Posts Tagged VHS
Archive
July 28, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: The Overdues
There was that time when I worked in a video store, and we were allowed to borrow the preview-tapes and screeners. These had the full movie on them, but they also had a message that would roll along the screen telling you the name of the film – which was fine, didn’t bother me and […]Archive
June 23, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
My New EBook: Wrestling Is Fake. That’s What Makes It So Real – Selected Grapplings (2005-2015)
I’ve just published my new e-book, my third. This is the first one that’s not about music at all. This is a selection of my various writings about pro-wrestling. I’ve fallen in and out with the “sport” over the last three decades, but I can’t quite shake my fandom, certainly don’t want to ignore my early […]Archive
March 19, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: Video Store Homily
I worked in a video store – but only for a few weeks. I wish it was longer. But it was still a good time. And this was in the time of VHS tapes. Actual videos. I’d grown up, in some sense, in the video stores of New Zealand. Renting anything that needed to be […]Archive
February 3, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: I Used To Be Scared of Horror Films So I Watched Every Single One From The Local Video Store And Now I’m Cured
When I was a kid a rather stupid movie had a deep impact on me. It’s called Alligator. It’s from about 1980 – and I reckon we saw it just a few years after that. And in it, a pet alligator gets flushed down the loo. It ends up in the sewer where the bodies […]Archive
June 23, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Movies of My Life # 17: Beverly Hills Cop
I still go to the video store. And yes, it’s still called a Video Store. We rent/borrow DVDs – we do this because it’s convenient. The store (the last of its kind still standing in our town) is just down the road/just around the corner. And though I never meant for this to happen – […]Archive
December 4, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Movies of My Life # 16: The Compleat Beatles
Maybe it’s because it’s hard to find and best remembered for what it represented (also: time/place) but I reckon The Compleat Beatles is the very best Beatles doco there’s ever been. It shits on The Anthology which is not terrible, but is, probably, far too much of a good thing. When The Anthology was released […]Archive
March 13, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Revisiting Live at Knebworth (1990)
The grounds of Knebworth House have played host to some huge rock concerts over the years. This British venue was where the re-formed Deep Purple first played in 1985. A year later it was where Queen played its final live show (with Freddie Mercury). In 1979 it was the scene for two Led Zeppelin shows, the band’s return to the UK stage after […]Archive
November 27, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
How Do You Find Music? How Does Music Find You? How Has That Changed?
Do you ever stop to consider the changes that have been made to the way you find music? Is your approach still the same? Surely it’s changed, you’ve changed formats, the formats have changed – in terms of delivery approach, in terms of regularity, in terms of how and when you receive them – as […]Archive
October 26, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Movies of My Life # 15: Happiness
When Happiness arrived – late 1990s – I was already a Todd Solondz fan. Welcome To The Dollhouse had convinced me I needed to watch whatever else he put out into the world – and I did. I have. I’ve seen them all now – pretty much in order, as they’ve arrived. And though I […]Archive
August 26, 2015 by Simon Sweetman
Five Films That Stay With Me: Tim Beatson
Tim Beatson is one of the Staff behind the Counter at Videon, Auckland’s 35 year-running Independent Video Library, where he dispenses recommendations and sarcasm in equal measure, in between adding to the Library’s catalogue and ordering more toner for the printer. Here are five films that have stayed with him… Lists are not a strong […]Archive
August 24, 2015 by Simon Sweetman