June 07 – June 13 (2021) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Let’s throwback all the way to 2002 when my pal Alex Zsolt was visiting me at the studio of Pax-TV during a Voice Over session. Hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago!

As I was in the kitchen signing away on the empty toy boxes the other night, I was playing some music on my iPod. This song was recommended to me by my old radio pal in the midwest several years ago, and it’s a terrific song. It’s “Wish I Knew You” by The Revivalists. Good sounding song!

Monday the 7th – JUNE GLOOM! – As I’m considering selling my beloved Gran Torino, I had hoped to get the car outside to get some stills and video of it to sell it in an eBay auction. On June 30th I’m losing the long-term auxiliary parking space I’ve had for it. The owner of the space is moving, and the new owners will need both spaces. So after a frantic search for alternate parking, nothing suitable has turned up. There are a few places, but most of them are overpriced. But it was such an overcast day (we call it “June Gloom” or “May Gray” here in L.A.) that the environment wasn’t conducive to getting good glamour shots of the car. Luckily Roxy’s eating a little better now, but she hasn’t gone #2 in quite a while and I’m becoming concerned. The first batch of my Christoween t-shirts arrived and they look amazing! In fact, I’m going to design 6 more styles for printing because the process is so vivid and colorful. They’ll all be up on my Christoween.net website soon on the merchandise section. All of the shirts will utilize the fantastic original Christoween concept art by Patrick Owsley! My friend Joey Torino, who’s facilitating the printing of the shirts utilizing his personal contacts, said even the printer was amazed at how great the shirts looked, and he really loved the artwork! I immediately sat down and designed the accompanying artwork for the t-shirt ‘hang tag’; those are the little tags with all of the trademark info on them. I sent it to my attorney for approval before I have them printed. I ordered a Domino’s pizza and started typing out Wally’s Week. I organized my bills and receipts, did some accounting work, made some stew and watched another two episodes of “The Lone Ranger.” I’m almost done with the first season, and I’ve been totally digging it! Now I remember why I liked this so much as a kid!

Tuesday the 8th – WELL I’LL BE GASSED! – After paying a few bills, and re-doing a few signed photos that got lost in the mail (THANKS USPS!) I hopped in the Gran Torino and took off to look at an open parking space in an apartment building that was for rent. I stopped at Carl’s Jr. and got some lunch, gassed up (TOTAL OF $105.00!) and met the girl who owns the available space. Not only was it a lot further away than I imagined, but she neglected to put in her listing that it was a tandem spot. BAD NEWS! Because of this omission, I drove all the way over to this place for nothing. My requirements for an auxiliary spot for the Torino is – it has to be indoors, it has to be long enough for the car (at least 19 feet), and it can’t be tandem because of the odd hours I keep. I don’t want to have to call somebody at 3am to move their car if I need to get the car out for an appearance or a show. Given the disappointing experience I had last week while looking at a space, and now this…I guess this is strike 2. I drove to my mailbox and picked up my mail, and mailed off my bills and those replacement signed photos. In one of my packages I received a bunch of empty boxes for a toy, which features a character I did a voice for. I can’t mention the toy, or the character, or the company, but they’re having me sign all of them so they can feature them on their website. I did a little work around the house, and then met my ol’ pal Sara at Little Toni’s for some late-night Italian food. I hadn’t been there in over a year and it was amazing! On the way home I put the Torino to bed, and posted another notice in the auxiliary garage about needing a space. I’m becoming desperate! I went home to do some more work on “10% Rowlf.” Back on Christmas Eve of 2017 I got back into puppet building after a long absence. I’ve always loved Rowlf the Dog (my childhood dog was named after him!) so I figured I’d start with that character. Even though he turned out very well, his head was about 10% bigger than it should have been. And I had also made a few errors in the construction which I had always hoped to someday correct. I dug out my original patterns, scanned them, shrunk them 10% , and printed them out. I think this one will look much more in proportion with my other Muppet replicas. It’s my hope to get them all together for a group photo someday. My original Rowlf body is perfect, so I will remove the bigger head, and replace it with this 10% smaller one. I still have the same fleece and fur I used originally, so it should be a pretty seamless transition. I will need to make new eyes and a nose, but those are pretty easy fixes. So far I was elated with how the new “10% Rowlf” was turning out!

Wednesday the 9th – PODCAST, PATY’S & PACKAGES! – When I first moved to L.A. in 1987 my pal Dr. Demento helped get me a job at the Westwood One Radio Network. I started as an underling in the ‘traffic’ department (logging compliance with our affiliate stations who ran our shows and played the required commercial content), and one of the head guys in the Affiliate Relations department was a guy named Joe Garner. Decades later Joe and I reconnected when he was writing a book about Saturday morning cartoons, and we’ve been pals ever since. In fact, when I showed him my original concept for the Christoween Stalkings, he’s the one who suggested I write stories about them, so story books could accompany the Stalkings in the sale. It was an inspired, brilliant idea, I felt. Joe also produces podcasts that will re-enact certain historical events. I had done a few voices for him a few months ago for these podcasts, but after playing one of the episodes for a professor, it was determined that the character I played would have had a Boston accent, and not a southern accent. So Joe came over so we could re-record the tracks with the new accent. After that we went to Paty’s to enjoy lunch and conversation on the patio. I picked up my packages at my mailbox and headed home to do some work. I recorded several auditions, scanned some checks to make a bank deposit, and put the black fabric on the outside of “10% Rowlf’s” mouth. I thought it looked fantastic. The next move is to take this head over to Alex in Wonderland to have her put together the fleece covering for his face. Then I’ll take it home and Barge glue it to the foam. Then I’ll take it back to her to have the fur added to the head, as well as have the ears cut and stitched and attached. Once that’s completed I’ll have her remove the other head, and put this one on in its place. The final touch will be to have my hair guy Sergio trim the fur on the ears a bit, and then I’ll attach the nose and eye pieces.

Thursday the 10th – VET VISIT (AGAIN)! – Even though Roxy was eating a little more than she had been, she was vomiting it all right back up again. I needed to take her back to the vet to see why. Because I had a session, I couldn’t wait with her at the vet’s. So I arranged to do a drop-off and pick her up later. I drove to Studio Awesome in Hollywood and did an hour and a half session for a new animated film. The vet called during my session and under the circumstances, I was allowed to stop the session when the doctor called and see what the diagnosis was. The session was a lot of fun, and since I was in Hollywood, I took the opportunity to drive by Arby’s to get some lunch. There are very few of these around my area, so when I’m in Hollywood, I take full advantage. I drove over to my effects guy Jim Ojala’s studio to pick up some more Frankie Christoween resin ornaments. He also did “half heads” that I can put a magnet on the back of and turn into Frankie fridge magnets! I stopped by the bank and dropped off my deposits, went to the vet’s to pick up Roxy, and then went back home. My girlfriend Michelle was in the area to see my Ear, Nose and Throat doctor (the amazing one who did my sinus surgery several years ago) to go over her CT scan. Come to find out, Michelle has roughly the same problem I had back then, and will most likely need surgery. Luckily, her surgery won’t be nearly as intense or involved as mine was. But knowing what to expect throughout the whole thing helped put her at ease. We drove over to IHOP to get breakfast for dinner, and then came back home. A few hours earlier, Michelle and I had given Roxy the appetite stimulant the vet prescribed, and now she was very hungry! FANTASTIC! Perhaps the worst is over. Michelle took off for home, I did a little work, recorded my nightly auditions, and headed to bed.

Friday the 11th – PERFECT PARKING PROPOSITION! – The maids arrived at noon and cleaned up Planet Wallywood. Then I took off to run errands. After the disappointing strike 2 in my quest for finding auxiliary parking for my Gran Torino, something told me to call my mechanic at Burbank Auto Doctor for advice. I asked him if he had any leads, ANY LEADS, for suitable parking. He said he couldn’t think of anything. But 10 minutes later he called me back and said he had the perfect solution! It seems that a classic car fan offers rental parking spaces to collectors at a hotel he owns in Burbank. He said he called the guy, who was a friend of his, and he instructed me what to do and who to talk to. So I jetted over there to meet the contact and find out the details. On one of the upper floors of the hotel’s parking structure there were all sorts of classic cars under tarps (even boats!) and it would appear that many car collectors stash their beloved vehicles there! They pay a monthly rental fee and get liberal in and out privileges. It’s a brilliant move, as it’s better than having the parking spaces sit empty! It’s a wonderful money-generating prospect! I was shown the space my car would live in, I obtained the proper paperwork to fill out and, once approved, I would be given a key tag to have in and out privileges. This is BETTER than I could have possibly imagined! Thank God! I immediately called several people and told them I was going to get to keep the Torino! I got gas in the Mustang, stopped by Burger King to get some food to go at the drive-thru, and went over to Foam Mart to pick up some more Barge Glue for my upcoming “10% Rowlf” project. I was running low. I drove by the Burbank Auto Doctor to thank them personally for the personal referral, and then stopped by my mailbox to pick up my packages. I floated back home, ecstatic that I wouldn’t have to sell my Torino. I didn’t really want to, but I had found that I was rationalizing the potential sale in my mind to outweigh any resulting heartbreak. This situation will work out magnificently! I took Roxy out for a quick walk, and was talking to a neighbor. In the summer we have all sorts of these little salamander type lizards that run around the complex. They’re actually quite cute, and when they stop to look at you they do little “push-ups.” I saw a lizard dash across the sidewalk lightning fast and dive into the grass. I thought it was odd, until he came out of the grass with what looked like a stick in his mouth. But after closer inspection it was a worm! As near as I can tell they’re called Desert Lizards or Iguana Lizards. They’re awesome to watch. Later I did all of the auditions that were due on Monday, and I drilled all of the holes in my Frankie Christoween ornaments. These holes are needed for the metal eye hanger, the pupils, the decorative head bolts, and to attach the Santa hat once it’s completed. But in one instance I lost concentration for just a second and the drill slipped and landed on my left index finger. In cases like that, I just put on some Neosporin, a Band-Aid, and keep going. The plan was to do a late-night run to the 24 hour grocery store, do some shopping, and pick up some Denny’s food to go on the way home. But I figured I’d do my shopping on Saturday instead, and I just drove to Denny’s to get some food. As L.A. begins to come out of its year and a half coma (next Tuesday the 15th California completely opens and returns to “normal”) everything is getting busier and busier. Denny’s was SLAMMED with people! It was a bit frustrating, but I was glad for them. I know the manager well and I remember during the beginning how sad and empty my favorite Denny’s restaurant was. Glad to see booming business again. I had a great time eating my Denny’s dinner and watching a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger.” After these, I only have 4 more episodes left in the first season.

Saturday the 12th – SUMMER’S COME! – Late in the afternoon I finally got out of bed, and even though it had been a fairly warm day, toward the end of the day it had cooled off somewhat. It was the perfect temp to put some primer on my Christoween ornaments and fridge magnets. But I was running low on primer so I have to add that to the list of things to get this coming week. I drove to my seamstress Shelley’s house to drop off the latest Stalkings that she made. I wasn’t happy with the amount of stuffing in them, so I took them back to have them “fattened” up a bit. Come to find out, not only did I buy the wrong kind of batting before, but I didn’t buy nearly enough. She ordered the correct stuff, and will pad them up nicely before I list them for sale on the Christoween.net website. The street I normally take to get to Shelley’s was shut down by the police, so something was definitely going on. I (and hundreds of other motorists) had to go around and take a detour. Add to that Saturday evening traffic, and it was very slow going! I finally got to Shelley’s and dropped off the Stalkings, and then I headed to Taco Bell to get some food at the drive-thru. I needed to get groceries, but my usual grocery store was back through the snarled traffic. So I made plans to visit a different store instead. It’s a good thing I did, because I found some great supplies! I headed home to unload all of the groceries, and put a second coat of primer on the Christoween ornaments and fridge magnets before the sun went down completely. I managed to find a few more cans of primer in my storage, but they too were on their last few sprays. I’ll let them cure overnight and then put on the basecoat of color in the next few days. I brought up some more of those empty toy boxes to autograph, and laid them all out on my table to dry nicely. I’d be doing a fun panel on-line on Sunday at 1pm, so I got prepped for that. This panel will be recorded and played back at a later date on the host’s website. I can’t mention who was on the panel, or what the panel was for, but I’ll give you the full details when I’m able! (Boy, I just HATE keeping secrets from you!) I worked around the house some more, and then made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched a great episode of “The Saint” before bed.

Sunday the 13th – SUNDAY SILLINESS! – After only getting a few hours of sleep, I got up, cleaned up, and got set up to do the panel I told you about. Every time I do an on-line panel or interview I always have a Muppet replica pop in for a while. But the moderator of the panel loved the idea so much, they integrated the replica into the festivities! It was GREAT fun with a fantastic group of people! It was very warm out again, and since I didn’t want to sweat through the panel I fired up the house A/C for the first time this year. I had hoped to at least wait until July to do that, but necessity dictated otherwise. When the panel was over I was still a bit tired, so I grabbed a nap. Seeing as how Sundays are usually my “coma” days, I felt it was allowed. When I got up in the early evening I checked my texts and found out that my pals Officer Mark and Miss Connie were in the area dining at a restaurant. Though I missed meeting them for dinner, I talked them into meeting me at Bob’s Big Boy after they were done to get dessert! It’s always good to see them and catch up, and Miss Connie gave me a hot lead on getting some Christoween stickers made up! I immediately got on the website when I came home and ordered 10 sheets of stickers using our terrific conceptual artwork done by Patrick Owsley! Since I had some time, I decided to finish up Wally’s Week tonight, instead of waiting until Monday night. I liked getting the early start, given the fact that I had such a busy week ahead. I had a session scheduled on Monday in Marina Del Rey, and it was going to be a very busy start to the week. I enjoyed a sandwich and then hit the hay in anticipation of an exciting, new week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Fun times again at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank! I like the new artwork on the wall!

A couple of sleepy pets!

Who’s responsible for these horrifying gas prices?! I want answers!

Raw, resin Christoween Frankie heads ready to be primered and hand-painted!

Last week, you saw the mouth place and finger loops for “10% Rowlf,” and now here are a few shots of his foam head and jaw being attached to the plates. Some placeholder duct tape eye pieces are added for temporary effect, and the nose is put into the approximate place where it will eventually live permanently. Add to that some paper ears and it’s really taking shape!