Comments on: Fame: A Romance, with Flung Tampons

By: Brennan

Brennan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:21:40 +0000

I knew a Steve. Our Steve had a very similar high school career, but his peaked at the age of 18 (or so). He was cast as an extra in a major TV show and appeared as a blurred face in the crowd. Everyone back home was sure that this was the start of something big.

Unfortunately, when he got to college (on an acting scholarship) he hit the party scene, dropped out by 19, and was in rehab by 20. At 24 he seems to have his life back in order; he’s teaching acting and running lights for a dinner theater. I get the sense that he couldn’t handle realizing that he wasn’t as Talented as everyone had always told him he was.

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:03:21 +0000

Oh my god…I knew Steve. Not a random, Steve-like person, but this Steve, the one that I am 99.99999% sure you’re talking about. If I’m right, and I think I am (thanks IMDB!), Steve was in the very first community theatre play I did when I was 10.

The world is ridiculously small sometimes.

By: CO-HIOAN

CO-HIOAN — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:53:48 +0000

Oh my god, Westerville North! I went to Thomas Worthington! And until recently I even lived in NYC! We’re practically neighbors!

Re: Steves, I am currently in the music department at Ohio State, which has plenty of Steve-types, and all I can say is, Steve-dom messes with your head. Hopefully these people get some perspective before they hit the real world, or it’s gonna be rough. I kind of feel bad for them.

By: Nomie

Nomie — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:24:43 +0000

OH, THE STEVES. We had a couple of them that were also biffles. One of them was the object of my huge and embarrassing crush, though I never threw tampons and we ended up sort of friends by graduation. I figured out that I had talent but not enough; that I could be part of the choir and carry the whole damn second soprano section because I could harmonize without losing track of our part but not be a soloist, that I could be in the chorus of the school musicals but not a lead, that I could be a lead in the one-acts and the student-written plays that were put on by the theater club. And that was okay. But I was still deeply envious in some ways. OH HIGH SCHOOL, HOW I DON’T MISS YOU.

The Steve that I crushed on appears to be doing the struggling-actor thing in New York and doesn’t have much of an online presence. The other one – hilariously, we went to the same college and he dated my freshman-year roommate, awkward – just landed a five-second wordless role on a daytime soap. And, you know, good on him. I hope he has enough success to keep the roof over his head, even if his Steve-dreams are never fulfilled.

By: Linksplosion! Personal stories edition « Zero at the Bone

Linksplosion! Personal stories edition « Zero at the Bone — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:45:33 +0000

[...] Fame: A Romance, with Flung Tampons by Sady at Tiger Beatdown. Usually I mull over posts for a time – months sometimes – before linksploding them, and I’m not sure what what this post means to me yet, but I like it and think you should get it while it’s fresh. One of the things I am doing, lately, is rooting through the old arsenal, figuring out which stories I have to tell you and which you would actually like to hear. The stories I am most personally invested in, it turns out, are not always the ones that invite your caring! But here is one that I must share, for whatever reason, and it is the story of the Very First Boy I Ever Had A Real Crush On. His name was Steve, and he fully intended to be famous. [...]

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:59:39 +0000

The Steve of my high school may finally be nominated for an Oscar this year, over twenty years after our graduation.

Luckily he was always really nice and was liked not just for his talent, but because of how well he treated people. So I think everyone who remembers him is really just happy for him right now.

Good post.

By: Maura

Maura — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:10:32 +0000

I was involved with a Steve for about a year and a half. But he was what becomes of a Steve after the dream doesn’t work out, because he was too busy drinking and getting high and having sex with every woman in sight and doing dumbass stuff that gets him arrested a couple times a year and basking in the glow of a years-long starring role in Boston dinner theater and thinking that the big jobs would just come to him. That Steve has a lot of darkness in his heart. The last time I talked to him, he was at home with his stepchildren, drinking martinis at 1:00 in the afternoon.

But I know another Steve (one who’s so talented, seeing him on stage is a revelation) who came back home after a few years, because both Hollywood and New York were too screwed up for him. He does great local theater work, works with one of the area high school drama clubs, and lives a happy live.

Good Old Steve. He can go either way, you know?

Also, Sady, everything Luna said about you? Ditto.

By: Tweets that mention Tiger Beatdown › Fame: A Romance, with Flung Tampons -- Topsy.com

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:15:33 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ian Miles, Alex Raymond. Alex Raymond said: This post is just… lovely http://bit.ly/7CDKEn [...]

By: Ian "Sol Invictus" Cheong

Ian "Sol Invictus" Cheong — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:20:52 +0000

I enjoyed this story. I really did.

By: Sady

Sady — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:37:26 +0000

@Luna: Whoa, that is totally sweet! In, like, the “nice and heartwarming to behold with my eyeballs” way, not the Bill and Ted “sweeeeeet” way. And also not creepy at all. Thank you, lady!