August 28 – September 04 (2023)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

How cute is this?!

I discovered “The Barrel” on the Coffee House music channel on my DirecTV satellite line-up. It haunted me for days. Then I looked up the singer Aldous Harding on YouTube, and her vibe haunted me as well. (All in a good way, of course). So I bought the song and I’m delving into some of her other music. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Monday the 28th – SUMMER! FINALLY! – When I got up my computer said it was 105 out! Finally! Some good summer weather! With glee I drove to Paty’s to meet with my pals Drew and Nicolette to catch up on all the latest happenings. Drew has been busy working on projects at the Henson Studios and his girlfriend Nicolette is on a break between segments of the latest Coldplay tour, where she performs a puppet character onstage called Angel Moon. What a great lunch! Drew mentioned that he had once done some “right hand” work for Jerry Nelson when he was in town doing a project with The Count. I think I’m going to ask Drew to assist with the construction of my replica Count, seeing as how he’s had his hand in the real one! After lunch I got my packages at my box, got some ice cream at Baskin-Robbins, and then headed home to meet up with my pal Sara. My cat Spooky’s nails were very long and he was starting to stick to stuff. Sara is really good with her clippers so I hire her to come give Spook a mani/pedi from time to time. But so much time had passed since his last procedure, his nails had grown VERY long. Poor kitty was absolutely hating it. But, it all worked out. Then I drove over to my seamstress Shelley’s house to drop off some fabric so she could make three new bowling shirts for me. After not knowing where the pattern was for a while, (see last week’s Wally’s Week) she did manage to find it in her collection of patterns, but it was misfiled. I dropped the fabric off, and came back home to do some work around the house. I organized a folder of vintage family photos for my sister Peggy. She’s planning on trying to get my South Dakota family together to view these great old slides. It’s quite a glance into the past! And since the source material (the slides) had been so well preserved, they are all crystal clear with bright colors! Later I wrote up Wally’s Week, and chatted with my sister Peggy on the phone for a bit. She contracted an illness during a recent road trip so she was under the weather. I made a salad and watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk.”

Tuesday the 29th – FLEETING SUMMER EVENING! – While I was busy at UPS shipping off some fabric and things to my sister Peggy, I also picked up my packages. I got in the entire “Have Gun – Will Travel” series on DVD! I can’t wait to watch it, but there are 6 seasons of episodes, so I have a LONG way to go! I gassed up the Gray Ghost and headed to the hardware store to pick up some pieces for my replica Super Grover’s suspension device. I got back home and sat outside my garage as the day ended. It was fun watching the sun set and seeing the crows in the trees overhead grooming themselves at the end of the day. I looked through all the paint cans I had in my garage and I finally found the green paint for my Puppet Room bathroom. My Puppet Room has a Muppet and Wizard of Oz motif, so painting my bathroom emerald green bathroom seemed like a good compromise between the two (Kermit and the Emerald City.) A few years ago, my contractor made a repair on my bathroom plumbing, which required him to knock a hole in the wall. So there’s been an ugly white patch on the bathroom wall for quite a while. I’m finally going to get around to texturing the patched area and painting it green to match the rest of the bathroom walls. I did a little prep work for this Saturday’s “Laurel & Hardy Theatre,” but I’m not sure the new DVD “Laurel & Hardy: Year One – The Restored Silents” will be here on time. It releases on Friday (after a two week delay) but the Best Buy website says it won’t be delivered until Saturday afternoon. I hope they’re right, as I’m looking forward to delving into the set this Saturday night. I went outside for a late-night WOG (walk/jog) through the complex, and then enjoyed some time in my anti-grav chair, sipping a cold iced tea and admiring the sky. There were lots of stars and an almost-full moon. It was very relaxing. I came back inside and prepped for a Voice Over session on Wednesday, and I added all the “Have Gun – Will Travel” episodes to my database.

Wednesday the 30th – FOREIGN SERIES, FOUR YEARS AGO! – Back in 2019 I voiced an elderly priest character in an English dub of a foreign show. After all these years, it came back into my life with more episodes. So I drove to a studio in Sherman Oaks that specializes in doing English dubs of foreign shows, checked in, and spent a few hours dubbing the priest character, as well as a few others. It’s a very interesting show! But unfortunately I’m under a strict NDA and I’m unable to tell you any more about it. When I finished I hit Wendy’s for lunch, and on the way home I stopped at Barone’s to pick up some more of their yummy house salad dressing. What a fun day! When I got back home I relaxed, recorded some auditions, and later I took another WOG. Tonight was the August “blue moon;” an incident where there are two full moons within the period of one month. I enjoyed sipping my iced tea and relaxing outside in the middle of the night. I took out the old halogen light in my Cabinet of Character (a display case that houses toys and images of characters I’ve been lucky enough to voice in my career) and replaced it with a newer, better, brighter LED light. While I was in the cabinet I cleaned everything on the first shelf of the cabinet, as well as the tops of many of the other cabinets in my Tranquility Zone. Boy was it dusty!! ACHOO! I laid out my Grover Muppet replica on two pieces of poster board that I had attached together, stretched him out face down in a flying position, and traced him. This will be the pattern that my pal Kyle at Plastic Depot will use to create the “suspension sled” – a Plexiglas device that will be used to hang Super Grover for display. It’s exciting watching this come together!

Thursday the 31st – BLU RAY HOPES! – Plastic Depot in Burbank was my first stop of the day, and I briefly explained to my pal Kevin what I was looking for in a Plexiglas device to use for the Super Grover display. He said the plans I made were perfect and he’s going to work on it and he’ll let me know when it’s ready. I hit KFC for some quick lunch, and then headed to my Chiropractor for a consultation and adjustment. I stopped off at my box to talk to the guys there about the DVD shipment I was expecting that Saturday. Here’s the problem: their office is only open on Saturdays until 5, but the post office website (through the tracking number) said it would be there by 9pm on Saturday. I asked them what I could do, as I really wanted to get that new Laurel and Hardy Blu-ray in by Saturday night. They said that the post office is well aware of their closing time and always adjust their delivery schedule accordingly to get it there in time. This is great news, as I’m now about 75% positive the new Laurel & Hardy Blu-ray will reach me in time for the weekend. I hit the hardware store to pick up a new toilet seat assembly for my Chaney bathroom. The plastic hinge on the seat lid had become brittle over time and cracked off, so it’s time to replace it. I also picked up a spray can of texturing so I can finally finish the bathroom wall in the Puppet bathroom. My contractor made the initial repair, and he promised to come back and finish it up. But since it’s such a small job I didn’t want to bother him with mere texturing and painting, so I’ll do it myself. I hope I don’t screw it up. I dropped off 5 sets of photo negatives to the camera store next door to the hardware store, as the owner had told me last week he has a guy who can still print from negatives! This is great news as I begin retooling my L.A. photo albums, starting with the time I first arrived in January of 1987. As I go through and compare photo prints to their companion negatives, I seem to be missing a lot of prints based on the amount of negatives I have, and reprinting every negative will give me a fresh perspective on what to include and what to toss out for the new photo albums. I picked up a few grocery items and then headed home. I chatted with my pal Mark Evanier for quite a while, and my first Mahna Mahna Muppet replica will be residing at his house from now on. Since I made the new Mahna Mahna replica, I don’t have any need for the one I had built by another builder back in 2014. So it’s nice to know this one is going to a good home. I did some work around the house, and then my friend Angi came over so we could go to dinner. We hit Bob’s Big Boy and had a great evening. But the tall strawberry shake I devoured had upset my stomach quite a bit, so I had to come home and relax. I knew I shouldn’t have tossed back the entire thing (half would have sufficed) but it just looked so tasty! Later I did my nightly auditions and worked around the house. Friday will be a very busy day with the maids arriving in the early afternoon, and a home studio session in the later afternoon. The post office website is still saying my Laurel and Hardy Blu Ray is on track for a Saturday delivery. Fingers crossed!

Friday the 1st – I’M YOUR HANDYMAN! – Though I got up for the maids in the early afternoon, they didn’t end up arriving until mid-afternoon. When they give me the arrival window it’s usually within a two-hour time slot. I was worried since they arrived at 3, and my home studio session was scheduled to start at 4:15. When they arrived I told them we had to be wrapped up by 4 at the latest, so they got to work and finished up quickly. It normally takes them about an hour and a half to completely clean Planet Wallywood. I set up the studio for the remote session, paid the maids, and signed on to my Source Connect program and waited for a response. The engineer from Lime Studios in Santa Monica came on, and we were soon joined by two of the producers via Zoom. I was booked for an hour, but we got everything we needed recorded in about a half hour! And that included all the kibitzing and joking around! It was a fun one, and a great way to start the long weekend. As we were signing off I told the producers and engineers that they had done such a great job, I was giving them the weekend off. It took a second, but then they realized it was a long 3-day holiday weekend and they laughed. It’s one of my standard lines I use just before heading into a 3-day weekend. And it always seems to get a laugh. I broke down the studio and relaxed. Later I went upstairs and masked off the area of the Puppet bathroom wall that I wanted to texture and paint. I found the texture setting that I felt would best match what was already there, and let it blast! Unfortunately it came out a little “chunkier” than what I had expected, so there’s going to be a noticeable texture difference between the two. But since there will be artwork hanging in that section, it won’t be very noticeable. As long as the green paint matches the old, it should be fine. I’ll let the texturing cure all night and start painting tomorrow. I went downstairs to try and decode how to change out a toilet seat, but it was really very simple. Just remove a few bolts and their backing fasteners, take the seat off, put the new seat on, replace the bolts, and it was good as new! I’m actually pretty proud of myself for being a substitute “handy man,” as I’ve never really been very proficient at stuff like that before. When it comes to the actual working mechanics of a toilet or shower, however, I call in the pros for that. I sat down and did some writing, and prepped for Saturday. As you know, the first Saturday of every month I like to have something I call “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” at night. It’s that time I get very nostalgic for the early 70’s when Laurel and Hardy films were run every Saturday night on our local channel 9. The original release date for a new Blu-ray called “Laurel & Hardy: Year One – the Restored Silents” was in mid-August. When I pre-ordered it back in May I figured it would arrive in plenty of time for my September “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” commemoration. After all, I had just finished up watching all of their films last month with their very last film they did together called “Atoll K.” But when Amazon notified me that the delivery date had been pushed back to September 1st, I panicked a bit. Particularly since Amazon said it wouldn’t actually arrive at my box until September 6th through the 8th. Normally that would have been OK; I would just have my “Laurel & Hardy Theatre” commemoration a week later. But with my crazy OCD, I like to have everything according to a plan, if possible. I just HAD to make sure that Blu-ray set was in my hands before Saturday night September 2nd. I canceled the order on Amazon and bought it on the Best Buy website, who promised to have it in my hands on release day, September 1st. However, that didn’t happen either. But the post office tracking number said it would be here on Saturday the 2nd, just under the wire for my Saturday night ritual with “The Boys.” On the USPS website I tracked the package’s every move. It left Louisiana on Tuesday, and was working its way through the system. By Friday night it had made it to Burbank! Very promising! I had to make a back-up contingency plan to make sure I had it. If the disc didn’t arrive at my box by closing time Saturday, I would call every Best Buy in the area to see if they had it in-stock and ready to pick up. Big problem: you can no longer talk to anybody at a Best Buy store. Nope. Your call goes to a centralized call center located out of the country! So much for good customer service! I took a WOG and it was drizzling a bit. Because of this I didn’t spend any time in the anti-grav chair, but I came inside, made a salad and watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk.”

Saturday the 2nd – O.C.DEEEE-LIGHTED! – When I awoke I got a message that my Laurel & Hardy Blu-ray set had arrived! WOO-HOO! Later in the afternoon I have an appointment with my stylist Andie to get a touch-up on my color. I had actually entertained the very real possibility of having to drive to my box with dye in my hair to pick up the set; that is if it arrived in the later afternoon. The dye takes about 45 minutes to set, and I figured while it was setting I would have just enough time to hit my box, get the set before they closed, and get back to Andie to finish up. It’s always good to have a Plan B. But I didn’t need it. A few hours before my hair appointment I drove to my box, got the Blu-ray set, and since my puppet seamstress Alex had postponed our meeting for the day, I treated myself to a salad on the patio at Paty’s. I sat there eating and reading the VERY comprehensive souvenir booklet that came with the set. It told me everything I needed to know about the history of each of the silent films on the disc, where the source elements came from, and all sorts of “nerdboy” information that made me salivate! What a fascinating read. These guys REALLY did their homework, and did an amazing job on this set. I can’t wait to see how the digital restorations of all these films (some are 100 years old!) came out. I got home, walked to Andie’s, got a touch-up on my color, and walked back on a drizzly, cloudy afternoon. I spread out a potty pad (leftover from the Roxy days) on my garage floor, opened up the can of green paint and stirred it profusely. I poured some into a smaller jar (just enough for the job at hand) and went upstairs to start adding coats to the newly-textured wall. I realized that I probably should have sanded the patched wall BEFORE I textured, but it was too late now. I slathered on the paint and it started to look pretty good. You could definitely see the difference in textures (my old pal Terry would have blended all of it perfectly!) but once the green paint and artwork was on, it would barely be noticeable. Lesson learned, I guess. Later I did some work around the house and relaxed. It was a little rainy out, but not too bad. I did take a nice WOG through the complex in the middle of the night, and then came back inside to take my blood pressure. The readings were great! I spent some time in the anti-grav chair and it was warm and moist out. There was only a slight drizzle, but it actually felt good on my face! Quite relaxing, in fact! Since there was a thick cloud cover it was very, VERY quiet out. The cloud cover dampens all of the environmental sound of living in L.A. – traffic on the freeway, sirens, etc. While the clear nights are beautiful, the sound DOES travel and it can get quite noisy; even in the middle of the night! I came back inside and did some work around the house, changed the sheets on my bed, and started prepping my traditional meal for…YES!…this month’s “Laurel & Hardy Theatre” presentation! I made the Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box I love, had my popcorn, my banana Twinkie, and ice cold Diet Pepsi – this month in my vintage Stan Laurel mug. Back in the early 70’s when I was becoming obsessed with Laurel & Hardy my mom was taking ceramics classes. They had beautiful, HUGE Stan & Ollie mugs. She made some up for me and I still have them to this day! They are very precious to me. In regards to the “Laurel & Hardy: Year One – the Restored Silents” Blu ray…WOW! I was utterly blown away. The restorations are GORGEOUS! They had to find pieces of each film all over the world to complete this set. The compilation they did worked marvelously! This set is worth every single dollar! I’m only hoping that they are busy restoring the remaining 15 shorts Laurel & Hardy did before they started making sound pictures in 1930. It’s odd that, of all the silent film stars of the day, only Laurel & Hardy continued a wonderful career beyond silent films and into sound films. It didn’t happen with Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, or any of the others. But in a lot of ways, the limitations of silent films may have been holding Laurel & Hardy back. The silent film format was perfect for visual comics like Chaplin and Keaton. But since Laurel & Hardy’s verbal comedy, chemistry and characterizations were so strong, it seems as if they were just waiting around for sound films to be perfected so they could launch into the next phase of their careers and REALLY hit it big! I watched the first three films on the set, “The Lucky Dog” (the first film where Stan and Ollie were both in the cast, but had very few scenes together), “45 Miles From Hollywood” (a film that was used as a vehicle to promote an up and coming comic, and Stan and Ollie only had small roles but no scenes together), and the very first “official” Laurel & Hardy teaming “Duck Soup.” The story of “Duck Soup” (not to be confused with the Marx Brothers film of the same name) would later be reworked into a sound film they did called “Another Fine Mess.” Though Stan & Ollie played a couple of vagrants on the lamb from the law, they weren’t their trademark characters yet. But you could definitely see the chemistry they had with each other, and that the magic was forming. It was FASCINATING to watch! I want to watch them again, but this time with the commentary to learn more background info about these films. I’m SO glad this arrived on time! I can’t wait to see three more next month!

Sunday the 3rd – LABOR DAY EVE! – As is usual on a Sunday, particularly a 3 day weekend, I got caught up on sleep. I did a WOG later in the evening, but it was too cold for any time in the anti-grav chair. I worked around the house and then made a salad and watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk.”

Monday the 4th – LABOR DAY! – It looked as if the three coats of green paint I put on the wall in the Puppet bathroom had dried nicely and the color matched very well. I hung the artwork back up on the wall and all looks normal. Most of my Puppet Room upgrades are now complete. Even though I’d love to sort through the clothes on the rack in the closet and start throwing stuff out. I need to do that to my closet too! It’s very crowded in both closets! I was getting some stuff out of the bottom drawer in my kitchen and when I pulled the drawer out I noticed that it was filthy underneath. So I spent a great deal of time cleaning that area out completely. It was a nasty job but needed to be done. Then I updated all of my music players with the latest songs I added. I suited up and took a nice WOG, and I spent a short amount of time on the anti-grav chair. But by 5am it was getting a little chilly so I came inside. This has really been an odd summer! I came back inside and hit the hay.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK