December 11 – December 17 (2023)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one who considered putting up a Christoween tree this year!

Since this past week we observed Frank Sinatra’s 108th birthday, I thought it might be nice to hear a Christmas song from ol’ Blue Eyes. I particularly like this one, because he’s assisted by the amazing talents of the B. Swanson quartet. In fact, I may have done a little editing to emphasize their contribution to the song a bit more than what’s on the original record. See for yourself with “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

Monday the 11th – PAYPAL PERPLEXICATION! – In order to build a little support platform for the “Northern Lights” lighting unit that the folks at Amazon were so kind to send me for free, I needed to build a little 6” by 7” table with a C clamp support that would go onto the railing that divides my first floor from my second floor in my split level house. But the hardware store had nothing close to what I needed, so…it’s off to Amazon! I could have bought a few things and “jerry-rigged” them together, but it’s better if I just look hard and find the right thing I need. It’s a C clamp, but with a thumb screw at the bottom to keep it attached to the railing. If they don’t exist, I’ll have to invent one. I went to my box to pick up my packages, and then went to Paty’s to get some lunch. I stopped by Staples to return some RAM sticks back to Amazon, as Staples is one of the places that will package it up and return it for you. I picked up a few items while I was there and headed to the grocery store. I was really out of a lot of things! I got back home and put everything away, and then recorded and uploaded some phone bits for a buddy’s business on the east coast. Since he’s a buddy I didn’t want to charge him anything for it, but he insisted. However, he went ahead and paid a Paypal address that was based on an old email address I haven’t used in about 15 years. I’ve never had a Paypal account through that email address anyway, so we’re not exactly sure where the money went! Since I don’t have access to the Paypal address he sent the money to, I couldn’t refund it. So it may be forever locked up in Paypal hell. Or, if it isn’t claimed after a certain amount of time, it may just get refunded to him. I’m not sure how that works. In any event, after a lot of back-and-forth, he finally made the payment to the correct Paypal account. Honestly, it was so much easier back in the day when people just sent me a check. It added up to an afternoon full of confusion and it was a real pain. Later I went through my corporate bank statement to reconcile everything, as it’s getting to be that time of year when I shut down the corporation for a few weeks so everything can be audited for the end-of-year tax assessment. I paid some bills, reconciled my receipts, and then took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) in 40 degree weather! I was bundled up nicely, so it didn’t affect me. Then I came inside to record Wally’s Week!

Tuesday the 12th – SINUS SNAFUATION! – For the past week or so I’ve had mild headaches which generated from the right side of my upper sinus. The inside corner of my right eye was the source of the aggravation. Whenever I’d take a sharp inhale through my nose a shockwave would go directly into the right side of my brain! I tried to get an appointment with my usual ENT, but they’re booked up through January. So I called my regular physician and did a tele-med visit with him. He prescribed me some antibiotics and a few other meds to solve the problem. Then I headed off to Paty’s for a lunch date with my pals Edi Lurie and Officer Mark. A while back Officer Mark had indicated that he wanted to meet a guy named Tony Oppedisano, who wrote a great book called “In The Wee Small Hours” about his years he spent with Frank Sinatra as his manager. I don’t think he knew that I’ve known “Tony O” for several years (I originally met him on “The Tonight Show” when he was the manager for Don Rickles), and that I would try to reach out to him for a lunch meeting. Oddly enough, just a few days after our conversation about Tony O, I ran into Tony at the grocery store! He agreed to meet with us and sign a book for Mark. I figured this would be a great Christmas present for “the guy who’s very tough to buy for.” Tony said he would be at Paty’s to stop by today, so I was very excited. We sat down and I texted Tony O that we were there, and he came out to sign the book. But we all got to talking, and as soon as he learned that Mark had listened to the audiobook version of his creation, he sat down with us to answer Mark’s questions. Soon Tony O’s business partner came out to join us, and while Tony O and Mark chatted, his business partner (a huge dog lover), Edi and I sat there talking about dogs. It was a gorgeous afternoon and we were all having a blast! Oddly enough (there are no accidents in life) Mark pointed out that today would have been Sinatra’s 108th birthday! After lunch I drove to CVS to pick up my prescriptions and some supplies, and then I went back home to do some work. I did my nightly auditions and then tried to decide what to work on next. But earlier in the day my doctor told me that he felt like I had been doing a lot and I should try and relax a little. True, last week was pretty hectic with four sessions and the ME-TV shoot on Thursday, so perhaps I should try to take it a bit easier as we cruise toward Christmas. Later I began sorting through a huge group of loose photographs that were in bags and boxes. They all needed to be categorized and organized in anticipation of my upcoming photo album project for this year’s “Creative Christmas.” I need to determine if these loose photos are duplicates, or if they’re photos that have never been put into albums. I have a lot of work ahead. While the photo albums from my years in South Dakota were finished a long time ago, I’m about to embark upon organizing all of the photos I took during my years in Los Angeles. I’ve decided that the first few albums will chronicle my life from the time I moved to L.A. in January of 1987, to the time I got let go from my radio job at The Wave in June of 1993. I’ll call it “The Radio Years.” Then after that the rest of the albums will be called “The Acting Years.” It’s my goal to get through “The Radio Years” over the Christmas holiday week. I’ve been getting my old negatives from that era scanned and printed so I have fresh prints to put into the albums. This should be fun! Later I took my WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair afterwards just cooling off and relaxing. The weather was a little bit better than the previous night’s. There were a TON of shooting stars, and I found out why the next day. I went inside to finish up some work, and then made a salad and watched an episode of “Thriller with Boris Karloff” before bed. The episode from 1960 featured soon-to-be-stars William Shatner, Russell Johnson and Donna Douglas! I love seeing actors on shows before they became icons! And this episode featuring Captain Kirk, The Professor, and Elly Mae was no exception!

Wednesday the 13th – GEMINIDS! – It had been quite a while since the flower bed outside my house had been professionally attended to, and it was looking quite overgrown. My flower lady was in town and we agreed to have her give it a changeover to freshen it up. I met with her to approve what she was doing, and cut her a check. I had a Source Connect test for a Voice Over session I’d be doing next Tuesday. They wanted to test my line and see how the sound quality was, and it was all good. I checked some emails and made some calls. Later I met my pal Chris Malmin for dinner at Lancers and paid him for his assistant work at last week’s shoot for ME-TV. I could NOT have done it without him. There were things that he handled nicely that I simply wouldn’t have had time to do. I slogged through the crowd at Hobby Lobby to pick up some supplies for my “Creative Christmas” project; photo albums, sheets, and page protectors. I bought plenty of everything so I should be set for a very fun Christmas Eve. (Sidebar: my traditional “Creative Christmas” celebration – my activities on Christmas Eve – include going to the Living Nativity at my church at 5:30pm and seeing the animals, then coming home to take “Christmas Nappies” on my couch (cuddling with my cat Spooky and listening to Christmas music), attending the midnight candlelight service at my church, and then spending all night Christmas Eve doing something creative at home. The past few years it’s been all about making Muppet replicas, but this year it will be about creating my new photo albums. While I work I listen to a 12 hour radio show called “Christmas Across The Lands,” a show I’m lucky to be on as a character called Wally the Elf. “Wally” pops in once an hour to offer host Randy Sherwyn lots of interesting Christmas trivia. The local radio stations in L.A. are totally worthless, so I have to stream it from my buddy’s radio station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I have the feed plugged into my main audio system downstairs so it will play all throughout the house, all night long. I love it! And it all culminates at dawn on Christmas morning when I make a delicious Chef Boyardee pizza and watch something special while I dine, and then turn in. It’s been my tradition for several years and I truly, truly love it.) I got home and did an audition, and later started sorting through the sacks and boxes of photos. In addition to organizing these loose pictures, I also need to refer to the photo albums that I assembled years ago and pull stuff from there. It will be a monumental feat, but worth it! I found a bag of loose South Dakota photos, so I need to set those aside and compare them against what I already put in the South Dakota albums years ago. Hopefully they’re just duplicates, that I can mark as such and store, but if there are photos in there that I haven’t mounted, then I need to create some new pages for those albums. When I’m satisfied that those have been “put to bed,” I’ll start in on the L.A. photo albums. I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair looking at the clear sky. I found out why there were so many shooting stars the night before. There’s a two-day meteor shower called The Geminids that will be lighting up the sky for the next 48 hours. But I must’ve gotten out too late, as I didn’t see anything tonight. I’ll try again tomorrow night, which will be the last night of the Geminids meteor shower.

Thursday the 14th – JUMPIN’ GEMINIDS! – After my semi-annual dental cleaning and check-up, I got some packages at my box, and then I headed over to Paty’s for a quick lunch. Then I drove to Salami Studios in North Hollywood to do a short session for an animated film. This was my third session for this film (I’ll tell you more about it when I am allowed to) and it’s very sweet. It’s a sequel to a previous animated film, but unfortunately the actor who played the father in the first film passed away. So they called me in to play the character for the sequel. They weren’t even that concerned with voice-matching the original actor, and they just told me to “do my own thing” for the character. It’s a very nice film based on a children’s book, so I’m excited to see how it turns out. I went to CVS again to pick up another prescription (one that wasn’t available a few days ago), hit the grocery store for a few supplies, and then headed home. I did my nightly auditions, and then started working on the platform for my “Northern Lights” unit. Earlier in the day I received the C clamps I ordered on Amazon, so I cut out a piece of 6” by 7” foam core board, mounted it to the top of the C clamp, attached the C clap to the railing on my second floor and mounted the lighting unit onto the platform. It worked out great! Now I just need to find the “sweet spot” for the light, so it will illuminate the ceiling without reflecting onto my computer screen and flooding it with light. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. Since it was the last night of the Geminids meteor shower I wanted to see as much as I could see. And I was out early enough to catch them in action. But since it was a bit chilly I wrapped myself in a blanket and had a great time! I saw about 5 VERY bright Geminids within the course of a half hour. One was particularly bright and lengthy. Pretty good for the light-polluted, hazy skies of Los Angeles! I came back inside to do some work, added a new humidifier to the Tranquility Zone, made a salad, and watched another episode of “Thriller with Boris Karloff.” This show is great!

Friday the 15th – FRIEND FUN! – Though I slept pretty late (doctor’s orders, after all) I did some work and a few auditions in the afternoon. In the evening I joined my pals Rob Richards and Alex Zsolt for dinner at the Smoke House. Alex was in town to play a few concerts with Rob. Alex is a concert pianist, and Rob is a world-famous theatre organist. It was a great dinner with lots of fun and laughs! When I got home I organized my photo case for an appearance on Saturday morning at Things From Another World on the Citywalk at Universal Studios. Since I had to be up so early, I passed on my WOG for the night.

Saturday the 16th – TRANSFORMERS AT THINGS! – When the show “Transformers; Robots in Disguise” (the anime) debuted back in 2001, many of the show’s voice actors got together for an appearance and series launch at a store on the Universal Studios Citywalk called Things From Another World. They sell all kinds of toys, collectibles and comics. Now that the show is about 22 years old, 6 of the actors got together for a “TF: RID” celebration at the new, improved location for Things From Another World. I threw all my stuff into the Gray Ghost and got parked in Jurassic Parking. I got to the store, set up my table, and saw a few of the other actors from the show; many of which I hadn’t seen in quite a while! Granted, a few of us had just appeared at a Transformers convention in Burbank about 5 months ago, but a few of the others I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Signings of this sort are always tricky during the holiday season, and even trickier during a horrible economy, so it was slow for the most part. But it still was a good time, and it was great to see everybody there. The fans that came in were fantastic! A week ago I pre-ordered a Count Chocula figure through a company on-line. But while I was at TFAW I found one in stock! I bought it, along with a reprint of a very old Batman comic which I had a great time reading at my table! (I’ll cancel the pre-order post haste!) It was a gorgeous day, and Christmas was in the air. So I took all my stuff to my car to stash it, and then I walked back to the Citywalk to have lunch at KFC and sit on the upper level of the deck and eat while I watched all the activity and listened to the Christmas music. It was VERY pleasant. I topped off my sumptuous meal with some popcorn from the movie theatre, and a Dole Whip at the local frozen yogurt place. I need to do this more often! I got home to do some work, but since I had gotten up so early, I wanted to grab a nap. Later I put up some new lighting in the Tranquility Zone. In response to a favorable post about an Amazon purchase, the kind folks at Amazon sent me the “Northern Lights” unit (actually called a Galaxy Walker) along with an LED rope light array. My old rope lights were some of the first lighting effects I ever put in my bedroom. So they’re not very old and over half of the lights on the rope have burned out. When Amazon asked me if there was anything I wanted to add to the Tranquility Zone I responded with “new rope lights.” So they sent me this set for free. The rope lights in my Tranquility Zone currently act as illuminated trim for my book cases. I have a red rope light on one case, and blue rope lights on two other cases. All three rope lights have bulbs that have burned out, but one rope was particularly bad and old. Over half of the lights in the rope had burned out. So I removed that rope and discarded it. Then I unscrewed all of the little clips that held the rope in place. Some of the clips had become old and brittle and just snapped off. I put on new cable clips I bought at the hardware store and attached the new LED rope. The old rope lights are tiny bulbs embedded in a colored plastic/rubber rope, and they’re mostly used for backstage areas where the actors or performers need to see a lighted path to the stage. So they’re pretty durable in case the actors step on them. But this new LED rope system has small LED lights in a clear rope, and you can choose the color through a remote control. It works very, very well! In fact, I may get two other sets as replacements for the rope lights on my other book cases! It was nice to get out and take my nightly WOG again, and spend some time in the anti-grav chair staring at the sky. Though the Geminids were long gone, it was still pleasant to relax and unwind with clear, fresh air and an iced tea. I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched the second part of a 2-part “Saint” episode called “The Fiction Makers.” I believe this two-part episode was edited together into a feature film format and I think it played in theatres at some point. It set up Roger Moore as a James Bond figure very well, and it was decades before a show called “Remington Steele” began. In the episode “The Fiction Makers,” Roger Moore’s Simon Templar character is mistaken for a writer of popular spy novels. But in fact, the real writer of the novels is a female that has taken on a male pen name! Wasn’t that the premise of “Remington Steele?” Hmmm….

Sunday the 17th – WET AHEAD! – It’s that time of year, and all next week it’s supposed to rain fairly heavily in the L.A. area. I’m looking forward to it! I worked around the house, organized some more photos for my upcoming photo album project, and started to plot my work for the project. There are thousands of photos to categorize and organize. I took some “Christmas Nappies” with my cat Spooky (a nap on The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe in front of a warm fire with Christmas music playing softly), and I was reminded that this will be my first Christmas in a long time without Roxy. Sad. I took my nightly WOG, spent some time in the anti-grav chair, and did more photo organizing. I got through all of the sacks and boxes and put the photos into categories in file folders. Now that I’ve got them organized I need to determine which ones are dupes, and which ones need to be integrated into the photo albums. One of these days I’ll have it all figured out and it will be nice and organized.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here’s The Professor with Captain Kirk (years before they were awarded those roles and became icons) on an episode of “Thriller with Boris Karloff”!

A guy brought this up to me to sign at this past weekend’s “Transformers; Robots in Disguise” signing at Things From Another World. He said he was at a movie on the Citywalk, and happened to see a poster that I’d be signing that day. So after the movie he drove back to his house, grabbed this collectible, and came back to have me sign it! Amazing!