RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

My good friend and “Hair Guy” Sergio Lopez was one of the American Bandstand dancers in the 70’s. A friend sent a link this week of an old AB show, and THERE’S SERGIO in the front row, smiling and happy in a striped shirt! COOL!

 

While I was sculpting on my Frankie ornament this week I had some music playing on my computer. This song came up and I remembered how much I really liked it. Harvey Danger, a one-hit wonder group in the 90s, did “Flagpole Sitta.” This is a fun song to sing along to!

 

Monday the 29th – GOOD AS NEW! – To begin the day I did several auditions and e-mailed them into my agents. Then the body shop called to say that the paint touch-ups on my Mustang were completed and the Black Beauty was ready for pick-up. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a ride. When Michelle dropped me off last week, it was understood that she’d be here again this week to take me back over to get the car. But since she was down with a cold, and stayed home, I had no ride. Everybody I texted in my immediate area was busy with something. Luckily, toward the later part of the afternoon, the body shop called and said they could send one of their guys to come get me. In the car on the way to the body shop, my doctor called for a telemedicine call and we chatted for a bit. Nothing wrong at all, I just needed a refill on a specific prescription, which requires a doctor’s authorization. When I saw my Mustang it looked amazing! In addition to doing touch-ups around the body, they completely repainted the front and rear bumpers, and the scoop on the top of the hood. Beautiful! I stopped at Burger King to get some food, and then I went home to do some work around the house and record more auditions. The work on the puppet arm rods I made for the Prairie Dawn replica Muppets that Michelle and I are working on turned out great! I primed them the day before, and I hit them with some flat black paint and let them dry. They look fantastic! Later I typed out Wally’s Week.

Tuesday the 30th – ZIM20! – Just before 3 my time I had to be on-line and signed on to an interface so I could participate in an “Invader Zim” 20 year cast reunion. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed hearing all the stories from the cast and crew as much as the fans watching! When we finished I took Roxy over to Paty’s to get some lunch, and picked up my packages at my mailbox. One of the things I received were the brown jersey children’s gloves I ordered for my Batkid display. When I was a kid playing Batman, the only gloves I could find lying around to use were my winter gloves. So to replicate that as closely as possible, I ordered a pair that looks very much like the pair I used when I was 5 years old. I got back home and did some work. Later I made some lasagna and watched two more “Lone Ranger” episodes from the first season DVD set.

Wednesday the 31st – SPRING?! OR SUMMER?! – Since the management of our community changed the code on our electronic garage door opener, at the auxiliary garage where I keep my Gran Torino, they had been having trouble resetting my remote to the new code. I had unearthed some older openers that I had in my storage, and when I found one of the guys doing some work I asked if either of those would work. He took them over to the garage, discovered that one worked wonderfully, and brought it back to me. Then I put the Torino away to get out my freshly retouched Mustang and went about my day. It was definitely top-down weather, so I dropped the top and cruised around. It was beyond spring weather. It was more like summer! The first stop was to my mailbox, and my package had come in from Shutterfly. This was the “proof” copy of my first Christoween book. At first glance it looked amazing! I stopped by KFC to get some lunch, and then went to Alex In Wonderland’s studios to drop off the Prairie Dawn puppet rods. She showed me the progress she had been making on Prairie so far and she’s looking GREAT! I also ran into my old pal Pan Jankiewicz while I was there. He was working on a project with Alex’s husband. I hadn’t seen him in several years and it was good to catch up, albeit quickly. When I got home I poured over the Christoween book and decided to make some editorial and artistic changes in the layout. Nothing big, just changing a font on the cover to be more legible and I tweaked a few of the pieces of artwork. The quality of the product from Shutterfly was outstanding! In addition to books and Stalkings ™ that we’ll be offering for sale soon, we also want to offer limited edition Frankenstein Christoween ™ ornaments. So I dug around in my supplies and found a styrene egg about the size of what I wanted to create. I took a two-part sculpting compound called Magic Sculpt and put some small, black doll eyes into the egg. I anchored them with Magic Sculpt and added some eyelids. I also sculpted on some teeth. I’ll let those cure overnight to harden, and then sculpt the next phase tomorrow. Then I recorded my nightly auditions.

Thursday the 1st – APRIL FOOLS! – My pal Brittney Powell came over so we could do a brisk two mile walk together. I had a few errands I had to do, so I planned a route where we could get everything done. First stop was to Kit Kraft to but some basic sculpting tools that I would need to finish up my Frankie ornament sculpt. Then we went to CVS so I could pick up a prescription, and print a few “hang tags” for our Christoween Stalkings ™ when we start selling them. These are the tags that are attached to the product that carry all of the trademark info. We stopped by the cigar store to pick up a few cigars, the hardware store to pick up a few small hexagon bolts (which will go into the finished Frankie ornaments after I’ve painted them), and then we went to Studio Café for lunch. The baseball game was on TV and there were a few patrons inside enjoying the game and singing songs. It sure was nice to see some semblance of normalcy again. I came back home and did some work, sculpted more on the Frankie head (the next phase was to sculpt on his flat top), and then I did my nightly auditions while the sculpt cured and hardened. Later that night I added the chin and jaw. It’s coming along VERY nicely! I cleaned up around Planet Wallywood for my maids who were coming on Friday morning.

Friday the 2nd –NOT SO GOOD FRIDAY! – The maids arrived late morning, cleaned up, and when they left Roxy and I headed over to my mailbox to get my mail. I also met my pal Edi at Paty’s for some lunch. It was another gorgeous day! I was back home sculpting more on Frankie when I got a call from my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley. But instead of the normal jovial greeting I could tell she had been crying. She informed me that our head pastor at church had passed away earlier that morning. Pastor Bob had been at the church as head pastor for 52 years, and the last few years he had been dealing with a melanoma. The irony of his passing on Good Friday was not lost on me. Not the Easter weekend we had all hoped for. I took Roxy outside for a potty break and started talking to some neighbors. Earlier that morning my neighbor gave birth to a new baby boy. The irony of that was not lost on me either. One passes, and another is born to take his place. That’s how life works I guess. I’ll miss Pastor Bob, but I know he’s getting his great rewards for a lifetime of good and faithful service. Michelle came over after she got off work and we headed out to Denny’s for a late-night dinner.

Saturday the 3rd – MONSTROUS TECHNOLOGY! – Though I got up very late, I did have time to do a little straightening up and go get some groceries. The next step on the Frankie sculpt was to add six stiches on his chin scar. I tried to sculpt them out of tiny threads of Magic Sculpt, but I couldn’t get them uniform enough. I drilled some holes on either side of the scar and put in small “staples” made of armature wire. Then I anchored them in with tiny bits of Magic Sculpt. It was really looking sweet! It was almost done! Though my regular Saturday Night Movie Night gatherings haven’t officially started again, my pals James, Brian and Officer Mark came over to enjoy “Godzilla Vs. Kong.” I have an interface device in my entertainment system that allows for a Roku HDMI firestick to be plugged in so we can enjoy streaming content from many different sources. But even though it had been working fine three weeks ago for the Bee Gees documentary, it wasn’t working for some reason. As is common with technology I don’t quite understand, I was getting very frustrated. So we patched it into a different HDMI input on my TV and it worked. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any way to patch the audio from the movie into my surround system. And we were limited to listening to the audio on the VERY inferior speakers on the TV itself. Because of the amounts of different accents used by the actors in the movie, it was VERY difficult to hear. But we made the best of it. At the end of the film I decided to give it one more try through my interface. I plugged it in, and noticed three little buttons on the front of the interface gadget and started pushing those. I figured ‘what the heck!?’ Sure enough, BINGO! It now worked! RATS! What a drag. I had no idea those buttons needed to be pushed in (now I do!) I must’ve accidently pushed them and made them inoperative when I was moving the little gadget around. I’m not sure why those even exist? Just make a box that works! Anyway, I have a message into my A/V guy asking for him to explain their purpose. Hopefully that won’t happen again. After the guys left I started working with my “Films of Laurel and Hardy” book to put little markers on the pages that contained the titles of the films I had recently seen on the new Blu Ray restoration set. Several years ago I bought the definitive collection on DVD, and enjoyed those immensely. Since it’s the first Saturday of the month, it’s Laurel and Hardy Theatre night. I finished up watching all the films on the Blu Ray set, which included some rare color footage of Stan and Ollie in the later years of their lives. It was film they made for the war effort in 1942. As is my tradition whenever I have Laurel and Hardy Theatre, I made a Chef Boyardee pizza and drank Pepsi from one of the Laurel and Hardy steins my mom made me at her ceramics class back in 1973! It’s just like being a kid again watching it on KABY-TV in Aberdeen, South Dakota! I love it!

Sunday the 4th – HAPPY (KINDA) EASTER! – Once again, I woke up very late in the day. I ate some leftover Chef Boyardee pizza (YUM!) and worked on the Frankie sculpt some more. I filled out the back of his head and finessed a few more details. Later, after it had cured and hardened, I sanded the entire thing to make it smooth and ready to be molded by my effects guy Jim Ojala. Michelle came over after she got off work to start her weekend. Her schedule is Wednesday through Sunday, so Monday and Tuesday is her weekend. I was finishing up some work at my desk, and she had zonked out on The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe. I heard the house begin to creek at 4:44 am and realized that as the familiar sound of an earthquake. Sure enough, things started shaking. Michelle barely stirred. I asked her if she felt it and she sleepily said she had. Her first earthquake in L.A.! It’s a monumental moment for a new resident in Southern California! I prepped for a Monday session and called it a day!

And how was YOUR week??!!

 

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Happy 80’s birthday to Dr. Demento!

My dad is having a great Easter meal!

For the sculpture of the Frankie ornament, I started with a styrene egg and put in two black domed doll eyes. Then I sculpted on some eyelids and some teeth.

Next I put on the classic Frankenstein flat head.

I added the jutting jaw and cleft chin

Then it was the upper lip and cheekbones

Next, I added the nose, brow and ears

Then I added the lower lip, tip of the nose and nostrils

The armature wire staples were next

And then the back of the head was filled out.

This is how he should look when he’s completed.

Pastor Bob with Lassie (Roxy’s brother) at one of our church’s Pet Blessing events

Here’s Pastor Bob and I at Shirley’s 90th birthday party a few years ago.

Spook loves to sit on Michelle’s lap for scratchies

Clearly he’s in Kitty Heaven!

I found all four of these Peppy Puppets still in the package on ebay! I just HAD to have them. I had many of these when I was a kid and loved them. They’re VERY difficult to find still in the package!

Officer Mark shot this pic of me working on the finishing touches of the Frankie ornament!

The featured Christoween Stalking(tm) for this week is Zomb-E!

When is in Antigua, Guatemala back in the late 90s doing a film, a passing shower had a few of us looking for cover under a roof. Though some of the kids in the village spoke no English, and I spoke no Spanish, we discovered that music is the universal language. And I attempted to teach them a few American rock songs.

Here’s a quick debut of the first Christoween(tm) book “Frankie-fied!”

Several years ago while I was in San Diego for Comic Con, some friends and I did the Dolphin Interaction. I’ll never forget it!

Several years ago while I was in San Diego for Comic Con, some friends and I did the Dolphin Interaction. I’ll never forget it!

Here’s a quick look at the sculpting steps for creating the Frankie Christoween(tm) ornament.

Here’s a quick look at the sculpting steps for creating the Frankie Christoween(tm) ornament.