Le Blute-Fin Mill

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Van Gogh experts authenticate unusual VG painting


This image released by Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010, shows a painting entitled 'Le Blute-Fin Mill', by Vincent van Gogh. The newly authenticated Van Gogh has gone on display 35 years after an art collector bought it in Paris, convinced it was painted by the famed Dutch master but never able to prove it. Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said 'Le Blute-Fin Mill' was done in 1886. He said its large human figures are unusual for a Van Gogh landscape but it has his typically bright colors.

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William Bezek's Madame Leota

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So, Sir William Bezek's brilliance has struck again.


Here's the low-down on this hot and sexy, spirited, psychic medium.

Available directly from his blog, or via Wormwood Hollow.

And for all you retards who've never been to Disneyland and have no idea who she is, this is Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion. And just for the record, I was one of those retards until I met Will and he took me to Disneyland.

Now, I'm just retarded for different reasons.

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William Bezek's "Father Christmas"

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So, you may remember that Will's work was featured in


Early American Life.

He was featured for


"Mother Shipton" and


"Father Christmas".

Both one of a kinds. And now, Mother Shipton resides in a private collection.

Will was featured quite awhile back for his one of a kind "Father Christmas" works in the book;


Santa Dolls, Historical To Contemporary, by Ann Bahar


"A 20 inch Father Christmas sculpture constructed using traditional creche style figure techniques. Original sculpted head cast in chalkware and hand painted. Cloth, cotton batting, wooden rod, and wire armature mounted to a handcrafted wooden base with German glass glitter snow. Finish details include hand stitched costuming with a heavy wire hem for shaping, vintage fabric and tinsel, lambskin beard, and 120 year old cardboard used to construct the gift box. Each piece is a signed original and varies depending on materials and artistic mood. I always try to incorporate vintage and natural based supplies and avoid anything ready made creating everything from scratch in keeping with traditional arts and crafts, the end result is a unique family heirloom that looks like a cherished antique."

One of a kind "Father Christmas" over at Will's Wormword Hollow.

Because Will's just a total badass, bishes... That's what I'm talkin' bout... Dang.

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"We Believe That Art Can Change Lives" - CPT "And It Does..." - Kevin Charnas

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So, back in August, I was fortunate enough to be hired by Cleveland Public Theatre via Independent Contract as an assistant director/writer/artist collaborator for a special project that they run.

Introducing The Y-Haven Theatre Project.

We were in development for a while, then rehearsals and now we've been on the "tour" for a week. Last week's performances were at Y-Haven itself and this week began with a performance at the Juvenile Detention Center last night.

You may remember, me previously talking about my great admiration for Cleveland Public Theatre and their work. I knew that it was a fantastic program for the men in recovery. But, selfishly, it's been an unbelievable, enriching experience for me. A great reminder of how much I don't know about life and the people in it. One that I hoped would be rewarding, but I don't think I realized the magnitude of the emotional energy I would put into the project or into being a part of these men's lives for almost 3 months.

I'm certain that what I'll take away from the experience will far out-weigh what I'm putting into it, but currently being in the midst of it, I need some time to let things percolate before I'm able to express myself thoroughly.

So, until that time, The Story of Baby20


HOMELESS MEN IN TRANSITION
CREATE A NEW THEATRE PIECE
BASED ON THEIR JOURNEYS TOWARD RECOVERY
NOVEMBER 5 - 8, 2009
Performances are FREE and open to the public (Suggested $5 donation to support the project.)

Cleveland Public Theatre and Y-Haven present
The Story of Baby20
Cleveland Public Theatre's Education Department and the Cleveland YMCA's Y-Haven Program present The Story of Baby20, the 2009 CPT/Y-Haven Theatre Project.

For the tenth year in a row, CPT, Cleveland's leading alternative theatre, and Y-Haven, YMCA's transitional housing center for homeless men in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, have collaborated to create this original performance. CPT Artists work with residents of Y-Haven to create an original play performed by the residents and based on their personal experiences. This year's production is guided by Director Denis Griesmer and Writer Kevin Charnas (that's me, bishes).

About the play: Once there was an old man named Tom and one evening outside his door he found a baby. Thus begins The Story of Baby20. Tom is compelled to follow the instructions on a note pinned on the baby, "Return to Owner." He begins a journey across the city and through his memory; a quest that forces him to remember things about his past he'd long since made himself forget. The tale turns when the baby grows into a man over a single night. What will the morning bring? Who is Baby20? Who is Tom? Is it all a dream? The Story of Baby20 is about the haunting power of human memory and its influence over our identity and our ability to change.

An audience favorite year after year, the CPT/Y-Haven Theatre Project offers candid insight into important issues of our society and gives real hope for growth and change. Audiences are continually blown-away by the poignant and moving stories presented by this powerful collaboration.

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Rush Limbaugh Becomes A Liability And Obama Likes To Ride Unicorns Naked

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ST. LOUIS – "Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams."

Ohhh.... Poor Lushie Limplog. He's become a liability.

The jackass said, "This is not about the NFL, it's not about the St. Louis Rams, it's not about me. This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative.

"Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we're going to have."

Oh honey... no. It's NOT about "the future of the United States of America", you delusional nitwit. It's about you, really. Just you. You're an ass. And people are finally acting accordingly. They're called consequences, fuckface.

And besides, consequences happen to everybody. Remember when the Dixie Chicks spoke out against George W's administration? Yeah? Well, besides it turning out that the Dixie Chicks were actually right, people stomped on their CD's and burned them. They had a RIGHT to do so, no matter how juvenile it was. So, the Dixie Chicks suffered consequences for their words and actions.

And you're no different.

Now, onto President Obama naked on a unicorn...


You thought I was kidding...

And NAKED President Obama AND HIS UNICORN SAVE THE DAY BY BLASTING


BLIMPY LIMBAUGH INTO THE AIR!!! YYEEAAHHH!! TAKE THAT, ASSHOLE!!! (what the fuck IS THIS?)

And after so much work


They went on vacation to Hawaii. Both of them. Together. The Unicorn and President Obama. Naked. And the Unicorn put sunscreen on the President's back. Or lubed his hole. I'm not really sure which. We'll have to ask "Dan Lacey".

Paintings by Dan Lacey

Dudes and Dudettes?? Seriously? I think I want to buy one of these. Just because.

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Celebrating Gauguin

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Femmes de Tahiti [Sur la plage] (Tahitian Women [On the Beach])
1891 (150 Kb); Oil on canvas, 69 x 91 cm (27 1/8 x 35 7/8 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris

- Gauguin, (Eugène-Henri-) Paul (b. June 7, 1848, Paris, Fr.--d. May 8, 1903, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia)

The Cleveland Museum of Art "is staging a major international exhibit -- an "exhibition about an exhibition" covering artist Paul Gauguin's early years. The exhibit opens Sunday and runs through Jan. 18, 2010. (The only stop in the States before it moves on to Amsterdam.)

Before his Tahiti paintings made him famous, Gauguin was snubbed by the 1889 Paris World's Fair.

Instead, he and other artists staged a rival exhibit in a Paris cafe.

Those Gauguin paintings that were in that exhibit will be featured at the CMA exhibit.

After Jan. 18, the exhibit goes to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

The exhibit is entitled "Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889" and includes more than 75 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by Gauguin and the artists of his time.

It also has the first reinstallation of works from Gauguin's 1889 exhibition in Paris.." (source)


Arearea (Joyousness) 1892; Musée d'Orsay, Paris


Tehamana Has Many Ancestors (Merahi metua no
Tehamana) (oil on canvas, 30 x
21-3/8 inches) can be found at The Art Institute of Chicago.


Vision after the Sermon (oil on
canvas, 28-3/4x36-1/4 inches) hangs in the National
Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Paul Gauguin went against the grain of his time. And I rather like that. In fact, I encourage it. He died all alone in his hut savaged by a morphine addiction, but still.

Okay, now that I think about it, maybe skip that last part.

*** 36 Hours in Cleveland from The New York Times

*** Master works get room to breathe with Cleveland Museum of Art expansion from USA TODAY

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Living Dangerously

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"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination."

~Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)


"The Prophecy" by digital artist Aymeric Giraudel.

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The Omo People - Fancy Danger Zones

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This truly awesome contribution comes to us from our gorgeous, blue/green eyed goddess in Santa Barbara, Claudette. Thanks, Claud! I love it.

I usually find tattoos/body art intriguing, though I have none myself. But, like something that's in front of my eyes on a constant basis, while I try not to take beauty for granted, it eventually loses something for me... If I were to be honest, I appreciate something more when it's temporary, impermanent. And living back in four distinct seasons is reminding me of this... A celebration of the moment seems more clear, more distinctive. When I look out the window, or am in the garden, the light and the colors and hues are hardly the same way twice.

Anyway, that's why I find this body art of the "Omo People" so stunning. Besides its raw, natural beauty, it's fleeting... and will never be the same twice.

And of course, they adorn their boobs and peeps too, which is always fun.

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Making The Unbearable, Bearable

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So, last Friday night, Will and I went to Cleveland Public Theatre to see a one-woman play.

"Cut to Pieces" is a CPT Original Work written by


CPT Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan and


CPT Education Director Chris Seibert.

"Cut to Pieces is an ambitious theatrical work that integrates live performance and video projections in an affecting solo show. This innovative work begins as a classic "who-done-it" tale and quickly spirals into an epic story of the dismembering power of violence, love, and the quest for self knowledge."

Well, Will and I were invited to the show by the director and co-writer, Raymond Bobgan. I had communicated with Raymond through email when I was inquiring about Cleveland Public Theatre's programs and possibly approaching them with my own material. I was interested to learn more about their mission as a theatre and see if our philosophies coincided.

If you've been reading my work for any length of time, if I've been doing a good enough job, you've probably sifted through the rubble of my zany humor by now and hopefully have realized that my writing and acting comes from the same heart that was a social worker in the past. And actually, I really see no difference. My work now is certainly not mutually exclusive from my prior work experience. If anything, it's built upon it.

My desires and motivations when I was an orderly, a social worker, a Boatswain's Mate in the U.S. Coast Guard, a clinical researcher in Cardiology, a bartender, an instructor for at-risk teenage Latinos in California, all the way to my work at U.C. Santa Barbara, and acting and writing along the way, my own mission has never swayed given the vast array of job titles that I've carried. (my bio)

I've ALWAYS wanted to help people... In whatever way I could. I wanted to ask them how they were doing, then wait for the reply. To let them know I was actually listening to them. That someone was acknowledging them.

Whether they were telling me about how their neighbors pissed them off while I poured them a gin and tonic, or whether they were upset about the texture of their wall paint on their Section 8 housing while I looked through classifieds to try and find them a job, or whether their parents were continually stealing their weed to smoke it for themselves while I was attempting to educate them on STD's and teach them that misogyny isn't cool and domestic violence and jail are only in their future if they make it so, that they actually have other options.

Or whether they just needed their asses wiped. Literally. Because I've done that too... just not as a bartender or a teacher. I was a stripper then, and that was an extra cost.

I really try (the keyword here is "try") to live by this quote:

"Whatever joy there is in this world, all comes from wanting others to be happy; and whatever suffering there is in this world, all comes from wanting oneself to be happy."

- Shantideva (8th century Buddhist poet)

And when I embrace this wisdom, and ingest it, it rings true for me. REALLY true. But, for me... I don't expect others to find the same peace in it as I do.

I don't always remember to follow this philosophy, but when I do, it takes me out of myself and brings me into the moment, joyfully. And the moment is all I have... It's the only thing real.

So, after I wrote to the theatre's website, Raymond wrote back to me. It was an elegant and sincere reply, welcoming me to the wonderful city of Cleveland. It turns out that he's originally from Santa Barbara and his parents still reside there, so we also had that in common.

I was rather stunned that I received such a sincere welcome and impressed that someone took the time. He invited me to the show and to meet to discuss my work as well.

Will and I arrived an embarrassingly 10 minutes late to meet Raymond at the theatre. He was going to give us a quick tour before the show, of the spaces that they have and give me an over-all picture of what Cleveland Public Theatre is all about. Will and I are still learning our way around the city and haven't quite gotten down how long it usually takes to get to certain places. Thus, the 10 minutes late.

Once we arrived, I profusely apologized for our tardiness, but Raymond's demeanor was as gracious as the words in his email. Beth Wood, the Assistant Artistic Director was there as well, and seemed just as kind and welcoming.

Raymond showed us the spaces that they have and talked about their mission and programs and I was invigorated. It echoed songs of my heart. As corny as it sounds, it's true. Our philosophies jibed and I feel as though I've found kindred spirits.

Well, after the tour, we took our seats for the play, "Cut To Pieces", but instead, witnessed magic, as any great art will present.


Chris Seibert and


Raymond Bobgan took us on a sobering journey, but not without the aides of humor, music and film and true artistry that culminated in an evening of brilliant story-telling.

Chris Seibert was very much at home in her portrayal of the characters; and they were distinct and vibrant, yet familiar. Her channeling of them was natural and approachable and her craft, easy to watch. The narrator was strong, yet vulnerable... and was just as surprised by the chain of events as the audience, but not unlike the audience, was better from the outcome.

The topic, dreadful and tragic, yes... But, not without redemption, not without a light at the end of the tunnel... It may have not been a bright light, but there was light. More than enough to see by... And being reluctant passengers on the trip, Ms. Seibert and Mr. Bobgan made the travel arrangements as comfortable as possible given the subject. And really, the only way that the light at the end of a tunnel is so welcoming, is because you had to go through the dark tunnel in the first place. Otherwise, it would just be another light and you really wouldn't know the difference.

This play accomplishes what all inspiring art does... It makes the unbearable, bearable.

The run has been extended now through June 6th.

If you're in the area, I strongly encourage you to go see this play. However, if you don't want to be challenged or taken out of your comfort zone, if you don't wish for some spiritual evolution while being entertained by a dynamic actor, then I would just encourage you to turn on your T.V.

Cleveland Public Theatre

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