October 6 – October 11 (2020)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

TWO photos this week! The recent passing of Eddie Van Halen had me remembering the time I saw them in concert. I was a HUGE Van Halen fan, and because I was in radio, I was able to contact the concert promoter and arrange to give away VH swag on my show. In addition, I acquired a backstage pass for myself in the process. At the time I was really into David Lee Roth, but after the concert was over he took off. So I never got to meet him. However, Eddie and Michael were hanging out to the side of the stage watching the roadies disassemble the stage. I sat there chatting with both of them and had them sign my backstage pass. Good memories. I was 19 and Eddie was 25. And check the date on the pass! This week marks 40 years ago to the day that the concert happened! Wow, time really flies!

Last week, I put a song on my moonrise video that I found stuck in an obscure folder on my computer. I’m not even sure where it came from. It was labeled as something else but after listening it turned out to be an instrumental by The Beatles called “Flying.” It was a little different from the released version as if it were a remix and had an odd jazzy carnival sounding ending in it. I ran it by my pal, webmaster and longtime Beatle fan, Scott Sebring who figured it was an alternate take from a bootleg and he managed to find it. The carnival music ending was actually a looped sound that came out of an instrument called a Mellotron that one of The Beatles was fiddling with while they were running through the song. I don’t know how I ended up with this version but it’s catchy!

Tuesday the 6th – WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?! – Because the prior week was such a whirlwind week, it took me an extra day to finish up Wally’s Week. I spent most of the day putting the finishing touches on my weekly report. I did a little work around the house, and just as I was heading into a shower I heard what I thought was a knock on my door. Then I heard Roxy barking. I thought, “Is somebody knocking on my door? Nobody does that anymore.” Then I heard a female voice calling Roxy’s name. I asked who it was and found out it was my neighbor and her two sons. They missed Roxy and were wondering if we were home and could come out and hang out with their dog Creature, an adorable Weimaraner. Once they got a look inside my house they were very curious so, as greasy and smelly as I was, I decided to give them a quick tour. It was a fun time. Later I did a bunch of auditions and then got caught up on reconciling my receipts, bank statements, paying bills and other paperwork. Then I rewarded myself with a delicious Tombstone pizza.

Wednesday the 7th – DESERT DREAMS! – A brisk walk to Voice Trax West was just the thing I needed. I had a session for a regular client from 2-5 and it went very well. On the way back I stopped by CVS to make some prints from my flash drive. But my flash drive wasn’t working with their system so I never got them made. So I bought two new flash drives, and when I went to use my ATM card it wouldn’t work. (Sometimes technology just sucks). Luckily my other one worked just fine. I stopped by the post office to mail off my bills, and then headed to Subway to pick up a sandwich. I headed home to eat and relax. Later I had a lot of auditions to record, I did some more work around the house, and I was thinking about still being back in Palm Springs relaxing. I still miss it, but I’ll get back there again soon. After all, I have my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley to go see out there now! I fed and walked Roxy, and then drove to Denny’s to get some food. I enjoyed my dinner and watched another episode of “The Time Tunnel.” This one guest starred my old pal Malachi Throne. He always played the most villainous bad guys you could imagine, and even though his real-life personality was “teddy bear gruff,” he was actually a very funny, lovely guy underneath the prickly exterior. I really miss that nutball. He passed away several years ago.

With Malachi Throne in 2006

Thursday the 8th – WARD AND WINGERT! – The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so I put Roxy in the back of my Mustang and drove over to get my packages at my mailbox and enjoyed a salad on the patio at Paty’s. While I dined I spoke with Burt Ward on the phone. Burt played Robin in the old “Batman” TV series, and I’ve known him since the 80’s. His Gentle Giants dog food is wonderful, and Roxy’s been on it since I’ve had her. He and his wife Tracy told me about a new project they’re working on and asked me to participate. It wasn’t a Batman-related project, but it was in conjunction with the promotion of his dog food…so I was all for it! I got home and did some work around the house. I also sat down and loaded all of my “Torino Tunes” onto my new tablet. I’ve decided that my new tablet will be used in conjunction with my audio system in my Gran Torino, which has BlueTooth capability. The songs I’ve loaded up are all songs that would be great to hear at maximum level while driving around my Gran Torino. I did a bunch of auditions later, many of which were for some fun, new animation projects. Then I made some spaghetti and watched another episode of “The Time Tunnel!”

Friday the 9th – HANDY DON DAY! – Over the past several months I had a lot of little ‘to-do’ jobs that piled up. My contractor Handy Don had some time to come handle them, and executed them with his usual aplomb. He installed a new sprayer base in my kitchen faucet array, he patched a hole in the ceiling in my garage, found a nifty attachment kit for my air compressor, hung my leaf curtains on my patio wall (it took some heavy-duty Masonite screws!), and repaired a door on my kitchen cabinets. While he worked I did some work on-line. Later, I was a bit bored, so I decided to try and recreate a graphic that ran on TV when I was a kid. In 1973-1975 our local TV station KABY-TV channel 9 ran “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” every Saturday night at 10:30pm. Nothing was better in my early-teen life than dishing up a plate of cold pizza, opening a bag of popcorn, and filling my Stan or Ollie ceramic mugs with ice and Pepsi, and recording the audio of Laurel and Hardy’s classic films on my little cassette recorder. I liked to study their routines and learn how to imitate their voices. Once our family got a second cassette recorder, and I could record back and forth between them (by holding up the microphone up to the speaker of the other player) I even wrote a Laurel and Hardy retrospective that I narrated myself. I think I still have the tape around somewhere, and I’d like to find it. It was before my voice changed, so the high-voiced Wally is quite entertaining to listen to. I copped the gravitas and importance of a standard TV narrator, but I just didn’t have the voice. It’s actually pretty funny. To digress a bit – back in ‘the day,’ every Saturday evening involved a trip to our favorite local Italian restaurant called Lu’s Pizza. It was a mom and pop place that had some of the most delicious pizza I’ve ever tasted in my life. It’s the first place I ever had a taco, as it was listed on their menu as an appetizer. Inevitably there would be some pizza leftover and we’d take it back home with us. As my dad paid the bill at the front counter, they had a little wire rack with some bagged snacks; chips, cheese puffs and popcorn. I always grabbed a bag of popcorn for “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” later that night. My mom, who at the time was engaged in a weekly ceramics class, made me a beautiful set of giant Laurel and Hardy mugs that she painted herself. I was all set up for the show later that night. Sometimes the station (who purchased the Laurel and Hardy films from a syndication package) would run several “two-reelers,” (shorts that used to run in theaters before feature films), or they’d run one of Laurel and Hardy’s feature films. It was always a treat. Once I was settled in front of the TV after the late news, with my mug of Pepsi on ice, (I would alternate between my Stan mug and my Ollie mug each week), my cold Lu’s pizza, and my bag of popcorn, I would start the cassette tape and beg my little sister not to laugh so loud. She was ruining my recording, after all! The opening graphic and Voice Over that the station used to air was cheesy, but yet very nostalgic. So, to the best of my memory, I sat down and tried to recreate the graphic. I came up with something that gave me a twinge of nostalgia. I’d love to have that original graphic from KABY-TV, or at the very least get ahold of the slide that they used to use on the air. I made a salad and watched “Time Tunnel,” but my salad meat was about 3 days past its expiration date and didn’t smell so good. I crossed my fingers and hoped I wouldn’t be paying for it the next day.

Saturday the 10th – A GRASP AT NOSTALGIA! – After having slept very late, I was looking for something to do. I extracted a piece of music from a CD I had that contained some music cues from a lot of the great old Laurel and Hardy and Hal Roach films. Back in those days, many of Hal Roach’s films shared music cues. I wrote up a quick 30 second mock intro to “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” – which to the best of my recollection sounded like the one on KABY-TV. I even tried to imitate the voice of the guy who I remember doing the intro. His name was Gene Reich, and he was the TV station sports guy. Sadly, Gene passed away earlier this year. I put the audio together and added it to the graphic. It turned out pretty neat, and actually does hold a tinge of nostalgic-ring for me. I decided to run some Laurel and Hardy films later that night, seeing as how I’m finished with my “Space 1999” Blu Ray set. I needed some food so I drove to McDonald’s and visited the drive through, and then got some groceries at the store. The store is back to its 24 hour-a-day hours, so that’s a VERY good sign that things are returning to normal. I just wish this state’s leaders would realize it. I came home and looked through the new Profiles in History catalog, which had some very nice items to be auctioned in mid-November. For my own, personal “Laurel and Hardy Theatre, “ I put on the new Blu Ray set and watched “Helpmates” and “The Chimp” – two of my favorites. Although Lu’s Pizza hasn’t been in business in a long time, (even though Lu’s son sells a mix of the secret spices she used to use in her sauce) the next best thing was to make a Chef Boy Ardee pizza-in-a-box. We used to enjoy those all the time when I was a kid as well. I made a Chef, dug out my original Stan Laurel mug, filled it with ice and Diet Pepsi, and popped some popcorn. For dessert I enjoyed a banana Twinkie, which tastes a lot like the Banana Flip snack cakes I used to enjoy as a kid. It’s my desperate grasp for a piece of childhood nostalgia. I even ran my recreated opening just for good measure. It actually looked pretty good. I had a fully enjoyable evening eating some of my favorite foods and watching movies that are never NOT funny, no matter how many times I see them.

Sunday the 11th – CLOSING IT OUT! – Per usual, I slept late into the day, then did some eventual work on the computer. I had a LOT of auditions to record. I made a salad with some buffalo chicken strips I had gotten at Denny’s a few days earlier (YUM!) and watched a fantastic episode of “The Time Tunnel” which guest starred Mako. He was an amazing actor, and this particular episode really exhibited his incredible talent!

And how was YOUR week??!

VIDEO FROM THE WEEK