RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
My pal Dave in Hartford, CT took this shot at the recent Laurel & Hardy convention in San Diego. He and I were sharing an elevator ride with Cassidy Cook (the great granddaughter of Stan Laurel) and her kids. He wanted to get a picture of them before we said our goodbyes, but because the elevator was completely lined with mirrors, I tried to crouch down out of the shot so I didn’t photobomb them. This attempt made the Laurel family laugh. And when Dave showed me the picture in Hartford…I laughed. Obviously I didn’t crouch down far enough, and you can still see my fezzed-up head in the corner! Sorry Dave!
However, it does give me a good feeling that I made the Laurel family laugh!
While flying to the east coast last week, I put the movie “Grease” on my tablet to watch it while we flew. I hadn’t seen it in a while, and I really enjoyed seeing it again! It’s such a wonderful, perfect, fun movie. Watching it brought back so many great memories: watching the movie countless times with my buddy Bob Japs at the Capitol Theatre in Aberdeen, South Dakota when it was released, seeing Olivia Newton-John perform “Hopelessly Devoted To You” live in Las Vegas, getting to meet her after the concert, performing Kenickie in a local stage version of it in Sioux Falls, South Dakota back in 1985, etc. But when the part came on when Sha Na Na performed “Those Magic Changes” I got a bit teary-eyed. My pal Phil Kappen performed the role of Doody in our version, and that was his song in the show. Phil passed away from cancer a few years ago. I saw him just a few months before he passed, as I was in Sioux Falls visiting family. Everyone there knew it would most likely be the last time we would see Phil. I remember standing behind him with my hands on his shoulders and in an attempt to keep things light I started singing, “What’s that playing on the radio?” Soon Phil joined in. It was magical.
Tuesday the 21st – EYE DO DECLARE! – Since I hadn’t heard from my eye doctor for a while, I figured I’d check in with them and see if I was due for a check-up. Sure enough, I was. And they couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t been getting their reminders. Come to find out it’s because they had my home phone as my primary contact number, and they send out reminders via text. OOPS. We corrected the problem. My prescriptions hadn’t changed that much over the last two years, but I did order a new pair of “rimless” glasses – so I’m hoping to try those out as a new look. I also may decide to order a pair of contact lenses to use when I’m doing conventions, etc. It’s a real hassle to have to switch back and forth between the glasses I need to see the cosplayers at a distance, and the glasses I need to sign photos for people. More good news – I have no glaucoma and no cataracts! I treated myself to lunch at a nearby In–N–Out Burger, and dined in my car while I chatted with friends on the phone. As I was still a little tired from my weekend experience (see last week’s Wally’s Week) I headed back to bed the minute I got home. I got up later to do my nightly WOG (walk/jog), enjoy some quiet “cool down” time afterwards outside in the anti-gravity chair, and I had a nice cigar to celebrate being home and making it through the airport ordeal. It was a nice night out; warm but humid. I went back inside to reconcile my bank statement, and then I made some lasagna and watched an episode of “The High Chaparral” on DVD before bed.
Wednesday the 22nd – A FUTURE MEMBER?! – The first order of business was to stop by my box to pick up some packages. Then I went over to Michaels to get some artwork framed. Several years ago, when my family was in town visiting from South Dakota, we all went out to Barone’s for dinner. We were joined by my buddy, the legendary Chuck McCann. My nieces Adriana and Julie were very young then, so Chuck took a few of the paper placemats, a Sharpie pen, and he drew Laurel & Hardy for them; Ollie for Julie, and Stan for Adriana. Last year when I was in South Dakota visiting, my sister Bonnie asked if I’d like to have the drawings that Chuck did for them. Both Julie and Adriana are grown now, and they don’t have room in their places to hang them. I told her enthusiastically YES! At first I thought the pieces might be good raffle items for a future Sons Of The Desert meeting. After all, Chuck was one of the founders of the group, and this is his original artwork of Stan and Ollie. But as I thought about it some more, I decided to keep it for myself. I don’t have any of Chuck’s artwork in my collection, so this would be a nice addition. As the drawings were lying on the framing table, the manager of Michaels came by and started admiring them. He professed to be a Laurel & Hardy fan. I immediately told him about the recent Sons Of The Desert convention in San Diego, and I urged him to come to a meeting sometime. He seemed very interested as we continued to chat, so I think I’ll be able to recruit a new member! When I got back home I worked around the house some more, and then relaxed for a bit. I did my nightly WOG, spent some time in the anti-grav chair to relax, and then came back inside and spent the rest of the night recording a ton of auditions.
Thursday the 23rd – GET WITH THE PROGRAM! – Several items needed to be mailed off, including a cool new Philadelphia Phillies cap and jersey that I bought my dad during my recent layover at the Philadelphia airport, so I headed to the post office to drop them off. Because of the recent forgery of my checking account, where a few checks I had dropped in the Post Office’s outdoor blue boxes had been stolen and forged, I’m playing it safe. From now on I write my checks very sloppily. If somebody is going to try and Photoshop one of my checks now, they’re going to have a HUGE job ahead of them. But now I only drop my mail INSIDE an official post office location. No more blue boxes that can be broken into easily! Speaking of the forgery, I headed to Bank of America to officially close the forged account. It had been frozen for a few months while we waited for the dust to settle on the claim, and now that all has been completed I closed the account for good. Lesson learned. Then I headed over to Voice Trax West to record a few bits for American Airlines. Just as I was pulling into my driveway, I followed my pal Scott Sebring in…who was also just arriving. Because I’ll be switching over to a new computer soon, and because the program upon which I record my Voice Over auditions has become obsolete for any new machines, Scott was going to walk me through a few options for a new recording program. But my needs are very specific, and I like what I like. Unfortunately, unlike the old recording program I’m going to be forced to abandon, none of the newer options serve all my requirements. One will do this…but not that. And the other will do that…but not this. And some of them have just become so bloated and cluttery I really have no use for them. When I first bought my recording program back in the 2000s there were no such thing as podcasts. But now that podcasts are the rage, most of the newer software seems designed for podcasters and not Voice Actors. This means there are multiple channels available for multi-tracking – which I don’t need. I have pretty simple needs in life, and I abhor clutter (it’s one of the reasons I still own a flip phone). So this is going to take some getting used to. When we discovered that the first program we tried didn’t have a few of my required functions, we downloaded a trial version of another program. While this one wasn’t perfect, it seemed more suited to my needs. Not to mention the fact that it came highly recommended from several other Voice Actor friends I know. Scott and I headed to Paty’s to grab a bite to eat on the patio, as it was a gorgeous night! But my allergies started acting up so I headed home to rest. Later I was too tired to go on my nightly WOG. Was I still worn out from the previous weekend?
Friday the 24th – CONFOUNDED CON CRUD! – When I awoke in the early afternoon I realized that my problems may not be allergies after all, but perhaps I caught a slight case of the “con crud” from the previous weekend’s adventures and mishaps! Rats! With the whole “canceled flight” debacle, the stress, etc. – I’m not surprised. I called my doctor’s office to get a telemed appointment for later that afternoon. My maids came over to clean and I stayed outside in the sun while they cleaned. While I believe I was past my “contagious phase,” I didn’t want to take any chances. Shortly after they left my doctor called and phoned in some meds to the local CVS. By now I wasn’t feeling very good, but I threw myself into the car and headed over to go get my supplies. I picked up a few grocery items while I was out as well, since I wasn’t sure how long I’d be out of commission. I canceled all plans for the weekend and I plan to just lie low. I was too tired to do my WOG again, but since my voice was still in good shape, I decided to bang out all of my auditions for Monday morning. Once the coughing phase starts, it’s awfully tough on the ol’ pipes. Plus it gave me a chance to dive in and work out the new audio program. It was nice, but I still had a few questions. My doctor prescribed me some steroids and some antibiotics. The steroids tell your body to stop doing what it’s supposed to do. In essence it says, “Stop flooding the body with defensive phlegm. We’ve got everything covered with antibiotics.” This program cuts down on nasal and lung issues considerably. Since I’m not comfortable with eating salads yet (still waiting to get the “all-clear” on the lettuce supply) I made a pot pie and settled in with some Nyquil and an episode of “The High Chaparral.”
Saturday the 25th – THIS IS THE PART I REALLY HATE! – Though I haven’t had a cold in a while, I thoroughly recall this phase as being the one I hate the most…the coughing. I can deal with a sore throat, or a stuffy nose, or a runny nose…but the coughing really sucks! Luckily I wasn’t coughing too much, as the steroids and the antibiotics were handling things nicely. But I still wasn’t completely up to par. I slept virtually all day (thank you NyQuil!) and got up later to move around a bit. I was still not up to a WOG, I just sat outside in the anti-grav chair and got some fresh night air. I went back inside to do some work and I was feeling markedly better. I remembered that next Saturday would be the first Saturday of the month, and I wanted to get prepped for my monthly commemoration of Laurel & Hardy Theatre. Since I’ve made it through a run of all 40 short films over the past 20 months, it’s time to delve into the 24 feature films. I can’t decide if I’m going to watch them in random order (as I did with the shorts when I drew their names out of a Sons Of The Desert fez), or if I’m going to watch them in order of release. I dug out all of my Laurel & Hardy DVDs and Blu rays and located which discs had which feature films, and in what format. While I have at least one copy of each of their films, in some cases I have multiples! Some are in standard definition, and some are in high definition. And still…some were only released in another region! Luckily, my Blu ray player is region-free, so that doesn’t concern me. But I’m kind of leaning toward watching them in production order. Since I’m still not having salads (I REALLY miss them too) I made a Tombstone pizza and watched the first episode of “The Outer Limits” on Blu ray before bed. I love this show a lot (truth be told, I like it even better than “The Twilight Zone”) and it’ll be great seeing it in hi def!
Sunday the 26th – REMARKABLE RECOVERY! – I simply could not believe it! When I got up in the afternoon I felt amazing! I still had a minor cough, but I was back in mostly normal condition! All the symptoms were gone, gone, gone! I did some work around the house and enjoyed the day. Those steroids really do the trick! I even went for a WOG, and spent some time afterwards in the anti-grav chair! Fantastic! I made some soup and a sandwich and watched another episode of “The High Chaparral” before bed, and I was pleasantly surprised to see our old pal Frank Gorshin as the guest star. While putting on a very believable Irish brogue, he played the owner of a camel named Tillie who was the property of the U.S. Cavalry! He even got to do a fair amount of singing in this episode! (In addition to being an incredible actor and impressionist, he was also a very accomplished singer!) Cameron Mitchell, one of the stars of the series, has always been one of my favorite actors. It was a real treat to see him in the many scenes he shared with Frank. Two masters of their craft flexing their muscles. Amazing! This episode originally aired in January of 1969, so it was well after Frank blazed the TV trail as The Riddler on “Batman.” (Come to think of it, Cameron Mitchell would have made a GREAT Two-Face!)
And how was YOUR week??!!
