This song from Klaus Schonning is a beaut! I used to play it all the time on 94.7 The Wave when I was a DJ there. It has a great sound!
Monday the 14th – HAVE A GAGA VALENTINE’S DAY! – It was a beautiful day so I decided to hop on my bicycle and bike over to Studiopolis in Burbank to do two hours on “Bleach” as Renji. When we were done I biked over to NBC to start “The Tonight Show” taping. My friend Cher was coming to the taping that day to see Lady Gaga. She wasn’t performing but was a guest. I drove my bike over to Guest Relations and there was Cher, all ready to get checked in. I biked over to the studio and got all set up. During the taping, just before Lady Gaga came out, there was an apparent wardrobe issue which prevented Lady Gaga from coming out on time. Jay got up and stopped the band and vamped with the audience to kill the time. It was utterly amazing, and truly genius. He’s great on his feet, and very fast. In fact, he was so funny that Patrick, the audio mixer, turned up his microphone so we could hear him talk to the audience. FUNNY stuff! But then L.G. was ready and they went back to the taping. She wasn’t as aloof as she had been on previous shows. She was lucid and VERY funny. It was a great show. That night Edi, Sara, Cher and I all met for dinner at Little Toni’s in North Hollywood!
Tuesday the 15th – DAY 1 OF IVR! – I had mentioned before that I’m going to be the interactive voice you hear when you call a major company’s phone line. It probably won’t be up and running fully until after summer, but I have literally thousands of lines to record over the course of two months. The sessions will be three days a week, about three hours a day, through mid April. I have to record every number, every day, every date, every city, every possible response that a customer would need to hear. It’s called IVR…interactive voice recording. It’s a totally new field for me and I look forward to learning a lot about it. It was interesting! I’ll tell you what company it is when I’m contractually able to do so. In the meantime, I’ll just refer to it as the IVR job. We finished up a successful day 1, and I headed over to “TTS’ for the taping. Amazing animals were going to be on the show that day, and when I got to the set I was told that my namesake was out back. Wally the Camel was scheduled to be on the show, but was cut at the last minute due to time. But I did get a great shot of the “other” Wally with my camera phone. When I got home I took a quick nap, then that night I met with Edi and Sara for dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli.
Wednesday the 16th – WET, WILD WEDNESDAY! – I had to get up early in the morning to do another videogame for Warner. But this time we recorded at Skylark Sound in Burbank. They expected the session to last four hours, but I ripped through my lines and we were done in 30 minutes. WOW! So I had a chance to get my cat Spooky to my assistant Sara so he could go to the groomer. He hadn’t had a bath in awhile and was due, plus his claws were so long they were getting hung up on things around the house, and he was getting frustrated. “TTS” needed me in early to do another bit, but then I was free to go see my chiropractor to get an adjustment. When I was finished with Dr. C I went back to “TTS” and did the taping. When I got Spooky back from the groomer, his fur was everywhere! When he gets stressed, he starts losing fur. So he has a little bald spot on his head near his left ear, and a little bald spot on his neck. But he’ll be fine. That evening Sara and I had dinner at DuPar’s.
Thursday the 17th – IS IT THE THREE DAY WEEKEND YET???!!! – The second day of IVR got interrupted by a call from “TTS.” I had to be there at 12:45 to record some comedy bits for that evening. So we recorded IVR for an hour and a half, then I left for NBC for an hour, then we recorded another hour and a half for IVR when I got back. It was fully understood by the producers of the IVR project that I may need to bow out from time to time to handle bits for “TTS,” but they’re totally cool with it, and I promised to make up the time at some other point. I knew this week was going to be nutty, but I had no idea! I got home to walk Sassie, then went to “TTS” for the taping, but I was asked to stay late while the writers discussed changing a bit in the show that day. They weren’t sure if they were going to keep me as the voice of the bit, or put a woman’s voice in. So the creative discussions lasted an hour and a half after the taping. But it was getting close to the time that the show needed to be uploaded to the west coast, so time was of the essence. I hung out around the stage waiting for the verdict, as I thought I may need to record some more lines for the bit. It was eerie standing on the set of “TTS” with only the work lights on. But it’s something that I hardly ever had time to do, so it was fairly educational. I noticed the marks where the cameras were supposed to be. And I noticed other little things about the operation of the show. Fascinating stuff! But then I got a text that I needed to come to the booth in a hurry. I went in, and recorded some more lines. Then I headed out for home. What a crazy day! I got home, did a bunch of auditions, and then had to get to bed early for a VERY important appointment Friday morning!!
Friday the 18th- THE L.A. ADVENTURE CONTINUES! – Living in this amazing city never ceases to amaze me. I was asked by my pal Reed Kaplan to interview Ron Howard for some DVD bonus materials that were being produced for the release of “Grand Theft Auto,” the first movie Ron Howard ever directed. I had done my research, got Reed’s questions and headed over to Beverly Hills early in the morning to be there in time to meet up with my pal Deverill and his crew. Shortly after 10 Ron Howard walked in, sat down and we had an amazing 40 minute interview about working for Roger Corman and directing his first movie at the age of 23! I won’t tell you much about it, other than you will DEFINITELY want to pick up the movie when it’s released! I headed back home to walk Sassie, then went to Voice Traxx West for more IVR sessions. Then I headed home to change for “TTS,” and then was on my way. It was raining pretty good, and my friend James was standing outside next to Warner with the plates to my first Gran Torino. He’s taking care of her until I decide when/if to sell her. My custom plates were in at AAA and I needed to bring the old plates in to exchange them. The car is at his place, so he removed the plates and met up with me for the switch off. I got the plates and headed to “TTS” for the taping. Sara was supposed to be there for the taping, but we got our wires crossed and she thought she was supposed to wait for me outside of NBC, instead of going into Guest Relations and checking in. So when I didn’t see her in the group from Guest Relations I was horrified. I called her only to find out that she was waiting for me in her car! YIKES! Everyone was being seated and I knew she wanted to see the guest band on the show that day…30 Seconds to Mars. Luckily somebody at Guest Relations took her over personally and she got seated right in the front row in front of the band! WOW! After the show, Sara even got to chat with a few of the guys from the band for a little while. I bid everyone a fond three day weekend, and I went home to pass out on my couch in front of the fire with my cat and dog. It was pouring rain too, and the ducks in my pool were having a grand old time. It’s always fun to see the ducks playing around in the water. Sleeping to rain is always nice too, so it was a nice nap! It was a heck of a week and I was exhausted! That night my assistant Sara had major car troubles. Her brakes went out in the rain and she hit a fence. I was unable to go help because I had a guest at my house and we couldn’t leave. But my friend Georgette, who lives right by where she had her accident, went to get her and took her home.
Saturday the 19th – MIXED UP CRAZY DAY! – My maids showed up, but one was sniffling and the other was coughing. I explained that I really didn’t want to get sick, so I sent them home and called the agency for another crew. I sprayed Lysol all over the house in hopes that no germs remained. The new maids arrived and cleaned up Planet Wallywood. The carpet cleaners were supposed to come at 2, but they called and said they wouldn’t be there until 3:30 because they were running late. Sara couldn’t come sit here with them since she had no car. I cancelled the carpet cleaning for that day since I had an appointment I had to get to at 3pm. My friend Georgette and her little sister Jayci came over and I took them to Gun World so I could buy a new gun. This is a Smith and Wesson Model 459, which is very similar to the gun Paul Michael Glaser shot as Starsky in the old “Starsky & Hutch” TV show. His was a Model 59. Both guns are identical, with the exception of a few more safety features on the 459. I found it from a private collector on-line, but we had to meet at the gun store so they could take possession of it during the 10 day waiting period. Dennis, who sold me the gun, was a great guy and it was a smooth transaction. After we left Gun World we went to Coral Cafe for lunch. Then we hit the target range in Burbank. I had recently purchased a Ruger .22 which is similar to the gun you see Sean Connery posing with as James Bond in a lot of the early photos. In fact, when you see the 007 logo with a gun barrel popping out of the 7, THIS is the gun they modeled it after. Since it’s only a .22, it was perfect for beginners to shoot. And since Georgette’s little sister had only shot a rifle before, this was a good first pistol to shoot for her. She was actually pretty good! I realized that I was shooting a little high, and once I adjusted for that I shot pretty good with it. Being a .22, it hardly had any kick at all. Most of the usual Saturday night movie gang had other plans for that night, so I took the night off. It was the first Saturday night by myself in several years, as we’ve been doing the regular movie thing for a long time. I took advantage of the pouring rain outside and again snuggled up with my cat on the couch in front of the fire. While I was sleeping the power went out for about 40 minutes. So if we HAD been watching movies, we would have lost power for awhile anyway. So it all works out. But when I got up from my nap, I got a great e-mail from Dennis, the guy who sold me the S&W Model 459….
Wally,Thanks for a smooth transaction today. Hope you enjoy the S&W 459 as much as I did.I am a big fan of LA Radio and I recognized your name after I left Gun World. You are “The Wally Wingert” I think of KTWV 94.7 FM, am I correct?-Dennis
How funny is that? He remembered me from the old Wave radio show I used to do! WILD!
Sunday the 20th – THREE DAY WEEKEND DAY 2! – It was a very relaxing day and I enjoyed sleeping very late. Since I spent all Saturday night doing things around the house and not getting to bed until early Sunday morning, it was great to sleep in. I got to evening church and then met some folks from church at Ernie’s Taco house for dinner. I took another nap in front of the fire (I’M LOVING THIS!) and then I spent all night working with my glow-in-the-dark sticker vinyl. I was making some cool shapes. I want to put some glow-in-the-dark stars, moons and shapes on my bedroom wall. I used to love glow-in-the-dark stuff when I was a kid, and now I could make my own stuff! What a fun night!
Monday the 21st – HAPPY PRESIDENT’S DAY! – Since we had no “TTS” taping today, it was my day to get stuff taken care of. Sassie’s groomer came by to give her a bath, the carpet guys came to clean the carpet, my friend Mark Ackerman came over to program a new remote control for my system, and Sergio my wig guy came over to put a wig together for a new display in the Chaney Room! During the afternoon, the ducks in my pool were getting hungry. There’s the usual couple that come back every year, but this year there is another male hanging out with them. And neither of the ducks like his company. They are always chasing him away from the food. In fact, it’s quite funny watching them, particularly when the dominant male chases the other one off. He’ll arch his neck, open his bill as if he’s going to bit the other one, and they waddle across the pool deck, one after the other. Remember their little webbed feet are wet, so it makes a funny “fap fap fap fap fap fap fap” sound as he chases the duck away. I tried to catch it on video, but wasn’t lucky enough. I had fun giving them nuts and bread, As I was sitting on the porch feeding them, one of my regular squirrels peeked his head around the bushes to see what was going on. In fact the squirrel almost bumped into the ducks. But he moved to the outer perimeter to observe for awhile, since he wasn’t very sure what was going on. He watched hungrily from a safe distance atop the fence. But when the ducks went back to swimming I looked for the squirrel and he had left. Too bad. He looked REALLY hungry!
One of my neighbors had her 2 year old son out in the yard and came over to watch the ducks in the pool with me. I love how everybody around the complex enjoys interacting with the ducks. That evening Sara came over and we had dinner, then I did auditions and hit the hay to prepare for a new week.
And how was YOUR week??!!
