August 19 – August 25 (2024)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

One of the photos I found in my Miscellaneous Memories boxes was a newspaper clipping of me as Beetlejuice with a park guest. I found it very funny that the writer of the article thought I was a mime. A MIME?! Good grief. Haven’t they ever seen Beetlejuice?!

After the Jeff Lynne’s ELO show this past Saturday, I’ve been humming the song “Twilight.” In fact, to quote ELO, I “can’t get it out of my head.”

Monday the 19th – AIRDATE SET! – In an unusual turn of events, I slept all night! Normally I’m up all night, but I just felt like sleeping. The stress of losing my main data drive on my computer had caught up to me. (See last week’s Wally’s Week!) I got up unusually early and lounged around. The week is wide open so far, which is good because I have a lot of work to do restoring my computer system. I realize there’s probably no way it’ll be the way it was on August 14th, but I’m hoping for the best. My computer guy Brian lives in Denver, and I’m flying him in this week to do some diagnostic work, and to set up a whole new system, if necessary. I’m holding out hope that he’ll be able to restore the broken internal drive, but I realize the chances of that aren’t very high. The good news is…I got an email from ME-TV telling me that my episode of “Collector’s Call” will air on Sunday night September 8th! Very cool! I hope I don’t come off as too much of a dork! I chatted with Brian on the phone and I nailed down his airplane ticket, so he’ll be here Wednesday to start work. We’ll have Wednesday night, all day Thursday, and most of Friday to work before I split for Palm Desert on Friday night for the opening show in the ELO “Over and Out” final tour. The idea thus far is for me to have my own “cloud” server in my house with quadruple redundancy. My data will be stored on an internal drive, and from that internal drive a specific program (hopefully one more reliable than the previous back-up program I had) will back up every update in regular intervals to the two RAID internal hard drives in my server, as well as an external 20tb drive I purchased. One can’t be too careful any more. During my home studio sessions the producer usually asks me to record a back-up of the session on my end. So seeing as how I’m responsible for a lot of important data, no price is too high for the security of knowing those files will be secure. My cat Spook was very cuddly today, and he’s getting more cuddly the older he gets. I recorded my nightly auditions later, and then took my late-night WOG (walk/jog) through the complex, and finished it off with some quality time in my anti-gravity chair staring at a gorgeous full moon and enjoying an iced tea. I came back inside to type Wally’s Week, and then I went through my bank statements to reconcile everything in my records.

Tuesday the 20th – SUMMER! FINALLY! – When I got in the Gray Ghost to drive over to Paty’s to have lunch with my pal Chris Malmin the temperature readout said it was 101 degrees. Finally we’re getting some summer! But just like that, we’ll hit a cooling trend toward the end of the week. In fact, the extended forecast for the Palm Springs area this weekend (when I’ll be there for the ELO concert) is only calling for a high of about 96 degrees. You must understand… normally in August in Palm Springs, the temp is usually about 120 in the shade! Chris and I enjoyed a 3 hour lunch, catching up on all sorts of stuff. Since I’ve known him for almost 40 years, he’s a bit like my little brother. So it’s always good catching up. On the way home I chatted with Brian who asked me to pick up a special type of reader at Best Buy that will look at my damaged internal drive. He emailed me exactly what I needed, I got on-line with Best Buy and bought it, and drove over to my local store to pick it up. While I was there I got a new 20tb drive to use as a new external drive as well. I drove home and got some McDonald’s food at the drive-thru, since it had been about 5 hours since my lunch with Chris. As I drove home heading east on Ventura Boulevard I was heading straight toward a giant, golden full moon in the sky. It. Was. Stunning! I got home and did my nightly auditions. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair, marveling at the same full moon I had seen a few hours earlier. It was another gorgeous night out. The hotter the days…the warmer the nights. And I love it! When I got back inside I went through another box of my Miscellaneous Memories. I found a few funny notes from Adam West that made me laugh. I sure miss that guy. I made a few fun discoveries, but I ended up throwing a ton of stuff away that I just didn’t need any longer. But I kept a lot of great photos and even some various love letters from former flames. What fun to read them again!

Wednesday the 21st – BACK-UP/SCHMACK-UP! – After doing some work around the house all day I consolidated all of the stuff I decided to keep from the second Miscellaneous Memories box with the stuff from the first box. After I threw out the unneeded stuff, two boxes fit into one big plastic bin. I took it down to the garage, after doing a rough inventory of the contents, and stored it. I have one more box to go through, but I want to get this computer thing out of the way first. While I waited for Brian’s flight to get in I did a ton of auditions. The first thing he did when he arrived at 8 was set up his laptop, plug in the reader that I bought, and pop in the damaged drive. It just groaned, grinded and gasped – no go! It’s dead, Jim. Aside from sending it to a service and having them do an expensive forensic restoration job on it, it’s pretty hopeless. That can’t happen for two good reasons – 1) I have a lot of studio-protected NDAs, documents and IP on that drive, along with a lot of personal and financial documents which I don’t prefer to have running around out there. 2) While my old back-up system didn’t grab everything to bring it up to date, it did manage to bring several documents into a smaller internal drive – which I have managed to save. But there will be a gap of several months when it comes to audio files, photos, videos, etc. That stuff will most likely be lost forever. I’ll be able to restore a lot of the photos and videos I took, which are still on my camera’s SD card, but that will take a fair amount of detective work. Luckily, my most recent back-up was one I manually did back in February. I just need to restore all those folders and at least I’ll have some stuff from this year. But from now on I’m going to be very proactive about checking on the regular back-ups that the program is supposed to be performing. Technology has let me down so many times before so I need to start keeping a closer eye on my main system. So, I’ll repopulate the new system with as much stuff as I can over the next few weeks, and I’ll only be adding the most relevant date. I’ll take this as a good opportunity to do a “clean and mean” restoration. Besides, if I discover that something in particular is missing, I have lots of older drives that I can always go searching through to find what I need. First thing Thursday Brian and I are going shopping at Best Buy to assemble all the items we need for the new system. He’s building me something called a RAID system, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Discs. Cool.

Thursday the 22nd – RAID!!! – Just after noon Brian came over and we hit the road for Best Buy. He didn’t need a list of needed items. He had them down in his head already. I told him I didn’t want to use anything I already had. I only wanted ALL NEW stuff. Given the fact that a lot of the equipment I already had was pretty old, I felt it was best to start fresh with all new stuff. We found the gear we needed and headed to Paty’s for lunch on the patio to discuss our plan of attack and order of importance. Then we headed back to Planet Wallywood and started the process. For a first day, it went very well. Later I did my nightly auditions, took my WOG, and transferred some stuff to the new internal drive. While the transfer proceeded I went outside to enjoy some anti-grav time…but it was COLD! I guess our short-lived summer weather was over already, almost as quickly as it started. So I came back inside to do some work.

Friday the 23rd – OVER AND OUT! – Brian came over again just after noon and finished everything up. He will need to “remote in” for a few hours next week from his home in Denver, and we facilitated that by setting up some things on my system. Next week I’ll begin the process of weeding through all the old stuff and keeping only the good stuff. After Brian left I packed up for my weekend trip to Palm Desert to catch the opening concert in the “Over And Out” tour featuring Jeff Lynne’s ELO! I’ve seen them four times before, and since this is the last tour, I’ve got tickets to four shows. Exciting! They’ve always been one of my favorite bands, and Jeff is a musical genius! I left the house around 8, and a little after 10 I pulled into the hotel. It’s great because this hotel is literally just a few blocks from the Acrisure Arena where the concert will be held. It’s a smaller venue that seats about 11,000 people, but it’s almost brand new – having just opened in December of 2022. On the 10 freeway, heading to Palm Desert, I passed up my old friend the 111 freeway, which leads directly into Palm Springs. That was my routine for about 13 years during my frequent trips there. It gave me a weird, sad feeling to have to pass it up. My routine was always this – as soon as I hit the 111 I would call the Palm Springs Denny’s with my order. By the time I got off the 111 and over to Denny’s, my order was ready. Then my dog Roxy and I would check into the Hyatt in downtown Palm Springs, and eat our dinner before a night filled with star watching. I miss those days. But Roxy’s gone, and the Hyatt isn’t the same as it used to be…so I’ve stopped going. When I got out of the car in Palm Desert it was a warm, breezy, gorgeous desert summer night. I had really REALLY missed the desert! DAMN, have I missed this! The gal at the front desk checked me into room 134, which was funny. I took the 134 freeway out of LA to get there. The number of the freeway exit I took to get to the hotel was number 134. And now I get room 134. Wild! However, when I got my stuff loaded into the room, I looked out the window and realized it was right next to the pool. If the kids start swimming early in the morning and screaming, my peace and relaxation was going to be in jeopardy. I went outside for a while to enjoy more of the night, and then went back in and asked the girl if I could switch to a room on the other side of the hotel – facing the dark, northwestern, desert sky. She put me in 215 which was higher, and faced the dark part of the desert landscape. Beautiful! As I got a cart and hauled all of my luggage to the new room, I realized…I LOST MY PHONE! I went back to check my old room – nope. I went out to the Gray Ghost – nope. I asked the gal at the front desk to call my number in case I could hear it ringing somewhere in my luggage – nope. Rats! I retraced my steps to find it. I thought back to me unloading all my stuff from the car. When I hoisted one of my bags, did it knock my phone off my pocket? I checked the area where I had previously parked…and there it was! Face down in the sand! Which explained why I didn’t hear it hit the ground. It hit soft sand! Thank God! There was a Jack In The Box right by the hotel, so I got some food and went back to my room to eat, while looking out the window at the gorgeous desert night. Feeling a bit restless, I asked the front desk gal (she was probably sick of me by now!) if she had a chair I could borrow. She got a chair out of one of the hotel’s meeting rooms, I took it outside, and I sat it down on the sidewalk surrounding the hotel and stared at the sky and relaxed. When I had “come down” sufficiently I was feeling very relaxed. I went inside and hit the hay.

Saturday the 24th – SPIDER BITES, DELI DELICIOUSNESS, AND ROCK AND ROLL! – My gal Angi arrived a little later than she had planned because she had gotten bitten on the ankle by a spider. Being very allergic to spider bites she took Benadryl, which knocked her out so hard she slept through her alarm. But an early morning call from me got her on her way, even though she decided to sleep off the medication for a few more hours before driving that long distance. She arrived in time for lunch, and we drove over to Sherman’s Deli (it’s always been one of my favorite places in Palm Desert) for lunch with Officer Mark and Miss Connie. When my “adopted grandma” Shirley was living in Palm Desert at a place called Bella Villagio, I would drive in from Palm Springs to get her, pick her up, and then go to lunch. But I would always approach her place from the south on Country Club Drive. But this time I approached the restaurant from the north. When I passed Portola Avenue and Country Club, I saw Bella Villagio and I got a lump in my throat and a small tear in my eye. I took my cap off in salutation and said, “Miss ya, Shirley. Love ya!” Good times. A Google search I did on Thursday for Sherman’s Deli showed that the restaurant was “Temporarily Closed.” What?! But Officer Mark said he called them Saturday morning and they were open for business. Did the internet lie? Come to find out, they had been closed for a week for a deep cleaning. After lunch we headed back for a quick nap before the concert. We got to the arena by 7, parked very close to the exit (so we could make a hasty exit at the end of the evening) and walked up to the arena. After making it through the metal detector we headed in. We walked ¾ of the upper concourse to have a look around. We were struck by the lack of available signage, both inside and outside. The streets leading to the arena could have been marked better. And the signage inside wasn’t very good either. It was my only complaint about the place, which otherwise was gorgeous and state of the art! We were in line for merch for about 45 minutes, and just as we completed our purchases we heard the opening band start. We had our bottles of water and headed down to find our seats. But as we got to the floor, there was a guard there with a plastic bag full of plastic cups, and he made us pour our water into the cups. Because a few knuckleheads in the past have thrown bottles of water at the performers on stage, they’ve ruined it for everybody. I, for one, didn’t want to sit at a concert holding an open cup of water. Besides, based on the average age of the attendees at this concert, anyone tossing a water bottle would most likely do so at the risk of throwing out their shoulder! We found our way to our seats and got set for the show. The opening band on this tour is called Rooney, and they had very catchy songs. In fact, after their final song, many people stood up to applaud them. It looked like a lot of people didn’t have much luck with their open cups for beverages either, as the aisles were continually populated with a clean-up crew that had mops at the ready to clean up spills. What a horrible, horrible policy this was. Either let people keep their bottles, or forbid beverages on the floor entirely. Sheesh. Dumb. The ELO show began, and based on the opening number I realized that this was an entirely new show, and it wouldn’t be anything like the four previous times I had seen them. I’m not sure if it was opening night jitters, or top-of-the-tour technical snafus, but it seemed like there was a fair amount of confusion on stage. Jeff Lynne seemed distracted and he was missing some lyrics from time to time. I was wondering if his monitoring system was working properly or not. Hopefully those bugs will be worked out before I see them again in St. Paul and Los Angeles. It was a gorgeous show, and I was pleasantly surprised that they did a few of my favorite “semi-obscure” ELO songs. When the opening strains of “Last Train to London” started I shouted very loudly! YES! He also performed “Twilight,” “Calling America,” and “Stepping Out” – more of my ELO faves! But when they played “Strange Magic,” a song I’ve NEVER heard them perform live, I got a bit of a tear in my eye. It was the first ELO record I ever bought; a 45 single! They played for about 90 minutes. What a great time with some impeccable musicianship on display! We found our way out of the arena (eventually) but it wasn’t easy as the exits aren’t very clearly marked. It’s truly a bizarre aspect of that new, state-of-the-art arena. We got to the car, got back to the hotel, and got some food at Jack In the Box. Sunday around 11 I’ll check out and head back home.

Sunday the 25th – AND NOW THE WORK BEGINS! – Just before checkout time I checked out and hit Jack In The Box for some quick breakfast. I’ve eaten at Jack In The Box more this weekend than I have in the past 6 months! But it’s pretty yummy. I hit the road, made some calls, listened to some music, and in a little over two hours I was back home. I came in and saw all the boxes of computer gear on the floor and sighed. I had a lot of work ahead of me, but I wasn’t in the mood to start it now. I hit the hay for a while to nap. Later I did some work around the house, did some organizing, put some computer hardware away, labeled all of my old drives for future reference, threw away boxes and stashed cables. I did a ton of auditions that were due on Monday, and then I took my WOG. It was good to be out again. I sat out in the anti-grav chair and wished like hell I had taken it with me to Palm Desert for some quality time in the warm desert night. But it was a bit chilly, so I came back inside. I made a salad and watched two episodes of “Collector’s Call” that were on my DVR. Hard to believe that my episode will air in just a few weeks! And the promo for my episode will air in this weekend’s show! I’m VERY excited!

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

While we were at Sherman’s Deli waiting for our food, Angi and I posed for Officer Mark’s camera. Since I had my “Jeff Lynne” glasses handy, I put them on and gave a very “Jeff Lynne” thumbs-up.

A lighted ELO sign was a definite photo destination for people leaving the venue at the end of the night.

Intermission time…ready to rock!

On the venue’s upper concourse, amidst 9,000 people, I happened to run into my Voice Over pal Susan Palyo, one of the best VO coaches in the biz!

One of the things I found in my Miscellaneous Memories box was this drawing done by Adam West. It was his answer to Batman creator Bob Kane doing original drawing for everyone. Adam even signed it Bob Kane! Hilarious!

I got this note from Adam shortly after he heard my 1989 parody song “Adam West.” His only note was a request to get rid of “you see him at conventions and shopping malls.” Apparently he thought it hurt his prestige in the business, but we all know now that wasn’t true. Besides, I needed the word “malls” in the song to rhyme with…well…you know.

I remember when my grandpa Joe gave me his activity card so I could get into the basketball game for free. But I forgot to give it back to him, and now it’s a cherished item. He passed away in 1989. My dad asked if I would send it to him for his personal display, so I’m sending it to him soon.

The local record store in Aberdeen, South Dakota had a punch card promotion. I can’t remember what you got when the card was full, but it doesn’t matter now anyway. They’re out of business, and I was several punches away from having it filled.