RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I had just turned 5 years old in this picture, and here I am (complete with my Batman t-shirt…which I never took off!) working in our garden. Great memories!
Just randomly, the song “Classical Gas” from Mason Williams flashed into my head this past week. I just had to go on iTunes and buy it. Amazing song!
Monday the 14th – MONDAYS…WHAT A HEADACHE! – The winds kicked up over the past few days and my sinuses and allergies were going nuts again. I woke up around 3, having slept all day because of a bad sinus headache. I took care of some business on-line, gave Roxy and Spook some treats, and then napped the rest of the evening to try and get rid of the headache. It reminded me of being a kid in South Dakota. I’ve always had bad hay fever and it wasn’t uncommon for me to have to lay down with a cold rag on my forehead, and have my mom crush up some Dristan (remember that!) with some sugar and have me take it. While my cousins were outside playing and having a blast, I was in some dark bedroom somewhere trying to recuperate. My allergies have never been as bad as that…until this year. When I walk Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood (around 3am) I have a really super high intensity light my friend Officer Mark gave me. I use it to light our way during our walk so I don’t walk into any major spider webs, and so I can easily find Roxy’s droppings to pick them up. When I shine the light, I can see that the beam is full of junk and particulates in the air. I’M BREATHING THAT!! No wonder my allergies are killing me! I got up later and did an audition, wrote Wally’s Week, and then took Roxy on our late-night stroll after her dinner. While we were outside it started to rain. It was really nice! I went inside and got ready for bed, watched a couple episodes of “The Munsters” and went to sleep with it raining like crazy outside! BEAUTIFUL!
Tuesday the 15th – POST-MONSOON! – Unfortunately by the time I got up at noon the rain had stopped. I scuttled over to Voice Trax West in Studio City to do a session for a university. My friend Sandy came along to observe, since she’s working on getting into the Voice-Over industry. It was a fun session, and after we finished I took Sandy to lunch at DuPar’s. My hope was to enjoy my traditional rainy day meal…grilled cheese sandwich, fries, a side of ham and chicken noodle soup. But since the rain had stopped by then the meal didn’t have its same enjoyment. I bounced by Studiopolis to pick up a check, and then headed back home to walk Roxy. I sped off to Bang Zoom studios to work for 3 hours on Project X…that new project I’ve been telling you about…that I really can’t tell you about. After the session I stopped by Jersey Mike’s on my way home to pick up a sandwich. Though it had rained quite a bit, and quite intensely, it really hadn’t cooled down that much. It was still very humid. This has been the most humid summer I can recall in the 28 years I’ve lived here. I took a quick dip in the Jazuzzi to loosen up some muscles and then grabbed a nap. I got up for auditions and then finished off my Jersey Mike’s sandwich while watching a few more “Munsters” episodes.
Wednesday the 16th – TAKIN’ DE-BAIT! – Mid-afternoon I woke up and did a few things around the house. Then it was off to Project X again for another 3 hour session. This project is similar to the US Airways project I’ve been doing for the past several years, so it involves a lot of really long sessions. I hurried home after the session to watch what was left of the debate on TV. My pal Brittney dropped by for a quick visit, and then I took a dip in the Jacuzzi and grabbed a nap. When I woke up I did my auditions and watched the final 2 “Munsters” episodes from the Season One DVD set. What a great show!
Thursday the 17th – PICKIN’ THROUGH PROFILES! – After only about 3 hours of sleep, I got up and recorded a few Voice-Over things for Go 96.3 in Minneapolis, one of the radio stations I do “image voice” work for. My friend Scott Sebring came by the house to drive out with me to Profiles in History in Calabasas. We met up with our pal Officer Mark to look through a few of the things I was interested in bidding on at the big auction in two weeks. We had a great time looking through the items I was interested in, and seeing a few items that were way out of my price range, but were cool nonetheless. We had a great lunch at a deli called Lovi’s, and then I drove back home. I checked e-mails and then grabbed a nap. I was bushed! When I got up later my pal Jasmine dropped to say hi, since she was in the neighborhood. So I took her to Jerry’s Famous Deli for a bite. I came back and did my nightly auditions, worked on the computer all night, and did prep work for my upcoming trip to Palm Springs next week!
Friday the 18th – FUN, FUN FRIDAY! – It’s been 22 years since I’ve seen my old pal David Parks. He used to call me on the request line when I worked at 94.7 The Wave, and I used to hang out with he and his girlfriend Carol every once in a while and go to some Smooth Jazz concerts. We had recently gotten back in touch, and we enjoyed a fun 3 hour lunch at Jerry’s Famous Deli. When we finished I stopped by my mailbox to pick up a few cool things. Firstly, a new mannequin arrived that upon which I plan on displaying my Jim Carrey screen-worn Tony Clifton jacket and pants from “Man On the Moon.” I also picked up a really cool Adam West as Batman maquette from a company called Tweeter Head. I put the mannequin together and dressed it, and then I put the maquette together. But then I got hungry again. After all, time had really flown and it was now dinner time. I made plans to meet up with my assistant Sara at Miceli’s later. But first, it was time for a stop off at Michael’s Crafts to pick up my newly framed Cap’n Crunch animation cel. It was a gift from my buddy Tom Tataranowitz. While I was at the store I also picked up a shadowbox frame to display my original “Taxi” crew jacket. After dinner I came home to do some work around the house. I hung my Cap’n Crunch cel in the kitchen, and put together the “Taxi” crew jacket frame. I was beat, as it had been a long day. By the time I got to bed early Saturday morning I had been up about 21 hours straight!
Saturday the 19th – REHEARSAL’S UP! – Totally exhausted, I slept fairly late in the day. Since the days have been hot I don’t particularly feel bad about sleeping through the day in air conditioned comfort. But when I awoke I did some work around the house to prepare for a rehearsal shoot and camera blocking that we had scheduled for that evening for our new web series “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys.” The producers Kevin and Boz wanted to place the lights and cameras and mark them so they would be fully prepared when it came time to shoot the show. But first my effects guy Jim Ojala came over with a 3-D print he had made for a project we’re working on. Everybody knows that a repainted 1975 William Shatner Captain Kirk mask was used as the mask in the original “Halloween” movie. Those masks haven’t been available for a long time. As soon as people figured out that it was the Kirk mask in Halloween, they all got snapped up. Well, back in the 90’s, a “Halloween” superfan found a Kirk mask at a flea market and bought it. Then he made a rudimentary mold of it so he could make copies of it for sale. However, something went wrong along the way and the mold shrunk to the size of a child’s head. So when I bought a copy of the mask from him in the 90’s, it showed up in a tiny box. I had bought it to wear, but clearly this wasn’t going to be possible. Recently during a cleaning, I found it tucked away in my Chaney Room. I had a wacky idea. Since the mask is a perfect replica of an actual 1975 Kirk mask (except for its size) I wanted to have Jim explore how digital scanning technology and 3-D printing could bring this mask back to its full-sized glory. So Jim removed the hair, had it professionally scanned into a usable file, took the file to a 3-D printer and had an oversized 3-D print made. It maintained a lot of the original detail in the mask, but some restoration work would need to be done by Jim to make it look like it did back in 1975. Jim had it printed slightly oversized in order to allow for shrinkage once he made the latex mask. He brought the 3-D print over and it looked amazing. He’s going to start doing the restoration work on it soon, and then making the mold for duplication. I’m VERY excited! Later Kevin, Boz and Sara came over and we got set up to do a couple of test shots for the show. They said they only needed a few hours, but as these things go, we ended up working for 5 hours! But we made a lot of great headway. The guys believe they need one more rehearsal before we shoot it for real. When they left I napped for a bit and then got up to do some work around the house. I hung a few new posters, and then made my traditional giant Saturday night salad and watched another episode of “The Persuaders.”
Sunday the 20th – 103 DEGREES! – When I awoke around 4 to get ready for evening church I learned that it had his 103 in Burbank at 3:43pm. YIKES! Clearly it was too hot to walk Roxy to evening church. So I drove to church by myself, and when it was over I took Sara over to Fuddrucker’s for a hamburger. I’ve always loved their food and I was craving it. But going to the Sherman Oaks store was a BIG mistake. Aside from it taking forever to get our food, they got our order wrong. We weren’t the only ones. Virtually everybody there was getting replacement food because their orders were screwed up too! I’m not sure what was going on there, but I won’t be going back to that location. The men’s bathroom was mostly out of order too, so clearly this is a Fuddrucker’s location that’s not long for this world. It showed many signs of neglect, so that’s usually a sign that the owner is about to unload it. Plus the football game was on the TV and it was so loud I almost couldn’t have a conversation with Sara. Oh well…live and learn. At least the food was good. I came back home and did some work and grabbed a nap. Then I got up to churn out my auditions, and then made some food and started watching the 60’s TV series “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” on DVD.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Here’s the finished Cap’n Crunch cel. It looks dynamite!
The Jim Carrey Tony Clifton jacket and pants from “Man On the Moon” look quite at home next to my lifesize Tony Clifton mannequin
Here’s the small Kirk mask, next to the newly printed 3-D reproduction. Quite a difference!
This is a collage of the new 3-D print Jim had made. Now he’s going to do a little extra detail work on it, and make the mold!
My pal Sandy relaxes in Planet Wallywood.
I’m very pleased with how the “Taxi” crew jacket turned out.
Batman seems so lonesome waiting for Robin to arrive. This is the amazing Tweeter Head maquette which arrived this past week.
