April 14 – April 20 (2025) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

During my occasional “nostalgia quests” I’ll find some links on-line that really take me down the “yesteryear rabbit hole!” Such was the case when I found some links to the old yearbooks from the college my dad attended! I loved finding his portrait in the student section. Funfact: I still have that suit he’s wearing in the photo! I used to wear the jacket when I performed as Andy Kaufman, and up until recently it adorned my Stan Laurel life-size figure!

The question was posed on Twitter recently; “What band weren’t you into until you saw them live?” Without hesitation my answer would be Rooney. Until the Jeff Lynne’s ELO concert tour of last year I had never heard of them. But once I saw them live I was hooked! I saw the ELO concert four times during the tour, and each time I saw Rooney open for them I became more of a fan. Their songs are clever and have amazing hooks and chord structures. Where have they been all my life? The song “Stay Away” in particular gives me the feels!

Monday the 14th – OMG! PSI! – The week began with a Zoom call with my Christoween partners Joe and Stephanie. Joe is an author and marketing genius, and Stephanie is a wonderful trademark and IP attorney. We discussed some ideas about moving Christoween forward to the next phase. Stay tuned! Over the weekend I realized that I have a slow leak in the right rear tire of the Gray Ghost. So as soon as the Zoom call was finished, I drove it over to the nearest tire place; a store where I get all of my tire needs met for all of my cars. The digital readout on my instrument cluster said my PSI reading on the right rear tire was down to 27 psi! Less than 12 hours earlier it was 32. I was losing air fast! When I pulled up into the parking lot I talked to Greg, the guy who usually helps me when I bring one of my vehicles in. I said, “Greg, I have a slow leak in my right rear tire.” He looked down at it and said, “It’s a nail.” I said, “How do you know THAT?!” He pointed down to the tire and said, “It’s right there.” Wouldn’t you know it? When I pulled up and parked, the tire had rotated just perfectly so the offending nail was perfectly topside! Amazing! He said to give them about an hour and a half and they’d have it plugged. So I figured I’d go get lunch. There’s a new neighborhood burger joint I figured I’d try. But when I walked in and pulled out my cash to order, the gal behind the counter said, “We don’t accept cash. Only cards.” I told her to have a nice day and walked out. I make it a policy of not patronizing any business that doesn’t accept cash. Besides, is not accepting cash even legal?! Despite what many people say, cash will never go away. As long as there are hookers, strippers and drug dealers, cash will stay. So I walked over to my neighborhood Subway and ordered a nice sandwich. My pal Ronnie, the owner of that location, was busy working. It was great seeing him again. I remember when he first bought the store in the early 2000s. He was fretting that he may not have done the right thing by buying the location. I eased his fears and told him that he was in a great location, right next to a movie studio, and traffic around the area would always be high. In fact, I never see them NOT busy! Here we are over 20 years later and he’s doing very well. He always seems glad to see me when I come in, so I think he remembers that original pep talk I gave him. In our conversation I was bemoaning the fact occupancy at the local studios is very low, and I fear it may be the end of Hollywood as we know it. But he told me of a friend of his who’s an analyst, and he was of the opinion that by late summer things will have turned around for the better. Now it was RONNIE who was giving ME a pep talk! Nice! By the time I finished my meal only 45 minutes of the hour and a half had passed. But I figured I’d walk back to the tire store and just hang out in the lobby and listen to music. But when I walked in the guy at the desk said, “Wally?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “All finished!” WOW! Great timing! This store is the best! I got in and checked the digital readout on the instrument cluster and all tires were at 31 psi! Fantastic! I drove over to CVS to get some supplies, bought a few grocery items, and then headed back home to load everything in. I relaxed for a few hours, and then did some video editing. I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and it felt wonderful. Then I came back inside, made a little food, and typed out Wally’s Week.

Tuesday the 15th – SESSION, SNAFUS & SHUTTERFLY! – Early in the day I organized my home studio for an upcoming Voice Over session later in the afternoon. Once I got on-line there were a few technical snafus. So much technology has been created now, that nobody knows how anything works anymore. The script and direction would come from the directors on Zoom, but yet my audio tracks would be recorded on a version of Source Connect that I’m unfamiliar with. As a regular subscriber to the paid version of Source Connect I was wondering why they just didn’t access my usual feed. The Zoom call functioned perfectly, and I could see that I was broadcasting a signal from my system via their chosen version of Source Connect, but the studio wasn’t hearing me for some reason. After 10 minutes of horsing around with that, I asked if we could just use my version, and we tried that. But they couldn’t hear that either. It was very strange. So it was agreed that I would record all the tracks on my end, and then send them the finished files when I was done. It seemed like it was so much simpler in the “old days.” It’s gotten way more complex than I think it needs to be. But it all went well and we got everything recorded in about 45 minutes. It was a character that I had performed many times for an upcoming video game, but this time my character was voicing a one minute promo that would be used to advertise the video game’s impending release. When I finished I phoned my buddy Chris Malmin and we decided to meet at Paty’s to have an early dinner on the patio while we could still enjoy some sunshine of the day. I came home and did some more work, relaxed for a while, and later did my auditions for the day. I did a little more video editing, took my nightly WOG, and did some more editing. With Monsterpalooza fast approaching, I figured it would be good to have a few more promo books for “Donnie Druthers’ Christoween Capers” printed up. That way I’d have them to hand out to interested parties at the convention, should I encounter them. I hadn’t been on Shutterfly for a long time, so I had to do a little updating of the design before I had them printed. But once I was done I ordered 5 to have on-hand for the con.

Wednesday the 16th – A WEDNESDAY FOR WALLY! – It was a fairly lazy day. I did a few auditions, worked on my upcoming schedule, and did some work around the house (between sessions of relaxation). Later I took my WOG, and since it was a nice night out, I spent some time decompressing outside in my anti-gravity chair. The sky was completely clouded over, but it was still fairly warm. The clouds had trapped the warmth of the day in the environment, and it was nice. In fact, it was so nice I actually nodded off a few times in the chair. VERY peaceful! Then I went inside to do some work before calling it a day.

Thursday the 17th – PUPPETS, PUPPETS AND MOORE PUPPETS! – For some odd reason I was craving Little Caesar’s Crazy Bread and Crazy Sauce. It’s been one of my favorite things at that restaurant since they opened up a location in Sioux Falls around 1986. So I drove to my nearest location and picked up an order with TWO Crazy Sauces. I also picked up a Hot & Ready pizza. Then I drove down the street a ways to a store called Nigel’s Beauty. A few weeks ago my pal Sergio Lopez and I did some shopping there for my new Roger M00re life-size James Bond figure, which will be on display in the Monsterpalooza museum. We found the perfect wig (which Sergio will attach to the resin head and style in a few weeks), as well as some eyebrows and lashes. But upon inspecting them, the crew at the fabrication facility (who’s putting the figure together) thought the lashes were a little too dark given the figure’s overall coloring. I agreed. But after I ate my lunch in the Nigel’s parking lot, I went in to do some shopping for brown lashes. They were very hard to find! They had thousands of different types of lashes (thicknesses, lengths, and bright colors) but they only had THREE choices for brown lashes. I settled on a pair called “mocha,” as they were the shortest and least dense of the choices they had. These would be far more suitable for the finished figure. They didn’t have any suitable lower lashes, so I bought some little individual lashes that can be attached one by one until you’ve achieved the density desired. But since it’s for the lower lashes, we probably won’t need many. I went to CVS and picked up a prescription and some supplies. I got home and relaxed for a bit, and then early in the evening my pals Officer Mark and Miss Connie dropped by to pick me up for an event at the Hollywood Heritage Museum. They were doing a presentation about puppets on television. Rob Clampett, the son of Bob Clampett was there. Bob was a wonderful animator at Warner Brothers for many years, but then he created a puppet TV series called “Beany and Cecil,” about a seafaring kid named Beany and his pal Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent. My old “Garfield Show” cast mate Stan Freberg did a lot of great work on that show. Also in attendance was the legendary (and my adopted uncle) Sid Krofft! They showed a lot of clips and hearing the guests speak was very educational and informative! But then a surprise! Willie Tyler and Lester happened to be in the area and they came into talk for a bit! As soon as I heard they were in the room I leapt to my feet. I’ve always loved Willie and Lester, and I remember a lot of great moments watching them on TV when I was a kid. But as they walked down the aisle I realized I was the only one standing. No standing ovation for Willie and Lester?! Absurd! The presentation was very dense and had gone on a full hour past its expected runtime, but it was totally amazing. But I had to get home because I had a boatload of auditions waiting for me to record! After I finished them I relaxed for a bit, and then took my WOG. I did a little video editing and then made a Paladin saladin and watched a few episodes of “Have Gun – Will Travel.” I’ve always been a fan of repeated contrivances in TV shows. It gives me comfort. For example: Mr. Rogers coming in and putting on his sweater and tennis shoes..the end of every Lone Ranger episode when somebody shouts, “Why THAT’S the Lone Ranger!”…when Batman and Robin slide down the Batpoles and run to the Batmobile….and when Paladin hands his card to somebody and it cuts to a close-up of the card. The card reads “Have Gun – Will Travel” and the familiar music passage plays. Those things just tickle me to death!

Friday the 18th – ZOMBIE! – Honestly, I think the overcast weather affects me adversely. I truly need the sunshine to feel alive. So many overcast days in a row dulls my energy, and today I was feeling like an absolute zombie! I had slept all day and got up around 5:30pm to attend to my cat Spook. The refill of his prescription had been delivered to the house, so I went outside and grabbed that. I vacuumed the carpets on the second floor, where Spook is mostly residing now. Upstairs and downstairs is off limits to him. That decision was made because of his unpredictable potty habits, but also because going up and down the stairs was starting to prove daunting for him. However, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I discovered a few spots toward the back of the kitchen where he had peed. And that’s a NO-GO for me! Plus, the stains were very close to my original Andy Kaufman Elvis costume. I put the kibosh on that post haste! I arranged a blockade in the kitchen to prevent him from going into those areas from now on. It was depressing, because either he was having urinary issues and trying to tell me something, or he’s got kitty dementia and he doesn’t know he’s doing something wrong. Neither option is a good one. I cleaned everything up, but the thought of my old kitty wasn’t helping my zombification situation. As I assessed the overall situation I got even sadder realizing that Spook’s piece of real estate in my house is getting smaller by the day. In the old days he had run of the entire house and could go anywhere he pleased. Then I blocked off the upstairs area because he had accidentally gotten locked in my bedroom while I was away one afternoon. After recently having my carpets cleaned and sanitized he’s no longer allowed in the living room. So he’s got his bed and food in the kitchen, and his bathroom is just a few feet away. Sad. Luckily, my angel rescued me somewhat. My gal Angi called and asked if I wanted to get together. When she dropped over we immediately headed to dinner at Ernie’s Taco House to get some dinner. She could tell I was a bit dour. She also was feeling a bit braindead from dealing with a ton of stuff in her life. My lack of zest and zeal continued into the evening…so much so that I didn’t even take my nightly WOG. The endorphins probably would have done me some good, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I’m sure that a lot of what I was feeling had to do with the condition of my cat. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t affected by the situation. I spent a few hours working on the computer and then turned in.

Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th – EASTER WEEKEND! – The sun was shining again and I felt much better. Since the weekend was open, I took full advantage and relaxed and recharged my batteries. I really needed this weekend to hit the reset button!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Before walking into the Hollywood Heritage Museum for the Puppets On TV presentation, I ran into my old pal (and puppet and improv genius) Grant Baciocco!