-I just found out that Miguel (DOUGLAS KONDZIOLKA AKA MIGUEL) of the DON JUAN AND MIGUEL SHOW has passed away I’d been going to The Sterling Renaissance Faire since I was in high school and every time I went, I made sure to catch at least one of their shows, if not all four (which they did per day). I loved their skits and it was one of the main reasons I’d go to the Faire – as well as one of the main reasons I stopped going when they were no longer there. It just wasn’t the same…
-This is a pic of me (shamelessly promoting my band CAROLINE BLUE of course (HA!)) with (L. to R.) Miguel, me and Don Juan back in 2010 taken by my girlfriend at the time (when she could tolerate me as opposed to currently). They had so many great one-liners; I have to admit that I even used some of them during a few shows for my band in-between songs. I also bought some of their DVDs at the time. The skit that immediately comes to mind via memories was the one where Miguel played The Queen of Spain. Miguel liked to go down into the crowd and pick people to go onstage or to do something to them. In the case with The Queen of Spain, he’d usually pick a guy to get an “extreme 3D experience” with his “balloons.” 🙂 He would also pick out attractive women to bring on stage to be part of one of their skits. I don’t recall if he picked my girlfriend at the time (she was a hottie), but I know we did get pics with them after the show that year. There were many years where I wasn’t able to attend the Ren Faire to see them either due to musical, acting and / or regular job commitments. I tried when I could. I recall one time, I was in a time crunch, and I drove to Sterling from Syracuse, caught one show, got a DVD and left (not seeing anything else) cause I had to go to work (I think) so yeah, I was a fan 🙂
-I saw that he had a stroke in February 2024 and survived, but sadly had to retire from performing. I have a few friends who have recovered from strokes (for the most part) and I was hoping the same for Miguel, but it was not to be…
-On Sunday 2/17/24 one of my cousins, Julie Johnson Stewart, (daughter of my Dad’s brother) passed away. I’m not sure the exact reason as of yet, but from what I’ve read, she just had heart bypass surgery, which was successful, and seemed to be recovering well. Later that same day her heart suddenly stopped and she was brought into emergency surgery, but they couldn’t save her…
-Today (February 13th) is the day a not-so-little Wayno was brought into the world. 🙂 It went by pretty fast though (IMO) – plus on Facebook I got restricted for an hour because I was “liking” too many birthday posts (which I deeply appreciate btw (the birthday posts) but still…) 😦
-I also have a birthday fundraiser going, which I usually do every year – but this year I’m spreading it beyond Facebook. It’s for the CNY CAT COALITION and with you help, we can reach the goal. The link is below – please donate and / or share. Thanks and here we go with another trip around the sun!
-I just got word that director NICHOLAS BONGIORNO has passed away. At this time, the cause of death has not been released. Nic was the director for a Documentary (a “Docu-Drama?”) called “Juggernaut” and had recruited me for the role of Joseph Crow back in 2017. We exchanged several phone calls / messages, I filmed my parts and that was that – except that a few years later, Nic reached out to me saying that he needed my role again for one final scene he had to do. Then I wouldn’t hear from him for like a year or so. This happened again just before the pandemic if memory serves. Nothing happened again so I moved on.
-Fast forward to 2023. This time, Nic put me in a Facebook group that was discussing the final scene and it looked like he was finally able to film that last scene. Time went by again, although this time I was going over my lines at least once a week (min.) in preparation for when the shoot date would be released. Unless some contingency was planned in case something like his passing took place, it’s safe to say that no further filming will be happening.
-A friend of his, William Huston, posted on Nic’s Facebook page a rough cut of the film. It’s dated June 19,2022. In my opinion, as a creative, dying before making your ideas become a reality and / or finishing a project that’s in production / post production is something that kind of floats in the back of your mind as you get older; something to dread. It’s sad when it happens and I’m sorry that Nic didn’t get to see his film completed and released. It’s a reminder (at least to me) that time waits for no one and to get stuff done and move forward. As the saying goes, none of us are getting out of here alive, but I digress…
-Well, here I am with another yearly review- and it took ten days into the new year to do it! Last year was eight days in so hopefully when I do the 2024 Year in Review, I’m closer to New Year’s Day.
-To start, the header pic for this is me with my two chunky bois – Scruffy & Five- Paw. These are selfies I took on New Year’s Eve as me and the cats watched the ball drop on TV and welcomed the new year together. We missed the ball drop last year so I was glad we all were together to see it this year. That’s one good thing about 2023 right? 🙂
-Speaking of my bois, they seem to have done well in 2023. Five-Paw turned 14 years old (approx.) and Scruffy 11 years old. Five-Paw had a few health issues – He lost his remaining tooth and, somehow, got a small face wound near his nose earlier in the year (healed now) – but otherwise he’s doing fine (outside of throwing up dry food at various times on the carpet (even on my bed once) – and yes, I feed both my bois dry and wet food. Scruffy actually lost a pound in weight, but still a chunker. He has tamed down a little (he’s not fixed), but not too much – a few weeks ago he actually punched me in the head :O I’m sure that would make some of my “fan club” happy 😀
-Continuing down the health topic, last year I reported that I got a “parting” gift from Covid-Pneumonia in the form of Accelerated Hair Loss. As of this day, my hair continues on it’s way back to where it was before the virus, but it’s not there yet. There’s still sections that look uneven and some area where it seems like it’s really not growing back at all. Time will tell I guess. On funny thing to note, I posted a bunch of videos from CAROLINE BLUE’S show in Oneida, NY back in 2022 – and in one of the videos, someone commented that it looked like I was wearing a wig (!). I wasn’t, but I could see where someone could think that. I believe I’m past that phase, but still not where I was like in this video below (click on the link to see 🙂
-On a more serious note, no cluster headaches for me in 2023 – and I hope it stays that way. One thing I didn’t mention in last year’s recap was that I got my 2023 “present” in my “Goodie Bag” (what I call the list of health issues I have – I seem to get at least one new one per year now). I was having issues with my kidneys – which is linked to my Sarcoidosis (Sarco). It turns out that my kidneys had dropped to only working at 50%. Lovely…I was also having some bladder issues so I ended up going to see an Urologist. Not too long ago I took a PSA test and it was normal. Things seemed to stabilized now, but for awhile there was some concern. One – if it continued to drop, I’d have to get surgery. Two – if it kept dropping, even after the surgery, I could die. Great – now I have three things in my “Goodie Bag” that could potentially kill me. So this is what it’s like going into the advancing years huh?
-Three things? Well, Sarco is one and Kidney Failure is two. What the third? Sleep Apnea. It had gotten worse so, while it was no longer just mild, it wasn’t severe either. I still have to be careful. At least I was sleeping in a bed again. For reasons I won’t go into here (hey – I have to save something for “WAYNE – THE BOOK – HA!), basically between my Dad passing away and then Mom going, I slept on a couch in the living room for 2 – 3 years. Still do from time to time. I have a cPaP machine, which can be a pain. Kind of a far cry from Mr. P90X from a decade ago huh? Having said that, I have started working out again – very slow progress, but that’s true with everything in my life (currently). More on that later…
-Other than that…a few nodules were discovered on my left and right thyroid. Luckily, they were benign. A few other minor issues here and there but, for the most part, I’m leaving 2023 in decent physical health. I’m doing what I can to keep it that – and maybe even make it better – what a concept! 🙂
-You might remember that, in 2022, I went all in with learning how to cook via HELLO FRESH. It was great and, for the most, I loved the foods they had. Unfortunately, as 2023 progressed, I started to enter financial hardship so I had to let go of more and more things as time went on. If you guessed Hello Fresh being one of those things, you would be right. It might as well be, cause about a few months after I cancelled, my oven broke down. So much for that…
-On the Acting front, I managed to keep busy on a few things. JOHNNY Z was released in the US, UK and several other countries. I played the supporting role of Monster Boy in this one. If you have a membership with Amazon Prime, you can watch for for FREE – just click HERE to check it out. The movie was also released on Blu-ray just this past December. In addition, there was a promo campaign done with some of the cast and producer Jason Delgado asked if I wanted to be part of it. You had to film three one minute clips in a specific way answering one of several questions – with your phone / camera vertical and under one minute. They only released two of them and the first one did real well on Instagram – Over 1,700 views. The second got over 900 views. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t originally part of the campaign. Click HEREto check out the promo videos from as well as other members of the cast that were involved.
-2023 also saw the release of TALES OF DRACULA:Dracula Meets The Wolfman. Towards the middle of 2023 I had to do some ADR to help finish things off. There there were two premieres (cast / crew only) so I got to see it before release. It currently has a limited release via streaming – you can rent / buy the film by clicking HERE. I was told that DVDs will be forthcoming some time in 2024 (maybe Blu-Rays too?). On top of that, I found out, online, that there’s supposedly some kind of documentary in about the the first and second Tales of Dracula in the works? Guess we’ll all find out together…
-Some of the films I was in hit the festival circuit this year, including “Johnny Z,” “Rustler’s Promenade & “Messy Boys” ( Both by DIRTY SWEATER PRODUCTIONS),” “THE BARN II,” “CRYPTIDS,” and BLIND COP 2. At one of those horror conventions, specifically the HORRORHOUND FILM FESTIVAL, I was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for my role as The Man in Black in “Cryptids.” I didn’t win, but it was still nice just to be nominated.
-In addition, both SID IS DEAD and THE MENTAL STATE were released in 2023. Both of these, along with a few others, I did a few years back in kind of a group thing. It was all extra work, but it was paying extra work so…Having said that, this also means that, more often than not, you have no lines, uncredited and sometimes not even in the film at all. I did make it, very briefly into the trailer for “The Mental State” at the 40 second mark. Blink and you miss me, plus there was no light where I was – but I remember that shot and where I was standing so there (HA!). A similar thing happens in “Sid is Dead” but, unlike TMS, I saw SID and, in the beginning of the film, Sid is going to school and, as he enters, he passes by a Security Officer – that’s me! 🙂
-On top of all that, I made an appearance on two actor reels – well, one for this year and one I found out about from a few years ago – by Felix Cortes and Shyaporn Theerakulstit respectively. Thanks guys!
-I did get to do some new acting this year, albeit not anywhere near as much as I would’ve liked. Worked started on another CAROLINE BLUE Music Video – “Won’t Be Home Tonight” (which I will touch upon when we get to the music part) and playing the role of an assassin in “The Bondini Boys” by Jeff Forsyth. No lines, but I got to scratch that acting itch a little as well as help out someone who helped get me involved with Star Trek: New Voyages.
-I was also able to touch upon some stuff with voice-over – a field I’m definitely looking more into. I got up a clip I did for an Infomercial back in 2013. The big news, however, is that I’m slated to play the lead role of CSI Detecting Kenneth Manning for the horror / slasher video game THE DEVIL’S APOSTLES. Writer Baretta Simmons hooked me up with Lead programmer / Director Joe Wheeler for this one. I did a promo video for them as well as help promo their Indiegogo Campaign. I even bought one of the perks, the “Jar in a Head” perk – so I’m definitely in the game now 🙂 It’s set to release in late 2024 / early 2025. Unfortunately, their Indiegogo failed to raise the amount they needed and I haven’t heard from them since. Time will tell…
-2023 saw me doing more interviews and talking ears off (hey – it’s me! 🙂 ) . Included were the following…Unfortunately, background noise can be hear on some of these – making them harder to hear.Thanks to all the shows and I hope you’ll want me back at some point in the future.
-On the music front, filming on a new CAROLINE BLUE Music Video “Won’t Be Home Tonight” started with Days One & Two completed. One more day on that to complete principal photography. Editing on the Music Video for “My Fingers” was also initially completed, but something’s come up in addition to all the prep work it takes to launch a new song properly. An update I made in late August 2023 goes into more details on how these two videos are progressing – which you can read about HERE. In addition, WWJ ENTERTAINMENT LLC released a Behind the Scenes video from Day Three of the “My Fingers” shoot, which can be seen below. There’s A LOT more behind the scenes pics and videos to be released as time permits. I also want to mention that there is a possibility that CAROLINE BLUE might be performing some shows in 2024. Nothing to announce yet till things are settled in so time will tell. I’m focusing on getting the “My Fingers” music video released before anything else per se. As always, multiple things are going on and we’ll see how it all unfolds in next year’s wrap-up.
-I launched a new “series” on both the CAROLINE BLUE Facebook and Instagram pages called “Days of the Blue” – which will be me posting a pic in relation to what happened in the history of CAROLINE BLUE. That list is quite extensive and ongoing, so I might miss a few here and there, but I’m working to make it complete. It basically helps to augment the CHRONOLOGY on the CAROLINE BLUE page, as well as kind of prove to FACEBOOK that the CAROLINE BLUE page has more than just memes on it (HA!(. Some times a pic will be used that has been posted a lot; sometimes a pic that is more rare and even times where the pic might never have been posted in public before. Keep an eye out for it and more new stuff coming out online from both my acting and musical projects. On Instagram it’s part of the regular posting page, but on Facebook, it has it’s own album. Click on the links to check them out.
-To close off the music section, on August 19, I spent part of the day working on the road crew for the BARRY MANILOW show at TURNING STONE CASINO. The morning / afternoon section was like before and kind of easy ( I was part of the crew the last time he was at Turning Stone years ago), but in the evening I got assigned to help bring the lighting rig down and that more intense – but. I got thru it…
-I’m starting to get more involved with my YouTube pages (WWJOFFICIAL / CAROLINE BLUE / WWJ ENTERTAINMENT LLC). I’ve already re-ordered the selections on the WWJ page so it’s easier to navigate and plan to do the same with the other two as time permits. I also plan on adding A LOT of clips. I have quite a lot of video that just need to be uploaded, but there’s even more that has to be converted from analog to digital before I can do that – and I want to convert them at the highest resolution that I can before uploading.. It’s quite a haul and I hope you enjoy it as it comes online. Of course, this will happen as time permits…
-So here we are at the end of another yearly wrap up. There were some good things that happened but, overall, 2023 wasn’t a good year for me. Several areas of my life have atrophied yet I did manage to revitalize my mindset so that’s a start and an important first step in turning things around. There’s still so much to do and I’m going to keep at it to the end… I just want to finish this by saying thanks, deeply, to all who have supported me on this crazy, ongoing ride on the creative path. It means so much and more than you’ll ever know. Here’s to a better 2024 for us all. Remember – hang in there and just take things one step at a time, one day at a time. Save yourself and fight for your best life…
-PS – By the way, did you know it’s taken me over three hours to just finish that last paragraph? :O Sheesh! :D
– Blu-Rays (limited edition) are now available for the Horror / Martial Arts / Zombie film JOHNNY Z. Click on the link below to check it out. I play the role of Monster Boy in this one.
– Back in 2018, I took on a number of extra roles to generate some extra income. Some have since been released; some have not. Looks like THE MENTAL STATE is finally ready for released, as it was announced to be available on all VOD platforms on 12/19/2023. I was just a church-goer in this one, but they did just release a trailer for it and, although it’s too dark to recognize me, I’m there (blink and you miss) at the 40 second mark (I’m the one closest to the wall on the far left) so there’s that! Check it out below
I’d been going to The Sterling Renaissance Faire since I was in high school and every time I went, I made sure to catch at least one of their shows, if not all four (which they did per day). I loved their skits and it was one of the main reasons I’d go to the Faire – as well as one of the main reasons I stopped going when they were no longer there. It just wasn’t the same…
WAYNE W. JOHNSON 