RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
Here’s a photo of Jeff Lynne I pulled of social media. I sure can’t wait to see them perform again! Soon in St. Paul, Minnesota!
I can’t wait to see “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” again, as it was a very fun movie. And of course, I’ve been humming the “Theme from Beetlejuice” all week! I feel it’s one of Danny Elfman’s best themes! And it sure brings back a lot of fun memories working on “The Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue” at Universal!
Monday the 16th – NODS! – To begin the day I had a conversation with my old pal Mark Evanier. It’s always good to chat with him and catch up. Mark was the writer/producer/Voice Director of the “Garfield Show” and is a very prolific writer in tons of other projects. But we don’t get to chat that often. Later my gal Angi came over so we could hit the movie theatres on the Universal Citywalk to catch a screening of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” I wanted to see it there in particular because of the poignancy of performing the Beetlejuice character on that property for four years from 1994-1998. Unfortunately the concession area at that theatre is like some sort of weird scavenger hunt. The hot food has to be ordered at one counter, but the popcorn and nachos are self-serve. But to butter your popcorn you have to go to one station, and to get the nacho cheese you have to go to the check-out counter. In order to get your drink cup you have to go to the check-out counter, but filling your drink is done at the drink station a ways away. I long for the old days of going up to one counter, ordering everything you want, and walking away with a tray full of goodies. This was exhausting and confusing. It took us literally a half hour to get everything and get into the theatre. The movie, however, was absolutely delightful! But as I sat there watching it I started noticing a pattern of things that “may” have been influenced by our old “Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue” live show at Universal. We Beetlejuices used to strap on these heavy life-size puppets and do a dance routine that was hysterical. The puppets (that stood on either side of us) were two of the shrunken-head guys who were also dressed as Beetlejuice. So when I saw one of the shrunken head guys in the movie come out dressed as Beetlejuice, I said to myself, “Somebody involved in this movie saw our show!” There were other “Easter Eggs” as well, including one of Beetlejuice’s entrances – rising up through the floor and spreading his arms out as he rose. That was the exact way we would enter the theatre in the old show. There were others too, but you get the point. It made me happy to see that our little show from all those years ago “may” have had a little influence in the making of this film. By the time I got back home it had gotten pretty cold out. The temp was very chilly – in the 50’s! It was absolutely clear out with no cloud cover. I typed out Wally’s Week but decided against going on my nightly WOG (walk/jog) as I was much too tired and it was pretty cold out. I’ve been dealing with a case of tennis elbow for the past several weeks and I’m getting up early on Tuesday to finally consult with my sports medicine doctor to see what can be done about it. OUCH!
Tuesday the 17th – DEGENERATING?!! – After a few X-rays and answering some questions, my sports medicine doctor came in to let me know that the condition of tennis elbow is caused by a small tendon in your elbow that’s degenerating. However, he says that particular tendon is pretty useless, as he compared it to an appendix. But as it degenerates it’s fairly painful, and lifting stuff in certain ways is difficult. He gave me some stretching exercises to do and gave me a prescription to help manage the pain. He advised against a cortisone shot, as he said those are always a last resort kind of thing. I stopped by my box to pick up a package – a brand new Muppet button-down shirt made by RSVLTS. It’s pretty sweet! The muted colors are wonderful! Then I headed over to Paty’s to meet up with my pal Isaiah so we can further plan the Christoween stop-motion animation video we’re making for this upcoming Christoween season! This is going to be awesome. First, we went shopping at Hobby Lobby to buy some things to make the miniature set. We also stopped by an effects place in Burbank to buy a bottle of latex rubber to make the character puppets. Then we hit a train station in Burbank to look for a few items that may be helpful for the set. I dropped him off at the train station so he could head back home, and then I headed back home to relax. Later I recorded my nightly auditions and took my WOG. Once again, the night was pretty chilly. I’m going to have to start wearing my extra jacket to layer up! Then I spent some very brief time outside in the anti-gravity chair enjoying the night. But once it got too chilly I came inside. I picked out a bunch of clothes that I wanted to ship to South Dakota in anticipation of my upcoming trip. Because I’m taking a couple of puppets to run around with at Siouxpercon (a local pop culture convention in Sioux Falls) I won’t have room for certain clothes. And I need to take a lot of clothes because I’ll be there for almost a full week. I bagged up the clothes I’ll be sending and I’ll take them to the UPS store tomorrow to ship them. I worked around the house a little bit, and then made a salad and watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk” before bed. It was an episode that featured Lou Ferrigno in a speaking role without his Hulk make-up. There’s a great split-screen shot of Lou’s character in a bodybuilding competition, and the Hulk comes on stage. They stare at each other for a while and it’s very funny. I’d like to print a screenshot of that and have Lou sign it someday…TWICE! One signature as his bodybuilding character, and the other as the Hulk. Might be a fun thing to add to the collection!
Wednesday the 18th- I MUST MUSTANG! – After I shipped my box of clothes at the UPS store, I headed to Foam Mart to have them cut some specifically-sized pieces of foam core for the walls of the miniature set we’ll be using for the Christoween stop-motion video. I hit Burger King for some lunch, and then headed to my auxiliary parking to check on my Mustang and my Gran Torino. Both cars looked good and they were snug under their car covers. I uncovered the Mustang and popped the lever on the battery cut-off and it started right up! I’ve had some issues with the brake sensor recently, so I hope it’ll be OK this coming week. The brake sensor is something that tells the transmission, “Hey, the brake is depressed, so it’s OK to shift into gear now.” If the transmission doesn’t get that message due to a faulty sensor, the car won’t go into gear. There’s normally a work-around for these situations, in the form of a manual shift override, but I hear that the Mustangs don’t have them. EEK! I drove by my mechanic’s shop and had him take a look to see if he could find the override, but he didn’t know where it was off the top of his head. I’m hoping for the best this week as I really don’t want to get stranded anywhere. When I got home I chatted with my computer guy Brian about how things were going on my new system. I’m looking forward to getting this computer nightmare behind me and moving on. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-gravity chair outside. I pondered all the things I needed to do before I headed out of town – including building a puppet head for the Donnie Druthers stop-motion puppet, and building the Christoween miniature set. Whew! LOTS to do before I leave.
Thursday the 19th – “TORT” – It sure was fun careening around town with the top down on the Mustang, but it was an overcast day so I didn’t get the sun I had hoped for. I got the Mustang washed and it looks SUPER! Best of all, because it was overcast, there wasn’t any line at the car wash! I got right in! I sped over to Alex In Wonderland’s new shop to check things out. Then I took Alex, her husband Mike and their daughter to lunch at a British pub called Robin Hood. It was great fun! Then I headed over to CVS to pick up my prescription from my sports medicine doctor. I headed home and immediately started working in the garage to dig out some materials I would need for the Christoween video. I needed to find some fabrics, some fur, and a few other things. While I was working away a lovely medium-hair cat walked into my garage to hang out. I had seen this lovely cat around my neighborhood before, but I don’t know to whom it belongs. She sure is sweet, and very nice. I gave her a few bits of a Greenie and she gobbled them up. She was hungry! So I went inside and got a can of cat food and opened it up for her. She down the entire thing! She seems very well cared for, but if she’s this hungry I was wondering if she had a home of her own. She rubbed on my legs and I could tell she wanted to go inside. But my cat Spooky would NOT have that! Because of her lovely tortoise shell coat, I call her “Tort” for short. It was starting to get dark and I couldn’t get rid of her. When I came back inside she sat outside my main window and meowed for me – looking right up into my window! My heart was breaking. I called my pal Sara to come have a look, as she knows a lot about this sort of thing. She felt around on Tort to see if she might be chipped, but she couldn’t find anything after a cursory examination. She said that Tort seemed very clean and well taken care of, so she probably belonged to somebody who let her roam around whenever she wanted to. I came back inside and plotted out the Christoween set, chatted again with my computer guy Brian, and then relaxed. I could hear Tort outside my window still meowing. Sad. Later I went outside to take my WOG and there was no sign of Tort. That is, until my very last moments of the workout. It was dark, I had my headlamp on, and I approached her. It must’ve scared her because she hissed at me, but I turned off my headlamp and told her it was me. Once she recognized me she was friendly again. I went back inside to bring out a can of cat food for her to eat while I relaxed in my anti-grav chair, but when I got outside she was gone. I stayed up all night sculpting the first part of the head for the Donnie Druthers puppet. Once the Magic Sculpt cures, I’ll add more to it tomorrow.
Friday the 20th – REARRANGE AND REPURPOSE! – In an overhead cabinet in my kitchen I used to keep two metal file stackers full of photos that I could sign and send out to fans. But since I’ve been doing conventions I keep all of the photos in a rolling file folder case in the garage. So I no longer have need of my old system. Realizing that it was wasted space, I set out to clear it out and repurpose it for other things. I used the metal file stackers for my ongoing photo album project to help keep things a little more organized. Once the upper cabinet was cleaned and cleared out, I started stashing various pieces of equipment in there, along with an entire section for mailing. It included envelopes, padding, a mailing scale, rubber stamps, etc. It was very neat and organized now! And the stackers are working out great for my photo stuff! I set up my recording studio to do a mid-afternoon session for a new project. I can’t say what it is, but I get to play the Riddler again – and that’s always a blast! After a very fun one-hour session I started in on sculpting the Donnie Druthers head again. I got his left cheek and left ear completed. I’ll let that cure overnight and do more tomorrow. I made a salad and watched another episode of “The Incredible Hulk.”
Saturday the 21st – CLASS REUNION REMOTELY! – My Class of ’78 reunion committee decided that we would start having reunions every 5 years now. This is in response to a considerable number of classmates who have passed away. However, with my Sioux Falls trip coming up, as well as my road trip to St. Paul to see Jeff Lynne’s ELO, I just couldn’t make it to Aberdeen, South Dakota as well to make the reunion. Luckily they live streamed the first part of the evening so I could sit at home and see a lot of old friends and classmates. It was pretty sweet getting to see the presentation from the comfort of my home. After that Angi came over so we could go to dinner. She hadn’t eaten anything all day, as she’s in the middle of moving to a new place. We hit Little Toni’s for a delightful dinner. But I was feeling a little groggy, and I was wondering if that new pain medicine my sports medicine doctor gave me was the cause. Angi looked it up and didn’t seem to think that it caused drowsiness. Maybe I was just tired! The good news is – is that the pain in my elbow was virtually non-existent. That stuff really works! But I slept most of the night and didn’t get up at my usual time to do my nightly WOG. But when I finally woke up at 6am I noticed that it was a beautiful, blue, overcast morning. It was cool and quiet, so I figured I’d take my WOG then. I like doing it in the middle of the night as I see less people. At 7 in the morning more people are out and about and it’s not nearly as fun and meditative. I didn’t spend any time in the anti-grav chair, as I had lots to do inside. I’ve been pondering the creation of a new life-size figure for my collection lately. I’ve always wanted a life-size Roger Moore James Bond figure in my house, but I think I landed on a great idea. In the film “The Man With The Golden Gun,” my favorite Bond film, a life-size figure of Moore’s Bond figures into the villain’s lair. He uses it for target practice and in the beginning of the film he shoots off four of the figure’s fingers. I want to recreate that figure for my house, complete with the shot-off fingers! I found a great Roger Moore life mask on Ebay and bought it. I even chatted with my pal Rubber Larry, the best celebrity likeness sculptor in the biz about doing the face. I sculpted the rest of the head for the Donnie Druthers puppet, and I’ll add the final touch tomorrow – the pointy little nose. I made a salad and watched an episode of “Honey West,” as well as last week’s “Collector’s Call” before bed.
Sunday the 22nd – FRONTLOADING! – When I got up late in the afternoon I sanded the Donnie Druthers puppet head and prepped it for the addition of the nose. I drilled in a little hole to place a thin wire to fortify the nose, and then sculpted the nose over the wire with Magic Sculpt. Now to let it cure overnight and get it to my buddy Jim Ojala on Monday to make a cast of it. I did my auditions and sent them to my agent, and I typed out Wally’s Week. I’m trying to frontload as much stuff as possible tonight so my busy Monday can be spent packing and prepping for my upcoming trip. So much to do! I drove my Mustang back to my auxiliary parking and put it to bed. I got The Gray Ghost back out and came back home to pay some bills and do a little packing for my trip. This upcoming week is going to be amazing!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Here’s the Roger Moore life mask I bought, and here’s the image of the James Bond life-size figure (played by a REAL Roger Moore) that I’ll be replicating for my collection. It’ll be exciting working on a new figure. But now the question is – where to put him!?
As I start laying out the walls for the Christoween stop-motion set, I like to put little properly-sized sketches up against it to check scale. The Donnie head sculpt is in its early stages, but is coming along nicely.
Seriously – cats and boxes…what the heck?!
