RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
A friend from Montreal drew this amazing birthday wish for me. It’s my character Tallest Red from “Invader Zim” holding a Donnie Druthers doll from my “Christoween Capers” stories! Follow her on Twitter at @Divin_Thanatos to see all her great artwork!
As I was working on the Christoween ornaments over the weekend, I started humming an old favorite; Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue.” I loved it as a kid, and was a bit of foreshadowing that I would someday become a huge Dr. Demento fan! (Lyrics by Shel Silverstein, by the way!)
Monday the 10th – ROXY IS 13! – Michelle and I left Palm Springs and headed to Palm Desert to pick up my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley at her residence. Then we headed to a place called Stuft Pizza to meet my pal “The Pillow Lady.” I used to see her all the time at the Palm Springs Village Fest on Thursday nights, and I’ve bought many of her great pillows. I have even sent her my own material to have custom pillows made for friends. It was good catching up with her. She gave me back the remnant fabrics of mine that she had in her storage, as well as a brand new pillow she made up for Michelle. It’s in black and white striped fabric with Beetlejuice lettering. After lunch we hit Walgreens to get Shirley some supplies – like vitamins, energy bars, microwave popcorn and some sugar free candy. It would be the last time I’d be seeing Shirley for a little while so I wanted to load her up with supplies. We dropped Shirley back to her residence and she was pretty sad. We had enjoyed a great bunch of visits with her while I was in the desert. Michelle and I headed back to Palm Springs and did some shopping. I got a Dole Whip and picked up a Pup Cup (frozen yogurt suitable for dogs) for Roxy’s birthday. Yup, today was the day my dog Roxy turned 13 years old. We got back to the hotel and picked up Roxy and took her to the dog park. It was late enough in the day that it had cooled off considerably. Normally, in trips past, Roxy loved going to the dog park and cavorting around, meeting people and other dogs. But she’s slowed down quite a bit and just lollygagged around for a while. She enjoyed meeting the people there more than she did meeting the dogs. We took her back to the room, gave her some birthday steak, and I grabbed a nap. Later I spent my final night on the balcony watching stars and enjoying the amazing desert weather. The lawnmower man started up at the golf course across the street at 4am, just like he had done on Monday morning. Did the grass grow that fast??!! Oh well, time to hit the hay and get ready to pack and hit the road on Tuesday. It was a great dual birthday getaway!
Tuesday the 11th – BLAST OFF! – Just after noon we packed up our stuff, did the loadout, checked out of the Hyatt and hit the road. I was on the road by 1:15pm, and my usual trip to Wendy’s on the way out of town was as disappointing as my trip to Denny’s was when I came INTO town. While Denny’s was simply just closed for maintenance when I got to town last Thursday night, my Wendy’s was completely gutted! It looked like they were doing a complete remodel. Oh well, it was a good trip anyway. The traffic wasn’t bad and by 3:30 I was back home. I paid my house sitter, unpacked and took the SUV back to Enterprise. I walked back home and did some work and checked up on my e-mails. Lots of catching up to do! I grabbed a nap and then got up later to do my nightly auditions and type out Wally’s Week. I finished unpacking and headed to bed!
Wednesday the 12th – THE BIG 5 LOOP! – After I finished up some work on the computer I took off to get my mail at my box. I took the liberty of enjoying a grilled chicken salad at Paty’s on the patio, and then went back home to do some more work on the computer. I decided to start a daily walking routine (BRISK walking!) to the local Big 5 and back home. It’s just far enough away that I can loop around and walk back home and get a good 1 mile walk in. If I do this every day I might be able to get back into pretty good shape. That coupled with a regular regimen of salads has me hopeful. The walk felt great and the endorphins were making me high! I did my auditions, and worked on the computer to close out the day.
Thursday the 13th – WALKIN’ AGAIN! – In much the same way that I hope to get into decent shape, my friend Brittney is beginning an exercise regime too. She came over and we walked a mile away to a Panera for lunch. I picked up some salad ingredients for my home-made Super Salads, and we hiked another mile back. It was a great 2 mile, BRISK walk. I recorded some auditions and did some other work. I worked on the computer later and made a salad with tuna, and then headed to bed to enjoy it while watching another episode of “The Lone Ranger.”
Friday the 14th – WHAT TIME IS THE SESSION AGAIN!???!! – I just so happened to get up a lot earlier than I had planned. Good thing, too. I had a few last-minute auditions to do, and one of my agents booked me on a last-minute session from my home studio at 1:30. It worked out perfectly because I had a session scheduled at Voice Trax West at 3:00 for the super-secret ongoing account I’ve had for several years. But shortly after 2:00, as I was showering and getting ready to head over to Voice Trax, the producer left me a voicemail message asking why I wasn’t at the studio for the 2:00 session. But my records showed that the session was at 3:00. I confirmed with my agent that the session was indeed scheduled at 3:00. In fact, it was the same agent that booked me on the 1:30 session. I figured she wouldn’t have booked me on the 1:30 session knowing that I had to be at Voice Trax West at 2:00. My agent confirmed that the session was at 3:00. So somebody got some information wrong, but they said we’d just work from 3:00 until 5:00 instead of 6:00, as they have a scheduling conflict at 5. I strapped on my walking shoes and walked over to Voice Trax West, did a two hour session, and then walked to the post office to mail off some things. On the way home I remembered that Spook was almost out of his prescription canned food. I grabbed a case of it and walked home. It had been a great one mile walk, a two hour session on my feet, and another great one mile walk back home. Whew! I was pretty worn out! I cleaned up and headed over to Alex in Wonderland in Burbank to pick up a new puppet we’ve been working on. Several months ago, Michelle and I decided to start working on a replica Prairie Dawn Muppet. She’s the perfect character for Michelle to start working with. But because Alex is so busy, she could only work on it every once in a while. But Michelle has a great chance at a puppet-related opportunity, but she needs to submit a short video sample of her work. I asked Alex if we could turn up the gas on completing the two Prairie puppets in time for her to shoot her demo and submit it by next week. While I waited, Alex and I chatted, and she stitched the arm rods into her wrists. The puppets were looking great! But I’d probably only have the time to complete one of the puppets in time for the video shoot. I stayed up all night working on her. I glued the fleece to the mouth plate, and then I realized that the eye pieces I had originally made for her were going to be too small. At not quite an inch across in diameter, they needed to be at least an inch and a quarter. Since I didn’t have any domed pieces an inch and a quarter wide, I set about trying to find something to use to make some. I found some perfect acrylic discs in my garage that I could use for a mold. After greasing up the inside of the discs with Vaseline as a mold release, I pressed in some Magic Sculpt. As they cured, I worked on gluing the rest of the fleece to Prairie’s head. I pinned the head to the body to see how she’d look and she was looking pretty darn good! But I would need a little more work done by Alex before she was ready to have her hair added by my hair guy Sergio Lopez on Monday. I went to Denny’s to get some food to go and enjoyed watching a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger” before bed.
Saturday the 15th – FROM PUPPETS TO ORNAMENTS! – Because of my all-night work marathon on Prairie Dawn, I didn’t get to bed until noon. When I got up around 5:30pm I checked the eye pieces. They cured nicely and were perfect! Thank God I had those acrylic discs on hand! I carved them to size and sanded them. I had to mask off the section where the fleece eyelids will be, because the Barge glue doesn’t work well with the paint. I primed the eye pieces and let them dry. I put Prairie up with my two Sesame Street replica monster Muppets; Green Grover aka Gleep, and the Beautiful Day monster. She looked great with them! In fact, they look a little scared by her! It’ll be a great display! She looks fantastic, even though she has temporary paper eyes and a temporary wig. Then I turned my attention to the two Christoween ornaments I picked up from my effects guy Jim Ojala recently. I had already primed and painted them with the base coat, but I needed to finish them with the detail colors and the fabric work. I painted on all the details, and then walked Roxy while the paint dried. We enjoyed a nice, long walk through the complex and I enjoyed a nice cigar. When I came back inside I started stitching together the little Santa hats, and I attached them to the heads. They looked great! I made my usual Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched another great episode of “The Saint” from the early 60’s. I have to be at Alex in Wonderland’s studio at 2 on Sunday, so I need to get up earlier than usual.
Sunday the 16th – CREATIVE SUNDAY! – Alex stitched up the back of Prairie’s head, and attached her head to her body at her Alex in Wonderland studios in Burbank. As I watched her sew we talked a lot about creating puppets. I learned so much from her! Then I headed to my seamstress Shelley’s to pick up some items she made, which will be featured for sale on the Christoween merchandise page on our website. I got home and did a little work before my friends Officer Mark and Miss Connie stopped by to go to dinner. After dinner at Paty’s, we set up the Christoween merchandise and did a photo session of beauty shots for the website. Mark got some very nice shots! After they left I did my auditions, and Michelle came over after she got off work to start her weekend. We went to Denny’s but it was closed. Not sure why, but frankly, I’m not having very good luck with Denny’s restaurants lately. We went to Taco Bell to get some drive thru food, and just barely made it before they closed. She and I chatted a bit about her upcoming audition tape. We came up with some good ideas. More next week!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Here’s how Prairie looked when I got her back from Alex in Wonderland
These are the little acrylic discs that I used to create her eye shapes
I glued the fleece to the mouth plate and to the foam head
A borrowed wig and some paper eye pieces, and she’s coming to life!
She’s fitting in with the monsters already!
I love seeing these puppets come together!
It’s always fun to start working with a puppet when they begin to come together. I like shooting video and reviewing it to get more ideas about their potential.
Officer Mark got some fabulous shots of the forthcoming Christoween merchandise which will be for sale soon on our website. Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect! Books, Stalkings (two different styles!), ornaments, wrapping paper, bandanas, pillows and more!
