RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I love how the artists for “Batman Vs. Two-Face” made Harvey Dent resemble the 60’s era William Shatner. Here’s a screenshot to celebrate the release of Adam West’s final outing as Batman in a photo I call…”The Bat and The Shat!”

As I was busy ripping my numerous CD singles into my computer for my big consolidation project, I happened upon a live version of a song I love from a short-lived group in the 90’s called “Life, Sex & Death.” This group is somewhat of an enigma. Originally they were a Chicago glam band; big hair, big sound – typical of the 90’s. But when they came to L.A. their lead singer was simply known as “Stanley.” Though his rock voice and rock moves were totally amazing, many believed Stanley to be a homeless guy whom the band discovered. But now the true story can be told. The lead singer Chris Stann took on the persona of “Stanley” with complete and total dedication (ala Andy Kaufman with Tony Clifton). Though Chris Stann is a wealthy, good looking Chicagoite, “Stanley” was often seen rummaging through, and even SLEEPING in dumpsters outside of rock clubs. THAT’S method acting, folks! Anyhow, if you’re more curious about this band there are lots of videos on YouTube that try to unlock the mystery of Life, Sex & Death. Was it a sham? Did Chris Stann REALLY go nuts and become homeless? And check out the video that was shot as recently as 2014 and you’ll discover that the answer is most likely the former, and not the latter. Here’s LSD (Life, Sex & Death) with their live version of “Telephone Call.” Rock on, Stanley…wherever you are!

Monday the 9th – BV2F! – Right around 4 in the afternoon I woke up (after having been up all night and morning). The first order of the day was to stop at CVS and pick up a prescription. Then I sped off to my mailbox to pick up some packages, and then on to the cleaners to pick up my freshly-cleaned comforter. I drove over to my seamstress Karyn’s studio to drop off some fabric for some new items I’m having made. Then I came home to meet with my pal Brittney Powell to go over the details of my new security system. I was booked for a long session on Tuesday, so she would need to come over mid-afternoon to walk Roxy. I grabbed a short nap, and then did my nightly auditions. I prepped for my Tuesday session at the Disney studios by printing off all the details I’d need to get on the lot, as well as the map to where the session was taking place. I knew the stage well. It’s ADR B; where they recorded the voice tracks for my favorite Disney film, and my favorite animated film “The Jungle Book.” It was the very first movie I saw in a theatre, and after having bought the soundtrack with my dad at the local drugstore, it was the first time I became aware of something called an “animation voice actor.” I typed out Wally’s Week, and then got on iTunes and downloaded the digital version of the new animated film “Batman Vs. Two-Face.” This is a follow-up to last year’s “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader,” and sadly it’s Adam West’s final outing as Batman. Once again I provide the voice for The Riddler, as well as King Tut. But my luck with streaming, downloading, etc. is never good. And my bad luck held strong. iTunes told me my download was ready to view so I figured I’d watch it before going to bed. But 10 minutes in it totally froze, and the error message told me it would be another 11 hours before the download would be complete. I force-restarted my computer and signed back into iTunes. Then it said it would only take 20 minutes to finish the download. I waited, and then pick up where I left off. But throughout the course of the film the synchronization between the voice and video went askew. I had to keep pausing it so the audio could catch to the picture. Did I mention I REALLY hate watching things on digital download? I just don’t think the technology is quite there yet, with all its hiccups, delays and buffering B.S. I like having the product in-hand; like a Blu Ray, CD or DVD. It really ruined the experience for me. I know the studios are trying to wean people off of tangible media for their entertainment, but this fellow will go kicking and screaming.

Tuesday the 10th – LEGENDARY DAY! – Shortly before my call-time at noon I checked into ADR B on the Disney lot in Burbank. There were a lot of people there in the lobby lined up to do incidental voices for a new Disney film. I saw the amazing Barry Bostwick there. I told him I had just seen him before I left my house this morning. He laughed and said, “What?” I told him I have my original “Megaforce” one-sheet movie poster hanging on my wall, and that he had signed it for me several years ago at a convention. We chatted about that classic 80’s kitsch film for several minutes. I also saw my old pal Phil LaMarr. Oddly enough, I was wearing my “Pee Wee Herman Show” cap, that I bought at the live show from a few years ago. In that live show, Phil played Cowboy Curtis. It was a pure coincidence that I happened to be wearing that cap, of all the caps in my collection! Even though I got there at noon, it was about 5pm before I actually worked. But it was a great time and I enjoyed meeting the crew on the film. There’s no guarantee that what I recorded will actually stay in the film in the final editing process, but my fingers are crossed. On the way home I checked my mailbox for packages, and then I headed home. I fed the pets and relaxed, and all I wanted to do was to order a Domino’s pizza and lay low for the rest of the evening. I took some great screenshots from the new “BV2F” film, and then I grabbed a nap. I got up later for an audition, and then I started the long, arduous process of ripping all of my CD singles into my computer. As I stated last week, it’s my goal to consolidate my considerable collection of CD singles on to a minimum amount of CDs, thus making room for lots more CDs in the finite space of my CD rack. Tonight I started that process. When I got tired I made some soup and a sandwich and watched the final two episodes from the Season 2 Blu Ray of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.”

Wednesday the 11th – TERRAFORMARS, AND TERRIBLE WAVS! – I was at Studiopolis by 2 so I could put a couple hours in on the new anime series “Terraformars.” When we finished up all we had to do, I drove over to a local repair shop for window blinds. The “tapes” in my bedroom blinds had all broken, which prevented me from raising or lowering my blinds. The blinds themselves are rather old, but still efficient. So I’m hoping they’ll be able to repair the tapes for a minimal cost. I went over to Staples to get a new Micro SD card for my tablet, and then I joined my pal Brittney Powell for dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli. I was pretty beat, so I grabbed a short nap on the couch. I got up later for some super fun auditions, and then got busy on my CD consolidation project again. I managed to get them all consolidated to 11 CDs. 9 of them were in triple-CD cases, which only take up 3 slots in my rack. And the remaining two were in a two-CD case. So all it took for all that music was 4 slots, versus the 65 slots it had previously taken. What a deal! But since I ripped them as WAV files, so there would be no quality loss, I had to deal with all of the “inflexibility” of the WAV format. The “title” of the file is imbedded into the properties. But you are allowed to change the “name” of the file (two different things.) Unfortunately, when I started burning the files to the consolidation CDs, my burning program labeled the files with the imbedded “title” label, and not the “name” label that I had changed it to. And much of the information imbedded in the “title” label was incorrect. Apparently record companies released CD singles so hastily that their quality control mechanism wasn’t very accurate. So that meant going back to the original CDs and typing out the track list on the CD insert cards by hand. Ugh. It was a huge job, but well worth it in the long run. I’m not sure who designed WAV files to behave like that, but clearly it wasn’t any genius. I made some buffalo mac and watched the bonus documentaries on the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Blu Rays. Fascinating!

Thursday the 12th – PO, CD, LSD – Boy did it feel good to sleep until 4! When I got up I checked my mail to find a few checks I had been expecting. I scanned them and then went to the bank to make a deposit. I stopped by the post office to mail some items, got a package at my mailbox, and then headed over to It’s A Wrap to see what Halloween stuff they had. It’s a Wrap is a store in Burbank that sells movie and TV wardrobe that’s no longer needed by the studios. Sometimes you can find some darn good items. But I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without. I drove through the Del Taco drive-thru to get a burger and fries (yup, the best fast-food burger and fries in L.A. is at a taco joint!), and then I went home to do some work. I did a few auditions, and then grabbed a short nap. I got up later to do more auditions, and spent the rest of the night finishing up my CD consolidation project. . After many headache-inducing problems, I finally got it finalized and put to bed. It involved…(1) ripping the CDs into my computer, (2) cleaning up the files in my audio program and prepping them to be burned to CD, (3) logging all of the title, artist and total-run-time information, (4) figuring out how to fit them all on to the least amount of CDs with minimal wasted space, (5) once they’re burned, I input the information into my database, (6) I created CD insert cards with the appropriate track lists so I can find what I need at a finger’s touch. Now I can take my 65 CD singles, box them up and store them in my storage downstairs. One of the CD singles was from a group called Life, Sex & Death (they were known as LSD for short). I get obsessed over this group from time to time and it really puzzles me why they weren’t bigger. (Read more about them in this week’s “What’s Wally Humming.”) I made some hot dogs on the grill and started watching “The Outer Limits” from the Season 2 DVD set.

Friday the 13th – GENE HAD TO HAVE SEEN THIS! – Just before I was ready to turn in, a friend and Voice-Over Casting Director called me bright and early to see if I would be available next Tuesday to work on a film. She said the director wanted to use his friend for the part, but she wanted to have a certified Voice Actor do the role. I assured her I was available and she said she would check back with me after her conference with the production staff. So I didn’t end up getting to bed until around noon. After about four hours’ sleep I woke up and started working on preparations for our big screening party on Saturday the 21st. Since Warner didn’t do a theatrical screening of the new Batman animated film this time around, some friends of mine and I decided we’d do our own. So we pooled our resources and rented one of the screening rooms at Warner Brothers studios in Burbank for our own “friends and family” screening of the film. It is being released on Blu Ray on October 17th, so we’ll have it in-hand to screen after that. We’re all very excited about it. Unfortunately there are only 114 seats in the room, so we’re taking RSVPs to make sure we have seats for everyone. And the screening is already getting close to capacity! I had a bit of a headache, so I rested on the couch for a bit. Brittney came over later to continue helping me with sending out RSVPs and other prep work for the event. Later that night I went to Denny’s to get some food to go, and then came home to feed and walk Roxy. Later, I watched an episode called of “The Outer Limits” called “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” starring William Shatner. In it, he’s an astronaut who flies a one-man flight to Venus. But something happens to him. In the show he talks about the importance of seeing out new life, and new worlds. (Sound familiar?) This was shot in 1965, so it was literally one year before he took the reins as Captain James T. Kirk in “Star Trek.” Not only that, but THREE other actors who would later end up in “Star Trek” were also in this episode! I’m positive Gene Roddenberry HAD to have seen this!

Saturday the 14th – MUSING ABOUT THE MUSEUM! – Pat the Batman Fan and my assistant Sara met me at Planet Wallywood around noon so we could all drive over to the Universal Studios subway station to take the train into Hollywood. We had a meeting of the minds with the Hollywood Museum staff about the upcoming 1966 Batman exhibit we’re putting together. Scott and Vickie Sebring joined us as well at Mel’s Diner in Hollywood. The meeting went for several hours and was very productive! It’s going to be a great exhibit! It opens in January and will run through April. Around 4 we took the train back to the Universal station, and then stopped to get a few grocery items for movie night before heading back home. After we got all the food put away, I grabbed a quick nap before movie night. We showed the 1982 kitsch classic “One Dark Night” starring Meg Tilly and Adam West! I remember seeing this in the theatre with my wife at the time. I was shocked to see Adam West in it, since I had just met him two years prior to the release of that film. When I got home I called him to let him know we had just seen the movie. Great memories. But on the back of the Blu Ray case, some wiseguy titled the movie as “One Dark Knight.” I don’t know if it was an accident, or on purpose because of the pedigree of its star. Hmmm. After everyone left I took a short nap on the couch, and then spent all night doing graphics work on a “Souvenir Bat Map” for our screening party. This will be handed to everyone who checks in at the gate at Warner Brothers for the party, and it will instruct them how to get to the screening room for the event. It was a lot of work, but worth it. I fed Roxy and then made my traditional Saturday night Super Salad. After the debacle I witnessed last week during the viewing of the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” (at the time it was called “NBC’s Saturday Night”) I was hoping the second episode wouldn’t suck too. But Paul Simon was the host, and the show was amazing. Oddly enough it was mostly Paul Simon singing his hits with very little comedy. In fact, the Not Ready For Primetime Players were only seen once in the entire show, and only Dan Aykroyd said anything. It was strange, but clearly they were still getting their footing. It’s almost like they knew their first show was a disaster, so they played it safe with a monumental talent like Paul Simon. I had been dealing with a slightly swollen gland under my left jawbone, so I took some Advil and headed to bed with an ice pack.

Sunday the 15th – ROXY RUNS! – About mid-morning Roxy was acting very restless. So I got up and took her out for a bathroom break. She did what she needed to do and then came back inside. But I sensed this wasn’t the end. So I penned her up while I went back upstairs to get some more sleep. Sure enough, when I came back downstairs later, she had an accident on the floor. I’m not sure if she had a UTI, but she definitely had diarrhea. Collies are notorious for being prone to colitis, especially as they get older. So I got everything cleaned up. It was running late so I didn’t go to evening church. Not only was I wanting to keep an eye on Roxy, but my gland was still a bit swollen. So I just laid low for the evening and did a few auditions. I brought her upstairs so I could sleep a few hours more. I penned her up in the bathroom vanity area where there’s marble on the floor (easy clean-up just “in case”). I got up later and did some work and alphabetized our guest list for the Warner Brothers security staff. I was wondering if I needed to take Roxy to the all-night emergency vet, but she was doing pretty well. I’ll definitely take her on Monday though! I made a Tombstone pizza and watched another “Outer Limits” episode.

And how was YOUR week??!!