Not sure exactly why I have been unable to extract this song from my brain, but it’s been on my mind the past week. It’s a good song to hum while I’m riding my new bicycle…a great rhythm to pedal to. Remember the one-hit-wonder group named Harvey Danger in the late 90’s? This was their hit…“Flagpole Sitta.”
Monday the 7th – MONEY MONDAY! – In the life of a voice-over actor, you’ve got to “make hay while the sun shines,” as my grandpa always used to say. Well, today was a very “sunny” day. Other days go by and there’s not even so much as a peep on your cell phone, but there are those days where you have SO much to do, you’re wondering how you’re going to get it all done! Today was one of those days. The session for “Garfield” was moved up to an earlier time than usual to accommodate director/producer Mark Evanier’s flight schedule. He had to catch a flight later that day and wanted some extra time to prepare. Also, it was going to be Ricky Minor’s first day on ‘The Tonight Show’ as bandleader, and there was going to be a run-through of the opening with the entire crew at 11:30. Although they said I could pre-record an opening that could be played during this rehearsal, I didn’t really want to miss this. Firstly, I felt it was my duty to be present so the director could get the best idea possible how it was going to sound later in the day for the real taping. Secondly, I hadn’t heard Ricky’s new theme yet and I was dying to hear it. I didn’t want to be surprised when it came time to tape the show for real, so I felt it was important that I be there for that reason as well. Mark Evanier is a swell guy, and he let me record all of my Jon lines for one episode in advance. The good news is I got out in time to make “TTS” rehearsal. The bad news is, I had to leave a session that included Stan Freberg and Laraine Newman! DRAT! Those are always a lot of fun. Anyway, I made it to NBC in time, and the new theme song sounded amazing. Ricky’s new band has a killer brass section that really brings back a bit of the original sound of the old Johnny Carson “TTS.” During the rehearsal, when the band struck up and I hit the announce button, I had a big smile on my face. I got to announce over this new classically-inspired “TTS” theme, and it all sounded great! We ran it again and it all went perfectly well. Then I headed out, grabbed some lunch, and got over to Voice Trax West in the early afternoon to record some new TV commercials for Southeast Missouri Hospital. After the session, I dashed home and walked the dog, and then headed back to NBC for the “TS” taping. On the way I called a company that I had ordered some blue velvet curtains from for a new exhibit in Planet Wallywood. The curtains they actually sent me were black velvet, and not blue. So I needed to know how soon they could send me the correct order since I was on a deadline to get this completed for a photo shoot over the weekend. They assured me they would expedite the correct order. That night I laid around and caught my breath from a very busy day. But I couldn’t rest long, because Tuesday would be much the same!
Tuesday the 8th – TUESDAY TUMULT! – Another busy day! It all started with a cross-town journey to Santa Monica and the studios of POP Sound. I was doing some more Baskin-Robbins TV commercials. Normally when you do a vo session via ISDN (a really high quality phone line) there’s a considerable period of waiting around. Since it’s via ISDN, the producers and director are in another town…Atlanta, Kansas City, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, etc…and are directing you long distance. So many times during these sessions you only see the local studio engineer. The reason for the waiting? The producers on the other end of the ISDN line need to assemble a rough cut of the spot then and there, and then they call their clients and get approval for the finished product. So you’ll record for a half an hour, then there’s normally another half hour of waiting while they call the client and play the spots for them. During the waiting period today, the L.A. studio engineers were telling me about this film they were doing post-production on, and they needed a gruff voiced actor to dub some lines. Apparently the guy who did the role originally was unable to do his ADR (additional dialogue recording) due to a family emergency, so they were looking for a sound-alike to do his lines instead. But the turnaround was too quick to call in actors, so they asked if I would take a shot. I gladly agreed. We got the word from the producers of the TV spot that they had obtained approval and we said our farewells. Then I went back into the studio, listened to the lines from the movie and did my version. I gave them about 15 choices of each line, and I read it in all conceivable ways. Since I hadn’t seen the entire movie and wasn’t familiar with the context of the scene, I figured it would be safe to give it to them in a variety of ways. The engineers said they would let me know the outcome. I didn’t end up getting it, but I wanted to write about this by way of example of how nutty this business can be sometimes. You’re just in doing a job, and BOOM! Here comes another opportunity! That’s why you always have to be on your best in this biz, because you never know what may pop up. I hightailed it to Voice Trax West in Studio City (about 14 miles away from where I was) and luckily the traffic was pretty good. I got there in time to do my session for HH Gregg. Immediately following that session, I walked into the other studio at VTW and did a session for Avera cancer hospital, a hospital group in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Then I stopped by my mailbox to check the mail, and went home to walk Sassie and give her some pets. Then I headed to “TTS” for the taping. That night I was wiped, so I relaxed and regained my strength! WHEW!
Wednesday the 9th – NICE, EASY DAY! – I got to sleep in and hit my reset button. The busy first two days of the week were a whirlwind of activity and it was nice to rest up. My electrician Electric Bob came by with the needed paperwork to install my new air conditioning system in my house. I had to submit it for approval to my homeowner’s association. I dropped it off at the office just before I left for “TTS.” We did the taping, and then I headed over to the local hardware store before they closed to get some screws I would need to mount my curtain rods in my new Planet Wallywood exhibit. Then I stopped by my mailbox and picked up some checks. I had about a half hour to feed my cat Spooky and take my dog Sassie out, before my next project. I picked up my pal Sara and we went to Sunshine Studios in Studio City to record another episode of “The Dead of Night,” an internet radio show written by my old pal Dick Grunert. It pays homage to the old scary radio shows of the past, and they’re terrific. When this new episode gets posted I’ll add a link to my site so you can hear it. Lots of fun! After the session Sara and I grabbed dinner at Panera, and then I headed home to mount my curtain rods. I did pretty good for an amateur. They ended up looking terrific!
Thursday the 10th – I LIKE TO RIDE MY BICYCLE…! – I made the decision to buy a bicycle so that I could get some exercise by biking to NBC a few days a week. Plus I wouldn’t be spewing car exhaust into the air, and I wouldn’t be putting miles on my car. So I met my friend Edi (a bike enthusiast) at Metropolis in North Hollywood to look at bikes. The first one I rode was good, but not quite to my liking. Then I rode a second one that seemed to be perfect. I rode the larger model of that same bike, but I still preferred the second one I rode. So I bought it after riding down the street with Edi for a few blocks. It had been awhile since I had ridden a bike, and it felt great. It brought back all those great memories of when I used to bike as a kid. I had a little blue Schwinn as a kid that I rode everywhere. Then I had a red bike later on that I used on my paper routes. I rode that thing all over the place! In fact, when I was young I was a chubby kid, but all the bike riding helped me lose that chub fast! When I was working in radio in Sioux Falls in 1980 I bought a red 10 speed, and would ride that to work almost every night. So, I think this is bike #4 for me, and I intend to get good use out of it. I paid for it and was told to come pick it up on Friday after the shop had a chance to tune it up. I was very excited! I hit the streets to get to NBC for the taping, but the street I normally take was WALL-TO-WALL TRAFFIC! It was hardly moving. I glanced over at the freeway and everyone was stopped dead! I thought this was odd, since it’s never been like this before. I found out that there was a gasoline spill on the 134 freeway RIGHT NEXT TO NBC! YIKES! Normally I can make the trip to NBC in about 15 minutes from where I live in Hollywood, but today wasn’t going to be that smooth! The bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway had forced the overflow traffic on to the side street that I normally take to work. I called the gang at “TTS” and told them about the spill. They knew all about it, since it had virtually shut NBC down for a few hours during the day! EVERYONE had been made late by this thing! Luckily, I managed to get to “TTS” in time for our run-through! THANK GOD! But it took me three times as long as it normally did. If ever there was a day I was thankful I bought a bike, it was TODAY! Unfortunately, I wasn’t ON my bike yet. For if I had been, I could have just soared past the stopped cars on the street and made my way to work! After the taping wrapped, the traffic had improved considerably. So I went to It’s a Wrap and bought some new shirts and a great pair of jeans. I also stopped over at the bank and deposited some checks. Then I made my way to Albertson’s grocery store, since they’re the only store in the area that carries the soda that I like…Diet Rite tangerine! YUM! I buy it by the case if they’re available. But on this day they only had one case left. So I grabbed it, and vowed to get more next week. Diet Rite is great because there’s no caffeine (I stopped most caffeinated drinks after my heart arrhythmia a year or so ago) and there’s no aspartame (I stopped aspartame-ladened drinks around the same time). Did you know that aspartame has been proven to be a “neurotoxin?” It can produce results similar to MS in some people. Aspartame is absolute poison! At first it was called Nutra Sweet, but when the word got out it was a toxin, they changed the name to some other fluffy sounding thing. But it’s still the same old poison. Now, it’s only Splenda for me. Unfortunately, not every restaurant serves drinks with Splenda, so I occasionally have to drink something with aspartame in it. But when I was on about 8 Diet Pepsis a day, I was suffering leg cramps and aches, similar to what you feel when you’re coming down with the flu. But I stopped Diet Pepsi cold turkey and they went away almost immediately. WILD! It’s sad that a lot of gum, toothpaste and other products are still poisoned with aspartame. So while it’s near impossible to avoid it completely, I can certainly cut down considerably. That night I napped a bit, and when I got up I went over my bank statements, finished up paying my bills, and hung my blue velvet curtains, which had arrived that afternoon! They looked wonderful! Wondering all about the new exhibit in Planet Wallywood? Stay tuned!
Friday the 11th – IT’S THE END OF THE WEEK AS WE KNOW IT! – I called my electrician Electric Bob to see about having him come over to hook up a light for my new exhibit, and I headed over to Kalmenson and Kalmenson casting in Burbank to do an audition for Radio Shack. Then I got back home and did a phone audition with some guys I had worked with a year or so ago on the Lamplighter series of radio shows. They had already decided on casting me for one of the main roles, now they wanted to hear my read for some of the secondary roles to see who else I would be playing. Then I headed to NBC for “TTS.” Georgette was going to come pick me up at my house so she could come see the taping, but there was construction on the street she was taking to get over the hill. So she was running late. I went on ahead to NBC to meet her at Guest Relations. I told the guy at the desk that my guest was running late, and he said she would be ok up until 3:10. I got a call on my cell that she had found a parking spot near NBC, so I dashed over to pick her up and get her to Guest Relations. I drove over to park my car where I normally park, and met up with her inside the soundstage. She was there to see the band Against Me, so I had her seated on the guest band side, so she could get a clear view when they performed. BONUS! She got to see them perform the song twice that day! I dropped her off to her car and she was going to meet me at my house. She picked me up and took me to the bike shop to pick up my bike. I was VERY excited. The idea was that she would drop me off at the store and I would ride my bike home. But Scott and Vickie Sebring were in the area so we decided to meet for dinner. And I knew that riding my bike to the restaurant would take considerably more time than driving, and I didn’t want to hold them up. So we loaded the bike into the back of Georgette’s SUV and she dropped me off at the restaurant. Then she went on ahead to work. Sara met me at the restaurant and I just spent time peeling around the parking lot on my new bike. It was great feeling the wind in my hair and pedaling away. We all had a nice dinner at The Studio Cafe, and then we met at my house for some work Scott was helping me with on the computer. We also shot a few video greetings for some conventions coming up. There’s an anime convention in Montana that asked me to do a greeting, as well as the Auto Assembly convention in the U.K. I had been a guest at AA back in 2004 and I’ll never forget my trip to England. It was great. Obviously with my “TTS” schedule now, I’m unable to travel a lot, but I can at least send video greetings. Actually, my appearance at the upcoming CONvergence convention in Minneapolis worked out really well, since the convention happens during one of “TTS’s” normal hiatus periods.
Saturday the 12th – WEEKEND AT LAST! – I slept in fairly late, but got up around noon to welcome Electric Bob, who would be hooking up some lighting for my new exhibit in Planet Wallywood. When he finished the maids arrived to clean. After they were done, I got so excited about the new addition, I started snapping photos and sending them to my webmaster Scott Sebring for the site. You can see what all the hubbub is about by clicking here. That will tell you all about the genesis of the new display! That night I had another full house for movie night. We watched two Blu Ray Star Trek episodes, and then watched “Caddyshack,” which had just been released on Blu Ray this past week. It’s one of my favorite movies, and still makes me laugh to this day. When the film was over, we watched the hour-long “making of” on the disc. So after a total of 5 hours of non-stop viewing I was ready to hit the hay. But not before watching an episode of “Man From UNCLE” upstairs in bed!
Sunday the 13th – IS THE WEEKEND OVER ALREADY?! – I got over to a local senior center where my friend Bruce Kulick’s parents live. His father had passed away about a week and a half ago, so Bruce and his brother Bob wanted to play some songs for the residents there as a tribute to their dad. Their mom Alice was in the front row, beaming away as they played. Bruce did most of the playing, as Bob only sat in for one song. Bruce’s girlfriend Lisa sang some great old standards. The old folks seemed to really enjoy the show. I laughed to myself thinking, “When I’m 90 years old and living in a home, is some young pup going to come in and play songs from the 70’s and 80’s for us?” I could just see myself sitting in a wheelchair, long gray hair, rocking out to some youngster playing Van Halen’s “Beautiful Girls,” or K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s The Way I Like It.” After the show Sara and I went to Panera to grab a bite. Then I went home to get ready for evening church. It was such a nice night, I decided to ride my bike to church. I’m going to like this whole bike thing. I spent some of the best years of my life on a bicycle, so why stop now? After church I grabbed a nap, and then got up to do stuff around the house, some auditions to e-mail to my agents, and went to Denny’s to grab take-out food for my late night viewing of more “Man from UNCLE” episodes!
And how was YOUR week?!?!
