February 12 – February 19 (2024)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I stumbled across this picture on social media over the past week, and it’s wonderful!

Unbelievably, “Albert Flasher” by The Guess Who played in my supermarket recently. I literally hadn’t heard this song in decades. Great tune!

Monday the 12th – OFF & RUNNIN’! – The first stop of the day was the hardware store to pick up some items, and then I headed over to CVS to get some photos printed. I realized that I had neglected to put several IMPORTANT photos in my South Dakota photo albums when I was constructing them a few years ago. The first time I met Adam West, and the first time I ever appeared in a Batman costume were mistakenly omitted from the albums. The reason is, I have a binder I constructed years ago called “The Bat Scrapbook” and the photos were posted there. However, I recently realized that I should make duplicates to put in my South Dakota photo albums as well. Two of the most important moments in my South Dakota existence, and I plum forgot all about them. Very bad! But I had those negatives digitized and scanned, and I have fresh, new digital prints for the albums. I hit McDonald’s for some quick lunch, and then I stopped by my accountant’s office to review my taxes for 2023. It had been 5 years since my accountant was allowing in-office visits, so it was good to be back in the office laughing and chatting like the old days. And a bonus – I found out I’m getting a refund this year! I got back home and did some work around the house, and then later I headed to the Smoke House to have dinner with my pal Joe Garner. I got back home after a yummy meal to do some auditions, and type out Wally’s Week. I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) but it was too chilly to sit outside afterwards in the anti-grav chair and enjoy an iced tea and some peace and quiet. I went back inside and cut a piece of the plastic conduit I bought earlier at the hardware store. I needed it to disguise the electrical cord that powers the puck light that I mounted on my ceiling, directly above the area where my Sons of the Desert fez will be displayed. I put the photos I had printed into the photo albums, I made a salad, and I started in on a show called “The High Chaparral.” Though this show came out in 1967 it was never on my radar as a kid. Since I lived in South Dakota, and was constantly surrounded by horses and people in cowboy outfits, I was never into westerns. But now that I’m completely removed from that lifestyle, I find westerns amusing. And this show is MARVELOUS! The casting is perfect, and the chemistry among the cast is delightful. The acting is top notch and the writing is very compelling. I HIGHLY recommend you give it a watch!

Tuesday the 13th – BIG SCREEN SCARECROW! – Later in the day my pal Ruben Procopio picked me up and we went to dinner at a place called The Alcove. It was fun hanging out with him again, as we hardly ever see each other. Ruben’s very busy sculpting and animating projects, and my schedule is sometimes very wacky too. But tonight would be a very special night. Both Ruben and I would be seeing one of our super-hero faves on the BIG screen after many years. The Vista Theatre in Hollywood was having a special month-long festival that featured rare films on the big screen. “Dr. Syn Alias The Scarecrow” was one of those films. The film would be the second film in a double feature with “Swiss Family Robinson.” In retrospect, I wish we would have stayed at dinner and missed “SFR.” Though the theatre had run the film three times previous (two shows on Monday, and an afternoon matinee earlier in the day) they seemed to be having real problems with its projection. Several stops and starts occurred during the beginning of the screening. Plus the film is VERY long. The print wasn’t great, and there was a problem with warbly audio, which sounded a lot like when an old vinyl record was pressed off-center. Not to mention the annoying buzzing sound that was consistent throughout the entire film. All in all, it was a pretty torturous situation. Additionally, during the film, everyone in the theatre’s phones started going off with an Amber Alert. Even if you have your phone muted, an emergency notification such as that will ignore it, and blast out the digital voice notification anyway. It happened again, so I just shut my phone completely off. All in all, not a very good movie experience at all. Plus, it was evident that most of the audience was there to see The Scarecrow anyway, but we had to slog through “SFR” to get there. During the intermission I ran into Alex Evans from The Bob Baker Marionette Theater! It was great seeing him and chatting. He had never seen “Scarecrow” and was curious about it. I told him he was in for a real treat. The film was NOT a disappointment, and several times I just glanced over to Ruben, who was as wide-eyed as I was, and said, “This is so cool.” After the film Ruben and I got a chance to chat outside with Alex some more, and then he dropped me back home. What a terrific day! I’m SO glad I was able to see this film on the big screen and enjoy its majesty!

Wednesday the 14th – BATTERY BAIL-OUT! – Today was the day I was determined to get the Mustang up and running again. We were in for a few sunny days and I wanted to enjoy them in full “top-down” mode. My buddy Mike, husband to Alex from Alex In Wonderland, is a Mustang expert, and he agreed to assist me in this mission. I drove to the Alex In Wonderland studios, picked him up, and we started with lunch at the Coral Café. Then we drove to my auxiliary parking facility and tried to jump the Mustang’s battery with my Rav. No luck. The Mustang’s battery was completely discharged. Mike pulled the battery out and we went to the nearest Napa store. But they wouldn’t have that battery in stock until tomorrow morning, and we couldn’t wait. So we hit the local Auto Zone and got an even better battery! We drove back to Alex In Wonderland to pick up Mike’s socket wrench kit, and then it was back to the Mustang. Mike installed the battery and it fired up nicely! I stashed the Gray Ghost for a few days, and Mike and I drove back to Alex In Wonderland in the Mustang. I never want to let the battery get that bad again. Mike said I’m going to need to fire the car up every few months in order to keep things circulating. Even IF I remove the cable from one of the battery terminals. So I guess I’m going to have to make it a monthly thing. I drove back home and enjoyed the thought that I had such a productive day. It’s good to have the Mustang back in the garage again. Later I did my nightly auditions, and I took my nightly WOG. Again, it was too chilly out to enjoy any time in the anti-grav chair. I worked around the house, and did some work with the case for my Rowlf the Dog replica Muppet. I’m changing the structure of how the case sits atop the big display case it’s on, and I need to take the base for Rowlf’s case over to Plastic Depot to have some work done on it. I made a salad and watched the second episode of “The High Chaparral.” I’m not exaggerating when I say that this episode was some of the best television I have ever seen. I’m going to really LOVE getting through this show!

Thursday the 15th – SUNNY, STOP-MOTION & SLOPPIES! – With the top down in the Mustang I enjoyed the sunny day and drove to Paty’s to have lunch with a young stop-motion animator I met at the Pasadena Comic Con. Isiah showed me a brief stop-motion clip he had done to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “My Bologna” song. It blew me away! I wanted to sit him down and discuss hiring him for a possible Christoween demo. On the way back home I stopped for ice cream at Baskin-Robbins, and then later my pal Sara Raftery came over and used her culinary knowledge to whip up some good ol’ Midwestern sloppy joes! I hadn’t had them in many, many months and they tasted GREAT! The recipe I use came from my brother-in-law’s mom, so it’s guaranteed to be midwesternly good! I did some work around the house, recorded my auditions later, and then took my nightly WOG.

Friday the 16th – CATLAX? – While I waited for the maids to arrive, my cat Spook and I rested on the couch. I don’t think he’s feeling well, and I’ve come to the conclusion that he may be constipated again. It happened a year ago around this time (when my dog Roxy passed away) so perhaps he’s “clogged” up again. When the maids were done I headed to the hardware store to get a 5/16” socket wrench, the kind Mike said I would need to remove the nut from the battery cable. I hit the post office to send off an autographed item to a fan, and then I hit GNC to stock up on vitamins again. When I walked back to CVS I ran into my old pal Renee Mooshy, who used to be the receptionist at “The Tonight Show” during my time there. It was fun to chat and catch up. I went into CVS to get an enlargement printed. It was for the “museum” sign that will be posted on the display case when I get my Sons of the Desert fez displayed in The Chaney Room. I sped off to Rusty’s Pets to see if they had a cat laxative, but they were still out. (I guess I’m not the only one who owns a clogged-up cat!) But they said adding olive oil to his food would help immensely. I drove to Taco Bell to get some food, and then I went home to relax. Later, as I was working around the house, I heard a loud voice outside my house. I threw on my warm clothes and went out to investigate. Some nutcase had jumped the fence to our pool and helped himself to a midnight swim. The times I’ve had to kick nutballs out of our pool area are numerous, so I told him he was on private property and I would escort him off the premises. As the weather warms up I fear we’re going to have this problem arise again. I went back inside and made the “museum” sign for my fez display, did more work on the Rowlf case, and then went outside to take my WOG. It was foggy and quiet out, and quite pleasant. It was even warm enough out to enjoy some time in the anti-grav chair. I came inside to do some more work around the house, make a salad, and enjoy another episode of “The High Chaparral” as we headed into another three-day weekend.

Saturday the 17th – NO ACCIDENTS IN LIFE! – It’s always a pleasure to have a bite with my pal Dan Roebuck. He’s in town for several more weeks working on a TV show, so we met for dinner at Paty’s. Just as we were finishing up, Mike and Alex McGee from Alex In Wonderland pulled in with their family! I was elated to be able to introduce them to Danny. I love being in the presence of talented people! Dan took off for home, but I went inside to sit with the McGee family and chat for a bit. Then I drove the Mustang over to my auxiliary parking facility and put her to bed. Several days of rain was coming back to the L.A. area, so I wanted to get the Gray Ghost back out again. After I got all my belongings migrated to my Rav from my Mustang, I got my 5/16” socket wrench out and proceeded to remove the cable from the negative battery terminal so it wouldn’t discharge while it sat idle. However, the wrench wasn’t working. I guess the nut on the cable connection was so old it was stripped. So I called Mike and he said he would order a new one. We’ll try and put it on this coming week. I pulled out of the parking structure in the Gray Ghost and hit the grocery store to get some supplies. On the way home it started to rain, so GOOD TIMING! Later the sprinkling had stopped, so I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. I came back inside and recorded a few segments as Wally The Elf for this year’s “Christmas Across The Lands” show. I know Christmas is still 10 months away, but Randy the host likes to get going on it early. This year will be the 25th anniversary show! I made a delicious salad and watched an episode of “The Saint” before bed.

Sunday the 18th – CRASH DAY! CRASH WEEKEND! – Though I slept fairly late, I did get up for a little while to feed Spook and do some audio editing. Since nothing else was going on, and we were in the middle of a three-day weekend, Spook and I went back to bed to get some more rest. I slept so much it was like when I was sick in early January; except I had the benefit of enjoying the sleep, without the burden of actually being sick! Sometimes you just have to shut down for a while to recharge! And since it would be raining almost solidly for the next few days, I really had nowhere else to be. Plus, it makes for GREAT sleeping weather!

Monday the 19th – PRESIDENT’S DAY! – Since I had slept so long, I woke up around 6:30am and did some work. It was still pouring out, so I figured I’d make some “comfort food” and watch the Blu-ray of “The Evil Of Frankenstein.” This film has a fun place in my personal history, and you can read all about it here… January 21 – January 28 (2024) – Wally On The Web I heated up some leftover sloppy joe fixins, made a few sloppy joes, warmed up some tomato soup, and threw a crisp, red apple on my tray, and headed upstairs to watch this movie. Since it was a joint venture with Hammer Films from the UK and Universal Studios, the filmmakers were allowed to use the “green/gray,” flat-headed monster. The make-up on the monster was pretty great, but it did look a little too much like a papier-mache mask. But I remember it scaring the crap outta me as a kid! The film is actually quite fun, and there is LOTS of great monster footage. And it’s ALWAYS a delight to see Peter Cushing in anything! It was a great way to spend a rainy day! After that I watched a few TV shows I had recorded on my DVR, and then – yup – back to sleep for several hours. Not only did I enjoy the sound of the rain, but the cool, moist breeze that blew in my window was delightful! I got up later and recorded a bunch of auditions that were due on Tuesday morning.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK