April 04 – April 10 (2022) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I saw this at one of my favorite restaurants this past week. It’s amazing what they’re serving these days!!

Though not a very big hit, the combo of Graham Gouldman (10cc) and Andrew Gold (“Lonely Boy” and “Thank You For Being a Friend”) called Wax had a song in the 80s I’ve always loved called “Right Between the Eyes.” Initially I had only intended to post the audio version of the song, but after looking up the original music video on YouTube I’m posting that instead. This video is fun and appeals to a lot of facets of my world; including clips from old silent movies, Nosferatu, and the Thunderbirds marionette adventures. I hope you enjoy it! (BOY do I miss the 80’s!)

Monday the 4th – LUNCHEONETTE LAKE: PART 2! – As I walked into the kitchen after waking up I noticed that Roxy had piddled on the kitchen floor, which was much better than piddling on the carpet. Good girl! But clearly there’s still a problem. As she’s aged she’s apparently lost the ability to control her bladder for a long period of time. She’s now down to about 4-5 hours. Even with modifying her water intake, it’s clear that there’s still a problem. It was this way toward Sassie’s (my previous dog) final days. Roxy’s not quite there yet, but with her loss of appetite, loss of bladder capacity, and occasional back leg weakness, her mortality has become more of a reality to me now. I happened to awaken earlier than expected, so I typed a bit on Wally’s Week. I got showered and ready to start the fifth week of dubbing on the foreign sitcom, a gig that has become my “full-time” gig of late. When I came back downstairs I noticed that there was sudsy, debris-filled water on my kitchen table; which had leaked through the hole in my kitchen ceiling. My contractor Handy Don was just out here on Saturday fixing the corroded coupling and shower arm on the shower in my bathroom. We tested it and tested it and found it to be water tight. I’m not sure why there is more water leaking out of the hole! I called him immediately and told him, and since he was on a full-time construction job this week, he wouldn’t be able to come diagnose the problem until Saturday. Until then, I’m not going to be using my shower; I’ll use the one in the Puppet Room exclusively. I’m baffled! What could have happened? It was fine for two days, and now it’s not. Very frustrating! Puddles in the kitchen (though of different origins) were making me crazy! I stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch before going to the Igloo studios for the dubbing gig. The four hour session also included some fun “mock” trailer bits. VERY funny! After the session I came home and got ready for dinner. I’d be meeting my pal Daniel Roebuck at Little Toni’s so he could meet my 103 year old WWII friend “Bazooka” Joe and his relatives Seig and Denise. We had an amazing dinner and it’s always fun listening to Joe’s amazing stories. Dan has been having a great time working on the same foreign sitcom I’m working on, as I suggested to the casting people that Dan would be perfect for a certain role. He also told me about a tour he’s been doing to promote a movie he wrote, produced and starred in called “Getting Grace.” He’s having a lot of success showing the film and appearing at family-run theatres around the country. That gave me an idea. My pal Jeff Logan runs a theatre chain in South Dakota, so I immediately stepped outside to call Jeff and give him the pitch. But after I told him all about Dan, the most amazing thing happened. Jeff said that he had heard all about Dan’s tour within the theatre owner’s association of which he’s a member! He said he had made a note to himself to try to find out how to contact Dan for an appearance! Unbelievable!! And as you know, I don’t believe in coincidences, so it was obviously God’s doing. After dinner I came home to rest, do my nightly auditions, and finish Wally’s Week.

Tuesday the 5th – “F” IS FOR FABRIC! – Apparently I’m still not doing something right with Roxy’s water intake, as there was a spot of piddle on the living room carpet. Luckily, when I had the house re-carpeted a few years ago, I had the pet-safe carpet installed. So it’s easier to clean up and doesn’t stain. I had taken her out for a walk before bed and everything, but I think I’m going to need to stop her water at 2am. I hate to deny her water for 8 hours, but I remember when a cousin of mine was having trouble wetting the bed. My uncle and aunt stopped his water intake at a certain time and it seemed to solve the problem. I’m going to basically treat Roxy like a bedwetter. As soon as my sitcom-dubbing gig is over, I’m going to have the carpets cleaned again. Again, this is pretty much the same routine I went through with Sassie toward the end. It was a wonderful hot day! Gorgeous! It’s going to be in the low 90s for the next few days. Summer is trying to creep in little by little. I got some lunch on the way to the studio, and as I was walking in I ran into my old pal Dave B. Mitchell, fellow Voice Actor, who had also been cast in the foreign sitcom. This voice cast is shaping up to be stellar! I sure hope the sitcom is widely and favorably embraced once it’s released! I did a 4 hour session and then headed home to feed the pets. I drove over to JoAnn Fabrics to try and find some good contrast fabric for a new “Wizard of Oz” bowling shirt that I’m having made. But while I was there, I found some amazing Cookie Monster shirt fabric, so I also bought that and some navy blue contrast fabric for that. I have a specific reason for doing a Cookie Monster bowling shirt, but I’ll tell you more about it later. I picked up a few grocery items and headed home to relax and record my nightly auditions.

Wednesday the 6th – YOU GOTTA DOUBLE CHECK EVERYONE! – My day started with a voicemail message from Michael’s informing me that the frame and matte were finished for my Laurel and Hardy autograph piece. They had everything cut and ready, they just needed the actual autograph piece to finish it up. I drove over there before my gig with the autograph piece, and waited around while they finished it up. It looks amazing! I have a specific place for it on my Chaney Room wall, but until my kitchen gets put back together, and I clear my Chaney Room of all of the stuff that’s usually in my kitchen, I won’t be able to get it hung. I came back home and got ready to head to the sitcom dubbing gig. I stopped by McDonald’s to get some lunch, and it was very strange. It was a very long, slow line – and it seemed like everyone working there didn’t have a clue what to do. Odd. I got to Igloo and did a four hour session, and then I drove to Roxy’s vet to pick up her flea medicine. Yup, it’s that time of year again. I went home to feed the kids and then went out again to pick up a prescription at CVS. But by the time I got there the pharmacy was closed. It’s weird having to readjust to a full-time gig again, as I used to be able to get my errands done fairly easily. Now I really have to plan out my day to make sure I get everything done. So I went next door to Panera to get a half sandwich and mac & cheese to go. Since they were almost closed, the guy making my half sandwich made me a WHOLE sandwich. It was either that, or he’d have to throw the bread out, being the end of the day. I thanked him for his generosity and headed home. But like my dad has always said, “You’ve gotta double check everyone.” And usually when I don’t double check, I get burned. Such was the case with the generous sandwich guy. When I got home and opened my sack, I realized that he gave me the wrong order. It was a salad that I had no interest in eating. Somebody else got my sandwich, and I got their salad. I should have looked in the sack before I left, but I didn’t, and now I only have a bag of chips, a few pieces of bread, and some mac & cheese to eat. My bad. Between the clueless staff at McDonald’s earlier in the day, and the clueless sandwich guy, it’s not boding very well for the service industry. I got home and unpacked my groceries and rested for a bit. Later I did my nightly auditions, and watched the seventh episode of the foreign sitcom to prep for the next day’s session. It was a gorgeous, warm night! It makes me miss Palm Springs, but I’ll be there soon!

Thursday the 7th – YOU GOTTA TRIPLE CHECK EVERYONE! – Normally, my workday on the foreign sitcom has been between 2pm to 6pm. But for some reason my agent said they moved the session up to 1pm to 5pm. I thought it was odd, so I asked my agent to DOUBLE CHECK with the casting office that 1pm was definitely the start time. My agent confirmed that. So I got ready earlier than usual and headed over to a place called Pro 8 in Burbank to drop off some Super 8 movies to have them scanned and digitized. I’m very excited to see how these turn out. The last time I had my old Super 8 films converted it was to VHS back in the 90s. And the technology that existed back then wasn’t great. Basically, it involved projecting the film into a black box while a video camera filmed the screen. Very low tech. But nowadays the film is scanned in high resolution! I went to Taco Bell to get lunch and headed to the studio. I saw my pal Dave B. Mitchell, as he was given the 1pm call time as well. He also thought it was odd. But when we walked up to the studio, nobody was ready for us. They said, “Oh, you guys are early today.” Dave and I looked at each other knowing we’d been had. While casting gave us a 1pm call time, the studio still had a 2pm start time on their books, and all the studio engineers were sitting at the table eating their lunch. I told them because I have an elderly dog with a weak bladder I absolutely had to leave at 5pm as scheduled. She couldn’t be locked up that long without going out. So my studio engineer finished his lunch quickly and we got rolling. Instead of four hours, we got a good 3.5 hour session in. Hopefully my agent and the casting department have fixed their communication issues. I hope that doesn’t happen again. Proof that sometimes, even DOUBLE checking doesn’t work. You have to TRIPLE check. I went home to feed the kids and discovered that my internet was out. With the heat of the day, my old modem had chosen to start overheating. It was very, very warm to the touch. I called Spectrum to talk to a tech and while he worked on a few things remotely, he also informed me that my equipment was very old. Since it needed to be upgraded to the newest modem and router, he scheduled a tech visit for Friday evening. I discovered that I could remove the modem, put it in the fridge for a little bit to cool it down, reconnect it, and it would work fine for about 20 minutes (until it heated up again). I had dinner with my pal Sara at Ernie’s Taco House, and since it was a nice, warm evening, I bought a cigar at the store across the street. I’m looking forward to enjoying it this weekend. I got home, iced my modem, got on-line for a bit, checked my e-mail, did my auditions (quickly!) and then went to bed.

Friday the 8th – YOU GOTTA KNOW WHEN TO HOLD ‘EM, KNOW WHEN TO MODEM! – One of the things on my to-do list when the 6 week foreign sitcom-dubbing gig is over is to get new blinds in my studio areas. One set of horizontal blinds are broken beyond repair, and the blinds directly by my recording set-up are vertical and made of vinyl. While cleaning them a while back, I used water that was too hot and they warped. So they haven’t fit well since. But I’m going to have all-new dark wood horizontal blinds installed in both areas, and in addition to providing better sound quality, they’ll look better too. The same store that installed my new carpeting a few years ago, sent a guy over to measure for my new blinds. He brought samples over and I chose the darkest ones he had. In about two weeks he’ll have them ready for installation. I called in a salad-to-go at Paty’s and drove by to pick it up. Then I went to Igloo to eat and start my session. On Monday they want to do a five hour session, and though I’ve told them I’m not available for five hour sessions, they insisted. I think it’s to make up for the lost hour on Thursday due to the scheduling mishap. I’ll have to hire somebody to come walk Roxy mid-afternoon, as I know she won’t be able to hold it that long otherwise. While this foreign sitcom dubbing gig has been fun, it has taken quite a bit of finagling of my normal schedule to accommodate it. I got home and walked Roxy on a gorgeous night. My friend’s dog is a terrier and sees squirrels as prey, so she gets very VERY agitated when she sees squirrels. But since she’s on the leash, the squirrels gallivant around knowing full well the dog can’t get them. In fact, the squirrels even take great delight in purposefully taunting the dogs. It was hysterical watching the squirrels peak around the building to tease the dog, and then dart out in front of them, and then back again. They’re playing a game, and it was very funny. The squirrels have come up to Roxy before, even when Roxy was young, and seemed baffled that Roxy isn’t the least bit interested in them. In fact, they’ve even touched noses before! Hating squirrels isn’t in Roxy’s DNA. I chatted on the phone with friends while I waited for the Spectrum tech to arrive to install my new equipment. I ordered a Domino’s pizza and relaxed. Now remember the reason the Spectrum guy was coming over was because my internet was out. Luckily, after icing my modem for a bit, I was able to get on-line for a short time. I saw that an e-mail had arrived from Spectrum telling me that the tech was on his way to fix my non-functioning internet. So my question is – Spectrum knew that I had no internet, right? But yet they sent me an e-mail (that I would need the internet to read) to inform me that the tech was on the way to restore the internet that I no longer had! SO HOW THE HECK DID THEY EXPECT ME TO READ THE E-MAIL KNOWING I HAD NO INTERNET ACCESS??!!! It seems bizarre. Luckily Joel had my landline number and called me to let me know he was close by. He was a very nice guy, had the equipment upgrade I needed, installed it, and was on his way home. But after the week I had (water leaks, dog leaks, internet out, erroneous call times, etc.) I was exhausted. I napped for a bit in the Puppet Room listening to the lovely sounds of a croaking frog, and then worked the rest of the night paying bills, doing bookwork, and reconciling my receipts in my bank accounts. Whew!

Saturday the 9th – MORE CRAZINESS! – Handy Don arrived just before noon and we set about trying to determine why I still had water leaking from the hole in my ceiling, even though he repaired it last Saturday. He re-opened the hole in the wall in the Puppet Room to look at the work he had done on the coupling last Saturday. Everything was fine and water tight! He looked everywhere to try and find the source of that leak. NOTHING! We turned on the water in the shower. Nothing. We turned on the water in the bathtub. Nothing. We let water run down the drain to see if it was a drain issue. Nothing! VERY frustrating. So the only thing he could do was to patch the hole back up again and leave. He said if it happens again he would come right over, regardless of what he was doing at the time, and try to determine its source. It’s kind of like when your car makes a noise, but when you finally get it to the mechanic it’s no longer making the noise. I hate when that happens! Mid-afternoon, Roxy piddled on the carpet again, so I’m going to have to make a real concerted effort to make sure she goes out in four hour intervals from now on. As I was cleaning it up, my pals Officer Mark and James arrived so we could go to dinner. We went to Galco’s World Market and picked up more vintage soda and candy. Then we went to a place called Pie ‘N Burger for dinner. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall burger place in Pasadena that serves REAL food, the way it should be served. After a double cheeseburger, fries and some butterscotch pie, I was ready to head home to relax. Once I got home Officer Mark helped me record a Cameo greeting that had come in that morning. And later my friend Sabrina came over to hang out for a while and catch up. We had a nice walk down to the corner grocery store to get some items, and headed back to my house to enjoy them. Later I grabbed a nap listening to my croaking frog (VERY relaxing) and then got up to do some work around the house. I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched an episode of “The Saint” before bed. Sunday I would literally do NOTHING and rest all day.

Sunday the 10th – SUNDAY AT LAST! – Since my stylist was sick with a 24 hour bug last week, she had to postpone my hair appointment for a week. So I walked down to the salon and got a trim and a touch-up on my color. But I could feel that I was very, very tired. When I got back home I catnapped all day and into the evening. Roxy wasn’t that interested in eating, so I had to dig out some medication called Entyce, which improves their appetite. After that she ate a bunch of chicken and kibble. The frequent pottying and her decrease in appetite doesn’t make me feel very good, as I know what these signs indicate in a dog’s life. But I’m trying not to think about it. She is still in very good spirits, is alert and happy, and she loves meeting people. But on our walks I can hear that she’s starting to drag her back feet a little bit if we stay out too long. Poor old girl. I prepped for the upcoming week (the final week for dubbing the foreign sitcom) and hit the hay.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here are two gents who always made me laugh. Sadly they are no longer with us; Gil Christner and Dustin Diamond.

Getting to do a Superman radio play with the great Gary Owens at the San Diego Comic Con Cartoon Voice Actor panel was definitely a career highpoint.

During my brief history with my Uncle Davver character, I got to meet David Naughton and the legendary Ray Bradbury!

Though the retoucher had to work overtime to cover up my acne, this is what my high school graduation picture looked like.

I’ve never written my name in the snow in the traditional way, but I did “walk” my name in the snow once while at a convention in New Jersey. From ground level it didn’t look like much, but from the view of the seventh story in the hotel, it all made sense.