stripped of all of its audio gear and various other things. Bodie has vowed to restore it to its former glory with new stuff. When the police found the car, the keys were not in it. Luckily I always kept a spare pair hidden away. Bodie got to the police tow yard and the car fired right up! Despite being thoroughly stripped of its audio gear, the car seemed operationally sound. But it will need a new paint job because it got scraped up pretty badly when they crashed it through Bodie’s gates. Bodie opened the trunk and luckily there was NO body in it. But there wasn’t much else inside it either. Only the spare tire and the prop Starsky & Hutch license plates. My car cover was gone, as were various items…a box of photos and flyers, a case of water, my jack and tire iron, my red Starsky & Hutch logo jacket, two battery jump starters, my jumper cables, everything. Cleaned out. I’m not sure exactly what the thief is going to do with a red Starsky & Hutch logo jacket, but oh well. He must’ve wanted it for some reason. I’m assuming that they used the car cover as a huge bag to wrap all of the stolen goods in so they could carry it off. Luckily it’s all replaceable. They even took two speed loaders for a .357 pistol, and two magazines for a 9mm semi-automatic. They probably had no idea what the gun the magazines were for, but they took them anyway. THANK GOD I had the good sense to remove the guns from the trunk of the car before I dropped it off at Bodie’s. Otherwise those would have been gone too! I continued to work on my stills as working on a project like this was keeping my mind off of the theft. I ordered food from Domino’s Pizza at 1pm, and then I settled down to finally get a nap at 2pm. But before I went to sleep I watched an episode of “Thunderbirds.” My schedule was all screwed up again. After “Thunderbirds” I wasn’t really tired, so I got back up and did some more work. I just couldn’t stop! I did manage to get some sleep between 6 to 11pm. I got up to do auditions, work around the house, and basically feel very confused. I hate when my schedule gets screwed up like this, but I couldn’t help it. I had a burst of energy and had to just keep working! I did some more work around the house and then headed to Jack In The Box to get some food. Around 4am I watched “Thunderbirds” and hit the hay. Bodie had sent me photos of the damage and it was painful to see. I realized that what happened was most likely “the price of fame.” During the past 8 years that Bodie’s been in business he hasn’t had any thefts. But now that he’s got a TV show on the History Channel he gets hit. I think somebody was sitting at home watching the show and thinking, “Hey, I bet there’s some good stuff there to grab!” Yup, I’m convinced there’s a connection there. Too much of a coincidence!
Thursday the 21st – A NEW DISH! – I had to be up at noon to wait for the DirecTV guy. I had been having connection troubles on my DirecTV, and I was constantly getting a reception error. The DirecTV office said he’d be at my house between noon and four. So I waited around and did some work. I did a quick session in my home studio, paid some bills, and did some other miscellaneous work. The technician showed up around 3 and installed a brand new dish. He said my other one was old and corroded. I’ve had it since 2000 so I’m not surprised. It was all working great! I went to the hardware store to get some supplies, I headed over to my mailbox to pick up a brand new table I bought for my webseries, and I headed over to my adopted Grandma Shirley’s house to pick her up for dinner. We went to Paty’s for dinner and were joined by my assistant Sara. We love spending time with Shirley, she’s an absolute delight, and I’m sure Shirley loves the company too. She’s becoming quite fond of Sara and raves about what a great gal she is. On the way home I made a stop at the grocery store to get some items before I took Shirley home. Shirley needed a few items too. It was funny though, every time I would walk away from the cart to get something, Shirley would commandeer it and start pushing it. I told her she didn’t have to do that, but she wanted to. But I looked like a colossal jerk…a 6 foot 1 inch, 200 pound guy walking alongside a full grocery cart being pushed by a little 86 year old, white-haired lady. She wanted to push it though! But I told her it wasn’t necessary and I took control of it again. I dropped Shirley back at her house and then headed to Staples to get some more supplies for my organizational work at home. When I got back home I met with the producer of my webseries “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys” to show him the new table. He loved it. We had been talking about doing this show for quite a while, but since we’re all busy professionals it took us a considerable amount of time to actually get around to it. But this Sunday we’re actually filming the first two episodes. My pal Brittney Powell came over to visit for a bit, and then I grabbed a nap. I got up to do auditions. Then I made some pizza rolls and watched “Thunderbirds” before bed. It was good to have my schedule back to its “normal” insanity.
Friday the 22nd – A ‘REMOTE’ POSSIBILITY? – Around 11 I got up and got ready to take Roxy over to the Studio Café to have lunch with my fiend Hannah. I hadn’t seen her in years so it was good to catch up. After lunch Roxy and I walked back home, and then I hopped on my bike and rode over to Studio Copy to get some cardboard cut for the labeled dividers for my magazine collection. I also got my new 2016 Sons of the Desert membership card laminated. And it’s always fun to catch up with Joe the owner, and his amazing Rottweiler named Rocco. When I biked back home I took out my garage door remote and opened my door. Then it hit me. If the jerk who stole my Gran Torino happened to grab the garage door remote off my sun visor, and happened to copy down my home address from the car registration in my glove compartment, he could come to my house, open my garage door, and start taking stuff. But finding the loaded handgun magazines and speed loaders in my glove compartment may have forced him to rethink any thoughts about an “in-person” confrontation. But you never know! Better safe than sorry. So I called a garage door company and had them come out and reprogram my remote. Luckily, Bodie said the garage door opener was still in the car on the sun visor. But I think the remote for the auxiliary garage was taken. But since that’s not at the address which is on my registration, they’ll never figure out where it is. I got energized and cleaned off my messy patio. I tossed out a ton of old plastic bags that had begun to crumble from exposure to the sun. I also cleaned off a bunch of leaves and hosed down everything. It looked pretty great when I finished. I got cleaned up and then headed to Jerry’s Deli to meet up with some friends from Argentina; Walter and Luis. Sara joined us as well. Walter has a new book that he published in Spanish, and while I can’t read it, I can enjoy the wealth of groovy photos! I got home and walked my neighbor’s dog Abby; a really sweet greyhound that LOVES to be scratched and petted. I got home and grabbed a nap. When I got up I did some work, I finished putting all my stills in the 3 ring binders, and installed all my magazine dividers. Now my magazine collection was all organized and categorized. I did some more work organizing my bedroom, and then I worked on “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys;” tweaking the scripts, organizing props, etc. Then I went to bed and watched “Thunderbirds.”
Saturday the 23rd – BUSY! BUSY! BUSY! – Mid-afternoon I got up and hit the ground running. I stopped by the cleaners to pick up my travel bag. They put in a new zipper, but the zipper they installed wasn’t very beefy. I told them that it would no doubt break if I stuffed in one too many t-shirts. So they showed me a heavy, metal zipper that was perfect. They said they’d re-do it and it would be ready by Monday. Then I stopped by my mailbox to pick up some packages, got a bite at McDonald’s and headed home to clean up for movie night. My pal Bob came by with some scripts for his live “Dr. Who” comedy show that needed some Voice-Over. I did the recording and gave him the files on his flash drive. We all had a fun movie night, and after everyone left I grabbed a short nap. But when I woke up I didn’t feel very good. My stomach was upset and I was dizzy. I thought that maybe I was suffering from food poisoning from the dinner we ordered in earlier in the evening. Since I was looking at a long Sunday filming my episodes for “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys” I figured I’d go right back to bed to rest up. So my usual Saturday night salad and “Avengers” night would have to wait. I had to be sharp for tomorrow. I just had a bowl of cereal and went to bed.
Sunday the24th – “WACKY WALLY’S VINTAGE TOYS!” – What a day! I woke up feeling much better, and I was very excited about the taping. We would FINALLY be taping our first two episodes! I got up at 1 and went to the store to buy some snacks for the crew. I called my adopted Grandma Shirley to tell her I wouldn’t be at church, so she’d have to make sure to find somebody else to walk her home after church. I got home and got set up. The make-up girl Rebecca arrived and got set up. Then my pal Chris Malmin arrived to help out. Sara came and I put her right into the make-up chair. Kevin, Boz and the crew arrived and started setting up lights. My special guest Ruben Procopio arrived and we put him in make-up too. I got cleaned up, did my hair, and then got in the make-up chair. We started by shooting the openings for the first two episodes, then we reset and started shooting all of the segments with Ruben. I have a shelf in one of my display cases that is exclusively Ruben sculptures. I had him sign the inside of the case while he was here! We finished up with his segments and released him, and then we did my solo segments. By the time we finished it was 11:30pm. We had been working for 8.5 hours, but I think we got a lot of great stuff! But I was exhausted! I had to rehang my huge Pinocchio marionette which wasn’t easy. The strings had gotten tangled during the evening, so I had to remove a few of the strings and restring the controller. But eventually I got him hung, took the ladder back to the garage, and started cleaning up the rest of the house. It was all back to normal. I made my huge salad, got ready for bed and watched an episode of the old British “Avengers” series. I showered up and got rid of the hairspray and make-up, and it felt good! Though the “Avengers” episode wasn’t very good, it did feel good to sit in bed and relax after the busy day we just had. I can’t wait to see how the episodes turn out when they’re all cut together. By the time I turned in it was 6am Monday morning, and I slept like a baby!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
These are the pix that Bodie sent me of the damage caused by the thief who stole my Gran Torino on Friday January 15, 2016.
