October 21 – October 26 (2025)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I love this photo. It reminds me of the first time we saw a partially unmasked Darth Vader in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Part of me wishes they never would have shown Vader’s full unmasked face, as our imaginations would have envisioned him to be much worse than the actual character they presented.

As I was working with my photo inventory to prepare for the upcoming Planet Anime con in Kansas City in November, I was organizing my photos into different page protectors to put in my travel binder. One of the photos I have is a shot from the memorable scene in “Family Guy” known as the “Steak and Eggs” scene. If you’ve never seen the episode, it involves my character Barnaby, along with his weightlifter partner Phineas – singing a song set to the tune of “Alley Cat” to try and convince Peter Griffin how to be healthy. Of course, the rest of the night I was humming “Alley Cat’ by Bent Fabric! Cute song!

Tuesday the 21st – A COLD-WEATHER FAVORITE! – Nothing says “welcome home” like setting up for a session in the home studio. I had just gotten back from my brief trip to see family and friends in South Dakota, and I needed to get set up for a commercial session in my home studio. The session didn’t take very long, only an hour, but the producers got pretty much everything they needed. Just before I left for my trip I discovered a weird “drip” stain on the shirt of my Roger M00re James Bond figure. I wasn’t sure what caused it, as there was nothing dripping from above. But yet there were two long stains running down the front of the shirt, one on either side. I consulted with my seamstress Alex from Alex In Wonderland, as well as Kelly Delcambre, who built the figure. Both were just as perplexed as I was, but then Kelly came up with a possible reason. We had an unusually humid summer in L.A., and the shirt on the figure had been dyed an eggshell color by Alex In Wonderland to replicate the look of a vintage 1970s dress shirt. Kelly thought that the warm, humid summer could have reactivated the dye and caused the staining. Even though the dye had been heat-set into the shirt originally, the hot, humid summer conditions could have reactivated it. This sounded like the most logical explanation to me. So I got on eBay and found two other shirts that could fit the bill (and the figure). I got the first one in, so I took it to the cleaners to have it cleaned and pressed. But I was in such a rush to find a suitable shirt that I didn’t realize that this shirt was a “wing tip” collar shirt – which is not the style I was looking for. I’m going to see if they can ‘re-press’ the collar to make it like a regular shirt. I’m thinking the way they cut the fabric for this particular collar style makes a conversion impossible, but I’ll have them give it a try anyway. I stopped by Paty’s to have a salad on the patio, and enjoy the gorgeous day, and then I headed home to do a little work around the house. I recorded some auditions and did other miscellaneous things. Later I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) for 1.5 miles, and then spent some time meditating and cooling down outside in my anti-gravity chair. It’s decidedly chillier than I would prefer, so I decided to go inside and make one of my favorite cold-weather meals; tomato soup with sliders. Then I settled in to watch two more episodes of “Tiger and Bunny,” and a few episodes of “Collector’s Call” that I had missed while I was out of town. But I still wasn’t tired, so I dialed around on the satellite. I stumbled upon an episode of “The Virginian” and stopped. As a kid I used to refer to this show as the one with “the guy with the eyebrows.” When I was young I would see books and comics on the shelf that were based on this show, but the lead character had the oddest looking eyebrows. They turned up in the center, giving the character a worried, or concerned look. That actor was a guy named James Drury. And while I was never into westerns as a kid, I’m now starting to discover them at a late age. The guest star in this episode was a very young Robert Redford, and he was terrific. His performance was so compelling I just couldn’t turn it off. I ended up watching the entire 90 minute episode. Even at that young age, you could tell that a star was in the making! I enjoyed the episode so much that I got on-line and ordered the first 6 seasons on DVD.

Wednesday the 22nd – A WHAT-ECTOMY AND A WHAT-ATOSIS?! – Though most of the day was spent relaxing, still looking to rest up after my hectic trip, I got in a last-minute medical audition from one of my agents. Medical scripts are always a challenge, because they’re for video narrations that will be seen by doctors. So all the pronunciations must be spot-on, and the script writers are never very forthcoming with pronunciation info. So there’s a fair amount of on-line research that must be done before they’re recorded. Plus, the challenge is to read all of this medical gobble-de-guk while still sounding personable and conversational. It took a long time, but I finally got a take I felt was worthy to submit. I made some spaghetti and perused all of the items up for auction in the upcoming Henson Studios action from Julien’s Auctions. I have my eye on a few pieces, and I am registered to pre-bid, but the actual auction will take place on a day I will be flying back from a convention appearance. So I won’t be able to bid live, and as a result I don’t think my luck will be very good. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some time outside in the anti-grav chair.

Thursday the 23rd – STILL DRAGGIN’! – Given the brief (but hectic) trip I took to South Dakota last week, I’m staying conscious to get as much rest as possible to recalibrate. I spent most of the day relaxing and getting some stuff done around the house. I’m really enjoying looking through some of the mementos I unearthed while going through the storage boxes in my garage recently. Fun stuff! Later I did my WOG and spent some cool-down time in the anti-grav chair. It was a fun trip, but it certainly took a lot of energy!

Friday the 24th – BACK AT IT! – After deciding that I had rested enough, I decided it was time to get busy. The maids came over to clean Planet Wallywood, and my girl Angi was in the area so she stopped over to say hi. She had been out of town working for about a month, so I hadn’t seen her in a while. It was good to see her again. When the maids left we ran some errands; getting medicine and food for Spooky, picking up some packages at my box, and heading to the cleaners to pick up my wing-tip collar shirt. The shirt looked gorgeous, but it clearly was not going to work for the purposes of my Roger M00re figure. However, I’m going to get some GREAT use out of wearing it someday! My last hope is the shirt that just arrived. Not only did the tag indicate that it was made in London, but the date of manufacture was June of 1977. So it definitely had that classic “70’s” look! It had a big collar, French cuffs, and was the perfect shade of eggshell that I wanted (without needing to be dyed). I took that in to have it cleaned and pressed while I was at the cleaners. It was a beautiful day so we went over to Bob’s Big Boy to have an early dinner on the patio. Fridays are “classic car” days at Bob’s, so it was a blast looking at all the beautiful, old cars. We picked up some groceries and then headed back to Planet Wallywood. Angi took off for home and I relaxed. Later I took my WOG, enjoyed some time in the anti-grav chair, and goofed around the rest of the evening.

Saturday the 25th – MY “BASE-IC” NEEDS! – Later in the evening my friends Joe and Zandra Pendleton came over to drop off some bases he had made for two of my life-size figures. I wanted to put my Roger M00re figure on a different kind of base that would look better than the two metal mannequin bases upon which he currently is mounted. Joe came up with a nicely cut wooden platform that not only looked better, but also elevated the figure by about an inch. Joe also made an ornate 4” tall base for my Darth Vader figure. This base would help him tower above the other two figures he’s positioned beside. Plus, the added thickness will give us space underneath to hide the mechanics; the voice chip, the battery pack, and the wiring for the activation buttons. It’s got a cool grey/black Formica top with a silver metal trim. The next step will be to get Roger from Blok4 productions over to wire it all up. We moved Roger M00re over to his new base, but we thought it best to wait for the guys from Blok4 to come over before we did anything with Darth Vader. The Vader figure is only about 75% complete, as we still have a lot of work to do on him. Kelly Delcambre will pad him up some more to “beef” him up. Alex In Wonderland will create a new cloak and cape that will replicate the look of the costume in the film more closely. And Roger from Blok4 will wire him up for sound. Stay tuned! We headed off to Little Toni’s to grab a late dinner, and then I came back home to do some work. I did my WOG and attempted to spend some time in the anti-grav chair. But as soon as I set it up in my usual place to meditate and enjoy the night sky, the left arm of the chair came detached. Upon closer inspection I realized that a small bolt had come out and was lost. Not having a quick solution handy, I folded it back up and went in the garage. I spent a few hours working on my photo inventory for the upcoming convention in Kansas City that I’ll be attending – Planet Anime! I got everything in order very nicely, and then I came inside to make my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watch the second-to-the-last episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.” I only have one more episode after this, and then I’ll have seen the entire two season series. Generally, it’s been really amazing. There have only been a few clunkers that I really didn’t care for. But all in all, it was a good purchase! But that leads to the question, after the show is over – what will I start watching as my usual Saturday night viewing? Hmmm…

Sunday the 26th – A PERFECT FIT! – My “comatose Sunday” ritual is a favorite of mine. I like to spend Sundays just doing…well… NOTHING! But later in the evening I had a TON of auditions that needed to be recorded. Then I took my WOG and went outside to enjoy some time in the anti-grav chair. Luckily, I found a suitable bolt and washer in my collection of hardware that fit it perfectly. I screwed the arm back on the chair and it was good as new! Given the fact that the airline recently demolished my traveling photo file box I take to conventions, I had to come up with a different solution. I bought one of those hard-sided roller cases that are invulnerable to damage (or so they say). I also bought two binders which will contain my photo inventory. Before I got too impressed with everything, I wanted to make sure the binders fit neatly into the roller case – along with the other stuff I usually travel with for shows. I relabeled all of my photo sheets that will hold my inventory of each photo, and I relabeled the protectors that contain the sample photos that will be on display on the table. I put everything together and then started packing the roller case. WOW! It all fit like a glove! I’m SO ready for Kansas City in November! I took the roller case with me to South Dakota on a test run, and it came out of it virtually unscathed. This new system will be VERY good. I paid some bills and then hit the hay. I’m looking forward to starting the new week!

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Blood pressure’s still looking good. My heart rate was still high because I took this reading shortly after I came in from my WOG, and my heart hadn’t quite settled back to its normal rate yet. Plus, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t consumed a few delicious iced teas to help me cool down.