RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

If it fits, it ships, I think the Postal Service saying goes. Maybe my cat Spooky has had enough and wants to be shipped somewhere else!

 Well, obviously since I rehearsed “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison exhaustively for our church’s Beatles night, it’s been stuck in my head since. But I LOVE it!

Monday the 24th – TAKE – TAKE ME HOME! – After having just arrived back from Palm Springs late the night before, 8am came awfully early. I had to be up to meet with the DirecTV guy. The roofers who were reroofing our complex bumped my satellite dish and sent it out of alignment. So the technician had to come realign it (the roofers are getting the bill, by the way). It didn’t take long for him to do it, and I had my DirecTV signal back. I napped for a bit longer, as much as I could with all of the roof pounding and drilling, but when I did manage to get up I went to my mailbox to get my packages. I stopped by my dry cleaners to drop off some stuff, took my rented SUV back to Enterprise, and walked home. I unpacked all of my baggage and got everything settled, and as soon as the roofers left I napped on the couch for a bit. I got up later to map the route to my session on Tuesday, type out Wally’s Week, and hit the hay.

Tuesday the 25th – VILLAIN REVISTED! – Right at 11 I sprang awake and got ready to travel down to Marina Del Rey to a studio called Side L.A. for a videogame session. I can’t say much about it, but it’s a villain character that I’ve done many times before. I always like revisiting him, but all of the yelling is a little tough on the voice. Luckily the Voice Director was conscious of that fact, and went easy on me. I got a sandwich from Jersey Mike’s and chatted with my pal Carol Riggins, who trains all the Lassies. She’s the lady from whom I adopted Roxy. I hadn’t talked to Carol in a while and something told me I should call her. I’m glad I did because there was lots of news to catch up on. Roxy’s brother Junior (the current Lassie; Lassie #10) is doing well, but they’re trying to sire him to get puppies for Lassie #11. I drove home in afternoon drive traffic and chatted with my folks on the phone. I got home and walked Roxy, did some work with the stuff I’m selling on eBay (I’m putting up a lot of wardrobe and costume stuff I no longer need for Halloween), and then took a quick nap. Then I spent the rest of the night listing eBay stuff. It’s very time consuming, but I really need to make some space in my house, so I have to get rid of some of this stuff!! I got to bed around 6am…just about time for the roofers to start stomping around on my roof again. Ugh. (By the way, if you’d like to see what I’ve listed my seller handle on eBay is tonyclifton99. Check it out!)

Wednesday the 26th – EAR PLUGS, THERE PLUGS – Like clockwork, the roof pounding started promptly at 8am. I had some earplugs ready to go though and they worked fairly well. I slept most of the day off and on. That eBay stuff is really exhausting, but if it clears a lot of space in my house, it’ll all be worth it. I got up later to do some work, check my e-mails, made some phone calls, and then I got ready for a Voice Over workshop/class with Voice Director Kelly Ward. If you remember, I had worked with Kelly a few weeks ago at Disney on a pilot. (Kelly played Putzie in “Grease!”) I really wanted to know more about how he worked so I took the class. No matter how advanced you become in an industry, you can ALWAYS learn more! And even though among the 12 people at the class I was the “veteran,” I still had an amazing experience. It was one of the most informative and enlightening classes I’ve ever taken! Kelly named his class “Trust Your Instincts,” and it was amazing. He assigned us all pieces of copy on a sheet of paper. But the bottom of the sheet was folded back, and we were instructed not to look at the foldback portion. We went into the studio one by one and interpreted the copy as our instincts warranted. When we finished two takes, he told us to look at the foldback portion, but not tell anyone else in the class. The text on the folded portion contained the original specs for the character as issued by the writer and producer of the show from which the copy came. Some people’s instincts were right on, others were not. On our second pass, we were allowed to record the copy again now that our reads would be informed by the previously hidden text. When we finished we came out of the booth and read the specs to the other class members. It was TOTALLY amazing! On the way home I got Taco Bell and headed home to do my nightly auditions with a head full of new information and advice. I paid some bills and listed some more eBay stuff.

Thursday the 27th – STRANGE NATURE BOY! – It sure felt good to sleep all day, and I barely heard the roofers at all. Perhaps they’ve moved further down the building. My pal Jim Ojala (he does all the special effects work in Planet Wallywood) texted me to let me know there was a second screening of his new film “Strange Nature” in Glendale. I had missed the initial screening last Friday because I was in Palm Springs. So I jumped at the chance to see it on a second run! I drove over to Glendale and found the Laemmle Theater on Maryland Drive. Jim was out of town, but his wife (and Co-Producer) Beth was there. She thanked me profusely for coming. I was very impressed with it, as I know what a monumental undertaking producing something like that is. Jim wrote it, directed it, had a small part, and did all the special effects! It was all shot on location in Minnesota. And I had forgotten that I had recorded a small Voice Over part for it a long time ago (as a radio newscaster). So it was a surprise to hear myself in the film! I stopped at the dry cleaners on the way home to get my cleaning, and then headed hom e for a short nap. I got up and did a bunch of auditions, and listed a TON of eBay stuff. I didn’t get to bed until 6am!

Friday the 28th – ROOFER REDUX! – I knew it was too good to be true. Thursday must’ve been a fluke. The roofers were back on the roof with full fury. But thanks to my ear plugs I slept the majority of the day. When I got up I heard them sweeping and cleaning up. Could that be the final phase of my portion of the building? I was hoping so! Why would they clean up if they’re just going to come back Monday and make another mess? I got up and went to the hardware store to pick up a few items I needed for my eBay mannequins. I got some groceries to stock up on supplies for the weekend, and came home to spend the rest of the evening on eBay stuff. I’m in a bit of a rush, because in order to get stuff to people by Halloween, the timing has to be right. Considering that it’s a 7 day auction, and there will be a few days after that to pack the stuff up, and then allowing a few days for shipping (even with Priority Mail) I need to allow a few weeks for everything to time out right. I finished up my goal for the evening and started getting ready to enjoy the rest of my evening. Since the roofers wouldn’t be working on Saturday, I planned to make myself a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box and delve into “Taxi” season 3 on DVD before bed. It was a VERY fun evening!

Saturday the 29th – SERENE SATURDAY! – At 2 I met with my pals Mark and Boz to go over the strategy for a panel we’d be doing at an upcoming comic convention in late October (more on that later). We enjoyed lunch and chatted about changes we wanted to make to the format of our “I Was Cosplay Before Cosplay Was Cool” panel. We did it at San Diego Comic Con and it went very well, but it simply wasn’t long enough to contain all of the stories I wanted to tell about my early days of costuming (before there was even such a thing as “cosplay” or even comic conventions!). So we’re trying to figure out ways to improve before we do it again. After lunch I came home to relax before movie night. I did some cleaning around the house and then the guests began to arrive. We watched the new Blu Ray release of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” I had seen it twice in the theaters (once in a regular theater, and once in Imax!) I really like this movie. It’s a fun “check-your-brain-for-two-hours” kind of movie I love! My friends Mark, James and Cecille stayed after and we talked for a few hours. Then I took a quick nap on the couch, fed the pets, walked Roxy and came inside to make my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watch an episode of “SNL” from the second season DVD set. I printed out the lyrics to the song I’d be singing at church on Sunday evening and then hit the hay.

Sunday the 30th – BEATLE BLESSINGS! – Just before 5 Roxy and I drove over to church for rehearsal. Today was Beatle Sunday, and the band would be doing a full hour of Beatle music that had a decidedly spiritual slant. They asked me to sing George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” and I anxiously agreed. We rehearsed the song and then opened the doors. My “adopted grandma” Shirley was there, of course, along with my movie night pal Amy. Edi and Elliot Lurie came as well, and it was a real thrill to be able to sing knowing that Elliot was in the audience, given his pedigree in the music industry for the past several decades. He was very complimentary after we finished the song. A bunch of us went to Paty’s for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening on the patio with Roxy and Edi’s dog Bunny. Then I came home to do some auditions, grab a quick nap, and then I got up to do some work around the house. I listed a few more things on eBay, but I had to get to bed for an early session on Monday.

And how was YOUR week??!!