RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I loved this cartoon, and immediately sent it over to my pal Elliot Lurie, who wrote and sang the original song with his group Looking Glass!

 

 While Sergio works on hairing figures at my house, we always like to turn on the 70’s channel on the satellite. “I Think I Love You” came on by the Partridge Family, and while it was never really one of my all-time favorites, it sure sounded good that day. I was singing along at the top of my lungs (much, I’m sure, to Sergio’s chagrin!)

 

Monday the 16th – MELLOW MONDAY! – Because the previous weekend was such a whirlwind with the Son of Monsterpalooza festivities, I needed to relax a bit. I took Roxy to the groomer’s to get a much-needed bath, and then I came home to work on stuff. When Roxy was ready I drove over to pick her up and took her to Paty’s for dinner. We met my friend Sara there and we had a nice relaxing evening on the patio enjoying the night. I went home and grabbed a nap, and then got up later to type out Wally’s Week. Because I had been talking non-stop over the past 3 days my voice was a little rough around the edges. Since the auditions I had in my inbox weren’t due for a few more days, I decided to wait to record them until my voice returned full force.

Tuesday the 17th – TOUPEE MY BILL! – I had a full day’s worth of activities planned. At 1 I got up to meet Eddie my garage door guy. It’s time to install a brand new garage door system; including a new opener, new hardware, and a new sectional door. It will be much quieter than the one I have now. Over the past several months my garage door has been intermittently sticking and jamming, and now it sometimes doesn’t open at all. It’s very aggravating. My old pal Kevin stopped by to talk about a cartoon pitch he was working on. It’s a concept created by my pal Bruce Kulick and the late Eric Carr when they were in KISS together. Right around 4 my pal Sergio Lopez stopped by to finish the hair on my new Captain Kirk figure. Our first stop was to Naime’s supply house in North Hollywood to get some human hair that would match the color of the toupee we attached to the figure last week. We needed some extra hair to fill in some gaps. And since the human hair portion would eventually be darkened a bit to match the synthetic hair that we put around the back and sides of the figure’s head, the strands of hair we bought needed to match the color and texture of the hair used in the toupee. The only way we were going to find the perfect match was to take the Kirk figure with us. But only the head and torso. We didn’t need to bring the legs or arms along. We found hair that matched perfectly! And the price was right too! Sergio got some chocolate mousse hair color to darken the hair in layers. The more you added, the darker the hair got. I told him to just darken it enough to match the synthetic hair we already put on the figure. I wanted some of the original shade of the toupee to pop through in places for a more natural look. We got our supplies and came back home to start working. While he did his magic I started selecting photos from my files for the upcoming panel I’m doing at Siouxpercon on Saturday September 28th in Sioux Falls, SD. It should be a fun panel. Sergio finished up at 9 but he still had a little more finessing to do. This figure was one of the most challenging he’s ever done for me because of the integration of human hair and synthetic hair. I also need to have the Kirk figure’s face “deglazed” and he needs to have some alterations done on the tunic to fit the figure’s form. After Sergio left I napped on the couch, and got up later to do some work around the house. I made some hot dogs and watched an episode of “The Mod Squad” on DVD before bed.

Wednesday the 18th – THE RETURN OF SERGIO! – My hair guy Sergio returned for the finishing touches on the Kirk figure. While he worked I slipped off to UPS to send off the photos I’ll be selling at the convention next weekend. Then I came back home to do some bookkeeping and accounting work on my bank accounts while Sergio finished up. I also did some more work selecting images for the panel at the convention. Sergio finished up, we were both ecstatically happy, and he took off. I grabbed a nap, and then got up later to do some auditions. My voice had improved somewhat so I decided to knock them out. I drove to Denny’s to get some food to go, and came home to watch “The Mod Squad” on DVD.

Thursday the 19th – DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS! – Right around 4 I woke up and went to my local vet’s to get Spook some of his prescription cat food. I headed to CVS to get some supplies, and since the weather was starting to cool off somewhat, I drove to my auxiliary garage to get the Torino out. Since it’s been so hot out I haven’t been driving it lately. I knew the battery would most likely be dead, so I got my jump starter out of the Torino’s trunk and got ready to jump it. Sure enough, the battery was spent. I opened the hood, hooked up the positive connection on the jump starter to the battery terminal marked with a “+” – but it started sparking. It even started some of the wiring on fire!! I disconnected it right away. I blew the smoke from the fire away and made sure nothing else was on fire. What the hell was going on?! I tried it again, but the same thing happened. So I decided to call AAA and let the pro handle it. When he arrived he pointed out that the terminal marked with a “+” was actually the NEGATIVE terminal. For some reason the wiring requiring the negative charge had a brass cap on it marked with an embossed “+” ! I’m not sure why anyone would do that, but now I know. I hooked up my jump starter and it fired right up! Good grief! In order to get the battery charged up I needed to drive it around for about a half hour. So I went to my box to get my mail, then went to the Burger King drive-thru to get some dinner, and then I headed to the grocery store to get supplies. By the time I got to the store I had been driving around a sufficient amount of time, so I felt comfortable turning the car off. I went home to put the groceries away and do some work with the Kirk figure. I took a short nap, got up to do my nightly auditions, started writing a brand new story for my new series of kid’s books, and then I hit the hay.

Friday the 20th – SMOKE TO SMOKEHOUSE! – My maids arrived around 3, cleaned up Planet Wallywood, and then I headed to the office of my ENT Dr. Jill Mazza in Burbank. I was meeting my pal Valerie Perez there as she was getting a consultation. After her appointment we drove to the Smokehouse to get dinner. After a fun 3 hour dinner we decided to drive to the local fro-yo place and get some Dole Whip! YUM! I came home to nap, and got up later to do some more work on my new kid’s story. Then I turned in for the night.

Saturday the 21st – BIRTHDAY AND BAD LUCK! – Just after noon I picked up my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley so we could attend our friend Emily’s birthday lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. But first we stopped off at JoAnn’s to pick up a gift card that she and I went in on together. We had a very fun lunch, and I dropped her back at her residence so she could get ready for that evening’s festivities at the Sons of the Desert meeting. Once a year, usually around this time, the Laurel and Hardy fan club called Sons of the Desert that I belong to, has their meeting on a Saturday night. Normally they’re on Tuesday nights. There’s just something magical to me about watching Laurel and Hardy on a Saturday night, as I used to watch them all the time late at night when I was 13 on our local channel 9. It was called “Laurel and Hardy Theater.” I never missed it! I went home and swapped cars (I didn’t want to park the Torino at the meeting because of cramped parking at the venue), put on my Laurel and Hardy shirt, got my Sons of the Desert fez, popped my popcorn and filled up my tumblers with iced tea, and then I went to pick up Shirley. When we got there we saw our friends James and Cynthia. It was great to be at the meeting, but it was kind of “bad luck” night at the SOTD. First, our Grand Sheik wasn’t there because of a horrible family tragedy that befell his family earlier in the week. They’re OK, but a relative passed away suddenly and tragically. The second-in-command ran the show, but for some reason they couldn’t find the microphone. So everybody had to talk REALLY LOUD! Then they weren’t sure the projector was going to work very well. The clips they showed were very funny, but just as they were ending we heard a large KABLAM! Our second-in-command was standing off to the side watching the clips and he leaned on a table that wasn’t stable. It seemed that the table top wasn’t attached to the base. Luckily he was alright, but it just added to the oddness of the evening. The feature film they ran was “Sons of the Desert,” the film from which our club was named. I dropped Shirley off and then came home to nap for a bit. I got up and did some work around the house, and then made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched the second episode of “Space 1999” on Blu Ray. I had a funny observation. The pivotal event in the show which fed the show’s dramatic elements was supposed to have taken place on September 13, 1999. Basically, the moon is jarred from earth’s orbit because of some nuclear waste that was store there. The waste ruptured and blasted the moon into space. But when I watched the first episode of the Blu Ray set last weekend, it was on September 15, 2019. Which was 20 years and 2 days after the fictitious event in the show! And about 40 years after the show premiered on television. WILD! I’m starting to see why I never embraced this show as a kid, because it wasn’t fast and captivating like “Star Trek.” The show is pretty colorless (lotsa bland earth tones) and the acting is very subdued. But now that I’m a bit more mature I’m hoping that I’ll develop an appreciation for the show. It certainly has a very cool theme song!

Sunday the 22nd – SEDATE SUNDAY! – When I got up mid-afternoon I sat down at my computer and started working out my itinerary for my upcoming weekend at Siouxpercon. I went to evening church, but it was too hot to take Roxy. Shirley was at a family event, so it was just me at the service sitting in the back row. I walked over to the local fro-yo place and got another Dole Whip, and then went back home to work on the itinerary some more. I took a nap, and then got up to do a bunch of auditions. I also needed to do a TON of bookkeeping and accounting. I really needed to reconcile a few months’ worth of bank statements. I really dread having to do all that, but it went well and I’m glad to have it over with again. At least for a while. I prepped for the new week and then hit the hay. It’s going to be a VERY wild week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Sure enough, I got to Burger King to get a bite and somebody posts it. Pretty darn funny!

After cutting and styling Kirk’s hair, Sergio brushes off all the tiny little hairs

Looking pretty good so far, but still in progress.

Sergio adheres and shapes Kirk’s sideburns

The tunic looks good on the figure, but it needs some major tailoring work done.

In addition to needing his custom-made base, which will look like he’s standing on an alien planet’s surface, he will need to have a communicator attached to his hand.

Hard to believe it all started out like this! Amazing!

I found this shot of me at my pal Jim Ojala’s booth at Son Of Monsterpalooza promoting his film “Strange Nature.” Some kinda weird ‘nature boy!’

Val and I enjoy dinner at the Smokehouse in our matching Prince shirts, which I acquired during my recent tour of Paisley Park in Chanhassen, MN!