October 14 – October 20 (2024)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

While looking through an on-line page dedicated to the nostalgia of living in Aberdeen, South Dakota in the 60’s and 70’s, I came across this picture of the old YMCA gym (sadly now long gone). I loved it for two reasons. First, my dad was a dedicated jogger, and would jog every day on that upper track while people played basketball down below. In fact, he won a trophy when he hit his 500 mile mark. Secondly, when I had started acquiring a nice record collection in Junior High, somebody asked if I would DJ a dance at the YMCA for my fellow students. They said they’d pay me 50 bucks and at that time, that sounded to me like a million dollars! So I borrowed a friend’s guitar amplifier, plugged a cord from my headphone jack into the amplifier, and I had a pretty good speaker to blast the music. But since I only had one record player, there was always a little gap between songs until I could get the next record on. But that upper track, right in the corner, was where I was set up. I had a little lamp that I would use to see, and the amplifier was pointed down to the gymnasium floor so the kids could hear the music. Good times.

Back in 2018 a band called Dawes opened for Jeff Lynne’s ELO at the Forum. I ended up liking their music quite a bit, and the song “Feed the Fire” is especially one of my favorites. The lyrics are amazing. It’s a story of a guy who dreamed of being famous when he was a kid, but once he achieved fame, he started to resent his life of celebrity. The line at the end “How could I look so perfect on the screen and so awful in the mirror?” is truly brilliant. Enjoy it!

Monday the 14th – JUST ANOTHER MELLOW MONDAY! – It sure was great taking the entire day to just relax and unwind. Later I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and I made note to myself that I’ve been doing this exercise routine faithfully for a year and a half. I’m addicted! Afterwards I spent some “cool down” time outside in my anti-gravity chair just staring at the night sky, drinking an iced tea pondering life. I came in to do some work around the house, shored up some computer files, typed out Wally’s Week, recorded an audition, and hit the hay.

Tuesday the 15th – BROTHER-FROM-ANOTHER-MOTHER! – Late in the afternoon I headed to my box to pick up some packages, and then I went over to Bob’s Big Boy to meet up with my buddy Dan Roebuck. He was in town putting the finishing touches on his new film “Santa Claus of Bethlehem” (a film he’s producing with his wife Tammy) and he had time to meet for dinner. Afterwards, he came over to Planet Wallywood to watch my episode of “Collector’s Call,” which he missed during its original airing. It was fun hanging out and catching up, as he probably won’t be back in town for quite a while. Later I took my nightly WOG, spent some time in the anti-grav chair, came inside to record my nightly auditions and finish the day by doing some much-needed work around the house.

Wednesday the 16th – CHRISTOWEEN FUN BEGINS! – As I’ve mentioned in past editions of Wally’s Week, I’m working on producing a short 1 minute animated snippet from my very first “Christoween Capers” story called “Frankie-fied!.” I’ve enlisted the aid of young up-and-coming animator, cartoonist and puppeteer Isaiah Ferguson. All last week my seamstress Maggie had been working on the stop-motion puppets Isaiah created to get their costumes finished. Today she brought them over and they look fantastic! I need to put hair on them. Frankie should be easy, but Donnie’s “unique” hairstyle will be a bit more of a challenge. He has a “Dracula-esque” widow’s peak, but the rest of his hair is like a young Tim Burton – very wild and spiky. As we also needed to add the metal bolts to Frankie’s head, I stopped over to the hardware store to pick up the correct-sized bolts so Isaiah could install them into the puppet’s head. While I sculpted the basis for the Donnie head specifically for this video, we made a copy of the Frankie head from a sculpt I had done a few years back to make Frankie Christoween tree ornaments. The sculpt just happened to be the right size for what Isaiah needed, so I had my effects guy Jim Ojala make a few extra heads out of resin and gave those to Isaiah to work on. I went to Panera to meet my friend and occasional house sitter Emily for a late lunch. But the past few days have been so overcast and gloomy it was hard for me to stay focused and awake – especially after I got a nice sandwich, some warm chicken noodle soup and some mac-n-cheese in my tummy. All I wanted to do was nap! I went to pick up some supplies at CVS, got some groceries, and then headed home to do some work. Later I had a TON of auditions to record for my agents. I did my nightly WOG, and spent some time outside in the anti-grav chair playing “peek-a-moon” with the nearly full moon. Given the thick cloud cover, the moon would occasionally show its glorious face through the uneven cloud cover. It was magical! I came back inside and started working on the puppets. Since Frankie’s head had pre-existed as a Christoween tree ornament I already had the pattern for his minimal hair. But I had to create a pattern for Donnie’s head. I did it the old fashioned way. I laid masking tape over the area of his head where the hair would be. Then I sketched out on the tape where his hairline would be. I took the tape off his head, cut it in certain areas to lay it flat, traced it onto a piece of paper, and cut it out to use as a pattern. My first try succeeded, even though I needed to make a few small tweaks along the way. But they’re looking very nice, and I think Isaiah will be very pleased!

Thursday the 17th – “BLEACH” BIT! – Later in the day I drove over to Studiopolis in Burbank for a quick session for the new season of “Bleach.” My character Renji only had about 12 lines, so it was a relatively short session. But I did get to see my pals Kirk Thornton, who was also coming in to record, and Karen Strassman. It’s great to see fellow Voice Actors in studios again. I had missed that over the past few years. I picked up some packages at my box, and then went to Paty’s to meet up with Officer Mark and Miss Connie. We were there to join up with our old friends Bruce Kulick (rock guitar legend) and his wife Lisa. They were in town for the upcoming Hollywood Collector Show at the Burbank Marriott Convention Center that weekend. I hadn’t seen Bruce and Lisa in a while so it was great catching up. As is a common occurrence when I’m at Paty’s…we closed the place down. We chatted and laughed right up until the time they closed for the night. That happens a lot. Paty’s is a wonderful place to eat, chill and enjoy. I came home and relaxed. Later I recorded my auditions, took my nightly WOG, and spent some time outside in the anti-grav chair to enjoy the clear, chilly night. The moon was full and gorgeous! When I got back inside I had to do a mountain of accounting work for my corporation. This involved reconciling my monthly receipts with my bank statement, and since I really despise doing math, this took a considerable amount of time. In the stop-motion video you’ll see the main character Donnie sitting at his drawing table scribbling away on something with a pencil. I had to create a miniature pencil out of a very small wood dowel. But to fabricate the point on the pencil I had to take an Exacto knife and whittle it down. Since the dowel was very small, and the blade was very sharp, I made sure to do it very, VERY carefully. I don’t need cut fingers. I finished it up without even so much as a scratch! I painted it yellow and hung it to dry. Satisfied, I started making a sandwich to eat before bed. But as I was washing off the blade of my kitchen knife, I grabbed some paper towel to dry it. As I dragged the paper towel across the blade to remove the excess water, the edge of the knife cut through the paper towel and went right into the index finger of my left hand! After how careful I was with the Exacto knife, I couldn’t believe I had gotten so careless. What a klutz! OUCH!

Friday the 18th – CHRISTOWEEN COUNTDOWN IS ON! – Just a few months ago the cordless blinds in my Tranquility Zone broke. They would only retract about ¾ of the way up my window. Since they were brand new they were still under warranty, the company I purchased them from made me a new set. I’m not sure how I managed to break them, but it was clear that cordless blinds probably weren’t for me. So they agreed to make me a new set with a continuous cord. This will work much better. Today was the day the guys came by to replace and install the new set, and they work great! I got cleaned up and headed to my box to renew for another year. Then I headed over to Paty’s to meet up with my pal Rubber Larry – sculptor and artist Larry Toro. Larry is one of the best celebrity likeness sculptors in town! He and I have been friends for a while, and I first met him when I purchased a copy of his sculpture of “Hawaii Five-O’s” Jack Lord for my mannequin. Though he had originally been hired to sculpt it for an episode of the “H5-O” reboot, series producer Pete Tassler (a good friend) said I could have a copy of it for my display. This time I’m hiring Rubber Larry to create a sculpt from scratch of Roger Moore as James Bond for a new figure I’m working on. But Larry and I have so much in common we spent a lot of time at lunch shooting the breeze. On the way home I picked up a few grocery items and headed home. The sun was finally out and it was a beautiful day, albeit a bit windy. As the afternoon began to wane, I decided it was a good time to paint the walls of the miniature set we were constructing for the Christoween video. I went out to my patio, spread plastic on the floor to protect from any splashes, and put up a small table. I admired the splotchy, dry brush technique that Isaiah had achieved on a past video he made, so it was my goal to do that with this. The two walls were made with white pieces of thick foam core, and over that I would dry brush two different shades of blue, one just slightly darker than the other. I laid the lighter coat onto the first wall and set it aside to let it dry. Then I did the larger wall. Everything was looking wonderful so far. Then I returned to the first wall and dry brushed the darker blue coat. I was loving how it was coming out – especially since a few areas of the white foam core board underneath were still visible in places. It almost looked like a clear summer sky in a lot of ways. I brought the walls in to dry and I relaxed. Later I got some food at Denny’s and brought it home. I did my nightly WOG, and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. Normally I go out behind my house and gaze up at the western sky. But there are very few stars in the sky in that direction. Plus the western sky in Los Angeles is pretty light polluted. However, when walking into my front door after my WOG, I noticed how clear and gorgeous the eastern sky looked. I could see the Orion constellation, a planet (I think it was Venus), the full moon, and some other stars. I decided to set up my anti-grav chair out front, blocked out a few of the security lights so it wouldn’t obscure my beautiful view, and just laid back to enjoy the evening. I got back inside all renewed and worked on some more Christoween stuff. I’m delivering everything to Isaiah for the shoot on Tuesday, so I have to make sure everything he’ll need is ready. Then I ate my food from Denny’s and watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk” before bed.

Saturday the 19th – LAST-MINUTE INSPIRATION! – Mid-afternoon I headed to my stylist’s salon to get a touch-up on my color and get a trim. With the upcoming ELO concerts next weekend at the L.A. Forum I’m going to go dressed in “Jeff Lynne” style – so I needed her to layer my hair just a bit to get the body I would need. We did a dry- run with a lot of product, blow-drying, tugging, pulling, scrunching, and more. It looked pretty great at the salon! But during the walk home it was fairly windy, so when I got into my house to take a picture out hard work was mostly diminished. But I think it’ll work out pretty well on concert night! I can’t wait to see the reactions. I dressed as Jeff Lynne at the Forum concert back in 2018 and we had a blast watching the reactions. Later Scott and Vickie Sebring came over and we headed to Little Toni’s for dinner. Then we came back to Planet Wallywood so they could see my episode of “Collector’s Call,” as they too missed the show during its original airing. When they left I relaxed for a bit, and later did my nightly WOG and subsequent anti-grav time. Once again I was facing a gorgeous, clear eastern sky. With a nearly full moon, a planet and lots of stars, what else could you ask for? Maybe a shooting star, but that’s about it. But I had a full night of work ahead of me. I wanted to give Isaiah a detailed shooting script to use during the production and animation of our stop-motion video. I also wanted to tweak the storyboard to give him some more details on the action I was hoping to achieve. But I got to a certain point in the script when a new idea hit me. This would require me to write a new verse, and a new line for the ending. So this video will contain some BRAND NEW verbiage made exclusively for this presentation. I can’t wait for you to see it! Exciting! I made a salad and watched the final two episodes of “Honey West” on the DVD set.

Sunday the 20th – SWEET, SWEET SUNDAY SOLACE! – After enjoying a day of solace and solitude, I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair to unwind. Then I came inside to record a guide track narration of the Christoween video that Isaiah can animate to. We’re unable to use the original narration I recorded for the audibles because I needed to include spaces in certain areas where there would be animated action. Once all the animated shots are finished I’ll edit the shots to the narration and then take it into Voice Trax West for some professional audio sweetening and sound effects. I sent the final shooting script, revised storyboard, and the finished narrated guide track to Isaiah via email. All I have left to do is to make Donnie’s drawing table and I’ll do that on Monday. I deliver everything to him on Tuesday morning. Stay tooned!

And how was YOUR week?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here’s your first look at the Frankie and Donnie puppets for the upcoming stop-motion Christoween video! I’m VERY pleased!

Fun times with palz at Paty’s! Officer Mark, Miss Connie, Bruce and Lisa Kulick and me!

Here are two of my three favorite Bruces…Bruce Dern (my dad’s favorite actor!), and Bruce Kulick (rock guitar legend). My third favorite Bruce is the mechanical shark, but he was unavailable for this appearance.

Frankie and Donnie get their hair done. The safety pins in their heads is to show Isaiah where the holes are in their heads. He placed the holes there for suspension purposes when animating.