September 15 – September 21 (2014)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

At movie night last Saturday, Roxy was in a particularly cuddly mood. So she laid down with my assistant Sara’s roommate Jessica and watched part of the movie. Cute!

I have absolutely no idea how this song from 1984 popped into my head. But I couldn’t get it out for days on end. I finally broke down and went to iTunes and purchased Jermaine Jackson’s “Do What You Do.” I really like the vibe of this song!

Monday the 15th – HEAT WAVE! – Our summer has finally hit, albeit a little bit late. Throughout most of the summer we’ve had very mild temperatures, but I knew we were bound to get some triple digit temps sooner or later. It was later. When I got up at 1 it was already about 100 degrees out. Our pool has been closed for resurfacing work, and today was the day the poor pool guy had to be out replastering the pool. How did he do it? I was amazed! After walking Roxy (quickly) I came back inside to work on the computer in air conditioned comfort. I did a few auditions, watched a little TV, and then napped for a bit. When I got up I did a few more auditions that had to be turned into my agent’s office before the 6pm cutoff time. Though I was over my bout with pneumonia, I didn’t want to push it. So I’m still trying to lay low as much as possible until I’m fully back up to speed. I had a light snack, then went back to bed. When I got up later I did a few more auditions, worked a little bit around the house, walked and fed Roxy (the nights were still pretty warm) and watched another episode of “Magnum; p.i.” before turning in for good.

Tuesday the 16th – ACTION ON CAPTAIN ACTION! – Three Guys burgers was the location for a noon meeting with Tom T and Stephen Gordon, two animation vets who are working on getting a really cool Captain Action animated series pitched to television networks. They wanted to pick my brain about some ideas. I’ve always loved Captain Action (since the action figure’s debut back in the mid 60’s!) and I was lucky enough to be able to provide the voice for Cap in the animation sizzle reel. We threw around some ideas and had a fun lunch. Though I haven’t been contagious in about a month, I still have a pretty scary sounding residual cough. And unfortunately I had to cough a few times during lunch and I had to keep reassuring the guys that I was NOT contagious. But it still sounds unnerving I’m sure. After my burger I came back home and worked around the house, did some auditions as they came into my e-mail box. I worked the remainder of the afternoon around the house, then had a snack and napped for a while. The heat wave was still upon us, but it’s to be expected in Los Angeles in late summer. Odd that we’re only a week away from the advent of Fall’s official start, but we’re enduring the mid-summer temps we never got in July or August. When I got up later I walked Roxy around the neighborhood on a warm, pleasant night. The weather was absolutely perfect. It reminded me a lot of Palm Springs. It was a beautiful night, and the stars were bright in the sky. I came back inside to make some stew and retire with another episode of “Magnum; p.i.” before bed.

Wednesday the 17th – BUSY WORK WEDNESDAY! – Sleeping in until 2pm felt really good. The less I talk, the less I inhale and expel large amounts of air through my lungs which causes me to cough. And the less I cough, the less hoarse my voice gets. So I spent the afternoon determined to get voice rest. I set about doing some busy work on my computer…filling out contracts for work I had done recently, scanning them and sending them back to my agents. But my computer decided it no longer wanted to communicate with my scanner and printers wirelessly, so I had to dig out the old cables and hard wire them. Of course I needed to chat with my computer guy to figure out which portals to assign to which utilities, so it was a bit of a setback. When he first set up the printers and scanner he was regaling the advantages of wireless communication. I asked that we just set them up the old fashioned way, with cables, because so much can go wrong with wireless. And now it looked like I was right. But I got them all talking to one another again and I was back in business. I walked Roxy and it was still really hot out. But the word was the heat wave was breaking tomorrow! Around 7 I got cleaned up and headed to my favorite Italian restaurant to meet up with Mark Evanier, Producer, Director and Writer for “The Garfield Show.” We met at Barone’s, along with his friend Jewel Shepard, and had a delicious meal and fun conversation! They’re good peeps! On the way home I got groceries and came home to put them away. I fed and walked Roxy then turned in for the evening. I had chatted so much at dinner I needed to take a little cough medicine and get some sleep.

Thursday the 18th – COUGH DISCLAIMER! – When I go to sessions I’ve started issuing a disclaimer before we start recording. I tell them that I got over pneumonia three weeks ago and I still have a residual cough, as the body continues to expel the residual phlegm from the body to fully heal itself. I tell them I’ve been to two doctors who swear I am no longer contagious, so the cough sounds a lot worse than it is and THEY CAN’T GET SICK. I gave that same speech to Jamie Simone at Studiopolis who called me into work on a Marvel project. Though I’m emphatic about not being contagious, I can see the looks on people’s faces when I have to cough. That would probably be me if I were on the other side of it. But it was great to work with Jamie again. We finished up the project and I headed to CVS pharmacy to pick up some supplies. While I was there I ran into Jason, one of the former audio guys at “The Tonight Show.” I hadn’t seen him in years, and it was great to chat and catch up again. I got some gas in my car and headed home to feed and walk Roxy. I took a dip in the Jacuzzi and grabbed a nap. I got up later in the evening and did a few auditions (I just needed to edit out the occasional, necessary coughs) and then did some work around the house. I made some of my famous “Buffalo Mac” and watched the Season 4 season finale of “Magnum; p.i.” before I went to sleep for the night. (Or morning!)

Friday the 19th – STEAKS! – A week ago I did a session at the Robot Chicken studios in Burbank for a commercial project they’re working on. There were a few lines they needed to have picked up, so I came back in and did a short session. Then I went to Jerry’s Famous Deli to meet with Duke, a guy I had met the previous week at the Larry Storch tribute, about some projects he had going. Then I sped off to my seamstress Karyn’s studio to pick up the finished Dorothy bust and the new Joker costume for the 8 inch figure. The Dorothy bust is the final of the four busts I’m having made for The Puppet Room. Though Dorothy is still in need of having her hair work done, Karyn did a very nice job on her costume. When a company named Figures Inc. released four 8 inch action figures based on the 1966 “Batman” TV series I snatched them up. The Batman, Robin, and Riddler looked great. But the costume they made for the Joker wasn’t the right color. They went with a purple fabric, instead of the famous fuschia color Cesar Romero wore in the show. Purple is fine for the Joker if you’re doing the 1989 Nicholson Joker, but it didn’t seem to fit the Romero Joker. So, being an insane, obsessive, detail-oriented guy, I bought some suitable fuschia fabric, had a small quantity of it silk screened with pin stripes (for the pants) and had Karyn tear apart the purple costume to make a pattern. Though it took her awhile to get to, she totally nailed it! While I was at her studio I dropped off some Bat ears for the bat caps I make. I have four more caps to have made as gifts, and then I’m done. We chatted for a bit and then I headed home in afternoon L.A. traffic. I got back home and fed and walked Roxy and Spooky, then got cleaned up for a dinner meeting with my old “Tonight Show” pal Troy Thomas. Troy has been working on the “Ellen” show for a few months now, and he has me record some comedy bits. To show my appreciation I wanted to buy him a large, juicy steak at The Smokehouse, one of L.A.’s oldest and best steakhouses. While we were there we saw my old pal Alan Oppenheimer dining with his lady. Troy was totally stoked to have met the voice of Skeletor in person! We finished our dinner and I came home to nap on the couch for a bit. Then I got up to do some busy work around the house to get ready for my Saturday night movie night, I fed and walked Roxy, and enjoyed a night all to myself.

Saturday the 20th – TOOLIN’ AROUND IN THE TORINO! – By 3 in the afternoon I was in my Gran Torino doing some errands. It’s great driving that car, and just being in the driver’s seat makes me extremely happy. I headed over to Kit Kraft to buy some fuschia paint. While my 8 inch Joker figure had a great new costume, his plastic hands were still purple. So I needed to rectify that by painting them fuschia to match the rest of his costume. I went to my vitamin store to get some vitamins, and then got some food for Roxy at the pet store. Filling the plastic bins I have for Roxy’s hard food is never an easy task. The dog food comes in these enormous bags and they’re hard to handle when pouring the food into a little bin from a little hole in the bag. So I went to the hardware store in search of a large funnel. But their largest funnel still wasn’t big enough. So my eye spotted one of those large, orange safety cones. PERFECT! I bought one and took it home. I sped back home to paint the Joker hands. I knew it would take several coats of the paint to cover up the darker purple hands, and I wanted the figure ready to be seen that night by my friends at movie night. After three coats, his hands were looking good! I cleaned up for movie night then grabbed a quick nap on the couch. It was a good crowd for movie night and we had a blast. It was nice not coughing all the way through it like I did at last week’s movie night. We watched “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” on Blu Ray. My friend Amanda went to the garage with me to help me fill Roxy’s food bins from the bag. I determined that the tip of the safety cone was still too small, so I took a box cutter and cut off about 5 inches from the tip of the cone. NOW it worked perfectly. And it filled the bins SO fast that I needed to be conscious of not overfilling them and causing a mess! When everyone left I did some work on the computer, made myself my traditional giant Saturday night salad, and got ready to watch another episode of the old British “Avengers” TV series before bed. But I’m in a quandary. A few days before I got sick I received two seasons of the show on DVD. As I was lying in bed being miserable I took great comfort in cracking open the series and binge watching. So now I’m all the way through Season 4 and it’s time to move on to Season 5. But on November 11th, Season 5 is coming out on Blu Ray. And now the quandary…should I watch something else for the next 7 Saturdays and wait to watch the episodes on Blu Ray? Or should I start right in on Season 5, watch the first 7 episodes on standard def DVD, and THEN switch to the Blu Ray in November? Hmmm…I’m not sure. I’m going to think about it between now and next Saturday, but I’m thinking I may dig out some of the color episodes of “The Saint” to bridge the gap, and wait for “The Avengers” Season 5 on Blu Ray. Questions, questions!

Sunday the 21st – SUPERB SUNDAY! – Since our heatwave was now over, I decided I could take Roxy back to church later in the evening. Last week it was far too hot to walk her over there, but the weather was amazing! I slept until 2, walked Roxy and had a bowl of cereal, and then went back to bed for a few hours. We enjoyed a nice evening walk over to church and had a good time. I honestly think she had missed it! She hadn’t been there in over a month! I got home and met up with my pal Jim Ojala, who was taking my new Halloween Boy mannequin to his shop to paint his hair. I grabbed a nap, and then got up around midnight to do about 6 auditions. It was good to finally be back in the old routine again! I started in on “Kojak” Season 5 (the final season) on DVD before bed.
And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here’s the way the Joker was released to the public (notice the costume’s color difference in the photos on the package), and here’s how my Joker figure looks after my seamstress Karyn got ahold of him! Worlds of difference!

Dorothy is almost complete. I’m waiting for my hair guy Sergio Lopez to come do his magic. Dorothy still needs eyebrows (which will be meticulously hand-laid on to the bust) as well as a hand-laid hair line along the temples. Stay tuned. They’re ALMOST complete!