Wally’s Week

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Speaking of Prairie Dog Records, here’s how it looked back then!

I can remember going to Prairie Dog Records in downtown Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1978 to buy Gordon Lightfoot’s “Endless Wire” album. It had the hit “The Circle Is Small” on it, but I was also amazed at how many other great tunes were on the album. I listened to it over and over again, and one of the standout tracks is “If Children Had Wings.” It came up this past week and put me in a real nostalgic mood. Enjoy.

Monday the 11th – DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME BLAHS! – Every time we do that stupid time change thing it screws up my routine. Most of the day I laid around and relaxed, but later I did some work around the house, and recorded my nightly auditions. I was craving McDonald’s, so I hit the drive-thru and got some food to go. I sat in the parking lot of my local supermarket and listened to music. Then I got some late-night groceries. I love shopping in the middle of the night at the 24 hour grocery store, because it’s quieter and more mellow. Unfortunately, that time of night, not every item I want is available or stocked on the shelf yet. I came home and put the groceries away, and finished just in time to take my nightly WOG (walk/jog), and I even got to spend some time outside in the anti-grav chair staring at the sky and cooling down. It was actually really nice outside! I’m starting to be able to smell some of the plants and flowers that are blooming around the complex! Spring is coming! I typed out Wally’s Week and then called it a day.

Tuesday the 12th – PHOTO ALBUM PHUN (AGAIN!) – In anticipation of the volumes of new photo albums that are soon to be completed, I cleared off some space on the shelf in my bedroom closet. I moved stuff around, threw some stuff out, and rearranged a lot of stuff. Then I went downstairs to my desk and with my light pad and loop (a magnifying instrument used by photographers to look at negatives) I looked through some more negatives to make sure they reconciled with the prints I had in my old, badly-aged photo albums. I took my nightly WOG, and actually got to spend some more time in the anti-grav chair outside. It was nice out again! Finally!

Wednesday the 13th – DON’T BE SO ‘NEGATIVE’! – The first order of the day was to stop by Harry’s Camera to drop off some more of my old negatives to have them scanned and printed. These are negatives that I identified as being important enough to scan for posterity, and have new, digital answer prints made from them. I’m not having all my negatives scanned, just the ones that I think are of a particularly special nature (ie: my kids visiting, certain gigs, events, etc.). I headed to my box to get some packages, and then I drove over to the former facility of my mechanic The Burbank Auto Doctor. The Doctor retired, but a new mechanic called Dunn Automotive has moved into the facility and has taken over the bays. I want to stop by and introduce myself and get to know the new staff. Luckily, one of the mechanics there used to work for The Doctor, and he had worked on my cars many times. Plus, even more luckily, he’s a HUGE fan of the “Bleach” cartoon I’m on. I arranged with Michelle (the new boss) to bring my Mustang and Gran Torino into the shop to get oil changes, some maintenance, and to have new “quick-release” battery clamps put on the battery cables. This will allow me to easily remove the cable from the negative battery terminal when I leave the cars sitting idle for long periods of time. They are going to order the clamps and let me know when they arrive so I can schedule time to bring the cars in. Gotta get ‘em ready for summer! (Ahhhhh… summer!) I hit KFC for some chicken strips, and then headed over to Alex In Wonderland to pick up the derby for my “Stannequin,” my Stan Laurel mannequin. I needed her to steam and flatten the brim on the derby to replicate the look Stan had on his derbies he wore. I went to CVS to get some prints of some photos made, and to pick up some supplies. Later I did my nightly auditions, took my nightly WOG, and worked around the house. I did some more photo album work and they’re coming along very nicely! It will probably take me close to a year to complete the entire set, however. I’m VERY picky and particular when it comes to this sort of thing. It had gotten quite windy out, and my power blinked out a few times. I made a salad and watched another fantastic episode of “The High Chaparral.”

Thursday the 14th – LAST-MINUTE JOB?? – Most of the day I spent working around the house doing mundane things, and later I had a delightful conversation with my new best friend Tyler St. Mark (the guy who recently sold me the original “Sons of the Desert” fez from the 1933 Laurel and Hardy film). I did my nightly auditions, and then cleaned up for the maids to arrive on Friday afternoon. My agent sent me an alert that a “voice match” job might be working on Friday afternoon, and the audition was very last minute. I did my best and submitted it. If I booked the job it could be very tricky, since the job works at 2, but my maids are scheduled to be at Planet Wallywood about that time. Hmmm…

Friday the 15th – CHECKING THE SPOOK ROUTINE! – Unfortunately I didn’t sleep very long. My eyes sprang open around 11am, and I figured I should check my email to see if they received my audition alright for the last minute voice match gig. When I checked the email the Casting Director confirmed he got it, and he wanted me to send in an additional audition for a second voice match. I recorded it post haste and sent it in. After about an hour I got an email back stating that the production team on the film was very close to securing the rights to the original audio, so voice matching the original voices might not be needed. But he said he’d keep in touch on it if they decided to go back to using voice matches. Oh well. It happens sometimes in this industry. Everything’s constantly in flux, it seems. The nice thing is, I’m now on this Casting Director’s radar for future gigs. The maids arrived and cleaned up Planet Wallywood, and later my pal Chris Malmin came over so we could grab dinner and catch up. We had a great meal at Barone’s, and then came back so we could go over the ‘care and feeding’ routine for my cat Spooky. While I’m away at the upcoming Weebcon in Dallas over Easter weekend, Chris will be here house sitting. I took my nightly WOG, and then came back inside and worked all night on the photo albums. I made some good headway! I also printed out some labels for the envelopes which hold my negatives, stating the contents of each negative set. Then they’ll all go into a fireproof box and go into storage. I made a delicious salad and watched an amazing episode of “The High Chaparral!”

Saturday the 16th – NOT FUNNY, NOT SCARY! – Since I spent hours and hours overnight working on my photo album project, arranging photos in the albums and cataloging negatives, I slept fairly late. When I got up I had some leftover Barone’s pizza and watched “Svengoolie” on ME-TV. The movie he played sounded promising, with a cast that included Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, and Boris Karloff. It’s called “Comedy of Terrors,” but it was not comedic, nor terrifying. In fact, it was pretty bad. It’s sad, considering that the cast was so stellar. It started to seem to me like a poor man’s attempt at a “dark-toned” Laurel and Hardy film, with Vincent Price playing the “smarter than you” Ollie character, and Peter Lorre playing the poor, feckless assistant who had to do all the dirty work. In fact, in one scene that was particularly “Laurel and Hardy-ish” Vincent says something about “another nice mess.” Hmmm. I didn’t finish watching it, as it sadly just wasn’t very entertaining. Later I took my nightly WOG, and then continued work on my photo albums. I had some nice momentum going! Aside from the photo albums, which will attempt to capture the chronological timeline of my early days living in L.A., I’m making a separate album of strictly professional performance-related work. Again, I’m trying to post them in chronological order. I got up through the Phantom of the Opera gigs I did, but I still have Beetlejuice, Austin Powers, Andy Kaufman, Tony Clifton, and more to go! WOW! In addition to all of the photos I have posted in my old, breaking down photo albums, I also have boxes full of photos to sort through. I took one box marked “CHARACTERS” and sorted all of those into separate categories, which will make it easier when the time comes to post the photos of those particular characters. This is almost like trying to edit a film! I made a salad and since I’m all done with the episodes of “The Saint,” I started in on a show I had never seen before, but had heard a lot about. The show is a 1965 black and white show called “Honey West, about a female detective played by Anne Francis. I’ve got to learn not to go into these things expecting too much. After two episodes I realized it might have been a mistake getting this set. First off, she and her male detective partner seem pretty inept in their jobs. In fact, the first episode opens up with her blowing a job. Also there’s not much chemistry between the male lead and Anne Francis. And the 30 minute run-time makes the episodes seem rushed. It’s tough to lay out a crime and its resolution in under 30 minutes. I’m hoping the “cool factor” on this show increases with the forthcoming episodes. It only ran one season, so I think I can make it through the entire thing. It’s not like “Police Woman,” where it ran for four seasons, but I could barely make it through the first season, and decided not to buy the other seasons.

Sunday the 17th – DATE DETERMINATION! – After enjoying the benefits of having Sunday as my usual “crash day,” I started in on more photo album work. I took my WOG, and even got some time in the anti-grav chair afterwards. As I listened to some music I used my light pad and my loop to examine more negatives and catalog their contents. In the early 90s so much stuff was going on, that it was difficult to determine the exact dates that a lot of this stuff occurred. If I had one “do-over,” it would be to keep better track of these events and date them more proactively. Sometimes I’m able to reach out to friends and check dates against their memories, but sometimes I’m simply guessing. I’m up to about 80 sets of negatives cataloged, and I pulled some aside to have scanned that I’ll take into Harry’s Camera this week. But amidst all of this work, it sure is fun to look back on some of the old days and relive good memories.

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK