RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Really? Somebody got paid to write this? Gee…now I wonder why Johnny Cash refused to perform these days. Any ideas? (Good grief!)

 During one of my walks this past week, an old 90’s tune by the Squirrel Nut Zippers came on my iPod and had me dancing along down the street. I love this song in so many ways, for so many reasons. Have you ever heard a song and as you listened to it you could see the accompanying music video in your mind’s eye? The music video you’d like to produce for the song if you had the money and the time? Even before there was such a thing as “music videos” I used to dream up videos in my head to go along with the songs. I had a good one in mind for “Band on the Run” when I was a kid. I also had a great one for “Brandy” as well! But “Hell” by the Squirrel Nut Zippers should have a video consisting of stop-motion, animated characters that all have cartoony, tormented faces…especially when the chorus comes up “In the afterlife. You will be headed for such serious strife.” I still laugh when I hear the song and see the video in my mind. But for now, here’s the official video that came out in the 90’s. Enjoy…“Hell.”


Tuesday the 28th – BACK TO BIZ! – After a nice, relaxing, extended weekend in Palm Springs, it was time to get back to business. The day started just after noon when I drove over to Enterprise to return my SUV. I walked home, cleaned up, and headed over to my mailbox to ship some stuff. Then I went to Bang Zoom to do another 3 hour session on the digital assistant project that’s been on-going for about 3 years now. After we wrapped, I headed to my seamstress Shelley’s house to pick up some stuff she had been working on for me that relates to my kid’s book project I’m working on. I needed this particular piece so I could get it photographed this week and implemented into a booklet that I’ll be taking to Las Vegas next week for the Licensing Expo. It’ll be the first time I’ve ever been to something like this and I’m very excited to go. My trademark attorney Stephanie suggested that I fly out for a day and see what it’s all about. I got back home and recorded an audition, and then I met my pal Sara at Jerry’s Famous Deli for some dinner. I got back home to grab a short nap, and got up later to do Wally’s Week. I paid some bills and made my plan for a very busy week. I was rested, relaxed and ready!

Wednesday the 29th – IS THERE NO TRUTH IN TOOTH?! – The bad news that started my day was a call from my dentist’s office. My arduous 2 year sojourn was about to come to an end! I would be getting the crown on my implant on Thursday! I would finally have a tooth back there! But the dental office called and said they’d have to postpone the procedure more than a week because “a part hadn’t come in.” I felt like the Six Million Dollar Man. A part?! For cryin’ out loud, I’ve been enduring this for years! Didn’t they know enough to order the part several months ago? Oh well. I’ve waited this long, I can wait another week I guess. So I made an appointment for the 11th and I’ll get it then. Then when I went to the car wash to get my filthy Mustang washed (all the rain had made it really gross) the line to get in was considerable. Worse yet, the line wasn’t moving. So I pulled away and headed to another car wash I knew about in Sherman Oaks. After all, my eye doctor appointment was in Sherman Oaks at 3, so I’d have to be down that way anyhow. While we were sitting there peacefully waiting for our cars to be finished, our little group of former dirty car owners were “entertained” by some jackwad who thought he was Mr. Hollywood and VERY important. You know how people take their iPhones, put it on speaker and talk into it like it’s a Star Trek communicator? And they talk VERY LOUDLY!!!??? Well, that was this jerkstick. “YEAH, IT’S A 20 MILLION DOLLAR SHOOT AND WE HAVE TO…BLAH BLAH BLAH!” Even though many of the group were shooting him dirty looks, he was too self-absorbed to realize what a cornhole he was being. Everyone was rolling their eyes. Some people. I sped off to my eye Dr. appointment and I realized that I had left my aluminum drink tumbler at the car wash. Good grief! I left my sunglasses in the SUV when I turned it in to Enterprise, I found out later I left my shower head in the hotel room in Palm Springs, and now this. What the hell is happening to my memory!? But the good news was that Dr. Dodge (an awesome guy) told me my eyes were in perfect shape and I just needed readers. (That, I already knew) The lady in the glasses department said I really didn’t need anything custom, because the prescription in both my eyes was so close, I could just keep on using the cheapie readers I could buy at CVS. My left eye is 2.75 and my right eye is 2.00. If they had been more than a point apart (I think the word she used was a “dioptic”) then I would have needed something custom. I’m sure the day will come when I will need something custom, but not today. She said to split the difference and get some 2.25 readers and I should be good. I got home and did a little work, and then headed to a hotel in Beverly Hills to meet the owners of a company that deals in the sale of collectibles. It was a private signing type of deal, and I signed about 250 Arkham Riddler photos, and 25 Tallest Red photos from Invader Zim. I was worried about sitting there signing my name 275 times; would my hand get tired? Would I get sloppy? But we had such a fun time sitting around telling stories that the time just flew by! I went to the store to get some groceries, and then I worked on pulling clips from old home movies for my folks’ upcoming 60th anniversary celebration video. I napped on the couch, and then got up and worked on the video some more. I did some work on my kid’s book project and got ready for my Vegas trip next week!

Thursday the 30th – ON A CLEAR DAAAAY!! – Since I had cleared my day in anticipation of the dental appointment, which ended up getting postponed, I decided to sleep late and enjoy the day. I walked over to CVS to buy some 2.25 readers, but JUST MY LUCK…they didn’t have any. They had 1.25, 2.00, 2.50, 2.75, 3.00, 3.25, etc. – but no 2.25. VERY strange! I picked up a cigar on the way home, fed the kids when I got back, and then gathered up my prototypes for my kid’s project and headed to the church for a photo shoot. My pal Karl from church is a terrific graphic designer, and he agreed to do the layout for my kid’s book project which I’ll be showing off next week in Vegas. But part of the layout involved taking pictures of the accompanying prototype toys that will be included with the book pitch. We finished up and I headed back home. I took a short nap and got up later to do some more work picking out photos and video clips for my folks’ anniversary video. In fact, I worked all night filling up a folder that I’ll send to my pal Scott Sebring so he can edit it all together. Then I hit the hay.

Friday the 31st – FRIED DAY! – Whew! I had been so busy, I was glad it was finally Friday! I got up at 2 to get ready and do a session for the “Boruto” cartoon at Studiopolis. Since I haven’t figured out how to clone myself yet, or find a way to be in two places at once, I had my housesitter Ariel come over to stay with the pets and let the maids in at 3:30 while I was at the session. By the time we finished the short session and I got back home, the maids were just finishing up and Ariel went off to her other job. Perfect timing! I did some work on the computer, and then went to Jerry’s Famous Deli to have dinner with my friend Briana. She’s an expert in the world of “geekdom” so I was picking her brain a bit about a lot of things; autograph shows, my kids’ book project, etc. I got back home and did a little work and then napped. I got up later to do some more work. Normally, I liked to make some food and watch some old TV shows on DVD before bed, but I’m changing my routine a bit to see if I can lose a few pounds. And eating before sleeping isn’t a very good idea if you’re looking to fit into some leather pants for an upcoming event. So after I had a small meal, I did more work and eventually went to bed.

Saturday the 1st – TO DYE FOR! – In addition to watching my meals (the size of the meals and the timing in which I enjoy them) I’m also trying to do as much walking as I can. Why drive when I can walk? I walked down to my stylist Andie’s place to get a touch up on my color before my trip to Las Vegas. Then I walked back, got cleaned up and got ready for movie night. It was a great time with great friends watching a movie that just came out on DVD called “A Dog’s Way Home.” Though it was written by the same author who wrote “A Dog’s Journey,” it wasn’t a sequel. After everyone left my pals James and Officer Mark stayed to chat. We turned on the TV and I surfed through the channels. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. 5000 channels and nothing to watch. The best thing we found was an infomercial for a Time-Life set of CDs featuring some of the best 70’s and 80’s soft rock. When the infomercials are more entertaining than anything you can find on TV, it’s time to maybe rethink getting rid of DirecTV! Pretty sad. I took a short nap, and then got up later to straighten up the house, make my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watch an old episode of “SNL” from the season 4 DVD set. I allow myself 2 nights of eating and TV watching before bed. After all, I can’t just go “cold turkey!” As I was walking Roxy before I turned in around 9am, I noticed that the baby Mourning Dove in the nest outside my patio was there all by itself. I hadn’t seen the parents in a while, and the baby was now HUGE and took up the entire, small nest. Is this nature’s way of getting them out of the nest and out on their own? By using the power of hunger? I was hoping the baby would be OK, even though it seems to double in size every day!

Sunday the 2nd – DOWN TO THE WIRE! – When I got up at 4 in the afternoon, I had a lot of e-mails from Karl, the graphic designer for our kid’s project. There were a lot of little changes, nudges and nitpicky things we needed to go over, now that we were getting close to the end. My attorney Stephanie needed the full presentation done by first thing Monday morning so she could file it with the copyright office before SHE goes to Las Vegas for the Expo. I was running short on time, though. I had to meet my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley and my friend Edi at church and I was running late. Roxy and I literally jogged over to the church and got there just before Pastor Louise delivered her message for the week. Whew! After the service we all met at Paty’s for dinner on the patio. Edi had her dog Bunny along, and I took Roxy along too. We met a very nice couple who were fawning all over the dogs. Come to find out they’re from Minnesota, and out here visiting their new grandbaby. They said their names were Martha and Bruce, and we talked all about Minnesota, South Dakota, and told a lot of stories about the old Minnesota Twins baseball team. What fun! I picked up the mail at my box and then went home to get on-line and do more work with Karl, and see what he had come up with while I was away. I did my auditions which were due Monday morning and took a short nap. When I got up, Karl had completed all the pages in our presentation “deck” and I was over the moon. They looked fantastic! I did some small graphic tweaking on one of the images, but they were all ready to rock! I took Roxy out on our late night stroll through the neighborhood and celebrated with a really good cigar! I came back inside, made a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box and watched a few episodes of “Taxi” before bed. (Since I’d be gone during my second cheat night this week, I figured I’d do it now) The next few weeks would be filled with activity; Las Vegas, seeing a show at the Muppet studio in Hollywood, an interview for a documentary, a day-long signing at Robo Toy Fest in Pasadena, a few more sessions, my postponed dental appointment to get my new tooth, a Sons of the Desert meeting, and of course my upcoming trip to South Dakota to help my parents celebrate their 60th anniversary! It’s going to be a whirlwind over the next few weeks! Strap in!!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here are a few shots of the Mourning Dove family in the tree outside my patio. Mom, Dad and baby were all there. But now mom and dad have taken off leaving baby all to herself. Though they’re cleverly camouflaged, can you pick them out?

I was really sad to hear about the passing of Leon Redbone this week. I had met him in 1986 during a week-long trip to LA. We were both guests on the Dr. Demento Show at the Westwood One Radio Network!

They used to put those drops in your eyes to dilate the pupils so the eye Dr. could gaze deeply into your eyes. Now they take a super duper digital image that shows him the inside of your entire eyeball! FANTASTIC! Here are my delightful little orbs!

For some reason my cat Spooky has taken a keen interest in reading my e-mails. Hmmm…maybe THAT explains all those off credit card purchases lately.