RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I ran across the picture of Roxy that I had taken a long time ago at the Palm Springs dog park. We had gotten there too early and there weren’t any dogs for her to play with yet. She looked so lonesome.

As I was strolling along on a warm afternoon, listening to my iPod and enjoying a nice cigar, this song from ELO came up. I have a lot of ELO songs on my iTunes, but I had forgotten how brilliant this song really is. It’s called “Shangri-La” and it’s a masterpiece!

Tuesday the 22nd – LOOPIN’ LUPIN! – Just before noon I got up, did a little work around the house, and then drove into Glendale for another session for the anime “Lupin III.” We worked from 1 until 4, and then I headed to my mailbox to pick up some packages. I got home to do some more work around the house, I typed out Wally’s Week, and then grabbed a short nap. I got up later to do some more work around the house (it never ends!), and then made a Tombstone pizza and watched the final 2 episodes from the “Taxi” season four DVD set.

Wednesday the 23rd – A ‘SKETCHY’ DAY! – The water cooler guy was expected at my house anywhere between 1:50 and 3:50, so I got up at 1 and prepped for the day. My pal Patrick Owsley stopped by for a meeting, where we spent a delightful afternoon sitting around in my living room sketching out ideas for some characters we’re developing for a new project. I’ve always loved Patrick’s art style and I have several of his pieces in my collection. So when the time came to hire an artist to actualize my concepts for characters, there was no debate as to who I’d hire. The water guy eventually showed up and took my empty jugs and my water cooler (I simply do not need it any longer) so that closes that chapter. Many people prefer room temperature water, which I keep on hand in small bottles, and the water cooler was taking up unnecessary space anyway. Plus, Arrowhead was raising their prices on water, AND they were starting to charge and extra $3 for a paper invoice (they want everyone to pay on-line). That’s not how I keep track of my purchases for taxes, so I decided to cut the cord all together. I’ll get my water supplies at the local grocery store as I need them. In fact, the past 6 months I haven’t really bought any jugs of water from them anyway, because I had so many jugs in storage already. So, the writing was on the wall. When Patrick left I grabbed a short nap, and then got up later to do my nightly auditions. I worked on my conceptual sketches in the computer, adding color palettes, and then sent them to Patrick to give him a better idea of the scope and types of colors I was looking for in this project. Then I had to go into my eBay listings to change the postage charges on all my listed items. The postal service is upping their rates this coming weekend. Then I hit the hay.

Thursday the 24th – DEMO DAY 1! – My buddy Clay dropped by at 12:30 to give me a ride over to the Auto Dr. to pick up my Gran Torino. I was having some bulbs replaced in the dash so my instrument cluster would be much brighter. Gotta love those LED bulbs! Then I drove home and swapped out cars so I could take the Mustang out for my afternoon errands. I took Roxy to the groomer and dropped her off, as she was in desperate need of a bath! I hit Taco Bell for some lunch at the drive-thru, and then I went to a Voice Over agency to drop off some artwork that belongs to a friend of mine. He wanted to have a fellow Voice Actor sign it for him, so I told him I’d drop it off and get it signed. Then I headed over to L.A. Studios to begin working with Jeff Howell on a brand new Voice demo that I’m very excited about. One of my agents suggested “freshening up” one of my demos, and Jeff is just the one to do it! We worked for a little over an hour and we made some really great progress! He ran me through several pieces of copy, and in the coming weeks we’ll take the pieces we like and commit them to the recorded form. I picked up Roxy and then headed back home. I got cleaned up and went to dinner with my friends Elliot and Edi Lurie, and her daughter Emily. We met up with my old pal Ruben Procopio and his wife Jeanne for a fun dinner. Emily just turned 18 and is headed to art school, so she wanted to pick Ruben’s brain about options and ideas of avenues to pursue. Before we knew it, 3 hours had passed and it was time to go! Time sure flies when you’re having fun with good friends and good food! I came home and grabbed a short nap, and then got up later to do my auditions. I fed the pets, but then laid back down on “The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe” again and slept until 8am!

Friday the 25th – HIGH DAY FRIDAY! – When I woke up on the couch at 8am, I figured it would be pointless to go to bed only to sleep for a few hours and have to wake up at noon again to let the maids in to clean. So I decided to get energetic and get some errands taken care of. At 10 I went to my box to pick up some packages, mailed off a bunch of costumes I no longer use to my old high school’s drama department, and then went to the post office to send off some autographed photos to people who had e-mailed me autograph requests. Then I drove the Torino over to the car wash to have it washed and waxed. The recent rains had made it quite dirty, but once it got all polished up, it looked amazing! I couldn’t have asked for a better day! It was about 75-80 degrees out (which was great considering everywhere else was sub-zero!) and the weather was intoxicating! In fact, it was too warm to wear long pants! I was wearing shorts…in JANUARY! I went to the grocery store and got some groceries and headed home to put them away. The maids arrived while I was out in the courtyard with Roxy, who was lying on the green grass sunning herself. I put on my walking shoes and headed over to Chin Chin to get some fried rice before my 4pm session at Voice Trax West for American Airlines. I finished up the session and then headed over to Kit Kraft to get some craft supplies for my Oscar the Grouch project. I walked over to GNC to get some vitamins, and since it was such a gorgeous day I stopped into the cigar store and grabbed a nice cigar. The day was so intoxicatingly warm and gorgeous, it really felt like one of those days in Palm Springs I love so much. I cranked up my iPod, and enjoyed my cigar on a nice, leisurely walk. I went over to the local CBD store, to pick up some CBD oil for Roxy, but I hadn’t quite finished my cigar yet. So I just hung around outside watching dusk settle in over the city while I finished up my Monte Cristo. The tunes, the weather, the cigar, the endorphins – it all made me feel literally high! As the Eagles once said; that “peaceful, easy feeling!” I got home and fed the pets, did some work, and then got ready to head to the Smoke House to celebrate my friend Sara’s birthday with some delicious steaks! A perfect end to a perfect day! I got home, did some work, and then “food coma-ed” out for the night.

Saturday the 26th – ANOTHER WARM ONE! – It was another gorgeous day! Sometimes life in L.A. can be rough and tough, but days like today make it all worth it! I got up around noon and walked Roxy over to Panera to have lunch. But on the way over there I developed bad acid reflux, so I ran into a store and grabbed a bottle of water, chugged it down, and once the acid was diluted I was feeling much better. I hadn’t eaten anything since the previous night’s steak dinner, (over 15 hours ago!) so that probably didn’t help. From now on when I got on a walk, I’m NEVER walking without a bottle of some sort of liquid with me. We enjoyed a beautiful day and some good food on the patio. As we walked back we strolled past several cafes with outdoor patio seating. It amazed me that, while the rest of the country was in deep freeze, many of the people on the patio had their faces buried in their phones, instead of enjoying the blessing of a wonderful, warm day. That’s something I really don’t get, and it’s why to this day I still have a flip phone. I refuse to let a technological gadget distract me from life and all of the wonderful things it has to offer. I don’t know…all I can think is that they must have very small brains and souls to be so willing to be so detached from life. Roxy and I walked back home and I did a few things around the house. I grabbed a short nap and got up for movie night. We watched the classic “Fiddler on the Roof” in Blu Ray. I had forgotten how wonderful that movie was, and it brought back a lot of good memories of the time we performed it at the Sioux Falls Community Playhouse back in 1983. I played Motel the Tailor. Good times! When my guests left I grabbed a nap, and then got up to watch another episode of “SNL” from the third season DVD set and make my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad!

Sunday the 27th – BECAUSE OF THE WONDERFUL THINGS HE DOES! – As is usual on a Sunday, I got up late in the afternoon. My pal Officer Mark dropped by to pick up a gift I had for him. It was a “Hollywood Weapons” t-shirt and a signed photo from the hosts of the show. Since my Gran Torino was featured on a recent episode, I asked Dan the producer if he could get a signed photo for Mark from the guys. Speaking of the Gran Torinio, I hopped in it and toddled off to Shirley’s to pick her up for our viewing of “The Wizard of Oz” at the Universal Citywalk. Since it’s the film’s 80th anniversary, it’s playing on the big screen in selected venues. It’s my favorite film of all-time, so whenever it plays on the big screen I try to catch it. But nothing will ever match the magic of seeing it in 3-D, like I did a few years back at the Chines Theater in Hollywood. THAT was amazing! As we were stopped at a stoplight, I noticed a lady walking a small dog. It looked like a Cairn terrier. I asked her and she said it definitely was a Cairn. What are the chances?! We’re on our way to see a movie starring a Cairn terrier, and we see one on the way there! I hardly ever see that breed of dog. As we turned on to Riverside to head to Universal, there was a huge billboard advertising the play “Wicked,” which is a different telling of the story of the witches of “Oz.” It was wild how many strange occurrences we encountered that were very Oz-like! We got parked at the Citywalk, got our popcorn and drinks and found our seats. It was great seeing the movie, but sure enough there were a few people who were checking their phones during the movie. Really people?! Good grief! Also, the theater showed a standard definition print of the film, and not the high definition version. So it looked a little muddy to me. Plus, the theater next door to ours must’ve been playing some battle movie or something, because we kept hearing large booming sounds that bled into our theater. It was very annoying. We took a stroll around Citywalk and looked at some of the stores, and then we went into Buca DiBeppo to get some dinner. I took Shirley home (with a TON of leftovers for her) and then went home to swap cars. I left the newly polished Torino in the auxiliary garage, and got my Mustang out again. I think I need to get that washed too this week, but we’re expecting more rain toward next Thursday…so maybe not. I got back home, did a little work and took a nap on the couch. I got up to feed the pets at 2, and then laid back down on the couch. Around 5am I got up and walked Roxy for a bit, and when I came back inside I went up to the Puppet Room and laid down on the bed in there. My cat Spook must’ve been cold, because he came up and climbed under the covers with me. I woke up at 10am and decided to start the day. What’s up with me sleeping through the night? This is VERY unlike me! Am I turning into a DAY person??!!

And how was YOUR week?!?!