{"id":11714,"date":"2021-08-23T06:17:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T13:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/?p=11714"},"modified":"2021-08-31T06:45:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T13:45:46","slug":"august-23-august-29-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/august-23-august-29-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"August 23 – August 29 (2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK<\/h3>\n

Isn’t it about time for another random dog picture? Oh what the heck. it’s ALWAYS time for anothe random dog picture!<\/p>\n

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As I was sitting at my desk doing some work I played some random music on my computer. Though I hadn’t heard this song in quite a while, it sure sounded good. Songs like this remind me of my days in South Dakota. It’s Toby Keith’s “Drinks After Work,”<\/span> and I LOVE the vibe of this song!<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Drinks-After-Work.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Monday the 23rd \u2013 \u201cBEAR-ING\u201d GIFTS! \u2013<\/span> My day started out on a sad note, as I found out from my neighbor that her greyhound Abby passed away over the weekend. Roxy and Abby used to romp around in the courtyard together, and her owner and I used to love observing how Abby and Roxy were essentially the same dog, with the same build. The only difference was the length of the hair. My pal Edi came over and we drove the Gran Torino out to Burbank to have lunch at Lancer\u2019s. While we were dining we observed a photographer outside the car snapping pictures of it with a vintage camera. We started chatting and he was trying out a film camera he had just purchased. FILM?! Fantastic. He said he\u2019d send me a few shots when he got them back from the lab. (Remember waiting for your photos to come back from a lab?!) Since Lancer\u2019s shares a parking lot with Hobby Lobby, we went over to find some plastic bins that I had been looking for. I noted that her husband Elliot\u2019s birthday was just a few days earlier, so we set out to find him a gift that was quirky and fun. She said he liked bears, so I found a cute plush black bear. But he needed something else. Elliot wrote and sang the big 70\u2019s hit \u201cBrandy (You\u2019re a Fine Girl)\u201d, so I had an idea. We could go over to the doll section, find a cool hat and some shoes, and really customize him for Elliot. Then I decided to name him\u2026\u201dBear-Andy.\u201d (Say it out loud and say it all squished together; Bearrrandy. Get it?) We found a great little kerchief to put around his neck, some cowboy boots and a hat. It all fit perfectly! Quirky? Check! Fun? Check! While we were in the store we saw a cute little doggie named Bambi, so we stopped for a few pets. I must not have cleaned my hands well enough after eating my chicken quesadilla at Lancer\u2019s, because Bambi had a great time licking my fingers! We drove the Torino to my new auxiliary garage, exchanged it for the Mustang, and headed out. I picked up some packages at my mailbox, and then we headed back to Planet Wallywood to put Bear-Andy\u2019s boots on, and affix some elastic to his hat so it would stay on him. Edi and Bear-Andy took off for him, and I fed the kids. I did some work on-line, and later made a pot pie and watched another episode of \u201cMod Squad.\u201d It was a fantastic episode with amazing acting, but it was difficult to watch. It was about a woman dying of painful cancer, and how a night nurse was cutting her pain medication with saline, so she could sneak the rest of the morphine back to her wounded VietNam veteran son at home. WOW! Amazing episode.<\/p>\n

Tuesday the 24th \u2013 BIG 5 LOOP! \u2013<\/span> Regular exercise is going to be on my schedule from now on, and there\u2019s a Big 5 store in my neighborhood that\u2019s about a half mile from my house. I\u2019ve decided to try to do a Big 5 Loop as many days as I can. That means I\u2019ll walk briskly from my house to Big 5, loop around, and head back home, making it an even mile. But I needed a few things at Big 5 so I went in to find them. First off, I needed a new, bigger puppet bag to carry around my Muppet replicas at conventions and functions. I found a great Adidas bag with a shoulder strap and plenty of room inside for anyone from Gonzo the Great to Oscar the Grouch. I also picked up a brand new black Adidas cap. I had my seamstress stitch a Kermit the Frog patch on a cap earlier in the year, but after wearing it a few times I decided I didn\u2019t like the way it fit. There are low crown caps (which I prefer) and high crown caps (which I don\u2019t prefer), but this was a slanted crown cap. It didn\u2019t look very good with the patch on it. So I decided I was going to cut the patch off and transplant it onto a new cap. This Adidas cap was perfect! On the way home I stopped at Subway to get a sandwich and I headed home to prep for the evening and eat my dinner. I had a ton of auditions that I recorded later. I cut all the tags off my new puppet bag, and then I turned my attentions to transplanting the Kermit patch to the new Adidas cap. I knew it was going to be intense, as my hand-stitching skills leave a lot to be desired, but it was a little more difficult than I thought. I wanted to really buckle down and make sure it was as \u2018pro\u2019 as possible, and it took me about 3 hours. After lots of finger pricks, some blood, and some swearing, I finished it up. It looked pretty sweet!<\/p>\n

Wednesday the 25th \u2013 DUTY CALLS! \u2013<\/span> An order for some Christoween merchandise came in over the weekend so I packed it all up in preparation of sending it to Canada. I also organized a packet of papers I needed to send to the Screen Actor\u2019s Guild and the signature page needed to be notarized. So I headed to the post office, mailed the stuff to Canada, went to my box to get my packages, had the page notarized, had a salad at Paty\u2019s, and then headed back home to do some things around the house. I recorded my nightly auditions, did a Christoween-related art project, and later I made a Tombstone pizza and prepped for a session on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Thursday the 26th \u2013<\/span> THE HARBINGER OF FALL\/WINTER IS HERE! \u2013 Last week the temps were cool and mild, and fairly unnerving; considering it was mid-August in Los Angeles. It\u2019s supposed to be hot, and the fact that it wasn\u2019t was fairly disconcerting. But this week, it was full-on August! The 103 degrees in L.A. felt great. Finally! We\u2019re getting our August weather. But remember, the heat in L.A. is dry, and I\u2019m a big fan of Palm Springs. So the heat doesn\u2019t really affect me too badly. I much prefer that to cold. I drove to a studio in North Hollywood to do a quick session for a video game. The sessions have been recurring, and I suspect we\u2019ll probably have a few more to do before the game is complete. I had three quick lines, and then I headed out to get some groceries. I went home to put the supplies away and did a little work. My pal Officer Mark came over so we could go dine at The Smokehouse. When we returned to Planet Wallywood he helped me shoot some Christoween merch videos that will be posted on Instagram and Twitter throughout the month of September. We also shot a video where I tell some behind-the-scenes stories of the Andy Kaufman \u201cE! True Hollywood Story.\u201d My plan is to tack them on to the end of the file I just posted on my website of the full show from 1999. That will be coming in a week or so. I did my nightly auditions, and worked around the house. When I took Roxy out for our late-night stroll through the neighborhood, I noticed that the bright Orion constellation is now visible in the eastern sky. He\u2019s not visible in the spring and summer, and when I see him arrive I know that fall and winter are on the way. Rats\u2026just as we were getting into some really great summer weather!<\/p>\n

Friday the 27th \u2013 TOO HOT TO TROT! \u2013<\/span> My pal Brittney and I were going to do a brisk walk, but it was much too hot. So instead, we just decided to go get lunch at Paty\u2019s. I got my packages at my box, mailed off some Certificates of Haunt-thenticity that I had forgotten to include in the Christoween merchandise package earlier in the week, and then I headed home to edit the Christoween merch videos we had shot the other night. I decided to shoot a little intro for each video, so after I shot that I did some editing on that as well. The cap from which I removed the Kermit the Frog patch was still sitting on my desk; now blank. I had a few pieces of fur lying next to it that I\u2019ll be using on my new Cookie Monster replica Muppet. I had an idea. In the past, after I made puppets, I used some of the left-over materials to make caps that looked like Rowlf the Dog, Oscar the Grouch, and Animal. I had a great idea for a Cookie Monster cap that would have his face on the front, but with actual fur and plastic eye pieces! I drew up a pattern, cut out the fur pieces, and glued them onto the cap. (I had my fill of sewing the other night!) I ordered some appropriately-sized plastic eye pieces from Amazon, made some buffalo mac, and watched another episode of \u201cMod Squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday the 28th \u2013 CRAWLING COCKROACHES, CAWING CROWS, AND SCREAMING SPOOKS! \u2013<\/span> When I got up mid-afternoon I saw that I had missed several calls from my friends Scott and Vickie Sebring. They were in my area a lot sooner than I expected, so I hastily called them back and had them drop by so we could go to dinner. We drove over to Bob\u2019s Big Boy and got seated right away! That\u2019s fantastic, because during the peak times, tables there can come with substantial wait times. Scott and I discussed some things we wanted to do on the Christoween website, and during October 2nd through Christmas Day we\u2019re doing The 13 Weeks of Christoween, where I\u2019ll release audible versions of each of the 13 stories (one per week) to see what people think of them. I had my list of homework to do, so I went home and got started. As I was sitting at my desk, my cat Spooky was sitting on the floor looking up at me. I thrust my hand at him, much like you do when you\u2019re playing with a cat, as if to say, \u201cI\u2019m gonna getcha!\u201d But the weirdest thing happened. A roach appeared from out of nowhere! Spook is 16 years old, and I\u2019m not sure his vision is all that good. But the roach was tearing around in abject terror. I\u2019m not even sure where he came from, but I wanted to catch him and throw him out. I didn\u2019t want to squish him (I don\u2019t like killing things) because he would have squished all over my carpet. So I found a cup and tried to chase him down. No luck. He escaped\u2026somewhere. That was strange, scary thing number one. The second thing was when I was getting Roxy\u2019s food ready for her dinner. As I\u2019m digging out the chicken and ingredients to make Roxy\u2019s dinner, Spook will meow loudly so I\u2019ll throw him a piece of chicken here and there. But his meows turned into a loud scream. I looked down and he had reared up on his hind legs, but had gotten one of the claws on his front left paw caught in the hinge of a cabinet door. At first I thought he was protesting loudly to get some chicken, but he was in real pain. In a flash I reached down and picked him up and his claw was freed. My heart was pounding fast! And the third weird thing of the evening occurred when Roxy and I were taking our late-night stroll through the neighborhood. It was about 4am and deathly quiet (I love it!). We walked through one of the courtyards in the complex and overhead the silence was suddenly broken by a loud \u201cCAW!\u201d There was a crow in the tree above me who must\u2019ve been startled awake by our presence. But it was just one single CAW, and that was it. Very startling. I decided to record short little intros for each of the recorded Christoween stories to preview what the listener was going to experience. Scott and I discussed whether or not they were necessary, but in my experience as a radio DJ all those years, I\u2019m aware of the value of a good introduction. Some people had questioned my decision to release all 13 stories for free on the website. They thought releasing them for free might diminish their value to a potential licensor. I meditated on that very question for quite a while before making a decision. And then I remembered my work as a radio DJ for over 20 years. Did me playing \u201cBrandy\u201d on the radio diminish Elliot Lurie\u2019s record sales? No, of course not. In fact, it served to promote it so people would want to go buy the record. And see the video. And see the song performed live at a concert. And see a movie in which the song was featured. So since I\u2019m attacking the whole Christoween story endeavor as a radio DJ would, I remembered back when \u201cI Just Called To Say I Love You\u201d by Stevie Wonder was released back in 1984. My Program Director at the radio station opened the mail, saw the record, saw that it was by Stevie Wonder, handed it to me and said, \u201cPut this on the air right now.\u201d He hadn\u2019t even heard it yet. But it was Stevie Wonder, so he knew it was going to be a hit. However, since it was fresh outta the box, and nobody had heard it yet, it needed a little fanfare to let the listeners know what they were going to hear. Playing it randomly with no explanation might have run the risk that it would have been ignored at first. But once the intro was made that essentially said, \u201cFresh outta the mailbag is a BRAND NEW song by Stevie Wonder!\u201d NOW, I had their attention. So yeah, I\u2019m under the impression that since the Christoween stories are fresh and new, a little explanation would be in order to familiarize the listeners with what they\u2019re about to hear. I sat down with each story synopsis and wrote out short little intros for each of them. Then I recorded them and edited them. I hope you\u2019ll listen to them when they\u2019re released, and I hope you\u2019ll like them. Very few people have heard the full 13 stories fully sound-designed with music and sound effects. I recorded some auditions that were due Monday (because I was in the mood) I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched another episode of \u201cThe Saint\u201d before bed.<\/p>\n

Sunday the 29th \u2013 CATCHING UP WITH CHRIS! \u2013<\/span> Back in 1985 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, my friend Sally introduced me to a student of hers\u2019 that was a huge Batman fan. I had just been in \u201cGrease\u201d with Sally at the Community Playhouse, and she was a teacher at one of the local high schools. She suggested to this student that he interview me for a class project. She told him to \u2018wear a Batman shirt\u2019 and I\u2019d be impressed. Once we started talking I liked the kid\u2019s enthusiasm and energy. He wanted to be an actor someday (like me) so he had lots of questions. I had an idea. He resembled a taller Burt Ward, so I asked him if he\u2019d want to make a Robin costume and go out to do some appearances with me as Batman. The next week he showed up with a fully constructed Robin costume! Unbelievable. He and our friend started a little \u2018club\u2019 called \u201cThe Bat Pack\u201d (a parody of Sinatra\u2019s Rat Pack) and we were involved in all sorts of functions to try and promote Batman. Back in the mid-80\u2019s it was very difficult to get ahold of any of the Batman TV episodes to watch, and very few people were actually into Batman at the time. But yet we persevered! From then on we were good friends, and he became more like a little brother to me than a buddy. When I moved to L.A. he stayed in touch with me, as he was considering a move to L.A. someday as well. When he moved out here in 2003 we roomed together for a while. But our career paths diverged from there. I went into Voice Acting, and he ventured into On-Camera Acting. But we remained close friends over the years. But busy schedules happen and we don\u2019t get to stay in touch as much as we\u2019d like. But we had some catching up to do so I invited him to go over to Ernie\u2019s Mexican Restaurant to get some food. It was a great dinner, and when we finished, we came back to Planet Wallywood and chatted some more for several hours. I think we\u2019re going to try and make this a weekly thing. I spent the rest of the night doing some work around the house and doing some writing.<\/p>\n

And how was YOUR week??!!<\/p>\n

PIX FROM THE WEEK<\/p>\n

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Bear-Andy is ready to make his way to Elliot’s as a birthday gift.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Elliot sent me this picture to show me Bear-Andy’s new job, guarding the gear!<\/p><\/div>\n

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While we were at Bob’s Big Boy last Saturday, Scott observed that this particular line of plush figures resembled a young me. I can kinda see it. The mouth, the cheeks, the blue eyes…hmm Should I call my attorney?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Some more Christoween merch is boxed up and ready to ship!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Though he needs a good trimming, the Cookie Monster cap is looking good so far. The eyes are just paper place-holders at this point (until I get the plastic eyepieces) but I like how this is going!<\/p><\/div>\n

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With his mind on my money and my money on his mind (to quote Snoop Doggy Dogg). Spook uses the weirdest things for a pillow, including cold, hard cash!<\/p><\/div>\n

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The new Kermit cap is looking good! I sewed that! And I’ve got the scars on my fingertips to prove it!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Here’s one of the shots that Matt the photographer sent to me from his newly developed roll of film. Thanks to photographer Matthew Dilmore!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK Isn’t it about time for another random dog picture? Oh what the heck. it’s ALWAYS time for anothe random dog picture! As I was sitting at my desk doing some work I played some random music on my computer. Though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wallysweek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}