RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
The 50th anniversary of “Jaws” is this year, and I just bought tickets to see it in Imax in early September. I can’t wait! I found this BTS shot on-line and it’s delicious!
Back in 2016 I did a remake of the song “Ruby (Don’t Take Your Love To Town)” with updated lyrics to reflect the pain that some Gulf War vets were experiencing. My pal Bruce Kulick, rock guitar legend, lended some licks as well. This song came up on my device this past week, and since I hadn’t heard it in a while, it sure sounded good.
Monday the 28th – RESIDUAL RIDICULOUSNESS! – Since the weather this week is going to be nice, warm and summery, I had planned on picking up the Mustang from my mechanic’s shop today. But I got busy with other stuff so I had to postpone it. I met my pal Sara at Bob’s Big Boy for lunch, and we just happened to run into my pal Daniel Roebuck and his wife Tammy there. Great seeing him! He asked if he could bring some friends by Planet Wallywood on Wednesday for a tour and I told him I’d be delighted! It was a gorgeous afternoon and we fully enjoyed our lunch on the patio. When I got home I checked the mail and I had a large packet of checks from SAG-AFTRA. But I’ve been in this business long enough to not get too excited by the “quantity” of the checks, but rather the “quality” of the checks (ie: the amounts!). Sure enough, after I opened them, I realized that they were for a show I announced many, many years ago – and each check averaged about 2 cents. In fact, the full packet of checks (which cost SAG-AFTRA a considerable amount to send) totaled up to about 50 cents! Ridiculous! There’s got to be a better way! The amount of work it would take to scan each of them for my records isn’t really worth it, so I may just end up throwing them away. But friends in the industry told me that I should cash them, regardless of the idiocy of the process. I relaxed for a while, then later I did some work around the house. I didn’t have any auditions to record today, so I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and then came back inside to type out Wally’s Week.
Tuesday the 29th – FANTASTIC FORETHOUGHT! – For the past several weeks my gal Angi and I had been planning on seeing “The Fantastic Four” in the theatre. But she just returned from being out of town for several weeks. She had a few days in L.A. to take care of some things, and then by the weekend she would be flying back to New York to spend the entire month of August there. Work is so slow here in Hollyweird, that a lot of young actors are heading to greener pastures in search of work opportunities. We got to the Citywalk at Universal Studios in the mid-afternoon and bought our tickets to the 3D Imax screening at 4:15pm. We had some time for lunch, so I asked her where she’d like to eat. Since it was her birthday a few weeks ago we were going to catch up with a late birthday meal for her. I suggested Bubba Gump, since I know she likes seafood. She’s mostly a vegetarian, but she will eat fish. Personally, the thought of seafood makes me nauseous. First, I think I’m allergic to it. Secondly, I don’t like the taste of it. But it was her birthday, so she got to choose where she wanted to go. The staff came to the table and sang to her and gave her an ice cream cookie cake (which I ended up eating most of), and then I was on my way to Hot Topic to find a “One Piece” t-shirt for my grandson Elliot. Angi went into Sephora to get her free birthday gift. Then we headed to Cinnabon to get her a dessert that she could smuggle into the movie. Back in May I did a “walla” session for “The Fantastic Four,” but I was sworn to secrecy until the movie came out. So I had seen many scenes from the movie and it looked amazing! The definition of “walla” is basically; background voices that will fill in certain crowd scenes. We were also asked to do a certain amount of “featured” voices for news reporters, etc. Since there were 8 of us in the session we had no idea who was going to end up being chosen for which role. I was hoping that I was still in the movie! The session was run by sound genius and actor Matthew Wood. Even though I saw Matthew at our Voices Against Cancer event in June I didn’t get a chance to ask him if I was still in the movie. So watching this film would be a total guessing game. I held my breath through the beginning part of the film with my fingers crossed. Then, it happened. Just as the Silver Surfer appeared you hear a reporter talking about ‘an anomaly that has entered the Earth’s atmosphere, etc. etc.’ – and that voice sounded very familiar! It was me! Angi recognized my voice right off, and sensing my relief she leaned over and gave me a kiss. Whew! I’m in “The Fantastic Four!” Amazing! I’m sure my old junior high comic book pal Jon Horning (who passed away in 2005) was looking down smiling! He loved Fantastic Four comics, as did I, and he’s probably loving the fact that his old buddy is actually in the movie – albeit in a very small capacity. As the movie went on I also thought it might have been my voice as the “evacuation” announcer. But I could be wrong. Angi and I stayed until the very last frame, and sure enough, at the very end of the credits (just before the list of music that was used in the soundtrack) there were the names of the “additional voices.” Since they listed them alphabetically, my name was in the very last line…right in the middle! Awesome! I got back home and relaxed for a bit, and then did my daily auditions. I took my nightly WOG, and then came back inside to edit some videos.Wednesday the 30th – FABULOUS FRIEND DAY! – As we had arranged on Monday, my pal Dan Roebuck brought some friends over for a tour of Planet Wallywood. It was a great time talking about Andy Kaufman, monsters, Star Trek, James Bond, and more. Then later my pals Scott Sebring and Ben Bentley stopped by so we could go grab a bite. We headed to Paty’s and enjoyed an evening meal as the day came to a close. I got back home and relaxed. Later I recorded my auditions, and then did my nightly WOG. It was a nice night so I spent some time outside after my WOG in the anti-gravity chair. Since we were being inundated by not one but TWO meteor showers, I kept a sharp eye toward the skies. I saw three shooting stars within the course of about 20 minutes! Neat!
Thursday the 31st – TA TA, TREES! – It’s been known for a quite while that the driveway that runs behind my unit was going to be redone eventually. Well, it would seem that preparations are being made to that end. Our driveway is next to property owned by the city of L.A., and is separated by a fence. On the other side of the fence are enormous eucalyptus trees that have been there for decades; providing shade and light blockage from the studio across the way. Unfortunately the city of L.A., in all their infinite “wisdom” (correction: stupidity) never maintained the trees. They never trimmed them, so the roots grew exponentially to accommodate the top-heaviness of the trees. The roots of the trees reached under our property and buckled several areas of our driveway. Now that the driveway is going to be redone, it was necessary for the trees to be removed, lest the roots continue to buckle our new throughway. It was very sad to see them go. I loved those trees, and everything they provided. The city started the work early in the morning, and it continued throughout the day – as the trees are sizable! I headed to Bob’s Big Boy to meet my old pal Amy Hiatt (we used to be DJs on 94.7 The Wave back in the 90s) for lunch. Then I got the Gray Ghost washed. Because I wasn’t sure about the extent of the tree removal that was scheduled, I parked outside overnight in case access out of my garage would be inhibited. Unfortunately, I parked under a tree which a lot of the neighborhood birds consider their outhouse. YUCK! After it was washed up nicely, I drove over to my mechanic’s shop to check on my Mustang. It was GOOD TO GO! Come to find out, all of the time we spent looking for another Brake Actuator was pointless. The mechanic put in the replacement part I brought them, but the problem still existed. He figured out that it wasn’t the part at all, but there was a short in the line! (Check out past Wally’s Week entries to see what the exact problem was, if you’re curious.) So the short was fixed and everything was back to perfection! I drove the Rav to my auxiliary garage and parked it, as I was going to enjoy driving the Mustang around for a few days to enjoy some “top down” summer weather. When I came back home, it was depressing. All the trees were gone, and it was absolute desolation. Very sad. I know it was work that needed to be done, but still it’s extremely depressing. My pal Mark Fullerton came over in the evening so we could head to Little Toni’s to get some food. Then we came back to Planet Wallywood to watch the Blu-ray of a Roger M00re documentary from the U.K. called “From Roger M00re With Love.” It was absolutely delightful! Later I recorded my auditions, and then took my nightly WOG. I spent some time in the anti-grav chair, curious to see what the absence of the trees would be like. Would it provide a more plentiful view of the overhead sky for stargazing? I was curious. But what I experienced was NOT pleasant. There’s a light at the studio across the way that seems to be not only bright, not only extra bright, but SUPER bright. And it’s pointed directly at our complex! WHY? The trees always blocked it out from my view so I never really noticed it before. But now it’s just plain obnoxious! This has got to end! I’ll be calling the management of our complex first thing in the morning and asking him to tell the studio to put some barn doors on that baby and redirect the light away from our complex. Light intrusion is a very serious issue, as it can affect sleep, security cameras, and a whole lot of other things. This light has the power of a thousand suns, and turns nighttime into day time. It’s gotta stop! I feel like I’m in a prison camp with a searchlight honed in on us!
Friday the 1st – BAD DAD NEWS! – Before the maids arrived to clean Planet Wallywood I did some work. My sister phoned me to let me know that my dad was in the hospital. Toward the beginning of the week he was complaining about food poisoning, but after a few days the symptoms were still lingering. She took him to the ER and they admitted him. I thought the stress following my mom’s passing had affected his immune system, and he caught some kind of bug. They did a flurry of tests and found out it was dehydration, a UTI, and on top of all that, he caught a Norovirus. Sheesh. It just never ends. I drove the Mustang over to the car wash to get her shined up. I casually started talking to a guy next to me, and when he answered back I thought his voice sounded familiar. Turned out it was Bill Nye the Science Guy. I guess he needed to get his spaceship polished up. My car was finished, I popped the top, and enjoyed the gorgeous day. It was in the mid 80’s! Perfect! I picked up a few grocery items, and then came home to put everything away and relax. I edited some more videos, and later I took my WOG, I spent some time in the anti-grav chair, but I had to put up a large panel to block the offensive, intrusive light from across the way. It worked, but it wasn’t nearly as effective as those big, beautiful trees.
Saturday the 2nd – THE FIRST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH MEANS…! – Since I was up all night editing videos, I slept very late. Once I got up later in the day I didn’t really have anything planned. I called my pal Chris Malmin to see if he wanted to meet for a late lunch at Paty’s. After a wonderful meal on the patio I headed back home to do some work. I recorded my auditions that were due on Monday, and relaxed. Later I took my WOG, and then spent some time in the anti-grav chair to cool down. Once again I put up my large light shield to try and have some “light-free” relaxation. I sparked up a nice cigar and enjoyed the middle-of-the-night ambience. I came back inside and did some more video editing, and then got ready for my “first Saturday of the month” ritual…Laurel & Hardy Theatre. I like to treat myself to a nostalgic celebration of those good times back in the mid 70’s when I was sitting in Aberdeen, South Dakota watching Laurel & Hardy films on TV. My ritual includes making a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box, some popcorn, and enjoying a banana Twinkie and one of my ceramic Laurel & Hardy mugs filled with ice and Diet Pepsi. I have the titles of their 40 short films on slips of paper that I keep in a Sons of the Desert fez, which I call the “Forty Shorties Fez.” I draw two films at random from the fez, and I’m now down to the last 16 titles. Later this year “Laurel & Hardy: Year Three” will be out on Blu-ray, so I hope to work that into the program soon. When I run out of shorts to watch, I’ll start in on their features. And then when those are done…I’ll start all over again! Up until recently I used the ceramic Laurel & Hardy mugs my mom made for me back in 1974. They’re still in excellent condition, and they hold a TON of cold beverage. But after her passing I decided to retire them and put them on permanent display. I can’t risk having them damaged during my usual use. So I found some mugs exactly like them (but not with mom’s paint job, of course) and I have two sets that I will start using. The “A” set features a nifty monochrome paint scheme, and they look like they were painted by a professional artist. I recently found a “B” set that I like that are in color, and painted wonderfully. I put the set mom made me in one of the main display cases in the Puppet Room with all of the other Laurel & Hardy collectibles I have. The two films I drew out of the Forty Shorties Fez for the night were “Oliver the Eighth,” and “Be Big.” I was very familiar with the former film, but not so much the latter. Once I watched “Be Big” I realized that I really didn’t know that film very well. It was a real treat! It was almost like seeing a Laurel & Hardy film for the first time. The format of the short, filmed in 1931, was a precursor to the format used in “Sons of the Desert” in 1933. There’s a bit in it that involves Ollie trying to get a stubborn boot off of his foot, and it’s hysterical. Especially considering that I’ve been in that position before with several boots I’ve worn. It was another fun evening with The Boys!
Sunday the 3rd – A SAD ANNIVERSARY! – My youngest daughter Molly sent me an email reminding me that my ex-wife (and Molly’s mother) Jamie passed away on this day 10 years ago. She asked if I had any pictures she could send me, as she was missing her greatly. I told her I had tons of video and pictures that I’m sure she’d love to see all contained on a hard drive that I’d be sending to Lacey this coming week. But in the meantime I emailed her a quick video of her mom and I back in 1991 at Pismo Beach, and in San Diego. I hope she liked them. My sister called to say that it was likely that dad would be released from the hospital soon, as the virus had left his system and he was getting rehydrated sufficiently. We’re all going to have to keep a sharp eye on him in the future. I packaged up some gifts for the grandkids, along with the hard drive for Lacey, and got ready to send them on Monday. I was waiting for one more item; a puppet from my buddy Grant. He is one of the brilliant puppeteers for the “Puppet Up!” shows for Henson, and one of the little girl puppets they sell at the souvenir table is just perfect for my 7 year old granddaughter Natalie. I’ll be meeting with Grant for lunch on Monday and getting the puppet from him, and then it gets put in the box and sent to South Dakota! I scanned checks for a deposit and then headed to bed.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
You know you’re at Little Toni’s, when they give you two spoons to dish up your pizza!
