RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
ASPIRING STAR(SKY)! This past week my folks sent me this picture and I got a good chuckle out of it. Boy was I a nutty teenager! When I was 15 I did EVERYTHING I could to emulate Paul Michael Glaser’s ‘Starsky’ character from the TV show “Starsky & Hutch.” People think I’m kidding when I tell them I was utterly obsessed with that show as a teenager. Even Paul himself had initial doubts about my story, until I started showing him photographic evidence like this. (It’s cute when you’re a teenager. But I hardly believe he would think it was cute if I was still doing it today. HA!) Here I am with my little sister Bonnie around 1976, and I’m trying to do the clothes & pose to look like Paul in the famous publicity photo for one of the episodes. I’ve pasted on the photo of Paul to show you the level of detail I had as an obsessed young fan. But, no harm done, I guess.
I’m sure you must have one of “those” songs. A song that gives you that pleasant feeling right in the pit of your stomach and gives you inexplicable peace and a feeling of well-being. A song that just makes you feel good inside when you hear it. “Don’t Give Up” by Chill Wave artist Washed Out is one of those songs for me. It just makes me glow inside when it comes on my iPod. And the title is certainly positive and uplifting as well! Good advice to follow!
Monday the 4th – CAN’T A GUY GET ANY SLEEP AROUND HERE?! – If you remember last week’s Wally’s Week, I decided on Friday August 1st to visit my beloved Palm Springs for a rainy weekend, and to clear my head on a few issues. I called it a “journey of spiritual necessity.” I got to Palm Springs on Sunday the 3rd around 5pm and had a wonderful night relaxing and thinking. I was only staying for a few days so it wouldn’t be a very long trip. Though I was hoping it would be a relaxing, fruitful trip. As is my routine in Palm Springs, I stayed up Monday morning the 4th watching the rain clouds slowly clear from the desert sky. When the dawn broke, it was an overcast, blue-gray sky that was lovely! I also told you how three items were taken off my balcony the day I checked in. The maids mistakenly thought the items had been left by the previous guest, but they were mine. They were two citronella candles (to keep the mosquitoes away during night-time star/sky gazing, and a Coca Cola bottle opener. I was sound asleep Monday morning and at 9:45 the front desk called and woke me up. They were telling me that they had found my items. I told them I was sleeping and would come down to get them later. Two hours later at 11:45, I awoke to incessant pounding on my door. It wasn’t stopping, so I dragged myself out of bed and opened the door. One of the maids was standing there holding my items. So much for “I’ll pick them up later.” What I don’t understand it, the DO NOT DISTURB sign was on the door. Why did she think it was OK to stand and pound on my door 30 times until I dragged my carcass out of bed? I slept until 5pm and it felt great. I got up to lounge around, watch TV and relax. I had some good revelations on the balcony the night before and I was anxious to get back to town to start working on them. I went downstairs to check my e-mail and make plans to get dinner and a Dole Whip. But on the way back up to my room I realized I wasn’t feeling well. In fact, I was feeling quite yucky. Body aches and mild nausea. Immediately the thoughts that go through your mind are…do I have West Nile? Ebola? Food poisoning? I thought for a second that my sore back may be due to the mattress at the hotel, or perhaps sleeping in the wrong position. But my legs, hips, upper and lower back all hurt. And I was starting to get a headache too. I think it was a touch of the 24 hour flu. I take colloidal silver on a regular basis and it fends off most viruses, germs and bacteria. Good stuff. However, things do slip through from time to time. But unlike getting sick like I normally would, the symptoms are diminished. You can still feel rotten and have a few choice symptoms, but I wasn’t getting fever, chills or vomiting with this. I laid down to nap some more and figure out what I was going to do. When I got up the half moon was just about ready to set behind the mountain outside my balcony (I call it Mount Abe because it looks like the profile of Abraham Lincoln!). I watched a few stars set behind the mountain as well and made the decision to pack up and head home early. Not only did I have a few auditions that were due first thing Tuesday morning, but I just didn’t feel like hanging around in a hotel room being sick. I took some Advil, hastily packed up my things and checked out around midnight. On the drive home, once I cleared the mountain range that surrounds Palm Springs, I got to see the moon again. Lovely! The body aches were being kept at bay by the Advil and the drive home was going well. But 40 miles outside of L.A. they were coming back. I sped home as much as local laws would allow. I made it home at 1:45, recorded the auditions, took a hot bath, ate come chicken noodle soup, took some painkillers and hit the hay. I didn’t even unpack!
Tuesday the 5th – AAAAAHHHHH, THAT’S BETTER! – When I woke up I was feeling much better. I woke up around noon and took Roxy out for a walk. I did a last-minute audition then went back to bed and slept until 5pm just to be sure I wasn’t overdoing it. When I got up I wrote Wally’s Week and munched on some dinner. My appetite was back. It felt great to be healthy again. Just for good measure, I took a brief nap on the couch, and then got up to do auditions. I hit the hay with some soup and an episode of “Magnum; P.I.” from the Season Four DVD set.
Wednesday the 6th – NOW THERE’S AN IDEA! – It had been quite a while since I had been to the offices of my voice-over agency, but I wanted to take my agent Cathey to lunch and we figured it would be best to do it there so we could spend more time chatting, and less time commuting. We talked about how much the voice-over business has changed since I had started working on “The Tonight Show.” Though it’s a slow period of time right now in Hollywood, the VO biz in general has slowed considerably in the past few years. One of my commercial agents suggested I start auditioning for on-camera commercials. (The agency I’m with has an on-camera commercial department). I told her I tried that a long time ago and wasn’t impressed, and that my first love is VO. But maybe it’s time to rethink it. She also suggested doing on-camera theatrical auditions; for TV and movie roles. Several years ago when I was trying that I wanted to be a man-of-many-faces, and didn’t like all of the “type-ing” that was going in on-camera casting. After all, in VO I could play hundreds of different characters in any given week. But in on-camera the Casting Directors were mostly looking for types. Whether or not you had any acting talent was rather inconsequential. They could always fix performance problems in post-production or with clever editing. But nowadays they’re casting mostly for your look. But now that I’ve moved on from doing the man-of-a-thousand-faces type stuff, perhaps it’s time to embrace being a type and see what’s out there. However I’ve got a lot to learn about resumes and headshots. But my commercial agent said she’d help with all that stuff. So, maybe it’s time to look into that aspect of the business for now. Because of the slow summer pace I was able to have quite a fun conversation with several of my agents. I hopped in the car and drove over to Guns Direct to fill out the paperwork for my new Walther PK380 that I purchased. I headed home and called my assistant Sara to see if she wanted to walk to Panera with Roxy and me to get a bite to eat. It felt good to get out, and it was certainly a nice, cool evening to be walking. When I got home I took a dip in the Jacuzzi and then laid into my auditions. I hit the hay so I could be up early for an audition the next day.
Thursday the 7th – HAT’S ALL, FOLKS! – At 10:30 I sprang awake, walked Roxy quickly and headed to McCoy Productions in North Hollywood for an audition. So many auditions are done by people in their home studios now, and sent in via MP3, that it was actually quite a treat to get out and get into a studio with another actor and play around. This was a “partner read” for a power company. That means you read the copy with one other partner. We did a few takes and then swapped roles. It was a great time. When we finished I headed over to Baron Hats to check on the hat I was having made for my lifesize Phantom of the Opera figure. I had decided to include the cape and hat on the figure a few months ago, but because the head on the figure is so large the hat had to be custom made. The hat looked perfect, but when I got it home I realized that the crown was too bulbous. It curved out too much and wasn’t the look I was going for. I had forgotten to stop by my mailbox, so I figured I’d go back out and have it reblocked at the store. I took Roxy along with me since the weather was nice. While Omar the Hat Maker reblocked the hat to my specs, I talked to the staff about setting up mannequins and busts for displays. Apparently they’re keen on doing some special Hollywood displays for some of their hats. We came up with a lot of great ideas and I think we’ll be working together on some stuff soon! The staff absolutely adored Roxy and she had fun running around the store exploring every nook and cranny. On the way home I got my mail, and then went home to take a dip in the Jacuzzi and a nap on the couch. I got up later that evening for some audition, and then I worked around the house. I did laundry, dishes, and random housework. The hat fit the Phantom perfectly! There hasn’t been one Voice-Over session this week, but as I mentioned it’s the slow time of year. While driving around I passed several studios and casting services and it was like a ghost town around there! It’s really slow everywhere! I made some hot dogs on the grill and watched another “Magnum; P.I.” episode before bed.
Friday the 8th – MOTOR CITY MEAL! – My maids came in the early afternoon and cleaned up while I did some work around the house. After they left I asked Sara if she’d like to walk with Roxy and me over to the Studio Café for a late lunch. While we were there we ran into the legendary Chuck McCann! I hadn’t seen Chuckie in a long time so we had fun catching up. And he LOVES Roxy! The August weather this year has been unnaturally pleasant. So we’re making the most of it! I walked home to nap for a bit, then got up to have a dinner meeting with my pal Grigg from Detroit. He used to be a Detroit police officer, so it’s always fun talking about his work, my work, etc. I came home and did some writing, and then worked around the house. I made some soup and a sandwich and watched another “Magnum: P.I.” episode.
Saturday the 9th – BREEZY, EASY SATURDAY! – I attended a meeting of a few of the homeowners in our complex at 2pm, then hopped in my Gran Torino and got some lunch to go at Taco Bell. I needed some grocery items so I hit a local grocery store. But after I parked I paused for a bit before rolling up the windows and going in. First of all, Siriux XM 70’s on 7 was playing some AWESOME music! Perfect for a summery, Saturday afternoon. As a cool breeze blew through my 1974 Gran Torino, I listened to songs like “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” by Elvin Bishop, and “Old Days” by Chicago; both of which remind me of…well…the old days! They sure brought back a load of memories! I got my groceries, hit the mailbox to get my mail, and headed home to put away the groceries. I walked Roxy and took a dip in the Jacuzzi. Movie night started and it was a fun evening. I worked around the house when my guests left and tried to get a shot of the “Super Moon” overhead. When I saw it earlier it looked eerie with a layer of foreboding clouds racing across it. But when I got my video camera out and tried to get video, the moon had been completely swallowed up by clouds and was invisible. I watched an episode of the old “Avengers” TV series and made a huge salad.
Sunday the 10th – SUNNY, SUMMERY, SUNDAY! – As usual, I slept until 3, and then got up to walk Roxy. I did a little work on the computer and walked Roxy over to evening church for the service. We got home and I hit my desk to do some bookwork, reconciliation of receipts, and prep a deposit for the bank. I napped for a bit on the couch, then got up to do some more work around the house and retire with another “Magnum: P.I.” episode. The slow, summer rolls on!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
The Phantom is looking dapper in his new Baron Hats fedora!
