November 14 – November 19 (2023)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

There’s nothing NOT to like about this picture! It really takes me back to a better day.

Since getting back from the Vets’ Aid concert in San Diego, I’ve been humming a variety of Electric Light Orchestra songs. This one, “Rockaria!” has been stuck in my head for days. What a masterpiece!

Tuesday the 14th – A VACATION FROM MY VACATION! – While the weekend in San Diego was amazing, it was exhausting in a lot of ways. I was happy to be home having a vacation from my vacation. I rested quite a bit, and then got up and recorded some auditions. Later I did a new mouth plate for my revised Count Von Count Muppet replica. I would be meeting puppet builder Steve Troop on Wednesday to get him started on making the new, improved Count head. I made a mistake on the first one, started on a second, but then realized the shape was all wrong. By the time I made a third pass it was correct. Third time’s the charm! I only got a few hours’ worth of sleep before I had to be up for my meeting with Steve on Wednesday!

Wednesday the 15th – COUNT MOUTH: TAKE 2! – On a rainy day I drove over to Paty’s to enjoy a lunch on the patio with my buddy and puppet builder Steve Troop. We chatted a lot about puppets and all sorts of other things. I picked up my packages at my box, and then Steve and I headed back to Planet Wallywood to look at reference photos of The Count and discuss the fabrication of the head. He brought a few of his puppets over, including a Pterri from “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” that he made. It’s pretty amazing! I gave him the mouth plate I finished and he’ll send me progress pics as the construction on the new Count head proceeds. I did some work around the house, and later my effects buddy Jim Ojala came over to troubleshoot why the sound chip in my Beetlejuice figure was no longer working. Come to find out, it was a loose wire in the speaker. He fixed it up and it’s back to working order! If you remember from last week’s Wally’s Week, I had a new acoustic wall made for my recording area. But it serves two purposes. On the reverse side I glued decorative, silver panels. The reverse side of my acoustic wall will serve as a backdrop for some of the items I have on display on top of my action figure cabinet. The silver panels have sunken round sections on them about 40mm in diameter. I ordered some gorgeous cabochons on Amazon and they arrived today. I spent some time gluing them into place in the sections provided on the wall. Later I did a bunch of auditions, took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and came inside to set up the acoustic wall and install it into place. Though it rests securely on the top of the action figure cabinet, I wanted to make sure it doesn’t move forward or backwards at all. So I affixed some metal eyes to the overhead beam, and secured the acoustic wall’s position with some monofilament. When I put some of my Muppet replicas on top of the cabinet for the upcoming ME-TV “Collector’s Call” shoot in early December, the silver background wall should look pretty sweet.

Thursday the 16th – SUPER GROVER: TAKE 2! – When I first installed the acrylic suspension sled I had designed for my Super Grover display, I realized I should have made it so the arms were further apart. Though he was in the flying position he assumes on “Sesame Street,” the cape was blocking his face too much for display. On the show they have a fan blowing in his face. But since this was a stationary display, his face was too covered up for my liking. So I redesigned a new suspension sled that had his arms further apart so guests could see his face better. I drove to Plastic Depot to pick up the redesigned sled. Then I dropped by a sign maker to have a 2 foot by 2 foot Planet Wallywood logo sign made. I want to have it on display when ME-TV comes to shoot in early December for “Collector’s Call.” It should be ready by next week. I picked up a few packages at my box, and then enjoyed a nice lunch on the patio at Paty’s. I hit Baskin-Robbins on the way home for a little ice cream, and then drove to my Sports Medicine doctor for a follow-up. I told him the physical therapy had worked and I no longer was having pain in my shoulder or elbow. His advice about standing up straighter, not slouching, and strengthening my upper back muscles turned out to be just the ticket! Now that I know which exercises to do, I can do them at home on my own time. I came home and recorded some auditions, and then my galpal Angi came over and we headed to Little Toni’s to get some dinner. It was delicious and JUST what the doctor ordered! But I was pretty tired so I made it an early night.

Friday the 17th – WALKABOUT! – All of the rain had subsided and it was a gorgeous day. I had a noon session for a video game at Voice Trax West, so I decided to get some exercise and walk. On the way there I stopped at a camera store and dropped off some more of my personal negatives; the ones from the first year I moved to L.A. in 1987. I’m getting the necessary photos printed for my big photo album project over the Christmas break. I stopped into the hardware store to get some more metal eyes for my new Super Grover display, and then hit Voice Trax West for an hour-long session. Part of the session involved something called “walla.” Walla is the creation of background crowd noise, which requires the Voice Actor to pull random conversations off the top of your head to fill the sound floor. The director had me do several passes (all about a minute each) to make the crowd sound more dense, and each of the passes was done in a different character voice. It’s very challenging, but very, very fun. Any aspiring Voice Actor should be prepared with a good variety of improvs they can supply a director with. After the session I went across the street for a quick lunch at Art’s Deli, and then walked to the grocery store to get some items for my nightly salads. Since I have to do TV in a few weeks, I’m sticking to my salad diet fairly well (with a few exceptions.) On the walk home I stopped by Big 5 to pick up some resistance bands. They’re very similar to the ones I used during physical therapy, so I wanted to pick some up for my home-therapy regimen. I also switched out the suspension sled in favor of the new, improved one. I untied the strings from the boat cleat, lowered the puppet to eye level, removed the puppet from the first suspension sled, and then started removing the old suspension sled. Two separate lines attach to metal eyes that are affixed into the sled. I attached the lines to the metal eyes on the new sled, and then used shrink tubing and a heat gun to tidy up the ends of the heavy-duty string. I attached Super Grover to the new sled with six hooks on lines of monofilament, and then hoisted him back up into the air. It looks amazing, and having his arms further apart improves the visual so much. But I was tired and hungry. I called Barone’s to get a pizza and some salad dressing to go. I picked it up, came back home and dined. Delicious! Later I took my nightly WOG, and since the rain had completely stopped, spent some time in my anti-grav chair under the stars. Beautiful! I came back inside and started to reorganize some of the items in the shelf storage bins in the Chaney Room.

Saturday the 18th – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PUPPETS! – In order to convey to puppet builder Steve Troop what I was thinking in regards to how The Count’s lips were attached to the mouth plate, I got up early and banged out a quick example of what I was thinking. I took a mouth plate, glued on some foam rubber, let it dry fully, and then started cutting it to shape. This will give him an idea of how I visualized the Count’s upper and lower jaws. It had dried just in time for me to head over to Bob’s Big Boy to meet with him. The work he had done on the new head was pretty good so far, but I had a few ideas for further improvements. Showing him the example gave him a clear idea of what I wanted, so he took it all back to his shop and continued working on another pass. I picked up some packages at my box, and then got home to relax. I worked around the house for a bit, and found out my friend Amanda was in the area. She came by for a visit and we got caught up. As I was passing through the Puppet Room doing something else, I noticed that a “Pinocchio” record album had fallen off its hook in the Pinocchio shelf. A long time ago I had fashioned a little hook mechanism with some monofilament that had come undone. I guess the maids must’ve bumped it or something and it came loose. I created a new hook mechanism and attached it back in place. But I noticed that my Pinocchio shelf was REALLY dusty. So I removed all the items, cleaned each individual thing, cleaned the shelf, and replaced everything in order. I also made up the bed in the Puppet Room, and everything was looking good. Little by little I’ll have my place ship-shape in time for the ME-TV shoot. Later I made a salad and watched another episode of “The Saint” which involved a giant ant. Wild!

Sunday the 19th – THE FINAL COUNT…HEAD! – Though I spent most of the day resting, I got up to check some emails. Steve sent me shots of the final Count head. It’ll need a few minor tweaks before I feel it’s ready to be covered, but it’s MUCH improved over the original one I did. This will work out great! Later I spent several hours working on the new eyepieces for Count Von Count. I use pin-back buttons for these eyepieces, with the glossy cover, the artwork and the pinback all removed. I’m only using the round metal piece. But they need to be sanded before the priming and paint. Then I created the pattern for the eyelids, applied some painter’s tape to each piece, cut out the area that needed to be painted white, and they’re ready for painting. You can’t paint the area of the eyepiece where the eyelids will be glued on, because the glue and the paint don’t like each other. So I only paint the area of the eye that will be seen. When it gets warmer outside I’ll take them out to paint them, since the paint works best within certain temperature parameters. I took a brisk WOG and then spent a little time outside in the anti-grav chair. But it was getting chilly so I came inside again. I made a salad and watched “Boris Karloff’s Thriller” before bed. The countdown to Thanksgiving is on, and then…the countdown to Christmas!

And how was YOUR week?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK