March 16 – March 22 (2026) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I found this cartoon on the web and couldn’t resist, for obvious reasons!

While the fully-produced, “electric” version of “Times Like These” by Foo Fighters is amazing, I’ve always been partial to the raw, stripped-down acoustic version.

Monday the 16th – CHAINS FOR THE BETTER! – A few packages arrived at my box several days ago but this was the first chance I had to go get them. I got a really cool black leather, spiked dog collar for my Animal Muppet replica, as well as some armature wire. I’m getting prepped for my upcoming exhibit at this May’s Monsterpalooza convention which will be called “Jim Henson: 70 Years of Creatures, Monsters and Misfits.” I’ll have about a dozen of my Muppet replicas on display to show how Jim Henson completely changed our concept of monsters early on in his career. I needed the armature wire to build some “armature hands;” foam rubber hands with armature wire inside them so they can go inside the “live hands” puppets and be posable. I have about 10 of them to make, so I’ll be very busy over the next few weeks making foam rubber hands. Some of the puppets have 5 fingers, while others have only 4. I went to Plastic Depot to pick up a small, Plexiglas riser I had my pal Kyle fabricate. This will go in one of my display cases so a few collectibles can be mounted over some smaller ones. I drew up the plans for it, emailed it to Kyle, and he fabricated it exactly to my specs. It was good to see him again, as I hadn’t had a chance to chat with him for a long time. We spent about 2 hours chatting. Fun! Since I was in the area I stopped by Hobby Lobby to pick up some more supplies for my photo album project. Unfortunately the leatherette-bound photo albums I used to like to buy from them are no longer being sold – so it’s off to Amazon to see if I can get them there. The photo albums they’re now selling have a cheaper-looking vinyl cover, or a canvas cover – neither of which I’m taken by. I stopped at the hardware store to pick up some supplies, including some lightweight chain for Animal’s new collar, and then headed home. It was VERY warm! We’re having a taste of summer this week in L.A. – but next week it’s supposed to cool back down to regular springtime temps again. I worked around the house for a bit, and then put Animal’s collar on his neck. It looks amazing. I measured out about a foot of the chain I just bought, snipped one of the links at the end, glued the half link onto the last link with Super Glue, and attached the chain to his collar. The broken link makes it look like Animal snapped his leash and escaped. Pretty cool! I got to have dinner with my old pal Dan Roebuck, which was nice as he was about ready to head back out of town soon to work on a new film. We relaxed around his house for a bit and chatted about collectibles, and then I headed home to rest. Later I took my WOG and spent some time in the anti-gravity chair outside enjoying the warm night. I recorded my auditions, worked around the house for a bit, and then made some food and watched an episode of “The Virginian” before bed. This show is completely amazing. With the episodes being 90 minutes long, it’s actually more like watching a feature film than a TV show.

Tuesday the 17th – SNOOZEDAY TUESDAY! – Since nothing was on the docket for the day, I took the opportunity to rest up and relax. Spending last Saturday at the Transformers convention in Burbank was an absolute blast, but it took a lot of energy. So I appreciated the day off to recalibrate. I wrote Wally’s Week, recorded some auditions, took my WOG, and spent some more time afterwards in the anti-grav chair enjoying the warm night. I DO love this weather!

Wednesday the 18th – EPIC…AGAIN! – The day started with an early-morning booking on a new cartoon. I can’t say anything about it, other than I play a “Sam Elliott-type” horse. The session was close enough to my house that I could enjoy the warm weather and just walk over to the studio. It only took about 45 minutes once we got rolling, and it was great fun! I walked back home, cleaned up, and then my pal Mark Fullerton came by so we could go into Hollywood to see another screening of “EPIC; Elvis Presley In Concert” on the Imax screen at the Chinese Theatre. We had seen it a few weeks ago at Universal City and it was amazing. Due to popular demand the film was released into IMAX theatres again for another week. I wasn’t going to lose this opportunity to see it again, so I got tickets. We started off with lunch at Johnny Rockets in the complex formerly known as Hollywood and Highland (now called Ovation), and then we headed to the theatre. What fun. The first time I saw the film I was so taken by the magical content I just sat there amazed. But during the second viewing I was finding myself getting a bit more emotional about the whole thing. There really will never be another one like Elvis. When the movie finished I headed over to CVS to get some supplies, get some more photos printed for my photo album project, and get some grocery items at a local market. I headed home, pretty exhausted from the day, and relaxed for a bit. Later I recorded my auditions for the day, and took my WOG complete with post-workout time in the anti-gravity chair. These warm nights we’ve been experiencing have been amazing! I went back inside and finished the photo album project through the year 1997! Little by little I’m nearing the end! I stopped taking pictures on film around 2005, so I still have about 8 years’ worth of photos to organize, but considering where I was with this project just a few short months ago, I’m really rolling along! When the photo albums I ordered from Amazon arrive, I’ll start in on the year 1998. Both 1997 and 1998 were amazing years and I have a TON of photos from both of those periods. There’s a LOT of work ahead of me!

Thursday the 19th – NEW FRIENDS AT ‘THE OFFICE!’ – My friend Chris Malmin informed me that his commitment for jury duty had just been completed, so we decided to meet at Paty’s to get a late-afternoon lunch. We got my usual table on the patio which I’ve now deemed ‘the office.’ While we were there we met a great couple named Rob & Lisa, who overheard us talking about the Elvis movie – and they wanted to know more. It’s sad that the promotional campaign for this amazing movie has been rather lacking. But I supposed they didn’t want to incur a multi-million dollar expense to promote a movie consisting of footage from 55 years ago. I got back home and started adding my “text boxes” to my 1997 photo album, which help move the chronological narrative in the books. I’m really happy with the momentum I’ve achieved with this project. But after I’m finished with 1998 I’m going to pause for a bit to start working on a new puppet project for my upcoming Monsterpalooza project. I took my nightly WOG, spent some more time in the anti-grav chair, and came back inside to hit the photo album project again.

Friday the 20th – A SPRINGTIME SUMMER! – It was HOT out! Honestly! It was over 90 degrees, and in some areas it was close to 100. I love this weather, but at this time of year it won’t last long. So I have to take advantage of it. I relaxed around the house, paid some bills, and planned for the weekend. Later I met my new friend Jeb and his partner Shawn at ‘the office.’ I had met Jeb completely at random at my mailbox place. He noticed a reference to the Batman cartoon on my car, and we started chatting. Come to find out he works at DC Comics! I told him I was the voice of The Riddler in the Arkham games and we agreed to meet for lunch and chat about our common loves. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Jeb is the grandson of the great motion picture artist Albert Whitlock! WOW! We spent a good 2 hours chatting about fun stuff, and he promised to take me on a tour of DC Comics soon. I can’t wait! I mailed off a few letters and then headed home to do some work. After a brief rest, I headed outside to do my WOG. Since it was such a nice night out, I took the opportunity to enjoy a nice cigar in my anti-grav chair. Since I only like to have cigars on really warm, summery nights, this would be my last chance for an opportunity like this for quite a while. I hadn’t had one in a while and it was great! I came back inside to waste time around the house doing fun stuff and prep for the weekend!

Saturday the 21st – 43 YEARS??!! – Today marked my eldest daughter Lacey’s 43rd birthday. I gave her a call early in the day, but I got her voicemail. My friend Maddy dropped by to help walk me through the process of signing up for Medicare – which I need to do within three months of turning 65 (which will occur in May). It’s a fairly complex process, so it was nice having her there to help me obtain confirmation through ID.ME, as well as wade through the questionnaire on the Social Security website. I met Maddy last weekend at the Transformers convention when she overheard me complaining about having to tackle the arduous task of signing up for Medicare. She used to have a job at a university in HR, and one of her responsibilities was helping some of the professors get signed up. So she offered her services to help me as well. We got all finished up, so we headed over to ‘the office’ for lunch. I picked up a few packages at my box (including the new photo albums from Amazon I ordered) and I headed home. On the way I got to chat with my daughter Lacey, as well as my granddaughter Natalie. They’re both looking forward to coming out to L.A. for their vacation in June! I’m looking forward to it too! I’m already making a list of all the fun activities I want us to do. It’ll be their entire family, consisting of Lacey and her husband Andy, and my grandson Elliot (who just turned 15 – the exact same age I was when I first visited California 50 years ago this July!), my grandson Devin, and my granddaughter Natalie. It’s gonna be epic! It’s already started to cool down a bit, but hey – the summer-like weather was fun while it lasted! I went home to do some work, grab a quick respite, and then do my nightly WOG and some work with the new photo albums. I made a salad and watched the final episode of the limited 1976 series “Fantastic Journey.” It had a very unceremonious ending, and it was clear that the series cancellation took them all by surprise.

Sunday the 22nd – TWO MONTHS! – My good friends the Pendletons were in town doing some shopping, so they stopped by so we could go over to Little Toni’s to grab some dinner. It had been a few months since I had been to Little Toni’s, so I was craving a pizza! Mission accomplished! Joe Pendleton is doing some carpentry work for my Jim Henson Monsterpalooza exhibit, so we discussed more particulars about the layout. They hit the road for home, and I headed back to Planet Wallywood to get some stuff done. After finishing up my auditions I did some more work on my photo albums. I have all the photos from 1998 placed in the albums, and now I have to go through and create the text boxes and paste them in. Then – I’m taking a break from photo album work. I don’t want to get to the point where I’m dreading doing it, so I’ll focus on something else for a while so I don’t get photo album fatigue. Once I cleared away all the photo album stuff from my kitchen table, I laid out some tools to start on the puppet armature hands. Sheets of foam rubber, armature wire, pliers, cutters, scissors, pens, knives, glue, etc. – were all present and accounted for. I traced my left hand onto two pieces of ½” thick foam rubber and cut them out. On one of the foam rubber hands I started bending armature wire to emulate the skeletal structure of fingers. When I finished I put Barge glue on the two foam rubber “hands” and let it dry for a bit. When it was tacky enough I pressed the two sides together, sandwiching the armature wire “skeleton hand” in between them. Then I let it set for a bit, and finished it up by “pinching” the edges of the foam rubber fingers together to seam it all together nicely. I hadn’t made one of these in quite a while so I was a little bit rusty. But I’ve figured out a much better way to make the rest of them in the future, so the trial and error was all worth it – as frustrating as it was for a minute there. I did my nightly WOG and called it a day – and a week!

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK