RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I LOVE how this Frogenstein picture turned out – the shadowing, the angle, the black & white! Just had to share!
The song “The Blob” by the Five Blobs came up in conversation this past week, and it’s been in my head all week. Catchy! And a great theme to the 50’s sci-fi movie with Steve McQueen!
Monday the 22nd – THE NIGHTMARE IS REALLY OVER! – After reading a lot of the accounts of stranded passengers who were suffering during the worst airline outage in history, I was glad I pulled the plug on my trip and stayed home. Sure, it hurt and was somewhat depressing, but I was starting to believe it was all for the best. God bailed me out of this one! Even though the airline website confirmed that my two pieces of luggage had arrived at LAX on Sunday night at 9pm, I wanted verbal confirmation from an actual human. So I bit the bullet and waited on the airline’s phone system for close to an hour. As soon as I got a real person on the line they confirmed that my luggage was indeed at LAX. They didn’t even ask for the control numbers on my bags – they already knew because my phone number showed up on their system. Once I got their verbal confirmation, I contacted my assistant Emily and arranged to have her drive me down to LAX later that night when (hopefully) the crowds had somewhat subsided. The idea was that she would drop me off, circle around the airport until I laid hands on my luggage, and would pick me up. This would prevent me from having to park miles away and lug everything back. Until then I rested up, did my nightly auditions, and then Emily came and got me around 9pm. We started with a quick dinner at Denny’s, and then headed to the airport. Even though it was later at night, the traffic was horrible. It was made worse by the fact that we ended up in the “Arrivals” lane instead of the “Departures” lane, which was free and clear. Apparently the main crowd was returning from flights, but not that many people were going out. But we finally made our way to the proper terminal and Emily let me out. I walked into an utter nightmare. There were people everywhere in lines, and there were several roped-off areas with thousands of pieces of luggage. The line to speak to a baggage rep was really long, but I wasn’t convinced that I needed to be in line. Luckily the guy I dealt with the other night when I filed my claim was busy helping somebody. I strolled up to the front of the line, patted him on the shoulder and said, “Hey man! It’s me! If I’ve been told my bags are here, so do I need to wait in line?” He recognized me from the other night and smiled, and said I didn’t. He told me to go talk to one of the attendants in the roped off areas. Luckily, he remembered me from our conversation the other night when I filed my original baggage claim. It’s one of the many reasons why you should be nice and joke around with people as much as possible in life. They remember that, especially during a hectic situation like this. I pulled out the little pamphlet with my baggage claim stickers on it and walked to one of the roped off areas. I asked if the areas of bags were organized by the cities they came from. One harried attendant said rather sadly, “They used to be.” Oh boy. It looks like utter chaos, and it seemed as if these guys had been through a tough battle. People were vying for their attention and it was chaos. I took out a $5 bill from my pocket and held it up with my airline pamphlet. I announced, “The first guy to help me find my bags gets this fiver.” Just then a much younger guy in an airline baggage uniform came up behind me and said, “I’ll help you.” Money talks. He said the baggage was grouped by the original date of the departure flight. And the baggage from flights on the 18th and 19th were in a different area. He led to that area and asked, “What do they look like?” I said, “One is a hard-sided case with the words THIS SIDE UP written in big white letters.” Without a hesitation he said, “This one?” I looked down and THERE was my puppet case! WOO HOO! I said the other one was a canvas roller suit bag with Homer Simpson on it. But while the hard side case stuck out from the melee, the suit bag would be harder to locate as it looked so much like all the other bags that were there. He stepped to the side to answer somebody’s question, but told me I could peruse the bags and find mine. I looked around and within three minutes found a bag that looked very similar to mine. I leaned it back to look at the front and sure enough – Homer Simpson! “FOUND IT!” I yelled. The kid pulled it out from behind the ropes and wheeled it away for me. I handed him the fiver and he said, ”Thanks bro.” Easy peasy! I texted Emily and she said she hadn’t moved very far in the dense traffic. In fact, she was just one terminal over! I told her to stay put, and that I would hoof it over to her. It was much easier than waiting for her to make another loop around. With both of my pieces of luggage in tow, I wheeled them over to where she was at. She opened up her hatch, I threw the bags in and I said, ”Let’s get the hell out of here.” The nightmare seemed to be over. All that was left was an inventory check to make sure everything in my luggage was where it should be. When I got back to my house, Travel Kermit and Travel Cookie were right where I packed them last week. And everything in my suit bag was virtually undisturbed. Whew. The nightmare is truly over. Then I sat down for the arduous task of writing Wally’s Week and describing the madness I had just endured. Unfortunately for a lot of air travelers last week, their madness was a thousand times worse than mine.
Tuesday the 23rd- TICKET TROUBLES! – When I finally woke up I was shocked to see that I had slept a full 8 hours in a row, which is rare for me. I must’ve really needed it. I did some work on-line, and then I drove to get my packages at my box. Then I went over to Paty’s to have a salad on the patio. Coming out of the restaurant was my old pal Rick from “The Tonight Show” days. I hadn’t seen him in a long time. It was fun to stand on the curb and catch up. Then I saw my “new best friend” Morgan Fairchild again who was just finishing up her meal. I stopped over to her table to chat for a bit and say hi. This is about the third time I’ve seen her at Paty’s, and she’s delightful to talk to. Very nice! I had a delicious salad and relaxed – until it got rather cold and windy for some reason. I drove over to CVS to pick up some supplies. I spoke with Angi who told me that her film school sprang a writer’s workshop on the students last-minute, and it was going to happen this Saturday night! But I already had tickets for “Puppet Up!”, and now it looks like she won’t be able to go. Her school is mandating the presence of all students. They hired real screenwriters to come help the students workshop their scripts before they started shooting their film projects, so it was pretty important that she attend. Add to this the fact that my pal Boz was still down with Covid, so he had to bow out. So now I had two additional tickets I didn’t know what I was going to do with. I originally bought a table of 6 for our group, so I had some work to do to try and place those tickets with warm bodies. I got some groceries at the store and pulled into my garage and started unloading them. While I was working away my neighbor came up to ask my advice on a problem. A vagrant had stashed two bikes and a rolling, foldable cart on his patio, and then locked his patio gate with a lock! My neighbor didn’t have the key to the lock, obviously, and the vagrant was using his patio as his own private storage area. I called my neighbor Bob (who used to be the HOA president) and asked him to take a look. As we three were in the alley discussing options, I suggested he get a bolt cutter and cut the lock and turn the items over to the police, as they were most likely stolen property. A neighbor of ours was walking her dog and overheard our conversation. “I have bolt cutters,” she said. GREAT! She put her dog away and returned with them, and sliced off the lock. The two bikes on his patio were chained together, so moving them off the patio wasn’t easy. But we did it. He pulled them around and stashed them in his garage, along with the cart, so the police could decide if they had been reported stolen or not. I told him to lock his patio gate with his OWN lock so the vagrant wouldn’t return, find his stuff missing, and vandalize his property. He didn’t have an available lock, so I gave him two locks that I had lying around. I told him he could keep them, and to lock the upper part of the gate, as well as the lower part. The vagrant may have been able to cut one lock, but taking the time to cut two locks would be too time-consuming. What an odd circumstance. I also told him to keep all his lights on all night to deter the vagrant from coming back. It’s always something in this city. Sheesh. I put the rest of my groceries away, and made a special note to check around during my late-night walk to see if I could spot any suspicious activity. But I think once the vagrant sees that his stuff is gone, and that there are two locks on the gate, he’ll most likely move on. It sure is great to be out of the airport mess, as I’m still seeing people stranded all over the world because of the historic outage. It’s good to be home. I worked on-line, and then prepped for a short session on Wednesday. I also have to figure out who would be most likely to take the tickets to “Puppet Up!” this weekend. I gave it some thought during my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and subsequent relaxation time spent in my anti-gravity chair meditating under a gorgeous night sky.
Wednesday the 24th – THE WEB ON WALLY! – The first stop was over to my seamstress Shelley’s house to drop off some custom Laurel & Hardy fabric my pal Scott Sebring designed. I want to have a new bowling shirt made with this design. At first I had the fabric printed in “minky” fabric for a set of new pajamas. Then I got the fabric printed in cotton sateen for the shirt. It’s confirmed that Boz won’t be able to make “Puppet Up!” this weekend, and Angi also confirmed that she would be locked into the writer’s workshop all night. So I offered one ticket to my pal Sara’s boyfriend. I phoned my young friend Isaiah (puppeteer, puppet builder, animator, etc.) who I figured would LOVE this show! And since he’s a young, up-and-coming artist, I thought he’ll get a great deal of inspiration from the show. Problem solved. Both are going! I stopped by my box to get my packages, and I got a great new toasty jacket for the upcoming fall season. It’s adorned with the “Halloween” logo embroidered on the back, has cool thematic lining, and Michael Myers’ face on the snaps. TOO COOL! It was just a random ad that came up on Instagram and I decided I needed that jacket for this fall! I drove over to Out Loud studios in Burbank to do a quick session for a new animated series. I met the producer Keith on a plane to Dallas last March and we really hit it off. Shortly after that my agent received an offer to do a character on the show. Neat! It was a short (but very fun) session. I hope to return to the show someday soon. I hit Taco Bell for lunch, and then headed home to do some work. I had a ton of auditions to record, and I did some work around the house. As I’m trying to figure out where to display these new “travel” Muppet replicas I’m having made, I had an idea. While the original set of puppets I made all have custom-made Plexiglas cabinets to call home, I’m going to mount the “travel” puppets on wood dowels that will be mounted on the walls around Planet Wallywood. But instead of having to custom make mounts, I found really great flagpole brackets on Amazon that will accommodate a 1” wood dowel. Perfect! The brackets are only about 11 bucks a piece, so I ordered three of them. One will be for “Travel Kermit,” the other will be for “Travel Cookie,” and the third will be for the new Gonzo my pal Steve Troop is making. If I have the builder in Chile make me a new, larger Mahna Mahna, I’ll need to buy another bracket. But that’s totally cool. I also hit the Hot Topic website to see if they had any more basketball-style jerseys like the “Invader Zim” one I bought at their Citywalk store a few months ago. I really like how it fits and feels, and I was hoping they had more of the same style, but with different shows I liked. No luck there. But they still had lots of the Zim ones left, and in my size! And because summer is on the wane, they were all marked down! So I grabbed two of them! Another ad popped up on my Instagram (this particular algorithm is really great!) for a company that sold baseball-style jerseys, but with anime properties. At a convention recently where I was signing, a guy came up to my table with a Soul Reapers jersey, and on the back it read, “ABARAI. 06.” I had to have one like it, but the website he pointed me to were all sold out. (The significance of 06 is because the character of Renji Abarai in “Bleach” – whom I voice – is in Squad 6 of the Soul Reaper Society.) I found the Soul Reaper jersey on this website, and it allowed you to customize the name and number on the back! COOL! I ordered one in my size with the name Abarai and 06 on the back! I took off for my nightly WOG. Since it’s summer a lot of the tree spiders in the area build these beautiful, complex webs to catch their lunch. They’re simply gorgeous, and I like to observe their beauty as I take my late-night walk. But sometimes the webs are so low I have to play a game of “Dip and Dash.” I dip below the web to avoid breaking their elaborate lunch-catching contraption, and then dash away. In fact, there was a spider and a huge web right outside my front door, and I successfully avoided it by dipping underneath it. But when I returned from my WOG a half hour later, the web and the spider were both completely gone! WOW! They work fast! When I got back I grabbed an iced tea and sat outside in my anti-grav chair marveling at the gorgeous night sky. It was warm and quiet. I heard a bit of a ruckus off to my left, but I didn’t think anything of it. Soon, a rat came out from a pile of leaves and ran right under my chair! Yikes! I think he was as surprised to see me as I was him! Soon after, I saw his rat friend on the chain link fence a few yards away. I shined the light on him and he froze. Initially he ran off, but a few minutes later he ran over in my direction too so he could join his friend. Off in the distance I heard some owls hooting and I said to myself, “Hey! I’ve got your lunch over here!” I came back inside and made a salad and watched the “Collector’s Call” episode that I had recorded from last Sunday. I also watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk,” and was happy, and a bit saddened, to see that one of the guest stars was my old pal Philece Sampler. We had been on a few animated shows together, but she passed away back in 2021. She was quite a good actress.
Thursday the 25th – BOB BAKER BUDDIES! – For a long time, I had been trying to get Alex, the head of the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre, to come over for a tour of Planet Wallywood. Today was the day I finally got to meet him and his friend Winona for lunch at Paty’s. Afterward I gave them a tour of Planet Wallywood and we chatted about different ideas for their Halloween show. It would be a dream come true to help write some new bits for a Bob Baker show! We tossed around lots of fun ideas! Later I did my nightly auditions, but I’m starting to have some voice issues again. It might be acid reflux burn again, as my antacid might be losing its power. I may have to switch to a different brand, but there is a section of my voice that’s a bit burned. Rats! Later I worked on updating my Muppet Replica Resource page on my website with some fun new photos that I took recently with Scott Sebring. Keep an eye on that page for updates! I took my nightly WOG, and since it was still pretty warm out I played lots of spider web “Dip and Dash.” I enjoyed spending some more relaxing time in the anti-grav chair to round out the day.
Friday the 26th – THE THEME THAT MADE ME WEEP! – The day started with a last-minute audition, and then it was off to Wienerschnitzel for a quick lunch. I took my food over to Igloo studios and scarfed it down before doing a four hour session for the foreign Netflix show I’m dubbing. We’re in the middle of episode 7, and should complete it in one more session. Then it’s onto the final episode (episode 8) and then we’re done for this season. But I haven’t seen episode 8 yet so I’m not sure how involved it is in regards to my character. On the way home I stopped at my box to get my packages. I got my three flag pole mounts for the puppet displays, and my two “Invader Zim” jerseys from Hot Topic. I sped over to the hardware store to try and get there before they closed at 6:30. But when I got there at 6:15 they were closed. I guess I forgot that they closed at 6, and not 6:30. But the owner was still there and saw me with one of my flag pole brackets in my hand, so he unlocked the door and let me in. What a nice guy! But I’ve been going there for about 20 years so he knows me pretty well. I found the 1” wood dowels I needed, paid him and let him enjoy the rest of his evening. This saved me from having to come back on Saturday and pick them up, so I really appreciated it. I went home and relaxed for a while. Later I took my nightly WOG, and spent some time in the anti-grav chair looking at the sky and meditating. When I got back inside I attached one of the flag pole brackets in The Tranquility Zone so my “Travel Kermit” could reside there. But I needed to cover the dowel with black microsuede and put a foam rubber cap on it. I’ll do that tomorrow, but for now, he looks pretty darn good there! Then I made a salad and watched the final episode of the foreign Netflix show I’ll be dubbing, which was just recently put up on the server for us to see. It looks like it should be an easy one. Afterward, as I was dialing around on the satellite, I caught the last half hour of “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” I had forgotten that my new best friend Morgan Fairchild was in that – playing Dottie in the movie-in-a-movie portion of the film. Hilarious! After that they showed “Beetlejuice.” I hadn’t seen that film in a while so I kept it on for a while. But as soon as the opening theme came on I got nostalgic and sentimental, (and I fully admit) a little teary-eyed. For four years at Universal Studios Hollywood that was my entrance music in “The Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue.” Good times. Good memories. Great days.
Saturday the 27th – “PUPPET UP! WITH PALS!” – After having slept most of the day, I went to pick up Sara and her boyfriend Blake at their house so we could carpool into Hollywood for the “Puppet Up!” show. But first we were meeting Edi and Elliot Lurie and my friend Isaiah for pizza at Rafallo’s – which has now become a pre-“Puppet Up!” tradition. By the time we got there Edi had already put some money in the jukebox and tunes were playing. We had a great dinner, and we had a lot of fun commenting on the really bad remakes on the “Greatest Hits” CDs the juke box was playing. A lot of what we played weren’t the originals, and I could totally tell it. Elliot said he had done several remakes of “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” for these types of albums, and he said they’re pretty awful. It’s what small record labels do when they want to release a “Best Of” album, but don’t want to pay the exorbitant licensing fees to obtain the original masters. I had pre-paid for parking on the Henson lot for the show, so I managed to cram all 6 of us into the Gray Ghost, with Edi and Sara squishing into the back – since they were the smallest among us. We got parked, checked in, and had a great tour of the lot. It was funny when somebody asked our tour guide about the inside of the famous Henson Recording Studio (formerly the A&M Records studio) and she said she didn’t know, as she had never been in there. However, Elliot had recorded there many times, so he answered the person’s questions about the layout of the studio. Funny! We got our seats for the show and right out of the gate the first bit was hysterically funny! Our crew (and the rest of the audience) totally loved it. Now they all realize why I’m such a “Puppet Up!” addict. During intermission I went out into the courtyard to get a couple of bottles of water. I actually got recognized by a few people, which is always an odd thing to happen to a Voice Actor. One guy named Alex is a fellow Voice Actor whom I had never met. So we chatted for a while. And then, one of the “Puppet Up!” crew came up and asked if I would say hi to somebody. He introduced me to a young lady named Rachel. Oddly enough, Rachel and her husband were just onstage doing a bit with the cast. Host Patrick Bristow had selected Rachel and her husband out of the audience to play one of the improv games with the cast. When Patrick interviewed her we couldn’t see her because she was sitting down at one of the tables. But as soon as I heard her I thought to myself, “Wow. She’s got a really great voice!” Come to find out she happened to mention to one of the crew that she wanted to do Voice Acting, and the crew member brought her up to me to say hi and get some advice. But the intermission was ending so I told her to meet me later and we’d chat about it. As I walked back into the theatre with the crew member I asked him, “How did you know I was a Voice Actor?” He said, “You’re Jon Arbuckle! You’re the voice of my childhood!” It always feels good to hear that. After the show ended I gave Rachel and her husband my card and told her to email me with any questions. But it was getting late so I needed to take everyone back to their cars and homes. I got back home to relax as well. Later I measured, cut and covered the wood dowels for the “Travel Kermit” and “Travel Cookie” displays with black microsuede. “Travel Kermit” looks right at home in The Tranquility Zone, and “Travel Cookie” will live downstairs in the living room. I discovered that the section where “Travel Cookie” will reside has room for three more flag pole brackets – stacked above him! Awesome! It’s where I’ll display “Travel Gonzo” and “Travel Mahna” when I get them finished. After both dowels were covered, I put little foam rubber “caps” on them so the dowels don’t damage the interior of the puppets’ heads over time. I measured and screwed “Travel Cookie’s” bracket into the wall. It looks terrific! I made a salad and watched two episodes of “Honey West.” These episodes were actually quite enjoyable. In one scene, which involved a chase through a department store at night, Honey (played by Anne Francis) stops and freezes in position next to a bunch of other mannequins. She looked like the other mannequins, so the bad guys didn’t find her. I thought this bit was pretty funny, as it was an obvious throwback to Anne’s “Twilight Zone” episode where she played a renegade mannequin in a department store that comes to life at night and wants to go live life in the real world. Clever. It’s sad that this show is finally becoming enjoyable, and there are only about 7 episodes left in the series. They found their footing too late, sadly.
Sunday the 28th – I’VE GOT BLISTERS ON MY FOOTSIES! – As is usual, all day was spent crashed out in the Tranquility Zone. I got up for a little bit to feed Spook and polish off a few leftover slices of Rafallo’s pizza, and then it was back to bed for a while. Later I set up my home studio for an early session on Monday morning. The weather had turned noticeably cooler, and my WOG was actually quite chilly. Plus, my left walking shoe is starting to wear out on the inside heel. So by the time I came back in I had a pretty good-sized blister on my heel. OUCH! I spent some time in the anti-grav chair, but it was quite chilly. I did see one really great shooting star, as I read that we’re in the middle of not one but TWO simultaneous meteor showers! Awesome! I took some L200 and patched up the interior heel areas of my walking shoes. Hopefully that’ll make things more comfortable during my WOGs. If not, I’ll throw them away and start using my new pair of walking shoes. Always gotta have a back-up, ya know!
And how was YOUR week?!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Being the smallest among us, Sara and Edi were forced to cram into the back of The Gray Ghost to carpool over to the Jim Henson Studios lot. Nothing odd about four grown men driving down the street with two pretty young girls crammed into the back of their car. Hey, it’s Hollywood, after all! We all laughed about that all the way to the studio lot!
After the show we all got a picture in front of the famous Jim Henson sign – Sara and her boyfriend Blake, Edi and Elliot Lurie, my pal Isaiah Ferguson, and me. Great fun once again!
