RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
While sorting through my old slides this one came up. Back to that time when our radio station got a group of people to show up to the Sioux Falls airport to welcome Cheap Trick back to town for a concert. Good times!
While listening to AM oldies this past weekend, while working on my negative and slide project, the station played the full, unedited version of Peter Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like We Do?” I loved this album as a kid, and this song is a masterpiece. I only wish I could have been there to see it being performed live. I saw him perform in 1979 in Sioux Falls, but I don’t really recall the concert all that much. Here’s a more sedate version of the song on the classic TV show “Midnight Special.” Amazing!
Monday the 17th – “SLIDING” INTO THE WEEK! – Overall it was a pretty lazy day. I spoke with my 93 year-old “adopted grandma” Shirley for a while, and recorded some auditions. I worked around the house, picked out 10 more movies for Shirley to watch (I bring her a new batch when she finished up the previous batch I brought her), and typed out Wally’s Week. Later in the night I walked and fed Roxy, then enjoyed some hammock time on the Tranquility Annex. As soon as I got settled in I saw a shooting star – a nice way to get started! After decompressing and relaxing, I went inside to get ready to call it a day. But before bed, I spent a little time organizing my slides from my days in Sioux Falls and organized them into categories. Then I’ll decide which ones to scan, along with the many negatives I’m going through. But before I work with the negatives I need to get more glassine sleeves to store them in. I’m waiting for the shipment to arrive which will contain about 200 sleeves.
Tuesday the 18th – VISITS???? – Well, it’s the final two weeks of August, and as expected it’s summertime hot! But I love it! I keep thinking of all those sub-zero freezing days from my South Dakota life and suddenly the hot weather doesn’t seem too bad. I stopped by Shirley’s residence to bring her another bag of movies, and noticed two elderly ladies sitting on chairs on the patio and chatting. Then they got up and headed for the front door. One lady went in, and the other lady left. At first I thought they were visiting a resident who was seated inside the building on the other side of the glass. That’s the way they HAD been doing visits with residents; seated behind glass and chatting on the phone (kind of like prison). I started to think that maybe this was an in-person visit; which up to this point had been forbidden at the residence. I’m going to call the residence and inquire about this. Maybe the residence decided to allow in-person visits and Shirley didn’t get the memo? I drove over to my mailbox to pick up my packages, and then went over to the Ford dealership to see why my car was still creaking when I turn the steering wheel. Odd, that when it’s warmed up, it doesn’t do it. It only occurs when I haven’t driven the car for a few days. My pal Sara met me at the dealership to pick me up and we went to Paty’s to have a late lunch on the patio. It was late enough in the day where the weather had cooled off a bit. Plus the restaurant had the misters going and it felt good. It reminded me a lot of the good times in Palm Springs. Sara dropped me off at home and I spent some time on the phone with my folks and my sister Bonnie. Later I did my nightly auditions, worked around the house, and fed and walked Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood. I saw a spider catch two moths in his web right in a row! He was a busy little guy! He almost had a third one, but it escaped from the web within micro-inches! My negative sleeves still haven’t arrived yet, so I spent the evening working on my slides; cataloging them and organizing them. I made hot dogs on the grill and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad.” I LOVE summer and I’m not quite ready to let this one go quite yet. I know everyone is longing for fall, but I LOVE summer!
Wednesday the 19th – VISITS!!!! – It had gotten slightly cooler out and was fairly pleasant for a summer day in late August. I called Shirley’s residence and told them about the two elderly ladies on the patio. Kendra, the gal who works the front desk, said that in-person visits were approved about a month ago. WHAT?!!! Kendra gave me the rules for visits (once a week, a half hour at a time, outdoors, socially distanced – no hugging) and I hit my e-mail chain to let my friends know they can start booking time to visit Shirley! I called Shirley and told her the news, and she was shocked! Nobody had said anything to her or her family! I’m not sure where the communication breakdown occurred, but at least my detective work paid off. The Ford dealership called and said my car needed a part that was on backorder, and it wouldn’t be in until next week. So I had them come pick me up to take me to the dealership so I could have my car in the meantime. Of course the car didn’t recreate the problem I was having, so the mechanics were guessing about the remedy at best. I hit Taco Bell to get some food, and then went home to do an interview on a podcast. My pal Brittney Powell came over later to hang out. I did some auditions, continued working with my slides and cataloging them, and I had a lot of fun. I’m finding some hidden treasures!
Thursday the 20th – GIVE ME THOSE SLIPPERS! – The day started with a visit to my chiropractor’s office for an adjustment. Since I’ve been having problems with a pinched nerve for the last five months, I’ve been seeking chiropractic treatment. But it would seem that I’ve plateaued for now. I called a nerve M.D. in Culver City and arranged for an appointment next week to have a medical determination made to see if there’s any remedy for this situation. I stopped by my mailbox to pick up my packages, and I received the newly released replicas of the Ruby Slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” They’re amazing, and constructed based on the pair that are in the Smithsonian. BONUS! I got my negative sleeves! So I can start back in on my negative cataloging project! I went to the hardware store to buy some new filters for my air conditioner vent (see last week’s Wally’s Week), and then headed home to unpack all my stuff and feed the pets. I set up the Ruby Slippers in my Puppet Room and they looked fantastic. My Dorothy bust is going to go on top of it for two reasons…1) it elevates the bust so the eyeline of the Scarecrow (who’s right next to her) makes it seem like he’s looking right at her, and 2) the way the lighting hits the area really illuminates the slippers nicely. I did put some stretch velvet on the underside of the fiberglass bust so it wouldn’t scratch the top of the Plexiglas case that contains the slippers. Then I started in on cataloging my negatives and putting them in the sleeves. Later I did my nightly auditions, and then typed out all the catalog info for my negative collection. I made a pizza and hit the hay.
Friday the 21st – AND POOF! THEY’RE GONE! – My maids arrived early in the afternoon to clean up Planet Wallywood. I organized some of my slide collection and discovered I have pages and pages of promotional slides from the movie “Batman Forever.” I also called Shirley’s residence to make an appointment for next Tuesday morning. My pal Luke is a storyboard artist who’s creating an animatic for one of the kid’s stories I wrote. It’s turning out VERY nicely and he’s adding a lot of really great elements to it! I started in on cataloging and “sleeving” my negatives, but sure enough I started to run out again! I have a lot of sleeves that I bought that are individual sleeves, but in a set of 9 or 10 negatives that would mean I need to splice the sleeves together to keep them all together. I don’t necessarily NEED to do it that way, but I’m a perfectionist. I still have a long way to go before I’m finished. I’m assuming that by 1983 the photo labs started including the sleeves with the negatives. But since I’m only up to 1981 I still have a ways to go. I hope I can find more for sale on eBay. I fed and walked Roxy, and then came back inside to do more work with the negatives. I turned on AM oldies and listened to them while looking through my memories. It was a fun way to spend an evening! I found several negatives I want to scan because I don’t have companion prints for them. One set was from a radio promotion I shot. Apparently I must’ve given the set of prints to the station back in the day, and didn’t keep a set for myself. So I’m going to scan all of those. I made some Buffalo Mac and watched the final episode of “The Mod Squad” from the final season.
Saturday the 22nd – BLU RAY BLUNDERS! – My stylist Andie came over to give me a touch up on my color (the salons STILL aren’t open in California), and then I started working on my negatives again. Once I ran out of sleeve sets I decided to hold off on splicing the individual sleeves together for the nonce. I’m going to see if I can find more sleeve sheets on eBay first before I start wasting a lot of Scotch tape splicing the individual sleeves together. I hopped on Instagram and chatted with a few friends. Later I decided to count the number of remaining ‘unsleeved’ negatives I still had remaining. That way I would know exactly how many more sleeves I needed to order. The last thing I wanted to do was order too many and have a lot of them left over. I counted a total of 482 negatives strips left that are unsleeved. I have 165 individual sleeves. But I found 400 sleeves sheets on eBay and ordered them. WHAT LUCK! That way I only have to splice together 82 strips at the end of the project. Instead of my usual Saturday Night Super Salad and “Space 1999,” I decided to have another evening of “Laurel and Hardy Theater” (if you remember my ritual from 1974 watching them on TV while living in Aberdeen, South Dakota.) It was a blast watching three shorts from the “Laurel and Hardy Definitive Restorations Blu Ray.” I watched “Come Clean,” “One Good Turn,” and “Me and My Pal.” A few pieces of fun trivia for you….One of Laurel and Hardy’s regular female foils was a terrific comedic actress named Mae Busch. The Blu Ray transfers are so clear, that in one scene featuring a close-up of Mae, it becomes very obvious that the studio in which they were filming must’ve been very chilly…if you take my meaning. Never saw THAT on TV as a kid! Also, I remember a piece of trivia from one of the Sons of the Desert meetings; about why Stan turns violent against Ollie at the end of “One Good Turn.” Normally it’s Ollie who is pushing Stan around. But because Stan’s daughter Lois never liked to see Uncle Ollie pushing her daddy around in the movies, they promised her that Stan would get the upper hand in one of the films. So at the end of “One Good Turn,” when you see Stan take off after Ollie and back him into a woodshed, it’s all for “Little Lois.” And it’s hilarious!
Sunday the 23rd – EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHERE YOU JUST WANT TO BEAM OFF THE PLANET?! – I always hate having “radio nightmares;” awful dreams about being back on the radio and nothing is going right. In these dreams I can’t read the labels on the commercials, I don’t recognize any of the music, I don’t know how to work the controls, and other “live radio” chaos. This was a bad one that included a live, UNCOOPERATIVE studio audience. I got up and fed Spook, but Roxy didn’t seem interested in eating. That always means she’s not feeling well. But Spook ate too fast and had too much water and puked all over. Then, I found out my dryer gave up the ghost. It started THUMP THUMP THUMPING and there wasn’t any heat coming out. I’ve had my house 20 years this month, and the washer/dryer combo came with the house. So the set of Kenmore appliances have put in MORE than their fair share of work. I feel that I got a good additional 10 years out of them anyway. Oh well, time to go shopping on Monday. There’s a neighbor kid who loves screaming at high frequency, ear-piercing levels. Not sure why her parents don’t tell her not to do that, but I can only figure that they must be hearing impaired. But her high pitched screams penetrate into the very core of my brain and rattle me. What a day. Having not eaten anything all day, Roxy puked later in the day. I tried to get her to eat something but I could barely interest her in some food. I tried to scan some slides with my photo scanner but it wasn’t talking to my computer. I need to contact my computer guy to see how to get the drivers installed so I can start using it. This day could not end soon enough. Luckily my auditions went pretty well, and one audition required me to update my resume; something I hadn’t done in a very long time. It was difficult remembering all of the credits I had acquired since the last resume update, but IMDB was a big help! After getting Roxy to eat a little bit, I took her out for our late-night walk. She had diarrhea again, just like a few weeks ago, so that was the perfect end to a really dopey day. But, there’s a new week ahead and things will get better!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Thanks to my pal Sheriff John in Florida, who first made me aware that these replicas were coming, I have a groovy pair of Ruby Slippers now as part of my Oz display in the Puppet Room.
