RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Nothing can take me back to a specific time in my life faster than looking through old Christmas catalogs. I recently found a Sears catalog on-line and hurried to the toy section. I remember ordering these puppets. I remember being excited for them to arrive. I remember trying to scrounge up the $3.99 for them (which was difficult at that time). I still have these puppets to this day!

There are a few singers whose voices just “scream” Christmas to me. Singers whom I don’t normally listen to except on the holidays. Johnny Mathis is one of them. And Andy Williams is another. Just hearing their voices give me warm feelings of Christmas. This is “Happy Holidays – The Holiday Season” from the latter. I love the spirit and happiness of this tune!

 

Monday the 29th – EVERY FRAME A DELIGHT! – Though I only got a few hours of sleep, I sprang awake to do a Voice Over callback via Zoom. I did a little work around the house afterwards, and then got ready to make the drive to Thousand Oaks to see “Ghostbusters; Afterlife” with my pal Officer Mark. I had seen some of the film at the drive-in theater last week, but we were late so we missed about the first half hour. Before the film we ate at Lazy Dog, and then settled in to watch the film. There were only four other people in the theater and it was delightful! The film was also amazing, as I enjoyed every single frame! The young lead actress was very entertaining, and took a character that could have been really obnoxious and made her likable. I won’t spoil anything, but the last 15 minutes is totally amazing. With all the crappy movies I’ve seen lately, this was a welcome relief! And it was the first time I’ve been in a real movie theater in many years! On the way home my Mustang hit 80,000 miles! I got home and did my nightly auditions, typed out Wally’s Week and hit the hay. I was exhausted!

Tuesday the 30th – A REAL STRAIGHT-ISH SHOOTER! – The day started with a quick last-minute audition. Then my pal Michelle came over and we took off to run some errands. I got some packages at my mailbox, dropped off the artwork for a banner I need to have printed for the upcoming Season’s Screamings convention, and I headed to Guns Direct to pick up the brand new Colt Python .357 handgun I purchased. It’s more of a collector’s piece than an actual utility for self-protection, but it’s very nice. But the gun store didn’t have any .357 ammo in stock. Apparently it’s no longer a popular caliber and isn’t really being made that much anymore. We went to Coral Café to have dinner, and then we went to the gun range to try out the Colt Python. I brought along a smaller hand gun for Michelle to try, (since the Python is so big) but the range didn’t have any ammo for either gun. Luckily you can shoot .38 ammo in a .357, so we got a bag of 50 rounds and went to the target to try it out. Unfortunately the gun isn’t very accurate. It shot low and to the left. The clerk at the range looked over carefully and discovered that the rear sights were off just a tiny bit. I need to get a tiny screwdriver and re-align the rear sights, and hopefully it’ll shoot better in the future. It made a lot of sense once he pointed it out. When I clean it I’ll also take the opportunity to pull the sights back into line. Then we went back to my house to hang out. Michelle was having a bad allergy attack so she took off to go rest at home. I did my nightly auditions, and enjoyed some “Christmas Nappies” with the pets. Later I got up to do a few more auditions. These were auditions for an animated show that included singing. It was quite fun. I did some work on the computer, and communicated back and forth with an animator pal who I’d like to recruit into being a showrunner for a pitch of the Christoween stories to animation houses. Fingers crossed!

Wednesday the 1st – CHECK! CHECK! TECH CHECK! – In anticipation of a big “Invader Zim” panel on Friday, I did a quick tech check with the producers. I walked over to Michael’s Crafts to pick up the framed piece that I created as an homage to the first commercial radio station I ever worked at. It was KABR-AM 1420, a small daytime station in Aberdeen, South Dakota. I had some letterhead and some of the original 45 records from the station, along with a photo of a 17 year old me at the control board. It turned out VERY nice! It was chilly out but the brisk walk felt quite nice. I took some more “Christmas Nappies” with the pets when I got home. Later I got up and did some more fun auditions, scanned some checks for a few deposits, reconciled my monthly receipts, and prepped for a session on Thursday at Voice Trax West.

Thursday the 2nd – MORE VIDEO GAME FUN! – Last week a zipper in my leather shoulder bag tore away from the fabric. The zipper didn’t tear away, the metal teeth actually tore away from the fabric on the zipper. So I walked over to a local shoe repair place to see if he could fix it. I don’t want to buy a new bag because I have everything set the way I like it with this one. I’d rather pay to have it repaired, as the leather is still in really good shape. Then I walked to the post office to mail off a Christoween item, walked to the bank to make some deposits, went over to Chin Chin to get some fried rice to go, and then went to Voice Trax West to do an hour session for a video game. Even though I did some minor repair on my running shoe, it’s still not good. I don’t ever think I’ll buy Saucony shoes again. They’re VERY cheaply made. They’re wearing out already, and I just bought them a few months ago. I think I’ll go back to Asics and get a pair of those. I got home and fed the pets, got caught up on everything, and did some prep for the upcoming Season’s Screamings convention. I had to draw out a plot for how to display the Christoween items in my booth. It’s required that a vendor carries insurance and gets a seller’s permit, and the websites were a little confusing. But I’ll get through it. It’s something I need to learn how to do. I prepped my studio for the “Invader Zim” virtual panel on Friday afternoon.

Friday the 3rd – THE CREATIVITY BEHIND THE CREATIVITY! – My pal Ruben Procopio, a legendary artist, animator and sculptor, invited me to an event he was holding at his late father’s house. Like Ruben, his dad was a masterful artist and sculptor, and he passed away a while back. Ruben is giving his friends a chance to look through his late father’s belongings and take whatever they might feel would be useful to them. No charge, no money, all free. I got over there about noon and my friends Scott Sebring and Jim Ojala were already there. Scott’s car was full of materials he had collected up (latex, vinyl, foam, etc.) and my pal Jim was finding some great utilities for his effects studio. I found some great paper products (Mad magazine paperbacks, greeting cards, etc.) and filled up a sack of various things. I found a few hole punches which would be great for making pupils for puppets, and a great long, plastic box to consolidate all my drill bits. But as I looked through the late Mr. Procopio’s sculpting utilities, I realized that the artistic creativity we saw was only part of the story. Come to find out, he had created a lot of his own sculpting tools from scratch! If it doesn’t exist, invent it! He had fabricated all sorts of interesting, texturing tools from various things. For example, he epoxied a marble on the end of a highlighter pen. He took a wood ball and drilled holes into it to make a honeycomb texturing tool. This was just the beginning. There were many of these types of tools, and it did my heart good to see other sculptors and artists snapping them up. The creativity behind the creativity will live on in new sculptures and projects! On the way home I drove by the printing place and picked up my banner for Season’s Screamings. I went to Jersey Mike’s to get a sandwich to go, and then I headed home to get ready for the “Zim” panel. It was good to see Melissa, Richard and Rikki again (albeit virtually) and we all had a lot of laughs, as usual. My Cookie Monster replica Muppet made his internet chat debut, and I had a few fun one-on-one chats after the panel that were a ton of fun! One person purchased the one-on-one chat with me because he was a Power Ranger fan, and one of the girls who purchased a chat was a Riddler fan. Pretty fun! I did some work around the house, prepped my new banner, and drew out a plot for my booth at the upcoming Season’s Screamings convention. I made some hot dogs on the grill and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger.”

Saturday the 4th – I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE BEEN A FLY! – After picking up my packages at my box I sped over to the store to get some grocery supplies. While I was there I met my old pal Dave Edison, who used to do Groucho Marx at Universal Studios when I was there. It was fun catching up. He was one of the writers on my “Uncle Davver’s Really Scary Movie Show” pilot and he’s always made me laugh. I came home and put the groceries away, and then my pal Officer Mark came over so we could watch the Boris Karloff documentary on a streaming service. Before we started we wanted to order dinner. So we got on-line to order delivery from The Smokehouse. But the wait time was 117-124 minutes! Over two hours? Fuggetaboutit! So we called in an order at Ernie’s Taco House and drove over to get it and take it home. But we realized on the way over that we forgot our masks, and restaurants won’t let you in the door without a mask. So I went in waving my $40 in cash covering my mouth with my sleeve. The gal at the front desk coldly said, “Could you please put on a mask.” I said, “No. I forgot it. Can I just pay for my food and go?” She then pulled out a mask from a drawer. Not convinced it was necessarily sanitary I declined and just pulled the knit cap I was wearing down over my entire face. I couldn’t see a thing, so I just blindly held my hand out for my change. She placed the change in my hand, and soon the sack of food came. Everyone was laughing. The lady placed the sack in my hand and I felt my way to the front door and left. It’s all so ridiculous. Don’t get me started on how unscientific this whole silly debacle is, I can talk about it (in terms of real facts and figures) for days. But we went home to eat and watched the Boris doc. In the film, they told a story about how young, struggling actor Boris Karloff (who started in the silent film era) got a ride from superstar Lon Chaney Sr. In the car on the ride he asked Chaney for advice for a struggling actor. Chaney (my absolute favorite silent film actor) told him to take roles that will get you noticed. Take roles that no one else will take. And that’s precisely what Boris did. In taking the role of the Frankenstein monster, he actually DID both of those. The role DEFINITELY got him noticed, and the role WAS one that somebody else didn’t want to take. Namely, Bela Lugosi. And the rest was history. After Officer Mark left I took some “Christmas Nappies” with the pets, and then got up and planned out my social media posts for the upcoming week to promote my Christoween franchise. As it was the first Saturday of the month, it’s my tradition to run Laurel and Hardy films before bed with a very specific menu of items. It’s all to hearken back to my early teen years in Aberdeen when I would watch Laurel and Hardy films on my local TV station. I made a Chef Boyardee pizza and enjoyed the short films “Dirty Work,” “Oliver the Eighth,” and “Going Bye Bye.” Strangely enough I wasn’t that familiar with the latter one. But it was hilarious! I’m getting to the point in their film catalog where they’re starting to de-emphasize their shorts, and they’re going into more long-form feature films. I love those guys1

Sunday the 5th – SLUMBERDAY! – As is usually my routine on Sunday, I spent the day catching up on rest. I had a ton of auditions to do (which is rather odd considering we’re heading into the holidays soon) and I did some work around the house. I made a list of things I’ll need for the Season’s Screamings convention, but it’ll be a lot easier once my pegboard display comes in so I can physically map out the dimensions of my space and try to plot it all out. This should be very exciting! I’m looking forward to being at another monster con again!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

My Mustand hit 80k on the road!

Here’s the terrific banner designed by Scott Sebring for my upcoming visit to Season’s Screamings in Pasadena 12/17-19.

Having a BLAST shooting videos for Cameo late at night!

Officer Mark had some amazing Christoween Caper puzzles made at the L.A. Comic Con. THANKS!

This is my finished KABR piece; an homage to my early days in radio. Fun times.

Spook enjoys his “Christmas Nappies” almost as much as I do!

Here’s a sweeper of my groovy new banner!

I had a couple of bubble buddies in my kitchen one night.

I guess I’m Spook’s personal masseuse.

Did you know The Riddler had a cat?