RANDOM PIC OF THE WEE
To me, every day is Veteran’s Day.
While I was at Glaco’s World Market this past weekend I heard this terrific song. (They always play 50’s music in the store!) Phil Phillips and “Sea of Love” is a classic!
Monday the 7th – OFF AND RUNNING! – My day started with several auditions that I recorded in my home studio and sent to my agents. Then I did some work around the house. Later, even MORE auditions poured in, so I recorded those. Then I sat down to compose Wally’s Week for this period. When I finished I did a little prep for a session on Tuesday for a video game.
Tuesday the 8th – TOO ATTRACTIVE! – After a quick session in my home studio for an ongoing client, I walked over to Voice Trax West to meet up with one of my favorite video game directors; Bill Black. It was the first time I worked for him “in-person” in quite a long time. His schedule usually only allows him to work with his actors remotely. We worked for a few hours on a video game that’s based on a major motion picture, and then he treated me to lunch next door at Chin Chin. It was fun sitting down to catch up on stuff, particularly since Bill is usually so busy and unable to chill for a few minutes. I enjoyed the beautiful walk home and did some work around the house. I recorded a few auditions, and then I started working with a different “magnetic” idea to keep Super Grover’s knight’s helmet secured onto his head. I had tried magnets before, but eventually abandoned the idea. I tried a slightly different idea using three magnets and a metal piece that ran along the inside bottom of his helmet. But when I got the magnets installed inside the fur of the back of Grover’s neck, the magnets were so strong they kept wanting to attract to each other instead of the metal in the helmet. It turned out to be a real mess, and I pulled everything out; the magnets, the metal band, everything. Back to the drawing board. It’s the last time I’ll consider using magnets for this problem. While the magnets are very strong and could hold the helmet nicely, their behavior is too unpredictable. So I went back to my hook and bar idea, but I couldn’t find any hook and bar sets on Amazon that were big enough for my purposes. I went outside for a late-night WOG (walk/jog) and spent a little time in the anti-grav chair looking at the sky and relaxing. It was a cloudy, cool night, and I could hear several owls hooting beautifully in the distance. Nice!
Wednesday the 9th – TREASURE TROVE! – After I recorded a few quick auditions and submitted them to my agent, I was on the way to Paty’s to have lunch with my pal Sara. Afterwards I picked up a treasure trove of stuff at my box! Lotsa good stuff! First, I got four yards of a new fleece for puppet building called F3. I can’t wait to see how it dyes and handles. Then I got a cool photo of Adam West on eBay, and he’s sitting next to one of the Batman cowls I used to make. Great memories! I got some vinyl sheets of a specific jigsaw puzzle pattern that’s used in the autism community for awareness. My sister’s granddaughter (my great niece) is autistic, and my sister wants to make purses to give out as gifts with that specific pattern. Neither she nor I were able to find the correct pattern of fabric for this project, so I told her I’d get some custom fabric made. But first I needed the correct design she liked. Once I get home, I’ll scan the vinyl sheet and make a digital image of it, and my pal Scott Sebring will use that image to create the layout to order the cotton fabric my sister needs for the purses. My original iPod came back to me all fixed up. The hard drive had gone bad, so I had it replaced by a guy who is a genius at all the iPod technical things. I’d have lots to keep me busy for a while with all this stuff. I gassed up the Gray Ghost and headed home. I restocked the iPod with all my tunes and it works great! I scanned the Adam West pic, as well as the jigsaw vinyl sheets. I did some more auditions and turned my attentions to the Super Grover helmet. Earlier in the day at lunch, Sara suggested using wig clips to clip the helmet into Grover’s fur so it wouldn’t slide back when I manipulated the puppet. I had considered that as an option early on, but I really didn’t want the clips to accidentally damage the fur at all. But I got to thinking, and since I have lots of scrap fur left over from the build, I could easily replace any fur that gets damaged. So I dug out some wig clips from my stash in the Chaney Room, sewed three of them to little pieces of black leather, and glued the black leather pieces onto the inside bottom of the helmet. Once the glue cures, I’m going to give it the stress test. Hopefully this will be the end of it. I have a fallback plan using a loop and strap system, but I’m hoping the wig clips will give me the support I need. I went outside for a nice WOG (walk/jog) and then spent some time relaxing outside in the anti-grav chair looking at the sky. I came inside to make a salad and watch an episode of “The Incredible Hulk,” and “Have Gun – Will Travel” before bed.
Thursday the 10th – CHANEY ROOM: REDUX! – The afternoon was filled with miscellaneous work around the house, making phone calls, and taking care of a few random things. Later I had lots of auditions to record. For the past several months I’ve been looking at the storage shelves in the Chaney Room and thinking of ways I could repurpose them for other stuff. Many years ago the Chaney Room was a functional make-up and costuming room, for when I would dress up as various characters. But now that I’m out of the visual character business, I need to throw out a lot of the make-up lotions and potions that were once a necessary part of my work. Many of the old contact lenses I used to use are no longer usable, and a lot of the cleaners, chemicals and solvents I used are out of date as well. I’m going to have my pal Jim Ojala come by to take what he wants, and the rest will go in the trash. This will free up some space in the cubbies for storage of other things…mainly puppet supplies. I did a little reorganization work, but got tired of it after a while. I’d like to get some acrylic containers that fit nicely into the cubbies to dress up the look of the area a bit. I went outside for a nice WOG, and then spent some time in the anti-grav chair. I came inside and made a Tombstone pizza and did some detail work on my vintage set of Laurel and Hardy marionettes. On one of the controllers, a tiny little plastic clip that held one of the strings had snapped off. I took some Magic Sculpt and made a new clip. When it cures I’ll drill a small hole into it, paint it to match, and it should be almost as good as new! I’m going to a show at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater this Saturday, so I’d like to get their opinion on how to restring these puppets properly.
Friday the 11th – CANCEL CULTURE! – When I signed onto my email to start the day I got some bad news. The Laurel and Hardy 12 inch figures I had ordered from a company in the UK called Big Chief back in 2020 were being cancelled for good. Obviously there was a delay with all of the nuttiness in 2020, but the company said they were still being made once the supply chain issues were resolved. They said as recently as a few months ago, that the figures were finally being released late summer/early fall. So they were supposed to be heading my way literally in a few weeks. But with all of the delays, craziness and hiccups, the company decided to close its doors for good, and to cancel all pre-orders. Rats. I had been saving two spots on my 12 inch figure cabinet just for them. Oh well. A 3 year wait for nothing. Of course another company could buy them and honor all of their pre-orders, but it’s not likely. I had a tele-med appointment with my Dr. at 11, and then my buddy James came by to help repair my downstairs toilet. He’s much better at this kind of thing than I am, so I always appreciate his help with these matters. Afterwards we walked down the street to have a nice, relaxing lunch outside to enjoy the weather. When I got back I did some work around the house, and drilled a tiny hole in the piece I had made from Magic Sculpt on the marionette controller. I painted it red and it looked pretty slick! Later my friend Angi came over and we sat around deciding what to do with the evening. We decided to drive to Little Toni’s to get some pizzas to go, and then come back and watch a movie. As Angi was looking through my movie cabinet she said, “You have ‘Metropolis’ on Blu-ray?” I said, “You know what ‘Metropolis’ is?” (She’s only 26 years old). She said, “I LOVE ‘Metropolis!’” WOW! I was pleasantly flabbergasted! We decided to do “Metropolis” on another night, but for some reason she was into a horror movie. I’ve had a DVD copy of Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me To Hell” for years, but had never seen it. So we went upstairs, got our food situated and watched the film. It was a wild film with great effects by KNB, and the film was a great example of how practical effects and CGI can work together successfully. It was definitely a Sam Raimi film and had a lot of “Evil Dead” qualities about it. Later I went outside for some anti-grav time, but I was really tired. Since I didn’t have anything to do on Saturday until later in the day, I took some Advil PM and got a good, solid 8 hours of sleep! I needed it!
Saturday the 12th – NOT ONE, BUT TWO BOB BAKERS! – Officer Mark came over mid-afternoon and we headed to Galco’s World Market in Highland Park. They have sorts of vintage candies and sodas, and I like to go there about every 6 months and stock up. After we got some delicious sandwiches in the store’s deli, I picked up a sack load of candy and bubble gum, and 3 cases of various sodas. Then we drove down the street and found parking so we could check out the “Hooray L.A.” show at the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre. I had done the initial narration for this show many years ago, and had recently done some pick-ups for them, as they were updating the show for L.A.’s upcoming birthday in September. We checked in to get our tickets and found our seats. The theater had changed quite a bit since I visited back in the spring of 2021! It was a whole different place, now that they’re totally moved in and settled. The show was absolutely delightful, and I was surprised at how well it held the attention of the kids in the room! The show itself is only about 45 minutes long, perfect for a young child’s short attention span, and each bit is no longer than 2 minutes; the perfect amount of time to hold a kid’s attention before they start to get restless. The show moves really well and I was SO proud to be a part of it! We got some fun shots after the show, and I picked up two caps from the gift shop. One was for me, and the other is for a DIFFERENT Bob Baker I’d be meeting with later that night. My friend Edi’s dad is also named Bob Baker, so we thought it would be funny to get him a cap with the theatre’s logo. Officer Mark and I went back to Planet Wallywood to refresh, and then we headed to the Smoke House for dinner with Edi, her dad, and friends. It was a great time, and I even brought Grover along for extra fun. It seemed that the people in the restaurant all loved seeing him! I love bringing the Muppet replicas out from time to time. Seeing the looks on people’s faces when they see these iconic characters is priceless. Even though I’m not the real guy, and just a fanboy, it doesn’t seem to matter when people see these puppets. After a great meal I headed home and downloaded some of the photos from the day. Later I took a WOG and spent some relaxation/meditation time in the anti-grav chair looking at the sky. There was a meteor shower going on for the next few nights, and while I was able to see a few, the L.A. sky is simply too light polluted to see many of them. I made Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched an episode of “The Saint” before bed.
Sunday the 13th – SMALL FANS, BIG FANS, SUPERFANS! – Over the past month or so my computer seems to have been emitting a large amount of heat. I asked my pal Joe (a computer expert) to see if he could come install two new fans I bought on Amazon into my computer. He and his wife Zandra arrived and we took the computer apart. While the computer WAS fairly dusty (on the fan, and in the vents and ports) it looked like the fans were working well. Replacement of the new fans wasn’t possible, as they were much too small to fit in my computer. I had been given the wrong info for which type of fans to order, so they’re going back to Amazon. We cleaned everything really well and put it back together. I turned the computer on and we decided to go to dinner to see if it heated up again while we were away. When we got back to Planet Wallywood everything seemed to be running nice and cool. Apparently the good cleaning we gave it was enough to keep things well ventilated. Later I scanned a bunch of checks for some deposits. The past several weeks I’ve received about 50 individual residual checks for a comedy series I voiced many years ago. By now each check is for a very minimal amount, averaging 2 cents per check. But Screen Actor’s Guild sent each check to me in an individual envelope! This is bizarre. It costs about 60 cents each time they send one of these 2 cent residual checks, which doesn’t seem sensible. The total of all the checks was still only about a buck fifty, so it seems to me that sending all the residuals on one statement, and on one check is a more logical way to go. By the time I was done I didn’t have much time to relax outside in the anti-grav chair. Besides, as it got closer to dawn it got cold and cloudy. I came inside and ate what was left of my Galco’s deli sandwich.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
After a quick stop at Galco’s World Market to pick up a few cases of soda…
…it was off to the Bob Baker Marionette Theater to see the “Hooray L.A.” show!
The sparkly, spangly Cat Noir stops the show with an amazing number.
…and she’s soon joined by two friends! Amazing!
The craftsmanship of these puppets (both the fabrication and the manipulation) is stunning!
A 70’s disco number was also a showstopper!
One of my favorite numbers in the show is when two mountain lions meet at a wildlife crossing in the Santa Monica mountains.
Some of the puppets come out after the show for a Meet ‘n’ Greet! I just couldn’t resist!
This is Diego, the emcee of the show and the lead puppeteer.
Thanks to my pal Mark Fullerton, here’s a neat montage of snippets from the “Hooray L.A.” show at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater!
In some of the old “Sesame Street” sketches, Grover plays an inept waiter who can never get anything right. So it was fun posing with the amazing servers at the Smoke House who ALWAYS get everything right! Notice that Grover has his napkin over his arm and is ready to go to work, but they told him “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
The photobombing monster! My friend Edi’s dad was visiting for the weekend, so we took him out for a delicious dinner at the Smoke House. Pictured with my pal Sara is Edi’s dad…Bob Baker. Yup, you read it right. ANOTHER Bob Baker!
Officer Mark, Grover, me, Emily, Edi, her dad the “other” Bob Baker, and Sara after a sumptuous meal at the Smoke House!
I love taking my Muppet replicas out and about, because seeing the looks on people’s faces always thrills me. The ladies at the check-in desk at the Smoke House are no exception. Even though I’m not the real deal, and just a Muppet fan with a replica, watching adults turn into kids again before my very eyes never gets old!
We end the evening with the presentation of a Bob Baker hat to…Bob Baker.
It’s off to watch a horror movie and eat pizza. But first, a quick kiss for luck!
Here’s a great shot of Adam West at a convention sitting next to one of the Batman cowls I made. I love this picture!
It looks like they’re in the process of filming the second season of “Ersan Kuneri” in Turkey. I hope the second season gets dubbed to English, and I hope I get to reprise my role as the English voice of Ersan once again! I had such a blast doing this show last year!
Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?
