{"id":16242,"date":"2024-07-08T06:30:34","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/?p=16242"},"modified":"2024-07-16T06:40:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T13:40:27","slug":"july-08-july-14-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/july-08-july-14-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"July 08 – July 14 (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Since I used to be a paperboy back in the early 70’s, this cartoon really rang true! Sometimes I’d have to bring my dad along with me to collect, as some of the subscribers were hesitant to pay on time.<\/p>\n

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The Four Tops sure have a nice groove with “Keeper of the Castle.”<\/span> I’ve always loved this song!<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Keeper-of-the-Castle.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Monday the 8th \u2013 BROKEN PIPES! \u2013<\/span> The week started off with a bang, as one of the first scenes in the foreign show I\u2019m dubbing at Igloo studios in Burbank required me to come right out of the gate yelling at the top of my lungs. The first take blew the engineer out, so I had to do it again. And then a second take. And then a few pick-ups. I figured I\u2019d be OK since I\u2019ve been doing this for a very long time. But as the day went on I got raspier and raspier. Back in the old days, when I was working regularly in video games, and onstage as Beetlejuice, my voice was used to extreme vocal stress, and it recovered quite rapidly. I was younger then too. But the ol\u2019 pipes seem to be a bit out of shape, as I haven\u2019t done any yelling sessions in a very long time. I went home after the session to do a few auditions and I could tell my pipes weren\u2019t right. But the problems weren\u2019t that bad. Later my gal Angi and her dog Khloestine came over for dinner, and as the evening wore on I could tell my voice was getting worse. What the hell did I do?! I took my WOG (walk\/jog) later and spent some quiet time outside in the anti-gravity chair meditating and pondering life.<\/p>\n

Tuesday the 9th \u2013 UH-OH! \u2013<\/span> When I woke up I could tell I was definitely having voice issues. I drank some warm tea (cold drinks constrict the vocal cords) and took some Advil to reduce the inflammation on my vocal cords. My buddy Dave was still in town and was staying with his son (and my godson) Sean. He texted me about dinner that night, and I headed back into Igloo for another four hour session dubbing the foreign comedy show I\u2019ve been working on for the past few weeks. But my vocal limitations were popping up from time to time. I told the director I\u2019d be unable to do anymore yelling, but it wasn\u2019t required for that session. The session went pretty well, considering. I stopped home to feed my cat Spook, and then headed to Barone\u2019s to meet with Dave and Sean for dinner. It was Dave\u2019s last night in town, but I\u2019d be seeing him next week when I travel to Sioux Falls for the Voices Against Cancer charity event. After dinner I headed home to relax and not talk for a while. I was looking at the new \u201cTravel Cookie\u201d (a new Cookie Monster replica Muppet I\u2019m making) and I decided to try and get his fur a little coarser looking. The fur I bought for the puppet was very nice and smooth, but didn\u2019t yet look \u201cmonster-y\u201d enough. Since the mouth and the eyes weren\u2019t in yet, I put the whole puppet (which is basically just a fur bag) in a tub of really hot water. Then I wrung him out and hung him to dry. I hope this works. Ideally the hot water will activate some chemical in the fake fur, or remove some starch (or something) and the fur will look a little more disheveled. I\u2019m going to put the mouth in soon. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. I was a day late with it, but I went inside and typed out Wally\u2019s Week for my website.<\/p>\n

Wednesday the 10th \u2013 THE \u201cEYES\u201d HAVE IT! \u2013<\/span> After devouring some delicious leftover pizza from Barone\u2019s, I headed into Igloo for another 4 hour session dubbing the foreign comedy show. My voice was doing a little bit better, but the work was very difficult. It was a very busy and dense episode full of dialogue and chatter. I\u2019m suspecting that some of the scenes were even improvised, making the job of dubbing even more difficult. It was pretty exhausting, but rewarding. But we\u2019re almost done with episode 6 of an 8 episode series, so we\u2019re moving right along! After the session I stopped by my mailbox to get my packages, and then I drove over to my buddy Jim Ojala\u2019s effects studio to pick up some Cookie Monster eyeballs and pupils he made for me. I use 2.5\u201d plastic Christmas balls for the eyeballs, but Jim needs to sand them down smooth, and fill them with some resin to fortify the walls. That way they don\u2019t crush easily, and I can drill into them to place the screws upon which the little plastic pupils spin. He also made me some curved eyeballs that conform to the curvature of the eyeball. Hopefully these will spin a lot better when the puppet moves. I got back home and immediately started working on placing the mouth in the now-dry \u201cTravel Cookie\u201d puppet. The hot water treatment didn\u2019t really do much with the fur, but it does look slightly better. I glued the mouth plates into the puppet and pinned them into place until the glue cured. It looks pretty darn good! I did some auditions, and later took my nightly WOG and spent time afterwards looking at the night sky in my anti-grav chair. It was nice to relax. I breezed through the 7th episode of the foreign show we\u2019re dubbing, which had just become available on the server, and it looks like there\u2019s going to be a lot of musical numbers involved. This is good news, because any music doesn\u2019t need to be dubbed, and will be ultimately presented in the show in the original language. Nice! I\u2019ll watch the full episode later this week to try and ascertain how much work we\u2019ll have to do when it comes time to dub it. I trimmed the finger tufts on \u201cTravel Cookie\u201d so they flop over his fingertips more, and I did some minor paint touch-ups on his mouth. Where the weave of the fur fabric meets the black fabric of the mouth, the light colored weave is quite noticeable. So I took some matte black paint and dabbed paint on those areas so the fabric blends into the mouth a little better visually.<\/p>\n

Thursday the 11th \u2013 OOPS! A FLUB! NO DUB! \u2013<\/span> As usual, I started my day by heading to get some quick lunch, and then drove over to Igloo to do my regular four-hour dubbing job. But when I got there the crew looked surprised to see me. Apparently I hadn\u2019t read the emails well enough from my agent and I got confused about the booked days. I WASN\u2019T ON THE SCHEDULE TO WORK THAT DAY! Oops! So I apologized, sat in the kitchen and ate my Wienerschnitzel lunch, and headed out the door to get some other stuff done. I need to start paying closer attention to this scheduling stuff. I headed back home to start working on the Cookie Monster eyeballs. Unfortunately, out of the 6 Jim made for me, only 2 were really usable. The rest had distortions and flaws. But I\u2019m going to paint them anyway so my pal Mike at Alex In Wonderland can use those as practice eyeballs. They had already been covered with primer, so I covered them all with three coats of a paint called \u201cinsignia white.\u201d It\u2019s a great white paint that has a very light gray tint to it. It\u2019s better than using a stark white paint. Then I covered them with something called Dullcote to take any shine off them. My friend Amanda was passing through town again, so she met at Denny\u2019s to grab some dinner. By the time she ended up in the area, Denny\u2019s was the only thing open. I came back to do a little work on the \u201cTravel Cookie\u201d eyes, and then I took my nightly WOG. I had a weird raccoon repeat-type of thing going. Since I do my walks in the middle of the night, I sometimes encounter various forms of wildlife. I turned a corner in the complex tonight and my headlamp illuminated two beady little eyes ahead of me. It was a raccoon looking for food. I said hello, and then turned and walked the other way. He looked like he wanted to head towards my direction, but I didn\u2019t necessarily want to engage with him. Perhaps he was slightly tame and thought I might give him food. I went on with my walk and took a slightly different path. On the way back toward my area I saw another raccoon in my path \u2013 or was it the same one? We politely avoided each other\u2019s path and went about our business. Later when I was in the anti-grav chair enjoying the quiet night, I heard a noise to my left. It was yet another raccoon (or the same one?) coming down the driveway. I stood up and the raccoon turned around and tried to climb the fence to get away. It was scared. If this was the same raccoon I had seen earlier, it sure got around quickly. I sat back down so I didn\u2019t alarm the poor thing and it ran away. So far this week I\u2019ve seen a few cats, some rats, raccoons, and plenty of spiders! I love the nightlife! I went back inside to do some work. I can\u2019t believe the Voices Against Cancer event is so close! Time really flies!<\/p>\n

Friday the 12th \u2013 PRONUNCIATION HELL! \u2013<\/span> It was the final day of the week, and not a moment too soon! I was back dubbing the foreign comedy show, and there was a boatload of difficult-to-pronounce foreign names I needed to say. And the original actor in the show just rattled them off quickly. So it was imperative that I pronounced them correctly, and rapidly. EEK! It was a real challenge, but I was happy when 6pm rolled around and I could go enjoy the weekend! I stopped by Alex In Wonderland to drop off the \u201cTravel Cookie\u201d eyeballs and pupils so Mike could start working on placing them in the puppet. He needs to add some wood dowels to the eyeballs so they can be placed in the puppet\u2019s head. Then I went home to relax. And relax I did! Later I did my nightly WOG, and spent some time in the anti-grav chair watching occasional flashes of summer lightning in the western skyline. Amazing! Then I went inside to do some more work around the house. I spent a goodly amount of time looking for a specific type of screw to be used for \u201cTravel Cookie\u2019s\u201d pupils. I found a few \u201cpartially threaded\u201d screws that would be ideal for this purpose. Unfortunately they were too long for my use. It would be ideal to have a screw that has threads on the lower half (so they could be screwed into the plastic eyeball) but have a smooth shaft on the upper end of the piece so the little plastic pupils have a smoother surface to spin on. I\u2019m thinking that a fully threaded screw may be inhibiting the spinning ability somewhat. I\u2019ll keep looking, but I\u2019m not sure if what I need exists. For what I found these types of pieces are called \u201ccarriage bolts,\u201d or \u201cpartially threaded\u201d screws. I just can\u2019t seem to find them in the short size I need. I made a salad and watched episode 7 of the foreign comedy show I\u2019m dubbing, and was horrified. While there is a certain amount of music that won\u2019t need to be dubbed, the rest of the dialogue is very rapid-fire (think vaudeville) and dense. This will be VERY challenging to dub to English! I also watched the \u201cCollector\u2019s Call\u201d episode from last week. I\u2019m getting very excited for my episode to air in September!! Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

Saturday the 13th \u2013 REFRESH AND RELAX! \u2013<\/span> Since it was such a hot day I drove to my stylist Andie\u2019s shop to get a touch-up on my color before I headed to South Dakota next week. Then I drove over to the local hardware store to see if they had any suitable \u201ccarriage bolts\u201d or \u201cpartially threaded\u201d screws for \u201cTravel Cookie\u2019s\u201d eyes. But no luck. My pal Alex Zsolt was in town to do a concert with my buddy Rob Richards, so I met both of them for dinner at Ernie\u2019s Taco House. We had a great time chatting and catching up. I got home and was pretty tired so I napped for a bit. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some wonderful, quiet time outside in the anti-grav chair. Then I came inside and did some planning for my upcoming trip to Sioux Falls. I made a salad and watched a few episodes of \u201cHoney West\u201d before turning in for the night.<\/p>\n

Sunday the 14th \u2013 ZOMBIE! \u2013<\/span> During my weekly \u201ccrash day\u201d I got some heavy rest and relaxation in. Next week is the Voices Against Cancer event, so there won\u2019t be any crash day for me next week. So I made the most of it. I took my nightly WOG, enjoyed some time in the anti-grav chair, and then came back inside to pay some bills and prep for two days-worth of sessions for dubbing the foreign comedy show. Since I\u2019m leaving Wednesday I\u2019ll only work Monday and Tuesday. That all works out well anyway, seeing as how by Wednesday we\u2019ll be all caught up with the material we have so far. I did some laundry and did a little packing for the trip. I\u2019m VERY excited for the event, and to see my friends and family again back in South Dakota!<\/p>\n

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

PIX FROM THE WEEK<\/p>\n

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The adorable Khloestine, my gal Angi’s little girl.<\/p><\/div>\n

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These are the bolts I found in my stuff for “Travel Cookie’s” eyes. If they were about half this size, they’d be perfect! Rats!<\/p><\/div>\n

https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Watching-Idea-Man.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago when I saw “Jim Henson; Idea Man,” so here it is now. The documentary was absolutely magical, and as you can see, all my puppet pals were present and accounted for. Well, almost everyone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK Since I used to be a paperboy back in the early 70’s, this cartoon really rang true! Sometimes I’d have to bring my dad along with me to collect, as some of the subscribers were hesitant to pay on time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16242","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\/16242","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=16242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16250,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16242\/revisions\/16250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}