Happy 4th

Well I've finished my work for the day and I'm about to grab a shower before heading out to celebrate my patriotism. I think we take America for granted sometimes. Last year I had the pleasure of traveling in Asia (spending time in Korea and Japan)... it was in Korea that I most missed America. We take for granted the protections that our government puts into place.. protections like animal control (you know if you pet a dog wearing a collar that it has probably had it's immunizations), food controls... the infrastructure of a truly industrialized country... I'd walk down the street and smell sewer gasses (something we never experience here).

For as uncivilized as some of our national choices have been in the last few years as we've entered our American Colonial period with the addition of two colonized countries (Afghanistan and Iraq) we are FREE. Freedom comes with my responsibilities and the ultimate choice of all.... the ability to choose to Lose our Freedoms.

It's July 4th... Find a veteran, Stop them, and THANK THEM for the sacrifices that they have made. Regardless of our personal feelings on Iraq and the other wars being pursued by our national government we need to support those around us who have given their time and often much more of themselves in support of our Freedoms :-)

Happy 4th!

8:38 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

valley and vampires

I'm off to do this vitamin study... They draw my blood once a month. My dad was always an American red cross donor... I never really got into opening my veins, guess it's one of my fears in life. So I'm off to see the vampires and get over this damn fear :-)

Everytime I'm come back into the valley I'm reminded of my first few months in town. I've been here for like 9 months now... Wow. It's crazy how quickly things change. I was musing the other day about how I was in Korea last year this time. Los Angeles is so much better than rainy season in Korea :-). I feel like this is one of those moments when I should be setting goals and refocusing my energies... I would really like to pay off the debt I accrued my first few months in town just surviving and I want to take my acting career from just making enough to survive into being a bit more comfortable again. I also need to focus on making and keeping some friends in this town. I tend to be a bit of a recluse sometimes and spend so much time focusing on the career I forget that there's anything else to life. I guess that's the trap or downfall of being driven. Hmmm those are good goals :-)

Rock on!

10:09 AM - 5 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

Publicity pics for THE NEXT BIG THING

The new pic is from my publicity shoot :-) Just took it yesterday! I haven't had any new pics for a while so I wanted to get it up quickly. Rehearsals are going well... so glad I haven't done a John Doyle production yet... I never considered how hard it is to play an instrument, sing, and act all at the same time. JD directed the new Sweeney Todd and Company... he loves that whole actors playing instruments thing.

My first summer in LA is going well :-) I sure don't miss the humidity of NY, lol. I've been working on some websites...designing one for my friend Dara Ettinger (the jewelry designer) right now.

5:24 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

NEWS and updates :-)

Rehearsals are going great for THE NEXT BIG THING. We did our second run through yesterday and it was amazing! ok...ok...the NEWS

I shot a pilot today. I won't say too much except that it was directed by Jerry Zucker... I'm sure most of you have seen Ghost...Airplane!...etc... he was really an awesome director to work for and it was a great experience.

:-)

I should know more about the pilot in the coming months...

6:25 AM - 7 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

day off

I have one of those rare days off from rehearsal today and I'm using it to meet with a few friends in Santa monica. I finished Jon's book finally...it's really great! Some awesome action sequences near the end :-) no more spoilers.

The show is going well. We had a ton of press hit this week and I'll post links to all of that when I get home later. We had a music rehearsal yesterday and the piano is coming right along. There are a couple of tough songs where I play and sing but I think it's going to be great by the time we perform.

I have a couple auditions tomorrow and then back to the grind on Saturday with a daylong music rehearsal.

8:52 AM - 1 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

show goes on

Hey ya'll been a while since I wrote last. Been in rehearsals pretty much 6 days a week so I haven't had much time to do anything else. I did hit a could of events this weekend and helped my friend Ariane with her spec energy drink commercial last week.

Matisha and I had a music rehearsal yesterday and worked our way through our two duets. We went out for sushi and talked afterwards for a while. I haven't had sushi in forever.

I'm meeting up with a designer friend of mine today, Regee B. Some of his stuff if sold at lounge soho, my fave store in NY! He talked about designing me a jacket... I'll make sure I post pictures when that happens. His stuff is really awesome.

I'm still reading the Seven Sins by Jon Land. Been busy so I slowed my pace a bit but it's still awesome!

Tony's were yesterday. Crazy how isolated I feel from all of that in new York while I'm out her in LA. I know a few people on the creative team of in the heights... So I was really excited with the awards they won.

I'm sorry if I haven't been eraobfung very quickly to messages recently. My production schedule has me a bit busy.

Rock it ya'll

1:06 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

seven deadly sins & the rehearsals continue

I met up with a friend of mine, author jon land, last night. We grabbed a quick dinner and talked about his new book The Seven Sins (due in Barnes an noble this week). I've been reading it non-stop since getting it...I love books that pull me in.

Been rocking rehearsals! We blocked through most of the show today and it's feeling really great. I really need to get my initial blocking so that I can start my work on the script. My piano/keyboard work has been going well and we should start official music rehearsals shortly. I'm excited to record my first concept recording for a show.

Well I'm off to a party at blvd 3 and then home I go... Maybe

9:28 PM - 2 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

1st rehearsal!

Woot! The first rehearsal/reading went really well. There's nothing like working with a bunch of really professional people who have it all together :-) we did a quick publicity shoot so I'll post pics when I get them. The music is sounding awesome!!! I might even be playing the bass guitar on a couple of numbers... I played the bass for a number of years way back when... Lol. Ok, ok, not that long ago. I was the bass player in my high school marching band. We did a show based on the band Chicago... And Le me say I played a mean 25 or 6 to 4.

Today we start blocking and working portions of the show. Once that is done I can really buckle down and memorize the script. Alright I've got to run, I'll blah a little more later

11:31 AM - 2 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

musings

Spent the early afternoon and then headed to my friendly neighborhood Barnes and noble for some browsing. Think I ended up cruising through the biography aisle looking at pics of Johnny depp and a few others. It got me thinking about how I need to start working on the next few paragraphs of my bio on the new website. Been a while since I finished with the dramatic ending, lol. I've had tons going on to write about so I think I'm going to get cracking on that within the next few days. Jeff, from The Next Big Thing, dropped me a message today to talk about our publicity shoot next week. I need to find some 80s inspired rehearsal clothing in my closet. Glad I brought some clothes back with me from NY. I'm also trying to set up a few more shoots in the next week or so. I've got a meeting in about half an hour out here in Santa monica so I'm gonna chill for a while at this starbucks. I'm in a hot chocolate mood :-)

6:59 PM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

NEW WEBSITE!

hey guys :-) I just finished coding my new website and it is live! I'm really excited, so drop by and let me know what you think.

BrandonRuckdashel.com

1:38 PM - 7 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment