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Rolando Newsletter

January 3, 2017

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.  ~Bill Vaughan

¡Feliz Año Nuevo, Mi Gente!

I have the impression a lot of us stayed up to ensure the old year left.  We made it through a wild, tough year together. We said goodbye to too many beloved cultural icons; from Prince to Bowie to Ali and too many others, from early January to just a week ago, as well as to too many friends and family.  We witnessed turmoil and political resistance in the streets and welcomed in a new American protectionist leadership who’s message is thinly veiled in racism.  I lost my vision in my right eye and just recently gained most of it back.  We’ll all need to keep two good eyes open on this new year!  Let’s hope for the best, but speak out loudly when the time warrants.

I’m starting my first week of the year with three nice public appearances, all at locations I haven’t seen in a while.  This Thursday Jan 5, I return to Piacere in downtown San Carlos from 8-11pm.  We had a blast there closing out 2016 with many Peninsula friends I hadn’t seen in years.  Lots of great energy, singing and dancing.  Let’s keep the ball rolling and swing by!  Details below.

Then on Friday January 6, after three months away, I finally return to Maria, Maria in Walnut Creek from approx 6-9pm.  Time flies when you’re busy…  Let’s reconnect!   Details below.

And on Saturday January 7, after FOUR months away, I finally return to Maria, Maria in Danville, also approx 6-9pm.  This is my shout-out to my Far East Bay friends.  Swing by!  Details below.

Remember too, to make your reservations for Saturday January 14, “An Evening with Rolando Morales and Carlos Reyes” at the Sausalito Seahorse with our World Class band.  We’ll have my musical monsters ready to go: bassist David Belove; Latin percussionist/vocalist and Grammy winner Omar Ledezma; Brazilian drummer Celso Alberti; and of course Paraguayan harpist/violinist Carlos Reyes and Yours Truly on guitar, guitar synth and vocals.  It’s next week, so make your reservations now.  Details below.

Here’s the rest of your brand new January Calendar.    See you at the show!

Ciao,

Rolando

PUBLIC PERFORMANCES FOR JANUARY 2017 

Thursday Jan 5, Piacere, 727 Laurel Street, San Carlos, CA 9070, 8-11pm.  After almost 4 years away, Rolando finally returns for a set of appearances at this fine Peninsula restaurant that takes you on a culinary tour of Italy.  Rolando will take you on a sensory tour of the Americas and beyond on solo guitar and voice.  Come along for the ride.  www.piacererestaurant.com, (650) 592-2040.

Friday Jan 6, Maria, Maria Cantina, 1470 North Broadway, Walnut Creek, approx 6-9pm. After almost 3 months away, Rolando finally returns to Carlos Santana’s Walnut Creek tavern to perform on solo guitar and voice in the Restaurant Room.  Flautist Bob Harrison may sit in.  Swing by and greet the New Year with old and new friends!  (925) 820-2366, www.mariamariarestaurants.com.

Saturday Jan 7, Maria, Maria Cantina, 710 Camino Ramon Road, Danville CA, approx 6-9pm.  After almost 4 months away, Rolando finally returns for a rare Saturday night at Carlos Santana’s  elegant Danville location.  Bring friends and let’s welcome the New Year together.  Who knows when I’ll be back!  (925) 820-2366, www.mariamariarestaurants.com.

Saturday Jan 14, “An Evening with Rolando Morales and Carlos Reyes,” Sausalito Seahorse, 305 Harbor Drive, Sausalito, approx 8:30-11:30pm.  After months away, these two passionate musicians finally return to The Seahorse to put on their unique show at this fun waterfront restaurant and club.  The great Paraguayan harpist/violinist Carlos Reyes and passionate guitarist/vocalist Rolando Morales will play a short set in duet to close out the dinner hour, followed by a concert and dancing to the World Class Rolando Morales Group featuring from the Pete Escovedo Orchestra, the rock-solid bassist David Belove; from Brazil, the amazing drummer from Airto and Steve Winwood, Celso Alberti; Grammy-winning Latin percussionist/vocalist Omar Ledezma; from Paraguay, the thrilling violinist and harpist from Arturo Sandoval and Steve Miller, Carlos Reyes; and the powerful Rolando Morales leading the journey on guitar, guitar synthesizer and vocals.   Don’t miss it!   $15.  Make your  reservations at (415) 331-2899. www.sausalitoseahorse.com

Saturday Jan 21, Pairings Cellars, 310 Main Street, Pleasanton CA 94566, 8-11pmRolando returns to this new, exciting social hotspot in downtown Pleasanton.  This new wine bar features fine wines, tapas and Rolando Morales performing his broad repertoire on solo guitar and voice.  Free! www.pairingscellars.com, (925) 398-8846.

Thursday Jan 26, Piacere, 727 Laurel Street, San Carlos, CA 94070, 8-11 pmRolando returns to this fine Peninsula restaurant that takes you on a culinary tour of Italy.  Rolando will take you on a sensory tour of the Americas and beyond on solo guitar and voice in the fun, lively bar area.   www.piacererestaurant.com, (650) 592-2040.

America for several hundred years stood for freedom, and now?

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence

Since this nation was started it strongly associated with certain principles. During a time when a very large part of Americans brought in a man who seems to hold no respect the principle of freedom in his heart, we do well to remind ourselves what Freedom actually means and why the US wanted to be free from arbitrary rules of George III of England, who did not respect Americans as enjoying these inalienable rights.  Somehow nearly half of Americans seem to have forgotten and are now promoting Trump and his compadre Putin’s style of government which does not promote Freedom.

 

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have  connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton