December 06 – December 12 (2021)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Haven’t done a cute dog picture in a while. So here ya go!

With the passing of Mike Nesmith this past week, I reflected (with laughter) about “The Godfather of Music Video’s” video album he released in 1980 called “Elephant Parts.” It was hysterical and I still quote it today! Here’s one of his early music videos called “Cruisin” which still makes me laugh to this day!

Monday the 6th – HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN! – The entire day was spent lounging around. This week is the ‘calm before the storm’ as next week is going to be quite busy with many different things. Later in the evening I had a dinner meeting at Paty’s with a writer friend. Then I came home and enjoyed some “Christmas Nappies” on The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe. Roxy was secure on her beanbag, and Spook was on his chair in front of the fireplace. When I got up I recorded my nightly auditions, finished up Wally’s Week, and took Roxy for our late-night walk around the complex. It was misting slightly when we went out, but by the time we came back inside it had started to come down pretty good. We’re definitely getting into the rainy season again, and next week we’re supposed to have a fairly big storm. When I got back inside, I got cozy on the couch again and listened to it rain outside. It was VERY nice!

Tuesday the 7th – WONDERFUL WALLY WALK! – By the time I got up, the weather had cleared to a gorgeous, sunny day. I put on my bad walking shoes (Saucony shoes suck! But I have some new Asics on the way!) and walked over to the shoe repair guy to pick up my repaired shoulder bag. The metal of one of the zippers had torn away from the fabric, and the zipper needed to be completely replaced. He did a fantastic job on it! I looked around for a new bag on-line, but I didn’t find anything I liked. Plus, I have my current bag tricked out the way I like it, so it was worth paying for the repair on my current bag. I picked up a ton of supplements at the GNC, and hit the Subway for a tuna sandwich on the way home. When I got back there was a last-minute audition due, so I recorded that and worked around the house the rest of the night.

Wednesday the 8th – ON-CAMERA CRAZINESS! – In the early afternoon, when I woke up, I found out I had a last-minute on-camera audition. Luckily I had plenty of time to deliver it to my agent, so I got busy and set up the background and camera. Whenever an on-camera audition comes in, it takes me about an hour (or a little more) from set-up to final delivery to get it done. I have to bring up the large white paper background from the garage, wrestle with it and get it set up to shoot my video against, set up my video camera with a tripod, set up some nice lighting, and then review the script and specs for the audition. We’re instructed to start with a head-and-shoulders shot so we can slate our name. Then we have to show a full body shot, and then we read the line(s) included in the audition information. If it’s just one quick line, I usually give them 3 takes. Then there’s usually some sort of “alternate” line they want read, so I do 3 takes of that. Then I take the video file, download it into my computer (which can take a while since it’s fairly high resolution) and begin the editing process. They ask that we cut the opening slate, the first set of takes, and the takes of the alternate line into separate files, all labeled differently. As you can see, it’s a very time consuming process. Unlike Voice Over, which can only take mere minutes, the on-camera audition process is considerable. It’s not something you should do if you’re in a hurry to get someplace. I drove to Taco Bell to get some dinner to go, and then I came home to chat with my accountant Tina about obtaining a temporary seller’s permit. In order to sell Christoween merch at the upcoming Season’s Screamings convention, I need to have a permit that’s issued from the state of California. It’s tantamount to trying to qualify for top secret clearance! The amount of questions they ask is unbelievable! Jumping through all the hoops for a simple 3 day seller’s permit is unbelievable bureaucracy! But nothing surprises me about this state any longer. I’m glad Tina’s handling it, because I’d be more likely to throw my hands up and just forget the whole thing. I grabbed some “Christmas Nappies” with the pets, and then did my auditions later. I found out from the producer of Season’s Screamings that the space I’d be occupying at the convention is about 6’ by 6’. I taped out that space on my floor to get an idea of what I was dealing with. Normally, if I was just signing photos, that would be ample space. But since I’m bringing a wall of merch with me, it’s going to be VERY tight. Especially with an assistant with me. I contacted the producer of the show to let him know that the space would be too constrained for my needs, and he upgraded me to a 10’ X 10’ space with his compliments! Neat! Now I’ll have a little more room to move around and display stuff appropriately.

Thursday the 9th – CRAPPY CROWNS & BEEF BRISKET or YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS! – It was time once again for my semi-annual dental exam, so I sped over to see my dentist Dr. Alex in Burbank. The cleaning and exam went well (no cavities!) but he did notice that two crowns on my lower right molars have problems. Apparently there are small divots where they attach to the teeth. This could be a problem, so they’ll need to be removed and replaced with new crowns. He said it’s not an emergency, but they should be replaced fairly soon. I think those two crowns are pretty old; perhaps 20 years or more. On the way to the dentist’s office, I noticed that Wienerschnitzel was advertising their new BBQ beef brisket offerings. They looked VERY tasty, so when my appointment was over I rewarded myself with a BBQ beef brisket sandwich and BBQ beef brisket fries! I took them back to my car to eat and listen to the radio. They were delicious! I went back inside and ordered a banana split. I got back to my car to enjoy it and I was about a quarter of the way through it, when I realized…there was NO banana in my banana split. I went back inside and asked the girl if she had forgotten to put a banana in my banana split. She thought for a second, and realized that she completely forgot the main ingredient of a banana split! I had just had a banana on the way to the dentist’s office, so it wasn’t really a big deal. But it sure was funny. I drove to my mailbox to pick up my packages. I got a great new Batman shirt designed by my pal Ken Pringle! He only made a handful of them, but they are slick and colorful! I got the hooks for my forthcoming pegboard display, and the sample material I ordered from Spoonflower for my Roosevelt Franklin replica Muppet build. Only one of the three samples looked acceptable. One was colorful, but the other two seemed kind of washed out. I also think that the stripes are a bit too wide for the scale of the puppet I’m doing. So I’ll need to have the design redone with smaller stripes. Making these replica puppets is never an exact science and sometimes takes some experimentation to get right. I got home and did some work, recorded an audition, and took some “Christmas Nappies” with the pets. Later I got up to do a bunch of accounting work for the end of the year. I also did some detail work for the upcoming Season’s Screamings convention, and I edited the weekly “Aspiring Voice Actor” submissions that I post on my Christoween.net website. Whew! What a day! As I mentioned, this week is the ‘calm before the storm,’ as next week we’ll be doing a photo shoot of all the Muppet replicas I have in my collection at this point, shopping for utilities I’ll need for the upcoming “Season’s Screamings” convention, I’ll be involved in an on-line interview for a Power Rangers show, Roxy gets a bath, and then we have to load all the stuff up and transport it over to the Pasadena Convention Center to set up for the con. Then Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday will be the convention. VERY exciting!

Friday the 10th – PRETTY GOOD FOR AN OLD GAL! – The pegboard display I bought on eBay was supposed to be delivered today, but they informed me that it was going to be delayed. This was not good news, because it was my intention to set up the Christoween merch display with my pal Edi on Saturday evening as a ‘dry run.’ They told me that it would be delivered Monday between 11 and 2:45pm. My maids arrived mid-afternoon to clean Planet Wallywood, and it was a very cold afternoon. This is not my favorite time of year, obviously. I much prefer it warm and dry. I worked around the house all day and into the night. I phoned Denny’s to get my usual order-to-go, but they told me that they were all out of chicken (again!). Not sure what’s going on there as I didn’t think chicken strips would be something that would be stuck on a cargo ship out in the ocean. I took Roxy on our late-night stroll through the complex, and instead of taking our usual route and turning around to come back, she kept going into the center of the complex! She wanted to sniff and explore, and that was OK with me! At the age of 13.5 years old, I pretty much let her do what she wants to do. She walked, and walked, and then walked some more. She was having a GREAT time! When I came back inside and thawed out, I recorded all of the Voice Over auditions that were due on Monday. I had a few days to do them, but I wanted to get ahead of it. I made a Tombstone pizza and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger” before bed.

Saturday the 11th – PEGBOARD PRESENT! – As luck would have it, just before I took off for my stylist’s, I was notified that my pegboard display was delivered! I drove to see my stylist Andie to get a touch-up on my color, and then sped over to my mailbox. My new Asics running shoes arrived, as did the 1000 Christoween promo cards I’ll hand out at the Season’s Screamings convention. I hauled the pegboard package out to my car, put the top down so it would fit in the back seat, and drove home to meet up with my pal Edi so we could start working on designing the display. Perfect timing! Edi’s input was invaluable, as she has a very good eye for this sort of thing. After we finished laying everything out, I “spiked” the positions of the pegs on the board with green tape. That way when we arrive at the convention on Friday for set-up, all of the difficult work has already been taken care of. It’s simply “plug and play.” Our load-in time for Friday is 12:30 to 1, and it won’t take us much more than an hour to set up, so we’ll have about an hour and a half to go across the street from the Pasadena Convention Center and grab lunch before our safety inspection at 4. Then the show opens at 5 and goes until 10pm that night! It was our intention that we drive to the Coral Café in Burbank, eat dinner, and then stop by the Christmas House to see the annual lighting display. But when we got in my car I realized that my heater wasn’t coming on. I could feel heat coming through my vents, but the blower was out! Great. During the coldest days of the year, my blower gives out. Something else I’ve got to turn my attentions to this coming week. So we decided to eat and come straight back. Edi went back home and the pets and I took some “Christmas Nappies.” The rest of the night I spent with a box full of little gold safety pins, pinning up t-shirts. I pinned the bottoms of the t-shirts up behind them so they wouldn’t cover up the designs of the t-shirts hanging below them. Then I reattached everything to the pegboard and got some reference photos. I designed the price lists for my autographed stuff, and the Christoween merch. I’ll have the signs printed this week (one MORE thing I need to do!) When I took Roxy out for our late-night stroll, it was 37 degrees! In case you’re forgotten, that’s only FIVE degrees above freezing! For crying out loud! I went to make my Saturday Night Super Saint Salad, but realized my green pepper had gone bad. So out that went. And while I had remembered to get a new head of lettuce and a new cucumber earlier in the day, I had totally spaced on getting a tomato! (I’ve got a lot on my mind!) But it was fun enjoying a salad and watching another episode of “The Saint,” something I hadn’t done in about 3 weeks.

Sunday the 12th – SOCIAL SCHEDULE SUNDAY! – Mid-afternoon I got an e-mail from my pal Troy, who’s a writer on the “Ellen” show. He sends me bits to record that he can assemble and pitch to the staff. I planned out all of the Christoween social media posts for the week, and then later set up the living room as a photo studio for the puppet portraits we’re going to shoot on Monday. I wanted to work ahead and get Wally’s Week written and finished because I knew Monday was going to be busy! And I’m ready for a whopper of a week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

It’s the “dry run” for our Christoween store at this weekend’s Season’s Screamings con!

A few years ago, my Scarecrow of Romney Marsh mannequin had its ankle broken while it was being transported back from a con. I split the mannequin in half so the bottom half could go to my effects guy Jim Ojala’s studio for repair. Creepy!