RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I’ve always loved the purple trees that bloom in May every year. Only a few months to go before I can see them in person, but until then, I have this…

 As I work away on my photo albums I do so in complete silence. This is to help my concentration considerably. But occasionally a song will pop into my mind like this one…The Beatles and “She’s Leaving Home.”

Monday the 19th – COLD SNAP AND NAP! – My alarm went off at 1:15pm and I was jarred awake by the sound of Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop.” That was quite the experience! I got ready and my assistant Sara came by to pick me up to take me to the Burbank Auto Doctor. My Gran Torino was all fixed and ready to roll! I got some lunch at Taco Bell, and then it was over to Bang Zoom studios in Burbank to continue working on the super-secret project I’ve been working on for about three years now. I can’t WAIT to tell you about it when I’m allowed! After the session I went home to swap cars, but I think I’m going to drive the Torino around for a while. I really missed it while it was out at the doctor’s. But it’s turned very cold this week, and the heater in the car doesn’t work so well. Oh well…it’s another great reason to wear my Starsky sweater I guess! I got home and fed and walked Roxy, took a shower and then grabbed a nap. I got up later for two auditions and to type out Wally’s Week. I worked on my photo album project until about 7am, cleaned up and then hit the hay for good around 8:30am.

Tuesday the 20th – PHOTO ORGY! – After only 3 hours of sleep, I got up at 11:30 so I could go meet my buddy Joe Garner for lunch. I’ve known Joe since 1987 and he’s terrific; creative, energetic, a real go-getter! But he called to say he was up against a writing deadline so we postponed our lunch until Saturday. So I walked Roxy, gave the pets a snack and went back to bed. I got up later to feed them dinner, and then headed over to Joann fabric to pick up my internet order. But the fabric that arrived wasn’t the fabric I needed. I was in dire need of a few yards of a black faux suede with a satin back to match the stuff on a shirt I had made. The shirt doesn’t fit quite as good as I’d like, so I’m going to have my seamstress enlarge the panels in the shoulder area to accomplish that traditional “bowling shirt” fit. I headed over to CVS to get my new passport photo taken, and while I was there I popped a flash drive into their photo printing machine. As I’m working on creating all new photo albums to contain my “orphaned” photos from the South Dakota days (the old 70’s albums literally deteriorated!) I realized that I had about 300 great shots on slide that I don’t have prints of. My pal Scott Sebring made high resolution scans of them years ago, so I figured I’d better have prints of those to include in the new photo album! Contained within these slides are pictures of family vacations, me doing characters, pictures from plays I’ve done, etc. Really great stuff! It took quite a while for them to all print, and after about 250 pictures, the machine’s ribbon dried up. So then the workers had to try to figure out how to replace it. I went next door to have dinner at Panera while they worked on the problem. When I got back the remaining 30 or so pictures were finished. WOW! These looked amazing. Like they were shot last week! It’s because the slides had been so well-stored over the years, and also because Scott white balanced all the pics when he scanned them. I got a few grocery items and then headed home. I put laundry away, did my nightly auditions, worked on my photo albums, and printed out captions for the photos on my computer. It was fun seeing those old photos again. I had to rearrange a few pages I had already finished in order to accommodate the new pictures that just arrived. But it all worked out. I fed and walked Roxy on a VERY short walk. I swear it was about 30 degrees out! I came back inside to work on my photo albums with frozen fingers, but eventually they thawed out. The first two photo albums for my South Dakota album collection are all Characters; impersonation, original and those created for live appearances and TV commercials. The first two albums are complete! But I have a looooong way to go! Next up is plays, and then radio and puppets. One good thing about being so preoccupied with these photo albums is, it keeps me from eating before bed!

Wednesday the 21st – “CON”VINCING IDEAS! – Around 3, I drove over to my seamstress’ place to drop off some fabric, patterns and instructions for a few new projects. Then I went to the post office to mail off my passport renewal paperwork. I ran into my old pals Brad and Marci while I was there. They keep saying we’re going to go to dinner, but they’ve been saying that for about 10 years now when I run into them on the street. Maybe someday it’ll actually happen! After a quick drive through the Carl’s Jr. drive-thru to get lunch, I headed home to continue working on my photo albums. I fed Roxy and walked her, but it was cold again! I came back inside, turned on the fireplace and napped on the couch for a bit. I got up later for a bunch of auditions, and put some finishing touches on my South Dakota character albums with a few newspaper articles and a few extra little tidbits. They are FINALLY done! While I was going through looking at my costumes from the early 80’s of Darth Vader, Batman, Superman, etc. I got the idea to do a panel at the San Diego Comic Con entitled “I Was Cosplay Before Cosplay Was Cool.” I’d talk about all my early experiences trying to create patterns for the characters I wanted to be, finding the proper materials at the limited amount of fabric stores we had in South Dakota, and designing the costumes based on very limited resources for research. Add to that a fair amount of ridicule I endured dressing up as characters, and it might be a pretty funny panel. These were the days before the proliferation of comic cons, so I would use my characters for charity events and civic functions. I think I shall call myself, “The Godfather of Cosplay!” Based of course on the fact that I was doing this before the current slate of Cosplayers were even born. I truly think the Cosplayers of today would enjoy hearing stories from the “Stone Age” of Cosplay. I fed and walked Roxy, made some stew, and worked on categorizing the photos and articles for my next photo album; plays and theatrical productions. I made some popcorn and watched an old episode of the Johnny Carson “Tonight Show” before bed.

Thursday the 22nd – HANDY DON DAY! – My contractor Handy Don stopped by around 1 so we could finish rigging the Andy Kaufman display cabinet in my home theatre. He brought a very tall ladder so he could get up high enough to put in a power box above the cabinet. He took out the old Halogen puck lights and put in new LED puck lights which are brighter and will last for 33,000 years, or something like that. While he was up there, he also changed the location of the audio chip that plays “Mighty Mouse” whenever I hit the button. He could now plug both the LED lights AND the digital audio chip into the same outlet, so we moved everything from where it had previously lived down below, to its new home way up high. It even sounds better too! Handy Don put an electrical outlet by the stairs leading up to my second level. I’m sure it’ll get used at some point, but it’s mostly for my maids, so they can plug the vacuum cleaner in and have access to the first floor and the second floor without having to unplug! While Handy Don worked away, I got a Domino’s pizza delivered and worked on my photo albums. All this while the lights would go off and turn back on intermittently as Handy Don was hitting the breakers so he could install the electrical. It was almost like having my old friend Terry back again. He left around 8:30 after a full day’s work and I took a nap on the couch for a few hours. I got up later for more photo album work, and started on my third album; South Dakota plays and theatrical productions. But while I was goofing around in my tall file cabinet, I happened across a folder that I had forgotten about entitled WALLY CHARACTERS. Rats! Here was a whole folder FULL of photos that should be in the character books! Good thing I found them now! So I’ll be pulling those out and determining which ones aren’t redundant, and then figuring out a way to squeeze them into the albums somehow. Luckily I used removable mounting tape! I made some chili and continued working on the photo albums. I cleaned up a bit for the maids and hit the hay around 8am. I sure do miss enjoying a big tray of dinner and TV shows before bed! But, gotta take care of my voice!

Friday the 23rd – THANK GOD IT’S FLY-DAY! – My maids arrived around 12:30 and started cleaning. They LOVED the new outlet I had Handy Don install for them. While they worked I scanned checks and prepped a deposit. After the maids left I took Roxy to the groomer, stopped by my accountant’s office to drop off some late tax documents, stopped by Little Caesar’s to get a pizza and some Crazy Bread, and then went to Western Tire to get two new tires put on the front of my Gran Torino. A few weeks ago I had the back tires done, and I decided I should get the front ones done too. So while they installed the tires I ate my lunch in their lobby. I stopped by Blast from the Past (a collector store in Burbank) to pick up a check for a collectible piece I had consigned there. Then I went to the bank to make a deposit, stopped by my mailbox to get my mail, picked Roxy up from the groomer’s, and flew back home to feed Roxy and Spook. I worked on photo albums for a while, and then grabbed a nap in the Puppet Room. I got up later to do some work around the house, feed the kids, and do more work on the photo albums. I was OBSESSED! But they’re turning out very good and I’m very proud of them. Unlike the old days when the first photo albums were created, each album had a mish-mosh of things in them; vacations, personal photos, goofy stuff, plays, characters, more goofy stuff, etc. But now in hindsight, I had the luxury of categorizing the photos into sections so they’ll all live within similar surroundings. I made some dinner and ate while I worked, then did some lighting stuff in my master bathroom. I’ve always wanted to have a soothing light in there so I didn’t have to always have the garish overhead light on while I showered. I removed an LED light strip from the Tranquility Zone that I didn’t really need, and installed it in the bathroom. It was perfect! I watched an old Johnny Carson “Tonight Show” and ate some popcorn and an apple, and then hit the hay.

Saturday the 24th – JERRY’S AND JOE! – The day started with a fantastic lunch at Jerry’s with my pal Joe Garner. We discussed a TON of ideas. I’m sure Joe and I will be working on something that we’ve created together very soon! Then I hit the grocery store for supplies, and then went home to put them away. Movie night was fun as we revisited “Fast Times at Ridgemont High;” always a favorite! My pal, the late Lana Clarkson, was in the film as a minor character. She was the actress who was shot by record producer Phil Spector several years back. As we watched the film I thought it was ironic how the song “Winter Wonderland” by Darlene Love (produced by Phil Spector) was in the same film as Lana. Weird, eh? My pal Brian Sikoff had just returned from a birthday party and brought over Martial Arts movie start Cynthia Rothrock for a visit to Planet Wallywood. What fun! After everyone left I took a nap on the couch for a bit. Then I got up to feed Roxy and Spook and started working on the Andy Kaufman cabinet. It was no easy task! I had to climb the ladder with a roll of paper towels and some Goo Gone to get rid of the leftover adhesive on the inside walls where the posters had been. Then I wiped the entire inside down with Windex. I brought up some double-stick tape and installed the new posters. Then I traversed the ladder again with a huge, red curtain over my shoulder. I placed the tension rod exactly where I wanted it, and placed the curtain right where I wanted it. When my effects guy Jim Ojala finishes his work on the Andy figure and brings him back, he’ll look stunning in his new surroundings. I walked Roxy and then made my traditional Saturday night Super Salad and watched a first season “SNL” episode. The salad was great, but the episode was really, REALLY bad! Even though I’m not supposed to eat before bed, I allowed myself a cheat night on Saturday night so I can have my salad. I would hate to give up my beloved pleasure COMPLETELY!

Sunday the 25th – ANOTHER WEIRDO! – Like clockwork, I sprang awake at 4:30 and got ready for evening church. I drove the Torino over so I didn’t take Roxy. The head of security told me that the police had just left because some guy had come into the church making trouble. He said that God was telling him to do things he didn’t want to do. Eventually he left at the urging of the police, and we had a normal church service. But this is two weeks in a row that odd people have been hanging around the service. With everything going on in the world, I’m thinking we may need to hire plain-clothes security from now on! After church I took my “adopted grandma” Shirley for a delicious dinner at Barone’s. Then I came home, turned on the fireplace, and cozied up for a nap on the couch. I got up later to do auditions, pay bills, and work on the photo albums some more. I fed and walked Roxy, but it was so cold we didn’t stay out long. As I went through the pictures for the photo album of plays and theatrical productions, I realized that I was a starving actor much longer in South Dakota than I ever was in L.A.! In fact, I moved to L.A. so I wouldn’t have to BE a starving actor any longer! How ironic!

And how was YOUR week??

PIX FROM THE WEEK

World class Martial Arts movie star Cynthia Rothrock joins us in Planet Wallywood for Saturday night Movie Night!

Here’s the newly redesigned space where my Andy Kaufman figure will reside. (Did you catch the reflection of Andy’s ghost in the glass of the Dark Shadows picture? EERIE!)