RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
My crazy cat. This past week it was Black Cat Appreciation Day, so Spook gets on social media and posts this picture of himself; trying to fool everyone into thinking he was a black cat. But I was on to him. All he did was put the photo in Photoshop and hit it with the “negative” filter. He must think I’m some kind of idiot or something. I outed him immediately for what he truly is…a WHITE cat!
When I was a kid I had all the soundtracks to the James Bond films. I fell in love with John Barry’s scores; each one with its own identity. But for some reason he wasn’t able to score the 1977 film “The Spy Who Loved Me.” So the duties fell to Marvin Hamlisch, who had great success scoring “The Sting.” Thinking I wasn’t going to like the soundtrack very much, I instead fell head over heels with it! It had a more “poppy,” disco feel (it WAS 1977 after all!) as well as some nods to certain classical pieces. The famous pre-credits scene was probably the all-time greatest in any Bond film. And the song that plays during that scene is called “Bond 77” on the soundtrack. Of course after seeing the film last Thursday, I couldn’t get it out of my mine. Dance away, Bond fan!
Monday the 13th – ADI30 – My week started with a fantastic tour of the special effects studio of ADI, guided by my pal Tom Woodruff, Jr. They’ve been in the business for 30 years this year, and they’ve done everything from Alien to Predator to X-Men films; just about everything you can think of! The studio is fantastic, and after the tour Tom and I went to have a delicious lunch and talk about our origins and childhood dreams. Come to find out, they were both pretty similar. I told him he and I would have been great friends as kids. Tom agreed. I could have stayed talking to Tom all day, but I had to rush home to meet with my DirecTV satellite guy. The other tech that came out a few weeks ago fixed the problem temporarily, but a day after he left, the same problem occurred again. I was having trouble getting certain HD channels in on my upstairs system. He replaced the box and VOILA! Instant fix! I’m not sure why the guy from a few weeks back didn’t do the same thing. After spending 2.5 hours at my house he moved some stuff around and swapped some cables, but no permanent fix. Oh well, it’s fixed now. When he finished I grabbed a nap, and then got up for my nightly auditions and some work around the house. I paid some bills and then got hungry for Denny’s. I phoned them to place a to-go order but they didn’t answer. So dropped the top on my Mustang and drove over there at 3am. After placing my order they told me it would take about 20 minutes. The bar crowd had just showed up and they were quite busy. So, to make the most of my time, I hopped back in my Mustang and headed to my all-night dry cleaners to pick up some laundry. I could do that and be back in 20 minutes easily. I also had time to drop off my bills in the Post Office box, and check the mail in my mailbox. But on the way back to Denny’s some crazy guy was walking down Riverside Drive screaming like crazy. Then he threw something at my car as I drove by and it went KER-THUNK under the front of my car. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I whipped a fast U-turn and stopped. I hit the bright lights so I could get a good look at him, in case I needed to give a description to the police later. He saw me and started walking straight toward me, paying no attention to the car that was coming from the other way. The car had to swerve last-minute to avoid hitting this numbskull. He continued toward me. I had to make a choice. I had a few options to consider, but I took the one that ensured I could get back to Denny’s in time while my food was still hot. The other options involved a lot of clean up and police reports. I put her in reverse, and sped off. I got back home and watched a few more old Johnny Carson episodes and enjoyed my food. Sheesh. I’m getting really sick of idiots.
Tuesday the 14th – POWER RANGER POWER LUNCH! – Later in the afternoon I awoke and got an e-mail from a few Power Ranger fans named Brandon and Katie who were in town for my pal Scott Zillner’s Power Morphicon Power Rangers convention. Brandon had been e-mailing me asking if I was going to be signing there, but I had other commitments. Besides, I never charge for my signature so it would have been odd to just be sitting there signing for free while everyone else around me was charging 20 or 30 bucks. So I agreed to meet them for dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli so I could meet them and sign all of the stuff they wanted me to sign. They live in Indianapolis and are a very nice couple; we had a blast chatting. As if by fate, my fellow Voice Actors Lex Lang and Sandy Fox strolled into eat. I waved them over to our table and we ended up chatting for quite a while. Lex and Sandy were signing at the Power Morphicon that weekend, and come to find out; Brandon had done a considerable amount of graphics work for them in the past. So it was a bit like old home week. Great fun! I invited Brandon and Katie to Planet Wallywood for a quick tour, and just as we were leaving Jerry’s their friends from the U.K. arrived. George and James had flown a great distance to attend the Power Morphicon, so I invited them along for a tour as well. We all had a blast and they had a lot of fun checking out all the wacky stuff in my house. Just as they left my friend Brittney Powell came over to do some work and when she finished I grabbed a nap. I got up later and did an audition, wrote Wally’s Week, and then spent the rest of the night working around the house.
Wednesday the 15th – MID-WEEK MELLOW! – I slept the majority of the day, but got up later in the afternoon to make calls, answer e-mails, and just take care of business. Later I visited my stylist Andie to get a touch up on my color, and then I hit Jack in the Box to get some food to go. I did some more work around the house, did a bunch of auditions, and made a Tombstone pizza and watched a few more Johnny Carson episodes. Albert Brooks was the guest and did an absolutely hysterical bit with one of those old Speak And Spell toys. He’s a genius.
Thursday the 16th – BUFFED UP BATS AND BOND! – Speaking of genius, my pal Kelly Delcambre came over around 2 and he brought with him my new, improved “buff” Adam West Batman figure. Well, at least the torso portion. The mannequin upon which I have my Batman costume displayed has nice arms, shoulders and legs, but the torso looks very “girly.” I’ve never liked that portion of it, and since it has Adam West’s lifemask on it just didn’t look like the build we’ve come to know and love. As an artist who deals with these sorts of things all the time for collectors and producers, Kelly was able to “buff” him up so he looks a little more normal. Then we drove over to Jerry’s for lunch and chatted about his recent trip to his hometown of New Orleans. I got back home and did a little work, and then headed to Little Toni’s to meet up with Elliot Lurie and his wife Edi. I had tickets to see “The Spy Who Loved Me” that night, as part of the Laemmle theatre’s Throwback Thursday “Shaken Not Stirred” James Bond presentation. Each Thursday in August they’d be showing a different Bond actor in their glory. The first week was “Goldfinger,” then “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (see last week’s Wally’s Week for details!) and tonight it’s Sir Roger Moore (my favorite 007) in “TSWLM.” Elliot had never seen a Moore Bond film before, but he always loved watching “The Saint.” So this would be a real treat for him. After the movie I went home to nap and do some work around the house.
Friday the 17th – WHERE DID THE WEEK GO?! – In the afternoon I had a conference call with my new partners regarding a literary project we’re undertaking. (VERY exciting news! Can’t wait to tell you about it!) We’re going to talk again next week to iron out some more details and get our attorney on the phone who can guide us through certain aspects of the deal. I did some more work around the house, napped for a bit, and then got up later to get some groceries. I really like shopping in the middle of the night as there are hardly any other shoppers around. I got home, made a delicious Chef Boy Ardee pizza-in-a-boz and watched some more Carson episodes. Good grief do I miss late night television the way it used to be…FUNNY!
Saturday the 18th – A CANCELLATION OF THE CANCELED! – It felt good to sleep most of the day, as I had a very active evening planned. Initially I had canceled this week’s movie night at my house so I could assist in a church function. But a few days before the event I got an e-mail that the gathering had to be postponed. Since I had already canceled movie night, and many of my regular guests had already made other plans, I just figured we’d get together for a small dinner somewhere. We had done that in the past when movie night was canceled, and it was a lot of fun. We always engage in fun, lively conversations. Everyone agreed that Bob’s Big Boy would be the place to go, so I got the Gran Torino out of my auxiliary garage and drove a few of us over in that. It was great having it out again, since it’s been too hot to drive it around much. It was a gorgeous night, and the planets were shining brightly overhead. I dropped everyone off at their cars and went inside to nap on the couch for a bit. I can’t sleep a continuous eight hours like normal people. After about 4 or 5 hours my eyes pop open and I’m ready to attack the day. However, I still get eight hours every day…but in shifts. 4 hours here, 3 hours here, etc. It seems to work better for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still get good, quality REM sleep. But just in shorter quantities. Because of my training in meditation, I can usually drop off to sleep almost immediately. When I got up later I stayed up all night doing bookkeeping, paid some bills, went through my bank statements, etc. I don’t look forward to that kind of work, as it makes my eyes cross, but it has to be done. I rewarded myself for my diligence with my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and another episode of “SNL” from the second season DVD set. The guest was Fran Tarkenton and it was a VERY funny episode! It seems like the best episodes are the ones with the most unlikely hosts.
Sunday the 19th – THE BIG 7-0! – By late afternoon I was up and ready to attend my pal Elliot Lurie’s 70th birthday party at his pal Stan’s house. His wife Edi had been planning this for quite a while. Because Stan lived far up in the hills, my pal Mark and I decided it would be best to carpool, since we know how tight parking can be up in the hills. Our first stop was CVS so I could pick up a card and a bottle of Elliot’s favorite beverage Patron Silver. We got to the house and was greeted by a Bernadoodle named Bob….all 110 pounds of him. And he’s not even full grown yet! Stan’s other dog Gracie was a Great Dane and St. Bernard mix named Gracie. Oddly enough, Stan had adopted her from Burt Ward’s Great Dane rescue Gentle Giants many years ago. Small world! If you didn’t know already, Elliot wrote and sang the hit song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” with his group Looking Glass in 1972. So it was fun looking at the collection of photos playing on the monitor when we got there. I introduced him to his wife Edi several years back, and she put on a heck of a party for this illustrious occasion! I also ran into Elliot’s buddy Peter Beckett, who wrote and sang with the group Player. They had the hits “Baby Come Back” and “This Time I’m In It For Love.” He’s a great guy too. What a fun evening! After the party I came home to relax for a bit, and then attacked the 13 auditions in my inbox. I fed and walked Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood, and then came inside to hit the hay. What a fun week!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PICTURES FROM THE WEEK
Photos by Mark Fullerton
Our greeter at Elliot Lurie’s 70th birthday celebration…Bob the Bernadoodle!
The party hostess Edi Lurie did a fabulous job of organizing the festivities!
Elliot and I are having a blast looking old photos from his amazing 70 years!
I love this shot of Elliot from his late 70’s solo album!
While I loved the ample supply of balloons at the party…
…Bob the Bernadoodle didn’t…and he wouldn’t come inside the house!
Gracie the Great is a lot friendlier when there’s food around. Otherwise she’s rather shy.
The sun sets over L.A. and it was a beautiful night to be with good friends!
Here’s Peter Beckett, the voice and songwriter behind the group Player and their hits “Baby Come Back” and “This Time I’m In It For Love!”
Mark and I with the happy Birthday Boy.
In just 7 days…well, it wasn’t Charles Atlas. But Kelly Delcambre buffed up my Adam figure quite nicely with his magic touch! Here’s a before and after.
