Contact Information
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City / Town
San Diego -
State
Ca -
Country
United States
Biography
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About
Jose started his working life early. As a kid he ran coffee and doughnuts for his stepfather’s iron working crew on the World Trade Center. While a teenager he worked on projects that renovated the brownstones of his native Park Slope from working class apartments into yuppie fantasy. Caught up in the ‘60’s antiwar movement and liberation philosophy meant that formal education didn’t go far and he realized that living in communes, a stint in the Young Lords Party, going to every demonstration and spending countless hours at the Fillmore East did not make for a life plan. So he jumped at the chance to be part of the Joint Urban Manpower Project that trained him as a design-draftsman that led to work on projects ranging from rehabbing tenements in Harlem to designing exclusive resorts around the Caribbean and mansions in Southern California.
Moving to San Diego brought him into a circle of artists who qualified as the “poor starving” variety. He was soon representing their work and getting them shows at major galleries. Not long after, he opened Rosa Associates Fine Art. This led to the publication of San Diego’s first full color, glossy fine arts magazine; Art in San Diego. After attending a lecture by Bill Gates promoting his new book and soon to be released Windows 95, he had an “epiphany” and saw that computers would soon be in every home. That led back to school and then to the founding of RosArt Multimedia, Inc. For more than 17 years RosArt designed, programed, hosted and promoted some of the best web sites around. Just as important to Jose personally, were the lifelong friendships made with the core employees.
A heart attack brought major surgery and a long rehabilitation. Because RosArt did not survive this period, once he started healing up, the question became “what now?” While still running RosArt, he had personally taken on the then new necessity of social media marketing and become deeply involved in many of the webs’ and in particular Facebooks’ ongoing debates. He chose to spend a lot of time on pages that focused on the Constitution, history, atheism and politics. Jose had always loved a good debate and used it as a means both to teach and to learn. The one thing that kept frustrating him was the level of conversation continually being debased the moment what he began to call “idiots” showed up. You know who they are, those who deny science, cling to insane conspiracy’s and are proud of their purposeful ignorance.
He had always liked writing poetry (yeah, lots of ribbing from the kids in Brooklyn) and essays. Even made a valiant but ultimately vain attempt at the great Americas novel. Now he started writing in earnest, many of the original pieces being inspired by not wanting to have to state the same position over and over every time another “idiot” showed up. After realizing that many of the groups formed ostensibly to counter the influence and ignorance of the Tea Party wanted a “can’t we all just get along” approach, even after it became clear that the idiots had no such desire, he formed his own group. It grew rapidly as word spread that there was a place where idiots were not allowed and conversation was what most who understand that the interchange of good ideas, the sharing of important information and constructive debate were not only what made and makes this country great, but as long as you don’t have to deal with idiots whose only purpose is to disrupt and destroy, was FUN!
As he asked himself that same question (what now?) for the zillionth time, his wife said “you have been working since you were a little kid because you had to. Why not figure out and do what you really want to do?” Still not sure what that was, he delved deeper into writing and more and more into shepherding the IFZ FB group. One day while talking to a longtime friend about how much pride he took in the IFZ groups’ growth and success as measured in the many great discussions, debates and even arguments, he was asked “so what are you going to do with it?” In the back of his mind the idea of taking it beyond Facebook and out onto the web had been percolating, but the impediment of the financial resources necessary had kept it from being more than a dream. His friend thought a minute and said “let’s do it!”
And that brings us to the how, where, when and why you are on this site now… -
Topic(s) of interest
Art, History, Film, Theater, Comedy, Science, Politics