December 15 – December 21 (2014)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

My friend Officer Mark and his girlfriend Connie sent me this from Las Vegas, where they’re vacationing for the holidays. It’s a simply delicious metallic Popeye figure. Oh why oh why can’t I be rich??? This would look awesome in Planet Wallywood! But, I yam what I yam!

This time of year it’s impossible to peg down just one song that’s running through my head, but this seems the be the one I’m humming the most. To me, Andy Williams is the “voice of Christmas,” as I love a bunch of his Christmas songs. But I particularly love the bounce and melodic structure of “Happy Holidays!”

Monday the 15th – IT’S THE END OF THE YEAR AS WE KNOW IT! – I didn’t get to bed until 11am this morning. I had been up all night doing work around the house, and closing out my corporate paperwork for 2014. Just before I hit the hay I got a last-minute audition to do for my New York agent. I also got an e-mail that I had booked a session for Mattel as a talking truck. I hit the hay and slept from 11 until about 3 in the afternoon. Then I got up to meet with my pal T.J. who returned some Hanna-Barbera DVDs he borrowed for research for a project he’s writing. I hopped in the car and headed to Plastic Depot to talk to my pal Kyle about getting some plexiglass cut for a picture frame. I grabbed some dinner at McDonald’s on the way home, and then stopped by my mailbox to pick up some packages. When I got home I continued working on closing out my corporation. I typed up Wally’s Week and then took a dip in the Jacuzzi. I grabbed some “Christmas Nappies” on the couch (a nap by the fire with Christmas music playing gently on the satellite), and then I got up to do a bunch of auditions. I fed and walked Roxy and settled in with some dinner and another episode of “Twilight Zone” from the Season Four Blu Ray set.

Tuesday the 16th – MATTEL ME MORE ABOUT IT! – Around 11:45 I left my house for Mattel in El Segundo to do a session. But now I’m not only doing some voice tracks for a talking truck, I’m doing a VO for a TV commercial. Nothing like killing two birds with one stone! I expected the drive to take about an hour and fifteen minutes, but I got there in 45 minutes! So I had time to go to Carl’s Jr. and get a quick lunch. I went inside and did the two sessions. It was great fun, as always. And going to Mattel is always a thrill, being a serious toy collector such as myself. It rained here and there, but the big storm was still coming later. I spent the day at home working around the house and waiting for the rain. In the evening I took some more “Christmas Nappies” and then got up to do a ton of auditions. I enjoyed an episode of “Twilight Zone” while it poured rain outside. This one featured my pal Julie Newmar as Miss Devlin (who’s obviously the devil) and she was wonderful. I’m wondering if the producers of “Batman” saw her in this role and got the idea to cast her as Catwoman. She was deliciously wicked, as Julie usually is.

Wednesday the 17th – HUMP DAY HAPPENINGS! – Most of the afternoon was spent doing work around the house and getting ready for the end of the year. Which means lots of paperwork! I drove over to Panera to grab a quick lunch, and then got some groceries. I came home and banged out all my auditions for the day and got dressed for dinner. I met my pal Kathylynne for dinner at Miceli’s in Hollywood. The piano player there is one of my favorites. He knows a million songs, and he’s very fun to watch. He does an occasional funny bit while he plays, and he mixes lots of different songs together in hilarious mash-ups. I happened to be wearing my Elvis In Concert jacket, and in the middle of a conversation I stopped when I realized what he was playing. He was playing “Can’t Help Falling In Love!” I looked over at him and he winked and smiled as if to say, “This one’s for The King!” As I listened to him play I started thinking that he has a third hand nobody knows about. I just don’t get how he can play all those notes with two hands! Amazing! After dinner I came back to grab a nap, and then I got up to do some preparation for a very important audition on Thursday. I made some soup and watched another “Twilight Zone.”

Thursday the 18th – TAILGATE TERROR! – Shortly after noon I headed to Regenix to do a follow-up visit on my hair growth and scalp condition. Then I sped off to Raleigh Studios in Hollywood (as fast as I could given the horrible traffic on Beverly!) But I made it on time! It was for a new cartoon series and the audition went very well. On the way out I saw my old pal Stephanie who used to be a guard at NBC during the “Tonight Show” days! It was great to see her again and we chatted for quite a while. I hit the Arby’s drive-thru in Hollywood and ate some food while I trekked home. I got home and put on my comfy robe and enjoyed an evening by the fire. I took some “Christmas Nappies” for a bit, and then got up to do my daily auditions. I got the urge for some Denny’s take-out later in the evening, so around 2am I went to my local Denny’s to get my usual dinner. (The employees there know me well as a regular customer, and even though what I like isn’t on the menu any longer, they will still make it for me!) But on the way home it got weird. Just out of nowhere a car came up behind me and started tailgating me VERY closely. In my rearview mirror I couldn’t see any headlights of the car behind me…THAT’S how close it was following me. I wanted to make sure I didn’t hit the brakes too suddenly because the car would have collided right into me! Figuring that the guy was in a big hurry, I slowed and pulled over to the side of the street, but he followed me and started to pull in behind me. Having not come to a full stop, I cranked the wheel back out on to the street and hit the gas. I was going to try and lose him. The light ahead of me was yellow and about to turn red. I ran it, but he stayed with me. My first thought was, “Crap! My gun is in my trunk and I would have to get out of the car to get it!” But I let my Mustang do the work and I opened up the engine full throttle! I left him in my dust, but I noticed in the rear view mirror something odd. After he couldn’t keep up, he turned off his lights, and slowly pulled over to the side of the street. Weird! Part of me wanted to make a U turn and shine my lights on the car so I could get a good description of the vehicle and get a license plate number. But my Denny’s was getting cold and I wanted to get home. I ate my dinner while watching another “Twilight Zone” episode and it hit me. Not only had “TZ” gone to the hour format from the half hour format this season, but the majority of the episodes featured a lot of VERY unlikable characters as their focal point. This left me with a rather cold feeling for a wonderful TV show, and I can only hope that their fifth and final season will feature some more sympathetic characters who are simply caught in strange circumstances.

Friday the 19th – PINOCCHI-O-BOY! – Just before noon Sara came over to pick up some mail, and I headed off to Bob Baker Marionettes in Echo Park to see how the restoration of my 3 foot Pinocchio marionette was going. His hands had been repainted and they looked like new! We removed his old sun-faded hat and we discovered that his hair needed repainting as well. I’m planning on having a fresh, new hat made for him. The one that came with the puppet was in really rough shape. I can have my seamstress Karyn make a pattern from the original and we’ll be golden! The Bob Baker technicians gave me some bright yellow felt from their archives and sent me off with it. I want to keep the marionette as original as possible, but the faded yellow hat just doesn’t make a very good impression visually. I went over to Karyn’s and dropped off the hat and the fabric so she could start on the pattern. Then I went over to Mr. Stitch in Sherman Oaks to pick up a project I had made for a Christmas gift. It turned out VERY well! The new Pinocchio hat required some dark blue felt for a hat band, as well as a new red feather. So it was off to JoAnn’s Fabrics to start the search. I found exactly what I was looking for! Next Monday I’ll get the hat from Karyn, and then on Tuesday take everything over to Bob Baker Marionettes and have them restring the support strings through the new hat and attach them to the paddles. That way as much of the restoration work on the puppet will be as original as possible. It was my hope to have Bob Baker Marionettes do as much work on it as I could to maintain its collectible legacy and integrity. I got an ice cream cone and headed to Studiopolis to pick up a check. I went to Rusty’s pets to get a new brush for Roxy to keep the mats away. I went home and got on-line and found out that my Star Trek Original Series Phaser TV Remote had been delivered to my box. So it was back in the car and off to my mailbox. While I was there I mailed the gift I picked up at Mr. Stitch earlier in the day. If there was ever a day I needed a good massage it was today. Luckily my masseuse Emily was coming over at 8 to do just that. After the massage I soaked in the Jacuzzi for a bit, and then went inside to grab a nap on the couch. I got up later and did some work around the house. I didn’t have any auditions from my L.A. agent because they closed for the holidays at 2 in the afternoon. They won’t be back in biz until January 5th. I cleaned up the house, changed out my movie posters in my frames, and decided to watch the final two “Twilight Zone” episodes from Season Four. The first one was good, but the final episode was awful…almost unwatchable. It was written by Rod Serling, but it dealt with a lot of his personal frustrations with the TV industry. It involved Shakespeare being brought back through black magic to help a ne’er-do-well TV writer with his projects. I mean this was embarrassingly bad, and almost beneath the quality of a typical Serling script. I realize it may have served as a catharsis for him, but for the viewer it was 57 minutes of abject pain and agony. Again, it featured a very unlikable main character. A very sad end to the fourth season of “Twilight Zone.”

Saturday the 20th – JAMES AT 50!? – A few days ago I had ordered a cake for my pal James’ 50th birthday celebration at our Saturday night movie night. I headed out to the store to pick it up along with a few other items. I headed back home to drop off the cake and pick up my friend Amanda who had arrived. We got into my Gran Torino and headed down the road to run some errands. I hadn’t gotten to drive the Torino for a few weeks because of all the off and on rain. We got some food at Taco Bell and went over to Guns Direct to do some gun shopping. We went over to Gun World to look around and I spotted a beautiful aluminum and brushed chrome Taurus PT 92 AFS. I just HAD to have it! The brushed chrome gave it a purplish hue. Really nice! The line at the counter was too long to do the paperwork, so I just put some money down on it and we headed over to see The Christmas House. It’s that magical house in Burbank that has a synchronized light show to music it broadcasts on its own low power FM station. It was our lucky night! Alan, the owner of the house, was outside talking to some photographers. Finally I get to ask him some questions about how he did it! We had a good chat for about a half hour and I got all my questions answered. He won first place in the Burbank newspaper’s Christmas Lights contest. The Burbank Leader’s photographer was there taking some shots. I asked him if he wanted me to move my Gran Torino out of the way, but he said to leave it in the shot. He loved it! It would be great to see my Torino in the paper with the Christmas House! We drove back to Planet Wallywood and I did a phone interview with some guys for the Dreamscape Foundation. We started movie night and watched some great stuff…a Popeye cartoon where Popeye has to save Santa from the Sea Hag, a Christmas episode of “The Six Million Dollar Man,” and our annual favorite “Love Actually!” Our pal James loved the gift we made for him, a hardcover book from Snapfish that features a lot photos of him dressed as Thor at last summer’s San Diego Comic Con! When everyone left I cleaned up and fed the animals. Then I made a huge salad and watched another episode of the old 60’s show “The Avengers.”

Sunday the 21st – SLEEPATHON! – When I got up at 4pm I reflected on the interesting week ahead. In addition to Christmas on Thursday, I had a ton of stuff to do Monday through Wednesday. The time had come for me to use the available time over the holidays to get stuff done around the house. Mostly, clean out my cluttered and ugly garage! It was going to take several nights of hard work to organize and clean, but it’ll be worth it. I don’t have to worry about my Voice-Over agency calling with auditions and sessions because they won’t be back in the office until January 5th. I walked Roxy over to the evening church service, and when it was over we hustled back home. I was craving a hamburger but couldn’t find anyone to go eat with me. So I drove over to Bob’s Big Boy and sat at the counter by myself. It was fun watching all of the people hustle to and fro. But the service at Bob’s has always been awful, and tonight was no exception. Once my server took my order, I only saw her one other time when she brought my food. Then POOF! She disappeared from sight. I needed more napkins, but no server. I made a point to only tip her the minimum amount of 15%. I probably wouldn’t have given her anything but hey…it’s Christmas. At least the food was good. I came home and crashed on the couch. I did get up for a bit to feed and walk Roxy, but then I came right back inside and crashed on the couch again until 6am. It was just so darn inviting I couldn’t resist! I got up and showered and got ready for bed. Don’t you hate having to wake up from a nap on the couch only to get ready to go to bed? But all kidding aside, it sure felt good to get some solid rest in anticipation of an almost certainly busy week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

I just picked up this Jiminy Cricket figure on eBay. I think he’ll complement my 3 foot tall Pinocchio marionette quite nicely! I can’t wait to see the two of them displayed together!