July 12 – July 18 (2021) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Gotta admit…I’m not a fan of these cats. It looks like some sort of evil chupacabra stalking its prey!

I’m starting to work out the proper spacing on the eye pieces for my 10% Rowlf replica Muppet. I ordered a hole punch from Amazon so I can punch out the perfect 3/4″ hole out of black velvet for the pupils.

“Bent” by Matchbox 20 popped up on my iPod the other night while I was working, and I had forgotten how great this song is!

Monday the 12th – TALKED FOR TWO! – It had been a while since I heard from my old pal Ruben Procopio, but he called around 10am and we chatted for over two hours! It was good to catch up with him! I spent some time sizing out the eye and nose placements on my 10% Rowlf replica Muppet head. This one is 10% smaller than the one I made back in 2018, and is more in proportion with my other Muppet replicas. It’s looking VERY good so far. My old contractor pal Terry used to always say, “Measure twice, cut once.” So after I made sure my measurements were right, I punctured the face with the appropriate holes. Both the nose and eye pieces have small bolts on the back so they can be affixed to the head with washers and nuts on the inside. I made an oval shaped anchor piece out of thin styrene that will go on the back of the nose on the inside of the head. It will help anchor the nose better than a couple of small washers. Next, he needs to go to Alex in Wonderland to have his head covering fabricated, his ear pieces fabricated and stitched on. Then the whole head will be transplanted onto the body I made back in 2018, and the original head I made back then will go into storage. I drove over to Staples to pick up some mailing supplies to use when I start sending out Christoween merchandise. The on-line catalog will go live in a week or so! I’m VERY excited! Later I had a ton of auditions to record. Then I typed out Wally’s Week, made a pot pie, and watched another episode of “Mod Squad.” This episode focused on my hometown of Sioux Falls!!! Unbelievable!

Tuesday the 13th – PROFILE PANIC! – After doing a little work on-line I headed over to my effects guy’s studio. Jim Ojala was going to help me come up with a good option for Cookie Monster eyes. I had some Christmas ornaments that I had bought that were perfectly sized, but they’re made out of very thin plastic and are very fragile. But he’s going to look at a few options, which might include fortifying the inside of the ornaments with a thin coating of liquid plastic. I picked up my mail at my box and then headed home. About a month ago I had a meeting with an agent about being represented for on-camera commercials. They decided to sign me, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to fill out all the on-line profiles your average on-camera actor needs to complete. One in particular needed to be filled out right away, as my agent let me know that they had an audition for me already! So I spent a couple hours on-line filling out all the details. It’s VERY detailed at that! I did my Voice Over auditions and relaxed before my girlfriend Michelle came over to begin her weekend. We headed to Denny’s to get some dinner.

Wednesday the 14th – “HEY JON!” – A two-hour+ Voice Over session for a video game was scheduled for this afternoon in Marina Del Rey. (I can tell you that it’s for Marvel, and it’s to voice a few characters I’ve done for them before) Instead of hanging around the house, I figured Michelle might like to go to the Marina with me and look around the area while I’m recording. So she drove down with me, dropped me at the studio, and went shopping. No, she didn’t go down to the water and see the beautiful scenery and aquatic craft, she looked for thrift and antique stores. Oh well, whatever ‘floats your boat.’ The session ended in less than two hours, and Michelle came to pick me up and we hit the road. On the way back we were listening to her music app, and “Band on the Run” by Paul McCartney and Wings came up. Now, earlier in the day, I had a moment where I reflected upon an old childhood friend (who has since passed away) named Jon Horning. When it wasn’t cool to be into comics, Jon and I were obsessed with them back in the early 70’s. He was my main comics buddy. Though we had lost touch as we got older (life tends to do that) I always had fond memories about our fun times together. We had many things in common; James Bond, Laurel & Hardy, comics, monsters, etc. He passed away from a freak heart condition in 2004 and I was devastated to hear of his passing. But back in 2010 when I got cast as Ant Man in “Avengers; Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” I threw my face to the heavens and said, “Hey Jon! I’m a #*!%ing Avenger!” It seemed like poetic justice, and he would have been the first person I would have shared this news with. So working for Marvel during the day, and getting to say the lines I had to say gave me an absolute nerdgasm! I reflected with gratitude how life works, and recalled those days sitting with Jon in his basement on a cold, snowy day in Aberdeen, South Dakota reading comics and talking about our favorite heroes. So that was “Jon Moment #1.” But when I was in Michelle’s car later and “Band on the Run” came on, I also recalled a fun Jon memory. After Jon had moved out of Aberdeen in 1973 for Willmar, Minnesota, I managed to hitch a ride in 1974 with his uncle and aunt to go visit him. “The Man with the Golden Gun” had just been released, and I had just landed my hands on an 8 track tape of Paul McCartney and Wings new album “Band On The Run.” So on the road to Willmar, I convinced Jon’s Aunt Fran and Uncle Denny to play the tape. I have great memories of tooling down the highway listening to that amazing album. So when the title track came up it was “Jon Moment #2!” Fun! We got back to Planet Wallywood to organize the night’s activities. Not only did I have a ton of Voice Over auditions to complete, I also had an on-camera commercial audition. That meant that I needed to reconfigure my living room to shoot the audition. In addition, Michelle needed to record a few pick-up lines for a podcast she recently did some Voice Over for. I spent a little time working out the proper spacing on Cookie Monster’s eyes, and I was elated to hear from Jim that he had a great result pouring the liquid plastic into the Christmas ornaments to fortify them. Though they’ll still be hollow, he gave them an eighth inch wall all the way around the inside to fortify the thin plastic. Neat!

Thursday the 15th – VOICE LEGEND! – It had been quite a while since I saw my pal Tuesday Knight, so we decided to get a group together and meet at Paty’s for lunch. On the way in I saw Voice Acting legend Jim Cummings! We chatted for a bit and went inside. It sure was great catching up with Tuesday and her gang. We barely got back to Planet Wallywood in time for Michelle to do her two-hour improv audition on-line in the Puppet Room. I worked around the house until she finished, and then we sat at the kitchen table with all of my Christoween merchandise and weighed them on my new postal scale. Then we referred the weights to the Postal Service website to see how much it would cost to mail them. I need to have these rates posted on my Christoween website when the on-line catalog goes live and we start taking orders. Michelle took off for home to prepare for her new work week. Later I did a bunch of auditions, and then I went to Denny’s to get some food to go and I watched another episode of “Mod Squad” before bed.

Friday the 16th – END-OF-WEEK WALK! – My pal Brittney stopped over to go on a brisk afternoon walk. We stopped by Kit Kraft so I could pick up some paint for my Cookie Monster eyes. Then we continued on to Art’s Deli where we met up with our pal Edi for lunch. I got back home and worked around the house. Later I organized my auditions for Monday, reconciled my receipts with my checkbook and bank account info, made some spaghetti and hit the hay.

Saturday the 17th – EYES, EYES BABY! – In desperate need of soap, I took a short jaunt over to the local store and picked up that and a few other supplies. Then I worked on the pupils for my Cookie Monster eyes, painting them matte black. I think they’re going to work out great! I also worked on the eyes for my 10% Rowlf. I moved the spacing of the pupil around just a bit and now they look perfect. I haven’t finished them yet, but I’m working out the proper spacing. I’m at the point now where 1/8th of an inch one way or the other makes a HUGE difference. I stitched some ‘hang tags’ to a few more Christoween bandanas, and I started the arduous task of creating a neutral background that I’ll need for all future on-camera auditions. I had a long roll of photo backdrop paper in the garage that’s been sitting there for a long time. Mostly I’ve been using a small portion for still photo shoots, but I figured if I took 16 feet of it off the roll, taped it together edge to edge, I’d have an 8 foot long backdrop. And since the paper is 53” wide, side to side that makes it 106” – plenty for my purposes! In fact, I needed to trim it down to 90” to get it to fit in the space where I’ll be doing my on-camera auditions. But it’s not easy wrestling with that amount of stiff paper that’s been rolled up for years. It curled like crazy and I had to weigh it down with shoes and magazines to get it to lie down enough so I could run a long strip of packing tape along the seam, and join them together. Then I needed to put a 6” fold along the top so I could rest it on the top of my large video cabinet and weigh it down with heavy objects. That was no easy task either. But, after many sweaty hours, I got ‘er done! A hot shower never felt so good! I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched an episode of “The Saint” before turning in.

Sunday the 18th – IS SPOOK LOSING IT?! – Not only had I not seen my pal Sara in a while, but I hadn’t been to Ernie’s Taco House in a long time either! So I met Sara there for a nice meal. We brainstormed about the perfect promotional handout to promote Christoween at the upcoming Son of Monsterpalooza convention in October. We hit upon a GREAT idea, but more on that later. Over the past few weeks, I’ve caught my cat Spooky angrily meowing at my dog Roxy, as if she’s done something to irritate him. I always thought that perhaps she clumsily stepped on his foot or tail and he got mad. But tonight I saw him stalking her in the living room while Roxy was minding her own business. It looked like he wanted to pick a fight with her. He shrieked at her, which scared Roxy, and I got the squirt bottle and Spook got doused but good. It looks as if he’s starting to bully her for no reason, and I won’t stand for it. Not sure what I’m going to do. Could it be that he’s getting old and demented (he’s 16 now) and getting grumpy for no reason? It’s odd because other times they get along so well. Later I did my auditions, wrote a short, new Christoween piece for our promotional materials, made some chili and hit the hay.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

As I strolled through the complex with Roxy I saw a gorgeous butterfly inside a flower. Since it wasn’t moving I thought it might be asleep. But in fact, it had passed away doing what it loved – eating. I titled this picture, “Is there in death, beauty?”

After trying to get our server’s attention to pay the check, Michelle said to balance it on my head. She said that’s a sure way to get his attention. It didn’t work, so she was clearly messing with me.