One of my all-time favorite movies and one of my all-time favorite songs. Since we just watched “Grease” on Blu Ray last Saturday I haven’t been able to get the title song (written by Barry Gibb) out of my head. Franki Valli does a great job on this!
Monday the 9th – SQUIRREL WARS! – I got up early in the morning to head to the Garfield recording session, and when I took Sassie out to do her business there were squirrels everywhere! They were chittering and chasing each other and being generally goofy and cute. I remember about 6 years ago when West Nile Virus virtually decimated the squirrel population in my neighborhood. It was good to see them frolicking about in the grass and trees. Sass’ legs were giving her particular trouble this morning, and it was so cute when a squirrel walked within 10 feet of Sassie with a quizzical look on its face, almost like he was checking to see if she was OK. I got over to Buzzy’s Recording in Hollywood and did a couple of Garfield cartoons. Lots of fun! I rushed home after the session and got ready for “The Tonight Show.” Amy and Jenna, the two South Dakota people I met the night before at DuPar’s were going to be my guest at the show today. I met up with them afterward and gave them a ride to their car. They sure are nice gals and they’ve been having fun while Jenna’s been in town. I got home and took a nap on the couch. But no sooner did I get to sleep than I woke up when I smelled something awful. Sass, who was sound asleep on the living room floor, had done a #2. I got up and investigated, and sure enough she had pottied in her sleep. I moved her outside to hose her off and then cleaned the carpet meticulously. Luckily it wasn’t difficult to clean. But I got really depressed. After having her leg problems in the morning, and now this, I was once again reminded about the mortality of my 12 year old doggie. I didn’t know what to do or how to help her, so I just curled up on the couch and cried for awhile. Oddly enough, it started to rain outside. Perfect. I wrestled with my options…she’s not in pain or having seizures. She’s still eating well (clearly) and has bright eyes and seems relatively happy (aside from getting frustrated about her legs). So putting her down was not really logical to me. But what could I do? After awhile I took Sass outside again and met up with my neighbor who was walking her dogs. She’s a holistic enthusiast and suggested acupuncture. I had considered that before but never followed up. This time I was going to do it! I realized that this could be the answer I was looking for! Not only that, but I’m going to completely retool Sassie’s living arrangements. I’m going to turn the living room into her new living area. I took 24 potty pads and taped them together to lay under her. They covered the entire living room. I’ll carry her up one floor when she eats, but other than that her new living area will be the living room. Less stairs. I’m also going to look into getting one of those potty platforms to put on my patio, so she doesn’t have to walk all the way out into the grassy area. As my pal Bruce Kulick said (who also owns a senior dog) we have to get creative with these senior doggies. Later that night I did some auditions in my studio to send to my agent.
Tuesday the 10th – BACK IN THE TORINO! – I got up early again to do another Garfield session at Buzzy’s. Sassie was MUCH better this morning! It did my heart good. She went outside and went potty all by herself without me carrying her or helping her along. When I got to Garfield the lovely and talented Laraine Newman was back with us again. I always love working with her because I remember watching her on countless Saturday nights when I was a kid. She’s a very talented voice actress too, and always makes us laugh. We finished the episodes early so I had some time to relax at home before “TTS.” I decided that I was going to fire up the Gran Torino and take that into work. I ran a few errands first, then went to NBC. It’s fun to pull on the lot with that, because the car looks like the Starsky and Hutch car, the people in the audience line always think it might be for a comedy bit. And driving it around is a hoot, because people wave and honk. At a stoplight a guy pulled up next to me. I always leave my windows down when I drive it around because I’ve found that people will want to say things to you or ask questions about the car. But this guy said the funniest thing I’ve heard yet. He just nodded his head and said, “Starsky and Mother****ing Hutch!” Funny! “TTS” was fun today because they had more amazing animals on. Whenever the animals are on the show I love to try and go see them in the hallway. On the way home I stopped at Fast Frame to drop off two new pieces of art…an original sketch by my pal Ruben Procopio who gave it to me for my birthday…and an original watercolor sketch by Carroll Spinney…the artist and puppeteer who performs Big Bird on “Sesame Street.” I took a nap on the couch for awhile, and then got up and did some work on the house. I did some auditions and e-mailed them to my agent. Then I made a pizza and relaxed.
Wednesday the 11th – TWO LEGENDS! – I was up early in the morning and headed to Voice Trax West to do a quick session for a Ditto Financial radio commercial. Then immediately after that I did another IVR session. To refresh your memory, I’ve spent the past few months doing recording sessions for a major company who is retooling their phone line. I will be the new voice of their voice-recognition phone system. Which means that every possible word, phrase, city, date, time, etc. needs to be recorded and input into their system. The sessions are normally about 3 hours and over the noon hour. So my stomach starts to growl sometimes and ruins takes. So I went downstairs and ordered some spaghetti so I could munch on that while I worked. It actually made the session more relaxed and pleasant. I went to CVS after the session to get some more of my anti-inflammatory prescription nasal spray. When I got home I got a call from my pal Brian at Profiles in History, the auction place. A major auction was coming up this weekend and one of the items being auctioned was the car used in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!” Brian called to let me know that Chitty was at NBC and was being used in a bit for “TTS!” I hurried on over and met up with Joe from PIH who was there with Chitty. It was amazing to see the car in person! It hadn’t changed a bit since the movie was filmed! The guy who did all the driving of Chitty in the movie owned it. In fact, he took the car in lieu of salary on the film. Now he had decided to auction it off. And since Dick Van Dyke was on the show today, they did a bit with Dick and Chitty. When Dick was heading to the stage to go talk to Jay, I went out into the hallway to watch him. As the band was playing and he was getting ready to go on, he was doing a little soft-shoe dance. It was great! He looked fantastic. And he’s 85! It made all of the people on the crew smile, getting to see this legend enjoying himself. After the show was over I went back into the hallway and Dick walked by me. I said “Hi.” And with a giggle in his voice he said, “HI!” in typical Dick Van Dyke fashion. Amazing! As I was leaving the building and heading to my car I heard somebody say, “Wally!” I turned around and didn’t see anyone so I continued on. Then I heard “Wally!” I turned around and there was Jay! He said, “Happy Birthday! Sorry I couldn’t make it to your party. I was in Seattle but I would have come!” I told him thanks a lot and we had some cool cars there. He said, “Yeah, i heard it was fantastic!” Wow. What a cool guy. That really made my day! When I got to my car I was talking to the Lighting Designer Gary. He’s worked at NBC for many years and we were talking about his experience working with Dick Van Dyke on “Van Dyke and Company” the show that introduced Andy Kaufman to the world. It was amazing listening to Gary’s stories of his work in the business! I got home and took another nap on the couch, and then did my auditions. GREAT DAY!
Thursday the 12th – JOURNALS ON THE JOURNEY! – I hadn’t worked on “Family Guy” for well over a year. But today my agent got me in again to see Casting Director Linda Lamontaigne. On my drive over, I took my little digital recorder and recorded journals all the way. A few weeks ago I decided to get a recorder and fill it with stories, thoughts, feelings and opinions about life, and my life in particular. That way after I’m gone, my descendants will have some sort of insight into what I was all about and the history of things. I talked all the way to the “Family Guy” studios. It was great to be back and see everybody again. Seth wasn’t there that day because I hear he’s working on a film in Boston. Steve Callaghan directed the session. Quick, easy and fun! I was headed back to Voice Trax West to continue with another IVR session. Today we had difficult city names to read and it was getting frustrating for the producers, the engineer and myself. But, it had to be done. There was no way around it. I got over to “TTS” and did the show. Then I hopped in the Torino and headed to Jerry’s Famous Deli. I was meeting with my pal Brandee who used to work on “Family Guy.” She had a project she wanted to talk to me about. It was fun parking the Torino on the street and watching all the people walk by and check it out. One guy in particular named Ray, came inside and started talking to me. He had a fascinating story. He loved cars and had many, but got hit by a bus and was in a coma for a long time. He was a major architect responsible for aspects of the L.A. airports, the police building, Ontario airport, and more! At one point he said he ran a company of 43,000 employees! He was a great guy to talk to…fascinating stuff! After a great dinner I headed home and passed out in bed. What a busy day…what a busy week!!
Friday the 13th – YEAH, IT’S FRIDAY THE 13TH ALRIGHT! – We did the IVR session today, which would be the last 3 hour session in a 3 day week. Next week we’ll go to 3 hour sessions 1 day a week. But nothing was going right. We had a bunch of stuff to do in a short amount of time, but there were gremlins in the machines! But once we got going we breezed through it. The director had kept my previous pronunciations from another session. These were difficult names of cities in the middle east, China, Russia and other areas. So he would play me my reference from a different session, and I would repeat the name of the city in a different inflection. As soon as I took my eye off the script and just listened to what he was playing it seemed to go well. I closed my eyes and just received the information on a purely auditory level. Once we did that it was smooth sailing! That afternoon my pal Eric and his wife Emily were at “TTS.” I made a point to find them afterwards. Eric was in town to tape a segment for the show “Hollywood Treasures” at the big Profiles in History auction that was set for the weekend. Eric owned the Robin cart which attached to the Batcycle in the 1966 “Batman” TV series. Eric’s quite an expert in all things cars, so I made sure to drive the Torino to the studio that day. I gave he and his wife Emily a ride back to their car when the show was over. Then I took them over to Planet Wallywood to check out the collection. But neither of them had eaten since 10 that morning, so we went to The Counter to enjoy some great hamburgers! My friend Amanda had come to town and went along too! What fun! We talked cars, guns (Eric is a former cop) and more. We had fun speculating what certain items would go for at the auction. Then I went home and grabbed a nap. Later that night I got up and did work around the house all night. My FAVORITE kind of Friday night!
Saturday the 14th – WASN’T THERE A MOVIE NAMED THAT? – I was awakened around 11am (on Saturdays and Sunday I prefer to sleep as long as I can!) by the roofers who needed to repair a small leak. During one of the last huge rainstorm tiny drops of water were coming into my living room. Shortly after they got here, my maids arrived. I picked up the tapestry of potty pads in my living room so they could clean up. Then later the Time Warner guys came over to search for my cable. One of their techs had been over last Wednesday but couldn’t find where the cable was coming into my house. So they had to bring in an expert and some cool detection equipment. They finally found the cable and hooked up my new cable internet modem. Hopefully it will be better than the DSL service I had been getting recently! I got a call from Sassie’s vet giving the go-ahead for acupuncture! He said that the condition that Sassie has called Degenerative Mylopathy could greatly benefit from that technique. I was elated! Sassie could improve! My friend Edi’s dog Bunny improved years ago from acupuncture when she had a back issue. I was SO happy! But neither Amanda or I had eaten anything so we were raring to go get a late lunch. I called my old pal Chuck McCann and he met us at DuPar’s. Then it was back to Planet Wallywood for movie night. Tonight it was “Licence to Kill” featuring Timothy Dalton as James Bond, and one of my all-time favorites “Grease!” After everyone left Amanda and I watched an episode of “Baretta.” Amanda had never seen a “Baretta” episode and when Robert Blake came on screen she said, “Wow! He’s buff!” Even though I had a rather “interesting” personal experience with Mr. Blake at a recent autograph show, I still regard him as one of the most talented and interesting TV actors of my generation. He’s always so fun to watch!
Sunday the 15th – HOUSE OF BLUES DEBUT! – Late on Saturday night my pal Bruce Kulick asked if I would sing back-up for a song he was doing at House of Blues on Sunday evening. He has done the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp for years now, and he had been spending the past week busily preparing the “campers” for their Sunday evening concert. (Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp has people come in from all walks of life who fancy themselves musicians, and pairs them with rock musicians who teach them how to form a band and perform) Though I had been up very late the night before I headed over to AMP rehearsal studios in North Hollywood to meet up with his group. They would be doing an original song written by their singer and they needed some male back-up vocals. It was a good time. We ran through the song a few times and then Amanda and I went to get lunch. She had to go meet a friend who was doing a play that night, so she took off. I got on the computer and monitored the Profiles in History auction. I knew that the item I was interested in (one of Jim Carrey’s Tony Clifton tux jackets from “Man on the Moon”) would be going up between 4-5pm. That would give me enough time to bid and get to church at 5:30. But at 5:00 they put the auction on hold! WHAT? The note on the internet said 15 to 20 minutes. I figured that would be OK, I could still bid and I’d just be a little late to church. But they didn’t start up again until 5:45! Rob from Profiles called just before the jacket went up for auction and 2 minutes (and $900) later, I had myself an original Jim Carrey Tony Clifton tux! I grabbed my bicycle and headed over to church. I got there at 6:00 and Pastor Bob was just staring the main sermon. Whew! When church was over I got home, got showered and changed and met up with my pal Edi. We went to House of Blues and checked in with Bruce. His pal Chad would also be singing back-up so we hung out waiting for our turn. We saw Sammy Hagar and a few other rock folks hanging around. I heard somebody refer to this one guy as “Kip” and realized that it was Kip Winger. I wanted to say, “Hey Winger, it’s Wingert!” But he wouldn’t have gotten the joke. We got on stage and had a great time. But Edi was famished and the House of Blues kitchen was closed. CLOSED? So we went down Sunset to Mel’s Diner and had some food there. What a great day, especially since I hadn’t really anticipated doing anything like that. A total surprise! I headed home and was absolutely exhausted!
And how was YOUR week??!!!
At the House of Blues
