RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I know I’ve posted this photo before, but I’m going to post it again just because looking at it makes me happy. At Anime Pasadena last November I sat next to my Voice Actor compadre Brian Beacock. But our relationship didn’t start in cartoons. Oh no, not at all. We first got acquainted at “The Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue” at Universal Studios back in 1994. He played The Phantom of the Opera (he was hilarious!) and I played Beetlejuice. Since then I’ve worked on many cartoons with him. But the surprise of all surprises was when Brian and I walked to the auditorium to participate in the “Bleach” panel, and found out that our old friend Keith Evans was the audio mixer for the venue! Keith was the sound mixer for the “Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue!” Of all the weird things! So we had a blast chatting (albeit all-too briefly) and laughing about the old days, and everything that’s happened since. Good times.

During one of the walks this past week, “All You Zombies” by The Hooters came up on my music player. This is a good sounding song, and it brought back a lot of great memories. See if it does for you too.

 

Monday the 27th – GAS GASP! – After doing a few last-minute auditions, I drove the Gran Torino to Paty’s to enjoy a salad on the patio. Then, as I was driving to the car wash to have the Torino fully hand-washed and waxed, I had “a moment.” “A moment” is one of those realizations of how good life is, and how everything eventually comes full circle in the grand scheme of life. It happened when “Let Her In” by John Travolta came up on my music player. I reflected on that song and remembered it was released in 1976; a magnificent year. Any song that made the Top 40 from that year is burned into the section of my brain reserved exclusively for “favorite things.” I reflected on how in the summer of ’76 my family took our first vacation to Southern California; a trip that changed my life. Though I had dreamed of living here and being in the entertainment industry from the time I was 5 years old, actually seeing it and being here filled me with determination to get here someday permanently. So many years have passed since that trip. Back in 1976 we toured the NBC lot on Alameda Avenue in Burbank. 33 years later I would call it my professional home for 4 years working on “The Tonight Show.” And now I’m driving my 1974 Gran Torino (a car I’ve dreamed of owning since “Starsky & Hutch” hit the air in 1975) into a car wash a block from the famed Warner Brothers Studios. Like NBC, I also occasionally call the Warner Brothers Studios my professional home when I’m working on films, TV shows, or video games. Add to the mix the enjoyment of a gorgeous, sunny 70 degree day, and I was enjoying the orgasmic thrill of this amazing “moment,” where all things have come delightfully full circle. And Mr. Travolta’s song underscored it supremely. I was in a state of overflowing thanksgiving. They finished up with the Torino and it was time to go get some gas. That’s where my euphoric state of orgasmia ended. The gas pump shut off at $100, which forced me to use a second credit card to complete the fill-up. I’ve tried using the same credit card twice when this has happened before, but it flags my bank that something fishy is going on, and they block my card from further use. So I learned my lesson. On my second credit card I bought another $7 worth of gas and the Torino was full. The car looked great, but BOY is it expensive to feed! I got back home and enjoyed a nice, sunny, brisk walk to the grocery store to get some food items. On the walk home I spent some time walking around the complex, and I started reflecting on all the places I used to go with Roxy. Then the “sads” hit again. But being human is great with all of its emotional foibles. How one can go from a state of euphoric happiness in one instance, and a mere hour and a half later you’re wiping tears from your eyes has never ceased to amaze me. One of the area dogs I love named Caramel came by and I got some good doggie time in with her. Then a 3 month old puppy named Ruthie came by and I got to hold her for a while. That was just the pick-up I needed. My pizza arrived and I ate it inside. I typed out Wally’s Week, grabbed a short nap, and then got up to set up my ersatz puppet video studio in my living room. My video camera has an “HDMI out” port, so I hooked that up to one of the HDMI ports on my TV. But it didn’t work for some reason. By all rights it should have worked, as I had everything hooked up correctly. I tried a different cable, and voila…it worked! So I went back to the original cable, and now that one worked too. Very odd. But this will work out very nicely for puppet video projects. I just need to put up my background curtain and some lamps for lighting. Then I’ll tie my headset microphone into my computer’s audio recording program to capture the audio. The camera and tripod will have to be elevated somewhat in order to properly frame the puppets, and allow me to move in and out of the frame effortlessly. But I’ll get it all figured out. I made some buffalo mac and started in on “The Muppet Show” season 5. Then I watched some “Have Gun – Will Travel” just before bed.

Tuesday the 28th – GONNA RAIN? GRAB THE RAV! – Once again I started the day with some last-minute auditions, and did some pick-up takes in my home studio for a parody of a rom-com for a current network TV series. I don’t think I can mention which show it is, but it’ll be very funny. It was another gorgeous day so I walked over to the post office to mail some bills. On the way home I ran into Candi Milo and her daughter on the street. We had fun chatting for quite a while. I walked back home, got cleaned up, and drove the Gran Torino over to Chick Fil-A for some lunch. In the center console compartment of my Mustang I recently found a Chick Fil-A gift card. I wanted to see how much was left on it. I had a whole 3 bucks and twenty-five cents left on it, so I used it up! I drove the Torino to my auxiliary parking facility and put it to bed. I dropped off a signed Riddler photo for Adrian, the security guard who helped me out recently. Since it was going to rain over the next few days I got my new Rav4 out, aka the Gray Ghost, and drove home. I didn’t want to mess up the great wash and wax job I just had on the Torino! What a great evening! I got home just in time to witness the majority of the amazing planetary line-up that was going on. I was too late to see Mercury and Venus (they had already set behind the horizon) but I saw Uranus, the moon, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn. It was amazing! I grabbed a nap, and then got up later to do some work around the house. Later I brought down a smaller monitor for my puppet video studio. My big TV is great, but it’s on the wrong side for where I need it for my eye line. The smaller monitor will work just fine for reference as I’m filming. I made a nice big salad and watched another two episodes of “The Muppet Show.” One featured Joan Baez who sang a beautiful song called “Honest Lullabye.” The second episode featured the ever-amazing Shirley Bassey, featuring an absolutely hilarious version of her singing “Goldfinger.” As I turned on “Have Gun – Will Travel” it started to rain outside. Here we go again.

Wednesday the 29th – THE LEATHER IS WEATHERED! – When I checked my email the production office for the TV series sent me the paperwork to pay me for the voice work I did for the parody rom-com ad. After I got all that filled out I did a little work around the house. Later in the day Spook and I got comfortable in the Puppet Room and took a nap. When we got up it was still raining, and I recorded an audition. I started rummaging around in the garage to find something and came upon a black leather bag that I haven’t touched in about 10 years. It’s a bag similar to the ones you‘d take on a plane as a carry-on. I had it filled with all the utilities I needed for ensemble animation sessions. I carried note pads, pens, a drink tumbler, a hair brush, comic books, promotional DVDs, and multiple colors of highlighters in that bag. During the session if I had some time before my lines came up, I had the comics to read. If I had multiple characters to voice in the script I would highlight the lines using a different color for each character. But there came a time a few years ago where I no longer had any need for the bag. Ensemble reads were going away, and paper scripts were becoming a thing of the past as well. Most every session I have now has me read from a monitor or tablet. And when the nutty year of 2020 came around, that ended everything. So the bag sat dormant in the garage all those years. But it’s a really nice bag, so I decided to clean it up, take all of the stuff I no longer needed out of it, and repurpose it. As I was cleaning it I pulled on a horizontal strap that had Velcro on the back. As I pulled it the seam running across the width of the bag ripped open! The leather was OK, but the weird paper backing it was attached to had become brittle and dry. I dug out some monofilament and a big needle, and stitched the seam back up again. It didn’t look necessarily pretty, but it served the purpose. I found a piece of 15” x 3” black leather in my storage, and used some Barge glue to cover the ugly “Frankenstein” suture-job. I gotta say, for a layman I did pretty good. It looked OK, and now I’ll be able to reutilize this beautiful bag for something else. While I was feeling crafty, I worked on creating the arm rods for my upcoming Grover replica Muppet. I cut a 36” piece of 3/32” music wire in half, and bent the ends slightly at a 90 degree angle. I sanded the wires to remove all of the oil and debris to prep them for priming and painting. Since it was cool, rainy and humid outside, I’d have to wait for a better day to paint them. The atmospheric conditions at the time weren’t conducive to painting things. I made a huge salad and watched a few more episodes of “ The Muppet Show.” I watched a few more episodes of “Have Gun – Will Travel” on the Heroes and Icons channel, and hit the hay.

Thursday the 30th – BOOM! CRASH! BANG! – Just before I decided to get up for the day I heard what I thought was thunder. Sure enough, we were getting thunderstorms all day. It’s been the weirdest weather this winter. But the rain began to subside so I headed to Paty’s in the early evening to enjoy a salad on the patio at Paty’s. Since it was cold and moist out, I was literally the only one on the patio. But I liked it, nonetheless. I headed over to a local studio for a rare night session for a video game. This particular director likes to do sessions at night, and as a night bird myself, I rather enjoy it. We worked for about 2 hours and then I headed home and did my nightly auditions. Since the weather was suitable, I primed and painted the arm rods for Grover. First I primed them with gray primer, and after that dried I over-sprayed them with matte black paint. I worked around the house and did a little prep for an early morning session on Friday. Then…the weekend!

Friday the 31st – THIN WALLS OR WHAT?! – Bright and early I was up and out the door for an early morning video game session. Since some of the U.K.-based writers wanted to listen in on the session, we had to do the session early, since the U.K. is 8 hours ahead of the U.S. I headed over to Dave & Dave studios and we worked for about an hour and a half, and had a boatload of fun! I always love it when they give me a third take on some lines to add improvisations and ad-libs. Since I sped out the door so quickly, and didn’t get anything to eat, I was pretty hungry after the session. So I got an early lunch at Jack In The Box and headed home. I napped for a bit in the Puppet Room while I waited for my maids to arrive to clean Planet Wallywood. I was awakened by a phone call, and it was the printing company asking me about specifics of the new “Street Fighter 6” print I’ll be debuting next week at SacAnime in Sacramento. After that I chatted with my pal Edi on the phone for a while. While in bed in the Puppet Room I heard the sound of vacuuming. I figured it was coming through the wall of the unit next to mine. I thought, “Oh! My neighbors have their maids in today too!” But as I continued to chat with Edi the sound of voices and vacuuming got louder and louder. That was much too loud to be coming through the walls. So I got up and sure enough, my maids were busy cleaning downstairs. They said they heard me talking on the phone and figured they’d start cleaning downstairs first. It’s odd that I never heard them knock, or ring the doorbell, or even shout out a greeting that they were there. I must have been REALLY involved in my phone conversations. We all had a good laugh about it. After they finished I walked over to the store to get some grocery items, and had a hard walk back. It had gotten cold, and I had some very heavy grocery items. That’s OK, because I needed a very good workout. The lovely Angi dropped by so we could go to Barone’s for dinner. I hadn’t seen her in a while and it was good to catch up. When I got back I napped for a bit, did my auditions, and cut the wood dowels for the Grover arm rods. I attached the newly painted wire rods to the wood handles, covered them with dark blue suede, and set them aside to cure. Then I made a salad and watched a few more episodes of “The Muppet Show.”

Saturday the 1st – DIZZY AND DOZEY! – Though I had fully intended to do another brisk walk, when I awakened I was feeling dizzy. One of the side effects of the medication I’m on for hypertension is occasional dizziness. Aside from having it briefly the first week I was on the medication, I hadn’t had any problems with it since. So instead of walking I did some work around the house. My old friends Joe and Zandra arrived to go to dinner in the early evening. I’ve known them for a long time, but literally had not seen them in many, many years. It was fun to grab dinner at Ernie’s and catch up. While we were talking I was bemoaning the fact that not one, not two but now THREE computer techs had all flaked on me. Joe asked what I needed done. I told him all I needed was the Blu Ray player replaced in my computer tower. I had forgotten that Joe was a computer tech for the county where he lived for many years. He said it sounded like a simple fix and he’d have a look at it when we got back to my house. Sure enough, he knew just what to do. I made a detailed schematic sketch of where each of the cables were plugged into the back of my machine. Then we shut the unit down and disconnected everything. He took the unit to the kitchen table, opened it up, we cleaned it all out, removed the old Blu Ray player that was non-operational, put the new one in, closed it back up and reconnected everything meticulously! I made sure to keep that schematic illustration for future use! Brilliant! Someone ordered a video greeting from my website’s on-line store, so Joe helped me out and filmed it for me. I edited it together and emailed it off to them. It was a birthday greeting a guy bought for his sister. Nice! As I walked Joe and Zandra to their car I noticed the sounds of a frog coming from the L.A. River behind my house. He’s back! (Obviously not the same frog from last year, but you know) I’m going to love napping to a croaking frog now for a while. I rushed inside to get into bed in the Puppet Room with the window wide open so I could hear the frog. I slept like a baby. When I got up I decided to refine the schematic sketch of my computer’s back panel. That led to me reorganizing one of the drawers in one of my file cabinets. I did some meticulous labeling and rearranging, and I was happy with the job I did. Since it’s the first Saturday of the month, it’s going to be another “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” night. The film of the night was “The Dancing Masters,” the fifth-to-the-last film they ever made. After this I only have four, which will carry me through August. After that, I’m not sure what I’ll be watching. I made my traditional Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box, had a banana Twinkie, some popcorn, and my vintage 1974 Oliver Hardy mug filled with Diet Pepsi. I try to get as close as possible to recreating the amenities I enjoyed back in 1974 when I would watch “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” on TV as a kid. The film was enjoyable enough, but seemed a bit disjointed; like a lot of different ideas were all thrown in just to pad for time. They even recreated a scene at an auction from one of their previous shorts. I thought I was going nuts as I knew I had seen that bit before. But it certainly wasn’t any less funny! Hilarious, to be exact!

Sunday the 2nd – BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD! – Since it was a beautiful day I couldn’t wait to get outside for a brisk walk. I hit the hardware store to get some super-strong epoxy for the Grover arm rods. I tried attaching some screw posts to the tips of the music wire with Magic Sculpt last week. But as I was working the arm rods I started stressing the screw posts, and they eventually came off. That’s exactly what I had hoped would happen. If the join was going to end up being at all weak, I wanted to discover it BEFORE I used them on the puppet, and not after. Clearly the Magic Sculpt wasn’t good for joining the metal screw posts to the metal rod. Unlike the other puppets I’ve built, I need the arm rods on the Grover replica Muppet to be removable. When he’s on display a Super Grover flying just below my ceiling in my living room his arm rods will have been removed. But when I want to take him down and operate him I want to be able to attach the arm rods securely. The guy at the hardware store showed me a great two-part epoxy made by Gorilla that would do the trick. I also bought some slightly smaller screw posts that may work better with the thickness of the music wire. I walked over to the grocery store to get some supplies, and then went home to organize and work around the house. I tried the epoxy on a piece of experimental music wire and a screw post. As the hardware store guy suggested, I took sandpaper and a file and roughed up the tip of the music wire where the screw post would eventually live. Then I took a toothpick, squeezed out some epoxy, applied it, and attached the screw post. After it cured for about an hour I was fully convinced that it was never going anywhere. I took a short nap with Spook in the Puppet Room, and got up later to do some work around the house. Then, it was bedtime.

And how was YOUR week?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

I’ll be debuting these new prints of my character from “Street Fighter 6” at SacAnime in Sacramento the weekend of April 10th through the 12th. Come say hi!

The t-shirt says it all.

What is it about boxes and cats? I mean really?

This is the look Spook gets on his face when I’m eating a blueberry muffin. He LOVES them!