Joe Varisco is Beautiful!

Joe "Butterfly" Varisco

Over in Chicago, there is an artist/freethinker named Joe Varisco.

Joe has a day job in development at a non-profit that teaches yoga to under served kids. How cool is that?

He's also the impetus behind a salon of artists & creatives in Chicago's "Ukrainian Village" neighborhood. He's prolly doing some other mad shit that I don't about yet. Stay tuned!

In an era when "art" is determined by the price tag or PR-bought buzz, Joe and his cohorts are refreshingly, unabashedly unintimidated enough to organize exhibitions of their "art" in whatever form it takes. Since the salon has moved online, its influence is now global.

Joe Varisco is a bizzy, bizzy boy! I got the impression after a few manic chats with him that Joe wings his way around the planet at 300 mph, occasionally alighting to disgorge ideas, foment art, bring people together, make folks think and laugh, entertain and most of all create good!

Joe Varisco is on a mission. He and those participating in the vision are creating waves whose ripples will eventually reach the rest of us.

Joe Varisco is sexy, creative, un-afraid to fail or embarrass himself, dedicated and just fuckin' fresh! And we imagine (blush) that he's a good kisser too.

Check out JOE VARISCO'S WORLD AT YOUTUBE

Joe Varisco with his favorite (lucky fucker!) co-conspirator

Because the internet(s) sometimes bring folks together, in previously unimagined ways, I have been blessed to make the acquaintance of Joe Varisco. He is What's Beautiful #22!

Green is not only Beautiful....It's Funny as Fuck!

Lewis Black knows of what he speaks. His material skewers the daily hypocrisies we all engage in and the complete incompetence of those "in charge of things." Black OWNS cynical curmudgeon.

Here, in a DAILY SHOW segment, he riffs on the popularity, the pop-stardom of the "making a difference by LIVING GREEN" idea in US culture.

What is greencred and who decides who has it?

Lewis Black rips a few new ones in this clip about the media.celeb "ownership" of green.

Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias is Beautiful!

Gabriel Iglesias says he's from the capital of Mexico, "right here in LA." And his riffs on his obvious "large person-ness" make me laugh until I have to PAUSE to catch my breath!

Laughing is beautiful because it diffuses anger, tension and raises one's level of serotonin. Mr. Gabriel Iglesias has a gift for making us laugh!

Be sure to check the clips -- but you should prolly go pee first!

Gabriel Iglesias Clip #1
Gabriel Iglesias Clip #2

Gabriel Iglesias is What's Beautiful #017

Their Faces are Beautiful! Their Need is Great!

I've decided to post a weekly line-up of dogs seeking new homes through Rocket Dog Rescue in San Francisco. See my earlier post: "Animal Fostering is Beautiful!"

I believe there exists a person or family for every animal seeking a home. It is only matter of education and effective distribution of information. We could eliminate the "stray" and "abandoned" animal crisis in the US.

The proper treatment of animals should be taught to children early on in the home and park, and at pre-school. Spay & Neuter should be as well known in our culture as "put a condom on it!"

We need laws to outlaw unlicensed breeding of animals. We need laws (and fees) to discourage the abandonment of animals. We need enforcement of laws regarding animal negligence and cruelty. We need to abandon the feeling of superiority we have over animals and treat them as our sacred co-habitors of Earth. [I think I just became a vegetarian, boo!]

In any case, here are this week's irresistibly cute, totally adorable and eminently adoptable dogs currently being fostered by Rocket Dog Rescue in San Francisco.


Because homeless animals are innocents who deserve so much more, our weekly "FRESH FACES" is What's Beautiful #016.

Mario Verta's Work is Beautiful

When I'm altered and ready to look at some cool images, I head over to Artbreak. Thousand of "artists" and I sometimes spend HOURS surfing and bookmarking work I like.



I've only just met the work of Mario Verta. His work includes an oil of Hitler in a red jumpsuit with serial number on his chest -- a guest of the US government at Guantanamo Bay. The number though -- one immediately ties Dachau to Guantanamo. Or at least that's how it struck me.


I gasped when I first saw the image. To me, it was Hitler as astronaut, a US icon of heroism. I looked closer. My Rorscach impression was then the Francis-Baconesque vertical color streaks behind the Hitler. Reminiscent of Bacon's nightmarish Pope, as inspired by Valazquez's 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent X.

Then I absorbed/felt the ultra-saturated red of his uniform. If this were a portrait of a young girl in a dress of the same color, we would feel a warmth for the subject, but on Verta's Hitler, the red can only remind us of blood and slaughter, and so we throw up a little bit in our mouth.

Verta has also produced a metaphorical indictment of the epidemic of US violence with the painting, "Young Americans".



Because in the random world of the internet(s), there is a great possibility to encounter beauty if one knows where to look and is patient, Mario Verta' work is WHAT'S BEAUTIFUL #015.