RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I would totally buy this album, but since Michael Myers never talks, I’m thinking it would be pretty boring.
Well this is a weird one. I have been humming the song “More Love” all week, but I just don’t know which version I was humming…as both versions are so great. So…here are BOTH versions, done by the great Smokey Robinson and the smoky-voiced Kim Carnes!
Smokey Robinson
Kim Carnes
Monday the 13th – (BOOM! CRASH!) – When I was awakened by a rolling, rumbling sound – I just figured it was my friend Brittney Powell in the Puppet Room sliding the bathroom door closed. But when I got out of bed I realized it was actual thunder! COOL! I knocked on the Puppet Room door and asked how she was doing (she was in town for a few days visiting friends, and she crashed at Planet Wallywood). She said she was fine, and being from Dallas, she wasn’t fazed at all by the thunder. She hears it all the time there. I thought it was very, very cool – as it hardly ever happens in Los Angeles! I sat down on the computer to get the news of the day, and was immediately gob smacked…my pal (and TV legend) Sid Krofft had passed away at the age of 96. Though he actually passed on Friday the 10th the news had just now been released. I was a huge fan of his shows as a kid (even had an “H.R. Pufnstuf” fan club on the playground at Simmons Elementary when I was a kid) and I was privileged to get to know him over the past few years. He even came to visit Planet Wallywood at one point and signed the wall of my Puppet Room! I first met him when Eliot Brodsky, the producer of the Monsterpalooza conventions, suggested that I moderate Sid’s panel at Son of Monsterpalooza back in October of 2023. One of my fondest memories was wheeling Sid in his wheelchair back to his table after the panel was over. It’s one of those “I can’t believe my life” kinda moments! Though he had a good long life, and his last few years was made very, very special by his assistant Kelly (who got him out and about to see many different places and meet many different people), he will be missed. RIP “Uncle” Sid. Though it spritzed some rain in the late morning hours, by the time Brittney and I drove the Gray Ghost to the local Toyota dealer for its regular service, the rain had ceased. After dropping off the car, we walked to Ernie’s Taco House for lunch, and had to do some clever dodging of various lakes, streams and puddles caused by L.A.’s very poor drainage system. Luckily, after lunch, the puddles had all subsided and the sun was out. We picked up the Gray Ghost and headed home. Brittney headed over to a friend’s house for the evening, and I got some more rest. Later I did some auditions and took my nightly WOG (walk/jog). Then I made a pot pie and watched an episode of “The Virginian.”
Tuesday the 14th – “WE ARE THE SONS OF THE DESERT!” – By the time I got out of bed, Brittney had already taken off for our friend Edi’s house. They were going to have a “sleepover” at Edi’s, so I had the house to myself the rest of the day. I went over to my special effects pal Jim Ojala’s studio to pick up some stuff he had been working on. He epoxied some thread extenders onto the ends of pieces of piano wire that I’m going to use in our upcoming exhibit at the Monsterpalooza museum in late May. I have three little bat puppets that I’ll put next to The Count, and I’ll mount the bats onto those wires, and the bottoms of the wires will screw into corresponding T-nuts which will be seated in the platform upon which they’re displayed. Jim also made some egg-shaped eye pieces out of resin for Herry Monster. He does great work! Then I drove to an Italian restaurant in North Hollywood to meet my pal Dr. Alan Cowen for dinner. Whenever there’s a Sons Of The Desert meeting, we like to meet at this nearby restaurant to grab some dinner before the festivities. The SOTD meeting was fun, but I didn’t end up staying long. I had a lot of work to do. I did a ton of auditions, and then rested a bit. I did my nightly WOG, and then worked around the house. I made a salad and watched another episode of “The Virginian.” I’m down to the last few episodes from the first season, and I’m really going to miss watching this show. It’s fantastic. I think next I’ll watch the second season of “High Chaparral,” or “Have Gun – Will Travel.” While I was never into Westerns as a kid (I was into sci-fi, action and comedy shows) I’m developing an appreciation for them later in life. I guess living in South Dakota as a kid, I was constantly surrounded by people who wore cowboy hats and had horses, that watching Westerns didn’t seem like very much of an escape for me. But now that I’m a “city dweller,” the Westerns are a good way to escape from city life into another world of the “wild west.”
Wednesday the 15th – FUN FRIENDS! – Later in the afternoon Brittney got back from her “sleepover” at Edi’s, and she promptly crashed in the Puppet Room. Apparently, at this sleepover, they didn’t get much sleep. Go figure. A couple of girls staying up all night chatting. Awesome. My pal Mark Fullerton was in the area, so he dropped by so we could go to dinner. We headed over to Bob’s Big Boy and dined on the patio to enjoy the wonderful evening. We were joined by my pal Amanda, who was in town doing some work. Before she left for home, she stopped by to say hi to Brittney and catch up. I did some work around the house, rested up, and then enjoyed my nightly WOG. When I got back inside I did some more work on the puppet head for Herry Monster, and started sanding the resin eye pieces to prep them for painting.
Thursday the 16th – WHAT A “COINCIDENCE!” – Brittney and I hopped in the Gray Ghost and I took her to the airport to catch her flight back home. Then I hit KFC for some food, and headed to the car wash. With all the rain the Gray Ghost was looking more like the “dusty brown ghost!” Then I got home and worked on the eye pieces for Herry. I primed them and let them dry for a while. I worked on his head for a bit and worked around the house. Now that Brittney has left, I had some straightening up to do. Though I had delayed making these calls for a while, it was time to buck up and do it. First, I called the Social Security administration to get clarification on signing up for Medicare. Since I’ll be “that age” very soon, I needed to let the SS administration know that, while I was making them aware of my presence (which is required by law), I wouldn’t be needing their Medicare coverage – as I’m fully covered by Screen Actors Guild insurance. As expected with government entities, it was a lot of bureaucratic gobbledygook that I had to slog through. Then I called my SAG health plan to confirm that everything the gal at the SS office told me was true. I think I was able to wrap my head around all the craziness, and I checked that call off my list. Next was calling AT&T. Though most people have given up their landline service, I still have mine for emergencies. My cell phone signal in Planet Wallywood isn’t very good, and I need to be tapped into my home wi-fi to get a decent signal. But the internet service is sometimes unreliable, so I like to have the landline as a back-up, though I hardly ever use it. About a month ago I noticed that my landline had no dial tone on any of the phones in my house. I called AT&T service and they sent a repairman to my area. He called and reported that the service in my area had been interrupted because of vandalism. Crazy people crack open manhole covers that are welded shut with sledge hammers, and then they go down beneath the street and strip the AT&T infrastructure of copper wiring to sell. (Wouldn’t it be much easier just to get a freakin’ job? It seems like a lot of work!) Since this seems to be an epidemic in L.A., it takes AT&T a while to get around to repairing all of the damage. I called AT&T customer service and talked to a guy named “Sam” (clearly somebody in another country with a thick accent that was most likely not a real “Sam”). As near as I could understand him, he read me all of the pat lines his training has instructed him to do, like “You are right. It’s not right for you to pay for service you are not getting.” Right you are, Sam. Precisely the reason I’m calling! So he said not to pay any of my AT&T bills until the service is restored, and they would calculate my actual payment due once the service was restored. Awesome! I got a little rest, and later I did a bunch of auditions. I worked on Herry Monster’s head some more, and pre-drilled some holes in the plastic reinforcement inside his head where the eye pieces will be seated. I also gave the eye pieces a few coats of paint. The color I like to use on puppet eyes is never a true white, as those don’t usually look authentic enough. I like to use a paint from Tamiya called Insignia White, which is a slightly-gray shade of white. That color seems to work well with blue-colored characters. For other characters I used a Tamiya paint called Racing White, which is a white with a slight “eggshell” tint. I took my nightly WOG and then worked around the house some more. I made a salad and prepped the Tranquility Zone to enjoy my dinner and watch another “Virginian” episode. As I was busily preparing everything, I heard a slight “beep beep beep” sound. I didn’t know what it was. And then I heard it again. “Beep beep beep.” I came downstairs to investigate. I picked up my landline phone and turned it on. I HAD A DIAL TONE! What are the chances!? Just a few hours earlier I was telling their customer service rep that I wasn’t paying my bill if I wasn’t getting service, and VOILA – my service is back! Honestly…what are the chances?! Hmmm…
Friday the 17th – HEAVY, HEAVY HERRY! – My puppet seamstress Maggie came by to start sewing together the fur cover for Herry Monster’s head. As he is a big puppet (he’s the strong advocate for exercise on “Sesame Street”) it was a lot of work. She did her usual fantastic job and worked for about 5 hours getting his head and lower jaw covered. Later I glued the fur covering to the lower jaw piece, and anchored the fur covering onto the bottom of his head. The fur added a lot of weight to the head, and the foam understructure was starting to collapse in a few places. I realized I probably should have used 1” thick foam rubber to make the head, and not ¾” foam. Oh well. I went to my garage and pulled out a few thin sheets of some stuff called L200. It’s a rubbery substance that’s also sold at Foam Mart. I cut a few pieces for the inside of the head to reinforce it, and it worked very, very well! It made the puppet a little bit heavier, but at least it’ll be more robust now. I relaxed for a bit, and then did my nightly WOG. I did a little more puppet work, made a pot pie, and then watched “The Virginian” before bed.
Saturday the 18th – DON’T YA JUST HATE IT WHEN A SCREW IS TOO SHORT?! – Since my assistant Emily was cat-sitting at an apartment in my area, I called her to see if she wanted to grab lunch at Paty’s. I picked her up and we headed to go eat. First I grabbed some packages at my box, which included the newly remastered soundtrack for “Diamonds Are Forever,” Sean Connery’s final James Bond film. Though the film doesn’t get a lot of love from hardcore Bond fans, I’ve always loved it. I used to see it on the ABC Sunday Night movie on TV. As I’ve always loved seeing James Bond in America, and I’ve always loved Mustangs, this movie was complete eye candy! I loved the soundtrack as a kid, and I’m going to love listening to his remastered CD! I also got some touch-up paint for the chips on the driver’s side door on my Gran Torino. Plus, I got the Blu ray release of the 1996 film “The Phantom” starring Billy Zane. I have a few costumes from this film, including the “knife wound” costume used in a scene very early in the film. I’ve always loved this movie, and I was sad it didn’t do better in the theatres when it was released. But unlike Batman, and other better-known heroes at the time, the Phantom didn’t have a very high recognition factor. So not many people knew what they were in for. After lunch I went to CVS to get some supplies, and the grocery store to get some food items. I got home and put everything away, and gave Herry’s eye pieces another coat of paint. I rested for a bit, and then started work on the Herry Monster head again. With my trusty calipers, I measured the depth of the eye pieces, and the distance a screw would have to be in order to get through the plastic reinforcement inside the head, the width of the foam rubber, the fur, and the depth of the eye piece. Unfortunately I found out that the screws I had planned on using weren’t going to be long enough. I just hate it when a screw isn’t long enough! So I’m going to need to go to the hardware store to match the girth of these screws, but get something slightly longer. My next job is to seat the eye pieces in the puppet head, mark around them on the exterior of the head with pins, remove the eye pieces again, and trim the areas of fur that will sit underneath the eye pieces. Attaching puppet eye pieces to long-pile fur is never a good idea, as it looks too “scrunchy.” So it’s always best to trim the fur very short where the eyes will eventually sit, in order to give them a nice little “pocket” to live in. But without screws of the proper length, that will have to be a job for another day. I took my nightly WOG, and since the temp was still in the low 60’s, I decided to enjoy a nice cigar in the anti-gravity chair and look at the beautiful sky – which was painted a myriad of textures and colors thanks to some gorgeous, streaky clouds. I went inside to do more puppet work, make my Saturday Night Super Salad, and delve into the Blu ray release of the late 60’s TV show “Night Gallery.” LOVE this show!
Sunday the 19th – A SUNDAY “SNIP SNIP!” – My usual Sunday “comatose” day is something I look very forward to every week, as it’s the one day of the week I spend doing…absolutely nothing! I rested, relaxed, and did a little work on the Herry Monster head. Eventually, he’ll have a long 5” nose that’s covered in short-pile purple fur. My seamstress Alex In Wonderland will sculpt it out of foam rubber, pattern it, and cover it in the fur I purchased. But in order to create an area on the face where the nose will ultimately attach, I trimmed the fur down very short. With a rattail comb, I separated the fur about a ½” parallel with the center seam on his head. I secured the bulk of the fur with little wig clips, and isolated the ½” of fur next to the seam. Then on either side of the seam, I trimmed the fur very short. This will make it easy once Alex attaches the nose to the head. In fact, once I get the eye placements marked, I need to do a LOT of trimming of the fur; not only where the eye pieces will be seated, but also on the forehead where the brow mechanism needs to be free to move up and down. I still have a lot of work to do on this guy, but it’s a ton of fun! I took my WOG, and then hit the hay. I have to be up fairly early on Monday for my dental cleaning.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
The kind folks at Foam Mart in Burbank did a little feature about me on their social media. I captured the images for posting here. Thanks, Foam Mart!!
Speaking of Foam Mart, Leland is doing a fantastic job creating the faux brick barrier walls that will be used in our exhibit at Monsterpalooza this May. He added the gray toppers (carved out of rigid foam) and it makes all the difference in the world! These will look amazing!
Just wanted to boast about my latest blood pressure reading!
Here’s my grandson Devin at his recent school concert. I believe he plays viola. I’m SO happy that’s he’s learning to read and play music!!
Oh, nothing to see here. Just my dad casually hanging out with THE GOVERNOR OF SOUTH DAKOTA!!!
Maggie works her magic on the fur covering for Herry Monster’s head
Believe it not, this is a puppet head…
…and believe it or not, this is a puppet jaw. We still have a ton of work to do!
I don’t like Mondays anyway, and this past Monday was a bummer. Not only was it raining, but we lost our friend Sid Krofft at the age of 96. But he had a great life. As Karen Carpenter once famously sang, “Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” Rest well, Uncle Sid.
I love happening across photos of Paul Michael Glaser from “Starsky & Hutch” that were taken the day he drove my car for a special event…like this one. To quote Paul (as Starsky)…”THAT’S MY CAH!” (He had a Boston accent.)
Though we still have a lot of work to do on Herry Monster before Monsterpalooza, he’s coming right along!
