October 5 – October 11 (2015)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

My friend Edi recently sent me this picture from long ago of her fiancé Elliot Lurie in the band Looking Glass. Those were the days of black and white band pictures taken on broken down porches. You just don’t get that kind of artistry any more! (By the way, Elliot’s the third from the left)

I started my stargazing in Palm Springs last week with this tune…it’s called “Strange Constellations” by the Bombay Dub Orchestra. Definitely good star watching music!

Monday the 5th – A WET TOMATO – It was a warm day, even though it was cool…if that makes any sense. I started the day by recording some stuff for Go 96.3 in Minneapolis. Then I made my reservations for my weekend trip to Palm Springs. A few weeks ago I made reservations too far in advance, and by the time my trip got closer I watched the weather forecast climb, and climb, and climb. I had to cancel my trip last minute because I just didn’t want to be there when it was 111. So this time I waited until the last minute to book it at the Hyatt Palm Springs. I called AAA and had them drop by with a fresh battery for my Gran Torino. During the hot months of summer I hardly ever drive it, which drains the battery. Once the new battery was installed, I was good to go! It felt great to be back in the old “striped tomato” again. I stopped off at my printer’s to get some cards laminated, and then I went to my mailbox to get some packages. I stopped by Fed Ex to mail off an autographed picture to a friend at American Airlines in Texas. I stopped by the gun range to try out my new Smith & Wesson model 327 .357 Magnum, but they were closed for filming. But the crew sure got a good gander at my Torino as it drove by. I stopped by Wendy’s to get some lunch, and then drove by Auto Zone to have my dead battery recharged. As I drove home it started to rain. I don’t normally like to drive my Gran Torino in the rain, but rain wasn’t mentioned in the forecast so it was a complete surprise. But I didn’t freak out too much, and it was actually kind of nice. Luckily I had it waxed pretty well the last time I had it washed! I went to Enterprise to reserve an SUV for my upcoming trip to Palm Springs. I ran into my old pal Jeff who was just returning a car. He normally walks home after he returns a car, but since it was raining out I told him I’d give him a ride home. He has a classic car too so he enjoyed riding in the Tomato. I got back home and started typing up Wally’s Week. I grabbed a quick nap on the couch, and then got up to do my daily auditions and finish Wally’s Week. What a fun day!

Tuesday the 6th – UGH…PEOPLE! – I had to be up at 10:30am to be at a dentist appointment by 11:30. It was time again for my semi-annual cleaning and check-up. All was good! I was still driving the Gran Torino around and having a blast. I went to my mailbox to get some more mail, and then stopped by Auto Zone to get my charged battery. But it wasn’t charged yet. I left it there yesterday, so they had plenty of time to charge it. The lady said somebody had taken it off the charger for some reason and it was 70% full. She said it would be fully charged in 10 minutes if I wanted to come back. So I went to 7-11 to get an iced tea and came back. It was now only at 71%. What?! Then she said it was a bad battery, and since it was still under warranty I would get a brand new one! She didn’t know this before? Oh brother! I met my assistant Sara for lunch at Panera, but they removed my favorite item from the menu. Just my luck. Whenever I like something it usually goes away. It all started with the Bell Beefer taco burger at Taco Bell. Then it happened with Pepsi One, and countless other things. And now the Smokehouse Turkey on Three Cheese had suffered the same “Wally likes me” fate. Gone. So we went over to Chipotle and had lunch there. After lunch I stopped by CVS to pick up my allergy medicine, but even though their automated system called me and told me my prescription was ready…it was not. Geez…what’s up with customer service these days? Is everyone on mind altering drugs???!! Or don’t they just care anymore? I got back out on the road and people were driving crazily. Since I was in the Torino I was especially protective. I stopped by my printer and got my laminated cards. When I got home my pal Scott Ziller stopped by with my painted Riddler cane. Several months ago I bought a custom-made Arkham Riddler cane from eBay. It was an amazing piece, and finely crafted. But the paint job on it didn’t look much like the chipped and mottled paint scheme on the Riddler’s cane in the game. So I gave it to Scott to make it look more realistic. He did a terrific job. The way it’s designed in the game makes it look like it was painted metal, but with usage and age the paint had started to chip off. It even looks like it is starting to rust in several areas. Scott’s a genius at painting stuff to look like that. My friend Emily came by to get instructions for Spook’s care while I was away in Palm Springs. Sara is watching him for a few days (I’m taking Roxy with me) but she’s coming to Palm Springs for a little bit, so Emily will be in charge of the little white fluffball. I took a dip in the Jacuzzi, grabbed a nap on the couch, and then got up to pack and prep for my trip. I had a bowl of cereal and hit the hay so I could be up for an early session on Wednesday.

Wednesday the 7th – NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! – Bright and early, I walked Roxy to the groomer so she’d be all clean and sparkly for our trip to Palm Springs later that night. Then it was a quick walk over to Studiopolis for another “Sonic Boom” session. It was a great session (as always) with a talented staff, cast and director. We got out around 12:30 so I walked back to Rusty’s to pick up Roxy. We walked back home and then I hopped in the Torino and went to CVS to get my prescription. It was finally ready. Then I went to the bank to make a deposit, and then I hit McDonald’s for lunch. I hit the post office to mail some things, and then I went to my box to pick up my mail and packages. On the way home I ran into my friend Chris from New York on the street. We pulled over into a parking lot and chatted for a bit. Come to find out he’s moving to L.A.! He has the most incredible collection of props and effects from the “Jaws” movies. I put the Torino to bed for a few days, and got my Mustang back out again. I drove to Enterprise to pick up my rental SUV; another Dodge Journey. I had one a few months ago and I really liked it. The Enterprise guy followed me home to drop off the Mustang, then drove me back to the Enterprise office, where I took possession of the car and headed home to get ready to go. I did a bunch of auditions and did some last-minute packing. I grabbed a quick hour-long nap and then hit the road at 9:00. I got to Palm Springs around 11:00 and checked into the Hyatt and got set up in my regular room…#627. It’s on the top floor and all the way at the end. It’s totally private, and the private balcony is what I love when I do my stargazing. It’s total peace and quiet, as I sit there all night listening to music, eating popcorn, hanging out with Roxy, and watching the stars set behind the mountain range. But on this night it was not to be! It all started around 1am. A loud cement truck rattled down the street outside my room on the street below. It was incredibly loud! Soon it was joined by another cement truck. And another. And another. By the time it was 2:30 in the morning it was a parade of noisy cement trucks beeping, clunking, rattling and clanging down the street. The noise was deafening, and it was 2 in the morning! What the heck was going on??!! A cement truck parade in my honor? In the middle of the night?! I went to the front desk and asked what was going on. They didn’t know anything. I called the Palm Springs Police Dispatch desk. They didn’t know anything either. They said they’d have an officer go check on it and he would call me back with info. But by 4am I hadn’t received a call. I called the Police dispatch desk again. “Oh, the officer didn’t call you back?” she queried. Obviously not. She said the officer checked with the workers at the site, and they DID have a permit to work in the middle of the night on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings starting at 1:30am! Who makes these rules!? It had something to do with laying cement during the night, because it was too hot during the day. There’s a huge hotel and convention center complex popping up next to the Hyatt, and it’s been a pain in the neck ever since they began it. First, there were too many bright lights at the site during all hours of the night. More ground light floods my view of the night time sky. Now all this noise is unbearable. So I just hit the hay, knowing that the next few nights would be peaceful. I almost called Sara and told her not to come, and I almost canceled my trip and went back home myself. But knowing that Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night would all be peaceful gave me hope. Maybe I would even stay an additional night since I got cheated out of a nice of peace and quiet. I hate to say it, but my respites at the Palm Springs Hyatt were losing their charm. And it was through NO FAULT at all of the Hyatt!

Thursday the 8th – TOO HOT TO TROT! – About mid-morning I woke up and ordered breakfast to my room. Then I got dressed and went down to meet Vincent, the new Hyatt manager. He’s a great guy and was well aware of the construction situation going on in the middle of the night. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who complained about the noise. He went to talk to the foreman at the construction site and got the full work schedule, so everybody could be on the same page when it came to getting the maximum amount of R & R. Sara arrived around 3 so we hung out for a bit to get ready for the Palm Springs street fair right outside the hotel. My pal Edi arrived with her daughter Ems and we all had a great time at the street fair. It was still too hot out (even though the sun was down) so I didn’t take Roxy out to enjoy the street fair. But we had a fabulous time eating, buying stuff and seeing my favorite Native American artist Waykey perform. I bought another 3 of his CDs while I was there! I went upstairs to the room to get ready for a nice, peaceful night with NO cement trucks! The stars were difficult to see because of all the clouds, but it was still a VERY restful and relaxing night!

Friday the 9th – OWL BE SEEING TWO! – While I slept in, Sara took Roxy out for an extended walk. When I got up around 1 Sara and I went to Sherman’s Deli for lunch. Sitting on the patio was actually quite nice. In the shade the Palm Springs temps of 100+ degrees doesn’t seem bad. We drove to Walmart to get some supplies and met up with my pal Scott Sebring! He and his wife Vickie had decided to camp for the weekend in Joshua Tree, a place I had always wanted to see. They had a camp site there and invited me out for a few hours to do some serious star watching. Joshua Tree National Park is completely dark, and the skies are amazing. We arranged to talk on Saturday afternoon so I could get the directions. Sara and I stopped off at Lappert’s Ice Cream to get a Dole Whip. Then we went back to the hotel and took a dip in the Jacuzzi. I checked my e-mails and went upstairs to get ready for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Palm Desert. Edi and her fiancé Elliot just bought a house there, so it was nice and close for them. So they met us for dinner. We had a blast eating and chatting with good friends. When we got back to the hotel Sara packed up and headed back to LA. She needed to be at my house Saturday at noon to let my maids in, and she wanted to beat the traffic by driving at night. I walked around with Roxy for a little bit and then grabbed a short nap. I stayed up all night on the balcony watching stars. But I had two amazing visitors. A hoot owl was perched on the roof of the hotel directly above me! As it sat there hooting for a while, it was soon joined by another one. From one of the trees on the golf course down below me, this enormous owl flew up toward me and landed on the roof above my head. He was HUGE! They sat there harmonizing for about 15 minutes; serenading me in the quite of the night. It was amazing! But soon after the owl flew off over my head and went back down to his tree. Stunning! I got to bed around 6am just as the sun was coming up. What a night!

Saturday the 10th – A BILLIONTY BILLION! – At noon I got up and walked Roxy, and then went back to my room to relax. It was a nice warm day so I left the balcony door open and napped a bit on the bed. The Palm Springs Women of Jazz were doing a concert downstairs so it was fun to listen to the music drift up into my room. Scott’s wife Vickie called me with directions to the meeting place we’d be using later, so I could follow them to their Joshua Tree campsite. I had a hamburger delivered to my room and enjoyed a nice, quiet lunch. I relaxed in the room until around 6, when I packed up Roxy and headed to the Walmart in Yucca to meet Scott and Vickie. I played one of my Waykey CDs on the way there. There’s nothing like driving through the desert highway at dusk listening to soothing, Native American flute music. It’s a very spiritual, meditative experience! I rendezvoused with Scott and Vickie around 6:30 and followed them to their campsite. It was another 10 miles or so to the National Park, and once I paid for the annual pass (I definitely plan on going back!) it was another 10 miles up the hill to the high desert campsites. There is NO light up there at all! When the sun goes down, it’s completely dark! The only lights you see are the little headlamp headbands worn by campers to see what they’re doing, the occasional campfires, and occasional headlights of cars driving up to the campsites. When I got out of my car I realized that the long drive was totally worth it! The sun had just set and the sky was growing darker. The stars overhead were unbelievable! There were billions! And it was the first time I had seen the Milky Way since I was a kid in South Dakota! But in another hour after that, as the sun continued to move further away, there were even MORE stars! I’m glad I brought my binoculars, because I could see little tiny stars in the Milky Way. It seemed with each passing hour there were a billion more stars. The Big Dipper looked enormous! Roxy seemed to have fun in the dark, roaming around sniffing new smells and scents. We saw a bunch of shooting stairs that were breathtaking. But as the evening wore on, it got colder and colder. The high desert is about 20 degrees colder than the low desert (Palm Springs) and I was just clad in shorts and a long sleeved shirt. So it was time to head back. I got back to the hotel and was tired, so I got a pizza at NYPD, enjoyed a quick dinner on the balcony, and took a quick nap. I stayed up all night watching the stars, but after what I had just seen in Joshua Tree they seemed dim. The stars actually HAVE been dimming in Palm Springs since I started going there five years ago. The city is always developing and adding light to the light pollution of the city. And now that the big hotel is going up next door, I may not be able to see much any longer. Are my trips to Palm Springs losing their charm? Do I need to find a new escape? I’m not a camper so camping in Joshua Tree isn’t an option, but I may need to investigate other options if Palm Springs keeps developing like it is. Too many lights!

Sunday the 11th – HOME AGAIN! – My checkout time was 2pm, so I got up at 1, threw my stuff in my bags and took off. I grabbed lunch at Wendy’s on the way out of town and got home in 2 hours…by 4:30. It was just in time to drop my bags at home, and walk Roxy to evening church. But like Palm Springs, it was still hot in L.A. too. But luckily it wasn’t too hot to walk to church. When I got home I took a dip in the Jacuzzi and grabbed a short nap. When I got up I did a bit for the “Ellen” show, and several auditions. I finished unpacking and breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to be home again. I was tired so I just had a bowl of cereal and hit the hay. I was looking forward to a new, exciting week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

In my on-going quest to create the perfect Michael Myers mask, my effects guy Jim Ojala preps the 3-D print and makes the mold. And the negative silicone mold turned out perfectly! Next, pouring in the latex and making the masks! (For the process leading up to this see previous Wally’s Weeks for the full story!)