May 04 – May 10 (2026) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Anyone here old enough to remember Ape-mania???

While at “the office” the other day (Paty’s restaurant) I heard a song on their Yacht Rock channel that I hadn’t heard in a very long time. In fact, it took me a while to even place the singer. Turns out it was the great George Benson with “Lady Love Me (One More Time)” from 1983. What a great sounding tune!

Monday the 4th – BROW BAFFLEMENT! – Since it was a lazy Monday, I took the liberty of sleeping in. I had been spending some late nights working on our exhibit for the upcoming Monsterpalooza museum at the end of May, so some extra rest felt pretty good. I spoke with my pal George who has a publishing company who is interested in publishing my Christoween books at some point. I hadn’t spoken with him for a while, since he had been so busy doing business, so it was nice to catch up. I called my pal Chris Malmin to see if he was able to meet at “the office” for lunch, so we grabbed a bite on the patio at Paty’s in Toluca Lake. I picked up some packages at my box, and one of them contained the new shower head I ordered on Amazon. When I got home I immediately installed it and tried it out. It worked great! I relaxed for a bit, and then did my daily auditions. I took my late-night WOG (walk/jog) around the complex and then came back inside to write Wally’s Week. I started doing some planning and designing for the brow mechanism for my new Muppet replica Herry Monster; a puppet I’m building for the Monsterpalooza exhibit. Unlike the other brow mechs I did for my Oscar the Grouch and Beautiful Day replicas, this one poses some different problems. The wires for the eyebrows on the aforementioned puppets run through little holes that are actually seated horizontally through their eye pieces. But Herry doesn’t have round globular eye pieces like Oscar and B.D. so I need to figure out how to change the design from a horizontal angle, and think of a way to get the same effect by putting the brow wire directly into the face of the puppet. Hmmm.

Tuesday the 5th – QUICK EXECUTIVE DECISION! BRRRRR! – When I awoke I was full of glowing intentions to get up and get out of the house to run several errands. But when I opened up the curtains I saw that it was really cloudy out…and COLD! I remembered all those days as a kid living in the Midwest, when I got up to greet a cold, foreboding day – but I still had to get out of my warm bed and do my paper route, or go to school, or go to church, or something. Luckily, at this stage in my life, I have the luxury of making certain executive decisions that come with my life of freedom…so I decided to get back into my warm bed and sleep the day away! I’ll do errands another day! Later I recorded a few auditions, and at night I did my nightly WOG. When I came back inside I put on some music, cut a piece of armature wire, and started to form and sculpt the eyebrow mech for Herry. I finished it up nicely, but I realized that I would most likely have to cut the back of his head open to have enough room to install it properly. The cut will be easy enough to repair…just glue the foam rubber back together, and have my seamstress Maggie stitch the fur back up. I took a piece of black fake fur and glued it to the brow wire, and I let it sit to cure overnight. I edited some videos, reconciled my corporate bank statement, and pondered how ridiculous it seemed that tomorrow I would actually have reached the age of 65. How did this happen?! Since it was my birthday eve, I made some spaghetti – a treat I haven’t had in several months, as I’m watching my carb intake. It was delicious!

Wednesday the 6th – 65! 65???!!! – My bank is really starting to piss me off. For some reason, if I put too many checks in during my deposits, they charge me an “excess transaction fee.” Absolutely absurd. They’re penalizing me for putting too much money in the bank. It’s like a restaurant charging you extra for ordering too much of their food! Granted the fee is only a few bucks, but on principle I always have the manager of my local branch remove the charge. However, when I went into the branch to make my deposits, I found out that the usual manager had left his position. And the new manager was “conveniently” out of the office. I spoke with a business representative who didn’t have the power to remove the charge, and I told her to please withdraw the money from all my accounts, as I was going to take my business elsewhere. Of course, they don’t want to hear that. It really wasn’t the lady’s fault as she wasn’t the one who made those bizarro rules, so I remained very polite. She took my number and said she would work on it. She did phone me later to tell me that she was able to remove the fee, but I think I’ve made up my mind to seek out a new bank that’s more “entertainment industry” friendly; one that’s used to an actor bringing in a considerable amount of residual checks when they come in from our union. I know what they’re doing. They’re trying to get everyone weaned off of paper checks, and they want it all done digitally and directly. But I’m not biting. The checks I receive are part of how I do my bookkeeping, and I’m not in the mood to change because of the whim of a bank that I allow to keep my money. Incredible. After speaking with several people, including my accountant, I may move everything over to an entertainment-centric credit union. I met my pal Edi for lunch at Ernie’s Taco House for a birthday lunch. I begged her not to tell the staff it was my birthday, because they would bring me a free dessert that I wouldn’t be able to eat – as I’ve been off sugar for several months now. It was a pleasant lunch, and afterwards I went across the street to the cigar shop and bought myself a few nice cigars to enjoy on the next warm night we have in L.A.! I went home and did some work, and later my friend Amanda let me know she was in town, so we went over to Paty’s to grab dinner on the patio. I got back home to relax, recorded some auditions, took my nightly WOG, and worked some more on Herry’s brow. It was looking GOOD! As of tomorrow, it will be three weeks to Monsterpalooza. I’d better get my butt in gear, as I still have a few things to take care of before then! I made a salad and watched an episode of “The High Chaparral” before bed. Overall, a nice, quiet, pleasant birthday.

Thursday the 7th – HERRY’S HOT DOG! – With only three weeks remaining until the big Monsterpalooza convention, and my contribution to this year’s museum, I buckled down and got busy completing the details on getting my Herry Monster replica puppet finished. I measured and drew out the plans for his “purple hot dog” nose. I’ll take the drawing over to my friend Alex In Wonderland and she’ll sculpt it out of a material called L200. It’s a lot like foam rubber, but it doesn’t have pores in it like your standard upholstery foam. It’s more rigid and holds its shape better over time. Then she’ll have to cover it with a purple fur fabric, and cut the pile of the fur down very short. The exhibit we’re doing is called “Jim Henson: 70 Years of Creatures, Monsters & Misfits.” The idea is that monsters figured quite prominently in Henson’s early years with the Muppets. I’ll have about 15 puppets on display, and people will be able to access a written history of how important monsters were in the early days of The Muppets through an on-site QR code. I’m FINALLY in the modern world! I did some auditions, took my nightly WOG, and did some more video editing before bed.

Friday the 8th – BROW, BATS & BACKDROP…BUSY! – The first part of the day my maids came to clean Planet Wallywood, and then I headed over to my box to pick up some packages. I stopped by the Sign Store in Burbank to grab some engraved plaques, as well as the beautiful 6 foot by 8 foot cloth backdrop for the Muppet exhibit. My pal and webmaster Scott Sebring did a fantastic job on the graphics! More details later! I dropped by KFC to get some lunch at the drive-thru, and then headed to my local U-Haul location to reserve a moving van for the load-in and load-out days at Monsterpalooza. The plan is that my pal Joe Pendleton, who built the wood platforms upon which the puppets will be displayed, will drive down to my house at noon on Thursday May 28th, we’ll go to U-Haul to register as drivers for the van, take the van to Planet Wallywood, load everything up, and drive over to the Pasadena Convention Center to load-in. When we’re finished Joe will head back home, and the van will stay at my house all weekend. On Friday the 29th I’ll pack up the Gray Ghost and drive to the hotel to check-in, and then go into the convention to do some final tweaks before the show opens at 6pm. My daughter Lacey’s family gets into town later that night, and then the fun begins! I’ll have all day Saturday and Sunday to show the grandkids around Monsterpalooza, and then Sunday afternoon Joe drives back to my house. Picks up the van, and drives it over to the Pasadena Convention Center for load-out starting at 6pm. Maybe my grandkids will stay around to help me tear down. Who knows? It could be fun, and a memory in the making! After securing the reservation I headed back home to pick up my Rizzo the Rat puppet and Herry Monster’s head. I drove over to Alex In Wonderland’s shop to show her the conceptual sketch for Herry’s purple hot dog nose. She’s getting started on it right away, and it should be ready by the end of next week! I picked up a few grocery items, and then went home to put everything away. I had a full night’s worth of work to do! I put little pieces of metal on the back of the feet of the little bat puppets that my seamstress Maggie fabricated about a month ago. This way they will be able to hold little engraved plastic plaques using magnets, and I won’t have to puncture or ruin the puppets with pins or glues. I set up the Henson backdrop to have a look at it, and it looks amazing. Then I stitched some blue fur onto Herry Monster’s brow piece that will eventually be attached to the top of his head. I call it his “toupee piece.” I got halfway done and decided to call it a night. I would finish up on Saturday. I made a salad and watched another episode of “The High Chaparral.”

Saturday the 9th – …AND THE PUPPET FUN NEVER ENDS! – The afternoon was dedicated to doing some more puppet work. I disassembled the backdrop and frame and stashed them in the garage to get it ready to be transported in a few weeks to Monsterpalooza. I took off Herry Monster’s eye pieces and sprayed them with a few layers of protective Dullkote…a dulling spray that takes any shine off of the piece you’re covering. I stitched the fur to the other side of Herry’s brow, and since I’m not really a great seamstress, it took a considerable amount of time. But I got it done! And it looks sweet! However, once the “toupee piece” got attached to the brow, and I put the brow into the puppet’s face, it made Herry look like he had a pompadour! He really needs a trim! I took my nightly WOG and then came back inside to edit some more videos. I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched the second episode of “Night Gallery” on Blu Ray. This show looks amazing! And I love these old shows from the 70’s…they really had a signature look. I’m not sure if it’s the type of film they used or what, but it sure has a very specific look to the era. The episode I watched featured a very young Diane Keaton, and the legendary Burgess Meredith. Even the great Joseph Campanella put in an appearance. 70’s TV at its best! While “Night Gallery” was a lot more eerie than Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone,” the episodes also seemed to have an undercurrent of humorous irreverence…which was beautiful!

Sunday the 10th – WAX PAPER! EUREKA! – The painter’s tape I had put on Herry’s eye pieces to protect them while I was working on the puppet, took off a tiny chip of the paint right at the bottom of the right eye piece. Alex In Wonderland had warned me that this may occur, so I got paranoid and took the tape off to see how it was. Sure enough, the painter’s tape DID grab onto a small piece of the paint. So I ditched it, repainted the eye, and hit it with a few coats of Dullkote to protect it. But I still needed something to protect the eye pieces while the team and I were working on it. Then I thought that wax paper might do the trick. I could attach it to the back of the eye piece with painter’s tape, and just tear off the wax paper when the time came to attach the pupils. I headed to the grocery store just minutes before they closed and got some parchment paper, and wax paper – I’ll see which one works best. I got back home and started in on covering the eye pieces. I made a judgement that the parchment paper was a little more durable than the wax paper, so I covered the eye pieces with that and they should be good to go now. No stickiness! I took my nightly WOG, and then sat down and finished up Herry’s brow mech. It involved seating a bolt, washer and nut in his forehead, and attaching one end of a small spring to it. Then I attached a little bit of wire to the spring and attached that to the “pull tab” which operates the eyebrow mech. It was weird working on it at that angle, but I think I learned how to do it now. It’s looking very good! Next I need to install his mouth, and then Maggie needs to come over to do a bunch of stitching up. When that’s finished, he goes to Alex to get his nose attached, and then the head gets attached to the body. The final touches will be having my buddy Sergio Lopez come over to give his fur a trim and make the fur a little coarser, and then adding the pupils and tongue. Then he’ll be ready for his Monsterpalooza debut! This has been a really fun project to work on! I’m thankful to have such a great team of talented people helping me out with it!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK