?The world according to Silvio??that?s what comes to mind after hearing this piece. Sylvio is an offbeat artist, and in this 5-minute stream of consciousness, he shares his thoughts on the definition of art, one?s moral obligation to make things better, the church, American women, living frugally, and his loneliness. At times he is preachy, at others intolerant, and sometimes incoherent. His honesty and energy are engaging however, and I was surprised several times by what he revealed about himself. I don?t quite know what to make of Sylvio, but I did enjoy the roller coaster ride of his musings.

WDET producer Zak Rosen has been working on putting together a series of profiles of 'outsider artists' in his area, and this one introduces us to an eccentric Italian / American sculptor and poet named Silvio Barile. What Silvio lacks in coherence he makes up for in enthusiasm, and producer Rosen does a yeoman's job of cutting Silvio's inspired ramblings into a quasi-logical narrative. I think the interesting thing in this piece, which contains no narration, is that Sylvio's comments are presented to us in such a way that we learn a little sequence of revelations about him, clues that force us to continue to re-evaluate our impression of the guy: He's ecstatic, but he's lonely; he's an artist, but he's a radical conservative; he's loving, but he's had bad luck with women... After getting beyond the perfunctory label of 'kooky,' we learn a lot about the psychological dimensions of this character in just a few minutes. This is very original work.