BILL HICKS / OUTLAW COMIC AND PATRIOT

Comedian Bill Hicks, who died in 1994 at 32 years old, was a brilliant American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His unique comedy style and material largely consisted of general discussions about society, religion, politics, philosophy, patriotism and personal issues. He was never boring and is still more than relevant today: Allen L Roland

I get a kick out of being an outsider constantly. It allows me to be creative. I don't like anything in the mainstream and they don't like me: Bill Hicks

Bill Hicks.. Do you remember him?

He was a truth teller but he did it with biting humor and satire.

It's hard to forget him ~ particularly on Independence Day for he was in many ways, a true patriot.

Many consider him the best American humorist since Mark Twain.

He died too young of pancreatic cancer in 1994 but his work lives on.

Video: Three minutes

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/4672.html

Were we smarter 20 years ago?

Hicks sure was. He had a way of throwing hard reality at you and making you laugh at the same time ~ similar to Mark Twain.

I really miss Bill Hicks. If you don't know who he was, these videos will let you know. If you knew him, I know you're clicking on these right now.

You'll be shocked at how clearly Bill Hicks saw the whole political game and how it was played ~ and that was over 20 years ago. With a few minor updates for today, he'd still be ahead of the cutting edge.

For example, Bill talks here about War, Freedom and what really makes him tick.

Video: ten minutes

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1121.html

Bill also thought that most of our heroes were dead ~ and that included JFK.

" I love talking about the Kennedy assassination. The reason I do is because I'm fascinated by it. I'm fascinated that our government could lie to us so blatantly, so obviously for so long, and we do absolutely nothing about it. I think that's interesting in what is ostensibly a democracy. Sarcasm - come on in. People say "Bill, quit talking about Kennedy man. It was a long time ago, just let it go, alright? It's a long time ago, just forget it." I'm like, alright, then don't bring up Jesus to me. As long as we're talking shelf life here." Bill Hicks

So here's Bill talking about a favorite subject ~ the JFK assassination

Video: six minutes

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/22034.html

And here’s what many consider the shortest and greatest political satire ever presented, regarding incoming presidents ~ Video: One minute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRykTpw1RQ&feature=player_embedded

I left in love, in laughter, and in truth, and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit : Bill Hicks

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/bill-hicks-outlaw-comic-and-patriot_28.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and transformational counselor Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private Skype consultations (allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

FADE TO BLACK / JAMES GANDOLFINI 1961 - 2013

James Gandolfini died like his last lines in the final scene of The Sopranos, remembering the good times, but this world class actor deserves far more accolades than just his role of Tony Soprano, for many thought that what he brought to television was what Brando brought to movies ~ himself: Allen L Roland

"I have lost a brother and a best friend. The world has lost one of the greatest actors of all time." - Musician Steven Van Zandt, who played Silvio on "The Sopranos."

James Gandolfini was a deep and complex man who loved his acting craft and left a legacy of work that some have compared to Brando at his best. Owen Glieberman, Movie critic for Entertainment Weekly, was one of those who thought as such as he recently wrote on EW.com;

" For on The Sopranos, Gandolfini’s artistry was personal in the highest sense. His performance as Tony was a kind of ongoing everyday torn-from-reality gangster-as-normal-guy Method psychodrama. Gandolfini put his demons out there, and used them, and fused them with the character he was playing in a way that made Tony seem as large as a planet, as rich and interior as any character in a novel…. And that’s how his performance as Tony heightened the canvas of what acting on television could be, in much the same way that Marlon Brando, starting in the early ’50s, turned his brooding brand of confessional Method performance into a one-man acting revolution that changed Hollywood ~ and, in an Elvis-like way, the very rhythm in the Western world…As Tony, Gandolfini spilled his guts and then some, so it was no wonder that in doing so he changed the landscape of television. Gandolfini’s emotions spilled over the sides of Tony as a character, and he scorched the earth with those emotions….He made it the role of a lifetime, and made the role so large that that was enough to make him the Brando of television. It was his The Wild One, The Godfather, and Last Tango in Jersey all rolled into one."   See full article: http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/06/22/gandolfini-was-the-marlon-brando-of-tv/

 

Here are some wonderful interview videos of Gandolfini discussing his life and work with James Lipton ~ taken inside the actors studio and surrounded by adoring fellow actors and mentors. It's well worth 44 minutes of your viewing time, but Gandolfini's tip to the acting students in the last four minutes is especially meaningful to me because it's the same message that I impart to my clients ~ Believe in yourself and above all, don't sell out on yourself .

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/06/i-guess-you-never-hear-it-coming-when-its-your-turn-rip-james-gandolfini/

David Chase's brilliant and controversial last scene of the Soprano's was an understated masterpiece for it was filmed from Tony's visual perspective ~ for indeed the ultimate fade to black is death. Think of death like falling into a long black tunnel ~ a tunnel that leads to a point of light and singularity where all notions of time and space break down and we become one with the Unified field and a blissful state of love and soul consciousness.

But I digress ~ obviously the customer with the jacket who passed Tony's table on the way to the men's room was his killer, who was waiting for the whole family to be together before he struck, so when Meadow hurriedly entered the restaurant and Tony looked up in recognition ~ the assassin's bullet was just entering his brain and from Tony's perspective everything went black.

Instead of showing a table spattered with Tony's blood and brains with his wife and children screaming in horror as the gunman brushed aside Meadow and ran out the door having accomplished his retaliation ~ Chase chose to take it from Tony's perspective and left the rest to our imagination.

So once again, watch the final scene of The Sopranos and admire the end of a finely crafted David Chase masterpiece as well as a brilliant actor prophetically suddenly fade to black at the peak of his career.

Final episode / The Sopranos / 4 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnT7nYbCSvM

"He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. He was my partner. ... He was my brother in ways I can't explain and never will be able to explain." - David Chase, creator of "The Sopranos."

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/fade-to-black-james-gandolfini-1961-2013.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and transformational counselor Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private Skype consultations (allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

EAST COUNTY PEER TO PEER BAND OF BROTHERS / A DREAM BECOMES REALITY

Click on photo to enlarge

Blue Star mother Josie Monaghan surrounded by her all era veteran brothers and sisters.

Blue Star mother Josie Monaghan's dream of creating a veterans resource center as well as an all era veterans peer-to-peer group which meets and breaks bread with each other every Wednesday, with commonality, camaraderie and mutual sharing being the empowering agenda, has become a reality in Antioch, California: Allen L Roland

Heart felt authenticity, commonality and camaraderie are the bedrock of veterans rehabilitation.

As an active duty Navy veteran, as well as the facilitator of eleven extremely successful East Bay heart centered combat veteran transformation workshops (which effectively utilized peer to peer sharing, commonality and camaraderie in the self-healing process) over the past three years ~ Veterans, which include myself, often miss the deep bonds of authentic commonality and camaraderie that exist between fellow veterans who have all faced their inner and outer fears and demons in accomplishing their service to their country.

Blue Star mother Josie Monaghan, proud mother of a USMC combat veteran, sensed this community veteran need and created in 2010 a new alternative for returning veterans and their families with the ultimate goal of a drop-in veterans recreation center where workshops and peer to peer events could take place at any time.

Originally located in a small veterans thrift shop in downtown Antioch, California the rapidly growing non-profit community organization now includes an adjacent veterans antique store as well as a recently leased veterans recreation center ~ which now provides a space for workshops and the informal peer-to-peer Wednesday night veterans dinner meetings ~ where all war era veterans are welcomed to attend.

Josie holding forth in her Antioch thrift shop

Josie Monaghan is the Vet blue star angel mother behind this working dream ~ whose vision, relentless energy and giant heart has drawn others, such as myself, to volunteer their services to help make her East County Veterans heart centered dream come true.  See February 2013 Veterans Today article ~

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/02/20/josie-monaghan-vet-mother-angel-of-antioch-california/

Navy Veteran Jim Marchetti, Peer to Peer spokesperson, speaks movingly about what this ongoing group means to him ~ "East County Veterans is an organization like no other I’ve seen to date and it rises above any experience I have had since leaving the Navy in 1992. I stumbled across the thrift store first about a year ago and met Josie. We’ve been great friends ever since and the camaraderie and special connection I have with other veterans is something I get to share every week. The fact that this is a community based, independent organization is terrific and It alleviates all of the bureaucracy and other overhead in so many other organizations. Having a resource center is great ~ it is a place that is fun and safe for veterans from all eras and branches of service. I only wish more places around the country had a person like Josie to spearhead such a vision. The friends here are already my lifelong friends and I feel like I have known them for decades. I love my fellow service members and am so incredibly thankful that Josie had this vision, this dream, of providing a place where we can truly commune with our brothers and sisters who served."

Being real, commonality and camaraderie are the free flowing magic of this Veteran's Peer to Peer Oasis for the spirit tucked into the corner of L and 2nd Street in Antioch, California ~ about 100 yards away from the Marina and the cool breezes from the Delta.

It has certainly been proven with veterans elsewhere that heart felt peer to peer authenticity and realness fosters both commonality and camaraderie which in turn supports self-healing from the seen and unseen ravages of war ~ see 2 minute video on the veteran being real game.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVvkQQC5rU0

To many of these veterans, including myself, being real is not a game but instead a way of life and a  loving place to come home to as 12 year Army female veteran TaiAri explains ~ " When I got out of the Army and moved back home I did not have a job or any friends. I felt hopeless and alone. Then one day I happened to meet someone who was talking about the East County Veterans' Center. I got involved and met Josie, our founder. Immediately, Josie and I had a connection and I knew I had found my second home. I am now a key group member at the Center and I am the Community Outreach Coordinator. I look forward to our many events, and especially our Wednesday night peer-to-peer groups, because these guys are my family. I finally feel that camaraderie I missed so much. I have a connection with my guys that civilians will never be able to understand. We share so much with each other; we participate in events together, and this is all because of Josie. She is our mother, our rock, and she has made this happen for us and allowed us to all come together. There is no other place in the East Bay like our Center and I plan to be a part of it for years to come. I couldn't imagine my life without it."

Long time Air force Veteran Sean loves the informality of the center with its pool table and veterans pictures hanging on the wall ~ " I feel comfortable around the other veterans talking about fun things, hobbies, current events and world events. What I really like is how the center participates in local events and is an integral part of the community."

As for myself, a five year active duty Navy veteran, I love the commonality, mutual respect and camaraderie that exists at the peer to peer veterans Wednesday dinner meetings. There is no agenda ~ but instead there is a genuine affection for each other that permeates this heart centered peer to peer group and especially toward our visionary founder and Blue star mother Josie Monaghan, who we regard as an honorary veteran ~ for we have all enlisted in her dream.

If you live in the East County listen to what fellow member Jeremy says ~ "The reason I joined this particular veterans group was because I missed the camaraderie I experienced in the military. I wanted to link up with some individuals that had/have experienced situations similar to my own. I was welcomed with open arms when I was introduced to this group and I’m happy I made the decision to join this group.  If you’re a veteran I encourage you to join us and I look forward to meeting you soon."  

Josie recently suffered the death of her brother in Chicago and when she returned to Antioch she realized that she had gained a dozen more brothers and sisters who lovingly welcomed her back to her family ~ that she had created.

For more information call Jim Marchetti (925) 642-0791 or Josie Monaghan at (925) 642-7537.     

There's a difference between camaraderie and normal friendship. In friendship, the individualism of the different people is accepted and helps the friendship; in camaraderie the thing that brings people together is commonality: All Quiet on the Western Front ~ where camaraderie is Remarque's main theme.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/east-county-peer-to-peer-band-of.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private Skype consultations (allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net