October 18 – October 24 (2021)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

A good friend sent me this photo recently of Michael Crawford backstage at the “Phantom of the Opera” stage with a very unusual Christmas cake!

Since we finished watching “Muppets Haunted Mansion” the other night, I’ve had this 70’s gem stuck in my head. King Harvest and “Dancin’ In The Moonlight.” Brilliant song!

Monday the 18th – “WE ARE EXPERIENCING TEMPORARY, TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES…PLEASE STAND BY!” – Today’s session would be in my home studio, but when I signed on to Source Connect (the internet-driven program that sends home studio audio to a recording studio) I was surprised when the engineer-on-duty gave me the specs for how to record the session on my end. Somewhere along the lines of communication (the producer, my agent, me, etc.) it didn’t get mentioned that I would need to record the audio I was producing on my end, in addition to the studio recording the audio on their end. The only problem is, I can’t record audio on my end while I’m connected in Source Connect. The recording software I used to record conflicts with Source Connect, as they both wrestle for control of my microphone. I operate on a Windows system and it’s a common problem with Windows users. However Mac users don’t have this issue. So there was some thought that I might not be able to do the session after all. However I have done numerous other sessions for this video game character before, and these were a series of about 50 additional lines. Plus, there was a fast-approaching deadline where these lines would be needed for the animators to continue working. In the beginning of the whole virus thing, studios were ELATED to have Source Connect at their disposal, and it sufficed nicely for their purposes. But now, for some reason, Source Connect-generated audio is no longer sufficient for their purposes. The engineer explained that they get internet artifacts in the audio from time to time, and it’s nice to have a back-up audio file generated at the home studio. Since I discovered the conflict issue I’ve always been very up front with my agents about the limitations on my end. But again, the subject of me being required to record on my end got dropped through the cracks somehow. The producer and director decided to carry on and get what we could, and if any of the audio turned out to be subpar for their purposes we would re-record the inferior lines at a later date in a proper studio. It was a fun two-hour session and I’m hoping they got everything they needed. We did multiple takes of every line, so I’m hoping within that multitude of choices they find usable takes that have no internet artifacts in them. Plus, the processing and effects they’re going to place on my voice for this character will most likely hide any imperfections anyway, I’m guessing. After the session I drove over to Alex In Wonderland’s studio to drop off my 10% Rowlf replica Muppet, and my in-process Cookie Monster replica Muppet. Rowlf needed to have his ears lowered, as I gave Alex the wrong measurements for ear placement. It’s literally only a half an inch, but when you’re dealing with these sorts of puppets the smallest wrong measurement can make all the difference in capturing the look. I also needed Alex to finish a seam near Cookie Monster’s mouth area, where I will eventually be placing the mouth plates. And I’ve cut and pinned all of the finger tufts on to his hands, and she would need to hand stitch those on and blend the fur. I drove to Blast From The Past in Burbank, a collectible store that would be handing out postcards I had printed up to promote The 13 Weeks of Christoween on Christoween.net. Originally when I dropped off a bunch of cards, the store owner said he would most likely run out soon because of brisk business. However, when I went to the store, they had plenty of cards left. Apparently the clerks were forgetting to put the cards into customer’s bags when they purchased something. It was a little disappointing, frankly. But I’ll give the owner a call and see what we can do to expedite the dissemination of the cards. I went home to feed the kids, and then headed to Paty’s to meet with my friends comedian Ken Pringle and actress Olivia D’Abo. We were discussing some fun comedy ideas, and we had so much fun and laughs that I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up forming some sort of comedy troupe out of all this! I came home and recorded my nightly auditions, and typed out Wally’s Week! Wild day!

Tuesday the 19th – CARLOS’ CUSTOM COOKIE CAP COMPLETE! – The final two sessions for one of my usual accounts that were contracted for this year would occur this week. The second-to-the-last session was today at Voice Trax West, so I walked over to Chin Chin to get some food and then hit the studio. It was a nice 3 hour session, and then I walked home to relax. Later I did my nightly auditions, and then found some nice pictures in my Instagram account of little Carlos wearing the custom Cookie Monster cap I made for him. Carlos has been battling a horrible cancer for over a year and he loves Cookie Monster, so I made him a custom cap like the one I have, that has actual spinning eyes! I’m glad it arrived and that he likes it! Speaking of Cookie Monster, I started studying his mouth shape again. I poured over video after video of the vintage 70’s Cookie Monster that I’m trying to capture. I determined that the mouth plate I had designed was a little too square. I worked with the pattern again, and shaved a little bit off of the corners. As I said, when you’re dealing with these kinds of characters, a mere 1/16th of an inch here and a mere 32nd of an inch there makes a lot of difference. After refining three more patterns, I finally ‘cracked the Cookie code’ on the fourth one. This means I would need to alter the mouth plates I already attached to the black fabric before installing it into the puppet. This could be tricky, considering that the glue is VERY good, and it may not be possible to detach small slivers of the rubbery mouth plates from the fabric. If not, I’m going to have to make another mouth, and have another cover of black fabric created for it. Luckily, they’re both very easy to do. I also laid out the pattern for proper eye placement, so I have a measurement guide when the time comes to install the eyes. I need to lock in on the proper measurement from the edge of his top mouth plate, to the edge of his eyes. Again, 1/16th of an inch off can make all the difference in the look. It’s important not to get the eyes too close to the edge of the mouth, nor too far from the edge of the mouth. In studying pictures and videos of his finger tufts, I determined that the backs of the tufts are colored grey. Obviously this is a way to make them blend into the puppet’s hands a little better. To get the finger tufts to flop over onto the fingers properly, it’s just one layer of the fur fabric. If it was double-sided, it probably wouldn’t give them the ‘floppiness’ they needed for the character. The fur side of the fabric points outward, but the underside is the smooth, fabric side of the fur. If I painted the underside with gray paint, it might make them a little too stiff. I needed to be able to color the undersides gray without adding any kind of bulk to the fabric. Then I thought of magic markers or Sharpies. The ink in one magic marker didn’t take well to the fabric and stayed fairly wet. Bad idea! But Sharpies seemed to work better. I just need to let them dry a long time before installing them on to the puppet. Otherwise whenever Cookie grabs his eyes, or something of a lighter color, the ink may transfer. Bad idea! I looked on-line to see if they made gray Sharpies. This would ultimately be better than using a black Sharpie and trying to minimize the depth of the color. THEY DO! They’re called slate grey, so I ordered a bunch on amazon. I’ll also hit Staples to see if they sell them as well. I found out it helps to color the backs of the tufts, and then rub them on a white piece of poster board to get all of the excess ink off. I walked Roxy on our usual late-night stroll through the neighborhood and it was COLD!!! Summer’s over, sadly. I made some spaghetti and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger” before bed. It’s funny that all during the first season, neither Tonto nor the Lone Ranger ever uttered the words “The Lone Ranger.” But four episodes into the second season Tonto mentioned the name, and by the seventh episode The Lone Ranger mentioned the name. But yet The Lone Ranger hasn’t actually called himself The Lone Ranger yet. Funny!

Wednesday the 20th – GRAY SHARPIES ON A BLUE DAY! – The day was simply gorgeous. Days like this are why we put up with so much crap living in the state of California. Utterly stunning. I drove to Taco Bell to get some lunch at the drive-thru, and then went to a quickie video game session at Shane Salk Studios in Burbank. I got a few grocery items at the store, and then drove to Staples to buy a bunch of slate grey Sharpies for my Cookie Monster finger tuft project. I really want to get Cookie finished soon, as I’m going to do a Zoom call with little Carlos soon. I got home and unloaded the groceries and relaxed for a bit. I worked around the house later, and discovered that the string of Supernight LED lights in my kitchen are burning out. They’ve dimmed and are strobing. I guess it’s time to replace them, which will be quite a delicate job, as I have the lighting encircling a lot of delicate collectibles. I enjoyed getting in some more “Aspiring Voice Actor” submissions for this week’s Christoween Caper.

Thursday the 21st – AND THAT’S A WRAP FOR ANOTHER YEAR! – As much as I hate to sound like a broken record (remember THOSE?!) it was another stunning day. I walked to Voice Trax West to do the final 3 hour session for one of my regular clients, and that fulfilled this year’s contract. Hopefully they’ll come back next year for another run of sessions, as I like this client very much. On the walk home I stopped by Panera to get my usual order, but the flatbread pizza looked pretty tasty. So I ordered one of those to try as well. I got home and ate, and WOW! That flatbread pizza is fantastic! I ate the whole thing and will save my sandwich for later. I worked around the house, and ordered another set of Supernight LED lights to replace the ones that are burning out in my kitchen. I know those LED lights are good for hundreds of hours, but I’ve had them installed for so many years, I guess it’s about time they gave up the ghost. I love having a soft, blue hue in my kitchen area at night. Later I recorded my nightly auditions, and edited together the final compilation of all of the “Aspiring Voice Actor” submissions I received. I’m really enjoying hearing everybody’s choices for these stories. I ate my leftover Panera sandwich while watching a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger.” I’m looking forward to having several days off, after a few whirlwind weeks!

Friday the 22nd – FREEDOM! – It was my first day off in quite a while, so I decided to make the most of it. I went to the post office to mail off some Christoween stuff, and then hit my box to pick up my packages. I headed next door to Paty’s to enjoy a salad on the patio and watch the onset of evening. Simply gorgeous! Then I came back home to do a little work and continue relaxing. Since my usual puppet fabricator had gotten extremely busy, and I still had a few minor adjustments to make on my 10% Rowlf, and I still needed to complete my Cookie Monster replica, I had to make alternate arrangements with another seamstress to finish the puppets. As luck would have it, Shelley (the seamstress who usually does my bowling shirts) just got freed up from an animation project and has some time now. Since she fabricated my first Rowlf, she will have no problem re-attaching his ears to the new position. And she’s brilliant at hand-stitching, so she’ll be able to finish up the stuff I need done on Cookie Monster with no problem at all. I arranged to bring the stuff over to her on Monday with completion of both puppets expected next week. I’m very excited! Once I get the Cookie Monster mouth plates back from Alex In Wonderland I can determine if they can be altered or not. If not, I’ll need Shelley to make a new cover for my second set of mouth plates with the improved design. But its design is so simple she could make one in her sleep, most likely. I spent the rest of the night scheduling Christoween Tweets for the rest of the week. As the schedule usually goes, I release a new story on Saturday and announce it. Sunday is a reminder Tweet with a bunch of related hashtags. Monday I post a portion of the story’s text for aspiring Voice Actors who would like to submit reads so I can post their work. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I post sample verses from the story from that week with some related artwork, and then Friday I post the compilation video of all of the Voice Actor submissions I received, as well as a Tweet promoting the story which will be released on Saturday. I’ve finally gotten it down to a science now. I’m excited to see if these stories will get more traffic as we get closer to Christmas. I had been looking forward to getting my usual meal at Denny’s all week, but when I called they informed me they were out of fried chicken, and won’t have any for TWO WEEKS! So much for getting my usual order of boneless buffalo wings and my fried chicken salad. So I made some frozen chicken nuggets and pizza rolls and enjoyed a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger” before bed. In one episode, I noticed how striking a young lady was playing the daughter of a rancher that was being stalked by bad guys. When I saw who she was in the credits I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Margaret Kerry, who would later become the figure model for Tinkerbell. I’ve met her countless times (now that she’s in her 90s) and never DREAMED that she was that same girl! It was amazing!

Saturday the 23rd – MIDNIGHT WRITER! – Boy did it feel good lounging around the house all day and doing nothing. After a week packed with excitement, it was really nice just doing a whole lot of nothing. In the evening my pal Officer Mark stopped by so we could drive over to Barone’s for dinner. As usual, the food was amazing! When we got back to Planet Wallywood we hooked up the ol’ Roku device and watched the first 15 minutes of the new “Halloween Kills” movie. I had heard that the 1978 flashback scenes were very well done. Then we watched “Muppets Haunted Mansion” and it was a kick to hear the old 70’s tune “Dancing In The Moonlight!” I won’t say that I enjoyed it totally, as it had certain issues that a lifetime Muppet fan like me could raise. But it was a fun 50 minutes of ‘check your brain’ goofiness. Mark and I thought that, since they were in the Haunted Mansion dealing with ghosts, that it would have been cool to have 3 dude ghosts in a short cameo, just hanging out and each of them had something funny to say. Those three ghosts would be “deep fakes” of Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt; the three original Muppet performers who are no longer with us. There has to be millions of hours of their natural speaking voices that could be found in interviews or outtakes, and doing a ‘deep fake’ these days is pretty easy. In fact, it would have been cool to have their faces on the three hitchhiking ghosts at the end of the film. Oh well, nobody asked me. After Officer Mark took his leave I sat down to compose an article about my favorite horror movie. This was a request by a website that my Christoween PR guy had contacted. Since my favorite horror movie has evolved over the years, it was a fairly involved article to write. Plus I added personal information about myself to explain why a certain horror movie was my favorite at a certain point in my life. Then I assembled a folder of photos to go along with the article. It literally took all night to write. By the time I was finished I was very pleased with the article, but I was exhausted. So I hit the hay. I’m not sure when or if the website will publish the article, or if they will edit it heavily, so I’ve posted the entire thing HERE for you to read and hopefully enjoy as we swing into the final week before Halloween.

Sunday the 24th – NOTHING! I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! – Since the article for the website took so long to write, I didn’t get to bed until noon. After sleeping a few hours I got up to take care of Roxy and Spook and give them some dinner. Then I went back to bed to snooze some more. It sure felt good, but when I finally did wake up I was in a state of confusion as to what day it actually was. I had already recorded the auditions that were due on Monday several days ago. I was hungry but I didn’t really want to go anywhere to get food, and I wasn’t interested in making anything here. I was actually quite enjoying just doing nothing at all; just having a day to fully decompress. Luckily the forthcoming week wasn’t going to be quite as packed as last week, so I could spend some time and get some things done that needed to be accomplished. I finished writing Wally’s Week and spent some time meditating on life. Then I settled down on The Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe and slept for a while longer. I spent the rest of the evening doing some writing, and I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad, one night late, and enjoyed an episode of “The Saint” before turning in for good. Looking forward to the week of Halloween!!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK