{"id":8805,"date":"2019-12-16T15:17:39","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T15:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/?p=8805"},"modified":"2019-12-31T16:30:47","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T16:30:47","slug":"december-16-december-29-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/december-16-december-29-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"December 16 – December 29 (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It’s nice to see that Batman ’66 original memorabilia still gets so much love!<\/p>\n

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 I made this video just before Christmas of some of my favorite vintage Santa Claus art, and a song by Les Baxter that sounds like something I would have worn the grooves out of as a kid on my record player. It’s a happy tune called “Santa Claus’ Party.”<\/span> Even though Christmas is over for another year, I hope you enjoy.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/video\/Santa%20Claus'%20Party.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

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Since I was so busy last week with all of the craziness going on, I wasn\u2019t able to find time to write Wally\u2019s Week for the previous week. So here now are TWO WEEKS\u2019 worth of Wally\u2019s Weeks! Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

Monday the 16th \u2013 WALLY\u2019S WHIRLWIND DAY! \u2013<\/span> It\u2019s days like this that make me happy a long holiday break is just around the corner! At noon I had a quick VO session to do in my home studio, and then I headed off to pick up my friend Rob Klein in my Gran Torino. We headed to the Coral Caf\u00e9 for lunch. Rob had been desiring a ride in my Torino for a long time, and our schedules finally gelled. After we ate we went to Plastic Depot to pick up some plastic hemispheres that I\u2019ll be using as eyes for my Oscar the Grouch puppet, and then I stopped by my box to get my mail. I dropped past my seamstress Shelley\u2019s to pick up some wardrobe pieces she had been working on, and then I took Rob back home. His wife and son wanted a quick ride around the block in the Torino so I was happy to oblige. When I got home I threw open my wardrobe closets and started picking options for the film shoot I\u2019d be doing on Tuesday for an indy film called \u201cThe Rideshare Killer.\u201d I pulled 3 or 4 options for them to choose from and then got on my e-mail to print the directions to the location and the shooting schedule. Even though my scene wouldn\u2019t be shooting until 4 that afternoon, my call-time was 8am. That\u2019s one thing I\u2019ll never understand about on-camera work\u2026why all the waiting around? Haven\u2019t they figured out how to plan this a little more concisely? Oh well, it\u2019ll be a fun day. I pulled some jewelry pieces I figured my character would wear and loaded everything into the car. It was going to be a 12 hour day, and I\u2019m just not used to working hours like that. But as I endeavor to do more on-camera work in this next phase of my life, I\u2019d better get used to it. I had several auditions to do and by the time I was finished with the prep for the film, my auditions, and other stuff I needed to do around the house, I still had to write Wally\u2019s Week. I ended up getting very little sleep before I needed to be up the next day.<\/p>\n

Tuesday the 17th \u2013 THE RIDESHARE KILLER! \u2013<\/span> That darned cat! I didn\u2019t get to bed until 2am and my alarm was set for 6am so I could be up and ready for the film shoot. But my cat Spooky started walking on me at 5am to wake me up. So after only 3 hours of sleep, I got cleaned up and hit the freeway at 7 to be at the shooting location in Agoura Hills by 8:15am. Traffic was pretty good and I made it there in good time. In fact, I was one of the first to arrive! The first couple of hours I sat around on the couch, relaxing and cuddling a pillow. By 10:30 we did a little blocking of a scene. But all I did was stand in one spot. It really didn\u2019t make much sense to me what I was doing there in that spot, but I just did what they said. Then I went back in and sat around while everyone else got their make-up on. It was almost like they realized that I didn\u2019t really need me to be there that early and they felt bad, so they just made things up for me to do so I wouldn\u2019t get bored. By about 10:30 the costumer looked at my wardrobe choices and picked an outfit; a black turtleneck sweater with a cool rocker-looking purple shawl-collar tux jacket. The character I\u2019m playing is a slacker brother to the lead character (played by my pal Tuesday Knight) who looks like he\u2019d rather be smoking dope and playing guitar than working on business deals. I put on the costume and sat down for make-up and hair. The make-up gal asked if I did this sort of thing often and I told her that I was primarily a Voice Actor. Then the conversation turned to the world of Voice Over and we had a lively conversation. One of the things I don\u2019t like about on-camera work is all the stuff they have to slather on your face, and all the pulling and tugging they do with my hair. They put on the make-up, then pulled my hair back into a ponytail and sprayed it down. Walking into a Voice Over session in a tank top, cargo shorts and a baseball cap is SO much easier. But, it\u2019s time to get out of my comfort zone and learn new things at this point in my life. Then they called me out to the backyard for a scene. Really all they needed me to do was to walk past in the background of a party scene, so it was pretty easy. But the lady who was playing my mother was having difficulty navigating the steep steps we needed to traverse to get into the scene. So I held her arm as we walked up the steps, to make sure she didn\u2019t slip and fall. But the Assistant Director said on-camera, it looked like I was lumbering. She asked if I could do it \u201cmore gracefully.\u201d I told her I could, but the reason I was lumbering was that I was concerned about the actress I was with falling on the treacherous stairs. So I suggested that the actress just steady herself on the handrail instead of holding my arm. But then the actress was concerned with getting splinters, since the handrail was made of very rough wood. Upon analytic review of my reason for being there, I couldn\u2019t ascertain any logical reason why my character had to be in the scene at all. We didn\u2019t really do anything of import. But again, I think they just wanted to do something so I wouldn\u2019t get bored with all of the waiting around. My main dialogue shot wasn\u2019t until 4 that afternoon, so I\u2019m thinking a 2pm call-time would have sufficed. But, oh well. That\u2019s showbiz. I sat around and chatted with the cast and the crew, and the food at the craft service table was delightful! Lunch was served at 2, so we all broke for about a half hour. But the next 2 hours was more waiting around, and I was having trouble staying out of everyone\u2019s way while they shot. The crew got the shots they needed and released the majority of the cast and background players. Then around 4:30 it was time for my dialogue scene with Tuesday and the actress portraying our mother. Once we got into position and started the process it was great\u2026lots of fun! We finished the shots we needed from all the required angles and I was wrapped for the day. When I got my check I chuckled because I actually LOST money for the day. It was $10 less than what I had to pay my dog walker for the day of monitoring Roxy and Spook. In my on-camera endeavors I was already losing money\u2026not a good sign. The actor who played the waiter who brought me my drinks in the scene asked if I could give him a ride to the Universal subway station. I told him I\u2019d be glad to. Since I was a bit tired, and the trip back to my area was a long one, it would be good to have somebody along to talk to and keep me alert. Still laughing about losing 10 bucks (10 bucks is 10 bucks, after all) it got worse once I checked my e-mail. Earlier in the day a regular client wanted me to record some last minute tags for a commercial for $500. But since I was gone and didn\u2019t respond, they found somebody else to do it. So now my on-camera endeavor has left me $510 in the hole. Funny. I\u2019m afraid this on-camera thing isn\u2019t starting out very well. But I\u2019ll stick to it for a while. I showered off the make-up and the sticky hairspray and took Roxy out for a bit. Then I enjoyed some Christmas Nappies; a nap with the pets on the couch, with the fireplace on and Christmas songs gently playing in the background. (The name dates back to when I had my dog Sassie) I knocked out for 5 solid hours and it was great! Later I put away all my wardrobe and prepped for the next day. Although a few things could have been done differently in my opinion, it was a pretty fun day. I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad (a few nights late) and started watching \u201cThe Mod Squad\u201d season 2! Then I hit the hay.<\/p>\n

Wednesday the 18th \u2013 AUCTION ACTION! \u2013<\/span> While I was busy filming the indy movie, Profiles in History was busy at work auctioning off a lot of great, original items from the Batman TV series. Though most of the stuff was out of my price range (remember, I just lost $510!) I was curious as to what some of the stuff went for. The set of Batman and Robin original costumes went for just under three-quarters of a million dollars, including premiums. WOW! The famous Shakespeare bust which granted Bruce and Dick access to the Batcave went for $160k! So I spent some time on the phone and on e-mails discussing this, as this was all huge news in our \u201cBat\u201d community. I also had a last-minute audition I had to record. Unfortunately that made me about a half hour late to a lunch meeting I was having with my fellow VO actor Secunda Wood. I apologized profusely and had a great lunch. Then I headed to Plastic Depot to pick up a few more items for my Oscar the Grouch puppet, I hit my box to pick up my packages, and while on the way home I got a message that my neighbor\u2019s mom passed away at the age of 101. I had been to her 100th birthday party and she was quite a gal\u2026sharp as a tack! Though she had a good run at 101 years, it doesn\u2019t make the loss any less sad. I got home and did some work, and then met with my old friend Jenalyn regarding my children\u2019s book and toy project. Her son is the type of kid that\u2019s in the bullseye of my target demographic, so over dinner I quizzed her about his reactions to the property. Very enlightening! I came home to nap for a bit, and then got up to make some Buffalo Mac and watch another episode of \u201cThe Mod Squad.\u201d I sure have missed this show! It\u2019s brilliant!<\/p>\n

Thursday the 19th \u2013 NON-STOP BOP! \u2013<\/span> My seamstress Shelley\u2019s house was my first stop, as I dropped off some fabric to have some samples made for the upcoming Toy Fair in New York in February. My attorney wanted to have a few examples made that she could show around and possibly pass out to interested parties. My gas tank indicator was on E, so I had to get filled up right away! But the local gas station was all roped off for repairs. DARN! Running on fumes, I sped over to SPG studios in Burbank to do a four hour videogame session under the tutelage of my pal Kirk Thornton. Not only did he play my brother in \u201cTiger and Bunny,\u201d he\u2019s Orbot to my Cubot in \u201cSonic Boom.\u201d Always a gas seeing and working with Kirk! The four hours FLEW by! After the session, I was lucky enough to find another gas station further down the road so I could fuel up. I drove home and fed the kids, and then slipped out to Jerry\u2019s Famous Deli to have dinner with my friend Kayla. I came home to nap for a bit, and then got up later to do some work. Since next week is Christmas, there weren\u2019t any auditions in my inbox. Nobody would be doing sessions next week anyway. I did some more work prepping for my Oscar the Grouch puppet build. I made a Tombstone pizza and watched another \u201cMod Squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday the 20th \u2013 MY CHRISTMAS DREAM! \u2013<\/span> My usual Christmas Eve tradition is as follows \u2013 take Roxy to my church at 5pm for the \u201cLiving Nativity,\u201d which always has a menagerie of wonderful animals that the kids can feed and pet. Roxy loves meeting the animals, and being around them arouses her \u2018guardian\u2019 instincts and she becomes very protective. It\u2019s sweet. Then we go back home and listen to a few hours of the best Christmas radio show out there called \u201cChristmas Across the Lands.\u201d I get a few hours of sleep, and then get up around 10:30 to be at our church\u2019s candlelight service at 11pm. By 12:30am I head home and stay up all night listening to more \u201cChristmas Across the Lands\u201d and work on something creative until dawn breaks on Christmas morning. Two years ago I put together some amazing photo albums of my days in South Dakota. The original photo albums they were in had started to decay, so I placed them all in brand new, leather-bound, acid-free pages. Last year I stayed up all night working on my Rowlf the Dog puppet. When the sun comes up on Christmas morning, I make myself a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box and watch something before bed. Since Christmas was fast approaching, and I hadn\u2019t gotten all my elements yet to work on my Oscar the Grouch puppet, I had to get hustling! I went back to Plastic Depot to pick up some more eye pieces from my pal Kyle. The last ones I had gotten were too thin, and they needed to be made out of thicker plastic. The reason being, there is a wire that runs through the eye pieces that serves as the moving eyebrow mechanism. And the eye pieces need to be very beefy to support the constant movement of the eyebrows. After I picked up the eyes I went to KFC to get some food, got some groceries at the store, picked up my mail at my box, and headed over to Fast Signs to get a new sign for a display in Planet Wallywood. I\u2019m not exactly sure why they\u2019re called \u201cFast Signs,\u201d as they\u2019re not really very fast. In fact, they\u2019re quite slow. Maybe they should cut the \u2018fast\u2019 out of the name and just call themselves \u201cSigns.\u201d Or at the very least, annotate the name and call it \u201cFast-ish Signs.\u201d Anyway, I was glad to have the signage. I went home to feed the pets, and then I headed over to a local studio to meet up with my old pal (and former personal physician) Dr. Stephen Patt. I have always said he\u2019s hands down the greatest Dr. I\u2019ve ever known. He\u2019s got the magic touch! The only reason he\u2019s my \u2018former\u2019 physician, is that his office is very far away from where I\u2019m currently living. And when you\u2019re sick with the flu, the last thing you want to do is drive in two hours of traffic to go see the doc, and then drive two hours to get back home! But as great of a doctor as he is, he\u2019s also a TERRIFIC musician. His guitar playing ability is stellar, and he\u2019s one of the few people I\u2019ve ever known who plays the pedal steel guitar. Back in July of this year I was honored to be a part in a really cool album project produced by my pal Pat Evans. The album isn\u2019t even finished yet, but it already has label interest! There\u2019s one song in which Pat envisioned having pedal steel, (ala Santo & Johnny) and I told him there was only one guy I could think of who could knock it out of the park! The \u2018rock and roll doc\u2019 came in, nailed it and off he went to make a house call! Amazing! I came home to nap for a bit, and then got up later to work around the house and do some more Oscar puppet work.<\/p>\n

Saturday the 21st \u2013 A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE OF THE HARDWARE KIND! \u2013<\/span> It was a great day outside, so I decided to put on my walking shoes and get some exercise. I walked to the hardware store to get some supplies for my upcoming puppet build. I want to build Oscar\u2019s eyebrow\/blinking mechanism on a toggle bolt, but I was having trouble finding one big enough. Kyle had ordered large ones but they wouldn\u2019t be in until Monday. That was cutting it close! As I was puttering around the hardware store finding bolts, nuts, washers, wire, etc. \u2013 there it was! In a box of random stuff, clearly out of its normal environment, was a toggle bolt just the size I needed! I was meant to find it! Amazing! I walked over to Kit Kraft to get some piano wire, paint and a few other things. I hit CVS to get a sympathy card for my neighbor who just lost his mom, and then I stopped by Fed Ex to ship a package, and the post office to drop off a package. I went back to the hardware store on the way home and picked up a few more packages of nuts, bolts and washers just to be sure. Once I got into building Oscar\u2019s mouth plate, I wasn\u2019t quite sure what size I would need, so I got a few different sizes just to be safe. I got back home and decided to finally dig out my Christmas decorations to put a few up for movie night that evening. It was our annual viewing of \u201cLove Actually,\u201d and it\u2019s always an enjoyable Christmas romp. After everyone left I took a nap, goofed around all night working around the house, had some cereal, and hit the hay. No traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and \u201cSpace 1999\u201d once again. I\u2019m slippin\u2019!<\/p>\n

Sunday the 22nd \u2013 HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN! \u2013<\/span> Mid-afternoon I met my new friend Croix for lunch. She was one of the lead actresses on the film I worked on, and while I picked her brain about on-camera acting, she picked my brain about Voice Over. I was happy that we were able to share valuable career information. I got home for a bit, and then headed to evening church. After the service my \u2018adopted grandma\u2019 Shirley, my dog Roxy and I went to Paty\u2019s to have some dinner on the patio. We headed back to Shirley\u2019s place to drop her off and on my way home it started to rain. Perfect timing! I got inside just in time before the heavy stuff hit. And boy did it rain! I did some more puppet design work, and I think I finally locked into the spring mechanism for the eyebrows. Unfortunately, I realized that the heavier toggle bolt I found at the hardware store wasn\u2019t going to work for this purpose. It\u2019s \u201cpull\u201d was much more than I would need for a puppet. So now the challenge is to make the smaller toggle bolt work for our purposes. I devised a \u201ctrigger plate\u201d that would go on top of the bolt, and the wires could be run from that, instead of from the bolt itself. Eureka! I rewarded myself with a nice nap on the couch while listening to it rain.<\/p>\n

Monday the 23rd \u2013 TRIGGERS, TOGGLES & TINKERING! \u2013<\/span> Kyle at Plastic Depot was going to close early and take off a few weeks for the Christmas break. So I wanted to get over to his shop before he left so he could drill a couple of holes in the toggle bolt, and fabricate the trigger plate. He has the tools to bend and cut metals, which I do not. I appreciated his help, as I was now ready to do my Oscar project over Christmas Eve! On the way home I got some groceries, and got packages at my mailbox. When I got home I realized that my old friend Genta was dining down the street at a restaurant. So I headed down there to eat and catch up with her. I hadn\u2019t seen her in years. Then I went over to grab some hot chocolate with my pal Valerie Perez so we could exchange Christmas gifts. She got me a cool Batman electric guitar ornament that plays the Batman theme, and I gave her a vintage Ghostbusters 2 crew jacket. A friend had sent me the jacket (which was in perfect shape) with the caveat that it might be a little small for me. Given that information, I pretty much knew at that time who was going to get the jacket. Valerie has a terrific Ghostbusters cosplay outfit, and I knew it would have a great home with her, and get lots of use. I came back home and tried the guitar ornament on my 8\u201d Batman figure, and it fit perfectly. I put together a fun little video with it. I started sanding my Oscar eye pieces to make them all consistent height. I picked the two most perfect pieces from the group I had gotten from Kyle and prepped them. I got all my other Oscar pieces in order so I could start my work on Christmas Eve. I napped for a bit and then got up later to do some organizing. If you recall, several weeks ago I was involved in a personal project that required me to transfer and edit audio files from one of my \u2018personal log\u2019 digital recorders. The recorder had become corrupt so the internal memory wouldn\u2019t transfer to the computer like it was designed. I had to extract the files by hand; an arduous, tedious process which consumed about 100 hours of my time. I opened up the folder of the edited files with the intent of transferring them into my \u2018Personal Log\u2019 folder. I opened up the folder, clicked on the subfolder marked 2017, and got the shock my life. Apparently, I had already transferred the files in question digitally back in October of 2018! As soon as I had filled up the internal memory, I transferred them to the computer. But I had forgotten I did that! This was obviously before the recorder became corrupted! I DIDN\u2019T NEED TO TRANSFER THEM BY HAND AT ALL!! I felt stupid beyond belief. What a waste of time and energy. Good gravy, sometimes I feel so stupid. I just sat there and hung my head in utter disbelief. I checked the files against each other, and yup! It was them. I kept hearing Napoleon Dynamite in my head saying, \u201cIdiot!\u201d I was going to try and type out Wally\u2019s Week, but the day had gotten the best of me. I was running short of time and I still had lots to do before bed. So I decided to wait a week and publish two weeks\u2019 worth next week.<\/p>\n

Tueday the 24th \u2013 THERE\u2019S A CHICKEN ON YOUR HEAD! \u2013<\/span> Given the fact that I\u2019ve previously outlined my favored Christmas Eve tradition, you know that Roxy and I head over to my church\u2019s \u2018Living Nativity\u2019 at 5. There are always fun animals and lots of kids and families enjoying the festivities. The family service runs from 5:30 to 6:30, but I always stay outside and talk to the animal lady during the service. And the evening was very pleasant and not at all cold, so it was extremely enjoyable. When the sun started setting around 5:20, the exotic chicken (gorgeous black feathers and a big head plumage) flew up from the ground and landed on my friend Scott\u2019s head. He was wearing a Santa Claus hat. We all laughed because it was a very funny sight. But Scott explained that he had chickens of his own, and when the sun starts to set it\u2019s their instinct to find higher ground. When they\u2019re on the ground they\u2019re vulnerable to predators at night, so their instinct tells them to find the highest point possible. The highest point in that scenario was Scott\u2019s head. He walked around with a chicken on his head for quite a while, but then he took off for the service. Roxy enjoyed meeting the animals, and everyone was smitten with the baby goats, all of one week old! I had Roxy\u2019s leash in one hand and my camera in the other as I approached the pen to take some pictures. All of a sudden all I saw was a flutter of black feathers and I heard some noise. I brought my camera down from my face to see the chicken trying to roost on MY head! Now I was the highest ground in the area. One of the gals with the animals said the chicken walks around on her shoulder all the time. I said I\u2019d be glad to have the chick on my head if she wanted to be there. Oddly enough I was ALSO wearing a Santa hat. (Maybe the chicken loved Santa!) So she placed the chicken on my head and I walked around for a while. I\u2019ve heard of \u2018picking up chicks\u2019 but this was ridiculous! Merry Chickmas to all! As I walked around I felt like one of those modeling students who are required to walk around balancing a book on their heads to learn poise. Eventually the chicken found a better place to roost; one of the wood planks on the Nativity scene. In addition to the height-seeking chicken and baby goats, there was a pig, two rabbits and a small donkey. What fun! Roxy and I headed back home to listen to a few hours of \u201cChristmas Across the Lands.\u201d But I had to do some investigative work to see why the signal from my system wasn\u2019t playing in the other rooms. Apparently since I was feeding the show through a digital source, the amplifier feeding audio to the other rooms couldn\u2019t find it. It could only deal with analog sources. So I had to reconfigure it a bit. Then I was dealing with a crackly channel on my amplifier. I plugged the cords into one of the other channels and it fed the house fine. But I had to get a few hours of sleep before the candlelight service. I have loved my church\u2019s Christmas Eve candlelight service for years, and this one was also amazing. It was made even better by a dry, gorgeous night. On the walk home I strolled slowly, observing how nice and quiet Christmas Eve was around the neighborhood. Absolutely gorgeous! Magical, in fact! I went inside and got settled for my Christmas Eve activity. I cut Oscar\u2019s mouth out of the plastic I had and sanded it. Then I took the trigger mechanism Kyle helped me build, measured its ideal location on the mouth plate, and bolted it in. Then I had to move it back about a quarter of an inch, so I drilled another hole in the mouth plate to accommodate it. I tried making leather finger loops for my index, ring and pinkie fingers, but it wasn\u2019t working well with the trigger mechanism. The trigger is manipulated with my middle finger, but as I\u2019m pressing down the trigger, the resistance required of my other fingers wasn\u2019t working properly. So I ended up removing the finger loops altogether. I\u2019d figure something else out for that. It wasn\u2019t going as fast as I had hoped, but I did what I set out to do\u2026spent Christmas Eve working on something creative. As the sun rose, I made my Chef Boyardee pizza-in-box and watched \u201cThe Mod Squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday the 25th \u2013 HAPPY CHRISTMAS! \u2013<\/span> As is my tradition, I slept most of the day. I got up at 5 to feed the pets and get ready for Christmas dinner with friends. I did a little work on the computer and got cleaned up. My friends Scott and Vickie Sebring came over at 7 and I showed them my progress on Oscar\u2019s mouth. Vickie has built puppets in the past and loves to watch all of the \u2018how-to\u2019 puppet videos on YouTube. I explained the problem I was having with the finger loops in relation to the eyebrow trigger, and she suggested just having a block of rigid foam on the mouth plate that my fingers could simply grab on to. Then I remembered that my Mahna Mahna puppet had that same thing. Brilliant! We drove over to pick up Shirley and we headed to the Smokehouse to enjoy a wonderful Christmas dinner with my friend Secunda, and her husband and son. By the time we finished up, it was pouring rain outside. And I do mean POURING! We took Shirley back to her home, and then I dropped Scott and Vickie off at their car. I took a nice nap on the couch, and got up later to feed the pets. I started in on Oscar again by attaching the piece of foam to the front of his upper mouth plate which will serve as the front of his face. I put a slight \u2018bezel\u2019 on the bottom of the foam, so when it\u2019s angled back to make his face it bows out a little bit to give him character. Once the foam adhered securely, I started cutting wedges out of it to get the recessed angle I was looking for. It looked terrific. Though I had MUCH more work to do on it, I was happy with the progress thus far. I laid back down on the couch and relaxed, and didn\u2019t wake up until noon on Boxing Day. I took Roxy our for a quick walk, and then came inside and went to bed.<\/p>\n

Thursday the 26th \u2013 PUPPET PARADISE! \u2013<\/span> Later in the afternoon I woke up, fed the pets, and started in on Oscar again. Had I gotten up earlier I could have made a trip to Foam Mart to find the \u201cgrippy\u201d type of foam block I needed for Oscar\u2019s upper mouth plate. But I decided to be lazy. It also occurred to me that I wanted to paint and wire the eye pieces before adhering them to the puppet. Working on them AFTER they were adhered into the puppet face would be a huge hassle. But the downside to doing it that way, is that the glue I use (Barge glue) and some paints have a bad reaction to one another. Putting Barge glue on certain painted items makes the paint melt and it turns into a mess. There\u2019s some sort of solvent in Barge glue that interacts with paint negatively. I would to consult with the geniuses at Kit Kraft, or my effects guy Jim Ojala to see what they suggest. The more I look at photos of the real Oscar\u2019s eyes the more I can see a fine mist of gray and tan paint that\u2018s oversprayed on to them. This takes down the \u2018brightness\u2019 of his eyes and makes him look more\u2026well\u2026grouchy. I\u2019m thinking that something like that would best left up to a professional airbrush artist like my friend Jim Ojala. Not only would Jim have the tools to shave down pieces of the metal trigger plate to make it run more smoothly, he\u2019d also know which paints to use to avoid the interaction problem. I\u2019ll wait for him to come back into the shop to consult with him. Since Oscar\u2019s upper and lower mouth plates are separate pieces, and not joined like Kermit\u2019s or Rowlf\u2019s, it allows him to have more expression. He can jut his lower jaw forward and pout, or move his jaw from side to side to look like he\u2019s perturbed. When I put the two pieces together I realized that the thumb loop I had previously placed on the lower jaw piece needed to be moved. So I gently removed it with an Exact-O knife and marked out the angle where it should rest. After about 3 aggravating tries, I finally got it! But I decided to put Oscar away for a while until I can get the other guidance, wisdom and pieces I needed to move to the next step. I\u2019m really only about an eighth of the way finished. There\u2019s LOTS left to do. Maybe I\u2019ll still be working on him NEXT Christmas Eve! (I hope not!) I was aching to get out of the house and get away from the glue smell. I texted my friend Briana and she drove over to Jerry\u2019s Famous Deli to meet me for a late dinner. When I got home I had to clean my impromptu puppet workshop off my kitchen table. The maids were coming on Friday and I didn\u2019t want them to have to clean around all the puppet-y stuff. I put away all my tools, wire, plastic, leather, etc. in plastic bags and stuffed them in the Chaney Room closet. Then I made some spaghetti and watched another episode of \u201cThe Mod Squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday the 27th \u2013 MAIDS & MICELI\u2019S EN MASSE! \u2013<\/span> The maids arrived around 1:30 and did their usual stellar job. I grabbed a few more hours of sleep on the couch, and then got up later to feed the pets. I got a text from my pal Joe asking if he and his kids could come by for a tour of Planet Wallywood at 7:30. They were in town for the holidays, so I told them to come on by whenever they could make it. After the tour we went out for pizza at Miceli\u2019s and had a great time. With my tummy full of yummy pizza I came home and napped on the couch for a bit. I got up to do a bunch of writing on another one of my kid\u2019s books. I took Roxy out for a late night stroll through the neighborhood, but it was really cold out! The temp said it was 39 degrees! I moved here in 1987, and I NEVER remember the nights in L.A. being that cold. I don\u2019t ever remember it getting much below 50 degrees back then, but I could be wrong. YIKES! It was a good night to make a sandwich and some tomato soup and watch \u201cMod Squad\u201d before bed.<\/p>\n

Saturday the 28th \u2013 HAIR AND HOLLYWOOD! \u2013<\/span> Late in the afternoon I walked over to my stylist\u2019s studio to get a touch up on my color. When I got home I sat down and recorded the narration of the new kid\u2019s story I had just written. Then I sent it off to my pal Scott Sebring to have some music put behind it. At 8 my friend Edi came over and we drove to the Universal subway station to go into Hollywood for my friend Brian\u2019s birthday dinner. We could have driven through snarled traffic, paid exorbitant amounts of money to park and then fight our way through Saturday night traffic in Hollywood to get back home, but the train was a much easier option. We met at Dave and Buster\u2019s and had some dinner. Brian and a few friends had just enjoyed an \u2018escape room\u2019 attraction in downtown Hollywood and were pleased that they had managed to figure it out. Right around 10pm the restaurant kicked into loud hip hop music with a D.J. It was very loud and annoying. It was much too loud given ANY type of music, but the fact that it was hip hop was especially excruciating. I was wondering if we were still in an \u2018escape room,\u2019 because I was trying to figure out the fastest way possible to escape from there! We hastily paid our check and literally ran out of Dave and Buster\u2019s. I guess we\u2019re not the type of clientele they\u2019re hoping to attract. A few of us walked down to the train platform and took the subway back to Universal station where my car was parked. I drove home and started working on my \u201cBest of 2019\u201d overview. As I started writing down the bullet points I wanted to expound upon, I realized that it was really a pretty great year! Maybe one of the best ever! I napped on the couch for a bit, and then got up to feed the pets. I did some more writing on the 2019 overview (which I\u2019ll publish on my website after January 1st), made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched \u201cSpace 1999.\u201d Back into the routine again!<\/p>\n

Sunday the 29th \u2013 BRING ON WEEK 2 OF THE HOLIDAY BREAK! \u2013<\/span> Shirley phoned me to let me know she didn\u2019t have a ride to church, so Roxy and I hopped in the Mustang and headed over to pick her up. After the service we went to Paty\u2019s again to have dinner on the patio, I took Shirley back to her home and I came back to Planet Wallywood to nap on \u201cThe Most Comfortable Couch in the Universe\u201d for a bit. I got up later and dealt with some end-of-the-year bills and accounting things, and then made some designs for a few new items in my kid\u2019s book and toy project. I need to get them to my seamstress soon so she can get working on them. I also put my Oscar the Grouch stuff in a bag to take to Jim Ojala\u2019s soon for assistance. I had some cereal and hit the hay, ready to tackle the second week of the 2019 holiday break.<\/p>\n

And how was YOUR Christmas???<\/p>\n

PIX FROM THE WEEK<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/video\/Christmas%202019%20highlights.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Here are a few video highlights from Christmas 2019!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Batman-ornament.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

This is a quick example of just how cool the Batman guitar Christmas ornament is! Thanks Val!<\/p>\n

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The always-stunning Christmas Eve candlelight service at my church<\/p><\/div>\n

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A great Christmas dinner filled with good friends!<\/p><\/div>\n

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The ersatz Puppet Workshop is readied on my kitchen table<\/p><\/div>\n

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Oscar’s eye pieces are sanded to precisely the same height<\/p><\/div>\n

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Here I put the leather in the trigger mechanism to create a finger loop<\/p><\/div>\n

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These are the ill-fated finger loops that didn’t end up working for this purpose. Pretty tho.<\/p><\/div>\n

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With a long blade normally used in a box cutter, I cut a bezel in the edge of the foam.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wedges are cut out of the foam for the face and angled back. It’s starting to take shape!<\/p><\/div>\n

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To obtain an early visual, I placed the eye pieces on the foam face. The holes in the eye pieces are where the eyebrow wires will go.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Another successful Christmas Eve of Puppets, Pizza and Popeye!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Roxy says hello to her new friend<\/p><\/div>\n

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Yup, that’s a chicken on Scott’s head.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Yup, that’s a chicken on MY head!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Clearly the donkey has no problem with “kids”<\/p><\/div>\n

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Neither does Pastor Louise!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Roxy makes another friend!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Just like Frosty, Spook has melted under the hot lights<\/p><\/div>\n

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This reindeer isn’t very effective. During Santa’s journey she wants to stop at every well along the way to look for someone named “Timmy.”<\/p><\/div>\n

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A few shots from the set of “The Rideshare Killer.”<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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My nephew Taylor’s Christmas gift to my sister (his mom) was this parody of my now infamous headshot with Spooky. Hilarious!<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8805","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\/8805","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=8805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}