January 22 – January 28 (2018)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Just had to show you the lovely vision I witnessed last Wednesday when I went to pick up my Roundtable Pizza. YUM! LOVE this pizza!

In the movie “Magnolia,” which we watched at movie night last Saturday, there’s a pivotal scene at the top of the third act that always blows me away. And it’s all done to this song by Aimee Mann called “Wise Up.” I won’t ruin it in case you want to see the movie, but the way they utilize this song is very moving.

Monday the 22nd – ENERGY, ELECTRIC, EXCAVATION! – The week started with me springing awake at 11:45 am and heading to Voice Trax West for a 12:30 Voice-Over session for my old friends at Direct Energy in Texas. It’s always fun working with those guys. The engineer on the other end of the ISDN line (the high quality phone line that allows us to do sessions from other locations) said, “Can you screw up some more? I work by the hour.” Apparently our breezy session was cutting into his bottom line, but of course he said it in jest. After the session I got lunch at Jack In the Box and headed back home to meet up with my contractor Electric Bob. He added another coat of paint to my kitchen ceiling (which he patched a few months ago) and continued to try and ascertain where a leak was coming from in the wall next to my master bathroom shower. He put a 8” by 10” hole in the wall and placed some material in the wall that may tell us where the leak is coming from. While he worked away, I worked around the house, and then did a phone interview for a podcast done by the PBS station in San Diego. It was all about the Hollywood Museum’s Batman ’66 exhibit, and it was a lot of fun. After Electric Bob left I napped for a few hours on the couch. I got up around 10pm to do auditions, write Wally’s Week, and then hit the hay. I have to be up early for a session. But I did manage to make some soup and a sandwich and watch the final bonus features on the “Twin Peaks” Blu Ray set before going to sleep.

Tuesday the 23rd – I’M A TRAVELIN’ MAN…. – Right at 8am sharp I awoke and got ready to start my day. I hit the road at 9 and was in L.A. morning drive traffic until shortly after 10. I got to Lime Studios and did a 3.5 hour session for some new TV spots for a new on-line car buying service. It was great fun! Since Lime is a few blocks away from my favorite Mexican restaurant Campo’s, I stopped off to get some food to go. The traffic back home was really slow, so it allowed me to eat my food while I was in transit. I got back home and did some work, answered some e-mails, and fed the pets. I napped on the couch for a bit, and then got up later to do my nightly auditions. I did some work around the house, which included dusting and cleaning the main “shoe” area in my bedroom closet. My closet is directly over the staircase leading to my downstairs. So there’s a seven foot section of my closet that has a slant to it; perfect for placing shoes. The lady who had the house before me put wood slats across the section, so the heels of her shoes would lock in. It’s a very clever usage of something that has to be there. But I have to keep it clean because, for some reason, it’s a place where dust likes to gather. So I removed all my shoes and boots, vacuumed the area really well, wiped it down with Windex, and then cleaned off all my shoes and boots with a damp rag. I replaced the shoes and boots and it looked like new! It sounds a lot easier than it is, but I got it done! I did some more organizing in my bathroom’s medicine cabinets with the new plastic bins I had bought last week from Bed, Bath and Beyond, and labeled each bin accordingly. It was sweet! I made some of my favorite summer sausage spaghetti (though I don’t use Old Wisconsin anymore because they changed their recipe) and watched a few episodes of “Welcome Back Kotter” that I had from a 6 episode DVD I had bought years ago.

Wednesday the 24th – BOUNCIN’ AROUND BURBANK! – When I woke up at 2 I walked Roxy and gave the pets some treats. I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up a few more plastic bins that I needed for my bathroom organization project. Then I headed over to Studiopolis to work with the amazing Jack Fletcher (even though he was on the ISDN from San Francisco) on a videogame. It was only an hour, but it’s always fun to work with Jack regardless of the amount of time I’m needed! Since it was dinner time, and I was in the area, I phoned Roundtable Pizza to get a pizza to go. First I stopped at Rite Aid pharmacy and picked up some supplies, and then I went home to feed the pets, enjoy my pizza, and plan the evening’s activities. But when I sat down to place the new plastic bins in my bathroom’s cabinets, I realized that I had gotten the wrong size earlier in the day. D’OH! So I hopped in the car and went back to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get the correct sizes. I didn’t return the other ones because I found another use for them. On the way back home I stopped at my auxiliary garage and traded my Mustang for my Gran Torino. I would need it for a photo shoot on Thursday afternoon. I got home and napped for a bit, and then got up around 1am for my nightly auditions. I worked around the house, organized some more areas of my rooms, ate some leftover Roundtable Pizza, and then hit the hay.

Thursday the 25th – HOLLY AND HUTCH?! – Shortly afternoon I was at the car was next to the Warner Brothers studios to get my Gran Torino sparkling clean. Then I drove over to Blast from the Past to prep for a shoot with my pal Christopher Ameruoso; a top notch celebrity photographer. He wanted to get some shots of his friend Holly Madison with the Torino. We spent about an hour and Chris got some great shots, but I noticed my left rear tire was deflating fast. As soon as the shoot was over I sped over to my buddies at The Burbank Auto Doctor and got some air put in. They found a large screw in my tire! They suggested I drive a few miles away to Western Tire to get it looked at. But by the time I got there it was 2 and they had just closed for lunch for an hour. So I drove over to Burger King to get dessert, killed some time, and then headed back to Western Tire. They were able to put a plug in it to stop the leak, but since the tires were 16 years old they would need to be replaced. The super wide tires on the back aren’t cheap, but I needed them desperately. The nearest set was in Las Vegas, so Josh at Western had them overnighted. He said they’d be here Friday, but I told him I’d be in on Monday to get them put on. I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for 3, but due to the emergency circumstances of my tire I had to postpone it to another day. Josh assured me that the plug would hold until I could get in for the changeover. I drove back home and put the Torino away and went inside to do some auditions, check e-mails, and feed the pets. My pal Tyrone from Canada had an extra ticket for the Michael Nesmith concert at the Troubadour that night, so I got cleaned up and drove over. We waited in a long line for about an hour to get inside, and once inside it was wall-to-wall people. Not very comfortable at all! I watched the band for a while, and then walked around the club to find a place to sit down. It was getting very claustrophobic in there! I heard him sing “Joanne,” one of my favorite, but a lot of his music had started sounding the same to me. They had his voice very low in the mix and it was hard to hear him. Plus his voice was fairly weak anyway. He did “Papa Gene’s Blues” as a solo, acoustic number. But shortly after that I decided I was going to take off. I cut out around 10 and stopped off at the store to get some groceries. I went home and put them away, did my auditions, and then grabbed a short nap on the couch. I got up later to make hot dogs and watch the final two “Welcome Back Kotter” episodes on my compilation DVD.

Friday the 26th – LA-LA LAND, LIMOS AND LOVELY LADIES! – My pal Brittney Powell came over around 1 to housesit for the day. I had a full day planned with my friend Valerie Perez and her mom. First, a limo I had rented arrived around 1:30. While my driver Jeff drove to Valerie’s house we had a good chat. Then Val and her mom got in (her mom and never been in a limo before!) and popped open some champagne. Then Jeff drove us over to the Hollywood Museum so we could show her mom the Batman ’66 exhibit we worked on. My pal and effects guy Jim Ojala was there to take the tour with us, as were a few friends of Valerie’s. It was fun seeing the exhibit without a ton of people gathered around, like at the opening a few weeks ago. There was a little kid in a Batman costume, complete with his mask, cape, Batman t-shirt, Batman lunchbox and two Batman bendies. For me, that’s what it’s all about! When I looked at him it was like looking at myself from 50 years ago. How I would have LOVED to have seen an exhibit like this when I was his age! We toured until the museum closed at 5, and then we hopped in the limo and headed over to Miceli’s for dinner. My pals Elliot and Edi Lurie joined us, as they were in town from Palm Springs for a concert. It was a great dinner, with great friends and great conversation. In the limo we called my local fro-yo place and found out that they had Dole Whip in stock! We stopped by for a quick dish of Dole Whip, and then Jeff dropped me at my house. Then he took Val and her mom back to their place. What a fabulous day! I went inside to pay Brittney and then I grabbed a short nap. But when I started dreaming about zombie squirrels, I knew it was time to get up and get some things done! I fed and walked Roxy, did a little work around the house, and then made a pot pie and started watching season 3 of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” on Blu Ray.

Saturday the 27th – CHEVY HEAVY?! – My appointment at Floyd’s Barbershop was for 2:30, but since my stylist had a quick haircut to squeeze in before my appointment, I went next door to the fro-yo place and had another Dole Whip! When Andie finished up with me I drove to my box to get my mail, and then drove to Joanne’s to get some fabric I needed, but that didn’t have what I wanted. I got home and got ready for movie night. I opened up my new James Bond Sean Connery figure and the movie night group started arriving. I have a few problems with the figure, but it is generally a great collectible! We watched the movie “Magnolia,” one of my all-time favorites. But it’s 3 hours long, so a few people started to drift. I’ve always loved Paul Thomas Anderson’s directing style, and I remember seeing this in 1999 when it came out and being blown away. The performances are phenomenal. I picked up so much new stuff upon a second viewing. And it was all shot around the neighborhood where I live. It’s definitely one of those movies you think about for days after. When everyone left around midnight I grabbed a nap on the couch, got up later to feed and walk Roxy, and then I made my Saturday Night Super Salad and watched an episode of “SNL” from the first season (back when they were still calling it “NBC’S Saturday Night.”) I’m getting deep enough into the first season episodes where I’m starting to remember specific things I saw when I watched them as a kid, when they originally aired. It was basically “The Chevy Chase Show” with a few extra folks thrown in for good measure. They hardly used the rest of the cast, as it was very Chevy-heavy. I don’t remember it being like that during their original airings, but I realize now as an adult how the producers were really trying hard to make a star of Chevy Chase. It worked too! I hit the hay to get some sleep.

Sunday the 28th – TIGER AND SHIRLEY! – After sleeping all day, like I usually do on Sundays, I woke up just before it was time to go to evening church. I walked Roxy over for the service and sat with my “adopted grandma” Shirley. When the service was over Shirley and I walked back to my house. It had gotten up to about 80 degrees that day and it was still fairly warm out; much like a Palm Springs evening! We drove over to Jerry’s Famous Deli so I could meet up with Sydney and Kayla; a couple of fans of “Tiger and Bunny.” I brought them some “T&B” collectibles and souvenirs I had lying around, and they seemed to really like them. We talked all about Voice-Over and other things and had a great chat. Then I took Shirley home and dropped her at her place. I stopped by the fro-yo place and got one more Dole Whip before they disappeared. (But they’ll be back!) Then I went home to grab a nap. I got up later for a few auditions, but I really felt the urge to curl up on the couch again and nap some more. I fed and walked Roxy, and then came right back inside and slept until 7am Monday morning. Sometimes, the couch wins. This was one of those nights.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

My friend Andrea texted me this picture from Sioux Falls, as a snowstorm started out her window. I hated to tell her that we hit 80 degrees that day in L.A.!

These are a few of the amazing shots my pal Christopher Ameruoso took of Holly Madison with my Gran Torino and Starsky sweater in Burbank last week. Stunning work!

Here’s the Batkid we encountered at the Batman ’66 exhibit at the Hollywood Museum. I’m SO jazzed by the fact that people are getting into the spirit of it!