RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
The neighborhood cat who runs free and likes to taunt my dog Roxy. You can tell by the look on his face that he’s a bad kitty
Though it’s 111+ degrees in my beloved Palm Springs, and I won’t be visiting any time soon, this song came on my iPad the other night as I was working around the house. It made me think fondly of my past visits there. “Interstellar Man” by William Orbit is the song I always play to begin my Palm Springs stargazing nights when I’m visiting. Trust me, just as soon as the temp gets down to the upper 60’s at night, I’m going back!
Monday the 29th – GOODBYE GIL! – When I got up at 1 and checked my e-mails I got news that my ol’ pal Gil Christner passed away just after 12 noon. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it didn’t make it any less sad. I’m SO glad my pal James and I went to see him in the hospital a few weekends ago. He was in such great spirits and was facing the whole thing with humor and dignity. On the other side of the scenario, I also heard that the news I received a few weeks ago about the passing of a former boss in my radio career may not have been accurate. In fact, he may still be alive, which I hope is the case. Unfortunately, all efforts to reach out to him to confirm that the rumors of his passing were erroneous have been in vain. I hope he’s still out there, alive and well. My landline was still out of service, and the technician’s visit that was scheduled for the previous week never happened. I’m not sure if it’s because my house sitter wasn’t here when he arrived or what. So I called the phone company again to reschedule. THIS time it’s going to get fixed! Many people don’t even have landlines any more, and I considered taking this as a sign and just disconnecting it entirely, but since cell reception in my house is so unreliable, I need to keep a landline for work purposes. Occasionally I’ll do Voice Over jobs in my home studio, and I like to have the client on the line to direct me. It’s rather embarrassing to have a call with them terminate in the middle of the session due to bad cell reception. I walked over to Voice Trax West for an American Airlines session, and then walked back home. It was hot outside, so I got some good, sweaty exercise in! When I got home I did my auditions, and then drove to Jerry’s Famous Deli to meet up with my friend Briana. I got back home and napped for a bit, and got up to attack the arduous task of writing out two weeks’ worth of Wally’s Week! With all the fantastic happenings from the South Dakota/Minnesota trip, it was quite involved! After having worked all night, I had some cereal and hit the hay.
Tuesday the 30th – MUPPET MOVIE 40! – Most of my afternoon was spent on the phone getting work done. First, my attorney Stephanie called so we could talk about our kids’ book project, and then I spoke with the head of the Monsterpalooza franchise about great things happening at the forthcoming Son of Monsterpalooza convention in September. I’ve been engaged to host panels and emcee presentations all weekend at the upcoming show! And I couldn’t be more excited! I got cleaned up and sped off to Universal Studios to meet up with my pal Mark Evanier. He got four tickets to the 40th anniversary showing of “The Muppet Movie!” My friend, and fellow Voice Over Artist Secunda Wood met up with us, as did my pal Valerie Perez. It was a great time but unfortunately, as has happened with other Fathom events I’ve attended in the past, the print wasn’t very good. It was very grainy. In fact, one of Mark’s pals that we talked to after the movie said it was shown in “35mm grainy.” I was shocked they couldn’t find a better print in this day and age. On the way home I stopped by the cleaners and ran into my pal, the lovely land talented Olivia D’Abo! We chatted about the upcoming Invader Zim movie “Enter the Florpus” (hitting Netflix on August 16th!) and her upcoming trip to the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas that weekend. I picked up my mail at my box and headed home to get a short nap. When I got up later I did my nightly auditions, scanned some checks for a bank deposit, and hit the hay.
Wednesday the 31st – MARVELOUS MARVEL! – The sounds of Roxy barfing on my bedroom floor woke me up just after 1. Apparently her tummy was empty and was making her nauseous. Which is strange because I always give her some kibble before we go to sleep. After I got that cleaned up, I checked my e-mails and got set for my walk to Voice Trax West. I did a session for a Marvel project where I got to provide the voice for a character I’ve voiced before in the past. But as a bonus, I even got to voice a villain I had never voiced before! Fantastic! It was great fun, and I’ll tell you more about it when I can. On the way home I stopped at my local pet supply store to get Roxy some pro-biotic and enzyme supplements for her digestion, I hit up Subway for a tuna sandwich to go, and then walked back home and did some work. I walked pretty hard and fast during my afternoon exercise to and from Voice Trax West, so my legs were a bit sore. I took a nice, leisurely shower and laid down for a short nap. Later I got up to do my nightly auditions, did some accounting and bookkeeping work, and drove to Denny’s to get some food to go, and came home to eat and watch another “Mod Squad” episode before bed.
Thursday the 1st – PIZZA AND SPAGHETTI! – It’s odd that, as cellular phone technology progresses, it’s pretty much the same old antiquated ‘business as usual’ for the landline companies. Back in the old days, when you got a phone hooked up at your home, you had to be there all day waiting for the phone guy to eventually show up. After all these years, it hasn’t changed. I kept my cell phone on while I slept in case the repairman called to let me know he was on his way. I got up, worked around the house, checked e-mails and continued to waste my day waiting. Around 4pm, he finally showed up. Glad I wasted the entire morning and early afternoon waiting for him. Can’t the phone company narrow down the arrival time of their technician better than that? If the cell service in my house wasn’t so spotty, I’d ditch my landline all together and forget about this dinosaur of an industry. Anthony the phone guy finally arrived and after moving all sort of stuff around in my living room and garage to give him access to the required phone jacks and electrical panels, he got it fixed again. He had to reroute some wiring, but now my living room and garage was all torn apart. We found the source of the trouble and I’m thinking it may have happened while the carpet guys were installing my carpet a few weeks ago. But I can’t confirm it. After he left I put the house back in order and was starving. I called my pal Brittney Powell and had her meet me at Little Toni’s for some pizza. Then I came home to do some work, napped on the couch, and then got up to continue reorganizing my house. When the couch and riser were pulled away from my wall in my theater (so the phone guy could access a main phone jack) I discovered that there was a hefty electrical strip down behind my couch powering several utilities. I made the decision to bring that strip out from behind the couch so I could use it for other utilities. Once I started assessing the layout, I realized that I had one extension cord too many. I pulled it out of the mix, meticulously labeled every cord for every utility, plugged it into the hefty power strip, attached it in place and continued to sort through the “spaghetti” of wires to reassign each of them a new electrical receptacle. When it was all said and done, I was really happy with the result. It was a much more streamlined, cleaner look. No longer did I have to guess which cord went to which appliance. To celebrate my organizational achievement, I took Roxy out for our late night stroll through the neighborhood and enjoyed a nice cigar. I came back inside and then enjoyed some leftover pizza before bed.
Friday the 2nd – FRIED-DAY! – It was a hot summer day in L.A.! I started the day by doing a quick Voice Over bit for my pal Elliot Lurie’s upcoming concert appearance. Then I did a few auditions, and started to make my way to Lancer’s to meet my pal Edi for lunch. Then I went to Foam Mart to get some supplies, and then on to Plastic Depot to consult with my pal Kyle about the eye-blink mechanism for my new Oscar the Grouch puppet I’m making. I hit my mailbox on the way home and got my mail, and then went home to feed the pets and work around the house. I got a short nap, and then headed over to not one, but TWO grocery stores to pick up supplies. The first grocery store is where I get the shredded roasted chicken that I feed the kids, and the other store is where I get those yummy banana popsicles that I’ve become obsessed with. I came home around 2am to put the groceries away, and replace all of the displaced boxes and bins that were moved for the phone guy. I came inside and wrote the remainder of the Labor Day radio show I’ll be doing in my hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota on August 31st. We’ll be recording some of the elements I’ll be using in the show next week at Voice Trax West. I made some hot dogs on the grill and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad” on DVD. I’m really digging this show!
Saturday the 3rd – TOAST TO GIL! – Later in the afternoon I woke up and just decided to hang out all day. I vacuumed the floors, cleaned the kitchen floor, tidied up the kitchen and prepped for movie night. We’d be raising a toast to our late friend Gil Christner who passed away earlier in the week. While he wasn’t a movie night regular, he would show up from time to time during his healthier days. Officer Mark brought over some Dunkin Donuts, and we watched “Singin’ in the Rain” on Blu Ray. Then we grabbed donuts, drinks or whatever we had and toasted the memory of our pal Gil. When everyone left I grabbed a short nap. I got up later to clean up the house, do some other work, and I bought my airline tickets to my class reunion weekend over Labor Day. I got my rental car reserved, my hotel room reservation, and I bought the tickets to the class reunion dinner and meet ‘n’ greet. I had to be up early on Sunday to meet with my pal Bat Pat, so I didn’t make my traditional Saturday night Super Salad and watch an episode of “SNL” from the fourth season DVD set.
Sunday the 4th – SATURDAY ON SUNDAY! – Shortly after I woke up at 1 to be at my 2:00 meeting, I saw a text on my phone from Bat Pat that he wasn’t feeling well and had to cancel our meeting. So I wasted my Saturday night and Sunday for nothing I guess. But, it happens. I walked Roxy and then came inside and laid down on the couch for a few hours before evening church. After the service my took my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley out for dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli, and then took her back to her residence. I came back home and napped a bit, got up for a ton of auditions, and then decided to do my usual Saturday night routine on Sunday night. I made my Saturday Night Super Salad and watched a hilarious episode of “SNL” before bed.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
My new summer obsession. I’ve always loved banana popsicles, but these things are amazing!
My pals Mark Evanier, Secunda Wood, Valerie Perez and I at dinner after a screening of the 40th anniversary of “The Muppet Movie!”
My Captain Kirk figure is getting closer to completion. Here’s the latest progress.
Here’s a compilation of our late pal Gil’s headshots that we had displayed during movie night. RIP Gil!
With all of the craziness in last week’s Wally’s Week (the ELO concert, the St. Paul trip, carpet, etc.) I didn’t want this video clip to get buried. So even though this event happened over a week ago, I wanted you to be able to witness the majesty of The Life Choir. I LOVE these guys!!
