RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
While some people grew up on the Disney and Warner cartoons, my go-to as a kid were always Hanna-Barbera and Filmation. I felt that Filmation had some really great shows, and their cartoons ended up meaning more to me later in life than any other studio. I loved Groovie Goolies, the Archies, Star Trek, Fat Albert, Superman, Batman, and even their live-action shows! So when I found a picture of a piece of unused Filmation letterhead from back in the day, I just had to grab it. How cool!
In the 80s the group Madness had some pretty great songs. “One Step Beyond” was a wacky classic (and a GREAT video), and their big hit “Our House” is a staple of 80’s music. But I’ve always loved “It Must Be Love.” My dentist is a HUGE Madness fan, and he’ll drive his Harley to Las Vegas whenever Madness is playing there and go to their shows!
Monday the 3rd – PHASE 1: DONE! – The notification had arrived that I had packages waiting for me at my box, so I headed over to pick them up. I was a bit hungry so I stopped at the McDonald’s drive-thru to get some lunch. I hadn’t had McDonald’s in several months! I drove over to Michael’s crafts to see about picking up some supplies for my two new Muppet replicas I’m making; the Yip Yip Martians from “Sesame Street.” While I was there I got a call from my pal Edi Lurie who said she was in the area. I waited for her at Michaels until she got there. She’s working on some new merchandise ideas for her husband Elliot Lurie’s live shows. Elliot was the singer/songwriter responsible for the mega-hit “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” and he’s been playing out very regularly to very enthusiastic crowds. They’ve had the same merchandise for a while now, and she figured it’s time for an upgrade of new selections. So we looked at a few t-shirt ideas and threw a few concepts around. Before heading home I picked up a few grocery items, and then I waited for Thor my computer guy. Today was the day we would install my brand new computer system…which has been over a year in the making! But the more we went along with the installation, the more we realized we had so much additional work yet to do! Phase 2 will be in a few weeks when we have the chance to order a few more things that we need. But I’m happy with how everything is turning out. I purchased a new audio program called Twisted Wave that I’ll be using for my auditions from here on out. The program I had been using for over 20 years, Sound Forge, has been purchased by several companies since I first obtained it. It still exists, but it’s outgrown me considerably, as I still have very simple use requirements and I found it to be convoluted and cluttered now. But it’s shocking how expensive computer stuff has gotten these days! I’m glad I bought the initial equipment for this new build over a year ago when things were still reasonable. But the prices of simple hard drives have gone through the roof! They’re almost double what they were when I purchased them a while back! It’s time to repurpose several external drives that I already have lying around, I think. I rested for a while, and then did my daily auditions. I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) for a mile and a half, spent some time outside afterwards in the anti-gravity chair enjoying the quiet night, and then I headed inside to write “Wally’s Week.”
Tuesday the 4th – HELPING A YOUNG ARTIST! – Last spring I was doing a one-day signing at a local Transformers convention and I ran into a young artist who was telling me about his new animation project, and how his social media following for the concept was already considerable. He wanted to pick my brain about the next move and I told him I’d be happy to meet with him. Several months passed before I heard from him, and a few more passed before our schedules were able to coincide. But today we met at “the office” on the patio at Paty’s to chat about ideas. It must’ve gone well, because when I looked at the clock after the meeting was over we had met for OVER four hours!! As we sat on the patio a cool, brisk breeze whipped up, giving L.A. a much-needed break to the heatwave we’ve been experiencing. It’ll be nice to have a few cooler days for a while. I got back home to do some work and relax. Then I recorded my auditions, took my nightly WOG and spent the usual “cool-down” time in the anti-grav chair outside afterwards. I went inside to do some video editing, and then I made a salad and watched an episode of “The High Chaparral.” This episode was one of the best ones I’ve seen on the second season DVD set. Cameron Mitchell, whom I’ve always loved as an actor, blew me away. I always knew he was amazing, but this episode was a tour de force for him!
Wednesday the 5th – HERRY’S HEAD, ETC.! – All afternoon I worked around the house doing miscellaneous things, and later in the evening I headed over to Alex In Wonderland’s studio. I had several projects for her to start on, including the “reshaping” of a few areas of the foam rubber head shape of my latest Muppet replica Herry Monster. As I kept staring at him on his display rod in my living room, I realized that I had made the top of his head too flat, and it needed to be rounded a bit more to more closely resemble the actual Muppet. I could have easily done the foam work myself, but after that’s done then the fur covering the foam would need to be resewn anyway. So I just took the entire puppet to her and asked her to do both things. She has a very clear understanding of what needs to be done. When I came back home I continued doing some things around the house, I recorded my auditions, and relaxed for a bit. I took my WOG and enjoyed some more time in the anti-grav chair to end the day.
Thursday the 6th – THE LATE, GREAT CHUCK McCANN AND A GREAT GIFT! – My pal Mark Fullerton came over just before noon and together we hit the road to head to the Julien’s Auction location in Gardena. During a recent auction they featured the orange jumpsuit and cap that my old pal Chuck McCann had worn in the Saturday morning Sid & Marty Krofft show called “Far Out Space Nuts.” Had I known about the auction I would have bid on the item, as I was with Chuck several times when he was wearing it. He wore it to a Halloween party I threw back in 2012, and he also brought it to a convention we both did in Minneapolis back in 2011. Good memories. I was at Julien’s to pick it up for my old pal Mike Schrimmer who lives in Chicago. He had purchased it at the auction last month, and promptly informed me that he bought it for me! WOW! What a gift! So as opposed to shipping the costume to him in Chicago, and then having to have it shipped back to L.A. to me, he asked if I would go pick it up…which I was MORE than happy to do. My only issue now is…where is the new Chuck McCann mannequin (or my McCannequin) going to go in Planet Wallywood??? The costume sure brought back some good memories. Mark and I hustled up to Burbank so we could grab a delicious lunch at The Smoke House. When I got back home I got a wild hair to do some cleaning up in the garage. I started questioning the timing of my idea when the setting sun in the west started beating in on me, creating a VERY hot, sweaty environment. But I got two shelves organized in a corner of my garage that had been the bane of my existence for a long time. These are shelves that contain a lot of stuff that my contractor would need when he comes over to do work; stuff like random door knobs, paint, paint supplies, scraps of wood and dry wall, tools, clamps, etc. It was my goal to make it as organized as I could, and I wrote down all of the items that went on every shelf. After a couple of VERY sweaty hours I went inside to clean up. But of the four shelves I had done a lot of great work on the top two! Two more to go! Unfortunately I was unable to locate a specific paint I was looking for so I could do some touch-up work in the vanity area of my Tranquility Zone. I guess we must’ve used up the last of it. Matching the color to have future quantities of it made will be a little difficult, as I don’t have a big enough color sample to show the hardware store for a match. But I’ll give it a shot when I get back from Chicago next week. I also would like to paint the ceilings of the vanity area and the bathroom in my Tranquility Zone dark blue. So it’s something else that I’ll tackle when I return from Fan Expo next week. A shower felt REALLY good, and then I relaxed for a bit. Later I did my auditions, took my WOG, and spent some time in the anti-grav chair enjoying the warm evening. I went inside to do some video editing, and clean up for the maids who would be coming in around noon the next day. I also had a private signing scheduled with one of my reps on Friday afternoon, who was bringing over some Renji Funko Pops for me to sign for a client of his.
Friday the 7th – THE USPS STRIKES AGAIN! – When I awoke I saw a text on my phone from my rep that the items required for today’s private signing hadn’t arrived in the mail yet, so we’re postponing until after I return from Chicago. Oh well, I had other stuff I could be doing in the afternoon anyway. The maids arrived and cleaned up, I scanned some checks and then headed over to make my monthly deposits into my accounts. My assistant Emily was in the area so I picked her up and we headed to “the office” and enjoyed lunch on the patio at Paty’s. I picked up a package at my box, and then hit the grocery store for some supplies. I dropped off some mail at the post office, and then headed home to do some work. Later my friend Amanda was in town, so we headed over to Little Toni’s to grab a late dinner. When I got home I was pretty tired, so I relaxed the rest of the night. I didn’t even take my nightly WOG, but I figured one night off wouldn’t hurt anything.
Saturday the 8th – ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER! – When I tried to put the USB-C power cord into my cell phone it wouldn’t go all the way in so it could charge. Uh oh. It seemed like some foreign substance was deep down inside it preventing the connection. This is bad, because I have no other way to charge the phone otherwise. With my out-of-town trip to Chicago coming up soon, I have to figure out something fast! I went to my box to get some packages, and then I headed to my stylist Andie’s to get a touch-up on my color. Then I came home to relax and work with my phone, but it’s getting worse and worse. To make matters EVEN worse, I’m down to 76% of my battery! I did chat with my eldest daughter Lacey about her trip to L.A. in October for “Son Of Monsterpalooza.” I got on-line and bought our airline tickets, but as I was on-line buying other stuff I started having problems with my corporate credit card. I remember last Monday I had gotten a notification from my bank that they spotted some “suspicious activity” on my corporate credit card. But it was ME attempting to make the purchases for my new computer with my computer guy Thor. I ended up using my personal credit card for the purchases, and I called the number on the email they sent. However, as I was paying Thor by the hour, the last thing I wanted to do was to sit on the phone with my credit card company for an hour wasting his time. So I figured I’d do it later. Oops. I decided to shut my cell phone off and conserve as much battery as possible until I could figure out a good alternate solution. What’s the logical move, here? Later I took my WOG, and enjoyed a nice cigar in my anti-grav chair afterwards. With the phone and credit card problems, I needed it! On my landline (thank GOD for my landline!) I called the credit card company, as it was now early Sunday morning on the east coast. After about an hour of waiting I finally got somebody on the line. Nya was very nice, and she said they flagged my card because of suspected fraudulent activity. Fraudulent activity? You mean like what happened with my personal account back in March? WHERE WERE YA A FEW MONTHS AGO?! Anyway, we went through the “suspicious” purchases one by one, and I assured her that they were all mine. She cleared my card for future purchases and I hit Amazon to get busy purchasing some things for my cell phone issue. Since I can’t charge my cell phone in the usual way, I’m going to have to treat it like I do my Canon camera. When the battery dies I remove it, put in another one that’s charged, and put the drained battery on a charger. I even joined Amazon Prime so the shipping would be faster. I ordered two back-up batteries that are suitable for my type of cell phone, and they will be here Monday afternoon! I ordered a multi-use charger that can charge the type of batteries I have in my cell phone, but that won’t be here until later in the week. Since I’m leaving for Chicago on Friday, I’m hoping it’s here in time! I looked up the particular model of cell phone I have and it said that the ports often become clogged over time because of gunk or lint. Since I’ve had this phone for quite a while, it’s probably long overdue for something like this to happen. I realized that a newer model of this same phone has been released, so I found it on Amazon and bought it. It should be here by Tuesday. Luckily, it uses the exact same batteries as my older cell phone, so I’ll have some good battery back-ups for this new phone. I’m just hoping that Verizon will be able to activate it without any trouble. But since their name is on the front of the phone, I’m thinking that’s a given. Whew! From one crisis to another! I took great delight in making a nice salad and watching an episode of “The Outer Limits” on Blu ray before bed.
Sunday the 9th – MY MESSY DRAWERS! – Today was a mostly restful day, but later I got another one of my famous “wild hairs” and started going through two cluttered drawers in my office area. I was looking to see if I had a back-up battery lying around for my cell phone, but I only found two likely candidates. Unfortunately they were batteries for a phone I no longer owned. I tore through stuff like a madman…I found cords, cables, glasses, odds & ends, and a bunch of crap I no longer needed. My new drawers are so neatly organized now I will have no problem finding anything in the future. It helped even further that I went down into the garage and found several small boxes that I could put stuff inside. So now when I open the drawers I don’t see a bunch of random stuff, I see several boxes which contain a bunch of random stuff. But at least it’s neater and more organized now. That job was LONG overdue. But much like the shelves in my garage, it all started when I was looking for something I needed. Speaking of stuff I needed, I was looking for my bag of supplies for my new Guy Smiley Muppet replica project. It contained the puppet head, and lots of fabrics and supplies I’ll need when I start putting the puppet together. But I couldn’t find it for the life of me! I checked the Puppet Room closet…no dice. I checked the Chaney Room closet…no dice. Those were the only two places I would have put it. I checked the garage…no dice. While I was on my WOG I thought a lot about it. “Where could I have put that stuff?!” I sat in the anti-grav chair and pondered it. But when I came back inside the house I immediately went to a closet in my living room. Sure enough…there it was! I laughed because back in May, when I was hastily cleaning and preparing my house for my grandkids’ visit, I took a bunch of stuff I had lying around and found little cubbies and areas to stash stuff in to get it all out of the way. I had to make the place look neat and orderly for them! And I must’ve been in such a hectic state I plumb forgot where I put some of this stuff! Mission accomplished. I recorded a bunch of auditions which were due first thing Monday morning, and then organized my photo case for my upcoming trip to Chicago. This should be fun! I also changed the filter for my HVAC, as the last time I changed it was back on the first of April. The AC has been running fairly regularly, since it’s the middle of summer, I wanted to make sure it had a fresh filter so it could continue running at its optimum capacity. I turned my cell phone on to see if I had any texts, and then promptly shut it off again. Until I get a handle on when some of these items I ordered will arrive, I want to conserve as much power as possible. I hit the hay, as I have to get up early on Monday and hit my box to see if the back-up batteries for my phone arrive as expected. Then I need to go to Verizon to see if they can repair my phone, and if not, if they can activate my new phone with no problem. LOTS to do in the forthcoming week!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
At Julien’s Auctions, they brought out the Chuck McCann costume…
…this is it!
I’m ELATED to have this wonderful piece in my collection. THANKS MIKE!
Here’s Chuck and I from back in 2010 at the Convergence convention in Minneapolis. I encouraged Chuck to bring his “Space Nuts” costume along, and he reluctantly put it on. He didn’t think anyone would care. But people went NUTS seeing him in it again!
He even wore at one of his panels!
Back in 2011 Chuck came to my Halloween party in the costume. Here he is with my pal Sara Raftery…
…and my friends Joe and Zandra Pendleton…
…and my buddy Mike from Chicago. He’s the one who so graciously purchased Chuck’s costume for me at the auction.
And who knew that the famous Judy Tenuta was at my party! I ‘d love to know what Chuck and Judy were discussing!!
Mark Fullerton’s pictures from our lunch at Smoke House were actually reposted by the Smoke House’s official social media account. How cool! Nothing gets between me and my filet mignon!
