RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I ran across this photo of a random guy I met when I was in the Mt. Pocono area at a talent competition in about 1980. He had just randomly shown up to one of our parties. He was tweaking on some drug, but I really loved his style. Coming across this photo of this Rod Stewart wannabe made me smile the warmest of smiles, as I recollected a wonderful time in history.
After having watched the 3-part, 8 hour Beatle documentary “Get Back,” I’m still humming some of the great songs they wrote for that album. “Two of Us” is a great song, and this video is pure joy.
Monday the 5th – MONDAY MUNCHIES! – My pal Amanda and I decided to go grab lunch at Paty’s, and then I stopped by my dry cleaners to drop off my comforters. I got home and grabbed a short nap, then got up later for my nightly auditions. I did some work around the house, and then typed out Wally’s Week. It’s definitely the end of the year, because things in the industry have slowed down considerably. I’m looking forward to the Christmas/New Year break.
Tuesday the 6th – I’M 6 MINUTES LATE, BUT TWO DAYS EARLY! – It’s that time of year again. Time for my semi-annual dental check-up. I like to do one in the summer, and one just before the holidays. I got into my dentist’s office and apologized profusely for being 6 minutes late to my appointment. And then they reminded me that my appointment wasn’t until Thursday!!! OH MY GOSH! She was right! I was TWO DAYS early! Luckily she said the Dr. could see me anyway for my check and cleaning. It’s a good thing too! During the check-up he discovered that the two teeth behind my left eye tooth have issues. The old fillings are separating from the teeth, and there are very small (microscopic) cracks forming in the teeth near the fillings. This could turn into MAJOR dental issues in the future if some sort of abscess gets in through the cracks. Then I have to have extractions and implants put in. I went through that several years ago and I’m in no hurry to repeat it! He said getting them taken care of soon was pretty important. Luckily, I knew of a Thursday afternoon appointment he had that just opened up! So they ended up putting me BACK on the schedule for my original appointment Thursday at 3, and I’ll come back in to have the old fillings (and cracks in the teeth) removed, and they’ll fit me for something called an “onlay.” An onlay is a “partial crown,” if you will. It won’t cover the entire tooth, but just the part of the tooth that’s missing. The dentist can’t fill up the new opening in the teeth he created because there’s not enough of the tooth left and it would end up being very weak. But an onlay is the perfect remedy to strengthen the natural tooth. That way the natural nerve and root can be preserved. In hindsight, I considered my error of showing up early a gift from God! After the appointment I hit Wienerschnitzel for a few chili cheese dogs with kraut and some chili fries (topped off with a banana split for dessert!) and then went to my dry cleaners to pick up my comforters. I dropped by my mailbox to get a few packages, and then I drove over to the local Toyota dealer to put a deposit down for my new 2022 Rav4 in Magnetic Gray Metallic! The car wasn’t on the lot, however. It’s within their network somewhere and will be shipped in after the leather seats are put in. It should take about 3 weeks, so…MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME! It was time to retire the Mustang and relegate it to “fun car” status. I’ve already acquired the parking spot right next to my Gran Torino in Burbank, so I’ll keep both of my fun cars there, and use the new Rav for my daily driver. The Mustang is great, and I’ll miss it, but it will be 20 years old next year. So it was time to upgrade. But much like I currently do with the Torino, the Mustang will be put into rotation and be driven for about a week once a month. The salesman at the Toyota dealer started the paperwork, and I excused myself to head home to feed and walk Roxy. After that, I went back to the dealership and signed all the necessary paperwork. During the application process they were asking all sorts of personal questions, which I thought was odd considering I’m not financing the car at all. It’s a cash deal. So I refused to answer some of them on the grounds that they simply didn’t need to know. I asked the guy why all the personal questions and he said, “I guess it’s so they know how to find you.” But if I’m not financing the car, why would they need to find me? I told him, ”Maybe I should ask YOU all the personal questions, so I know where to find YOU in case something goes wrong with the car!” We had a good laugh about it. But yeah, a weird line of questioning for somebody who was just buying a car outright. I got home and napped for a bit, and then got up later for my nightly auditions. I worked around the house for a bit, did some laundry, prepped for the rest of the week, and then made some lasagna and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger.”
Wednesday the 7th – ANNUAL CAT WRANGLING! – Once a year I have to adhere to a very strict protocol to get my cat Spooky to his physical exam. The vet gave me some medication to give him four hours prior to his exam which will mellow him out. He’s a growly old son-of-a-gun when he’s getting his exam if he’s not semi-tranquilized. So I gave him the pill in a piece of yummy cheese at noon, and then I headed out to meet my old pal Jon Konjoyan (who used to work at A&M Records back when I was a Midwestern radio DJ) and my new friend Gracie, who’s a very talented young singer, songwriter, anime person. I had double booked the lunch because I figured somebody with Jon’s experience in the music industry would be a wealth of knowledge for somebody like Gracie, who is just starting to launch her career in music. It was a delightful lunch! During lunch I got a text from my friend Carroll who runs Carroll Casting about a last-minute audition she needed me to do. So I dashed home, recorded the audition and sent it off. Then I packed up a very docile Spook and headed to the vet. He got his exam and all was good. I came back home and put Spook to bed to “sleep it off,” did some work around the house, and napped briefly. Later I did my nightly auditions, and fed Roxy. Then we went out for our late night stroll through the neighborhood. It was 39 degrees at 5:45 am! I hate winter! I miss summer!
Thursday the 8th – ADR AT WB AND THEN THE DDS! – A few months ago I did a Voice Over bit for an upcoming major feature film that takes place at the Olympic games in the 1930’s. I did a very retro-sounding radio announcer, complete with a tight mid-Atlantic accent – similar to how the old newsreel announcers sounded. The director of the film is VERY A-List, so it was quite a thrill doing the job! Apparently they liked what I did, because they called me back to do a few more lines for the film. I got there at 1:20 for my 1:30 session, walked into the ADR booth, said hi to the engineer, said hi to all of the crew (who were on Zoom), signed some paperwork and started the job. I finished up in about 20 minutes. When I got out of the session and checked my phone I had a bunch of voicemails and texts from my agent (who booked me on the job) reminding me that I had a session at Warner and asking where I was and if I was on my way. I simply texted back, “I just finished.” Then I gave him a call to settle his nerves. Apparently the person at Warner Brothers who was supposed to greet me just missed me by seconds, and thought that I missed the gig. But I was already in the booth working. Just one of those weird little glitches in the system. And I’m so used to being on that lot from years of working on the Batman games that I know exactly where to go and don’t really need to be escorted anywhere. I called my pal James, who works in Warner Post-Production Services and we took a golf cart to the commissary and had a nice lunch outdoors. I hadn’t seen him in a while so there was a lot of catching up to do. Then we wheeled over to the Warner Brothers store where I picked up a nifty Beetlejuice cap, a Walley World t-shirt (from the movie “Vacation”), and a Boy Wonder t-shirt for my friend Alex as a Christmas present. Alex cosplays as Robin from the 1966 Batman series and the artwork on the shirt was right off the animated opening of the show. It was the PERFECT gift! Then I headed over to my dentist’s office to get the work done on my old fillings. He numbed me up really well, removed the old fillings and microscopic cracks in my teeth and patched it up with temporary fillings. He instructed me not to chew any gum or eat anything sticky until the permanent onlays have been attached. I told him I was heading out to find some good, old-fashioned taffy. He laughed. When the onlays get applied they’ll be the same color as my teeth, so you won’t see any silvery-metal fillings in those teeth anymore! Slick! I got home to do some work and noticed that the trailer for the video game “Street Fighter 6” had just dropped, and I was mentioned as the actor who plays the character J.P. in the game. I had been sitting on this information for years, keeping it a secret until the official word was released. And today was the day! Fantastic! It’s going to be a fabulous game! I recorded my nightly auditions and sent them to my agent, did some work on the computer, drove to Denny’s to get some food to go, and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger” before turning in.
Friday the 9th – THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE!!! – The maids were scheduled to clean Planet Wallywood early in the day, but they must’ve gotten held up. They arrived late in the afternoon which kind of set back some plans I had. But it was nice having a clean house. Losta rain is expected over the weekend so it’ll just get filthy again, but I can enjoy it for a few days anyway. My pal Sara Rafter and I headed out to get dinner and catch up. I hadn’t seen her in a long time because she’s been busy working on TV shows. After a great dinner at the Coral Café we headed over to The Christmas House in Burbank to see this year’s display. That place always makes me smile! Then I went home to do some work, grab a quick nap, and I got up later to do some work around the house and get the weekend officially started!
Saturday the 10th – IT’S RAINING SPOOKS & ROXYS! – After a quick walk to the vet to pick up some meds for Roxy, I stopped at Subway to get a tuna sandwich, and I continued walking over to my stylist’s salon to get a touch up on my color. When I was finished I walked back home, and even though the sky was clouding up, no rain yet. I napped for a bit and got up later to organize the weekly Christoween story launch on Christoween.net. I edited some home videos, and it started pouring rain. It was NICE! Later I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and started in on season 5 of “The Saint.” From here on out all the episodes will be in color! SWEET! It poured hard all night and L.A. got a really good (and much-needed) soaking!
Sunday the 11th – A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN! – Around dinnertime my pal Alex Zsolt came over so we could go grab dinner. He was in town playing a Christmas concert at a few venues, so before he went back to Nashville we wanted to grab dinner. He loved the Boy Wonder t-shirt I got him for Christmas at the Warner store. We headed over to Bob’s Big Boy for burgers, and then I took him by The Christmas House. He LOVED it! The creator/owner of the house Alan was outside videotaping the display. I have met him many times before so we got out of the car to chat with him for a while. He let us walk up into the yard to look at everything close-up! It was amazing! What a wonderful peek behind the curtain! I got back home and napped, and got up later to do my auditions. I did some more work around the house, and decided to walk Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood before it started raining again. And just like a scene from a movie, as we finished our walk and approached my front porch, the tiny raindrops started coming down. GOOD TIMING!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
My pal Alex snapped this shot of me carrying Roxy back into the house. She can’t go up stairs any longer, so I have to carry her up any stairs she might encounter.
Roxy is snug as a bug in her “Family Guy” blanket. This photo was also snapped by Alex Zsolt, who (oddly enough) gifted me with this blanket many years ago! It’s getting some darn good use!
Rainy night pets!
