October 11 – October 17 (2021)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This seems like one cool dog!

As I was working on my Cookie Monster replica Muppet this week, as well as the custom cap for Carlos, all I could hum was “C Is For Cookie” by Cookie Monster!

Monday the 11th – “I FEEL LIKE A FREAKIN’ MIME!” – It was Columbus Day, so the items I had to mail would have to wait for another day. I walked over to Voice Trax West to do another 3 hour session for one of my regular clients. My voice had improved a bit, since I had the previous week off, but it still wasn’t completely better. And to make matters worse, during the sessions for this particular client, I have to read many lines in the same “music,” which puts stress on a particular section of my vocal cords because of the repetition. By the time the session was over, and it was time to walk back home, the wind had kicked up considerably. Just what I need. Lots of wind = allergies! It was so brisk at times, that I felt like a mime doing their ‘walking against the wind’ routine. I got home and relaxed for a bit, and then did a Cameo video. I also did an impromptu video for my Christoween promotion. I had received so many great submissions from aspiring Voice Over Artists, that I decided to put their names in a Stalking, draw a name at random, and send them a Donnie Druthers plush figure. (Thanks Scott for the great idea!) During each week of my “13 Weeks Of Christoween” promotion, to promote my 13 Christoween stories, I’m posting a verse from that week’s story and asking aspiring Voice Over Artists to give me their best read. Then I compile the submissions and expose them on the Christoween.net website and on YouTube. You never know if the next great Voice Actor will be discovered! I also received some great submissions from professional Voice Actors as well! It’s a lot of fun. But in the spirit of Christoween I decided I wanted to give back to them for all the great submissions. I don’t have enough Christoween merchandise for them all, but a drawing seems to work nicely. Later that night I did all my nightly auditions, made some spaghetti and started in on season two of “The Lone Ranger!”

Tuesday the 12th – CREATIVE, CRAFTING DAY! – My pals Michelle Schulman and Sergio Lopez came over so we could finish up her Prairie Dawn replica Muppet. The puppet’s been finished for a while now, but she needed hair. I also knew that I would need Sergio to trim the ears on my new 10% Rowlf, so I wanted to wait until Rowlf was finished so Sergio could do both while he was here, and save him a trip. We had a blast as Sergio worked away under Michelle’s direction. Later that night my cat Spook got riled up over a cat that walked past my house. It was a beautiful night, so I had the main door open, but the screen door shut. Normally I have a panel that blocks the visibility of the lower half of the screen door so Spook can’t see out. But I didn’t have it on for some reason. And there was Spook meowing like crazy, and the intruding cat sitting just beyond my front stairs. When this happens, Spook’s tail gets fuzzy and he goes crazy. He wants to fight me. He wants to fight Roxy. He’s completely nuts. Luckily I had the squirt bottle handy and I had to squirt him so much to get him cooled down, it looked like he had been given a bath. Honestly, I most likely will never have another cat at any point in my life. Cat dynamics aren’t really my thing, and this is one of the things that have always annoyed me about having a cat. That’s just one of the many things. I love dogs, and will most likely always have one. But Spook will be my one and only cat, I’m afraid. When things settled down, I worked on Rowlf and put the finishing touches on him. I glued his nose in, and fastened it in with washers and nuts. I also glued the eye pieces on, and fastened on the nuts in the inside of the pieces. Then, I measured and glued on the black velvet pupils. He’s finished at last!! Later I did my nightly auditions and worked on the Cookie Monster cap that I was making for little Carlos, a 2 year old kid I follow on Instagram who has been battling horrible cancer for about a year now. He loves “Sesame Street,” and in particular Cookie Monster. A while back I sent him a video that I did with the help of my friend who has a full-size Cookie Monster replica Muppet. I did the vocal and she did the puppeteering, and we changed Cookie Monster’s signature song “C Is For Cookie” – and did “C Is For Carlos.” Earlier in the day, Michelle had dropped by Yes! Embroidery to pick up his cap. Eli, the owner of Yes!, was kind enough to embroider C Is For Carlos on the back of the cap. All it needed was for me to put the furry Cookie Monster applique on the front, and add the wiggly eyes. I can’t wait to see it all finished, and see Carlos wearing it!

Wednesday the 13th – DRIVE-IN DELIGHT! – On the way to Voice Trax West for another session for my regular client, I stopped off at Kit Kraft to pick up the right eye pieces for Carlos’ cap. I needed to find the right sized “wiggle eyes” so I could cut open the plastic capsules and extract the round, black plastic pupil. Then I can screw those on to the white eyeballs, and make them spin. I stopped at Chin Chin to get some food to go, and then had a nice 3 hour session at Voice Trax West. I walked home and got ready for my pal Bob to come by at 8 so we could drive an hour to a drive-in movie theater in Montclair. I wanted to see the new James Bond movie, but didn’t want to sit in an indoor movie theatre wearing a mask for three hours, watching a movie that I was potentially going to hate (I hadn’t heard great things about it). But going to a drive-in theatre is just the answer! I brought some Bond soundtrack music on a flash drive that Bob and I could listen to on the way there. We got a perfect spot for the 9:30 screening, I got a lot of drive-in movie food, and we got settled. I had my passenger window open the entire time to enjoy the fresh air, and it was a beautiful night. The gorgeous half-moon was hanging in the sky to my right and it was lovely! In the old days, during my many, MANY visits to drive-in movie theatres in the 70’s and 80’s, the picture on the screen was always bright and vivid. That’s because there was a bright light bulb projecting through a thread of acetate film. But with the new digital projection we see today, it unfortunately looked a bit dull and dark. The picture wasn’t very vivid. I really wish they’d go back to film prints for a better picture, but that’s not going to happen. When the film was over we drove back to my place, which took about an hour, and discussed what we had just seen. (NO spoilers ahead!) Bob and I love the James Bond franchise and we’ve seen every movie several times. I have to honestly say that this movie just didn’t seem like a James Bond movie. It seemed like somebody had taken an action/romance film, and occasionally edited in a traditional James Bond scene – with the traditional action, fun, gadgets, weapons and trappings of a typical James Bond film that we’ve come to love. Then when that scene was over, it cut back to the action/romance film. It was honestly a bit of a muddled mess that was very difficult to follow. Bob and I believed that it was a case of “too many cooks in the kitchen.” And this soup was awful. I’ve never fully grokked Daniel Craig as James Bond anyway, as I felt he lacked a lot of the “peaks and valleys” that I enjoy in a traditional portrayal of Bond from Roger Moore or Sean Connery (even though Skyfall and Spectre were closer to the kind of portrayal I enjoy). And granted Craig is a great action star, but much like his first two outings (“Casino Royale” and “The Quantum of Solace”) I just didn’t feel like I was watching James Bond. As I said, not enough dynamics in the portrayal – just so serrrrriiiious all the time. Occasionally there were a few fun quips, but they seemed forced and out of character for this Bond. It most likely will be the only time I will ever see this film, and I’m sad that this was an impotent end to Craig’s five-picture-run as 007. I almost wanted to put on the DVD of “The Man With The Golden Gun” as a palate cleanser when I got home. But at least the experience of being at a drive-in theatre again was fun! I finished up the Carlos cap and got it ready to mail! I walked Roxy and hit the hay. I was exhausted!

Thursday the 14th – ANOTHER CREATIVE CAVALCADE! – My friend Tiffany, who’s a singer, has been quite busy and I haven’t seen her in quite a while. She just released a new song at Truth or Dare – YouTube and we chatted about that for a while, as well as a few other things. I met her at a Micky Dolenz concert a few years ago, so we talked about the current Monkees tour. We had a great lunch, and then I walked home to meet up with my maids. After they cleaned up, Michelle came over again and we drove to the post office to mail off some Christoween merchandise that had been ordered, as well as the custom Cookie Monster cap for Carlos. I picked up the packages at my mailbox, and then we sped over to my pal Jim Ojala’s special effects studio to pick up a project he worked on for me. We hit Burger King for lunch, I got some gas in the Mustang, and then we drove over to Alex In Wonderland’s studio to pick up my new Cookie Monster replica Muppet. He’s almost finished! I need to do some additional work on him, and then take him back to Alex for finishing touches. When we got back to Planet Wallywood I helped Michelle finish her Prairie Dawn replica Muppet by placing the eyes on. We measured and re-measured to make sure the placement of the eye pieces and pupils were perfect. After she left I edited together all of the submissions I’ve received for this week’s Christoween story, and sent it to my webmaster Scott for posting. I got some great submissions! Later I did some work around the house, and scanned checks for a bank deposit.

Friday the 15th – FRIDAY FINALLY! – Just before another session at Voice Trax West I walked to the bank to make a deposit. Then I went across the street to get some chicken noodle soup at Art’s Deli, and I headed to the studio to start the session. It was a very tough session because I was dealing with more voice issues, and there were several issues with the script we were working with. I was happy to see the clock move around to 5pm so I could start the weekend and relax. I walked home, totally exhausted, but enjoyed the nice 85 degree day. It was very relaxing and meditative, and gave me the chance to really unwind. When I got home I was spent and grabbed a nap. I got up later for some work in the Chaney Room rearranging the celebrity life masks on the wall. I put up a great Christopher Reeve life mask I had just received. I put my dishes away, planned my Christoween Tweets for the upcoming week, and created some artwork for my social media postings. I made a pot pie and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger.”

Saturday the 16th – TOTALLY, TOTALLY TIRED! – The busy week caught up to me and it was time to relax. I started with a visit to my stylist Andie for a touch-up on my color. Then I walked home and enjoyed the gorgeous, warm day. When I got home I did a little work, but I was beat so I decided to rest a while longer. Back to bed! I got up later rarin’ to go on my Cookie Monster replica Muppet. I glued the duvetyne material (blackout material) to the upper and bottom mouth plate, and let it cure. Then I turned my attentions to creating the pattern for Cookie’s little “finger tufts” that make his fingers so characteristic. I studied several photos I had of the real Cookie Monster, and determined the pattern and positioning of the finger tufts. I cut them out of the fur and pinned them on. I’ll take the puppet back to Alex In Wonderland to have Alex stitch them on by hand. The tufts are little “flame shaped” pieces that are pointy, but split into two – one longer and one shorter. Some fingers have the larger point toward the inside of the fingers, and some have them on the outside of the fingers. I wanted to be as exact as possible. Once the mouth had cured, I pinned it into the fur to get a general idea of how it will eventually look. I think I’m going to round the corners ever so slightly, even though I prefer the vintage, 70’s Cookie Monster who had a squarer jaw. It’s coming along very nicely and should look fantastic when he’s finished! Then I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched an episode of “The Saint” on DVD before bed.

Sunday the 17th – COULD I JUST GET ONE MORE DAY PLEASE?!?! – As I do most every Sunday, I enjoyed sleeping in quite late. My pal Brittney Powell came over to help me film a few videos – one for my Christoween social media posts, and the other another Cameo video. Then we went to Ernie’s Taco House for a delicious dinner. Later I did my nightly auditions, and edited the videos that Brittney shot and got them ready to post. I got organized for a home studio session on Monday afternoon, and prepped the script. How do I prep a script? I look through my lines and do a few sample reads to myself to wrap my brain around what’s going on in the context of the scene. I have a few choices ready to throw at the director to see which one is correct. I also do a line count so I can estimate how long the session will go. Then I hit the hay to begin ANOTHER busy week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

With stick pins, I measured out and marked the areas where Rowlf’s eye pieces should be attached. Then I pulled the eye pieces out, put Barge glue on the puppet face within the pinned area, and also on the backside of the eye pieces. Once the glue was ready I attached the pieces and let them dry.

Then I added on the punched black velvet pupils and he was finished!

Once the ears were trimmed, I realized that they were looking a little higher than I had wanted. I can always take the puppet back to Alex In Wonderland and have her lower the ears a bit to the right height.

But as you can tell, it was very difficult gauging the height of the ears with all this shagginess! This is how the ears looked before Sergio got at them!

Working on the custom Cookie Cap for Carlos! Lots of gluing, trimming, and fastening of screw and eye pieces…but worth it! I hope he likes it!

A little paint on the eyes and screws and he’s done!

Thanks to Yes! Embroidery for doing a smashing job on the text on the back of the cap!

I just set his eyes on top of his mouth plate and fur, and if you use your imagination, you can see that he’s coming along quite nicely!

The table is set for some Saturday night puppet magic!

I cut the little finger tufts and attached them with pins.

Here’s his mouth plate with the duvetyne attached, as the glue cures.

I’m seeing some real potential here! Just gotta round the corners of the mouth a bit.

My effects guy Jim Ojala gifted me with some limited edition Monster Mash cereal, which is a conglomeration of all the popular General Mills monster cereals in ONE BOX! It’s amazing! Kind of like the ultimate monster team-up!

The new 10% smaller Rowlf head will make him more in scale with my other Muppet replicas. After I have his ears lowered a bit, he’ll be as perfect as I can possibly make him.