August 26 -September 02 (2024)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

When the show “Collector’s Call” came out with their promo for the week, this photo was attached to the article. It’s a great taste of what you’ll see in this week’s episode on Sunday night the 8th on ME-TV! If you’d like to read the whole article, and see a really cool snippet from the show where we talk about the 1966 Ideal Muppet toys, click here! When Is ‘Collector’s Call’ Season 6 Coming? (remindmagazine.com)

FAIR WARNING: Because I’m so excited to see Jeff Lynne’s ELO during their final tour over the next few months, there may be more than just a small number of ELO songs in What’s Wally Humming over the next few months. Consider yourself warned. This week, I’m humming “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head.” Gorgeous song!

Monday the 26th – GOOD TO BE HOME! – As much as I love being in the desert, and seeing my favorite band Jeff Lynne’s ELO, it’s good to be back home. I took the majority of the day to rest and relax. I have two long sessions this week in my home studio, as well as a session for a video game later in the week. It’s going to be a busy one. Later I went to Best Buy to return some gear that we ended up not needing for the rebuilding process of my computer. While I was in the area I stopped into the legendary In – n – Out Burger and got some dinner. I sat in my car eating my food and listening to some music. It was a gorgeous summer evening. I headed back home and started writing Wally’s Week, and then I prepped my home studio for the session on Tuesday. After I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) I spent some time outside in my anti-gravity chair meditating and relaxing, and then I headed inside to call it a night.

Tuesday the 27th – HIGH ENERGY HILARITY! – After waking up at 1, I did some additional tweaking of my home studio and by 2 I was ready to rock. I have two sessions scheduled for a video game, one today and one for tomorrow. Because the character I’m doing is so high energy, the producers split the session into two; which was very nice of them. Today’s session was supposed to go from 2 to 5, but we reached well over the halfway point in the script by 4:30, so the Voice Director called it for the day. We’ll finish up tomorrow at 2. But when we finished I was pretty exhausted. It’s a sports announcer-type of character, and there’s a lot of energetic wordplay in the script. Figuring I deserved a treat for all my hard work, I ordered a Domino’s pizza and relaxed. Later I did some work around the house, took my nightly WOG, enjoyed some time in the anti-grav chair, and then came back inside to do some work. I had three original bankers’ boxes in my garage marked Miscellaneous Memories, and so far I’ve made it through the first two. I consolidated a lot of the materials from the first two boxes into one big plastic tub. I ended up throwing out a fair amount of stuff that I decided I no longer needed. Tonight I went through the third and final box, and consolidated that stuff into another plastic bin. I have lots of room in this tub for more stuff later. I found some great things in there, but I still haven’t found the specific items I’ve been looking for. These items include; the original scrubs I wore when my daughter Lacey was born, the three Wingert Comics I wrote and illustrated when I was 13 (“Golden Moon,” “Swimmer,” and “Striped Cat”), the spiral notebook which I used as a diary during my first trip to Los Angeles that I took with my family back in 1976, and the little diary I created when we were making our Super 8mm James Bond film. The fact that these items are ALL missing together tells me that I must’ve stashed them somewhere really safe. Obviously, that place is SO safe, that I’ve forgotten where it is. But after looking through the third Misc. Memories box, I realized that a few of the items in there had gotten water damaged several years ago when my water heater sprung a leak. During the rescue effort I most likely took those specific items out and put them somewhere else for safe keeping. The question now is…WHERE?!

Wednesday the 28th – SESSION DAY 2! – It’s always fun to hang out with my Appearance Agent Nery Lemus. However, because he’s usually so busy it’s a rare occurrence. But today we got to meet at Paty’s for lunch and have a great chat. We finished just in time for me to hightail it home and get set up for day 2 of the video game session in my home studio. While yesterday’s session was 2 ½ hours, this one was a little over an hour – and we got everything we needed. It was a boatload of fun, but exhausting. Later I met my pal Chris Malmin for dinner at Ernie’s and we chatted for about 3 hours. I got back home to relax and enjoy the evening. Later I did my nightly auditions, and then took my nightly WOG through the complex. I spent some time outside in the anti-grav chair, but I came back inside very quickly because it was getting cold outside. In fact, during my WOG, I could see my breath! YIKES! I came back inside and did some prep work for another video game session the next day. Even though we’re in the middle of a strike against the video game industry, several producers have already signed an interim agreement which gives us the go-ahead to work on their projects.

Thursday the 29th – SOON THE CHILL WILL TURN TO THRILL! – After hitting McDonald’s for some quick lunch, I headed over to Skylark Studios in Burbank to do a few hours on a video game. Parking in that area is pretty tight, but it was nice that they had a space reserved for me. When I finished I drove over to my eye doctor’s office to exchange my glasses. I tried doing the “progressive” lenses but I found them to be pretty aggravating. The main reason for this was something called “peripheral blindness,” the inability of the lenses to carry the prescription all the way through to the sides of the lenses. I like having my peripheral vision, but every time I tried to look out of the corner of my eyes it was blurry. The eyeglasses tech at the office told me it’s a common problem and the industry hasn’t figured out how to solve that yet. So I asked them to just make me a pair of identical glasses with just the “distance” lenses. Even though I had Lasik surgery 25 years ago, there comes a time later in your life where you need just a tiny bit of extra help to focus on distant things. So my prescription is very weak, but still useful when it comes to driving. I brought my progressive glasses into the office to exchange them for the new pair, but the tech said I could go ahead and keep them. I asked, “Don’t you need to send them back to the factory for the insurance?” He said they were just going to throw them away anyway, so I might as well keep them. Nice! I drove over to Paty’s for an early dinner meeting, and then I went home to do my auditions for the day. Busy day! Whew! It felt good to relax, and I’m certainly glad the Labor Day weekend is just right around the corner! But it’s still rather chilly out! I hear next week we’re finally going to get a week of triple-digit summertime temps, and I’m SO ready for it! I took my nightly WOG and then spent some chilly time in the anti-grav chair. I came back inside, worked around the house, and prepped for the maids to arrive on Friday. BRING ON THE WEEKEND!

Friday the 30th – STOP-MOTION MOTIVATION! – My wonderful maids arrived just after noon, and shortly after they left my pal Isaiah Ferguson came over so we could begin working on the one-minute stop-motion Christoween video we’ve been planning for a while. Given that my schedule and Isaiah’s schedule have been so busy, we’re finally getting around to doing this, with hopes that I’ll be completed and ready to view just after Halloween! Just in time for the Christoween season! Our first stop was over to my buddy Jim Ojala’s effects studio. A few years ago I sculpted the head of “Frankie,” the first monster we meet in our debut Christoween story called “Frankie-fied!” for a Christoween ornament. We’re taking a snippet from this story for the stop-motion animated video demo we’re doing. Isaiah thought that the head would be very useful for the stop-motion puppet he’s making (with a few alterations) so I had Jim make a few copies of the head so Isaiah could start building the puppet. Then we went over to Paty’s to eat and discuss ideas. We’re really rolling with this, and Isaiah and I are very like-minded about this project – which is great! We got back to my house and I dug out some storyboard paper so we could start storyboarding out ideas for the video. We’re really rolling! I drove Isaiah back to the bus station, and then I came back home to record my nightly auditions. Later I took my nightly WOG, and spent some time relaxing in the anti-grav chair. It was very quiet out, which was nice, but it was too cold. I went back inside and did some more sketching on the storyboard for the Christoween video. Once completed, I’ll scan the pages and send them over to Isaiah. I’m sure glad we have 3 days off now!

Saturday the 31st – LAUREL & HARDY THEATRE GUESTS! – Though I had lunch scheduled with my pal Edi, I woke up to a text that she had to cancel. She needed to be home to attend to a few urgent matters, so I promptly went right back to bed to enjoy some more sleep. Later I started in on my computer issues again. I needed to move all of the stuff I had stashed on my back-up drives from 2018 and 2022 over to my computer. It’s a very long process, and I hope it’s useful. Later I got a text from my gal Angi asking if we were still on for “Laurel & Hardy Theatre” later that night! I sent her a very enthusiastic reply of YES! It’s always fun to watch these films with somebody who’s not quite familiar with them. Later she came over with her cute little dog Khloe and we got set up. However, Spook didn’t like Khloe’s presence, so he “marked” on the bath mats in the Puppet Room bathroom. Something he got taken to task for very quickly! That is NOT allowed. If anything, that showed me that I can NOT get another dog as long as Spook is still alive. He’s too old and set in his ways to accommodate another pet. So, perhaps I’ll get another doggie after Spook leaves this mortal coil. I immediately put all of the mats in the washer and washed them in very hot, soapy water. Damn cat. To be honest, I’m not much of a cat person. Sure I love Spook, but I’ve had my last cat. Ever. I’m much more of a dog person. Some of the idiosyncrasies and behaviors of a cat just aren’t my thing. But I’ve got Spook, he’s 19, and when he goes…that’s it. No more cats. Ever. Later I got to take Khloe on my WOG with me. She did pretty well, but when we got to the grassy areas she wanted to stop every 10 feet and sniff. But when we were on the pavement we moved pretty quickly! It was fun walking a doggie again! I brought her back in for a nice drink of cold water, and I headed outside with an iced tea and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. Then I came back inside and spent the rest of the night rebuilding my iTunes folder and my playlists. Tedious work, I know! But necessary. When I connect my iPods to the computer it won’t recognize the new system, and I lost all my playlists when the internal hard drive went south. So, it’s back to the drawing board. Right around dawn it was time to get ready for “Laurel & Hardy Theatre.” Angi had been sleeping all night, since she doesn’t have my nocturnal hours, so I made her some soup and brought it up to her. Then I made my traditional Chef Boyaradee pizza, popped some popcorn, got out a banana Twinkie, and filled up my vintage Stan Laurel mug (made by my mom in ceramics class back in 1974) with Diet Pepsi…and we were ready to go. I even had a Sons of the Desert fez for Angi to wear. I let her pick the first movie out of the “40 Shorties Fez.” The first one she picked was “Night Owls,” a film that was fairly early in their sound shorts career. Funny stuff! But I broke my own rule about picking the next film at random, because I really wanted her to see “Laughing Gravy,” a short about a cute little doggie. I also wanted her to see the amazing film “Brats,” where The Boys play their own sons in an amazing oversized set! We finished up, got a few more hours of sleep, and then she took off early Sunday morning to meet some clients for her notary business in San Diego. Me…I hit the hay to sleep the rest of the day.

Sunday the 1st – THE END-ALL AND “B”-ALL! – Even though I slept the entire day away, Deborah the plant lady came over early in the evening to do some work on my flower bed. She trimmed the tree, and put some new flowers down. It looks gorgeous! As the back-up material on my 2018 and 2022 drives kept chugging away, replicating onto my new computer system, I dug out another drive that had all of the material from my old internal “B” drive on it. With all the craziness of losing my main drive a few weeks ago, I had only given it a cursory glance. Luckily my pal Joe Pendleton suggested that I copy everything over from my “B” drive to an 18tb external drive just to have. Through an in-depth forensic investigation we discovered that my incremental back-up program had arbitrarily decided to stop backing up to my external drive (which we assigned it to do many years ago) and instead switched over to my much smaller internal “B” drive back in the fall of 2022. So while the bigger external drive didn’t have any material past September of 2022, it appears that the “B” drive DID copy everything it needed. Which almost wasn’t the case, because the “B” drive is darn near completely full! Good thing! So now that I’ve found a pretty intact mirror image of my computer, as it looked just before my main drive took a dump on August 13th, I’m going to transfer all that info into folders on my new computer and start piecing everything back together again. It will take a little while, but thankfully now there’s light at the end of the tunnel! All of the material from 2018, 2022, and the manual back-up I did in February of 2022 will end up on my new 20tb external drive for safe keeping, and future reference. I’ll move all of the “B” drive stuff to my new computer, organize everything, and I should be completely back in business! My computer guy Brian is waiting for me to get everything settled, and then he’s going to install a RELIABLE back-up software to my new RAID system which has quadruple redundancy – one copy to each of the two RAID drives, one to my external 20tb drive, and of course one on the internal drive. I don’t want to go through this again. And hopefully now, I won’t have to for a very long time – if ever. My pals Joe and Zandra Pendleton drove down from a few hours north to deliver the new “cloud riser” platform he made from wood. This piece was made to specific measurements I took from where my new RAID “cloud” system will live. I needed it high enough to clear some wall outlets, but I needed it narrow enough to fit between the wall and a cabinet. The riser fit perfectly – like a glove! Excellent! The riser will give my new “cloud” system enough space so it has great ventilation. Precision! While they were over I was reminded that the promo for next week’s “Collector’s Call” episode would be running that night on ME-TV. I turned on the TV and within a few minutes we saw the new promo! Fantastic! 9 months in the making – like some sort of weird nerd baby! We shot it back in December, and it will air next Sunday September 8th on ME-TV! I’m very excited! After a lovely dinner outside on the patio at Paty’s, they took off for home, and I set about doing some work around the house. I took my nightly WOG and spent some time outside in the anti-grav chair enjoying a nice cigar! As is my Labor Day (and Memorial Day traditions) I made some hot dogs on the grill and watched some TV shows. I watched that night’s episode of “Collector’s Call” and a few other shows. I like to have hot dogs on Memorial Day to commemorate the start of summer (as well as take solemn note of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to this country), and I have hot dogs on Labor Day to commemorate the end of summer. But according to the weather forecast, we’re going to get our summer blast of hot weather this coming week!

Monday the 2nd – LABOR DAY! – After enjoying a full day of rest, I headed out in the early evening to meet up with a friend of mine from Rome, Italy. Francesca came to the US back in 2005 with another girl as an exchange student. She stayed with my friend Andrea in Sioux Falls, South Dakota during that time. Andrea suggested a trip to LA, and they all came to hang out with me back then. We had a ton of fun. Now, almost 20 years later, Francy and her boyfriend Joe came to Universal Studios for the day. I drove over to the Citywalk to take them to dinner. It was great to see her again, and her English had improved greatly! (Much better than my Italian, that’s for sure!) We had a great time walking around Citywalk and chatting after dinner, and on their way back to their hotel I gave them a quick tour of Planet Wallywood. Later I took my usual WOG, and spotted two companion raccoons scurrying along the sidewalk looking for food. I relaxed in the anti-grav chair for a bit, and then came back inside to plan for the new week. Hard to believe that in a few weeks I’ll be in Sioux Falls visiting friends and family. And then we’ll be driving to St. Paul, Minnesota to see the Jeff Lynne’s ELO concert at the Excel center! WOW! Where has this year gone?!

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK