December 12 – December 18 (2022)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This is an old picture of the YMCA in Aberdeen, South Dakota – one of my hometowns. Though this building is long gone, seeing this photo brought back good memories. See the track above the gym, where the runners could put in their miles without disturbing the game down below? It was on this elevated track that I would bring my records, record player and a guitar amp and do dances for kids on weekends. I made 50 bucks for the gig, but had to pay the guy who owned the guitar amp 20 bucks. Funny, that people in Aberdeen still remember me doing these dances back in the old days!

When this old favorite came up on my iPod as I was driving around, I cranked it! I love this song. Too bad the band had too many drug problems and broke up. The Darkness with “I Believe In a Thing Called Love.” And instead of just posting the audio of the song, I’m going to post the amazing music video, which is fall down funny!”

Monday the 12th – GROOMER THEN GRUB! – It sure felt great to rest and relax all day, and I think it’s the best way to get rid of the remnants of this annoying cough. I hear from others who’ve had it that it can last a month or longer! Roxy’s groomer was supposed to arrive by 5, but he texted to say he wouldn’t be there until 7. He finished up with her just in time so I could call Chin Chin and order some food to go! I came back home to eat and do some editing and other work. I did my auditions and then wrote Wally’s Week. Later I made soup and a sandwich (it was freakin’ cold outside!) and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger.”

Tuesday the 13th – WINDING IT OUT FOR ANOTHER YEAR! – Once again I took it easy all day. I have a session for “Bleach” coming up on Thursday and I want to make sure my lungs are in the best working order possible. I made some necessary phone calls, dealt with some end-of-year stuff, posted some Christoween material on social media, and later I made hot dogs and watched “Lone Ranger” before bed. It was too cold to go outside to make the hot dogs on the grill, so I set up a little grill system on my stove and cooked them that way!

Wednesday the 14th – CHRISTMAS IS FINALLY OFFICIAL! – An e-mail came in informing me that a package was ready for pick-up at my box. Back in 1999 when “Man on the Moon” was released, Universal made these cool buttons with Andy Kaufman’s face on them. It was his face superimposed over a moon. Since I like both Andy Kaufman and the moon, I acquired one back in 1999. I saw that a seller on ebay had 6 of them for sale and I decided to pick them up. That was the package that was waiting for me. But when I pulled the box out of my mailbox I saw that the words “ARRIVED OPENED” were on the box. One end of the box was open and the only thing left inside was a plastic bag and some cardboard used for packing. NO BUTTONS! I looked more closely at the box, and not only had the seller reused it from a previous purchase, but the only thing that was holding that end of the box shut was a thin piece of adhesive; the kind that comes with the shipping box when you buy it. So logically, if this box had been previously used, that adhesive wouldn’t have been strong enough to fasten the flap securely a second time. There wasn’t any sign of extra packing tape that had been applied; no tape residue, torn cardboard on the box, etc. No, it looked like the seller just jammed the buttons in a reused box, hoped the previously used adhesive would work, and then mailed it. Of course it didn’t last, and opened up in transit, spilling the contents. Granted these buttons weren’t very expensive, but when sellers are sloppy like this I get really mad. I dropped off some mail and then headed to Paty’s to enjoy a salad on the patio. As I sat there the overhead music system played my favorite Christmas song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” As a personal tradition, whenever I hear that song randomly somewhere, that to me signifies the official start of Christmas. At this late stage, I was beginning to wonder if I was going to hear it at all! So for me, Christmas started officially at 3:50pm Pacific Standard Time on this day. I got back home and fed the pets, and then I drove to Alex in Wonderland to pick up my stuff. I had given her the materials to make my new Mahna Mahna replica puppet many, many months ago. But because of her busy schedule, and some health setbacks, she still hadn’t gotten to it. Even after promising me she’d have it done by the last week of November. So I made a Plan B and engaged the services of my friend Steve Troop to finish it off. Steve’s an experienced puppeteer and puppet builder whom I met randomly a few months ago at Bob’s Big Boy. As a Christmas Eve tradition, I like to listen to my favorite Christmas radio show “Christmas Across the Lands” and work on a creative project all through the night. Last year I worked on my Roosevelt Franklin puppet, and this year I was hoping to work on Mahna Mahna’s eye system and apply his hair. But it doesn’t look like he will be done in time, sadly. I got home and sorted through all of the materials I had left with Alex. One of the items included a vintage Big Bird puppet from 1973, which I recently bought on eBay. I had one just like it back then, but it disappeared somewhere along the way. This particular design is hard to find, as I believe they only made this kind for one year, before changing the design to something more robust for children’s play habits. This puppet had a ring and a string that came out of Big Bird’s back that you could pull to manipulate his mouth. He also had cloth legs. But the design for this puppet changed a year later, when they got rid of the ring and string system (kids kept pulling it so hard the string eventually broke) and just cut a hole in the back of his head where you’d put your hand in his mouth. His legs also changed from cloth to hard plastic. When Big Bird arrived in L.A. I noticed that a lot of the stuffing inside the toy had settled, and his neck and legs were very limp. I had hoped that Alex would be able to restore it, because she’s very good at that. But the only way I was going to get Big Bird how I wanted him was to do it myself. So I gently razored open the seam below his mouth, and created a hole just big enough to get my finger in. With some chopsticks, I put some new stuffing in the neck and packed it in tightly. I did the same with the legs. Now considering this fabric is almost 50 years old, I had to be very gentle with it. But it all stitched up nicely, and I set about making a stand for him out of armature wire. I organized the bags of materials to give to Steve when I would see him on the weekend to get the puppet started. I did some other work around the house, recorded my nightly auditions, and created some Christoween visual graphics for some social media posts.

Thursday the 15th – I REALLY #$%(&^ HATE WINTER! – It was a very cloudy, cold day. The kind of day when you realize why bears hibernate. I just wanted to stay in bed. But I got up and walked to Subway to get a sandwich, and then went to Studiopolis for a 2 hour session for “Bleach.” It was good to be back. My character Renji has only been in a few episodes so far in this new season, but it looks like he’ll be figuring more prominently in forthcoming shows. I walked home and fed the pets, relaxed, did some work around the house, and took a nap…like a hibernating bear. Later I got up to do some editing, I cut together the submissions I received for the Christoween Capers Aspiring Voice Actor feature that I do each week on Christoween.net, and I did some other work around the house before bed.

Friday the 16th – HAPPY BARKDAY! – My friend Alex runs a very popular record store in Silver Lake, and I met him a few years ago. During his tour of Planet Wallywood he asked if he could shoot a video with Oscar. We shot a great video back then, and his thousands upon thousands of followers on social media loved it. It was his birthday, so he asked if he could come by and do a few birthday videos with Cookie Monster and Rowlf. I said I’d be delighted. We did some very funny videos, which included Cookie Monster eating the birthday cookie he was going to give to Alex, and Rowlf singing “happy BARKday” to him. It was funny seeing his followers’ reactions to the videos, as the majority of them thought he was really with the Muppets! Later my pal Amanda came over to stay for the weekend, and I hadn’t seen her in a long time. She’s been busy traveling the world for the first part of 2022 and she had lots of stories! We headed over to Little Toni’s to get some dinner, and then came back to the house and watched one of her favorite movies… “Soylent Green.” This sci-fi movie was made in 1973, and takes place in the year 2022. In their view of the future the world was horribly overpopulated, and the seas and environment were dying. There was no way to feed everyone and it was a hellish existence. The ending has a very specific twist, and I won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t seen it. But when we all watched it my movie night back in 2011 my guests who had seen it before were kind enough not to spoil it for Amanda who had never seen it. As a result, as she says, the movie changed her life. It was great seeing it back in 2011, but now seeing it in the actual year in which it took place was very wild! In a lot of cases, the movie seems a bit prophetic; being a 1973 view of the year 2022. There were people wearing surgical masks, and complaints about supply chain issues! INCREDIBLE! In one scene the words SOYLENT GREEN DAY were painted on the windows of a building, the words “soylent” and “green day” were on different windows. We wondered if the band Green Day had taken their name from this movie. Perhaps they wanted to call themselves Soylent Green Day, but had to shorten it to just Green Day for rights issues.

Saturday the 17th – MY-NEW MAHNA MAHNA! – Amanda and I sped off to check my mail at my mailbox, then stopped by the store called Dark Delicacies in Burbank so I could drop off some Christoween promo cards and pick up a few items. Then we hit It’s a Wrap to shop. It was one of the stores Amanda always liked going to, and we picked her up a groovy new suede coat, a multi-colored sweater, and an awesome necklace. On the way home we stopped to get some groceries, and then I went back home to feed the pets. We went back out to Bob’s Big Boy to meet up with Steve Troop, and I brought along my existing Mahna Mahna to show him, but I feel this puppet (which I bought several years ago from another builder) wasn’t quite as “on-model” as I would have liked. The restaurant went wild when they saw him, and people were coming up to our table asking for photos! We were laughing and having a ton of fun! I sent him off to his studio with bags and bags of materials for the new puppet, and Amanda and I headed back to the house. We had originally intended to go by the Christmas House, but we just plum forgot! I guess our full tummies stuffed with good food made us forget. Later we watched an episode of “The Saint” and I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad.” My cough had subsided a bit and I was feeling good, but shortly after taking Roxy out for a potty break, and bringing her back in, she had a very VERY messy accident in her living area downstairs. Odd since we were just outside and she didn’t do it outdoors. It was very frustrating, especially since bathroom issues are a sure sign it’s close to the end. I gave her some meds for diarrhea and cleaned everything up. I was sad.

Sunday the 18th – SOUP AND SOUND! – Using the groceries we bought the previous day, Amanda made some broccoli and cheddar soup. She had been craving it and we didn’t know of a place around where we could get some, so we made a point to just make our own! It was GREAT! My pal Scott Sebring stopped over after a job and looked into my audio interface on my computer to try to ascertain why it was adding unneeded sound to my audio files. We couldn’t really determine why it was adding thickness to the waveform, so I’ll buy a second unit and plug that in to see if it’s any better. Amanda packed her things and headed back home. It was a fantastic, fun weekend. After a chat Scott headed out as well. I was exhausted. I napped for a bit, but I was awakened by a bad smell. Roxy had another accident. Once again I cleaned it all up, scoured her entire area, and threw some of her bedding in the laundry. Luckily my downstairs carpet is completely covered with a network of rubber matting called L200. It makes for easy clean-up of accidents. I did my auditions that were due on Monday, did some more Christoween stuff, sent some Mahna e-mails to Steve (who was sending me progress pictures of the build), and we determined that Steve should take his time with the build so we could get all the details right. So after originally thinking that I wouldn’t get him by Christmas Eve, then thinking I would, I’m thinking now it won’t be until after New Year’s that I’ll get him. But at least he’ll be done perfectly. So I’ll have to find some other creative project to focus on for my personal Christmas Eve tradition. I did some other stuff around the house, made some buffalo mac and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger!”

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Apparently these custom Vans are on their way to me. I designed them through their custom shoe app, and adorned them with the famous Tony Clifton tuxedo pattern.