Run-DMSteve

  • Seize the soprano

    Opera has done so much for the USA that I’m surprised we haven’t put up monuments to the genre. Opera gave us the words “diva” and “prima donna” and gave baseball announcers one of their most beloved lines, triumphantly pronounced during every improbable comeback: “It ain’t over ’til the fat…

  • A kite on a broken string

    My friend Jack Palmer died yesterday. He was 84. Jack was my oldest friend and my oldest friend. Thirty years ago, when I was an aspiring science-fiction writer and Jack was younger than I am now, he introduced me to the joy of playing in the mail with our art.…

  • Wiiiiillllll-ma!

    “I Wanna Be a Flintstone” Screaming Blue Messiahs 1987 No critical deconstruction of The Flintstones can commence without first mentioning my sister, who was born the same night as Pebbles. Although I was 7, I sensed that this was a teachable moment, and I told my brother, who was 4,…

  • Report from WordPress: 2011 in review

    The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,300 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that…

  • If you break on through to the other side, you’ll have to explain yourself to the neighbors

    In our last, very exciting episode, I watched The Doors, listened to The Doors, and was floored. I then set out on a quest to find the Best Debut Albums of the 20th Century By Newcomers Who Aren’t Somebody Stupid Like Foreigner. I restricted the contestants to albums named for the…