August Update

Good afternoon bloggies! This will be a brief August update because there’s not a lot going on right now.

Camelot
We are winding down rehearsals for “Camelot” and everything is starting to come together (finally). Even though there’s been a lot of bitching and complaining (I am not without fault here either, and neither is anyone else) it has been a really wonderful experience and I’ve met so many great people whom I probably would never have met otherwise. To update my roles, I am playing Nimue who steals Merlyn’s magic and locks him up for several centuries. In the chorus I am Lady Jane, a lady in waiting in King Arthur’s court, and dance partner of Sir Dinidan (played by my friend Brad). I have two solos in the play, the first as Nimue, and the last as the narrator for the song “Guenevere.”

Next week I, along with fellow actor Ben (who plays Sir Lionel), will be doing a few radio spots at the Cumulus stations here in Columbia, MO to promote “Camelot.” I’ve done television, but have never done radio before so this is going to be a brand new experience for me. Ben’s an absolute hoot, and I think that will make this new venture worthwhile.

“Camelot” opens on Friday, August 20th at 8:00pm at the Maplewood Barn Theatre in Nifong Park. Tickets for adults is $10.00 and children 10 and under get in free. The show will be running the next three consecutive weekends, so you’ve got 9 chances to come see all our hard work come together. Hope to see you there!
http://www.maplewoodbarn.com

Music
I’ve been working on a new song called “I Never Knew.” The song is about the reawakening of the spirit and of the heart. Currently I am working on the lyrics and the melody, but it will be a while before you hear a demo. What I can tell you is that this song mirrors what I have gone through these past few months (as many of my songs do), and I’m using this catharsis to put it down on paper and in music so I can share it with all of you.

School
The Associate’s Degree at DeVry will be winding down next term, and then it’s off to start the Bachelor’s Degree. I can honestly tell you that I am getting severely burned out with college, but I am still maintaining that 4.0 GPA that I’ve worked so hard at to keep. It’s a struggle, but I am showing my daughter that it’s never too late to go after what you want.

Well that’s all for now bloggies, stay tuned as I blog about “Camelot” happenings when we go live next week!

~R

July Update

Good morning bloggies! There’s lots of stuff going on this month, so let’s get right to it.

Last month I auditioned for Camelot and I landed the role of Nimue and Lady Jane. This is my first theatre production since 1990 (yep that’s 20 years) so I am a bit rusty on things. These are small roles that will help me get back into the swing of things, and hopefully I will be able to get bigger roles in the future. Rehearsals are in full swing now, and for the most part they are going pretty smoothly. I do have a lot of “opinions” on some things (mainly the singing), but these opinions of mine I’m going to keep to myself for the time being – the last thing I want to do right now is ruffle feathers.

Something new I am experiencing with Camelot is dancing. I’ve never had to dance on stage ever, so it is a very foreign concept. The first couple of dance rehearsals for “The Lusty Month of May” was quite comical as I could not get my feet to do what they needed to do. Several rehearsals later and I’m doing much better – I have a wonderful dance partner who is just a hoot to hang out with and he’s made it feel less intimidating. I am honestly thankful that there are only two dance sequences in this musical – I don’t think I could handle any more.

If you would like to come to the production of “Camelot” please visit the Maplewood Barn website for tickets and performance information. I will post more on this as time draws near.

The next audition in the wings will be for “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the CEC Theatre in December. I can only imagine at this point how it will go. I don’t know much about this musical – I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it over the years, but this is the first musical I can audition for while I’m in the midst of the Camelot production.

Since things are so hectic with school, work, and rehearsals I have not had any time to commit to writing more music for this now 3-year-old project “Long Hard Road.” At this point I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get this project off the ground. Above all, I want to be proud of this project, of what I’ve accomplished, and I want to be able to deliver to you a high-quality product, but it’s simply not possible right now. I will keep posting updates as they come in, however few and far between they may be. I am working on artwork for the cover of the CD, and will hopefully be able to show you a draft after “Camelot” closes.

Be cool,

~R~

June Update, Part 2

Quite a bit has happened since I posted the first installment of the June update. My cat Ramone was hit and killed on June 12th sometime in the middle of the night. The neighbors found his body and returned it to us. This was not something I wanted to start out my Saturday with, but there you go. It killed me to tell my daughter, but I knew it needed to be done – I am not one of those parents who would tell a child that the cat moved to a farm out in the country or that he ran away. I don’t believe in lying to a child like that. Death is a part of life, and we must take the death, as painful as it is, along with life. It was hard on her, but it was extremely hard on me. You see, Ramone was my cat. I adopted both him and his brother Remo when they were 7 weeks old. Remo took a shining to Zoe, Ramone took a shining to me. So Ramone adopted me as his human, he would cuddle with me, he would sit across my arms as I was typing on the computer. There are times where we would just lock eyes, stare at each other for what seemed like minutes, and then he would tap me on my forehead with his forehead. He did that to me the last night he was alive, it became our thing.

Zoe picked out a lovely spot in the back yard for Ramone’s final resting place, and next spring we will plant flowers there in his honor and his memory. I created a tribute video in honor of Ramone with a compilation of videos I took with my cell phone (videos I had actually forgotten that I took until I was pulling photos off of it). I miss him dearly – what I would give to have him back with me right now…

I auditioned for “Camelot” on June 19th, and got a call not two hours after the audition that they were offering me the role of Lady Nimue and Lady Jane. I immediately and graciously accepted the roles, and I’m very excited about the opportunity to get back upon a stage where I haven’t set foot on in over 20 years. The production is being put on by the Maplewood Barn Theatre and will run 3 weekends starting in August. I will post more details as they arise.

June Update

Hello bloggies (yeah, you’re still stuck with that term of affection). Yes this is the first day of June so that means…

THE JUNE UPDATE!

Lots of things are going on that just happened within the past couple of days with competitions. I will be sending in an audition DVD to the Missouri State Fair for the Missouri State Idol. Once they choose the participants they will compete throughout the duration of the fair, with finals being held on the final day of the fair (August 22nd for those of you who are playing at home). Submissions are due next month and they will notify the lucky participants about a week after that. Once I know something I will post it here, on the website, on Twitter, on Facebook, etc.

America’s Got Talent season 5 started this evening. I thought they would start where the auditions started (i.e. Chicago), but they opted to start in Los Angeles. Much to my dismay, they are going with Dallas tomorrow. I’m not sure yet when they will show the Chicago auditions and whether my daughter and I will get our 15 seconds of National TV fame. Stay tuned…

Off topic, those of you who enjoy the Wil Wheaton (honestly, who doesn’t?), you can follow him on Twitter @wilw, and check him out on the Internet at http://wilwheaton.typepad.com. Stop by and tell him ticketyboo72 sent ya (he won’t have any clue who that is, but it would be fun just to do it *grin*).

DeVry is kicking my ass this term – two huge classes that are very demanding, giant projects, reading, quizzes, etc. I’m still holding on to that obligatory 4.0GPA, but there’s two weeks left in the term so we’ll see if it nose dives. I know, I know, I’ve said that a bunch of times before and I’ve been able to pull it out, but this term is really, really hard. I have two more terms before I get the Associate’s Degree, and then wing right into that Bachelor’s Degree that I’ve been eyeballing for the past year. I’m hoping to have this degree settled by the time I turn 40.

After nearly two months of waiting, sleepless nights, tears and angst, I finally landed a temp job. The job? File Clerk. The location? Non-disclosed. While I can’t tell you where, what I can tell you is that I’m very happy at what I’m doing right now and I haven’t been happy at a job in such a long time (in fact I can’t remember the last time I was happy at my previous job, well except for the day that I quit). Whether I continue on in this job is up to my boss and her bosses and I should know something by this month. I did find out today that they are very happy and pleased with my work (and this is only my second week in – color me giddy).

With that I bid you adieu, and until next time, see y’all ’round bloggies!

~R~

Upcoming competition

I will be competing at the Pike County Fair Talent Show on Friday, July 30th in Bowling Green, MO. The show starts at 6:00pm and is always a crowd pleaser because it offers so many diverse talents in the area. Entrance into the fair is $15 for adults and $12 for children ages 4-12. For more information on all the happenings, please visit http://www.pikecountyfair.org.

May Update

Hello bloggies… well… that’s not a very good nickname for my readers is it? Not as catchy as what Peter Gabriel uses for his Full Moon Fan Club members (“Lunatics” – of which I am one). When I’m on Twitter, I use the the phrase “my lovelies” when I am signing off for the evening. I cannot take credit for that phrase because I lovingly stole it from Mr. Craig Ferguson. I would use “Tweeple” when I tweet, but that is being used by the lovely chapeau-wearing Kevin Pollak. Now, before you think “Jeez, who else’s name is she gonna drop in this drivol” I’m going to move on now to the May Update.

These past few days I have had a renewed sense in writing music and songs again. I think it has to do with the new set of guitar strings and the Yamaha MO8 I purchased last week. The MO8 is a thing of beauty – I can do so much more with writing and arranging that I couldn’t do before. I can mix several voices together and add percussion in such a way that it has reawakened that part of me which has laid dormant for many months. To tell you the truth, before I purchased the MO8 I hadn’t played my song “Long Hard Road” in such a long time that I had forgotten much of the arrangement. In the few short days after fiddling with my new toy, the chords and arrangement came rushing back to me, and let me tell you that was a very good feeling because I thought I had lost a song that had once meant a great deal to me. I am hoping to create some more instrumental work to showcase this beautiful instrument.

Now I cannot go on without mentioning my lovely Alvarez guitar – he and I have been together since 2006 and he is a thing of beauty as well – such a sweet resonance when you strum the strings. I’ve written a few songs on him over the years, yet none except for “In My Life” has seen the light of day. Soon, bloggies, very soon when I get things properly arranged in my studio/living room, I will record some scratch demos for you to feast your ears on. Sometimes when I get stuck, or I need a break from my own work, I will pull out a couple of songs by Roger Hodgson to clear my head (and engage my fingers). I play “Even in the Quietest Moments” when I’m needing to calm my heart down, and “Give a Little Bit” when I want to just lay everything out there and make my fingers bleed (just kidding). Do I play them well? Hell no, but I have fun playing them all the same.

Let’s see, who else’s name can I drop in this entry… I’ve been on a Sir Patrick Stewart kick lately. He visited me in a dream I had a few nights ago. The only thing I can remember was how smooth his bald head felt… awkward silence… moving on.

In my personal life I have been at a crossroads. I have let go of someone I love very much, I left a job after 4 years of slavery, er, servitude. I am still going to college, still hanging on to that 4.0 GPA, but I’m not sure how it’s going to fair out this term because I am taking two classes this time around. I’ll know after grades are in this week if I’m going to tank it, but I already know that I won’t be taking two classes at once for the rest of my education at DeVry.

Well I’m going to wrap this up before someone tells me my post needs more cowbell. So, in the immortal words of Mr. Conan O’Brien “Be cool my babies!”

New website launched

A couple of days late, but the new website is finally up and running. Most of the changes were purely cosmetic, but I am now pleased to announce that there is finally a viable working contact page. Due to a boatload of spam issues, I have found a WordPress plugin that allows me to have a contact page that not only looks nice, it keeps spammers at bay.

If you come across any issues with the site, please use the contact form and the webmaster will look into it as soon as possible. Enjoy! :)

UPDATE: Google Chrome issues

The webmaster has isolated the issue to a Facebook plugin that was installed in the journal. That plugin has since been removed and a more sound plugin has taken its place. If you come across any issues with the site or this blog, please use the Contact page to report it. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Google Chrome issues

I am currently experiencing some issues with Google Chrome. If you are using this browser to access my website and a malware issue pops up, simply close that browser and open the site through Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Please know that I do not host any malware on my site, I have gone over the code with a fine-toothed comb and no issues exist. I am not sure why Google Chrome is giving my site fits, but rest assured I am not out to destroy your hard drive or steal your identity.

New website design coming soon

The site is getting redesigned as I type and it should be finished by Friday evening. It will be reworked and revamped for your viewing entertainment, and it will finally include audio and video pages! Gone is the guestbook page (thanks to the troll), and the contact page is getting reworked so I won’t be receiving idiotic E-mails anymore.

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