Canned Culture

Dear Joe

2011-11-12T18:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Joe

2011-09-10T07:52:00.001-07:00

dear melissa

2011-08-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Joe

2011-08-23T03:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Joe

2011-08-09T03:07:00.001-07:00

Dear Melissa

2011-07-06T01:35:00.001-07:00

It is the hour of the wolf. A Nordic tale that speaks of a wolf that stalks outside people's doors between the hour it is darkest just before dawn. It is the time when the greatest of nightmares seem the most real and life clings to itself for fear of losing grip. You can't sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and the problems and the ways that your life should've gone but didn't. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I've often been awake through this time. I've practiced methods of trying to scare the wolf off or hide from the wolf. Were I to come from a family who drank, this would probably be the time to do so. So I take suggestions from other lore. One large glass of vodka before bed and three very small sips of vodka, just in case the wolf had babies. I'll curl up on my bed, no breeze coming through the window, city soundscapes and the absence of chirping. If I had a cigarette I would smoke it. Instead, with no blanket to cover me I will clutch my book and take deep breaths and let the vodka help me along.

Dear Joe

2011-06-26T04:22:00.001-07:00

bean faces!

Dear Joe

2011-05-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

dear melissa

2011-04-22T09:27:00.001-07:00

this should be known:

dear melissa

2011-04-19T21:59:00.001-07:00

fucking hell have you seen any of Leah Brown's hair installation work?

Dear Joe

2011-04-08T11:48:00.001-07:00

Don't be sad

dear melissa

2011-04-06T11:32:00.001-07:00

today I am sad and I miss you

dear melissa

2011-03-28T18:23:00.001-07:00

I would like you to start wearing purple please

Dear Joe

2011-03-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

I maintain that this is one of the BEST LJ communities in the internets.

Dear Joe

2011-02-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

Arrested Development Clue

via

dear melissa

2011-01-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

"You know art is why I get up in the morning, but my definition ends there, you know it doesn't seem fair."

Listening to any Ani DiFranco will always remind me of driving around in your death car around cornfields while you repeat all of the spoken parts with perfect rhythm and inflection and tone.

"The butter melts out of habit, you know the toast isn't even warm."

dear melissa

2011-01-23T00:29:00.000-08:00

potential future gifts

Dear Joe

2011-01-21T02:06:00.000-08:00

snap

dear melissa

2011-01-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

So It Begins from Joseph R Varisco on Vimeo.

it takes so long to get from here to there

Dear Joe

2011-01-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

The Original, for me, is this

As he dresses Piero's corpse, he pauses to look up. He tells the corpse, and us, "It's going well. We are winning."

After 10+ years of watching this movie, I maintain that it is my favorite. It's silly and awkward and over-stylized and I adore every last minute of it. It will explain many things.

Also,

your tumblrgays have fucking nothing on Walken.

I suggest you screen this flick at your next party.

dear melissa

2011-01-11T09:41:00.001-08:00

"There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning."

- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

dear melissa

2011-01-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought, there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.”

—	Frida Kahlo

Dear Joe

2011-01-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

things i wont buy myself but covet nonetheless

" Just a nice little reminder you are gonna kick it one day."

Dear Joe

2011-01-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

i dunno

dear melissa

2011-01-03T23:58:00.000-08:00

Melissa worry not for me. All of this has happened before and will happen again and if it doesnt than that is ok too.

It is not all one blue-eyeshadow mess. I know it is fleeting. I know it is passing and is gone as fast as it took to type this sentence. What becomes lasting is the work that survives for whatever reason, mostly the work with meaning. Much of that is yet to be unveiled or has not yet made it to post.

I carry sapphires in my shoes, rubies in my eyes and the emeralds you gave me in my pockets. Quite the nonassembled invisible crown.

Dear Joe

2010-12-29T00:55:00.000-08:00

yumm
haay

Dear Joe

2010-12-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

wait, what now?

dear melissa

2010-12-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

I want you to animate all of my life

Ólafur Arnalds – Hægt, kemur ljósið (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

Dear Joe

2010-12-14T01:12:00.000-08:00

simpler times

Dear Joe

2010-12-01T14:13:00.001-08:00

Dear Joe

2010-11-23T01:39:00.001-08:00

dear melissa

2010-11-18T11:07:00.000-08:00

not to give too much a shout out, but not only is Topher interesting and talented, I think you will find his work quite amusing as well.

http://makesomethingawfuleveryday.tumblr.com/

Dear Joe

2010-11-18T00:46:00.000-08:00

http://mailbagartmuseum.blogspot.com/

Dear Joe

2010-11-16T08:55:00.001-08:00

dear melissa

2010-11-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

Little Person from Joseph R Varisco on Vimeo.

Dear Joe

2010-10-26T01:23:00.001-07:00

boogadda boogadda boogadda!

dear melissa

2010-10-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

some stop-animation, puppetry, etc. for your love

warming you up

Sugar Skull by Paul Alexander Thornton

dear melissa

2010-09-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

I try

I am not a writer. I am the type of person who wants to be. My father is that type of person too. I am because he is, maybe he was because his father was. However, despite my lack of talent for writing it still does me good. First of all it feels good. Catharsis (I like to use words like that) through pen on paper, it makes me feel like a deep clearing breath, like when my figurative heart is all torn up and the ship has sailed or I missed the boat or I am late for a very important date.

People reach my words. They walk up and touch them. Not the writers really, not, especially, the good writers. And it is not a self-depreciating thing because I appreciate me, my effort, my spirit of refusal to submit and then sometimes (just sometimes) my submitting.

Mostly I fall short because I try to capture the truth. The elusive truth. The truth you can only experience (for people like me), but cannot write. But I do try. I try until I am tired and exhausted and feel a caffeine-like crash and must sleep or run or eat a lot of food. And when it is all over (whatever 'it' is), it feels better, at least for me and maybe for you too. If you too that is a miracle and I believe in those as hard as I can.

Dear Joe

2010-09-25T04:01:00.000-07:00

Fried Chicken for 40, Cole Slaw, 20 lbs of Potato Salad, five dozen Buttermilk Biscuits. All from scratch.

Your move.

Dear Joe

2010-09-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

A rare one, better than most, one of my favorites, I pull his thin volumes from my pile of dollar-minis, I send this to you.

http://penrod-pulaski.livejournal.com/53732.html

dear melissa

2010-09-08T22:47:00.001-07:00

Publish Post
http://www.underwatersculpture.com/

this is something Id love my name to be associated with, I guess Im going to learn how to do some sculpting

Dear Joe

2010-09-06T01:14:00.000-07:00

RIGHT HERE

dear melissa

2010-08-24T10:31:00.001-07:00

I want to be your weave

Dear Joe

2010-08-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

GOOD GRAVY pt 1
THIS right here. Let's bookmark it for the next, hm, 3.5 months.

GOOD GRAVY pt 2
i freaking made this swiss sauce

you want the recipe, don't you.

dear melissa

2010-08-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

Melissa......stop animation coming soon.....soooooooon!

Dear Joe

2010-08-16T11:44:00.001-07:00

Here it is here it is here it is here it is!

http://vimeo.com/10066407

yessssssssssssssssssss

dear melissa

2010-08-12T11:43:00.001-07:00

an entirely new era

Dear Joe

2010-08-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

I need a new wallet.

dear melissa

2010-07-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

just for reference here is what happened during our conversation last night:

Melissa: yeppers, although with this hangover i dunno, that little dago is out for my blood i start working for him at the end of the month, after kelly leaves

Me: There should always be at least one dago who is out for your blood around

Melissa: that's like a barometer for whether or not you're living a full lifedoes a dago want ur blood? good, you're having a good time

Me: ahahahaand yes, it should. though if you are the dago should someone still want your blood and if so who?

Melissa: i cant answer these complicated italian questions, dont you have a Mario bros handbook around somewhere

Dear Joe

2010-07-07T01:50:00.001-07:00

look at this shit

2010-06-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissastanley727/4743309413/

it's all about the tags, and what the hell.

pink floyd
wish u were here

dear melissa

2010-06-22T10:04:00.001-07:00

The common man he wants to grow

But he does not know

What he does not know

He seeks the vestige of his friends

With little faith that hearts will mend

He writes this sobby dribble trash

Making him all more the ass

His hands get rough and head less dense

While wishes and dreams lose all sense

The common man he wants to grow

He tells his Father, he tells the road

The common man I thought was not me

But I did not see, I did not see

The common man he wants to grow

But he does not know

He does not know

Dear Joe

2010-06-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

I thought this would amuse you.

A food-community on the old LiveJurnalz is accepting applications for moderators. This was part of my application submission:

Q: Why should we pick you out of everyone who applied?
A: This week I baked eleven loaves of bread, studied thai cooking ingredients, read My Life in France AND the new Bourdain book (medium raw) (twice), stole a case of wine off a boat, and replanted my balcony herb garden. I know the difference between this community and (another, similar community), and what is appropriate for each. I think people who only want traffic to their personal blog are a pain, that's not community. I believe that excessive use of the term "om nom nom" is a crime. Food porn is exactly that - it's porn. It should arouse and inspire, and occasionally be slightly disturbing. And lastly, I know how to create a f***ing lj-cut. I've been using lj for 10 years.

dear melissa

2010-06-14T10:55:00.001-07:00

I tumbled about you, I honor you :o)

a few months ago one of the greatest influences and friends and loves of my life, Melissa Sue Stanley packed up her life and moved to Switzerland. To a tiny town nestled in the mountains filled with the most amazing cheeses, breads, etc.

we stay in touch as one does with a close friend. We write letters, we skype, we email and facebook status update and share a blog exclusively for keeping up with one another. I do not typically share these letters on this blog because it is such a very different format.

Dear Melissa I miss you greatly you. You have taken with you to this new land a piece of me. One that I was happy to give up to see what you could mold it into. Whisper it secrets and great truths and then I can come pick it up or you can mail it to me and I will be better again.

The year has been a carousel of transition, but it stops every now and again and we can try to stand on our feet and see what change has transpired. And if we remain still enough we an actually see some of our struggle, our pain, or losses spin off with the wind.

Letting go....oof....not the best thing I do and yet it has become one of my strongest lessons and best assets Ive ever acquired. Of course I am still learning.

Layers and layers of messaging. This is written for Melissa, for Maggie, for my Father and Mother and Sister, and for you. You know who you are right? Beyond our limited capacity to see and experience the world is a that great, great open universe in which we are all connected. Doors open and close, carousels start and go. We are all full of fits and starts and perhaps I am now embarking on my next.

Just listen to the melody of the carousel, get lost for a minute, step carefully and hold someones hand, smile, it will be all too soon before the ride is over.

dear melissa

2010-06-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Domesticity Isn’t Pretty

My father told me he would always help me find my way home. I have reached a point in my life where I would like to or perhaps need to build my own home. I miss the idea that used to visit me of bringing to life my own family. It seems to have taken a temporary vacation. Tickets for a return trip are scarce. I suppose that is what happens when we deconstruct our identities. I begin to see a sad boarded up house, wood planks blocking the windows, broken down car in the driveway, weeds overtaking everything.

I used to keep a list in my wallet titled “Good Thought: In Case of Emergency.” I pulled that out tonight and it read:

Keep playing the game, just keep playing the game.
Driving down the highway, in traffic, do not switch lanes. Have patience, things will begin to move at the right speed again.
Listen to Amsterdam music, close your eyes and go there.
Sing everything you know.
Write until you hands cannot work anymore.
Run until your legs cannot work anymore.
Think of all the people who love you, write down their names and why.
Remember you have to let go a little sometimes if you want people to come back.
Go to a bookstore.

I realized I’d written that list almost 10 years ago when I was just coming to terms with my sexual identity.

I am not a crier. I wish I could. Thoughts of my family can sometimes induce tears, but they are almost always stifled by an unconscious resistance. As I read through the list I began relating to that scared and pressurizing feeling I felt at 15, eyes welled up, maybe I let one tear escape, sniffle, sniffle, cough and resume control.

I then thought of that home again, seeing now piles of lumber and hammers, nails and screw (all neatly organizes of course). The silhouetted figures of a husband and a kid and a dog (okay, Samson was definitely there too).. One piece of furniture to move in, my first real kitchen table.

My hands are ready for the labor. I am ready to make the first strike now. Bruising, scraped, swollen thumb be damned (I am not too good at the construction thing), but it will be my own home.

And you will come to visit. Will you come to visit? And you will sit at my kitchen table. And maybe you can help me build it stronger, make improvements here and there. And you, you will give it the name ‘home.’ And all of you will bring me home..

Dear Joe

2010-05-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

Something's gotta give. Gather the matches. It's time to light fires.

Dear Joe

2010-05-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

A small series of X-Men comics that you would probably be amused by

Right Here

dear melissa

2010-05-20T09:36:00.001-07:00

this is what I imagine your life is like in Hombrechtikon, Swissville

p.s. I spelled that right on the first go without even looking, look ma' no hands!

dear melissa

2010-05-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

potato! potato! potato!

it started as an experiment, but I have to say I will happily dig my hands in the dirt this fall to see what bulbous rooty delight will come forth.

shhhh....they are being kept and watched by Lucille until they are ready.

dear melissa

2010-05-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

if you dont not send me some bread soon I will eat this cat!

dear melissa

2010-05-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

i have transcended

Dear Joe

2010-05-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

You owe me:
1 email
1 letter
5 CC blog postings

Therefore, I punish you with my absolute Love Of Trevor:

Seriously, I adore what this skinny bastard does. The Hitler Rap is pretty freaking amazing also.

Dear Joe

2010-05-16T01:40:00.001-07:00

Read all of these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bar-art/sets/72157623479860723/

super tip top.

Dear Joe

2010-05-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

Important things to remember.

Dear Joe

2010-05-13T03:32:00.001-07:00

I need one OF THESE THINGS but I don't know which one. Raar!

Dear Joe

2010-05-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

"And at the end of all this? I don't know - but since we must work, let us work. Let us plow the field to find the treasure, and if there is no treasure, never mind; the earth will give us back a good crop of potatoes."

~~Jacques Villon

Dear Joe

2010-05-10T01:57:00.000-07:00

I have been really enjoying all of THESE.

dear melissa

2010-05-05T12:15:00.001-07:00

food porn

dear joe

2010-04-27T14:33:00.001-07:00

holy fucking cheese, dude!

...i'm not going to poop for days.

i'll blog this proper tomorrow on my page. just had to share in my bowel discomfort and extreme pleasure this evening.

dear melissa

2010-04-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

you would have been proud of this

slow-roast pork delicious

Dear Joe

2010-04-25T03:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the recipe. This turned out Super Tip Top.

dear melissa

2010-04-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

i know i did bad, but sometimes i can fix my stupid mistakes

we are always

Dear Joe

2010-04-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

Basic Math:

THIS:

EQUALS

(the video is better)

TIMES

Dear Joe

2010-04-21T22:59:00.001-07:00

Dear Joe

2010-04-14T06:46:00.001-07:00

Let's all thank Baby Jesus for websites like

THIS ONE RIGHT FUCKING HERE

Dear Joe

2010-04-06T04:23:00.001-07:00

"When seeing a new place, I often think: I am going to come back here later - when I am rich, or when I have more time, or when I have a purpose, or when I am with someone I love - and do this right. But it is self-deception. More often than not, my feet lead me somewhere new rather than somewhere I've already been. And as I sat at that window watching the train bore through the heart of China, I had a different, more probable thought, and I wrote it down: I better remember what this place looks like. I will never be back."

-Brad Newsham, All the Right Places

dear melissa

2010-04-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Joe

2010-03-31T23:53:00.001-07:00

Porous Walker Feature from TheCreativeLives on Vimeo.

Dear Joe

2010-03-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

click it

Dear Joe

2010-03-26T04:21:00.000-07:00

The most profound exclamation can only be truth. Truth in yourself. The expression, "work is love made visible", has never had so much meaning. You must live gloriously.

(Yes, I just quoted Rand and Gibran in the same paragraph. Fuck you if you don't like it)

dear melissa

2010-03-16T12:44:00.001-07:00

five years ago you (perhaps more) you gave me Atlas Shrugged to read, I got through a quarter before something....nonetheless I marked it up and now I begin again. Enter Dagny Taggart:

"She thought: For just a few moments--while this lasts--it is all right to surrender completely--to forget everything and just permit yourself to feel. She thought: Let go--drop the controls--this is it." "This is why the wheels have to be kept going, and this is where they're going" (Rand, p. 20)

Dear Joe

2010-03-02T13:50:00.001-08:00

Here's something fun I learned today:
If you do a google image search for "chicken fucks a cat picture", one of the images that comes up is of Samson.

dear melissa

2010-02-25T21:05:00.000-08:00

sage advice

Dear Joe

2010-02-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

will you go to prom with me?

Y N Maybe

Dear Joe

2010-02-16T18:52:00.000-08:00

Dear Joe

2010-02-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

I have been shamelessly (shamefully) spending my mornings

i have two pink nipples and a penchant for sparkly things, fine, i admit it, after years of black-clad Dagny-esque defiance.

Dear Joe

2010-02-12T10:17:00.001-08:00

dear melissa

2010-02-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

what is Totoro doing here?

Dear Joe

2010-02-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

My motto and mantra for 2010:

with just a little touch of

Dear Joe

2010-02-03T20:06:00.001-08:00

life lessons:

this crazy bitch didn't cook anything until she was 36 years old.

dear melissa

2010-02-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Riku and I will miss you

dear melissa

2010-02-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

I am not doing well with this moving to Switzerland thing your doing

you brought me the bookcase

and pogan

it is silly, but if feels like when you went off to college and left me all of your amazing collection of drawings and massive amounts of Elfquest stuff, I had no idea how close you actually were

Im going to try and see the world like that and then it will be

and all will be well

I dont have a good image to post with that thought, Ive already started writing my first letter to you, I will be a good pen pal I promise

dear joe

2010-01-28T09:50:00.001-08:00

this is the sort of thing i like

http://unhappyhipsters.tumblr.com/

dear joe

2010-01-24T19:51:00.001-08:00

quote

The Creator gathered all of Creation and said,  “I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they create their own reality.”  The eagle said, “Give it to me, I will take it to the moon.”  The Creator said, “No. One day they will go there and find it.”  The salmon said, “I will bury it on the bottom of the ocean.”  “No. They will go there too.”  The buffalo said, “I will bury it on the Great Plains.”  The Creator said, “They will cut into the skin of the Earth and find it even there.”  Grandmother Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth, and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes,  said, “Put it inside of them.”  And the Creator said, “It is done.”

end quote

dear joe and me

2010-01-21T20:44:00.001-08:00

i dont have time for this now but i want to remember it for later.

http://drawn.ca/2010/01/21/madame-tutli-putli-hd/

OH MY GOD NO MORE WORK

Dear Joe

2010-01-14T17:18:00.000-08:00

The last one on this page is how i imagine us at age 70/74.
Kate's Comic

dear joe

2010-01-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

also, i love the art and comics of JULIA GFRÖRER and so should you.

www.thorazos.net

dear joe

2010-01-06T19:32:00.000-08:00

tumble this, bitch

dear joe

2009-12-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

we chose rejoice

2009-07-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

dear joe

RAAAA HIPPIEZ