RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
Can you tell me the name of the rifle pictured here? If your response was “what rifle?”, then I like you even more!
A few weeks ago a band named Boxer Rebellion was on “The Tonight Show” and they performed this song called “Diamonds.” Much like “Walking in Your Footsteps” by Shout Out Louds (which I featured here about a month ago)“Diamonds” has a wonderful sound which is heavy on 80’s influences. I love it and I’ve been humming it all week!
Monday the 17th – CRYSTAL CLEAR!! – I got a hotline call at 11:30 to be into “The Tonight Show” early at 1:45. And no sooner did I hang up the phone than my agent called back and moved the time up to 1:30. So I shot right out of bed and got ready to head in. The first guest on the show would be Billy Crystal, and I pre-arranged with the segment producer to bring in my lifesize Mike Wazowski figure to have Billy sign. I taped off the area where I wanted him to sing. At first I thought having him sign the top of Mike’s head would be cool. But then I decided to have him sign the blue metal base that Mike is attached to. So I taped off that area and got out a brand new silver Sharpie. I also taped a note to it (written on “TTS” stationery) instructing Mr. Crystal whom to sign it to. I pulled my Mustang out of the garage, put the top down, got out a black sheet, and lugged Mike down the stairs. He’s not that heavy, but with his outstretched arms he’s a little cumbersome to carry. I strapped him in, put the black sheet over him, and took off. But the black sheet didn’t last long. The wind whipped it off, so there I was…driving down the street with a big one-eyed green monster sitting in my backseat. It was awesome! People were snapping photos, stopping their cars, pulling up next to me, yelling and hollering and laughing…crazy! Mike’s about 3 feet tall so he really has a presence. The funniest part was when I stopped for gas at a station at a very busy intersection. I got him to NBC at 1:15 and hauled him up to the segment producer’s office. Then I went downstairs to record some comedy bits. When I finished the bits I went over to the world famous NBC Commissary and got a sandwich for lunch. During the taping a PA (Production Assistant) came down to the audio booth to tell me that Mike was signed and ready to go! They had put him on a rolling cart and put him in the prop area. So all I had to do was pull my car up to the big doors in back of Stage 11, load him up, and I was on my way home! The segment producer said that Billy actually LOVED my Mike figure, and commented at what great shape it’s in. He said it’s in much better shape than the one he has at home. I got home and popped Mike back inside safe and sound. I spent some time finishing up Wally’s Week for the previous week, took Roxy for a walk, and then napped until 12:30am! At that point I got up and did my auditions in my home studio, e-mailed them to all my agents, and did a little work around the house. Then I settled down for the night with another episode of “Hawaii Five-O” from the Season 11 DVD set.
Tuesday the 18th – ROXY & RUBY! – I got another hotline call at 11:30 to be in early to “TTS” at 1:45. I got up, walked Roxy, and prepped for my day. Just as I was leaving my contractor Terry came over to continue working on the new storage bins. I went to my printer’s to get some new signage made for Planet Wallywood, I hit the hardware store to pick up a new extension cord for my Riddler trophy, and then I stopped by Subway to get a footlong tuna on white. I got to “TTS” and did a comedy bit, then hung out until the taping. After the show was wrapped, I headed over to the bank to make a deposit, hit Rite Aid to get some supplies (and a GREAT ice cream cone!), and then I headed home. My neighbor Matt has a beautiful golden retriever named Ruby. I have NEVER seen this dog any less than ecstatically happy. So we took Roxy and Ruby down by the L.A. wash for a little off-leash time. It was great, but Roxy got exhausted pretty quickly. She’s just not used to those loooong walks. Plus, Ruby is about 3 years younger than her, so Ruby’s crazy energy helped to exhaust Roxy prematurely. When I got back inside, Roxy settled into one of the beanbags to nap. I did a little more work around the house, and then got on my computer to clean up some of my music and photo files. There were several redundancies I needed to correct. Then I did my auditions and sent them to my agents. Technology was not my friend this day. My new region free player upstairs comes on no matter what I turn on. If I turn on the Blu Ray player, it comes on. If I turn on the DVD player, it turns on. If I turn on my VHS player (yes, I still have one) it turns on. I have to go into the closet (where all my A/V equipment lives) and manually turn it off. I tried to fill my ice tray from my water cooler, but nothing was coming out. I took off the jug of water and found a huge cake of ice residing in the base of my water cooler. So the thermostat must be broken. It also seemed like it may be leaking too. Time to call Arrowhead and get a replacement. Plus, when I hooked up my Riddler trophy, it would only come on when some of the other lights are on. Even though it’s not tied into those circuits. Odd. I decided to call it a day and hit the hay.
Wednesday the 19th – CORPORATE INSANITY! – I slept until 12:30, as there weren’t any hotline calls. I got up to move my car out of the garage so Terry could get in and work on the storage bins. I called Arrowhead to have them replace the cooler, checked my e-mail, and headed over to my accountant’s office to do some work on my corporation account. I stopped at the McDonald’s drive-thru for lunch and then headed over to NBC. We taped the show and when we wrapped, I headed home to straighten up for guests. One of the “TS” editors was bringing a buddy by Planet Wallywood to take the tour. When they finished up, I got back to work on my corporate account stuff and ordered in a pizza from Pizza Hut. When my fingers were clean, I signed a bunch of photos to send to people who e-mail me for autographed pictures. I took a quick dip in the jacuzzi, did some auditions, then grabbed a short nap. Sara came by to pick up some mail that needed to go to the post office. I got up at 2, fed Roxy and took her on our regular late-night stroll through the neighborhood. I got back inside and headed to bed to watch another “Hawaii Five-O” episode from the Season 11 DVD set. Strangely enough, I’m usually finished up by the time “The Garfield Show” comes on Boomerang at 6am. So if I’m not feeling particularly tired, I’ll watch a few episodes of that. It’s fun!
Thursday the 20th – INVENTION DAY! – I got another hotline call to be in early to “TTS,” so I got up at noon and got ready to go in. Terry came to start working on the storage bins again, and I took Roxy for a walk. The Arrowhead guy would be bringing over a new water cooler to exchange for the old broken one, so even if I’m gone Terry can let him in. I took off for the printer’s to pick up my signage order, then I went to NBC to tape the comedy bit they needed me for. Then I hopped back in the Mustang and went over to the Wendy’s drive-thru to get lunch. I stopped by It’s a Wrap to see if there were any clothing items I liked (no go), and then back to NBC to tape the show. When we finished I stopped by my mailbox and got some mail, and then went home to feed my cat Spook and walk my dog Roxy. Somebody had sent me some photos to sign and send back to them, and one of the pics was the shot of my cat Spooky and I. I guess people really like that shot. Spook looks so cute in it! I did my auditions and got them out of the way for the night. Then I started cutting my signage out to mount next to my displays. The wording on the Batman sign was wrong, so I have to have that redone. The Beetlejuice sign was perfect, so I mounted that. And the Tony Clifton sign was perfect, but when I attached it to the bottom of the frame which contained the original Tony Clifton foam latex nose (donated by Tony’s keeper Bob Zmuda) the weight of the frame tilted it forward. I goofed around with all sorts of ideas to get the frame to be straight, but no dice. Finally, after a few hours of frustrating experimentation, it paid off! I used a thin piece of armature wire which I anchored into the wall in a nail hole. Then the other end was threaded through the blue curtain, which hangs behind Clifton. I bent the end of the wire into an oblong shape, and it supported the weight of the frame perfectly! My friend Emily came over to give me a massage, as I hadn’t had one in awhile and I was feeling tense. First I hopped into the jacuzzi, but again…it was only 99 degrees. I’m not sure why it keeps going down to 99 degrees when it’s supposed to be set at a constant 105 for therapeutic purposes. Once again, I called the office to let them know. After the massage (I nodded off during it, it was THAT good!) I got up to do some work around the house. But I still had a lot of the massage oil on me, so I left little grease spots wherever I touched. I fed and walked Roxy, then came back inside to watch another episode of “Hawaii Five-O” from the season 11 DVD set. I’m not sure what was going on at that time, but I can really tell that Jack Lord was reading his lines off of a cue card. Maybe he was so busy promoting the show he didn’t have time to learn his lines. Strange. I made an awesome batch of my world infamous Buffalo Mac and dined while I watched Mr. Lord and company. It was a very long day. I was bushed!
Friday the 21st – FOUR OUT OF FIVE! – I got yet another hotline call to be in early to NBC for a comedy bit. I was due at 12:30, so I got up and let the maids in at 11:30 to clean Planet Wallywood. Sara came by at noon to stay with the maid while I sped off to work. I recorded the comedy bit and then went to the world famous NBC Commissary to get a salad. I came back and ate my lunch and hung out until the taping started. I opened the show, then sat back to watch the taping. But I must’ve been really tired because I nodded off a few times during the show. I’m glad it was Friday! I made it home and did some work around the house and on the computer, then I grabbed a quick nap. Later my pal Brittney Powell came by to join me for dinner at Miceli’s. I had been craving their lasagna for quite awhile, so it would be good to enjoy some hot bread and butter, and rich, delicious lasagna! When I got back I cleaned the place up a bit, and my pal Mike from Chicago stopped by with some pals to tour Planet Wallywood. They had been at a party, and the only time they could make it by was later at night. Which is fine by me because I’m nocturnal, for the most part. When they left I spent some time looking up things on YouTube, and I examined a map of Aberdeen, South Dakota (where I used to live, and where I’ll be visiting over the 4th of July holiday week). It was fun seeing a lot of the old areas in which I used to hang out. I really loved the Google street view, where I could see my old house, the building that housed the radio station where I used to work, and Twist Cone…my favorite ice cream stand! What fun! I fed Roxy and took her on our late-night jaunt. Then I made a hearty salad and watched some more H5-0!
Saturday the 22nd – SUPER SATURDAY! – I went to bed at 8am, then got up at noon to let Terry into the garage to work. After I walked Roxy I went right back to sleep for another four hours. When I got up at 4 I decided to hop in the Torino and go get some grocery items for movie night. The Torino had been sitting idle for a week and a half, and I was afraid it wouldn’t start again. But it fired right up! I think that’s the key. Start it up and drive it around for a little bit about every two weeks or so! Don’t let her get too sleepy! When I came home my friend Nancy came over to take a swim and a dip in the jacuzzi, so I joined her. The water was perfect! The pool was amazing, and the jacuzzi was back up to 105 where it belonged! In fact, we were still in the pool when my movie night guests arrived. And almost everyone was wearing Superman shirts! Purely coincidentally! We watched the very last episode of Dick Van Dyke’s 70’s-era variety show “Van Dyke and Company,” and then watched “Oz The Great and Powerful” on Blu Ray. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I loved all of the foreshadowing that was included to lead into the original “Wizard of Oz.” At the end of the evening we watched another episode of “Tiger and Bunny” on Blu Ray. I was elated to find out that an ad-lib I did (which I was POSITIVE would be cut out) was left in! While we were dubbing the episode, I was recording a scene where Wild Tiger rips a machine gun off of a robot and uses it to fire upon the other robots. In the original there’s no line of dialogue while he fires away at the robots. So I added a, “Say hello to my little friend!” over that shot. Susie Goldish and I both agreed that, while it was funny, it probably wouldn’t make the final mix. But it did! After the guests left I fed and walked Roxy, and got ready for my usual Saturday Night Saint episode! (Every Saturday I treat myself to an episode of the old British TV show “The Saint” before bed.) I had an awesome sandwich made at the grocery store earlier in the day, so I dug that out of the fridge and had that for dinner! What fun!
Sunday the 23rd – FOOD SO GOOD IT’S EXPLOSIVE! – I got up at 1, walked Roxy, and fell right back into bed. Sundays are normally my catch-up-on-sleep days, since I don’t sleep for long periods during the week. I normally sleep in shifts. Three hours here, four here, one here. There’s just too much to do! But on Sundays I keep my days clear so I can get some quality REM time. I got up in time for evening church, and when I got back home I called my pals Edi and Sara and had them meet me at Barone’s…my favorite Italian restaurant in L.A.! I had a hankerin’ for their pizza something fierce! While I was there the manager Tommy told me about an incident at the restaurant a few weeks back. A pressure valve got stuck on their steam kettle (pressure cooker) and it went KABLOOEY! Blew a hole right through their roof! THANK GOD no one was hurt in the process! With my tummy full of Barone’s amazing pizza, I came home to nap for a bit. Then I got up to do a bunch of auditions, walk Roxy and hit the bed to watch “Hawaii Five-O.” Now it seems like EVERYBODY is reading their lines off cue cards. What was going on back then? Did they just not care any more?!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
My friend Edi’s daughter Ems has a special relationship with my dog Roxy. They enjoy hanging out together.
At my Saturday night movie night, several of my guests came dressed in their Superman gear. It was purely coincidental! Great minds think alike I guess! Though I wasn’t wearing my Superman shirt initially, I decided to put it on a join the club for a photo. But unlike Henry Cavill (the new Man of Steel) I decided to include the famous Superman “S” curl!
Here’s how the Billy Crystal autograph on my lifesize Mike Wazowski figure turned out. What a great guy. Thanks Mr. Crystal!
After church and after dinner, I stepped out of the Fro Yo shop to see this amazing sight. (Though the little cheesy camera on my cell phone doesn’t really do it justice) It’s my church at night with the “supermoon” looming behind it! Beautiful!
