Title: Teacher & Student, One with All

Gender: Female

Age: 31

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Chinese Sign: Fire Snake

Location: New York City

Oh, I love this part of networking profiles – as if any one person could ever limit his/herself to a few sentences or well-chosen words on a site such as this.

My copy editors and critics seem to agree on one thing: I'm a writer who has “emesis of the word processor.”
Well, let me not disappoint them, then… 

-Some of you may know me because I've been in the music business for 11 years (started out as a radio DJ while still in college). I've had clients like Astralwerks Records (when the Chemical Brothers were the Second Coming), VH1, The Darkness (band), Epitaph Records, and so on.

-Some of you may know me because of my company, Akasha Multimedia. I've had the pleasure of meeting so many people as an end result – and some even knew what “akasha” really was (which tickled me pink, blue, and every other color). If you want to see a website (which MUST be updated, I know), you can check out: www.akashamultimedia.com

-Some of you may know me because I'm a professional photographer. I'm represented by the British agency Splash News (and given what the state of the US dollar is, if you must know, YES, I'd rather be paid in Euros…or, better yet, Pounds Sterling) and I have a “celebrity list” as long as my arm. I've been in two exhibitions (one an official NYC Fall Fashion Week exhibit), and am going to be in another at the Queens Museum of Art (this one is about religion/spirituality). I've also been published in The Los Angeles Times, Gawker, Defamer, Jezebel, Monsters and Critics, the Long Island Pulse, and NYScene.com (to name a few).

Wanna see some samples of my work?
Go HERE. And let me know what you think – I love interaction!

-Some of you know me because I'm a journalist. I got my start writing and editing The Island Ear, reviewing concerts and CDs and interviewing the likes of Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam) and Shannon McNally. (Google me if you want) I've written over 500 articles on music-related subjects. These days, however, I'm a beat reporter and interim editor for The Long Island Herald; my areas of coverage include RVC, Long Beach and the barrier beaches, and East Meadow. I've covered everything from politics to murders (which, one can argue, are one in the same). I'd like to get back to my music roots, someday, after I get my PhD. 'Cept this time around, I want to write and shoot for Spin, Vibe, and Rolling Stone. Positive thinking, right? :-)

-Some of you may know me because I'm an actor (actress?). I started out doing it for fun – a way to blow off steam and become an exaggerated permutation of my Self. I don't profess to be any sort of, say, Royal Shakespeare Company-trained actor (though I admire and respect those who are, and similarly so – and I did perform Hamlet onstage once. I was Witch #2. Those who know me argued I was playing myself…), but I do profess to be someone who has a damn good time doing it, and showing it.

Well, the next thing *I* know, I'm in three commercials, a couple of print campaigns, four runway shows, and in June 2008 get to perform on Broadway in “How I Killed My Roommate (and Got Away With It).”
My character in the latter? A spoiled Italian-American princess named “Chickie.”
Still, it's a grand old time. And I'm having a lot of fun. What's the point, really, if you can't have fun once in a while?

-On a spiritual level, some of you may know me because I studied under Lady Auset, of the Temple Per Neneh. Egyptian witchcraft was her area of expertise, and the Great Archpriestess has now retired to the Council of Elders. I will always love and cherish her, and hold her in the highest regard. (I tease and call her the Yoda of Paganism – she has taught the best – but she is so much more, really…)

Though I am, I suppose, a Pagan by definition, I'm always up for learning and evolving. That's what I ultimately seek: Spiritual Evolution. Higher Self.
 
And I believe there's Wisdom in all True Teachers: Christ (not the Pope, though, that not-so-latent Nazi…). Buddha. Dalai Lama. Moses. Vishnu. Krishna. Zeus. Isis. Kali'ma.
Even some of today's gurus can offer us Enlightenment and Evolution…provided they realize that they are there to show us *A* Way (as opposed to *THE* Way) and that we ALL can achieve Divinity and Evolution…because it all resides within us, we just need the strength and guidance to find it.

After all, I did say at the beginning of this that I seek Evolution and Enlightenment. There IS a reason I named my company Akasha, you know…

-Still, others know me because I've written a book (Swimming with Sharks: A Real-World How-To Guide to Success (and Failure) in the Business of Music, with Melissa Deskovic), subsequently got a record deal (Conquer the World Records), got put in FYE's across the country, and turned up on iTunes (go look me up!). Then I got contacted by a British agency to contribute to another book called EVER DATED A PSYCHO? (I could've written the whole book myself, forget just a little anecdote), which subsequently got published by Short Books and is sold in the U.K. to this date (you can pick it up on amazon.co.uk if you like). And I'm also working on two follow-up books, a screenplay, and a syndicated column.

(I'm never bored…can you tell?)


-But those of you who know me – who really know me – just know me as BERN.
:-)

I'm a New Yorker, born and bred. Italian-American (and if you must know, yes, I'm Sicilian). Speak six languages (aside from the King's English) but only spoke Italian until I was six (parents were immigrants). Learned the ways of the Strega when I was thirteen (I'm a hereditary Strega – and those who know that Path know that the firstborn of the firstborn is always born a Strega. Well – my luck – BOTH my parents are firstborns…).

I keep friends for life, I'm a lover not a fighter (but I will fight to the death for those that I love), I'm loyal and intelligent and have a twisted sense of humor, I'm ridiculously creative and obsessed with psychology and chaos, I'm an animal lover and a vegan, I find it difficult to express all that I really am with just a few words (NO, REALLY?! ;-]), I'm a warrior soul with a heart of gold who has born the scars of more battles than she cares to admit, I'm so complex I defy even my own definitions because I'm many things to many people, I am completely unafraid of my own Power (and the Power within others) and confident that my Inner Light serves me well…

And even though I may come off as abrasive, and am completely unwilling to cater to bullshit and/or ego, and refuse to bow down to ANY mortal as the arbiter of Divinity (if you take nothing else away from this admittedly-long profile, take this: Never, EVER, allow ANYONE to take away the Divinity that is within YOU. No Human, by definition, can ever truly be Divinity to another Human – Divinity is within YOU, you just have to be strong enough to find it!), I promise you that whether you love me or hate me (and there's never a gray area), you will never, ever, forget me.

:-)
My journey is just beginning…

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING: Though I welcome open discussion, appreciate a good debate (intellectual or spiritual), and am always happy to meet new people (be they on my Path or not) and learn about their Ways, I am still a Warrior Soul. To put it more bluntly: I am not afraid to expose, rip apart, and otherwise annihilate false prophets, those who prey upon the weak and/or vulnerable, or anyone who dares to compromise the integrity and Divinity within any sentient being.

To those wolves in sheep's clothing, I say the following: You cannot, and will not, scare me – because trust when I tell you that I've dealt with (and succesfully combated) stronger than you. The truly strong – within their beliefs, within their community – DEFEND, not prey upon, the weak.

Hurt me if you want, if you can, or if you think you can (I'll have fun watching you try).
But hurt those who cannot defend themselves – prey upon the vulnerable – suck their energy and eradicate their Soul – and be prepared to deal with the likes of ME.

Trust me, O False Ones – a vegan, pagan, Fire, Snake, Priestess, Strega, Eclectic, kein thelema, intellectual journalist born and bred in the City of New York who is fully cognizant of the Divinity within Herself and Others is NOT one to be messed with. :-)
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Member Since: Thursday, March 06 2008

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