by Bernard-Charles

I am a die-hard fan of any and all things Sandra Bullock. My mom introduced me to Bullock’s skill and talent a very long time ago with her favorite movie Practical Magic (1998). Sally Owens, a mom of two, lives in a modern world where witchcraft still frightens people and resorts to denying her powers.  The only magic that wakes her up from this denial is the power of self-acceptance.

Bullock’s talent in Practical Magic woke me up to see that my mom is a person just like Sally Owens. A whimsy and mystical woman with great potential to heal the ones she loves, yet goes through self-sacrifice in order to recognize an inner power.

Paramount Pictures

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2012), Linda Schell (Sandra Bullock) copes with the loss of her husband (Tom Hanks) and the struggles of her son, Oskar (Thomas Horn) as the United States is attacked on 9/11. However, the movie is not centered around Bullock, but of Horn’s character, a nine-year-old adventurist. The journey of one boy’s mission and the connections he makes with the people of New York could not have been more inspiring.

This movie, that opened on January 20, 2012, wasn’t a box office hit or highly rated by acclaimed film critics. According to Tom Long, film critic from The Detroit News, the movie is “crass” and added that “obnoxious” should be included into the title.  To close his review he remarks

“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is the kind of movie you want to punch in the nose.

I did notice that the star ratings for the movie were extremely low, but was astonished throughout the film. “How could a Sandra Bullock film be so poorly rated?” I asked myself over and over again while eating some popcorn. Then it occurred to me that Sandra Bullock was in this move for a reason. Some compelling piece of Linda Schell resonated with Bullock’s personality.

As Long mentions that the “horror of 9/11 with a cutesy story about a boy’s unlikely quest…as crass,” I am here to say that this movie was much more than an example of what Long refers to as “chutzpah.” As an award winning actress, Bullock ultimately has the decision to act in a movie or not, so clearly there must be a stronger theme in this film besides the historical event of 9/11 to entice Bullock-goers. Movies like The Blind Side (2009), Premonition (2007), and Hope Floats (1998) all capture the roller coaster of being a mother and expressing the flow of love.

A bond between mother and child could not have been more suiting for Bullock’s role in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; she probably wanted to connect with Linda Schell on a maternal level, since she is raising baby Louis in real life. Something male critics may not have enough insight for.

I agree that the September 11th attacks aren’t something of playful nature, of course, but in the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the revelations of dealing with grief and death are universal and aren’t just solely equated with what happened on 9/11. People who are young and old deal with grief and loss differently and all have treasures to unlock.

Perhaps Tom Long wasn’t noticing the extremely loud and incredibly close signs of human connection with love while he watched the film. Or maybe he got up and used the bathroom and missed the important scenes. No matter what happened, he is entitled to his own opinion. I guess the saying goes for reviews too, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close breaks the common patriotic theme of 9/11 and settles on a louder and closer story that hits home for everyone. We never truly understand just how far ahead the maternal intuition is in today’s age.

From Green Earth Stones:

 Throughout the ages mankind has been drawn to the energy of stones, they are gifts from the earth that can improve our lives, relationships and well-being.

Now you have a chance to win a giveaway. Simply follow the instructions below to enter!

The Giveaway:

(1) Selenite Sphere with Stand

Who can enter:

Anyone with a valid United States or Canada mailing address and valid email address.

How to enter:

Go to Green Earth Stones on Etsy.com and then leave a comment here on which Green Earth Stones product is your favorite and why.

Bonus Entry:

**Leave a new comment per bonus entry**

Subscribe (under the Prilosec OTC sponsor logo) to The Bernard Charles Show

Follow Bernard on Twitter @BernieLuvsEllen and leave your Twitter Name in comment

Like America’s Future Talk Show Host on Facebook and leave wall post “Green Earth”

Become a Fan of Green Earth Stones on Facebook

Follow Green Earth Stones on Twitter

Giveaway Ends:

A winner will be chose at random on January 30, 2011.

~~~~~~~

About the Sponsor:

My name is Kathryn Brown, owner of Green Earth Stones a small family run business out of South Central KY. I have a passion for crystals and how they can be incorporated into our daily lives to promote relaxation and well-being and offer a wide selection of premium crystals to help you on your way. My interests are in the realms of various healing modalities, QiGong, meditation, metaphysical, spiritual, aromatherapy and much more!

Official Giveaway Rules

The winner will be selected at random according to Random.org

The winner will be contacted via email.

If the winner does not reply within 4 days he/she will forfeit their prize and another participant will be chosen at random to win the giveaway.

One ‘bonus entry’ counts as one extra entry unless otherwise noted.

The Aqua Aura Mini Bullet Necklace Giveaway winner has been released!

Find out who it is here!

If you would like to suggest Etsy Shops that you would like to see sponsor show giveaways please email me at OfficialTVHost@facebook.com with the shop name and what item you would like to see as an exclusive giveaway!

Coming Up!

The New Year New You blog giveaway continues with Etsy Shop Sponsor: Green Earth Stones! This giveaway opens on January 19, 2012.

It’s that time of year again and I am not talking about you ladies going on your menstrual cycle. I am referring to opening your wallets and buying those awesome Girl Scout cookies we all adore! However, there seems to be a mission that is going viral to boycott all Girl Scout cookies. How insane is that?

According to World Net Daily, an online hub of online news, a 14-year-old has made a video to instigate a boycott against your precious Samoas because she found out that transgenders were being accepted as scout members.

The girl, identified as Taylor from Ventura County, Calif. – but whose parents have asked her last name and troop number be withheld – made a YouTube video calling for the boycott after she was shocked to discover Girl Scouts USA, or GSUSA, has been admitting transgender boys who claim to be girls into scout troops.

The eight-year girl scout, Taylor has a very solemn appearance and seems tired. Clearly, she is reading from a script since her hand is on the table moving the mouse to scroll through her words like a TelePrompter. In back of her you can see handmade signs that surely reveal her haste in making this video.

The shocking news that Taylor is addressing arose when Colorado Girl Scouts released this statement on the behalf of potentially admitting 7-year-old Bobby Montoya (WND says potentially so admitting this child is not yet clear).

We accept all girls in kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.

Now, to me this is a clear expression of how times are changing. You do not have to be a girl biologically, but you have to appear as a girl. So, if you are a boy and feel like a girl then more power to you to feel accepted into society. The only safety concern I see, is for the transgender as they could potentially be outed and then bullied because they are simply different.

If I was Taylor, I would have memorized the lines a little bit more and been more personal in her approach. If this is a joke, then you sure fooled me. However, if this is serious I certainly recommend a sociology and sexuality course for her when she goes to college.

That’s all I have for today! Now for me to get a hold of some Thin Mints!

There will be a new giveaway coming on January 19th so look out for that! You’ll have a ball with it [hint]!!

It has been 6 years, now what

You might be asking yourself, what has been 6 years? On January 9, 2006 I made my first step as an official student of Milton Hershey School. This adventure led me to find myself and my dream of becoming America’s Future Talk Show Host. It was wild and today would not have been possible without entering that landscape of bittersweet chocolate.

Milton Hershey School is a boarding school established in 1909 by Milton and Catherine Hershey. Originally it was for orphan boys and over the years the school has made significant updates to allowing blacks and women to enroll. The major motivation for having the school was in the eyes of Catherine. She wanted to have children so bad, yet her health would not allow her, so her beloved husband, Milton helped make her dream into a reality. Now over a hundred years later the school still stands and the Hershey legacy continues to inspire people and children.

On January 9, 2006, I enrolled into this school with the sole purpose of redefining my life. I was beat and broken from before, but going on this new adventure, I was bound to the seas of growth . This school can help plant seeds for your adult years and I discovered the confidence to go after this dream of becoming a television talk show host.

Many struggles occurred in the first year while I was there and merely adjusting to the rules and consequences tested my Aries personality. I remember running out of my English class because I felt threatened and belittled by the teacher and students. I went to summer school because I did not apply my academic behavior fully. The frustration in understanding my sexual orientation was teetering as I tried to understand what it meant to be in love. Yet, through all of this the adults there were able to withstand my outbursts of rebellion, assign me consequences and move on. No grudges seemed to form, and I cherish that most of all. We simply learn from our mistakes and keep moving forward.

Above all the pains of being at the school, I learned to grow independently and look forward to working with the school on Alumni projects and maybe an internship in the coming months. All I can do now is write this post in remembrance of when I was given a new chance.  And every year it is good to celebrate the things that gave you renewal and rebirth. That is the lesson to be learned here because sometimes we can over look our firsts especially if it was going to a private school. But this is a new year and a new you so I invite you to remember your firsts today as I celebrate my 6 year anniversary of making it to the sweetest place on earth!

Today marks the beginning of my New Year New You blog giveaway series. This year long series is dedicated to giving you all a chance to improve and enhance your lives with special and cute products.

As I ventured through the last part of 2011, learning more about crystals, tarot cards, and auras, I began to see transformation in a new way. A metaphysical glow danced around me, and I truly believe that these alternative approaches to healing and guidance truly do work when you have faith. To me it is like praying, but sometimes that seems too abstract for the mind to keep believing in; so we have helpful tools like cards or crystals to make the language of the universe more coherent.

My first blog giveaway for the series for the month of January is the Aqua Aura Mini Bullet Necklace Giveaway.

GIVEAWAY ends Jan. 16, 2012

According to HIYA MOON, the sponsor of the giveaway

Aqua Aura crystal are said to to attract wealth and success, to bring forth esoteric wisdom, to relieve depression & anxiety, to assist in creating an aura of peace & well being in oneself and one’s surroundings and to enhance your ability to communicate inner truth. It has a soothing and relaxing effect on the emotional body, can be used to soothe anger, cool feverishness, release stress and is strongly connected to the element of water.

January in itself can be a tough month to transition into, because of the aftermath of being on vacation and having the responsibility to get out of the lazy haze that the holidays likes to bring to us. So this giveaway is to help you transition into the new year more easily and to enhance your healing abilities, as aqua is water, and water is a the healing element in the world.

I encourage you to keep coming back to the show as new incredible products will be coming to you. If you have ideas who would you like to see sponsor a giveaway, or you would like to sponsor a giveaway, please email me.

WINNER: MALIA AULT

You have until 4 days to claim your giveaway prize.

Note: Trackbacks/Pings are not counted in total number of comments.

From HIYA Moon Jewelry:

 Each piece is one-of-a-kind and made with a natural, raw and color enhanced crystal point.

Now you have a chance to win a giveaway. Simply follow the instructions below to enter!

The Giveaway:

(1) Aqua Aura Mini Bullet Necklace

Who can enter:

Anyone with with a valid email address.

How to enter:

Go to Hiya Moon Jewelry on Etsy.com and then leave a comment here on which HIYA Moon product is your favorite and why.

Bonus Entry:

**Leave a new comment per bonus entry**

Subscribe (under the Prilosec OTC sponsor logo) to The Bernard Charles Show

Follow Bernard on Twitter @BernieLuvsEllen and leave your Twitter Name in comment

Like America’s Future Talk Show Host on Facebook and leave wall post “Aqua”

Go to Hiya Moon’s Website and leave a comment here on which crystal you need in your life and why

Become a Fan of HIYA Moon on Facebook

Follow HIYA Moon on Twitter

Giveaway Ends:

A winner will be chose at random on January 16, 2011.

~~~~~~~

About the Sponsor:

My name is Matthew South and I’m the creator of HIYA MOON jewelry. I’m a dreamer, alchemist, artist and college student who currently resides in Iowa City, Iowa. HIYA MOON specializes in raw crystal and gem statement pieces and is the love child of combining my passion’s for rock collecting, fashion, graphic design and photography I am constantly inspired by the earth, space exploration, Ancient Egyptian & Native American cultures and anything magical. My creations are extraterrestrial, metaphysical, bohemian, bold and borderline avant-garde.

Official Giveaway Rules

The winner will be selected at random according to Random.org

The winner will be contacted via email.

If the winner does not reply within 4 days he/she will forfeit their prize and another participant will be chosen at random to win the giveaway.

One ‘bonus entry’ counts as one extra entry unless otherwise noted.

Have you felt different in 2012 yet? If not, you should since it’s a new year for the Gregorian calendar.

You might have noticed some spectacular changes to the look and feel of the site today. This new look has been inspired by multiple blogs, brands, and people in my life. I do not have full customization of the site; (WordPress has control over that unless I want to pay for it, which would not be an issue if I was sponsored) I do have the power to do some minor altercations, which I hope you like.

All rights reserved. 2012

The main logo for the show-blog is the full color image with the orange streak, which is of course my infamous orange scarf. As autumn approaches, I pull it out from the shadows and take it off usually at the end of spring, and sure enough I have worn this so often that I have the lunch ladies asking me where it is and strangers come up to me and ask if I am the orange scarf boy. Certainly, this scarf deserves more recognition and it seems to be a part of who I am, so I incorporated it into the logo design. Which was risky, because not everyone knows me and so they might think I am a scarf-only talk show host which would be nice, but not in the ballpark. I believe a lot of clothing can have personal meaning to people as they wear it either to commemorate a loved one or simply to make them feel warm when it’s cold outside. The story of my scarf is more of symbolic expression. The color orange represents self-confidence and creativity. Which in turn, resonates my mission of Inspire. Dream. Create.

Orange is very blatant and vulgar. It makes you immediately start having feelings. –Wolf Kahn

Much inspiration, dreaming, and creativity can spark a fire inside of anyone and so that takes me into explaining the yellow color of the text which merely compliments the orange scarf perfectly. The text is an awesome witchy font as I like to put it and represents my magical and dream-like self. It turns on the whimsy scope and makes it very different from the other talk show hosts. Basically, we have an underlying whirl of flames with fantasy all rolled into one.  This to me, feels like a ball of energy waiting to cast some awesome inspirations, dreams, and creations for 2012.

That is the magic behind the new logo. Also you will notice that the showcase tab has been disabled. This feature has been clogged with more spam then a grocery cart can hold so I opted to no longer have the option. However, if you are inspired and want to share your story please email me! I have emails to look over anyhow so feel free to talk to the host.

Some highlights to point out for the new year:

• 2011 site stats have been processed and can be viewed here.
• New Year New You blog giveaway series is going to be commencing soon, so please stay tune!
• Witch-Blog has a cute New Year journal to offer you, go check it out.
• Resolution: Obtain 1,000 Facebook Followers by the end of 2012 (if you can help me do that, I do appreciate it)

That’s all folks! A new year has begun and there are new looks to be had and new goals to be set. Thank you for sticking with me as I continue to venture on this wild journey of becoming America’s Future Talk Show Host.

]]> http://bernardtalks.com/2012/01/02/ding-dong-2011-is-dead-and-the-show-has-a-new-look/feed/ 0 bernieluvsellen The Bernard Charles Show 2012 logo http://bernardtalks.com/2011/12/29/book-review-the-awakened-aura/ http://bernardtalks.com/2011/12/29/book-review-the-awakened-aura/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:17:52 +0000 BernieLuvsEllen http://bernardtalks.com/?p=2263 ]]> Review by Bernard-Charles

The Awakened Aura: Experience the Evolution of Your Energy Body. Kala Ambrose. Minnesota: Llewellyn, 2011. 207 pp.

Buy on Llewellyn.com for $11.96

There is much more to see and feel in this world than what mainstream society has realized and Kala Ambrose truly lifts the veil of mystery and gives her readers the gift of sight in her new book, The Awakened Aura: Experience the Evolution of Your Energy Body. Ambrose conjures an interdisciplinary approach to understanding auras, using ancient teachings and applying them to modern society for any soul to understand; at the same time, she recognizes that our auras are evolving at a faster rate. As new technologies are rapidly developing and more people choose to follow these Eastern practices and teachings more readily, this book is a quick tool to reference and sharpen our most reverent sense–our third eye. This 207-page publication describes what auras really are, how people can see them, and where people can test their aura-seeing abilities, but the most riveting aspect of the book comes when Ambrose reveals a discovery that the entire human race is currently experiencing: a cosmic evolution within the auric fields.

The book tackles this phenomena rather lightly in the beginning, yet towards the end of the book Ambrose makes her point even clearer, most likely because many people cannot see auras. So if you’re like me and cannot see fun colors and patterns around people or plants, this introductory approach makes it much easier to understand the difference of the old aura and the new one that Ambrose claims to see. Yet, there is only one drawback that constantly teetered in my head while reading–belief. Are such things called auras actually real?

Kala Ambrose has been drawn to auras her entire life.  She explains that in school, she would color outside of the lines merely because she saw that those colors were outside of the contour lines in real life.  Like any child, she thought mimicking what you see in reality was the best teacher. It was natural for her to see auras and to discover an evolutionary change. The problem with all of this is that not everyone can see the presence of auras. I knew this immediately going into the book  and so it was a goal to try and see any auric activity I could witness.

Like many books dealing with the body, mind, and spirit; concepts of self-transformation are very personal. With this, I am compelled to reveal to you a very small intuitive inkling that The Awakened Aura offers truth. When I was in math class of my public school, I was very apt in paying attention to my surroundings because I was bullied. I had to develop a system for survival. One day this notion caused me to look at my math teacher while she was passing out tests and suddenly I saw a white light outlining her body. This memory was long forgotten until I read this book.

After reading and practicing a meditative exercise that Ambrose suggests, I intuitively felt that what I saw was my teacher’s etheric field, the first shell in the layers of auras detailed in The Awakened Aura. This simple realization of my own personal encounter with auras was truly enlightening. The issue I am having now is the ability to see auras again. Consequently, I remembered some advice Ambrose gives to beginners:

If you haven’t been on a bike in twenty years and get back on one, you are going to be a little wobbly and unsteady. It’s the same thing if you don’t continue to practice seeing auras once you start viewing auras. –Page 66

These words ring true since many agree that practice makes perfect.  I am forthright in keeping an open mind, because without this book I would have forgotten all about my classroom experience; thusly I would not be able to connect with another advancement in personal growth. So I will continue meditating and allow The Awakened Aura to be a guide when it comes to strengthening my evolving energy body.

Beyond the vastness of auras, Ambrose takes the reader back into the world of healing temples where other teachings like Feng Shui, herbal teas, power of color and sound, crystals, foods, clothing, and dream interpretation all enabled a person to overcome the adversities in life. Today, this book marks a beginning of a new era in evolution and should be appreciated. Ambrose digs deep to not only uncover why the roots of the ancient are still relevant to the 21st century, but also where this auric transformation is bound to take us as we enter the end of the Mayan calendar.

Kala Ambrose is host of Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show (www.exploreyourspirit.com) and national columnist for the Huffington Post and Examiner.com. She is also author of 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled, Ghosthunting North Carolina, and The Awakened Aura: Experiencing the Evolution of Your Energy Body. You can follow her on Twitter at @KalaAmbrose

The Broken Heart Necklace Set Giveaway winner has been released!

Find out who it is here!

If you would like to suggest Etsy Shops that you would like to see sponsor show giveaways please email me at OfficialTVHost@facebook.com with the shop name and what item you would like to see as an exclusive giveaway!