November 4 – November 10 (2013)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Last week I mentioned that I sent my pal “Weird Al” Yankovic a shot of Larry Storch’s socks in my guest room sink. I took it when Larry was staying with me a few years back during a visit to L.A. (See last week’s Wally’s Week for the FULL story with Al, Storch, and a pair of black socks!) So lest you think the story was a total fabrication, here’s the shot I was talking about. These are actually the socks of the great LARRY STORCH! When I sent the pic to Al he said, “I’d recognize those socks anywhere!”

Toby Keith just released a new album and this song has been played in all the radio commercials promoting it. “Drinks After Work” is darn catchy!

Monday the 4th – WHAT DOES HANNIBAL LECHTER AND ELVIS HAVE IN COMMON? – I slept in until noon, then got up and walked Roxy. I got ready for work and hopped in the Mustang. With a quick stop off at Weinerschnitzel for a couple of chili cheese dogs with sauerkraut. I got to “The Tonight Show” and enjoyed the legendary Sir Anthony Hopkins! And he LOVES Elvis! In fact, he even did a short Elvis impression on the show! FABULOUS! He went to Graceland for his birthday a few years back and told a great story about touring the mansion. My friend Leeyann Neeley was at the taping with her friend Petra. Leeyann is married to the ever-amazing Ted Neeley, most famous for playing the title role in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I gave them a tour of the backstage area and as we were chatting, Jay walked by and said, “Don’t let me stop your flirting!” We laughed, cuz Leeyann’s been married to Ted for about 30+ years. I got home and fed Spook and walked Roxy. After a quick nap on the most comfortable couch in the universe, I did my auditions and e-mailed them into my agents. I was craving a Denny’s salad, so I phoned in an order and went to get it. Nothing like Denny’s buffalo chicken strips, a salad, and an episode of “Kojak” before bed!

Tuesday the 5th – BRITISH BEAU! – What a treat it was to sleep in until 1pm! I got up to do some work, no hotline calls for “TS” bits, and walked Roxy around the neighborhood. What a beautiful day! I headed over to NBC and taped the show. When we wrapped, I went into the audience to find my pal Beau Bridgland from the U.K. He’s an aspiring Voice-Over Actor I met at a workshop about a year ago. He’s going for it! He’s going to attain the dream! He’s over here taking classes and workshops to improve his skills. I gave him the backstage tour, and then we headed over to Paty’s to grab some dinner. I drove him over to Chill to get some fro yo for dessert, and as luck would have it I saw my stylist Andie there! I told her I had just noticed in the bathroom mirror at Paty’s how areas of my hair were turning brown again. She said she was working at Floyd’s until 9, and if I wanted to come over for a touch up I could. Since I would be attending a premiere in Hollywood on Wednesday night I figured it might be a good idea. So I took Beau to my house for a quick Planet Wallywood tour, then back to Floyd’s for my touch-up. We got a good chance to chat while I was in the chair. When all was finished I took Beau back to the place he was staying, and I headed home to hop in the jacuzzi and relax. I had a ton of auditions to do, and once I was finished with those I grabbed a few leftover buffalo chicken strips from the previous night, and made a killer batch of buffalo mac! Conveniently enough, a case of sharp cheddar Kraft Deluxe Mac and Cheese arrived earlier in the day. I had been having trouble finding the sharp cheddar kit in my local stores, so the good ol’ internet saved me. I enjoyed it while watching another episode of “Kojak” before bed.

Wednesday the 6th – I KNOW THAT VOICE! – Roxy started barking incessantly at 11, so I got up to quiet her down. I went back to bed. But I got a hotline call for a “TS” bit. Since we were taping early anyway, I figured I’d better get my smelly carcass up and start the day. I did the bit, checked e-mails, and picked out my outfit for the premiere later that evening for the new documentary “I Know That Voice.” It examines the world of Voice-Over through interviews with many of the industry’s top talents. Thankfully we were taping early, so I would have plenty of time to get home, clean up and head down to Hollywood. My pal Elliot Lurie, former lead singer of the band Looking Glass, was at the taping with his daughter and her friend. After the show I gave them the backstage tour and introduced him to Angela, our Associate Editor. She’s a huge fan (especially the song “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)”) and she loved meeting him. I went home and walked Roxy, fed Spook and got dressed for the premiere. I picked up my pal Brittney Powell and we dashed off to Hollywood. I was uneasy, because with all the amazing talent I know they interviewed, I wasn’t even sure if my segments would make the final cut. The red carpet event was a fun time, and just before I went before the cameras my friend Ginny Yu, a lovely aspiring Voice-Over Actress, came up to say hi. I told her to walk the red carpet with Brittney and I. Since Voice-Over Actors are so anonymous, we know that if we’re going to get any substantial camera time, we’d better bring hot chicks! Now I had two! I got to see a lot of great friends from the business, and the movie was terrific. I only wish they would have gotten interviews with some of my favorite Voice Directors…like Jamie Simone, the great Donna Grillo, and the legendary Collette Sunderman. But I guess if they got everybody the movie would have been 7 hours long! As Brittney and I walked back to the car I spotted the original Miceli’s across the street. We decided to grab some late dinner. Brian, the piano player, was amazing. We heard him play for about an hour and a half and he never played the same song twice, and he played entirely from memory! He only stopped for about 30 seconds when he was talking to a customer about a request. Otherwise he ripped through the repertoire! I was exhausted from the day, but I got home and did my auditions, fed and walked Roxy and hit the hay!

Thursday the 7th – HOW LOW CAN THEY GO? – After a VERY good night’s sleep, I sprang awake around 1 and started the day. It all began with a few “TS” bits, which I recorded in my home studio and sent in, then a walk with Roxy. It was another absolutely gorgeous day! I decided to swap my Mustang for the Gran Torino and headed over to my auxiliary garage where the “Striped Tomato” was parked. As I was heading out of the garage I noticed Rod, the caretaker of our complex grounds, was frantically combing his hair. I thought that was odd, as I’m sure he wasn’t doing it to impress me, or anyone else in the vicinity. Then the truth came out. He asked if he could get a picture taken of him sitting in the car for his brother-in-law. Hilarious! I said, “SURE!” and leapt from the driver’s seat. I grabbed his camera and took two great shots of him in the car. He said he had recently bought the 2004 feature film on DVD at a swamp meet and was telling his brother-in-law about my car. I pulled into a local gas station because I noticed before getting in the Torino that the tires were VERY low! All four of them! Come to think of it, I hadn’t ever put air in the tires since I’ve had it! The air and water machine said it cost 75 cents to fill, so I went inside to get some change. The attendant said it was actually free and he hit the switch to start the compressor. I ran back out to start filling the tires, keeping my eye on the clock, since I needed to be at work in 20 minutes! The side of the tire said the max pressure was 44 PSI. But when I put the gauge on the tire’s nozzle, it only went up to about 15 PSI. It was THAT low? YIKES! So I furiously filled the front left tire, continuously checking the gauge to make sure it didn’t go over 42. It seemed like it was taking forever. Then…the compressor turned off! I ran back in and asked the guy to crank the machine back on again, as I hadn’t even begun to finish. I ran back out and got the first tire filled. Then on to the back left. Again it was taking forever. And again the compressor turned off just as I was about to finish. Really? Is air that expensive they’re now rationing it?! I ran back in and threw a couple bucks at the guy and begged him to turn the compressor back on again. He did, and I ran out to fill the front right tire. Tick tock tick tock. It took forever to get those tires back up again! And I was checking the pressure periodically to make sure it didn’t go over 42 PSI. A guy pulled up beside me with two flat spares and was patiently waiting for me to finish. But the compressor stopped again. One tire to go! I ran back in (at this point I was breaking a sweat!) and asked him for one more helping of air. I got back to my car and finished up the final tire. Just in time to get on the road and get to work. Boy, in the “olden days” you could just pull up to a gas station and fill your tires until your heart’s content. When did air get so freakin’ valuable? I got to “TTS,” opened the show, and then headed to the world-famous NBC Commissary to get a salad. After all that activity, I was really starving! On the way home after the taping I picked up my mail at my box, and when I got to my house Roxy was more than happy to go take a walk with me. I did some work around the house, took a much-needed dip in the Jacuzzi, and briefly napped on the most comfortable couch in the universe. I got up later in the evening and did some auditions, feed and walk Roxy on our late-night walk around the neighborhood, and then retired for the night with a delicious Tombstone pizza and another episode of “Kojak” from the Season 4 DVD set. Only a few more episodes left!

Friday the 8th – A PHINALLY PHOUND PHONE! – The hotline rang at 10:30 with news that I had a “TS” script in my inbox to record. After I finished that one, they said there could be as many as 2 more coming. Since I was up, I started obsessing over editing a song called “Diamonds” from The Boxer Rebellion (my “Humming” song of the week last week). I wasn’t happy with the extended version I had edited, so I set about re-doing it. But because the way the song is mixed it was very hard to pick out the upbeats and downbeats so I could do the edits correctly. So it was frustrating me. There are two parts of the song toward the end that I really REALLY like. One is the fabulous guitar solo, and the other is the riff on the fadeout. My goal was to extend both by several measures. I nailed the edit on the guitar solo, but the riffs at the end on the fadeout were vexing me. I decided to save what I had done and leave it for later so I could listen to it with fresh ears. Just then two more “TS” bits arrived and I could occupy my mind with those. I had everything all wrapped up by noon, the time my maids were supposed to arrive. I scanned some checks to deposit into the bank, and then my assistant Sara arrived. Since we tape early on Fridays now, she comes to stay with the maids while they finish cleaning Planet Wallywood so I can leave for work. The maids arrived and began their work, I got showered and hopped into the Torino and sped off to the bank to make my deposit. I hit Taco Bell for some lunch-to-go, and drove into the driveway of NBC Burbank to go to work. But as I approached the gate I had lost my ID card! It was just there on the center console of my Torino. Where could it have gone in just those few minutes??! I pulled over and opened both my doors to frantically search the car. The interior of my Torino is so large and cavernous you could easily lose a small child in there! I felt underneath both of my front seats and wasn’t finding anything. I felt again, getting more and more frantic! I grabbed something under the passenger seat that had more girth than my ID. I pulled it out and saw that it was my cell phone. I thought to myself, “What’s my cell phone doing down here? I just put in on my hip pocket?” Then I realized with horror…THIS IS THE CELL PHONE I THOUGHT WAS STOLEN LAST AUGUST!! I looked down at my hip and there was my new, identical cell phone. YUP! My phone hadn’t been stolen at Denny’s after all! It had fallen off my pocket in my car on the way home! Three months later it finally surfaced! But strangely enough, when I first lost it, I searched both of my cars high and low, and literally tore apart my front seats looking for it. It was when I couldn’t find it in either of my cars that I surmised that it had to have been stolen. But it’s an old-fashioned flip phone (I don’t care for the smart phones) and who would want to steal it? Just where had my wayward phone been hiding, and how is it I didn’t find it during my initial search? Mystery abounds! I also found my ID and I went inside to open the show and finish out the week. SO weird! My friends Mark, James and Cynthia were in the audience, so I went into the audience to find them and say hi. They had to rush off to a dinner meeting so I walked them outside. I came home and put my old cell phone on the charger. The battery was WAY dead! But what I don’t get is…I called my cellphone from my home phone when I lost it, and it rang once and went immediately to voicemail. If the phone is on it rings four times THEN goes to voicemail. And I always keep my battery charged up. So somehow when my phone got lost it also turned off mysteriously. Like I said, mystery abounds! I walked Roxy and did some work on the computer. Since it was Friday I had a nice, long evening to myself. So I took a dip in the Jacuzzi and napped on the couch by the fireplace. When I got up I drove over to the grocery store to stock up on supplies. Then I returned to feed and walk Roxy on our late-night stroll around the neighborhood. It was a VERY chilly night! The bite of fall was definitely in the air! I was craving a hot bowl of tomato soup and a sandwich. So I went inside, got situated for bed, made myself a meal fit for a frigid fall night, cranked on the electric blanket, and enjoyed a banquet while watching the final episode on the “Kojak” DVD set with Roxy and Spook on the bed. Now THAT’S the way to end a week!

Saturday the 9th – DOWN THE STAIRS, OUT THE DOOR, OVER TO UPLAND! – Since I didn’t get to sleep until 8am, I enjoyed sleeping until 2. The past few Saturdays I had to get up early on Saturday for conventions and events. But today was a lazy Saturday. I took Roxy out for a quick potty break at 2, but then we came back inside and hit the hay for a few more hours. We enjoyed napping until 5! My pal and webmaster Scott Sebring was headlining a gig with his band Fine Company in Upland. Upland’s not exactly down the street, so I had to leave in plenty of time to make it there by 8, and account for traffic. Our normal Saturday night movie night was canceled so our group could go catch Scott’s concert, and frankly it was kind of neat breaking away from the routine for a week. I popped in my i-Pad in the car, got my map to the location ready, and enjoyed a nice hour-long drive into the Inland Empire (we locals call it “The IE.”) The traffic was smooth, the tunes were great, and the location was “relatively” easy to find. The street I had to turn on was C Street. But the signs went from A Street to D Street almost immediately. So I cranked the Mustang around and went back to find the elusive C Street. I arrived in plenty of time, caught up with the gang and ordered some food. It was a very pleasant evening and I enjoyed it immensely. Being present to support one of the gang was awesome! The local girls were very attractive, as were the waitresses. However it soon became apparent that the waitresses were hired for their looks and not so much their efficiency. Nobody in our group ordered anything alcoholic, so I think that may have had some bearing on why they avoided us consistently. As Scott pointed out, maybe they don’t get a piece of the kitchen tab, only the booze tab. And since none of us were drinking, they figured we weren’t going to make them much money. We hung out for a while and chatted after Scott’s set was over, but the smell of alcoholic beverages and the wafting smell of smoke from the outside smoking patio started to get to me. So I bid everyone farewell and headed down the 210 freeway. It took all the strength I had to keep my steering wheel from veering off on to the 57 freeway. You see, that’s the freeway I take off the 210 when I go to Palm Springs, and for a split second I thought it would be fun to just chuck it all and head to the paradisal comforts of Palm Springs. (And why is my spell check not recognizing the word “paradisal?” It’s a real word!) But my clearer head prevailed and I continued down the freeway to my house. I got home and got on the computer to work on editing a few songs. Firstly, the song “Midnight Highway” by Southern Pacific played in my car on the way home and it sounded a bit “bright.” Almost tinny. So I put it in my editing program and tweaked the EQ so it had a little more bottom end. I also dug into “Diamonds” again with fresh ears, and nailed the edit at the end that I was looking for. I tried cutting on a different beat in the sequence, and it worked perfectly! Then I put on my ratty clothes, pulled my car out of the garage, and started working on organizing my garage. My poor garage. It’s a real mess; full of boxes from collectible toys, cardboard boxes from ebay mailings, and general clutter. I’m bound and determined to get this garage completely cleaned up by the end of the year. I bought about eight plastic storage bins at Target a month ago with the strict intent of filling them with stuff I want to store, but wouldn’t need for a very long time. Old scripts from shows I’ve worked on, old equipment I won’t need (but can’t bear to part with), and other random things. I had stored them in cardboard boxes, but since they’re going in the underground storage I figured I had better put them in plastic containers, in case of water leakage of some sort. So there I was, listening to Coast to Coast AM on a late Saturday night, in my cramped underground storage area, taking stuff out of the cardboard boxes and putting it in the plastic boxes. Everything was going along smoothly. When I filled up the plastic boxes with stuff from the cardboard boxes I kept going. I started pulling stuff off my storage shelves that I don’t foresee myself needing any time soon, and started filling up the remaining 4 plastic boxes with that stuff. Then I can take the loose boxes of stuff in my garage, put those in the cardboard boxes and put those back on the storage shelves in my garage. (I know, pretty anal, huh?) The idea is to have the newer stuff stored so it’s more easily at hand in case I need it, and to put the stuff I’ll not need for a long while back in the underground storage and lock it up. I was pretty darned pleased with myself! I need to get another 10 plastic boxes, and then I think that’ll finish up the underground storage nicely. But I definitely put a dent in it tonight! I fed Roxy then took her on our late-night stroll. I came back inside and dug into the fresh salad fixins I had bought at the store the previous night, and enjoyed my regular Saturday night “Saint” and Salad just before bed!

Sunday the 10th – THAT TIME OF YEAR ALREADY?! – Around 8:30am I finally went to sleep. I was up all night watching another episode of “The Saint” from the Season 2 DVD set, but just before I go to sleep I like to dial around the satellite and watch some of the Sunday morning news shows. I settled on a show on the Military channel called “Black Ops,” about the elite team of operatives under the command of General Stanley McChrystal who wiped out a good portion of Al Quaeda in Iraq. PERFECT pre-Veteran’s Day viewing! It was a fascinating show and I tip my hat to our fine men and women of our military for a job well done, not only in this scenario, but all of the protective endeavors they perform! Roxy woke me up barking like crazy at 2pm (I hate when she does that) so I got out of bed and took her out to potty. I came back inside, ate some Frosted Flakes and went back to bed until it was time to get up for evening church. After church Roxy and I came home and relaxed. I checked some e-mails, and sent out my annual e-mails for my Thanksgiving weekend gathering I call “The Planet Wallywood Happy Th-HANG-sgiving Hang Out and Open House.” I’ve been doing it for years, and it’s that time of year again. First off, we all meet for a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City, then we come to my house for an evening of movies. And since most everybody has the rest of the weekend off, I also show movies on Friday night and Saturday night as well. It’s always a great time and lots of terrific people stop by. I wasn’t sure how it would go with the new Yahoo mail interface, as I’ve always had a very specific way I like to send these, but it actually went alright. I was pleased and heaved a huge sigh of relief, given the amount of headaches I’ve incurred with Yahoo’s “new and improved” mail interface. I soaked in the Jacuzzi for a bit, then napped on the couch. I got up later in the evening and did a bunch of auditions, then worked around the house. Since I had finished “Kojak” Season 4 on DVD, I was now moving on to another old favorite of mine…”Magnum P.I.!” I used to watch this show while I was working on the air at KELO radio in Sioux Falls. KELO TV was a CBS affiliate, and we had their signal pumped into our control room. So during the records I would switch over to the TV monitor and watch the episodes. It was fairly dodgy because every 4 minutes I’d have to switch back to my radio show and do my job. So it’ll be nice to actually watch these episodes uninterrupted. The very first episode on the DVD set (the COMPLETE series, which was just released a few weeks ago) is the two-hour pilot episode. Since it was a longer one, I decided to treat myself and make a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box. I hadn’t had one of those in a long time, and I absolutely love them. But they ARE a little time consuming to make. You have to mix the dough, let it rise, then make the pizza in a pan, let it bake for 25 minutes, then take it out to let it set, cut it and eat it. It’s a lot more work than just popping a Tombstone pizza in the oven, but its tasty rewards far outweigh the hassle. I thought back to when I was a kid, and when mom would make these pizzas for our family. Then I had a funny thought. We didn’t have a pizza cutter, so my mom would cut the pizza slices with a pair of household scissors! I will carry the visual of her diligently cutting the pizza with those old black handled metal scissors for the rest of my life! What fun! What memories! The pizza turned out perfectly and the 2 hour “Magnum” pilot was awesome. I’m going to really like watching this series! What a winner!

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here are some shots from the Hollywood premiere of “I Know That Voice!” (Special thanks to the photographic entities to whom proper credits are due.)