RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

During a lonely day at the Palm Springs dog park a while back, poor Roxy sits by herself with no doggies at the park to play with. Awww…

As we continue our story songs, this is one I discovered on one of my old K-Tel albums.  And since I love classic monster so much, it was an immediate favorite of mine.  It’s the Five Man Electrical Band with “Werewolf.”

Monday the 5th – “WIRE” MY FUNDS NOT THERE?! – Surprise surprise!  When I woke up at 2 I was under the impression that my session at Bang Zoom was starting at 5pm.  But I got a note in my e-mail that they moved it up to 4!  I had to get moving!  My first stop was to my bank to find out why an international wire transfer I sent a week ago hadn’t reached its destination.  I let them sort it all out because I had to go to my session. Come to find out it was the fault of the receiving bank, and not my bank. Whew!  So the fund would be going back into my account and I would send the money via Paypal later that night. What a disaster!  I got some quick lunch and then headed to do my super-secret session at Bang Zoom for 2 hours.  I went home to feed the pets, and check my e-mails.  I met my assistant Sara at Little Toni’s for dinner, and then went home to nap for a bit.  When I got up I did my nightly auditions, fed Roxy, and then we went on our late night stroll through the neighborhood.  I came back inside and finished up Wally’s Week, and then ate some leftover pizza while watching another episode of “Barnaby Jones” before bed.

Tuesday the 6th – PROTOTYPE TRIP! – My first order of business for the day was to send the prototypes of the holiday products I created to my pal in Chicago who would be taking them to China next week to get a bid on manufacturing them. Fingers crossed!  I went over to the hardware store to get some bolts and brackets to fortify the shoe rack in my living room.  It fell apart last week because of a poor design. So I’m going to make sure it never comes apart again. It’s where my guests put their shoes when they come over for movie night.  The horizontal metal rods that fit into the plastic receptacles on the side would work their way out and collapse.  Also, the rack would stack upon one another using a small notch and groove system, which was woefully inadequate to support the weight of a lot of shoes. So I was going to take metal brackets, bolts, washers and nuts and brace them together.  Then I’d take trusty Barge glue and permanently glue the metal rods into the plastic receptacles so they’d never work loose.  I got home and fed the pets, and then let my friend Emily in to begin scanning my old photo albums.  It’s my goal to get every one of my old personal photos scanned into a designated computer by the end of June, so I’m having assistants work as much as possible to get this done.  Sara was doing it but she got busy with acting projects.  While Emily scanned I put together the shoe rack.  After she finished for the night I grabbed a nap and then got up to do auditions.  I fed and walked Roxy, then made some chili and hit the hay.

Wednesday the 7th – GREETING GREAT GONZO! – Shortly after noon  I headed to Arby’s in Hollywood to get a few more of those delicious Pizza Sliders. Then I drove over to Paramount studios to do another Voice-Over session for “Lady Dynamite.”  Then I made a beeline to my mailbox to pick up my Great Gonzo 1:1 replica Muppet.  He was GORGEOUS! (Well, as gorgeous as Gonzo can get!) I immediately took him shopping at Jo-Ann fabrics to find suitable material for his tuxedo that my seamstress Karyn would make for him.  I went home to feed the pets and then head off to another two hour super-secret session at Bang Zoom in Burbank.  This would be the last batch of sessions for quite a while.  Then I zoomed home and worked with my new Gonzo puppet.  The tuxedo from the Master Replicas Photo Replica Puppet fit him perfectly, so I’m going to have Karyn duplicate it almost exactly.  The only exception being is the large hole in the bottom so I can put my hand inside the puppet to manipulate him.  Then I laid down for a nap with an icepack on my face.  Even though I’m doing much better after the surgery I still have a little bit of swelling (which is going down very slowly).  But I’ve found that the icepacks really help with that.  I got up later and did auditions, did some more work with Gonzo, and then put the final glue on the shoe rack.  I’ll let it dry overnight before I rehang it on the closet door downstairs.  I made some spaghetti later and watched another episode of “Barnaby Jones.”

Thursday the 8th – E.N.T. SEZ A-O.K.!  – I got up at 1 and did a few last-minute auditions.  I showered and headed to my ENT’s office for another follow-up appointment. She looked inside, removed a few stubborn pieces, and said I was healing wonderfully!  I went over to AAA to “subplate.”  That’s when you exchange your current license plates for a new design.  I’m keeping the same configuration of numbers and letters, but I’m discarding the boring white plates in favor of the black and gold California legacy plates. It’ll take 3 months to get them in, but they look really great!  I grabbed a pizza and some yummy Crazy Bread at Little Caesar’s, and then drove to the Jo-Ann fabric store in Glendale to see what they had in stock.  This store is much bigger than the one I usually go to, and I found a few interesting items and fabrics for my Gonzo tuxedo.  I got back home and fed the pets, then I headed off to Jerry’s Famous Deli to have dinner with my friends Natalie Duran, Brittney Powell and Teri Samuels.  Teri is big into working out so I wanted her to meet Natalie so she could pick up some pointers.  I went home to work out for a bit with Natalie, and then I grabbed a nap.  Later I got up to do my nightly auditions and send out the movie night invites.  I’m showing “A Dog’s Purpose,” and I hope we all aren’t sitting around bawling our eyes out.  But my pal Officer Mark said that it’s actually quite uplifting.  I get misty-eyed just looking at the cover of the DVD!  When it comes to doggie stuff, my emotions come to the surface.  I fed and walked Roxy, made a pot pie and watched “Barnaby Jones.”  I only have a few more episodes before I’m done with the sixth season DVD set.

Friday the 9th – AUDITIONS “RRRRRR” FUN! – At 9am sharp I sprang awake and headed down to my home studio to prepare for a 10am session for Uber.  While I was doing the session with the producers on my phone patch, an e-mail arrived from my on-camera commercial agent telling me that I had an audition as a pirate in Hollywood at 2!  The minute I finished the Uber session, I tore through the closet in the Chaney Room to find suitable pirate-wear for the audition. I found a great headscarf, a leather vest, some striped pants, pirate boots, and a gold hoop earring.  That would give them the idea of my look in full pirate regalia.  I drove into Hollywood with my costume in the car.  I was wearing shorts, a tank top and Vans, which can all easily be removed in the close confines of my car. (Don’t ask me how I know that!) I parked and went into the casting office to scope things out.  I was 20 minutes early, but I signed in anyway. Then I went to my car and slipped the pants over my shorts, took off the tank top and put on the vest, tied the headscarf around my head, removed the shoes and put on the boots, and put a black burlap sash around my waist.  There I was walking down La Brea Avenue in full pirate gear, and not one person noticed me.  THAT’S how you know you’re in Los Angeles!  The audition was short and fun, and I was on my way in about 20 minutes.  I realized that the fabric store International Silks and Woolens was just a short drive from the casting office, so once I changed back into my “civvies” I headed over there to do some shopping. I found some great maroons satin for Gonzo’s tux, in addition to some buttons and other little accoutrements.  That store has EVERYTHING!  I got some Taco Bell for lunch and drove home to relax.  Sara came over to do some work, and my friend Edi was in town for a hair appointment.  We were pondering where to go for dinner, and the Smokehouse sounded really good. So we headed there and enjoyed steaks and amazing garlic cheese bread!  I came back home to nap with an icepack for a while, as Edi made herself comfortable in the Puppet Room.  I got up later that night to do some work around the house. I finished the shoe rack and hung it on the closet door, and then I went upstairs to try and figure out where my new Gonzo 1:1 Muppet replica puppet was going to live.  I have two custom-made Plexiglas cabinets for my Kermit and Animal, but I don’t have any room for a third cabinet for Gonzo.  Then I got a great idea.  Just a few short feet away from Kermit and Animal is a really nice cabinet in which I have toys on display from the anime shows I’ve worked on.  I did some clever consolidating of the toys to the bottom rows in the cabinet, and cleared the entire top area out for Gonzo.  He fit in there perfectly!  I’m going to get some custom-made curtains made to hang over the cabinets when my bedroom windows are open so the sun doesn’t fade the fabrics on the Muppet replicas.  Then I made some of my infamous Buffalo Mac and got ready to watch another episode of “Barnaby Jones.”  By now it was about 8am Saturday morning.  Edi had gotten up for her hair appointment and was showering in the Puppet Room bathroom.  As I stood in the kitchen preparing my meal, I noticed drops of water coming out of my kitchen ceiling.  I HAD A LEAK!  The Puppet Room shower was slowly leaking into my kitchen! I grabbed a bucket to collect the drops.  It wasn’t a large leak…yet…but those things have the tendency of getting big quickly.  When Edi turned off the shower it stopped dripping.  I immediately phoned my contractor Electric Bob to tell him about it.  He’s in New York on a job for the next few weeks, and he said he would call me back in a few minutes.  But when he called back he called on my house phone. He said he’d get to it the minute he got back in a few weeks.  Luckily it’s the Puppet Room shower and not mine.  The Puppet Room shower doesn’t get used all that often.  As I continued to finish making my meal to get ready to watch “Barnaby Jones” before bed, the house phone rang again. I figured it was Bob again who forgot to tell me something.  But it was assistant Sara, and I could tell she had been crying.  As bad as the discovery of the leak in my kitchen was, my Saturday morning was about to get worse.

Saturday the 10th – SADDER DAY! – Before I picked up the ringing house phone I checked the caller ID and saw that it was Sara. It was odd that she didn’t call my cellphone.  After a quick check I saw that she had tried my cell phone but the ringer was off.  As soon as she spoke I could tell she had been crying. She said, “Turn on the news.”  I feared the worst.  I asked her what was going on and she said, “Adam West died.”  I didn’t say anything.  I was just talking about Adam extensively last week as the “Lady Dynamite” session.  We were just at the Smokehouse last night, one of Adam’s favorite dinner places.  Then in a flash, it all started to make sense.  A few days ago my agent sent me an audition from a studio who was looking for somebody to voice-match Adam for some unfinished lines he needed to record for an animated TV show.  They said he wouldn’t be available to record his ADR (additional dialogue recording) in time for the show to be mixed, and they had his blessing to find a suitable replacement.  That struck me as odd because, as long as I’ve known Adam he’s always taken his work very seriously.  He would do whatever he needed to do to make sure the job was done and done right. Looking for a voice-match for Adam just didn’t sit right with me.  As Batman would say it was “odd…very odd.”  I checked the internet and details were continuing to pour in.  The last time I saw him he was at his agent Fred Westbrook’s memorial at the Smokehouse last November.  We were just there last night, right around the time he passed away.  Was it fate’s way of allowing us an unknowing tribute? I had to make the call to Scott Sebring who was busy at a photo shoot.  I always hate making those calls, but I wanted him to hear it from me before he heard it on the news.  You can read my tribute to Adam West and our 37 year friendship HERE…

Under the circumstances, I sent out new movie night invites pre-empting “A Dog’s Purpose” in favor of an Adam West retrospective.  I didn’t get to bed until noon.  I got up at 3 with lots to do.  Edi was back from her hair appointment and we got some groceries for movie night.  We started the evening with an episode of “The New Adventures of Batman” starring Adam as the voice of Batman.  Then we watched his “Love American Style” episode, his “Outer Limits” episode, and then we watched the documentary “Starring Adam West.”  Not only was it nice seeing Adam in the film, but our old friend Fred Westbrook as well.  Many of our movie night crew was featured in the film, myself included. It’s the perfect love letter to an icon! After everybody left I napped on the couch for a bit.  Later I got up to do work around the house.  I made my traditional Saturday night Super Salad and watched an episode of “Hee Haw.”  But as funny as it was, I just wasn’t in much of a laughing mood.

Sunday the 11th – TAXI TO THE MAX-I! At 4:30 I woke up and got ready for evening church. I walked over with Roxy and enjoyed the service.  My “adopted grandma” Shirley and I walked back to my house, hopped in my car and drove to Four ‘N’ Twenty to get some burgers.  I dropped her off at her place and then headed home to rest with an icepack.  Later I got up to do my auditions, work around the house, paint the edges of Gonzo’s eyelids, and then I made a Tombstone pizza.  “Barnaby Jones” season six was completed, so I started in on “Taxi” season one.  I remember watching that when it premiered back in 1978 because I was an obsessive Andy Kaufman fan. I had forgotten how funny that show was.  And my good pal Randy Carver was one of the leads on the show!  I love this town!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

This is a temporary tuxedo, but my Gonzo 1:1 Muppet replica is gorgeous! And he looks right at home in his new display case!

Not bad for a hastily thrown together pirate costume for a hastily arranged TV commercial audition.