RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I must’ve inherited this 45 from the KELO-AM, where I worked from 1979 to 1987. This is how they used to catalog their music, and every colored dot meant something different in relation to the station’s format.
As I was digging through my old 45’s I recalled a song called “Let Me Love You Tonight” by the Pure Prairie League. We used to play it on the radio station where I worked quite a bit, and it really brings back good thoughts. Though Vince Gill later embarked on a solo career (and later joined The Eagles) his work with Pure Prairie League was phenomenal!
Monday the 25th – GOLD! – In the early afternoon I got busy setting up my home studio for a 2 hour video game session. This would be the last of the 6 sessions, so this will probably be it for this game (at least for the foreseeable future). I went to my box to pick up some packages, and then got some groceries. I had lunch at Togo’s, but their barbecue beef sandwich got a little too spicy for some reason. I drove to Michael’s to pick up a few crafty items, and then I went home to put everything away. I decided to go through my collection of 45 rpm records. As a former radio DJ, I used to have thousands. But now my collection has been pared down to just a few hundred. But in those few hundred I found GOLD! I’m glad that when I did my 45 and album purge in the early 2000’s I had the foresight to keep a few gems. One gem was most likely the first 45 I ever bought with my own money. It was “Rock Your Baby” by George McCrae. I used to have a special coding system for all my records, and I would write the codes on the labels of the records. VG meant “very good,” but that’s all I can remember. There were some other demarcations on the label, but I couldn’t recall what they meant to my 13 year old brain. I also found a few records that still had the price tag on the sleeve. One was Saterlee Drug in Mitchell, South Dakota, and the other was White Drug in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Both are now defunct stores, but it’s cool to still see their price tags on the old records. I found a few sleeves that would look good as framed art for the Puppet Room, so I pulled those aside. I also found the original pressing of “Jimmy Loves Mary-Ann” by Looking Glass, which I’m going to have my pal Elliot Lurie (the writer and singer of that song) sign it the next time I see him. I also found several 45s that I had “inherited” from various radio stations I worked at. It sure brought back a lot of great memories seeing the special coding demarcations on the labels from each individual station. Good times. I recorded my auditions, did some work around the house, and took my nightly WOG (walk/jog). Then I spent a little time outside “cooling down” after my exercise with an iced tea. It was very cloudy but pretty warm, considering it’s almost December. The overcast and clouds help keep the warmth in the environment, so those nights are a welcome sight to me! It’s going to rain soon, and I could definitely sense the humidity in the air. I went inside to type out Wally’s Week and do some miscellaneous work around the house.
Tuesday the 26th – THE RAIN, THE RUNS, AND RELAXATION! – As predicted, the rain began – but we didn’t get very much. The laxative that I had been giving poor old Spook the cat worked pretty well, as he has an old man digestive system now. But today I realized that it worked TOO well. He’s got the kitty runs, so I dealt with that all day. It was a mess. I made up a little pen for him near the downstairs bathroom, where his litter box is. I put potty pads down, put a nice comfy blanket down, and gave him his food and water bowls. Then I penned him in with a wire and wood gate, and put his heater just on the other side so he could be warm. He was OK with it for a while, but soon he started complaining and tried getting out. And just like that, a 19 year old cat was 4 years old again! Digging and pulling to try and get the gate down. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes not. But he was NOT happy and let me know it. He doesn’t mind the gates being up to keep him OUT of certain areas, but he does not like to be kept IN a certain area. But he’ll have to stay penned up until he’s normal again and the laxative works out of his system entirely. Will it be 24 hours? 48 hours? Or (shudder) longer?! I don’t know. But the tougher I make the walls of the pen, the more determined he is to get out. At one point I caught him CLIMBING UP the wire and wood gate to jump over it. I can’t believe a cat this old still has the prowess to do that. I relaxed most of the day so I could monitor Spook’s condition, and it was just as frustrating for me as it was for him. No more laxatives! Later I did my auditions, took my nightly WOG, and spent some time outside in the anti-grav chair decompressing. Since it had recently rained it was still cloudy and warm-ish. I went inside to do some work around the house and prep for Thanksgiving. I decided to get busy doing an art project where I recreated several famous images and graphics from when I was growing up in Aberdeen, South Dakota. One was trying to replicate the masthead for the now-defunct Aberdeen newspaper called The Aberdeen American-News. I had found a shot on an Aberdeen tribute page that had a shot of the cover of the paper that was printed the day JFK was assassinated. I used that as a guide and “font-matched” the exact fonts they used for the masthead. I carried the paper as a paperboy for a couple years but never paid much attention to it. I was shocked to find out that the masthead was actually made up of two different fonts. The lower case “s” in the main font looked too funky, so they pulled a lower case “s” from a different font and tacked it on. In elementary school in the fall we always had the opportunity to buy a card of 8 perforated tickets which would get us admittance to a Saturday children’s film series. There were 8 movies scheduled, one for each Saturday over 8 weeks, and the entire card only cost $1.50! I have fond recollections of going to those movies with my pal Kent and having a blast at the Capitol Theatre. It was the first time I had seen the 1966 “Batman” and “The Munsters” in color and on the big screen! It was also the first time I ever saw a Laurel & Hardy film on the big screen when they showed “Way Out West.” Frances the Talking Mule, Ma and Pa Kettel and others like it were always a part of the series. Good memories. On the same Aberdeen tribute page one of the posters still had one of those original cards from 1972, with 5 of the movies STILL INTACT! An amazing find! I’ve got an offer out to the owner of that ticket card to see if he wants to sell it. I’d love to have it as framed art in my house as looking at it makes me smile. Based on that posted photo, I decided to recreate the ticket card for my own enjoyment. This way I could include only the films that I would be interested in seeing. What a great time trying to match all the old fonts and “vintage typesetting” that was prevalent during the day. I had gotten quite far on the layout, and then my graphics program froze on me and I lost all my work! It was frustrating as hell, but since I had done a “dry run” on the whole thing, rebuilding it didn’t take too long. It was fun, but I ended being up all night doing it. When I looked at the clock I realized it was mid-Wednesday morning. I needed to meet with my pal Larry at noon, so it really didn’t make much sense to go to bed now. So I just stayed up until he got here.
Wednesday the 27th – ROGER THAT! – After staying up all night working on my personal art projects, my buddy Rubber Larry stopped by at noon to pick up the Roger Moore life cast that I had just received. Larry’s the best celebrity likeness sculptor out there, and he’s going to sculpt a Roger Moore face for a figure I’m working on. He’ll use the life mask for reference when sculpting. I’ve always wanted to replicate the James Bond target mannequin that was shown in Scaramanga’s funhouse in the 1974 James Bond film “The Man With The Golden Gun.” And now I’m going to do it, as I know all the right people who can make it a reality. Then I drove over to Voice Trax West to re-record the narration for the new Christoween stop-motion sizzle reel we’re releasing just before Christmas. After about 3 takes we got a pass we liked and now Evan the Engineer will begin the sound design. After we recorded the voice tracks Evan and I chatted about music placement and some of the sound effects I wanted to use. I got some fried rice at Chin Chin, stopped at CVS to get a reprint of the information card for my new Stan Laurel cane display, and headed home to check on Spook. Once again, “Spookdini” managed to escape his confines. As his butt is still goopy I was not happy. Good thing I’m having all the carpets in the house completely cleaned and sanitized next week! I doubled up on the wall and put a big sheet of foam rubber over the gate so he couldn’t climb it. After a long, exhausting day I finally hit the hay for a while. But when I got out, once again Spook had escaped. How does he do it! Pretty amazing for a 19 year old cat! I took my nightly WOG but it was too chilly for any post-WOG anti-grav time. It seems like Spook’s backside might finally be drying up. I figured between 24 to 48 hours he’d return to normal. I also decided to try and stay ahead of any nastiness by doing a “bidet” routine for him to keep him clean. He doesn’t like it one bit, but that’s too bad. I made a salad and watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk.”
Thursday the 28th – HAPPY THANKSGIVING! – Sleep felt so good, and when I finally arose I checked my texts and my emails. I decided to go back to bed for a while, and when I got up it was time to get ready for our annual Thanksgiving feed at the Smoke House in Burbank. I put some index cards and some pens in my bag for our traditional Thanksgiving thing. After dinner I always pass cards and pens around and ask the guests to jot down one random thing they’re thankful for. It doesn’t have to be the thing they’re MOST thankful for, or the LEAST thankful – but just something random. I like to help keep people in touch with gratitude, or as we used to call it in church, an “attitude of gratitude.” I also packed up my Count Muppet replica, because I had a specific plan. I made up a sign that said “COUNT your blessings,” and as part of our annual group photo I wanted to include Count Von Count in our festivities. After all, if we’re counting our blessings, don’t we need a professional counter to help us? I got to the Smoke House at 7:30 and many of the gang had already arrived. I checked and let the front desk know we were there. While we were waiting for our table to be set up an old pal walked in. Bob G. used to be the manager at Paty’s (a very long time ago) so we were used to seeing him there. We always laughed because our late friend Fred Westbrook thought that Bob G. resembled Neil Diamond (which he really didn’t) so Fred would always call out, “It’s NEIL DIAMOND!” every time he saw him at Paty’s. So unavoidably when Bob G. walked into the Smoke House I said, “It’s Neil Diamond!” Come to find out Bob was there to eat as well, so since we had only 9 people in our reservation for 10, I asked him to join us. Now we have 10. Perfect! No accidents in life. For the past decade or so, Bob G. has been the manager at a Chevy dealership in the valley, so now I just refer to him as Chevy Bob, since I have about a thousand friends named Bob. It was a great dinner (as always) and we finished up right around closing time. There were still a fair amount of people in the restaurant, so when I brought the Count out of his bag for our photo, he got a lot of attention. One lady came up with her camera and asked if I was the guy who did it on the show, and I said, “No. I’m just a fanboy.” But she stood there not quite ready to believe me. I honestly think she thought I was lying to her. But we got our photo and were on our way out the door. I got home to relax, and later took my nightly WOG. I spent a little time outside afterwards in the anti-grav chair, and then I came back inside to do more graphics work. I realized that the new Christoween stop-motion sizzle needed a credits card, so I sat down and created that. When I finished I went upstairs to the Tranquility Zone to put the Count back in his display case. But I noticed how dirty the mirror on the inside back of the case was, so I took all the puppets out and cleaned it really well. Spook’s situation is still improving, and I think it really helps that I mitigate the problem with regular “bidet” sessions. In fact, I think “Spook’s Bidet” will be the name of my new punk band! I made a salad and watched another episode of “The Incredible Hulk.”
Friday the 29th – BLECCH FRIDAY! – Not wanting to venture out at all during the day, given that it was “Black Friday,” I took the opportunity to hide and stayed in bed until 5:30 in the evening! It’s always weird getting up and realizing the sun’s already down. I hate winter. I checked on Spook and all was well. I did a little work, got caught up on emails and texts, and later…went back to bed! Nothing else was going on, so I figured why not?! I ended up sleeping until midnight! I guess my body really needed it. When I came downstairs I stepped in one of Spook’s landmines. DAMN! After a clean-up, I got him fed and watered. Then shortly after, he puked it all back up. I won’t lie. I’m getting very weary of all this cat nonsense. I know some of this stuff comes with having an elderly cat, but I can honestly say I won’t miss all this when it’s over. Though I may get another dog someday, I will never, ever have another cat. Just not my thing, as I discovered within the past few years. I love Spook, but when people say cats are easier to take care of than dogs, I wholeheartedly disagree. But I may never have another dog either. I dunno. It’s tough. I would like to have a nice clean, hairless, petless house for a while and see how it goes. After all, I’ve had pets for the past 24 years, in one form or another. I took my WOG and it was rather chilly. I came inside to do some video editing and some other work before bed.
Saturday the 30th – SATURDAY STUFF! – Just after 1pm I woke up and was on my computer checking emails and the news. Edi called me to let me know she was in the area, so I got cleaned up and we met for lunch on the patio at Paty’s. Then I went to my box to pick up a package. This was a vintage 1970’s black suit that I’m planning on using for my James Bond/Roger Moore figure. This beautiful linen suit comes complete with wide lapels and flared legs! Best of all, the patch on the inside of the suit (that contains all the sizing information for the jacket and pants) states that it was manufactured in 1974…THE YEAR “THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN” WAS RELEASED! Too cool! I got some gas in the Gray Ghost, and then went over to Michael’s to redeem a coupon that was expiring soon. I picked up two 8” X 8” frames so I could frame some vintage 45 record sleeves for the Puppet Room. I got a 5” X 7” frame for the new Invader Zim original I got as a gift from Nickelodeon artist Jeff Sornig as a gift. I bought an 8” X 8” shadow box frame for a Laurel & Hardy film box that I’m displaying in the Tranquility Zone, and I got two 8 X 10 frames for some family pictures that I had printed. When I was back in Sioux Falls in September my folks and my two sisters did a photo session. We hadn’t done a family photo sitting in a while so we were long overdue. One of the frames was BOGO, and with my coupon the entire purchase ended up being only 10 bucks! WOW! Unreal! I sped off to CVS to get some photo prints made before they closed, and then I got some groceries. I got home, did some work, relaxed, and later I took my nightly WOG. The night was very quiet and pleasant, and it was nice enough to sit outside in the anti-grav chair and enjoy a nice cigar. As I enjoyed the overhead visual of a series of patchwork clouds I took on an “attitude of gratitude.” I noticed that people were starting to put their Christmas lights out, which was also a nice visual. When I came back inside I put all the photos and artwork in their frames and they all look wonderful! I worked around the house and then made a salad and watched an episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.”
Sunday the 1st – PLANNING AND PREP! – A big week was ahead! Not only would the carpet cleaners be here on Wednesday, but my new area rug for The Tranquility Zone would be delivered on Tuesday. That meant I needed to break down my bed, stash it away so the carpet cleaners could clean my bedroom carpet, wait until the carpet dried, and then put the new area rug down. Big job, and I’m glad my pal Chris Malmin is coming over to help me during those days. We also have the last Sons of the Desert meeting for the year, which I’m planning on attending with great joy. There are a few possible Voice Over sessions in the works as well. LOTS going on! I did some work around the house, relaxed for a bit, and then realized that I just wasn’t feeling like doing a nightly WOG. I went back to bed and napped for another hour, and when I woke up I felt refreshed enough to get out and exercise. The weather was brisk but nice. I came back inside and packed up some packages that I needed to mail out on Monday.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Here’s a shot of this year’s Thanksgiving crew at the Smoke House! Good times!
