RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
Here’s a cool pic of my Tony Clifton silicone mask I used on Halloween, taken by my pal Mark Fullerton!
Since I’d be doing an abridged version of this song in my comedy act at the “We Talk Funny” show at Flappers Comedy Club, I obviously have been humming it all week. It’s a little ditty I put together for the Dr. Demento Show back in 1989. It’s called “Bat to the Future.” It’s the long version, so buckle in! The point was to show how many popular songs from the 50’s and 60’s would fit into the structure of the famous “Batman” TV show theme.
Monday the 28th – CONSTRUCTING COMEDY! – A trip to Video Transfer Service of L.A. in Pasadena was my first stop of the day. I needed to drop off some old reel to reel tapes to have them transferred to digital files. I needed one particular tape transferred so I could use it to perform next Monday night at the “We Talk Funny” Voice Actor stand-up comedy night at Flappers in Burbank. It was a song I did back in 1989 called “Bat to the Future,” which takes the Batman TV theme and reconstructs it in such a way where I can sing several songs from the 50’s and 60’s to it, and it fits perfectly. The original version I did was about 7 minutes long, but I needed to cut it down to about 2 and a half minutes for my act. After I dropped off my reels I went to Rocket Fizz to pick up some bottles of Dr. Pepper. Then I went to the cleaners to get my comforter. I got back home and did some work around the house, took a short nap, and then got up later in the evening to do my auditions. I wrote out Wally’s Week and did some more writing for my comedy bit next week. It seems that my comedy bit is in a state of constant change, as I continue to come up with new jokes and bits.
Tuesday the 29th – POWERING UP ON THE POWER RANGERS! – About mid-afternoon I walked over to my cat Spooky’s vet so I could exchange some canned food that he doesn’t like for canned food he DOES like. I got home and fed the kids, then did some work and recorded a few auditions. Then I drove to my seamstress Shelley’s to drop off some work. I’m hoping to have a few new shirts made for the upcoming Ranger Stop Power Ranger convention in a week. I picked up some spaghetti to-go at Little Toni’s, and then went home to eat and grab a short nap. I got up later to work on my kid’s project, and did some more work on my comedy bit. Then I watched the old Power Ranger episodes I did voices in to bone up on the show in case I’m asked questions at the convention next week. It was so long ago when I did the initial job, I’ve forgotten most things about it. But as I watched them a few things started coming back to me. I watched them before turning in for the night and enjoyed soup and a sandwich while I watched.
Wednesday the 30th – EUREKA! – For the past 10 years or so, I’ve taken to doing voice recordings on a small Olympus voice recorder. I talk about all kinds of things; life stories, memories, anecdotes, thoughts, feelings, etc. – in hopes that my descendants will someday want to know more about their wacky ancestor. When I fill up a recorder’s internal memory, I’ll switch over to an external memory on a micro SD card. When that gets filled up, I’ll dub everything over to my computer for safe-keeping, and then store the recorder. I’ll buy a new recorder to start my next set of log entries. I just finished up my 12th recorder, but as I was attempting to download the internal memory to my computer something happened where it wouldn’t let me access the memory. My recorder said the memory was full, but my computer said that there’s nothing in the folder to get. Very confusing. So I spoke with a specialist at Olympus and she suggested getting a certain type of patch cord to go from the recorder’s earphone jack into another recorder’s microphone jack and doing an analog transfer that way. This way I would at least have a back-up of the files in SOME form on my computer. But after talking to my pal Scott Sebring he suggested that I get a cord that goes from the recorder’s earphone jack directly into my computer’s audio recording program; the one I used to do my auditions. Brilliant! So I ordered a specific type of cord needed in hopes that this will fix the problem. Not sure what happened to this recorder, considering I’ve never had a problem with any of the previous 11, but there’s bound to be one bad apple in every bunch. I hope that fixes the problem. I got a nice long walk in on a gorgeous day. First, I walked to Prints Charm’n to pick up my Blue Psycho Ranger prints that I’ll have available at the Ranger Stop convention. Then I walked over to a brand new vintage story run by my friend Eben, and then I walked over to Yes Embroidery to pick up a few things I had them do. I got home and showered, drove to Burger King to get a drive-thru dinner, and then I went over to my seamstress Shelley to drop off one of the shirts I picked up at the embroiderer. I talked to my pal Brandon about the details for my Orlando trip, and then went home to do my auditions. I grabbed a short nap, and then got up later to watch the Amazon documentary “Halloween In A Box,” on Halloween eve! It was fun Halloween viewing!
Thursday the 31st – HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL YOU HALLOWEENERS! – I got a Halloween scare! I drove all the way to Pasadena to pick up my reel to reel tapes and their digital counterparts, but when I got home later to download them to my computer I discovered that the digital files were ONLY THE LEFT CHANNELS! I went to Fed Ex to mail off the glossy photos I’ll have on my table at Ranger Stop, then stopped by my box to pick up my packages, and then I went home to make some phone calls. My friend Edi told me that she was up for having dinner, but at the last minute she decided to stay home. So I decided to celebrate a quiet Halloween at home. I ordered a Domino’s pizza, watched an old TV movie called “Scream of the Wolf,” (directed in 1974 by Dan Curtis of “Dark Shadows” fame), and relaxed with the pets. It was a nice, quiet Halloween. I had kind of hoped to find some venue to do Tony Clifton one last time before I put him away for a while, but no such luck. So I put the Clifton costume away for a while, reorganized the Chaney Room, did some more writing on the comedy bit, and cleaned up for my maids, who will arrive on Friday to clean up.
Friday the 1st – RIGHT CHANNEL IS RIGHT! – After a panicked call to the Video Transfer Service of L.A. about my missing right channels, they figured out the error and send me the corrected files. WHEW! My maids came over to clean, and then my pal Brittney came over later to do some work and prep for my upcoming trip to Orlando. I did some work editing the music track I’ll be using in my comedy set, and then I headed out to Jerry’s Famous Deli to meet up with my old friend Tuesday Knight and her mom. We laughed and talked for a long time, and then we all came to Planet Wallywood so I could give them a tour. When they left I grabbed a short nap on the couch, and had the most amazing dream. I dreamed I saw Adam West alive and well walking into a building. He saw me, smiled, and whispered something to a lady he was with who came over to talk to me. I said to her, “Adam’s still alive!?” And she said that his death was a “misunderstanding in the media” and that he was indeed still alive. Of all the weird things. But sadly, when I woke up I realized that I was back in a world where Adam West no longer existed. I wanted to go right back to sleep and re-enter that dream world where Adam was alive and well…but no luck. Since I do an Adam West bit in my comedy set, I’m sure that’s probably why Adam has been lurking in my subconscious. I got up to feed the pets, walk Roxy on a cold night, and then drove over to Denny’s to get some food to go. Oddly enough, William Shatner (who ALSO figures into my comedy set) was in that evening’s episode of “Police Woman” that I watched before bed. It was about 1974 and he was looking thin, fit, and muscular! And his acting was VERY good!
Saturday the 2nd – DAYLIGHT STUPID TIME! – Later in the afternoon I got up to get some groceries. I got home and unloaded them and prepped for movie night. Unwilling to let Halloween go quite yet, we watched the episode where Scooby-Doo meets the Addams Family (one of the best episodes of Scooby I’ve seen so far) and the old film “The Fearless Vampire Killers” which was just released on Blu Ray. I remember when they showed this film on the CBS late night movie on Friday nights when I was a kid. It looked so intriguing, but after a full day of school, a long school week, and lots of activities, I could never stay awake through the whole thing. I remember waking up at certain parts of the movie and then going back to sleep. But it was good to be able to watch the entire thing without nodding off! After everyone left I grabbed a short nap, and then got up to engage in the ridiculous and futile exercise of setting the clocks back an hour. Ugh…that time of year again. There oughtta be a law against this idiocy. Someone recently Tweeted me that, as an agriculture worker, they appreciate the extra hour of daylight to work in the fields in the summer time. I told them that it was fine, but why don’t they just work until the sun sets, and leave the clocks alone for the rest of us? There’s really no reason to have everybody set their clocks to a different time, if the agriculture workers want to work later to enjoy more sunlight, just go ahead and work later. No need to futz with the clocks. I still haven’t heard a useful argument for why Daylight Saving Time is a good idea. I tweaked and rehearsed my comedy set a few time, fed and walked Roxy, did some auditions, made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched an episode of “Space 1999” with Peter Cushing as the guest star!
Sunday the 3rd – SHIRLEY-LESS SUNDAY! – When I got up in the late afternoon I had a call from my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley that she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be going to church. She wasn’t at movie night the night before, so it’s probably good that she rest and relax. I went to evening church, came home, did some work, napped on the couch, and then recorded my comedy set to time it. I was given 10 minutes of time, and my act timed out to exactly 9 minutes and 47 seconds! I dubbed the music track for “Bat to the Future” I’d be using over to two flash drives (just in case), a playable CD, as well as a DVD that had the .wav and .mp3 files as data. I wasn’t taking any chances! I made a Tombstone pizza and hit the hay so I’d be rested up for Monday.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
My pal Mark Fullerton took this shot of my new Captain Kirk figure while at movie night. I love it!
And this one with Kirk and Spock, the Enterprise and a Tribble is REALLY cool too!
My friends Scott and Vickie Sebring stopped over for a bit before attending a post-Halloween costume event! Just like out of the episode, “Today Scooby and the gang meets Laurel and Hardy!”
And this one…”Today Scooby and the gang meet Batman and Robin!”
