{"id":7993,"date":"2019-06-03T12:19:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T12:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/?p=7993"},"modified":"2019-06-11T14:57:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T14:57:04","slug":"june-3-june-9-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/june-3-june-9-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"June 3 – June 9 (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I never considered Barry Gibb to be an historical figure, and I’m pretty sure we all know what he looks like already. So was this really necessary? Or did some random historical figure bear a striking resemblance to the only remaining Bee Gee?<\/p>\n

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 While I was on the plane this past week listening to my iPod, “Show Me What I’m Looking For”<\/span> by Carolina Liar came up. I hadn’t heard this song in a long time, and it sure sounded good! Now…it’s on my mind!<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/show_me_what_im_looking_for.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Monday the 3rd \u2013 TAKE A WALK ON THE MILD SIDE! \u2013<\/span> Just after 2pm I woke up and did some work around the house. I put on my walking shoes and my iPod and walked over to Kinko\u2019s to get some color prints made of the presentation for my kid\u2019s book and toy concept to show around at the upcoming Licensing Expo in Las Vegas. I was lucky enough to get them printed while I waited! I figured I\u2019d have to go back the next day and pick them up. I bought some stamps at the post office, and then came home to record a few auditions. I wrote up the packing list for my Las Vegas trip on Tuesday (something I do EVERY time I travel to ensure I don\u2019t forget anything important) and did a few other odds and ends. I grabbed a nap, and got up later to write Wally\u2019s Week and start packing!<\/p>\n

Tuesday the 4th \u2013 THAT BAG\u2019S A DRAG! \u2013<\/span> All afternoon I spent finishing up packing for my trip later that night to Las Vegas. My housesitter Ariel arrived at 5pm to watch the pets for a few days, and I drove over to the Burbank airport to catch my flight. It\u2019s only an hour to Las Vegas from Burbank so it\u2019s really pretty convenient. I got on my 7:45 flight, got to Vegas on time at 8:45 and everything seemed great. When we landed everyone was standing up getting ready to deplane, but I stayed seated because I was in no particular rush. A gal got up and placed her Gucci satchel under her arm, and then turned to get her luggage out of the overhead compartment. WHAM! The corner of the satchel caught me right in the left eye! OUCH! Then the cab driver I got wouldn\u2019t stop talking to me. He tried to talk me into letting him take me to a poker game. I told him I didn\u2019t play poker, but was only in Vegas for a few days for work. Then he tried to talk me into letting him take me out to some clubs to party. I told him I don\u2019t drink and I was only in Vegas for a few days for work. Then he tried to talk me into letting him take me to various \u201cgirly\u201d clubs to meet girls. As tempting as it was, AGAIN, I told him I was only in Vegas for a few days and I was there strictly for work. He left me with his personal cell number in case I changed my mind. Good grief! Was this clown on a commission or something? Plus, it seemed that the route he took me to the Luxor was the long way, considering that the Luxor is at the end of the strip that\u2019s closest to the airport. Hmmm. By the time I got to the Luxor and got checked in, my attorney had already turned in for the night. So she wasn\u2019t interested in going to get something to eat. She had a very busy first day at the expo. So, I was on my own. I got a bite to eat in the deli downstairs, and then plotted my route to get to the Mandalay Bay convention center the next morning. I stayed at the Luxor on purpose, because it adjoins with the Mandalay Bay and is a fairly easy walk to get there. Plus the room at the Luxor was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Mandalay Bay!! I took some Advil PM and hit the hay! But the air conditioning in the room wasn\u2019t very good. I like to sleep with the AC on high, but after a few hours the AC would reset itself to Auto, and would shut off. Great.<\/p>\n

Wednesday the 5th \u2013 EXPO-NENTIALLY GREAT! \u2013<\/span> I woke up at 10 and got ready. By 11 I met my attorney Stephanie outside of the expo so we could get my credentials and head on in. I had never been to anything like this before, so it was a learning experience for me. It was a world I was unfamiliar with. Stephanie was afraid I wouldn\u2019t like it, and would think that the trip was wasted. Au contraire! I LOVED it! It was kind of like being at a Comic Con, but then again it wasn\u2019t! There were all kinds of companies there who were looking for properties to license, and there were also lots of companies and individuals there who were looking to get the properties and ideas they owned licensed to companies. Though we didn\u2019t have an official booth, Stephanie knew enough people that we could have impromptu meetings on the floor and show them my concept. I even saw several people I knew! Stephanie was amazed that I knew almost as many people there as she did! Our project was VERY well received, and we spoke with several interested parties. Though I had the \u201cdeck\u201d (pages of information about our concept, complete with text and artwork) on my iPad ready to show, Stephanie and I found that the printed versions I had made at Kinko\u2019s were FAR more useful. It allowed us to place the booklets in the hands of the people and show them the work. MUCH better than having to dig out the iPad, turn it on, swipe through things, etc. Good old fashioned analog printing on paper! Since the project is very nostalgic and has a retro flair, this old fashioned \u201cprinting on paper\u201d thing was received as quite novel! After a few hours we extricated ourselves from the melee and hit a restaurant at the Mandalay Bay to have a quiet lunch and discuss what we had learned. Then we headed back to the expo for several more hours. Stephanie headed back to her room to rest, and I went back to my room to recalibrate before my evening dinner with my pal Bruce Kulick and his wife Lisa. The last time I was in Vegas (a few months ago for the Las Vegas Toycon) Bruce was on tour with his band Grand Funk, so we missed each other. But he was in town this time and we agreed to hang out. I hadn\u2019t seen them since they moved there over a year ago! They picked me up at the hotel and we went to the Peppermill restaurant. I fell in love with this place when I was there for the Toycon. The Vegas-y\/diner atmosphere is fantastic, and the music they play in the overhead system is amazing! It was exclusively 70\u2019s when I was there last time, but this time it ran the gamut from 60\u2019s, to the 70\u2019s, to the 80\u2019s. But during the dinner hour it was so busy, we really didn\u2019t hear much of the music anyway. But it was good to catch up with Bruce and Lisa and have some yummy food! Then they drove me to their new house and I was amazed at how incredible it was. They got in an amazing area, and the house itself is stellar! They drove me back to the hotel and dropped me off so I could pack up for my flight on Thursday morning. I\u2019m sure glad I came to the expo. I had learned SO much, and had met some many great people. The future ahead for this project of mine seems VERY bright indeed!<\/p>\n

Thursday the 6th \u2013 103 to 66?! \u2013<\/span> Even though my alarm was set to go off at 9am, so I could be up and out to catch my flight, I woke up at 7am and couldn\u2019t get back to sleep. I was much too excited. So, I guess I was up for the day. I packed up, lounged around as much as I could, did the express checkout thing on my hotel room\u2019s phone, and went downstairs to get a cab to McCarran International Airport. My cab driver was MUCH cooler than the one from a few nights previous. He said it was going to hit 103 that afternoon! I couldn\u2019t believe I was leaving! I would LOVE that weather! But when I got to the airport, the fare was HALF of what the guy charged me on Tuesday night! That confirmed that my chatty cabbie had taken me the \u201clong\u201d way, and had\u2026well\u2026taken me! I got checked in, got through security, and then went to the Wendy\u2019s in the Southwest Airlines terminal to get some lunch, which has become somewhat of a Vegas tradition for me now. I did that when I went to see Olivia Newton-John back in 2016, I did that when I went to the Las Vegas Toycon a few months ago, and I did it again. Though I haven\u2019t had much love for Las Vegas in the past, I was starting to warm to the idea of the city. I know I\u2019ll be back sooner rather than later. And I can definitely see that it\u2019s a quickie-getaway destination for L.A. people who just want to get out of town for a few days and have some fun. As I sat there waiting for the flight to board, the monitor overhead said the temp in Burbank was hazy and 66. That\u2019s quite a difference from the 103 Vegas was expecting later that day! I zonked out on the flight back to Burbank, and returned promptly at 12:45! I got my car loaded up, paid the parking fee and headed home. The whole trip had been really very flawless! (Excepting the horrible Gucci-bag-in-the-eye mishap and the horrible AC in the hotel room) I stopped at the cleaners to pick up my dry cleaning, hit the mailbox to get my mail, and then got home to pay Ariel and see Roxy and Spook. I had a few last-minute auditions that needed to be submitted immediately and started unpacking. Within a few hours my agent called and said I had already booked the job from one of the auditions I submitted! It was an ADR job at Sony studios in Culver City (ADR = Additional Dialogue Recording) which involved me doing a voice match for an actor who was on-screen. They decided to change some of the character\u2019s lines, but either the original actor was unavailable for the session, or resided in a different location other than Los Angeles. The actor in question wasn\u2019t a celebrity, but I sounded enough like him to make it work. So that meant an 8:30am call time on Friday would require me to get up around 6am on Friday for the long drive in Friday morning L.A. traffic to make it on time. Hey, work is work! I got busy cleaning out the Puppet Room closet, because as I was putting a few things away during my unpacking, I decided I\u2019d had enough of this cluttery closet! First thing I did was to throw out every wire hanger in there. I rehung some of the costumes in there, reorganized some of the things I had stored, and tidied it up. Though it took several hours, it looked VERY organized now! I continued to unpack, did some laundry, and by now the day was slipping away. I ordered a Domino\u2019s pizza and did some more planning for my upcoming trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for my parents\u2019 60th anniversary party. I completed my packing list, and I was pleased to discover that I didn\u2019t need to pack a separate box to send items ahead, like I normally do. The trip was going to be so short, I could fit everything I needed into my checked luggage. Plus, my parents keep a supply box of toiletries and other items with them in Sioux Falls that they give me when I arrive. It really saves having to bring those items in my luggage every time I go back. Not having to go to UPS on Friday made me very happy, as my Friday schedule was already looking very full! I got to bed around midnight. It was a very long day. But not as long as the day ahead was bound to be!<\/p>\n

Friday the 7th \u2013 22 HOURS A DAY! –<\/span> Again, though my alarm was set for 6:30am, I sprang awake at 6:20am and started the day. I got cleaned up and hit the freeway at 7am for Culver City, home of Sony studios. I\u2019m not entirely sure why (who can explain L.A. traffic patterns anyway) but I made the trip in a mere 50 minutes! I was thinking it would take at least an hour and a half. So I got checked into the Sony lot a full half hour before my call time! When I got to the ADR stage, I met the sound engineer named Howard. As we continued talking, I realize that he seemed very familiar. I asked him if he did sound work on an old show called \u201cFamily Law.\u201d Sure enough he did! I was in the \u201cwalla\u201d group for \u201cFamily Law\u201d back in the late 90\u2019s! WILD! I looped some of the lines for a film called \u201cCharm City,\u201d and the folks on the production staff were very cool. I stopped by the studio store to buy some swag, and then left the lot. I stopped by Regenix to pick up some supplies, as they had moved to Culver City about 6 months ago from their offices at Cedars-Sinai. Though Culver City is a bit of a longer drive for me, I didn\u2019t miss having to negotiate the craziness of Cedars-Sinai to get my supplies. As I drove around Culver City I could not believe how much it had changed since I lived there 19 years ago! WOW! But one of the things I always loved about Culver City was a Mexican restaurant named Campo\u2019s. That was STILL there! I stopped by and had my usual #3 combo and enjoyed it immensely! Then I drove back to my area and stopped at Staples to buy some pens for the autograph signing I would be doing at the Robo Toy Fest this coming Sunday. I tried to get gas, but the line was REALLY crazy. This particular gas station has much lower prices than everyone else, but it\u2019s such a hassle to get in there. So I left. I stopped to get some groceries, and I found out my pal Aaron (who works at the store) had to put down his German shepherd dog a week ago. Very sad, but the doggie\u2019s health was deteriorating quite rapidly. There\u2019s no greater pain in the world! I felt bad for him. I stopped by the hardware store to get a key made, and then headed home to put the groceries away. I did some work on the computer, did a few auditions, sent some e-mails, did some writing, and did a few other things. By now it was around 3pm. Some photos I was having printed for Sunday\u2019s autograph show would be ready at a store called Prints Charm\u2019n by 4 or so. So I got back in my car and headed back out. I got some gas and picked up the photos. At the photo store, I struck up a conversation with Earl Holliman, a great actor who has appeared in almost every old TV show I\u2019ve ever loved. But he\u2019s most famous for his work in \u201cPolice Woman\u201d with Angie Dickinson. Which reminds me, I think I\u2019ll order the DVDs of \u201cPolice Woman\u201d and add it to my viewing queue! I got my photos and headed home to start cleaning up Planet Wallywood for a film crew that was coming later that evening to interview me for a new documentary about collecting. I got everything spic \u2018n\u2019 span just in time for my make-up gal Rebecca to arrive at 8. The two-man crew arrived around 8:15, and my pal Officer Mark arrived at 8:30 so he could shoot some photos of the event. I showered up and did my hair, and then Rebecca started doing my make-up. We started with a walking tour of part of my collection, and then we did a sit-down interview for about an hour. It was a blast! Jacob the cameraman said he\u2019d be going to Robo Toy Fest on Sunday to shoot me signing autographs at the show. As they tore down and got ready to leave I ordered us pizza. When everyone left I spent some time cleaning the place up, putting everything back in order, and prepping for the activities the following day. By the time I got in bed and got ready to fall asleep, I noticed that the time was 4:20am on Saturday morning\u2026a full 22 HOURS since I had first gotten up to drive to Culver City! 22 hour days for me are rare, but they DO occur. It had been quite a week! Whew!<\/p>\n

Saturday the 8th \u2013 PETE, PUPPIES AND PUPPETS! \u2013<\/span> At noon I was up and ready to meet my pal Pete at a restaurant down the street to talk about a cool TV show idea we have. He\u2019s a TV producer, but also a collector of all the cool stuff I like, and a few months back we hit upon a terrific idea for a show that\u2019s never been done before. We enjoyed an outdoor lunch for a few hours, as the weather was exquisite! In fact, it was such a nice day, that when we were finished I decided to walk over to the hardware store and have another key made. The one I had made a few days ago didn\u2019t work, so I needed to have a new one made. But I was feeling so great, and the day was so gorgeous, I decided to keep walking over to CVS and pick up a few supplies. I didn\u2019t have my usual walking shoes on, and I didn\u2019t have my usual iPod with me for tunes, but I didn\u2019t need them. It was simply wonderful out, and it felt great to walk! And I got to meet some really cool dogs during my excursion. When I walked back home I settled down and did a little work. I took a short snooze and then got up to get ready for dinner with my pal Mark Evanier and friends. We were meeting at Frankie\u2019s on Melrose, a legendary Italian restaurant, before we all went to the Henson studios in Hollywood to see a live presentation called \u201cPuppet Up.\u201d After a fun dinner, we drove to the lot and got checked in. \u201cPuppet Up\u201d is done infrequently, but it involves puppeteers who are also improv performers doing a very funny live presentation. Though it\u2019s from the Henson Company, these are not the Muppets we\u2019re used to seeing. It\u2019s the brainchild of Jim Henson\u2019s son Brian, and it\u2019s basically like your regular improv show, where the performers take scene suggestions from the audience. But they use a variety of really cool puppets! It\u2019s not for a young audience either, as it\u2019s totally uncensored! I was pleasantly surprised to see that my old pal Grant was one of the puppeteers, as was a guy named Drew, whom I had met several times. It was emceed by an actor named Patrick Bristow, who I worked with on the first season of \u201cFamily Guy.\u201d I also got to see Brian Henson in person, which was terrific! As a life-long Muppet fan, it was cool seeing him on stage looking very much like his dad. Even though he has his mom\u2019s nose and mouth, he has the presence and physicality of his dad. I wanted to stick around and say hi to everybody after the show, but I had a very busy Sunday planned so I had to get going. Plus I needed to get my pal Valerie Perez back home, so I still had a full night of running around to do. But I\u2019m on the mailing list for future shows, and I\u2019m DEFINITELY going to go again!<\/p>\n

Sunday the 9th \u2013 NO REST THIS SUNDAY! \u2013<\/span> After a short 5 hours\u2019 worth of sleep, it was up at 8:15am to get ready to go sign autographs at the Robo Toy Fest in Pasadena all afternoon. My pal Scott Zillner produces these shows and I had promised him I\u2019d come over to sign many months ago. When I got up I had a text from Officer Mark that he was outside my garage waiting. Though I hadn\u2019t expected him to drive me, it was a pleasant surprise. After all, driving over together DID make more sense. Mark was coming over to shoot some photos of the afternoon\u2019s festivities! I packed up all my stuff; photos, pens, other props and things, and we went to pick up my friend Sara, who would be assisting me at my table. The drive to Pasadena was quick, since we could use the carpool lane, and I got inside and got my table set up around 10:15. I had arrived a little later than I had expected, but I got there in good time and got to see everybody I needed to see. The video crew was there, and it was fun spending several hours chatting with fans and friends. Not only was it fun seeing some of the other Voice Actors who were also signing, but it was great meeting the people who love the shows and videogames I\u2019ve been blessed to work on in my career. One couple, Alex and Rebecca, told me they drove all the way from San Francisco just to meet me! That blew my mind!! They even brought me some hand-made artwork they gifted me with. I\u2019ve really never done much of this type of signing thing before, but I think I\u2019m going to do more of it, as it was a great time meeting everyone and having an afternoon of laughs. But in order to get home, get changed, get my \u2018adopted grandma\u2019 Shirley, and get over to evening church, I had to leave the show around 3. But it looked like the people I needed to see had already been by the table, so it was late enough in the day I felt OK by making an early exit. I got home, changed clothes, drove over to get Shirley, and headed to the church (even though we were about 20 minutes late for the service.) But it was a great service and we then headed to Jerry\u2019s Famous Deli for dinner. As I sat there eating my salad, the enormity of the incredible week had caught up with me. I was getting very tired! I took Shirley home, came back to MY home, showered and napped for about 4 hours. I got up later to do a bunch of bookkeeping work, reconciling my business receipts, paying some bills, and preparing a bank deposit. With all the fun I had this past week, now it was time to do \u201cadult\u201d things, which aren\u2019t quite as fun. But the fun doesn\u2019t stop here. The next week and a half were going to be very busy as well! This is just the beginning, and as the great Robert Frost poem goes, \u201cI have miles to go before I sleep!\u201d Onward and upward!<\/p>\n

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

PIX FROM THE WEEK<\/p>\n

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My make-up person Rebecca preps me for the video shoot on Friday night. More details coming soon about this, when I’m able to talk about it of course!<\/p><\/div>\n

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I’m showing off one of my Batman cowls to the Director of Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

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As I’m set in place for the interview, my dog Roxy feels she’s going to be a part of it too. Isn’t it funny how those Lassie dogs all seem to have a sixth sense about knowing where the camera is?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Valerie snapped this shot during intermission at “Puppet Up.” Lots of fun going on THERE! The ONLY thing I didn’t like about the show, is that I wasn’t on stage joining in on the fun!<\/p><\/div>\n

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It’s always a blast being on the Sony Pictures lot, considering it has a history of making some of the best movies and TV shows I’ve ever seen!<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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Leonard interviews me for the Morphin Network about my past work on the Power Rangers series. What fun!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Having a blast talking to another friend and fan.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Roger was one of the original Black Rangers<\/p><\/div>\n

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The weekend’s puppet fun didn’t stop when I left the Henson studios on Saturday night!<\/p><\/div>\n

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My pal Scott Zillner, the producer of Robo Toy Fest, and I; with me doing my best Scott Zillner face.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I got to talk to a guy who was one of Van Halen’s original roadies during the glory days of the band in the 70’s and 80’s!<\/p><\/div>\n

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My pal Sara poses with the Riddler cane…<\/p><\/div>\n

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…which makes for a very striking shadow!<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7993","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\/7993","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=7993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}