RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
When I was scanning negatives I ran across this gem from 1997. I was invited to an 80’s party and came in full glam rock costume. I really seemed to be in my element!
For some reason I started singing “Another Nail In My Heart” by Squeeze during one of my WOGs. It has a really bouncy beat that is fun to walk to!
Monday the 2nd – HEY! WHO TURNED OUT THE MOON?! – With everything going on in my life I haven’t had a chance to get a dental cleaning in quite some time. Because of the problem I was having with my #31 tooth late last year, plus the ongoing adventure with the thyroid surgery, a cleaning and check-up went onto the far back burner. But today I had an appointment to see my dentist and get caught up. However when I got there, he said he couldn’t work on me because I had surgery within the past 6 months. He said I would need to be cleared by the surgeon before he could work on me. He knew I had the surgery, but he somehow forgot to mention this rule when I made the dental appointment? Gee whiz! So, off I went to take my frustrations out on a few chili cheese dogs with kraut at Wienerschnitzel! Since the weather was warming up, I figured it was time to pay some attention to my faithful 52 year old gal – my Gran Torino. I hadn’t had it out since June, and I needed to put the new registration sticker on and put the new paperwork in the glove compartment. I drove over to my auxiliary garage and uncovered her. She was dusty, and the front tires looked a bit low, but she looked good nonetheless. I got in and tried to start the engine. Because I have a battery cut-off switch under the hood, the battery was fully charged. But the starter kept groaning and groaning – and wouldn’t turn over. I said out loud, “Better turn over soon, baby – or this is gonna be a real short day.” Just then – VROOM! She turned over! Amazing! There was another person on the same floor of the parking garage who was doing some work. She noticed the Tony Clifton decal on my Rav and we started chatting about Andy Kaufman, Tony Clifton, and a puppet-builder friend of hers that has dressed as Clifton in the past. Come to find out, Tonya owns a 1960 hearse that she stores there. I helped her uncover it so she could start it up and drive it around for a few hours. It’s beautiful! Though the exterior could use some new paint, the lines and style of this automobile are stunning! And the hearse out-ages my girl by 14 years! I parked the Rav to give it a break for a while, and I pulled the Torino out into the street. It felt great to have her out again! I had missed her! I’d like to go get her washed, waxed and polished this week. I drove home to do some work, record some auditions, and do more work with my photo albums. I finished everything up through the year 1995! I’m really moving! It’s great to finally have momentum on this project! I grabbed a short nap before my nightly WOG (walk/jog). When I got dressed and ready to head outside, I noticed something different. Wasn’t there supposed to be a full moon tonight? I looked up to the sky but only saw a sliver of a crescent moon. HOW LONG DID I SLEEP, ANYWAY?! Then I remembered it was another “blood moon” lunar eclipse. It was fun watching it evolve as I did my 1.5 mile WOG around the neighborhood. Fascinating. To make it even more creepy, I noticed that the street lights were out on a stretch of the street in front of my house. Then I noticed that the little subterranean receptacles in the sidewalk, that houses all of the wiring for the streetlights, seemed to have been vandalized. Apparently some jackwads lifted up the cover and took out some wiring. Ugh. Knowing how slowly Los Angeles operates, we should have this fixed sometime in mid-2056! Also, there was something going on in a distant neighborhood and there were police helicopters hovering overhead. All in all, it was a scary evening – but nothing too bad to worry about. I came back inside and continued working on my photo albums.
Tuesday the 3rd – ALLER-GEEZ! – Today was the day my gal Angi had her allergy test scheduled at a nearby clinic. I got up early to drive over with her and accompany her. I don’t know if you’ve ever had an allergy test, but they’re pretty nasty. They prick your back in hundreds of places, and each prick contains a different allergen. Then they monitor which allergen your body reacts to. She had broken out with lots of little welts because of the allergens, but after they took their readings they gave her a Zyrtec and sent her on her way. We drove back to my house so she could rest a bit, and then we hopped in the Torino and headed to Paty’s to have some lunch in the sun. It felt really good, but I was getting very tired. I went back home and did some work, and then sacked out for a long time. It felt great! I got up for my nightly WOG, and while I was out I saw a police vehicle that was stopped. They were questioning a guy in a car. So I took the opportunity and walked over to them. I explained that I do this walk every night, and that the street lights have been out for the past few nights due most likely to vandalism in the wiring receptacles in the sidewalk. I asked them to report it to the power company, and wished them a good morning. I went inside to eat a little something and write Wally’s Week.
Wednesday the 4th – HOW ON EARTH DID I DO IT?! – Though I did a little work around the house, I decided that I would probably take the day off and rest up. I did a few auditions and sent them into my agents, and then I started on photo album work again – which I really enjoy. I started on the year 1996. Over the holiday break I went downstairs into my storage and found every one of my Day Planners since the year I first moved here in 1987 (except the year 2014, which is missing for some reason). While the Day Planners aren’t really a faithful “diary” of my movements during those years, it does give me a few reference points so I can build a chronological narrative for the photo albums. They’ve REALLY helped out! Though I’m pasting in pictures from 1996, I started logging notable events on a document from 1997. That was the first year I really started moving in my Voice Over career. It was magical! I had just signed with a big agency, and I was constantly on the move. Looking at the schedule I don’t know how I could have possibly done all that stuff! I know it was probably the advantage of youth, but seriously – I think I might have been a wizard of time and space! I really don’t know how I made all of those commitments! It’s SO much fun to look back into the “crystal ball” of these Day Planners. Later I took a WOG, and it was a VERY chilly night!
Thursday the 5th – LIKE A GLEAMING RED BEACON! – My gal deserves only the very best, so I drove the Torino over to get her gassed up and washed. I got the full service, too! Wash, a hand clay wax, and polished. While they worked I walked over to the Coral Café to get a quick lunch. When I got back to the car wash I couldn’t believe it! WOW! The ol’ 52 year old gal can still turn heads. As I pulled her out onto the street everyone was giving me the thumbs up! I drove down to Foam Mart to pick up a piece that I’ll need for my Monsterpalooza museum exhibit, and then I went back to my auxiliary garage to pick up a few things that I had forgotten in my RAV. I stopped by to see a buddy and show him the Torino, and then I headed home to do some work around the house. I recorded my nightly auditions, and then grabbed a quick nap. But I was awakened by a bright light in my face. It was the full moon shining in through my window. Beautiful! The process for my photo album work consists of extricating notable events from that particular year’s Day Planner. Then comparing that document with the photos I have in my old photo albums. I pull out those photos and mark the dates on them with Post-It notes. Then I find the companion negatives in my file so I can compare them to the prints I have. More often than not, I’ve discovered extra images on the negatives for which I have no print! I either lost the print along the way, or I gave it away to somebody for some reason. Luckily, I have a great negative and slide scanner, and I can scan the negatives I need. Then I do some work with the negative image in my graphics program, and put it on a flash drive so I can print the image at CVS. It’s a nice system! Tonight I spent some time looking through all the negatives from the year 1997 – and BOY were there some good memories there! I’m starting to think I should write a book – but it would be much too voluminous! I took my WOG, and then came back inside to finish out the night working with my negatives. While scanning negatives is very satisfying work, it IS very time consuming.
Friday the 6th – AN ANGI ADVENTURE! – My gal Angi came over so we could do some shopping and go to dinner. We drove in the Torino to CVS where I put in the order for 100 prints! WOW! We went to Chin Chin to have dinner while CVS’ printer churned away on my order. We picked up the prints, got some groceries at the grocery store, and then I headed home to start work on the photo albums again. It feels SO gratifying to finally have all the pieces to the puzzle in my possession. I guess I’ve always been a “completionist.” I napped for a bit, and then did my WOG. When I came back inside I continued pasting photos into my photo album. I finished with the year 1996, and now I just need to compose and print the little text boxes that go into the album to generate the narrative. I recorded some auditions and then hit the hay.
Saturday the 7th – TIME CHANGE IDIOCY – OR – WHEN WILL THIS HELL END?! – Most of the day I spent resting, but I got up later to do some work around the house. For some reason I feel more productive during the night-time hours. I did my WOG and it was warm and pleasant out! In fact, it was so warm, I actually got to spend some time outside in the anti-gravity chair cooling down after my exercise! While I sat there gazing at the western night sky, I saw the weirdest thing. I saw an orange orb with an orange tail head toward the south. It stayed in the sky for about 20 seconds and then – POOF – just disappeared. It was the weirdest thing! I wonder what it was. When I decided to call it a night and go inside, I was in my garage putting my anti-grav chair away and I heard a large THUD that shook my garage. Very strange! I went inside to clean up the place and set all my clocks ahead one hour (there oughtta be a law against this craziness!). When you have as many clocks in your house as I do, this process takes the better part of an hour! I did some more random stuff around the house, and I decided to take the night off from photo album work. Since it’s the first Saturday of the month, tonight was the personal commemoration I call “Laurel & Hardy Theatre.” On the first Saturday of every month I make a nostalgic meal and watch a few Laurel & Hardy films. Honestly it takes me right back to 1973 when I was a kid in Aberdeen, South Dakota watching them on TV every Saturday night at 11pm. I watched two films from the newly-released Blu ray set “Laurel & Hardy; Year Three.” This was the final year of silent films for the boys, as sound came into the picture (literally!) in 1930. The film “Double Whoopee” was one I had never seen before, and it was stunning! As is tradition, I watched the film with the music track, and then watched it again with the commentary track. But there was a third version of this film that absolutely blew me away! In 1970 my old pal (may he rest in peace) Chuck McCann had a TV show in New York called “Laurel & Hardy and Chuck.” He would play L&H films on the show and intersperse comedy and puppet bits between them. He lobbied his TV station (WPIX I believe) to start showing some of the classic Laurel and Hardy silent films. But they said no – no silent films on their air. So Chuck undertook a monster of a project! He and fellow Sons of the Desert founder Al Kilgore decided to DUB the film “Double Whoopee” with dialogue! It was Al’s job to read the lips of all of the actors in the film and write down suitable dialogue, and it was Chuck’s job to do the voices of Stan & Ollie! They added sound effects and built the entire soundtrack to the film! It was utterly amazing! They had intended to do this with all of the Laurel & Hardy silent films, but for some reason it never continued beyond “Double Whoopee!” I wish I would have known about this when Uncle Chuckie was still around. I had so many questions for him! Then I watched the next film in the set called “Bacon Grabbers.” I only have 3 more films in the set after this. I LOVE watching these restored versions!
Sunday the 8th – SUNDAY SERENITY! – When I finally got up and around I did some more work on my photo albums. I’m really proud of myself that I’ve hit my stride and gained so much momentum with this project! Not only is my collection of negatives getting cataloged and filed properly, but my photo albums are finally looking neat and orderly. I’m guessing that these albums may be the ones that get passed down to the future generations of Wingerts – if they happen to care. I took my WOG later, and since it was still warm-ish out, I spent some time in the anti-grav chair staring at the sky, thinking, meditating and praying. All in all, a nice night.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
After my WOG, I ran inside to grab my camera to try and capture the blood moon. My camera was having a difficult time focusing, but a few of them came out OK.
Seriously – it still gives me chills to look at this car!
