April 21 – April 27 (2025) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I saw this on the internet this past week and had to grab it. HILARIOUS!

A store I visited this past week had a “Yacht Rock” station playing on the overhead music system. “Heart To Heart” by Kenny Loggins came on, and while I never cared much for this song when we played it on the air back in the day, I heard it with fresh ears. I realized that it’s actually quite catchy! And…I’ve been humming it all week!

Monday the 21st – “INSURING” A GOOD WEEK! – The weather was simply amazing. I headed over to the local AAA office to chat with an insurance guy about switching all of my policies over to AAA. They have a great rating with J.D. Power, and I was a bit miffed at my current company. I had my cars and my home policies all bundled together, but the company decided to “spin off” the car insurance section to another, lesser known company that I wasn’t too happy about. Plus, their annual premium was $2k HIGHER than it was last year! Their J.D. Power ranking is awful. So instead of changing companies just for my cars, I decided to dump them all and most likely go with AAA to insure everything. The guy I chatted with was delightful, and I told him I was going to go home and crunch the numbers and get back with him. I’ll probably go in and see him next week to get everything settled. The rate for auto insurance was comparable to what I paid last year, so the new, lesser known company can take their $2k increase and stick it. I hit my box to pick up some packages, and then I had a nice salad (and some sun!) on the patio at Paty’s. I got home to do some work, recorded my auditions, and later I went out to pick up some groceries. I did my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and then came inside to finish writing Wally’s Week. I was in the mood for some lasagna, so I made some and watched a few more episodes of “Have Gun – Will Travel.”

Tuesday the 22nd – A “GOLDEN” IDEA! – It was a day of relaxation and creativity. As I’m working on crafting a new Roger M00re James Bond life-size figure for the collection, I’ve been regularly watching scenes from “The Man With The Golden Gun” to finalize ideas. Toward the beginning of the film there’s a scene where we see Scaramanga’s Golden Gun perched in the open beak of a stuffed crow, deep inside his “funhouse.” I thought that would be a great thing to have on display along with the figure when it’s exhibited at the upcoming Monsterpalooza convention. Back in 2012 I bought the collector’s edition replica of the Golden Gun from Master Replicas. In fact, I bought TWO! One to store away, and one for display. It’s VERY cool, but since they’re relatively rare – they’re very valuable. I was uncomfortable with the idea of taking the piece to a convention and incurring the possibility that it would “walk off” during the show. Then I realized I couldn’t display it anyway. The barrel of the replica is solid, and has a red tip (mandatory for the sale of a replica of anything resembling a gun). After studying screenshots of how the Golden Gun was mounted in the film, I realized that there was a black wire that was inside the barrel of the gun, and the wire ran down the length of the stuffed crow, curved around, and was fastened in the base. The crow wasn’t actually supporting any of the gun’s weight – it just looked like it. In that case, my replica with the solid barrel wouldn’t work. I hit eBay and found all sorts of 3D printed Golden Guns (some of them looked pretty darn good!) for sale, at a relatively good price. The one I settled on was from a maker in London. I contacted him to make sure the barrel was hollow, and he said it was. He used gold filament to print the replica, but after talking to my prop guy Mike McGee, he said it could be repainted with a new spray paint that made it look like it was gold plated. He also said that his wife Alex (at Alex In Wonderland) does gold leafing, and the replica may be able to be gold leafed for an extra glistening finish. I bought the Golden Gun replica and asked the seller to expedite shipping. From London it will take a while, but should be here in mid-May; plenty of time to rig for the convention. I also found some suitable replica crows on Amazon – with their beaks open! These are coming from China so I hope they make it here in time. Otherwise the Golden Gun will go on display by itself. In the film, the crow and Golden Gun are mounted on top of a rectangular box covered in orange-ish/maroon velvet. I have a perfect wooden box for the display, I would need to have a cover made for it. FUN! Later I did a bunch of auditions, took my nightly WOG, and even spent some time in the anti-gravity chair outside afterwards relaxing! Gorgeous night!

Wednesday the 23rd – PROJECT PASSION! – In order to start working on the new display ideas for the James Bond figure, I needed to pick up some supplies. First I picked up some packages at my box, which included 5 new “Christoween Capers” sampler books I had printed by Shutterfly. I hit Burger King for lunch (a rare treat), and went over to Foam Mart in Burbank to pick up some ½” thick foam core for the Bond display. To suggest the set of Scaramanga’s funhouse from the “Golden Gun” film, I’m going to make two medium-height flats that look like the ones used in the movie. I bought a 4’ by 8’ sheet of thick, black foam board, and had them cut it in half. I also picked up some triangular foam pieces that I can use for the nose of my upcoming Guy Smiley Muppet replica. But the 4’ by 4’ pieces wouldn’t fit in the back of my Rav, so I took them back inside and had a foot taken off each one. I hit Hobby Lobby to get some ultra-fine point Sharpies, white artist’s tape for the trim on the funhouse flats, and some maroon velvet for the display box. Then I headed home to unload everything and do a little work around the house. Later I did my daily auditions, took my nightly WOG, and worked on the computer. I made a Paladin saladin and watched a few “Have Gun – Will Travel” episodes before bed. What a fun day!

Thursday the 24th – NOT WHAT I WANTED! – After a day spent relaxing around the house and doing a few things that needed to be done, I finally got around to recording my auditions for the day. Occasionally there are those days when you just can’t seem to get anything right. I’d do one pass at a script, listen to it back, and then realize it wasn’t what I wanted. So I did it again. And again. And again. And again. I was having a hard time deciding on exactly what I wanted. Perhaps I was overthinking it, which can happen in this business. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and put it out there. Since my auditions took me a lot longer than I had anticipated, I ran out of time to do my WOG. I only like to go during a certain window of time during the night, and if that window closes I just call it a night. So after I FINALLY got what I wanted in the audition process, I decided to take the night off from my WOG and just stay in and finish up a few things inside.

Friday the 25th – MYSTERY CHECK! – Sharply at 11am my eyes popped open. After a few minutes it was clear I was NOT getting back to sleep. So I sprang up and started my day. Since the maids weren’t due until around 1, I had a few hours to do some errands. I stopped off at the local key/remote store; a little kiosk by the post office that I like to go to when I have questions about my garage door remote, or I need to get keys made. My gal Angi had given me a garage door remote a while back that she no longer needed. Since it was by the same company who made my opener, she thought I could recode it to work with my garage door. I hadn’t had much luck in reprogramming it, so I took it to the guys at the kiosk. They looked at the back of my current remote, and the back of the extra remote, and they determined that they would not be compatible. They could tell by the model numbers on the back of the remotes. So I left it with them, as they said they may be able to use it for parts. I mailed off a few things at the post office, bought some of those new Betty White stamps, and picked up a certified letter. Then I hit my favorite cigar shop to pick up a few nice cigars to enjoy when the weather gets warmer. Then it was off to CVS to pick up a prescription and a few other supplies, and then over to get some groceries. The store had 4-packs of Dr. Pepper in 12 ounce glass bottles! I had just bought several of those 4-packs at Galco’s recently, but was running low. And I LOVE a frosty Dr. Pepper in glass bottles. The store had four packs left, so I bought them all. I hit Jack in the Box to get some lunch at the drive-thru, and then headed home to wait for the maids. After they finished cleaning Planet Wallywood I headed out for more errands. I stopped by my box to get some packages, and then headed to my local JoAnn’s to see what fabric they had left. Though I liked the maroon velvet fabric I got the other day at Hobby Lobby, I realized that it wasn’t a good color match to what I was seeing in the film “The Man With The Golden Gun.” The velvet fabric in the funhouse scene was less of a true maroon, and was more of an orange-ish/maroon. I looked around to no avail. And then I explored the upholstery section. BINGO! I found a really great “pumpkin/orange” velvet that was a nice shade of dark orange that would look really great in the exhibit! There were four yards left on the bolt, but there was no price marked. Since they were moving everything out for their Going-Out-Of-Business sale, the guy gave it to me for 8 bucks a yard! This is heavy-duty, upholstery-grade velvet that’s gorgeous! What a deal! I snapped it up and took off. Since I was in the neighborhood, I phoned in a pizza-to-go order at Barone’s. I hadn’t had their pizza in a while, plus I needed to pick up some more of their house dressing. I picked up my pizza and headed home to eat and take care of Spook. During my late-night stroll through the grounds, I heard a ruckus around the corner from one of the units. Up ahead I saw a homeless guy near one of the units in the complex, and he was on his knees – and it sounded like he was throwing up. I took a sharp left and took a sharp detour. When I walked back to my unit and passed that area, I noticed that he was up and staggering around. I called security as soon as I got back to my house. I hate what these moronic, parasitic politicians have done to this city. The certified letter I got earlier in the day was a check for a job I did that had been originally lost. Here’s the weird story, and the unraveling my$tery. Recently I got a letter from the state of California’s “unclaimed payments” department. They said there was a check in my name waiting for me, and I only needed to call the paymaster’s number to claim it. If I didn’t, the funds would be turned over to the state. I always like to subscribe to the old adage, “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.” So after checking the validity of the letter with my accountant, who assured me it was legit, I called the paymaster in New York. This was the same paymaster who handled payments for the Netflix series I worked on back in 2022 and 2024. The gal I spoke with told me it was a paycheck that had been returned to them and had sat unclaimed for a while. The address she read off to me didn’t seem familiar, so that would certainly explain why it was lost. I gave her my actual address. She assured me the check would be sent right away. Now, I’m very vigilant about payments. If one is overdue I’m usually pretty good about following up on it and getting it resolved expediently. I’m not one to let my paychecks go bouncing around the country. So this “lost payment” seemed strange to me. As far as I knew, my records hadn’t indicated any missed payments in my “receivables” file. But of course, as with anything, there are those occasions where things fall through the cracks. I called my agent and asked him about it, and he was just as baffled as I was. We decided I should wait until the check arrived and we’d go from there. Once the certified letter arrived with the check in tow, I emailed the paymaster to get more information. As the check was for a considerable amount, I wanted to know the session dates that were covered by this check. She responded that it was for a week of work on the Netflix show back in 2022 – THREE YEARS AGO! Back then I was with a completely different Voice Over agency that has since become defunct. So I won’t be able to cross check any payment references with them. But I still can’t remember anything about a missed payment from back then. I got curious and went into my computer files to research this. I always scan every check I get before I deposit them. Sometimes it seems like a pointless task, but when rare occasions like this arise, these scans are invaluable! In July of 2022 I saw a check from this company for the exact same amount that was on the check I had just received via certified mail! What the heck was going on?! There wasn’t any indication on the check itself for which session dates it covered, so I went downstairs to my storage and dug out all my pay stubs that I received for that particular job back in 2022. I’m sure glad I keep meticulous records! I found the paystub for that check, but there wasn’t ANY information on it other than my mailing address, and the return address. I had handwritten the name of the job and the amount of the check on the stub, but the rest of the stub was totally blank! Was this the replacement check they sent to cover the original “lost” check? If so, I can’t in good conscience deposit this new check, as it would be a redundant overpayment. But since it happened 3 years ago, who can remember back that far? And since I worked on that Netflix show for 6 weeks, could this be just another payment for the standard weekly rate that somehow was missed? Without knowing the session dates that were covered by this 2022 check, I won’t know. Thinking that this “certified mail” check may be a redundant payment, I emailed the paymaster in New York with a scan of the 2022 check to ask about the session dates covered by THAT check. Perhaps the 2022 check was the replacement check for the original lost check that arrived today, and the original lost check wasn’t canceled by the paymaster. So instead of canceling the lost check when I received the replacement check in 2022, perhaps they had it still rambling around in their system as an active “lost” payment. Hopefully the paymaster can reference the number on the 2022 check, determine the session dates that were covered by that payment, and let me know. If it’s determined that the 2022 check WAS a replacement check for the same work dates, then I need to do the right thing and tear up the new check that arrived by certified mail. Unraveling this mystery has become a lot of work, but I need to know the truth. Since this coming Sunday my pal Sergio Lopez is coming over to begin work on styling the hair for my new Roger M00re figure, I won’t be able to enjoy this week’s “comatose Sunday.” So instead, I’ll enjoy a “comatose Saturday,” and move my usual routine up one day. So after my WOG I made a salad and watched a fun episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller” about a wax museum!

Saturday the 26th – AND SO IT BEGINS! – Though I relaxed most of the day, I realized later in the evening that I needed to do some work to acquire screenshots from “The Man With The Golden Gun” for Sergio to use as reference as he’s styling the wig on my Roger M00re life-size figure. I had fun scrolling through the movie and finding the best hair reference shots. I also noticed that Roger M00re had a few distinct freckles on his face that I’d like to have added to the resin head I have. After the hair is finished I’m supposed to take the head back to Blok 4 so Heath the painter can add some finishing touches before the head is attached to the body. Perhaps then I can show him the reference photos to have the freckles added. I know it’s fairly nitpicky to want those added, but I’m a sucker for detail! Later I enjoyed my WOG, did a few auditions, and then hit the sack.

Sunday the 27th – LONG HAIR DAY! – Sergio Lopez was the wig guy who worked on “The Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue” when I started doing the show back in 1994. He and I have been friends since then. He’s done all the hair on all my life-size figures in Planet Wallywood, and he’s a master at his craft. Sergio got over around 2 and attached the wig we bought a few weeks ago to the resin Roger M00re head. He worked until about 6, and then we took a dinner break and headed to Paty’s to have dinner on the patio. We got back and he added the eyebrows and did some styling on the wig. But by 10pm we still hadn’t completed the job, so he agreed to come back on Monday and get it finished. But I’m happy with the results so far! After relaxing for a bit, I recorded some auditions and took my nightly WOG! I’m really anxious for the nights to get warmer again!

And how was YOUR week?!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

This is the 3D printed Golden Gun I purchased on eBay. I think it will do quite nicely!

Here’s a screenshot from “The Man With The Golden Gun” that shows the crow holding the Golden Gun in the funhouse – the piece I’m attempting to recreate for the upcoming display at Monsterpalooza in late May.