March 5 – March 11 (2012) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This is an i-Pad sketch by my friend Edi of the view of Palm Springs from her hotel room. Darn good I think! I know how hard sketching on an i-Pad can be!

A producer is having me sing a version of the song “Mad World” by Tears for Fears. I had forgotten about that song until I refreshed my memory on You Tube. But after researching it on i-Tunes, I realized that theirs isn’t the best version of the song at all! In fact, it sounds much better when it’s more slow and deliberate. I ended up purchasing SIX different versions of this song, but this is one of my favorites. It’s by Street Corner Symphony. I like it!

Monday the 5th – FIRST DAY OF HIATUS! – We’re on a week-long hiatus from “The Tonight Show” so I took the opportunity to relax a bit. But stupidly I left the heater in my house on Auto, and I woke up sweating around 11am. The heater was on full blast. I turned it off and went back to bed. I got up around 1 to meet with Mark Ackerman my TV guy. Last week my 10 year old Fujitsu plasma big-screen died. So Mark is bringing in a brand new LG big-screen. While he and his partner Andrew got to work, I sat on my computer all afternoon doing a huge project. I decided that the MP3s on my i-Pod all had audio levels that were too inconsistent. I wanted to level them out, so I wouldn’t have to keep grabbing for my volume knob while listening to tunes. So I put each and every MP3 in my Sound Forge program and normalized their levels. It took forever. And I don’t even have that many songs, compared to other friends of mine. The new TV got installed, I had Mark put in a new remote control system, and he even installed an old Blu Ray player I had laying around. Sean my computer guy came by to pick up a check for some work he had done. He’s heading out soon for a month-long trip to Japan. I kept slaving away on my i-Tunes and finally finished up. My contractor Terry came by and we drove over to Radio Shack to buy some speakers for my new Robo-Elvis. Terry’s building the platform that Robo-Elvis will stand on, and there will be two speakers built into the platform. When we found the speakers we were looking for we bought them and headed over to DuPar’s to grab dinner. When we got back to Planet Wallywood we plotted out the schematic for the platform and Terry went on his way to start building it. I did my auditions in my home studio and e-mailed them to my agents. My assistant Sara came over later and we watched another episode of “Hawaii Five-O” from season 9 on the new TV. It’s amazing. It’s sharper, clearer and the colors are more vivid than my old plasma.

Tuesday the 6th – HEY! AREN’T I ON VACATION?? – I got up to go do a session for “Kick Buttowski” at L.A. Studios. I had been wanting to work on this show for awhile, and now was may chance. They wanted me to do some ADR (additional dialogue recording) on one episode. It was fun and a quick in and out. Then I headed off to Voice Trax West to do my weekly US Airways gig. I enjoyed some spaghetti from Al Dente, the Italian restaurant one floor below Voice Trax. I got in the car and sped off to Regenix for a follow-up visit. Gregg, the consultant there, said my hairs were looking good. Nice and fat and with good, long roots. He said when the remainder of the thin hairs fall out, they’ll be replaced by thicker, fuller hairs. It’s all a recycling process. He said there is no “permanent” damage on my scalp, which means, no permanent closure of my hair follicles. I got home and checked e-mail and then headed off to my accountant’s. It’s that time of year again. I had a great discussion with him about taxes and about everything that’s going on in the world and this country. I got home and grabbed a nap. Busy day! When I got up I went to my friend Bruce Kulick’s house to pick up some jackets he had for me. He’ll use certain jackets on stage (he’s a guitarist for Grand Funk) and then not use them any more. He gives me first grabs for many of them. I took my assistant Sara over to The Counter for dinner, then I went home to pack for my quick trip to Palm Springs. Though I had my packing list all written, it still seemed to take forever. I stayed up WAY too late!

Wednesday the 7th – VACATION AT LAST! – I got up waaay too early, and hardly slept at all. I think I got 3 hours tops. My friend Edi came over to get me, as she was driving us to Palm Springs, and we took off for Santa Monica. I had a session scheduled for Old Navy radio commercials at Big Joe Sound. It was great fun, as always. I talked with Big Joe about Elvis, collies, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Edi and I hit the road around 2pm and had no problem heading to Palm Springs. We stopped for gas in Moreno Valley and noticed how cold and windy it was. Maybe it was too early in the year for me to be going to the desert! Edi’s dog Bunny was along (she’s a teacup Maltese) and she was having a blast so far! We got to the Hyatt and checked in. We took a walk down Palm Canyon Drive and did some shopping. We bought a new dog carrier for Bunny, a few hoodies with Palm Springs on them, and other stuff. We had dinner at Ruby’s Diner on the patio and it was a blast! As we started to walk back to the hotel we spotted the amazingly huge moon rising over the Palm Springs skyline. But it was still a little chilly for my tastes. Maybe I should have waited until April?! We got back and took a dip in the jacuzzi and it was wonderful! Then I hit the hay for a quick nap. I like to stay up all night looking at the stars in Palm Springs, but the moon was so bright it lit the sky up too much to do much stargazing. Plus, it was still chilly. In the middle of the night I heated up some of my Ruby’s chicken tenders, made some popcorn, had an ice cold Coke and headed to bed.

Thursday the 8th – IT’S SO STILL HERE! – Edi put it correctly. She had never been to Palm Springs before, and her comment was, “It’s so still here!” That it is. There’s a magical quality to this area. Still, relaxing, calm. I slept til noon and met Edi for lunch at Panera. We had Bunny in her new little dog carrier on the patio, and we just relaxed looking at the amazing desert scenery that surrounds Palm Springs. The day was warm and mellow. We drove around some more, and then I headed back for a nap. I was certainly catching up on my sleep this trip! And then, my favorite part of being in Palm Springs. The Thursday night Street Fair! It was another great full moon, and there were tons of great dogs at the fair. Bunny enjoyed being carried around and enjoying all the sights and smells. Edi and I got fresh-squeezed lemonade, kettle korn, and we bought hand-made leather i-Pad cases. They were made by a local artist who was a military vet. I also got to stock up on the hand-made soaps I love so much. I bought 12 bars! I also stocked up on the hand-made licorice I love! We got back to the hotel to drop our treasures off, and then we went to a restaurant to eat steak! While we were on the patio people watching, we ran into our old friend Harpo the Clown, a perennial Palm Springs favorite! After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get packed up for our exit tomorrow. Maybe we should have stayed another day!?

Friday the 9th – FINAL DAY OF HIATUS! – We got packed up and hit the road. The traffic was great and we made it back to L.A. in under 2 hours! We met up with my assistant Sara at Studio Cafe for some late lunch. It’s been a great hiatus week! Very enjoyable and relaxing. I got back home to do some work and unpack, and then took a nap. I ended up sleeping FOUR HOURS! I guess all that relaxing is tiring! I got up and finished unpacking, did some various work around the house, made some of my world (in)famous Summer Sausage and Parmesan spaghetti, and watched an episode of “Hawaii Five-O” from season 9 with Sara.

Saturday the 10th – WELCOME FLAT STANLEY! – I woke up, checked my mail, and found an envelope from my cousin Lynelle’s daughter in South Dakota. It contained her “Flat Stanley,” and I was going to show him a good time around L.A. If you don’t know the story of Flat Stanley, it’s a kid’s book about a kid named Stanley who gets flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. He figures since he’s now flat, he can mail himself all over the world and see the sights! The idea is to photograph him in all sorts of situations and send them back to the class so they can learn about different areas. I took FS out for a ride in the Gran Torino. It was a beautiful day! I treated him to lunch at Paty’s, and then went to my friend Fred’s house to show him orange trees. Instead of just photos, I’m going to create a 2 minute Flat Stanley travel slideshow video to show off his travel prowess. In fact, Stanley will narrate it himself! (Gee, I wonder where I could find a voice-over artist to do his voice? Hmmm…) I even made an FS puppet that can talk on-camera! I headed home to get set up for my special guest of the evening. Mr. Richard Anderson would be coming to movie night to do live commentary and tell stories about his work on “The Six Million Dollar Man.” It ended up being a great night, everyone had a blast and Richard Anderson is a prince! What fun! Oh yeah, I had to set all my clocks ahead an hour for (ugh!) Daylight Savings Time.
Sunday the 11th – DATES WITH DOGS! – I leapt out of bed at 10:45 sharp (didn’t even need my alarm clock) because it was time to go see my friend Roxy again. It’s particularly crazy since it’s really 9:45am! She’s the sister of the current Lassie, whose name is Junior. A few weeks ago I visited Lassie-Land (the place where they raise all the collies who will be Lassie for TV and films) and met Roxy. She’s a beautiful 3 year old collie who needs a human of her own. She has to compete for affection amongst 8 other collies in Lassie-Land. And since I lost Sassie back in June, I’ve been thinking about adopting another doggie. Life is just too dull and strange without a dog in my life. This time I drove to Lassie-Land by myself in my Mustang. Before I had gone with a group of people, or with Edi. But this time it was just going to be Roxy and me. She saw me and came running. I think she’s starting to get attached, as am I. I loaded her into the back of my Mustang and lowered the top. She had never seen that before and got a little spooked. But once she understood it she was OK with it. Problem is, the weather was so nice the sun was beating down on her making her pant a bit. She didn’t have a baseball cap like I did. But we got our drive-thru food at KFC and went to the park, like we did last week. We relaxed in the shade and had some food. We walked in the grass, watched some people play baseball, and just enjoyed hanging out. She loved to stop every two feet or so and smell the scents in the grass and sand. She’s a very curious doggie. For a brief moment, as we were sitting there at the picnic table, I got very sad. I got another one of those “missing Sassie” moments and I started to weep softly. I guess it’s because hugging Roxy is so much like hugging Sassie. In a lot of ways Roxy is a lot like her, but she’s unlike her in just as many ways. But the sadness passed shortly after and we went about our business. Though it’s been about 9 months since she died, it still hurts from time to time. I sometimes wonder if it will EVER get better. We got back to Carol’s and I got a photo of Flat Stanley with Lassie (Junior) and it’s hilarious! Carol’s husband Pat commented that since I’ve been coming to see Roxy, she’s a VERY different dog. He said she is no longer crazed for attention, and competitive with the other dogs. Sadly, next week I won’t get to see her because I’ll be at Wondercon, but the week after that Carol is letting me take Roxy on a Saturday and bring her back on a Sunday. It’ll be our first overnight outing together! I hope she and Spook get along! I drove home and got ready for church. The message was great. It was about adopting an attitude of expecting miracles. I thought about several friends of mine who have sick relatives, or are sick themselves, and how I just have to “expect” them to get better. I got home and grabbed a much-needed nap. Curse you Daylight Savings Time! I understand that in some areas people don’t want their kids going to school in the dark, but wouldn’t it be much easier just to change the times of the school day instead of inconveniencing the entire country with this idiocy? There ought to be a law against that law! Anyway, after my nap I got up to do my auditions, and then do some more work with Flat Stanley. I made him a super-hero costume! And I wrote the script for his travel video slideshow!
And how was YOUR week??!!!

PICS FROM THE WEEK

Bunny loves Adam West!