RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I ran across this picture of a “Saint” novel on-line and it brought back a flood of memories. I had this book as a kid and cherished it, but somehow it disappeared over the years. Amazing!
This tune came up on my iPod this week as I was driving around and I’ve been humming it ever since. Leave it to Paul McCartney to create an earworm called “Ballroom Dancing,” which was featured in his film “Give My Regards To Broad Street” back in the 80’s.
Monday the 26th – MONDA-A-A-A-A-A-LIST! – Morning sessions aren’t usually normal for me, but the one scheduled for this morning was for a vintage announcer in a feature film, so I was very excited to record it. I can simulate the sound of vintage announcers from the early part of the 20th century, with their Mid-Atlantic speech affectations and high, monotone energy. I’ve done announcers like that for TV shows, video games, cartoons, etc. I didn’t know the name of the film I’d be working on, nor did I know anything about it beyond the type of announcer they were looking for. I got to the session at Igloo in Burbank and checked in, walked into the studio with the engineer and saw the film racked up on the big monitor in front of me. Off to the side was a smaller monitor with all of the studio personnel who would be involved in this ADR (additional dialogue recording) session. I said good morning to the group of small, indiscernible faces on the screen and looked over the cues I’d be recording. The voice of the director instructed the studio engineer to show me the entire scene I’d be recording so I could get a sense of what was going on in the film. I thought the voice of the director sounded very familiar. I looked back at the small monitor and squinted to try and determine who the voice belonged to. When I figured out who it was, I was floored. I can’t say who it was, or the name of the film within which I was working, but I can tell you that it’s a HUGE A list celebrity who also directs. Wild! This film is a much bigger deal than I originally thought. My vintage announcer character comes in at a very pivotal time in the film, and a certain energy level needed to be obtained that wasn’t present in the scratch track. The director said the energy level needed to be very high in order for this climactic scene to play effectively. I totally got what they were saying. We worked for about 45 minutes and the director said I was “kicking its ass.” I never once let on that I was aware of who the director was, and just played it cool. As we wrapped up I wished the group good luck with the film and told them it looked amazing. The director said the film was going to be better now that my stuff will be dropped in. I love hearing compliments like that. I called my ENT to see about dropping in to get my sore throat looked at, and luckily they had a cancellation and could get me in at 3:30 that afternoon! I took it! The sore throat was getting worse and I needed to have it looked at professionally. And now with all the yelling and screaming I did in the session, it was probably even a bit more inflamed. I took a short nap at home until it was time to leave for my doctor’s appointment. Then I hit Wienerschnitzel for a quick lunch, and then I went up to my ENT’s office. As he looked into my throat I told him that everything might look a bit crazy in there, as I just got back from a session where I yelled and screamed. I went on to tell him who the director was and what the movie was about. He turned off the light that he was pointing into my mouth, his face got serious, and he asked me, “Is that —–?” (He named the title of the movie perfectly). I was shocked and said, “Yeah, it is! How did you know?” He said he read the book upon which the movie is based, and it’s great. He also said that in college, he participated in the very activity which is the subject of the story! Of all the weird things! I told the doc that when he sees the film, I’ll most likely be the voice at the end of the film during the climax. After studying my throat he thought I might have mono. MONO?! He asked me if I ever had mono as a kid and I told him I never had. However, he prescribed me an antibiotic anyway just to be safe (since mono is a viral infection, and antibiotics only work against bacterial infections). So, if I really do have mono does this mean I’ll have to cancel my colonoscopy next Monday? The doc said I didn’t need to, and I should be much better in a few days. He said between the antibiotic and the shot he gave me I should improve quickly. I headed off to the store to get some groceries, and then I picked my antibiotics at the pharmacy. He told me to rest for the next few days, so I had to postpone a video game session I had scheduled for the next day. I rested all evening and got up later to take Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood. I typed out Wally’s Week, scanned some checks for a deposit, and paid some bills. Then I dug out some small metal rings that I wanted to try out on my Mahna Mahna replica Muppet. I’ll tie these rings to the lengths of fish line coming off of the eye cones. I’ll put my index finger through one of them, and my middle finger through the other one so I can manipulate each eye individually, or both of them together. I made some spaghetti and watched another episode of “The Magician.” I’ve finished the first half of the set, so it looks like the next episode in line started off the second part of the season. Some TV shows will make major changes to their format mid-season if their ratings aren’t great. Sometimes the changes are good, and other times the changes are not good. This was part one of a two-part episode, and I’m not digging the changes. I liked when The Magician lived on his jet and traveled around helping people, but now they have him living on the top floor of the famous Magic Castle in L.A. – which seems very trite and cliché to me. They have a few new main cast members, new sets, his new apartment, etc. and I’m not sure I’m liking it. Whenever a show makes such major changes mid-season, it usually means the show is about ready to die.
Tuesday the 27th – TO HIDE A TOOTHPICK! – The day was gorgeous and hot, so I had a great time driving the Mustang to the bank with the top down. I made a deposit and then drove to the post office to mail a few things. I went to CVS to grab a few items, and saw these really great little candy tins in the shape of Michael Myers’ mask in “Halloween II.” I bought the remaining pieces, including the display box! I went next door to Panera and got some lunch to enjoy on the patio in the warm sunshine. It reminded me a lot of being in Palm Springs. I plugged in my headphones and listened to some tunes on my phone. The song “Rainbow Man” by Looking Glass came up and I had forgotten what a great song that is! That song WASN’T written by my pal Elliot Lurie, but rather the group’s bassist. I got home and did some work around the house, and did some more R&D work on the Mahna Mahna eye cones. In order to draw the tops of the cones down upon itself to create the illusion of blinking eyes, a small length of toothpick needs to be attached to the top of the eye cones, and then the fish line is stitched around that toothpick and is threaded down through the center of the cone. I was experimenting with different ways to hide the toothpick so it wouldn’t be as noticeable. I tried embedding it into the foam rubber itself. I tried disguising it with a thin piece of matching foam rubber. I even thought that the toothpick could go on the inside of the cone so it would be less noticeable. But none of those options seemed to work very well. The little foam rubber patches made it actually look bulkier. And the embedded toothpick flattened out the cones too much. So I’ll just stick with the original plan, knowing that the feathers on his head will most likely cover the toothpick on the top of the cone anyway. Plus, the toothpick will be color-matched to the foam rubber to further disguise it. I grabbed a short nap and got up later to record my auditions. I did a few hours’ work on the computer and then hit the hay.
Wednesday the 28th – MO-NO! – Looking for a second opinion about my ENT’s suspicion of a case of mono, I got a telemed visit with my personal physician. He asked about my progress. I told him the antibiotics were working and on the third day my sore throat was almost completely gone. He said since the antibiotics were working it most likely isn’t mono. If it were, I’d still be in pain and most likely in bed totally exhausted. That was great, logical news to me. Last week I purchased a plumbing part that I needed for the toilet in the Puppet Room. While the company reported to me that it had been delivered, it never arrived at my mailbox. After speaking with the company, I realized the problem. The address to which they sent it was one number off. One wrong letter or number can REALLY mess things up! But it was my fault. My mailbox company recently moved, and as I was changing the shipping address on my Paypal account I put in a wrong number. The plumbing company suggested that I go to the wrong address and see if the package was still there. So I drove over to the wrong address and asked all of the workers at each of the businesses if they had a stray package addressed to somebody they didn’t know. But no luck. In fact, a young lady at one of the businesses brought out a small piece of metal hose normally used in plumbing jobs and asked me if that was it. I told her that the part I was looking for would be in a box as it was sent from the postal service. (I sensed that she wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the sign. Or the brightest bulb in the shed. Or something like that.) So the only thing left to do is order another part and have them send it to the correct address this time. The best advice my dad ever gave me was, “You’ve gotta double check everybody, and then double check them again.” Sometimes I don’t take that advice and I regret it. But sometimes I forget to double check my OWN work! I met my buddy Ryan at Paty’s for lunch, and we had fun comparing our vintage Mustangs; which are a year apart. On my way to the parking lot I saw a couple of guys with a magazine scraping it along the pavement. As I got close I realized they were trying to scoop up a very large Praying Mantis! I love those things! He successfully picked it up and moved it to a nearby tree next to a fence. He was worried that the little thing would get squished sitting on the pavement in a parking lot. I told him that was a lot like something that I would do. I thanked him for doing that, and snapped a few pics of the beautiful mantis as it explored its new tree. I went to a few of the local CVS stores to see if they had any of those Halloween II candy tins left, as I want to get a box for a friend of mine in Sioux Falls, SD. But no luck. I went home and did what I should have done in the first place – ordered a box on Amazon. They’ll arrive at my buddy’s place in Sioux Falls next Monday. I had several Funko Pops figures of my Renji character from the cartoon “Bleach” sent to me by a guy who had organized a private signing. Now that I was feeling better I opened the box and got all the stuff organized and ready to sign. I did my auditions, sent them into my agents, and then sat down to start signing the Funko Pops. I took a short nap to allow the ink on the Pops to dry, and when I got up I did a little cleaning up around Planet Wallywood so I could give a tour on Thursday to my new pal Andy. Just before bed I packed up all of the signed Funko Pops and got them ready to ship.
Thursday the 29th – FUNNY BUSINESS! – My pal Andy stopped by so I could give him a tour of Planet Wallywood. We’re both into many of the same things so it was fun watching him marvel at the collection. We chatted about all sorts of stuff and then walked over to a local café to get lunch. We walked back and he headed for home, while I went inside and set up my recording studio for a pick-up quick session for the snack food product I did last week. They had a few script changes and needed to get some new lines recorded. Then I cleaned up, fed the pets, and did some writing in advance of The 13 Weeks of Christoween which is starting this Sunday. I’m hoping to make this an annual event as interest in the Christoween franchise increases. A few weeks ago I had inquired with a company I found on-line about getting some like black key-shaped USB drives printed with the Christoween logo. That way I could put the audible stories on the drive and pass them out to VIPs at the upcoming Son of Monsterpalooza convention. But dealing with the company was very weird. We only communicated via e-mail, but the exchanges were fairly odd. First, I was told that the logo I sent was too low in resolution. But what I sent them was the original artwork of the logo done by Patrick Owsley, which was more than big enough for this purpose. Then they sent me a note back saying that the size of the logo would actually work fine. Then they sent me a sample kit of some of their products and asked for my address. I gave them the address of my mailbox and they sent some samples over via FedEX, along with a catalog of other stuff. That was very nice. I asked about the little Ziploc baggies they had the sample USB drives in, but it seemed as though the guy at the company had no idea what I was talking about. You know…Ziploc baggies? You sent them to me in the sample box? Then he finally figured it out and said he would include them with the order. Great, so I went to their system to put in my credit card info and get the order started. But the link he sent me to use wasn’t working. Odd. He sent me another link and it worked fine. But then he wrote to me to say that I wasn’t approved to have the items shipped to a different address than what was on my credit card info. (I have my home address on my credit card account, but I only have bigger shipments sent to my mailbox for security purposes) I told him I preferred to have them shipped to my address at the UPS store because there was an attendant on duty all day who could accept the package. I didn’t want them sitting around on my porch all day if I wasn’t home at the time they were delivered. He suggested I wire him the money or send a check. A check?! Then he said the weirdest thing of all, “We’re unable to send FedEx packages to the UPS store.” Ummm…super genius…the sample box you sent me initially was sent via FedEx and it went to my UPS store box. Suspecting that this company wasn’t all they were cracked up to be, I just canceled the order. I was getting a very odd feeling about the whole thing. Though the address on their website said they were a California company, I was starting to suspect that it might have been a foreign company masquerading as a California company. Later that night I got some food to go at Denny’s and watched another “Magician” episode!
Friday the 30th – MAIDS, MUNSTERS, AND MICHAELS! – My throat had gone back to complete normalcy and I was feeling much better. I’m betting it was a simple case of strep throat. My maids came over in the afternoon to clean, and I was on-line checking my Amazon account to see where my new “Munsters” Blu ray was. I pre-ordered it months ago, but my Amazon account showed that it hadn’t even shipped yet! Many friends had received their copies last week; a few days even before it was officially released! So I had to formulate a plan B. I got on-line and checked the area Best Buy stores to see if they had a copy in stock. The one closest to me didn’t, but the one in Burbank had one. I ordered it, paid for it, and would go pick it up later. On social media, Viz Media made the announcement that the majority of the main cast of “Bleach” would be returning for the new series which starts in November. So my Twitter and Instagram accounts were blowing up with people contacting me and reaching out with good, kind wishes. That was very nice. Considering that, when the original series was announced all those years ago, the reaction to my casting as Renji (one of the main characters) met with less than enthusiastic responses in some circles. I guess their main issue at the time was that a “cartoon voice guy” was cast as one of their beloved characters. But now, years later, it’s nice to get some Renji love from the fans of the show. Later I drove to Best Buy to pick up my “Munsters” Blu ray (which stars my good buddy Dan Roebuck as Grandpa), and shop at a few of the other stores in the complex. I went next door to Michaels crafts and found some great little wooden rings (normally used for making charms for bracelets) which would serve nicely for my finger rings for my Mahna Mahna replica Muppet. Since they’re wood I can paint them any color I want, plus they came with little metal eyelets that I could screw into the edge of the ring. Then I can just tie the fish line into those eyelets for easy manipulation of the puppet’s eye cones. I hadn’t been to a Target in a long time, so I went next door to check things out. While I was there I found myself in the food aisle looking for foods I don’t normally see at my usual grocery store. Then it occurred to me. Why don’t I just do my “prepper” shopping now, instead of waiting until Saturday? With my colonoscopy coming up on Monday, that means I have to spend all day Sunday prepping with an all-liquid diet. This includes broth, clear liquids, Jell-O, popsicles, hard candy, and PLENTY of water to stay hydrated. I picked up everything I’d need, and then some! Convenient! I drove over to Wendy’s to get some dinner, and then over to Krispy Kreme to get some donuts for dessert. But once again I discovered that the old unwritten rule still applies; “If Wally likes it, it’s got to go away.” My favorite glazed cream-filled donuts are no more. They don’t make them anymore. Rats. When I got home and got everything put away I noticed with horror that the shower door in my downstairs bathroom was closed. I use that shower as the location for Spook’s litter box, and there are instructions on the door that it should never be closed. But for some reason the maids ignored the sign and closed the shower door after they cleaned the shower. Now, logic would dictate that if you clean a shower with a cat box in it, and you see a cat running around, and you finish cleaning the shower with the cat box in it, you should make sure that the door is left open so that cat can use his potty. There’s a length of armature wire attached to my towel rack that keeps the door open for the most part. But the maid moved the wire piece and closed the door. BAD MOVE! I looked around to see if Spook had gone to the bathroom anywhere else in the house but I didn’t see (or smell) anything, luckily. I decided to make the block on the shower door so foolproof and obvious that even the stupidest person couldn’t foil it. I got some clothesline wire from the garage and strung it from the hinge of the shower door, over to the towel rack, and back to the shower door hinge and tied it off. Any maid who cleans the shower now is going to have to duck under it to get into the shower, but at least that door will never be closed accidentally again. Incidentally, this is not the first time the maids have done this, and normally (like my dad always admonished) I double check their work after they leave. But with everything going on it just slipped my mind. Oh well, no more accidental shutting. It’s fixed now. I did some laundry and some work around the house, made a Tombstone pizza and watched another episode of “The Magician.”
Saturday the 1st – THE FINAL QUARTER! – It’s really hard to believe that we’re now into the final quarter of 2022! Where DOES the time go?! I mailed off the signed Funko Pops to the organizer of the group signing, and then drove over to my mailbox to pick up some packages. I got back home and did some work around the house for the rest of the afternoon. I got all my stuff set up for my “prep day” on Sunday. I did some more laundry and just enjoyed the nice, cool day. Later I made a Saturday Night Super Salad (sans tomatoes – seeds are no good as you’re about to go have the procedure I’ll be having) and watched the new “Munsters” movie. It tickled my eyeballs! The colors, make-up, sets and costumes were all amazing! And my buddy Dan killed it in every scene he was in! I’m so happy for him! The Saturday Night Super Salad would be my last solid meal until Monday afternoon.
Sunday the 2nd – PREPPER! – When I woke up around noon I had a very serious headache. I walked Roxy and then went back to bed to see if it would subside. But when I got up again at 4 it was still there. I took some Tylenol (Advil is not allowed before a Colonoscopy procedure) and drank some iced tea. Then “zero hour” arrived at 6pm. That’s when I needed to start to cleanse with the first dose of the preparation solution. The solution they gave me wasn’t the usual gross stuff you normally hear about. It’s a new stuff called Clenpiq which is amazing. I only had to take one 8 ounce dose at 6pm the night before, and then another one at 6am the day of. But I had to drink a ton of water to stay hydrated. The worst part was the waiting around, so I tried to keep myself busy with projects. Obviously I couldn’t go anywhere, and I couldn’t eat anything other than popsicles, Jell-O, and broth. I did manage to get some occasional napping in here and there, and I continued throughout the night with mind-occupying projects until my pal Sara arrived at 9:30 Monday morning to take me to the procedure. How did it go? You’ll have to wait until NEXT WEEK’S Wally’s Week to find out. One hint: I was VERY happy with the outcome!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
The irony that the Halloween stuff is on Aisle 13 wasn’t lost on me.
Butt seriously…a few aisles over, I stocked up for my upcoming procedure!
All the while I watched the two guys try to scoop up a wayward Praying Mantis from the parking lot to move it to a safer location, my inner promo announcer voice kept saying, “Toniiiiight…on Mantis Rescue!” Here’s the mantis, safe in the tree away from squishing possibilities.
Got it!
Now it’s time to Munsterize! I’ve got my Herman doll and I’m wearing my Dan Roebuck Count shirt. I’m ready for fun!
The Slasher Sours candy featuring the mask of Michael Myers is easily the coolest thing I’ve seen so far this Halloween season.
The shopping’s done and I’m ready to go…to the bathroom. Again. And again. And again…
I’m experimenting with separate strings for the eye cones on my Mahna Mahna replica Muppet. With the separate “strings and rings” I can make him wink, blink, close his eyes, or give him sad eyes. I’m loving how this is coming out!
