Blurbotron

I have read that, and will read it again, and then have a close friend explain the larger words to me.-Jack Neary, playwright

Tempus Fugit

Oyez

Lynne Rosetto Kaspar tells me to trust my instincts, for some reason

I was ashamed to tell her that it was my common sense that suggested I just put the whole lemon rind in there in the first [...]

Random Phone Call: Can Mime Save Haiti?

Does altruism exist? Often, when asked to help, we try to control how our help will be received or how it will be utilized, if the recipient will be grateful, if we will be acknowledged, if the results will be beneficial to us, personally, before we agree, rather than giving with eyes closed and arms [...]

The Many Colors of Angus Scrimm or: You Can Learn A Lot from a Tall Man

Because I travel in elite circles, I managed to get Angus Scrimm to write something appropriate on my copy of “Phantasm.”

Nothing’s gonna change my world

Today, a month and 30 days after my fortieth birthday, I realize that, when I go, it is getting more unlikely that people will say, “He was too young.” Instead, they will say, “I guess it was about goddamn [...]

Horror in Norway

“She would watch while her dogs ate our [...]

Fogelfoot at Fais Do Do

For my upcoming extra large birthday party at Los Angeles’ Club Fais Do Do on Sunday, November 22, I have enlisted the services of Fogelfoot, the only band listed on the Periodic Table of the Elements and the only band to fully utilize the potential of the Baritone Horn in a rock setting.

The event is [...]

One after 9/09

Today the surviving Beatles and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison, as well as the financial and marketing entities that represent the interests of the former Fab Four, have reissued the Beatles catalog in remastered mono and stereo and have released a version of the videogame “Rockband” featuring the group’s music.

What Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Comics means to you

Today the Walt Disney Company announced it had agreed to purchase Marvel Comics for $4 billion in cash and stock. Marvel’s board is likely to agree, making the bold acquisition the largest media buyout since last year’s economic collapse.

But fans of both cultural institutions are concerned with the purity of iconic characters and storylines. The [...]

Jackson estate: “Don’t treat us like Butkus”

Providers of Funeral and Ossuary services, collectively known as the Cadaverous Arts, face challenges other merchants don’t: How to advertise a product for which someone has to die in order to use?

The bulletin at St. Margaret’s Church featured (and probably still does) a back page of ads from local businesses, several of which were funeral [...]

Return to “Crack Street”

There have been a lot of changes to Lowell, Massachusetts, my birthplace, since I left; the city has embraced native son Jack Kerouac, it has a Single A baseball team, and it has finally gone ahead and christened a thoroughfare Crack Street.

“High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell” is a 1995 HBO documentary that [...]