June 8 – June 14 (2020) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Good memories! Nuff said!

Last Saturday when I was dining at the Daily Grill with my pal Sheriff John from Florida, I heard an amazing song on the restaurant’s overhead music system. We identified it as a song called “Voyage Libre” by Thievery Corporation, a group I’ve known about for quite a while. They’re one of my go-to groups to listen to when I’m in my “Palm Springs” vibe. I immediately came home and downloaded the song! Enjoy! (Anybody speak French? What are they saying?)

Monday the 8th – VIDIOT! – If you remember from last week’s “Wally’s Week,” I was working on a short presentation video for my kid’s book series. I had worked all night Sunday evening putting together a demo assembly edit for my editor Scott. When I woke up Monday afternoon Scott had the video finished! I sent it to my attorney and agent for comments, and after a few minor tweaks, my agent was VERY happy! Fingers crossed that it achieves some results. I drove over to Paty’s with Roxy for dinner, and my pal Sara met us there. Then I went home to do some work during the evening. Later I did some auditions and typed out Wally’s Week. I fed and walked Roxy on our late night stroll through the neighborhood and enjoyed a nice cigar on a gorgeous night! There were a lot of stars out, and it kind of reminded me of those nights in Palm Springs I miss so much. I really miss my balcony time in room 627 at the Hyatt. Maybe someday soon I can go back. I made some spaghetti and watched an episode of “The Invaders.”

Tuesday the 9th – GIMME A HAND…OR TWO! – The first errand of the day was to stop by my vet’s office and pick up some more prescription cat fud for Spook. (I’ve spelled cat food as “fud” ever since the Gary Larson cartoon) I stopped by my box to get some mail, and then drove out to Alex In Wonderland to drop off the redone hands for my Beautiful Day Muppet replica. The fur was trimmed incorrectly on the first set of hands, so I had a second set made that I’ll send (via US mail) to my pal Sergio Lopez so he can work his magic on them. He’ll return them to me and I’ll have Alex do a hand-swap/transplant. I cut the new hands out myself, pinned them together, so I needed Alex to stitch them up for me. I stopped by KFC to get some food to go, then went home to feed the pets. I did some auditions, worked on my computer for a bit, walked and fed Roxy and hit the hay.

Wednesday the 10th – CARAMEL CORN? SHIRLEY YOU JEST! – Craving a tuna sub, I stopped at Subway to get a quick snack before my 3pm session. I hit CVS to pick up some delicious caramel corn, per the request of my 93 year old ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley, who has been locked up in her place for 3 months, unable to go out beyond the perimeter of her assisted living quarters. She said she saw some on TV and it looked good. I stopped over to Voice Trax West for a 3 hour session for the super-secret client I’ve had for about 4 years. When I finished up I dropped Shirley’s caramel corn off for her, stopped by Rusty’s Pets to pick up some supplies for Roxy, and then I went home to feed the kids. Later I did a little work around the house, recorded my nightly auditions, and made some hot dogs on the grill and watched another episode of “The Invaders!”

Thursday the 11th – PUPPET PROJECTS! – Alex in Wonderland had the new set of hands finished for my Beautiful Day Muppet replica, so I drove over there to pick them up. Then, craving Crazy Bread from Little Cesar’s, I stopped by one of their locations and got some! YUM! I remember when Little Cesar’s first opened in 1986, and how addicted my buddy Dave and I were to their Crazy Bread from the get-go! I stopped by my mailbox to pick up a check, and then went to my seamstress Shelley’s to pick up the first phase of work on my Robin the Frog replica Muppet. I got home and did a little work and fed the kids. I got a great e-mail from one of my agents that the super-secret client I have been working for over the past four years is extending the contract for an additional two years! Wonderful! I packed up the Beautiful Day hands to send to Sergio, as well as some DVDs that I’m sending to my dad. I noticed some errors on the Robin the Frog puppet, so I e-mailed Shelley the corrections to the pattern and I’ll take it back to her the next day for a re-do. I had a very busy Friday planned so I turned in early.

Friday the 12th – CRUNCH! MUNCH! AND A HUNCH! – First stop of the day was a visit to my chiropractor Dr. C. The numbness in my left fingers and toes has been gradually going away thanks to these treatments, but I’ve really locked in on why this has happened. And it’s all because of an injury to my left elbow. Yup, I’m convinced that’s the cause of it all. It’s a long story, but it seems like (after discussing it at length with Dr. C) that it’s all some sort of domino effect. After that I met my pal Sara at Lancers for a nice outdoor lunch. Lancers had been closed for many months for the lockdown and just recently re-opened. I really enjoyed having my favorite hot beef sandwich again! We strolled through Hobby Lobby for a bit, and ran into my old pal Christopher Ameruoso and his wife there. We chatted for a bit and then I headed to the post office to drop off some mail. I stopped off at my seamstress Shelley’s again to drop off the Robin the Frog stuff for the re-do, and then I stopped off at the store to get some much-needed grocery items. I got home and did some work, went through some invoices that had been e-mailed to me for all the puppet work I’m having done, and then started thinking about the arm rods for the new Green Grover replica Muppet I’m working on. Back in the old days, they used white rods on the arms of the Muppets. I guess they thought the rods would blend into the light background better and disappear from the camera’s eye. But when the puppet’s arm is against its body, which is usually a darker color, the white rods really stood out. Which is why they probably went to black arm rods eventually. That way it would simply look like a shadow on the puppet’s body. But since I wanted to stay true to the vintage look of this puppet (did you know that Grover was GREEN before he was blue?) I started looking for the right gauge of wire I could use for the arm rods and then paint it white. But I happened across several white wire hangers that would just do the trick! When I was making puppets as a kid I would confiscate all the black wire hangers in the house and turn them into puppet rods. I found the most pristine ones I could find, cut the wires to length, and found some ½” wood dowels in my garage. I got some black suede and started working. I cut the dowels in 4 ½” lengths, sanded the ends nicely, and drilled a small hole toward the base of the dowel to insert a portion of the white wire. I had bent the bottom half inch of the wire at a 90 degree angle to insert it into the wood handle. Then I took Barge glue and attached suede leather to the outside of the handle. This will give me better grip of the handles during the manipulation of the puppet. At the top of the wire, I bent larger 90 degree angles which will be embedded into Green Grover’s hands and stitched up. I truly do love doing this sort of work! I drove over to Denny’s and picked up some food to go and came back to eat and watch an episode of “The Invaders” with guest star Peter Graves, about a year before he took on the role as Jim Phelps on “Mission Impossible! Those were truly the glory days of television!

Saturday the 13th – START ME UP! – My maids arrived early in the afternoon to clean up Planet Wallywood, and later I went to my auxiliary garage to charge up my Gran Torino to drive it to dinner. I hadn’t driven it in several months and it was going to need a jump start. I keep a charged-up jump starter in the trunk for these occasions. The battery was pretty dead, so it took a little while for it to get enough juice to start. Figuring that the battery would charge while I drove it to dinner, I didn’t worry about it starting back up again to go home. I met my pal Sheriff John from Florida for dinner at the Daily Grill in Burbank. We had a great dinner, but the Torino didn’t start up again when I came out. Luckily I had enough charge left in my jump starter to get her rolling again so I could go home. A few months ago my pal Officer Mark gifted me with a compact little trickle charger for just these occasions. I pulled into my garage and plugged the jump starter in to replenish its juice. Then I hooked the trickle charger up to the Torino’s battery. I’d let it charge overnight and get the battery nice and full. I came back inside to do some work, edit a video, and after working all night, I fed and walked Roxy just before dawn Sunday morning. It was cool, quiet, and pleasant. I checked on the trickle charger and it was already about a quarter full! I came inside and made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched another episode of “Space 1999” from the second season. I’ve been dreading watching these, since the majority of second season episodes have been pretty bad, but this episode was actually watchable. But again, it’s a retelling (rehash?) of the old “Star Trek” episode with the Nomad character. An AI being created by a guy who died, then somebody from the crew has to pose as the dead creator to fool the AI robot. Are there no original ideas in this season? Are they ALL going to be old “Star Trek” storylines? So far I’ve detected many, and the new character of Maya is a direct rip-off of Mr. Spock.

Sunday the 14th – SMOKESKI AND HUTCH! – After having been on the trickle charger all night, the Torino fired right up! NICE! I headed to the Smokehouse to meet my friends Sheriff John, Officer Mark and Miss Connie for dinner. Great food and good fun! We took some wacky pictures and then I headed home to do an audition. Later I fed and walked Roxy, and got the urge to finish the stand and support rod for my Oscar the Grouch replica Muppet. I had been waiting for my pal Kyle at Plastic Depot to complete a stand I had designed, but because of everything going on, he’s having trouble getting the raw materials needed from suppliers. The temporary base I was using for Oscar would now become the permanent base. It was the right dimensions to fit in the bottom of the trash can, and all I had to do was find a wood dowel that was 7/8” to fit in the base’s vertical support. I had just the dowel I needed in my garage, I cut it to size, put on a foam rubber topper, and I was good to go! Perfection! By the way, if you’re at all interested in the process I used to make my Oscar, you can read all about it (virtually step-by-step) on my new how-to page here… Oscar the Grouch Project. That was the very last thing I needed to do to complete my Oscar the Grouch display, and he is officially done! I took some photos, finished up the expose about his creation, and headed to bed with a great sense of satisfaction.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK