RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I saw this jacket for sale recently on a website a friend sent me. I SO want it, but I’m not sure where I’d ever wear it. COOL idea!

I’m always a sucker for a good story song, and Bobby Goldsboro was one of the top story-song artists of the 70’s. While a few of his songs were pretty weepy, and a few were even fairly funny, “Summer (The First Time)” tells the tale of a young guy’s foray into manhood with an older woman on a hot summer day. It’s got a beautiful melody, a catchy, haunting hook done on a piano, and the lyrics are poetic gold. It was a fairly popular song in a day long before anyone ever dreamed of the MeToo movement. Not sure you could release a song like this today, for a variety of reasons, but it’s still one of my favorites. The song paints a vivid picture in your mind’s eye, and makes it easy to visualize the story. As I listen to this song I see the whole scenario play out in my mind like it was a music video. Very few songs can do that! Gorgeous!

 

Monday the 24th – ROX RX! – After having slept all night on “The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe,” I woke up at 10:30 am and was rarin’ to go! I did some work around the house, recorded a few auditions, answered and wrote some e-mails, and planned my day. It was absolutely gorgeous out, so I made sure to include a brisk walk as part of the day. I typed out Wally’s Week and then walked Roxy over to the vet’s office to pick up her new prescription for an anti-inflammatory which was supposed to help her rear legs. It was fun to have Roxy out for a stroll. Her back legs are fine when she’s walking or running, but when she stands still her right leg gets tremors. Hopefully this medicine will help. We walked back home and I started doing some work in the garage. After my mega-clean project from a year or so ago, the garage is starting to get a bit cluttered again. So as soon as it gets nice enough out at night, I’m going to engage in another mega-cleaning and purging. I came inside to do some auditions and relax. I took an evening nap, and then got up later to do a bunch of stuff around the house and various personal projects. I usually type out Wally’s Week on Monday nights, but since it was already finished earlier in the day I didn’t have much to do. My auditions had also been done earlier in the day. So I fed the kids and napped on the couch again until 6am Tuesday morning. That couch is IRRESISTABLE!!!

Tuesday the 25th – HAS SPRING SPRUNG!? – It was another gorgeous day and I couldn’t resist putting on my walking shoes and heading over to the Daily Grill to have lunch with my pal Edi. The combination of the incredible weather and the amazing tunes on my iPod that came on during my walk had me feeling quite high. I strolled past the neighborhood pot store and chuckled to myself. Who needs THAT stuff? I’m feeling just as high without it! And there’s no brain fog associated with it. On the contrary, the endorphins that were coursing through my body were quite stimulating. I stopped by the hardware store on the way home to get some light bulbs for my bathroom vanity, but they are no longer allowed to sell the type I need due to California law. I’ll figure out another way to get some. I got home and did some work, recorded some auditions, and grabbed a nap. Then I stayed up all night working around the house.

Wednesday the 26th – WALKIN’ WEDNESDAY! – I got up at noon and did a few things around the house. It was another beautiful day, so once again I threw on my walkin’ shoes and headed to Voice Trax West to do a short session for American Airlines. But before my session I went next door and enjoyed some fried rice at Chin Chin. I finished up my session and then headed back home to feed the kids and meet with my associate Helen to get some work done. When she left I grabbed a short nap, and had a ton of auditions waiting for me to record when I woke up. I prepped for a Thursday meeting, made a pizza, and then hit the hay.

Thursday the 27th – 93!! – On June 27th some friends in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and I are staging a huge benefit for children’s cancer called Voices Against Cancer. I’m bringing 8 of my Voice Actor buddies to Sioux Falls to sell autographs and selfie for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. It’s going to be amazing, but we need some serious focus in the marketing department in order to present the event in the media accordingly. My pal Chris from my church is quite adept at this sort of thing, so we met for lunch at Jerry’s Famous Deli to run through some ideas and plan some strategies. After a 2 hour meeting we came up with the beginnings of a wonderful marketing plan, so we’re going to brew on it some more and meet in a week to reconvene. I went to my mailbox to pick up some fur I bought on ebay for my new Beautiful Day replica Muppet. The original fur they used in the 60’s and 70’s is long gone, but I managed to find some vintage 70’s knit fur stuff that had a really great look to it. But it was in a very small quantity and I’m not sure I’ll be able to get out of it what I need. Hopefully with some clever cutting and planning it’ll all work out nicely, since I really like the look of this vintage fur. I rushed back home and started getting ready for my ‘adopted grandma’s’ 93rd birthday dinner with friends. Shirley won’t be 93 officially until Friday, but she’ll be leaving with her daughter and family for a weekend in Palm Springs. So Shirley’s L.A. friends only had Thursday night to get together for her. I picked Shirley up at 7:30 and headed to the Smokehouse restaurant; one of Shirley’s favorite places. We had an amazing time and helped her celebrate 93 years on planet Earth. I dropped Shirley off at her home and then returned to Planet Wallywood to nap. I got up later to do a ton of auditions, work a bit on my design for Beautiful Day, and then went to bed.

Friday the 28th – DAY OFF? NOT! – With no meetings, sessions or auditions planned, I thoroughly thought I had the day off. But when I woke up at noon I got an urgent call from Voice Trax West that they needed me for an emergency session for American Airlines. So once again I put on my walking shoes, briskly strolled over to the studio and recorded the needed lines. After the session I sat around chatting with the guys, and learned something new. Apparently when you sleep on your right side it exacerbates acid reflux. It has something to do with how the physiology of the trachea, etc. is constructed. They said that sleeping on your left side is much better. I had been having issues recently with that very thing, and sure enough – when I sleep on “The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe” I sleep on my right side. BAD! So I’m going to spend a few weeks sleeping on my left side and see how that works. As we chatted a guy came out of one of the studios with his audition copy; obviously a young, aspiring Voice Actor. He looked at me, paused, and then looked at me again and said, “Are you Wally Wingret (sp)?” Sometimes people switch the ‘e’ and the ‘r’ in my last name, so it’s not an uncommon mistake, but I said, “Yes.” He introduced himself and said he was a big fan. So we shook hands and chatted for a bit. The copy he was reading for was something I hadn’t received from MY agent, so apparently he was doing pretty well in the early stages of his career. No matter how long I’m in this business, I’ll always enjoy hearing accolades from young up and coming voice talent. It’s very nice and I enjoy it. It was then that one of the newly hired engineers at Voice Trax West also confessed to being a fan, and explained how he had spent many long hours being taunted by the Riddler in the Arkham games trying to collect trophies. Needless to say I was feeling pretty special. I dashed home to do some more work on the layout for a sampler book which demonstrates the look and story lines for the children’s project I’ve been working on. I took a short nap (lying ONLY on my left side) and then got up later to feed the kids. I laid back down on the couch and slept until 6am Saturday!

Saturday the 29th – 80th ANNIVERSARY! – Mid-afternoon I picked up my pal Sara and went to Panda Express to get some lunch. Then we got some groceries and I took her back home. I put my groceries away, and then I started cutting bit chunks of foam to start carving for my Beautiful Day puppet project. I got everything set up for movie night and the guests started arriving for our 80th anniversary screening of “Pinocchio,” which was released on February 23rd, 1940. I’ve always loved that movie and seeing it on Blu Ray is always a treat! After everyone left I took a brief nap in the Puppet Room, and then spent the entire night working on my sampler book. I placed the order with Shutterfly for two copies of the updated version, thoroughly cleaned the Tranquility Zone, made my traditional Saturday night Super Salad and watched “Space 1999.” As I was dialing around on the satellite after I was done, I came upon a show on Discovery Family called “Too Cute.” This episode dealt with several houses that raised rescue kittens. My can Spook sat at the edge of my bed and couldn’t take his eyes off the TV, and all of the cat activity that was occurring within the show. Hilarious!

Sunday the 1st – PAT’S PURGE! – Late afternoon I awoke and headed to evening church with Roxy. Shirley was still out of town so she wouldn’t be at the service, so I arranged to have dinner with my pal Bat Pat. He had recently decided to move on to other things in his life, so he was beginning to purge his considerable collection of Batman-related items. Having been through several of my own purges in my life, it was fun catching up with him over dinner to discuss his future plans. I dropped Pat off at his house and then headed home to nap on the Puppet Room bed again. Come to find out, sleeping on my left side isn’t very comfortable on “The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe,” so I’ve discovered alternate sleeping situations that are more conducive to my “left side only” experiment. I got up later and recorded a bunch of auditions in the quietness of the night. I fed the kids and continued to do work all night. Knowing that I’m going to need to get some eyeballs vaccu-formed for my Beautiful Day replica Muppet, I started crafting a “buck” for the eye pieces. A buck is a very hard, resilient piece that the heated plastic is formed over. I pressed some Magic Sculpt into the bottom half of a 2-part clear plastic Christmas ornament, and I’ll let it set overnight. Then I’ll sand it and smooth it before I take it to Kyle at Plastic Depot to have it duplicated. Since I had a session on Monday, I went to bed around 6am to get a few hours’ sleep before having to be up to head to the studio.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here’s a video of Spook watching “Too Cute” on Discovery Family. You can tell his tail got a little fuzzed out, thinking that the cats he was seeing might be unwanted guests. But after doing some sniffing around he realized it was just a video and he went about his regular cat business.

31 years ago this past week marked the passing of my Grandpa Joe. I still miss him today and think of him often.

Soon-to-be-93 year old Shirley enjoys her enormous chicken pot pie at her birthday dinner at the Smokehouse!

“Grandma Shirley’s” birthday gang!

Shirley poses next to a movie poster at the restaurant that’s remarkable poignant!