January 13 – January 19 (2020)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Seeing this ad on-line really took me back! I had a lot of these toys when I was a kid!

For some odd reason, and I don’t know why, I’ve had the “Theme from Mahogany” running through my mind. Diana Ross knocks this out of the park, and though it was never one of my go-to favorites, it’s been in my mind this past week.

Monday the 13th – NYET AGUA! – Our complex had planned to have the water off most of the day in order to repair a water main that got damaged by somebody in our neighborhood who wasn’t paying attention to their driving. I’ve never fully understood why damage-able water mains are left out in the open, unprotected, and subject to damage of this sort, but oh well. So I made sure to sleep most of the day in hopes that when I woke up the water would be back on. Sure enough at 3, when I awoke, everything was back to normal. I went to my box to get my mail and THERE IT WAS! My first “book!” (Sorta) My attorney suggested I compress 9 of the 13 kid’s stories in my book series down to a sampler that she could hand out at Toy Fair this February in New York. So with the help of Officer Mark and his girlfriend Miss Connie, we went on the Shutterfly website a few weeks back and designed a sleek 8” by 8” 20 page hardcover book. Though it’s not a REAL commercial book, per se, it sure looks great to see the words and illustrations in print! I got home and cracked it open to inspect. I did some auditions, and then grabbed a short nap. My pal Sara and I went to see “Star Wars; The Rise of Skywalker” at the 10:10pm showing. I found it odd that the movie hadn’t even been out a month yet, and there were only 2 showings a day, and there were only 6 other people in the audience. That was unlike any “Star Wars” film that was released in my day. I thought the final hour alone was worth the price of admission, and I was left wishing that the storyline in this film would have been more carefully explored over the course of the entire trilogy. Oh well. It’s all been said and done now. I came home and hit the hay.

Tuesday the 14th – ALL CAUGHT UP! – When I got up at 1 I realized I had about 3 hours to kill before my session at Bang Zoom! studios. So I typed out Wally’s Week. Then I went to do a 3 hour session for that super-secret project I’ve been working on for several years now. It was pretty fun. The type of material we recorded was vast and varied. I came home just after 7 to do some work, record my auditions and take a short nap on “The Most Comfortable Couch In the Universe.” When I got up later I had a ton of accounting work to do to prepare for 2020. All of my 2019 stuff had been taken care of weeks ago, but now I’m launching into a whole new year so I had to make sure everything is calibrated so I’m starting off on the right foot. I reconciled bank statements and got my checkbooks in order. I also did some more writing on one of my kid’s stories; the final one. Even though there are 13 stories in the series, I finished 13 before I finished 12. Seeing as how 12 was the last one, I continued working on that one and should have it done soon. Then I headed to bed.

Wednesday the 15th – MONSTERS AT THE MUSEUM! – Roxy and Spook teamed up and decided to wake me up a few hours earlier than I had planned. So I got up at 10, gave them a snack, organized a few DVDs that I need to give to my editor for my new actor’s reel, selected a few choice headshots from my recent photo session, and got ready to spend the day with my pal Officer Mark at the Natural History Museum. They have an exhibit there called “The Science of Scary,” a tribute to the Universal Monsters. I was somewhat disappointed at how small the exhibit was (only one room) and how scant the displays were. I guess I’m used to going to Monsterpalooza where it’s an all-encompassing experience. Plus, I was a bit put off by the fact that it was a completely “Chaney-less” experience. No Lon Sr. or Lon Jr. No Phantom, no Wolfman, nothing. They only featured Boris Karloff as the Mummy and Frankenstein monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Spanish version of the “Dracula” movie back in 1930. They didn’t have any clips of Bela Lugosi as Dracula, even though they had him pictured on all the promotional artwork. I thought it was a bit of a missed opportunity, sadly. But it was fun hanging out all day and goofing around. I got back home and did some work, napped all evening, and then got up to do a ton of auditions. In my garage I moved some fabric around in different boxes, cataloged it and labeled it accordingly. I’m trying to get my garage in more organized order soon, and this is the first step. Slow and steady wins the race. I did some prep for a Thursday session. The past few months I’ve been noticing that my dog Roxy’s back leg will shake from time to time, particularly when she’s standing for long periods. I guess I have to acknowledge the fact that since she’s 11 now, things like this are going to happen more and more. She’s fine when she walks and runs, but getting up from a lying down position is getting tougher for her. It’s still very sad. I made some lasagna and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad” before bed.

Thursday the 16th – MOUSEY IN THE HOUSEY! – The day started with some work around the house, a few auditions, and then a drive over to L.A. Studios to do some more work on an animated feature I’ve been involved with for a few years now. It’s always a pleasure to work with Susan Silo, a very accomplished Voice Actress (we worked several episodes of “The Garfield Show” together when she played Neferkitty) and on-camera actress. Most notably (to me, anyway) was her appearance as Frank Gorshin’s moll in a Riddler episode of the original “Batman” TV series. She played Mousey. The producers had no idea she had done that and were very interested to see it. Luckily, now the original “Batman” episodes are out there for everyone to see. So our director John vowed to check it out. On my way home after the session I went to Rusty’s to get some more supplements for Roxy, drove over to my seamstress Shelley’s to get some work she had been finishing up for my kid’s book project, and then I headed home. It was going to rain a lot that evening, but not for very long. I wanted to make sure to be inside all tucked away before it hit. I did manage to finish writing my final kid’s story, and also recording the narration track for it. I’ll send it to my pal Scott to add music to it and then I’ll post it for interested publishers to hear. I napped on the couch while it rained outside, and it was delightful. When I got up I did some final editing on the narration of my kid’s story, did some more work with my bank accounts, and finally got ot bed around 9am Friday morning. I have a session Friday at 3!

Friday the 17th – MAY THE TOUR DE FORCE BE WITH YOU! – Once in a while you get to do one of those sessions that accesses every possible corner of your brain and abilities. Today was one of those sessions. I was back at Bang Zoom! studios for another 3 hour session, and this one was filled with riddles, jokes, animal sounds, songs, impersonations, everything! It was an amazing day; very challenging and fun. We had to review the melodies of several Public Domain songs and then sing certain lines from them. WHAT FUN! When I left the session I left with a smile on my face! I hope there are more of these types of sessions to come in the future. I stopped by my mail box on the way home, and then when I arrived at Planet Wallywood I put the finishing touches on some of the things I had picked up from my seamstress a few nights earlier. My pal Brittney came over to help out and when she left I grabbed a nap. When I got up later I did some more work on the items connected to my kid’s stories and then photographed the finished product. I made a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad.”

Saturday the 18th – IT’S ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD! – I needed to get out and enjoy the amazing weather, so I decided to walk over to the grocery store and get some items for that evening’s movie night. Since I was on foot, I was careful to only buy what I needed, and what I could carry on the mile walk back to my house. It felt good to get out and stretch my legs, especially after a very rewarding week of work! I started the painting process on the eye pieces for my forthcoming Oscar the Grouch puppet build, and then got set up for movie night. We watched a screener of “Jojo Rabbit” and it’s a fantastic film! After everyone left I napped on the couch. And even though I got up throughout the night periodically to feed the pets and walk Roxy, I ended up sleeping there until mid-Sunday morning! “The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe” indeed!

Sunday the 19th – CATCH UP ON SLEEP SUNDAY! – Since I had slept for so long, I was up and ready to attack the day; which is very unusual for me on a Sunday. I did some work on-line, got a lot of stuff done around the house, and prepared for evening church. My “adopted grandma” Shirley wasn’t in town (she was out of town staying with her daughter for a few days) so I walked Roxy over to church and then came back home after. I drove over to Jerry’s Famous Deli to get some chicken noodle soup to go, and then came home to do a bunch of auditions. Then I decided to turn in at a reasonable hour to be up early for a session on Monday morning.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK