Stephen King

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June 24, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Poem: On Reading. And Writing.

Reading Charles Bukowski and Stephen King, that was the thing. Those were the guys. And yet I hardly ever think of them now. Certainly don’t read them. It’s not that I hate their words or worlds or works, I’ve just moved on. That’s what is supposed to happen. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I’m looking – without actively looking – for the next thing to get hooked on, to find and […]

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August 19, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein: Stranger Things, Vol. 1 [OST]

Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein Stranger Things, Vol. 1 [OST] Lakeshore Records It seems the one thing anyone lured in by Netflix’s Stranger Things can agree on – the music was a triumph; scene-setting, propulsive, era/genre-evoking, it worked stunningly as a masterful prop and part of the manipulation. The score comes courtesy of Kyle Dixon […]

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September 9, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

Authors I Admire: # 2 Stephen King

I don’t know why people mention Stephen King as if some guilty pleasure, or worse – just straight out don’t rate him, consider him a hack, some below-literature grade of fluke-artist who sold his soul to the movies and got lucky. That’s nuts. That dude can write! In fact he was probably my first writing […]

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May 18, 2013 by Simon Sweetman

Stephen King: Guns

Guns Stephen King Philtrum Press/Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Stephen King’s first non-fiction Kindle Single is a powerful, timely essay about guns. Obviously he addresses the politics surrounding gun control, the red and blue votes and voters but he makes this about the victims and the crime – rather than about the round-and-round-in-circles debate/s over legislation. […]

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May 1, 2013 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 1379

Pino Donaggio, The Howling [OST] (1981) The music from The Howling has long been one of my favourites; it does what I want from a horror-film soundtrack – chiefly: scares the shit out of me. The film was one of a handful I was profoundly affected by as a youngster. I was traumatised by a […]

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November 2, 2012 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 1503

R.E.M., Murmur (1983) I first heard Murmur after the late-80s/early-90s version of R.E.M. So I loved Green and Out Of Time and then wanted to hear where it had come from. Murmur was next for me. And I loved it. Instantly. I’ve argued before that R.E.M. is/was the best band of the 1980s. And they had a […]

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December 18, 2011 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 1712

V/A, Blues That Gave America Soul (1980) I’ve no idea where I found this compilation – or when (?) – but I’m glad I did. I have a feeling it was picked up at a book sale-thingy; one of those annual dust-ups where there’s a giant gym full of stuff and almost all of it […]