RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Here’s the cover of that “Saint” novel I had as a kid. I used to study this cover over and over when I was young, and this very image came from the episode of “The Saint” I saw last Saturday night. Boy, it really took me back!

This is without a doubt one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. It’s done by a relatively new artist named Sufjan Stevens, and the subject of the song deals with the way he mourned the death of his mother. It’s called “Should Have Known Better.” Simply stunning!

 

Tuesday the 16th – PRAIRIE, POT PIE & PACKED! – My friend Michelle and I hopped in the Mustang and headed over to my mailbox to get my packages. I got in a yard of pink Antron fleece (commonly called Muppet Skin) that I had ordered on-line. This fleece will be made into two replica versions of the Sesame Street Muppet called Prairie Dawn. I thought this would be a good character to get Michelle started on building and performing. She’ll have one, and I’ll have an identical puppet for my collection. We stopped at KFC to get some lunch, and she was elated that our local KFC still had the chicken pot pie. Apparently the KFC’s in Florida no longer have that on their menu. Then we headed over to Alex in Wonderland to get her started on covering the puppet heads we made with the pink fleece. Alex will also create a body for the puppets, and once the coverings are finished we’ll glue them on to the foam heads and bodies we made. The next step is creating the arms and having Alex stitch those together. Then the arms will be attached and the dresses will be made. I found some material that I liked, and Michelle found similar material in a different color for her copy. Then I’ll have my ‘hair guy’ Sergio Lopez create and attach little wig pieces to them. The last piece in the puzzle will be to add the eye pieces. We got back to Planet Wallywood to feed the pets and order our dinner for delivery from my favorite steak place – The Smokehouse. After dinner Michelle got packed up ready for her flight to Orlando on Wednesday afternoon. I recorded my nightly auditions, typed out Wally’s Week, and hit the hay.

Wednesday the 17th – CUBOT SAVES SONIC?! – On a very windy day, Michelle and I hit the road for the Los Angeles International Airport. First we stopped for lunch at Del Taco (the best fast food hamburger in town!) and she was hooked! She made it clear that when she finally got moved to L.A. she was going to be a regular Del Taco customer. But as we got to the airport, I found it odd that, on a weekday afternoon, the normally bustling airport was a virtual ghost town! There was hardly anybody there! Michelle wasn’t kidding when she said she could get through screening and security in a matter of minutes. Now I can see why! I’m used to having to deal with scads and scads of thick traffic at the airport, and gingerly navigating around all of the cars and traffic. Not needed today. It was a little sad, to be honest. The travel industry hasn’t recovered very well I’m afraid. On the way home freeway traffic was also great. Even though it was windy the weather was gorgeous! I got home and did some work, cleaned up the house, did some work around Planet Wallywood, and put away all the puppet stuff that Michelle and I worked with to create our Prairie Dawn head and body pieces. During her trip to L.A. last Sunday, her little plastic Sonic the Hedgehog luggage figure suffered an injury – his left leg snapped off. During her stay I tried to repair it with several types of glue, but no luck. But I got a great idea about how to fortify it for repair and went to my trash can to retrieve him. With a very thin drill bit I drilled out the center of his dismembered leg, and I drilled a hole deeper into his body. I cut a toothpick to size and put a drop of Gorilla Glue into the leg hole. Then I inserted the toothpick. Once that was secure, I put a drop of Gorilla Glue in the hole in the body and inserted the leg and the toothpick. I cleaned off the excess glue and set it aside. Within a few hours he was totally repaired, and his leg was stronger than ever! When I got a message from Michelle that she made it home safely I showed her a picture of the repaired Sonic. She made note of the irony that Sonic was saved by Cubot! I guess I hadn’t considered that, but she’s right! I made some spaghetti and watched another episode of “The Invaders.”

Thursday the 18th – EAR’S THE PROBLEM! – Well, it’s that time of year again. I dropped my personal tax materials off to my accountant’s office. Normally, each year, I sit in his office and we chat while he opens up all my documents to put them in order for tax return preparation. But this year it’s all different. I pulled up outside their office, called them to let them know I was outside, and they came down to meet me in my car to collect my documents. I had Roxy with me, so we took advantage of the beautiful day and headed to Paty’s to have lunch on the patio. When we finished our meal, I drove her over to the vet’s office to have her right ear looked at. She had been favoring it for a while, and scratching at it. She had also been suffering from hearing issues of late which I wrote off to her age. But then I started thinking that the issues may be related. Sure enough she had an ear infection. I was kicking myself because I should have put two and two together much sooner and had her treated earlier. But I got some ear drops that will hopefully put her on the road to recovery. I got back home to relax. Later I recorded my nightly auditions, did some work around the house, and started making the eye pieces for the Prairie Dawn puppets. I used white plastic shank buttons that are almost an inch wide. These buttons are domed just slightly and have a really great look. I sanded the gloss off of them and painted them with matte white paint. Once they were dry, I glued on the fleece eyelids and started cutting out the eyelashes out of stick-on velvet. I think they turned out great!

Friday the 19th – HELPLESS! – In order to stock up on supplies for the weekend I needed to do some shopping. After my maids left I dropped by my mailbox to get my packages, and then head to the grocery store. As I was putting my bags in the trunk of my car, an elderly lady approached me to ask where the CVS pharmacy was. I told her there wasn’t any CVS pharmacy in that area. She swore up and down that the CVS used to be next to the grocery store and now it was gone. I told her I had been coming to this store a long time and there was never a CVS near. I felt so helpless when she told me her car wouldn’t start and she needed to get her prescription, and she had walked all this way to find the CVS. I asked to have a look at her prescription form, and sure enough, after checking the address of the pharmacy I realized that she was on the wrong street. I told her she was still several streets away from the pharmacy that she needed to go to. But between her broken English and the mask she was wearing, it was very hard understanding her. I hate feeling helpless like this – I really wanted to do something to help. But as much as my heartstrings were being tugged, it’s ill-advised to take a complete stranger in your car and go anywhere. I asked if she could take a cab to the pharmacy to get her medication and she said no, but she could take a bus. Not being familiar with the bus schedule in the area I didn’t know what to tell her about that. Plus, dusk was approaching and I was worried that this little gal would be out walking around all by herself after dark. I asked her if she would be OK without her medication for the night, or is it something she needed right away. She assured me that she’d be OK without it, and perhaps a neighbor could drive her to the pharmacy the next day. I wanted to at least drive her to her house so she didn’t need to keep walking, but again – my logical mind took over and I just wished her well. I really, REALLY hate feeling helpless like that! I wished I could have helped her but in this day and age it sadly isn’t advisable to interact too much with strangers. Bad things sometimes happen under the guise of trying to help. I hope she made it home OK and managed to get a ride to the pharmacy to get her medication the next day. I mean, what’s a person to do in a situation like this? Did I do the right thing – as much as it pained me? I got home and unloaded the groceries and put Roxy’s ear drops in. I worked around the house and later I went to Denny’s to get some food and watch another episode of “The Invaders.”

Saturday the 20th – WHEN IN DOUBT, ADD BUTTERFLIES! – About three times a week I get e-mails from people asking if I would do an interview for their YouTube channel via Zoom. Obviously I can’t accept every request, so out of necessity I’ve created a request form for the inquirers to fill out. That way I can ascertain what their audience reach is so I can make the best decisions as to which requests to approve. Though he’s only done a few interviews, I fielded a request from a young lad in Dublin, Ireland last week. And after viewing the links he sent me of his previous interviews, I decided that I really liked his inquisitiveness, knowledge, energy and interviewing ability. So I agreed to do his show. In fact, he reminded me a bit of myself at that age, as I was just starting to develop my interviewing and production skills. We did an interview that lasted almost two hours and it was a blast! My next door neighbors had some water intrusion in their unit, so a crew was over there doing mold abatement. But some chemical they used caused mild irritation in my throat, so after the interview was over I called around to see if I could ascertain what was going on. I was assured that the chemicals were all safe, and that any odor or irritation would subside soon. Later that day I did a second interview with a guy in New York. In order to make these interviews extra fun for me, I always find an opportune time in the interview to bring up one of my Muppet replicas and play with the interviewer for a while. This time it was Rowlf the Dog’s turn. It just so happened that the interviewer turned his line of questioning toward my love of puppets, and that was the perfect moment to bring in Rowlf. It was a blast. Later, I decided to bring up my tall ladder from the garage downstairs and embellish my Pinocchio display with some butterflies. Back in the early 90’s I saw a giant Pinocchio marionette at Disneyland that I wanted very badly. But the price on it was more than a guy like me could afford at the time, so I had to pass on it. But a few years ago I got curious about those puppets and did some research. I found out that they were released through a partnership with Disney and the Bob Baker Marionette company. Bob Baker was an internationally-known marionette maker and puppeteer who was contacted by Walt Disney when they were making “Pinocchio” to create a model that the animators could look at to see how a puppet like Pinocchio would stand and move. And in 1990 the Bob Baker team created 200 of these giant Pinocchio marionettes for sale in the theme parks, and to use as gifts for executives. The first 50 of those puppets (they all came numbered and with COAs) were built through the assistance of Bob Baker himself! (Mine is #43!) Upon completing my research, I found a perfect candidate for purchase on eBay, and the asking price wasn’t much more than the original cost back in 1990! He was in pretty good shape, and after I bought him I had some restorative work done on him by the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre folks. In fact, they still had the patterns to the clothes for this puppet in their files! The lady who did some of the restoration work had made the original costumes for these puppets back in 1990! Since my Pinocchio is high up on top of my enormous video cabinet in the Planet Wallywood home theatre, I don’t often get that high to maintain or change the display. But recently, when I was up on the ladder installing my recently repainted Iron Man gauntlet lamp, I did a little work with Pinocchio while I was up there (in addition to a LOT of dusting!). I noticed that the small piece of Styrofoam that I had placed in the wrist joint of the puppet was no longer providing the support I needed to make it look like Pinocchio was waving. The small piece of foam originally extended his hand out in greeting, but it had settled somewhat, making it look like Pinocchio was instead cupping his hand around something. I thought to myself, “What would Jim Henson do?” BUTTERFLIES came to mind! I found some great monarch butterfly replicas on eBay that were made from feathers and painted to look like the wings of a butterfly. They arrived in the mail a few days ago, so I got the ladder back out and climbed up to the top of my video cabinet. The controller of the Pinocchio puppet is suspended by two wood dowels which are fastened between the beams of my vaulted ceiling. This holds Pinocchio in his pose very nicely. I threaded some fishing line (also called monofilament) through the feathery wings of three of the butterflies (a magenta one, a blue one and an orange one) and suspended them around Pinocchio by tying the line around the wood dowels above his head. I was very happy with how it turned out, and now it looks like Pinocchio is romping around trying to catch butterflies in his hand! I should have done this years ago. I really like the look! I fed Roxy her late-night dinner, and took her for our late-night stroll through the neighborhood. But because Roxy doesn’t hear so well any more, I have to be extra vigilant when we walk and keep a sharp eye on her. She can no longer hear me call her to “heel” when she wanders a short distance away. And sometimes she’ll forget which direction she needs to go toward home, and I have to go grab her and guide her back in the right direction. I hate to think that I’d have to start leashing her on our late-night walks, but I fear that may have to be an option in the future. I came back inside and paid some bills, made my Saturday Night Super Saint Salad, and watched an episode of “The Saint” from the second season DVD set. One of the actors who played a bad guy in the show would show up 12 years later in Roger Moore’s Bond film “The Man With the Golden Gun.” I love seeing stuff like this, and I wonder if Roger Moore had anything to do with his casting in the Bond film. Chances are they were all friends and saw each other around the acting circles for decades. His name was Marne Maitland and he had the perfect sinister villain look. I also noticed in the episode that there was a particular scene in which Roger Moore and the female lead had barely escaped a knife attack, when Maitland’s character tried to assassinate them by throwing a knife. But he missed and the knife stuck in the frame of a door next to them. It was that exact shot that adorned the cover of a novel I had as a kid, and LOVED! It was great seeing that familiar visual again. It really took me back. The thing I most love about watching Roger Moore in his pre-Bond outing as Simon Templar, is that it’s like watching ‘baby Bond.’ And it’s easy to see why producers of the Bond series had their eye on him for years to play 007. Watching these “Saint” episodes is like watching a mini-Bond movie!

Sunday the 21st – JUST LIKE OLD TIMES! – After doing some work around the house I decided to go get some food with friends at a local restaurant. We bundled up in anticipation of eating outside in the chilly weather. But when we arrived we noticed that nobody was sitting at the tables under the tents, and there were no heaters. So we went inside to inquire about a table. We saw people actually sitting inside at tables eating their dinner. And while the patrons were spaced very far apart, it was like the old days – people actually enjoying their dinner indoors! I asked the hostess about that and she said because of the high winds, eating under the tents wasn’t safe. I asked if we could eat inside as well and she said we could! WOW! This is great! I haven’t eaten a meal at a restaurant indoors in months! (NOTE: All of the other 49 states have allowed indoor dining for a while now, but California is late to the game and is still prohibiting it. Outdoor dining was just recently allowed again.) We sat down at our table, and we recognized some familiar faces (even behind the masks) and greeted them with smiles! Even the manager was there with his little doggie! As our food arrived the piano player walked in and started playing some music. I made a point to leave a big tip in his jar. Then a lady stood up and started singing with him – just like the old days! Though the dinner crowd was small and intimate, we all produced a large round of applause. Partially because they were good, but also because it was a semblance of normalcy returning to the lives we’ve been living over the past year. Fantastic! When I got home I shot two Cameo greetings, and then started eyeing my couch with nap-time desires. It had been quite a while since I enjoyed a nap on The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe, so I fed the kids some treats, walked Roxy for a bit, made up the couch with my blankets, and snoozed for a bit. It was heavenly! When I woke up I printed the map to the video game session I had scheduled for Monday, prepped for the new week, and eventually turned in for the night.

And how was YOUR week??!!

 

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Prepping the eye pieces for the Prairie Dawn Muppet replicas I’m making.

After a fun few days in L.A., Michelle and I hit the road to LAX so she can catch her flight back to Florida.

My pal Rowlf patiently waits his turn to shine in the upcoming Zoom interview.

It was amazing that, only a few hours after repair, Sonic was able to put his full weight on his newly repaired leg!