Video Store

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June 21, 2022 by Simon Sweetman

The Video Store Raised Us And We Turned Out Okay…Mostly

When we were six, seven, eight years old…we being me, my cousins, and my brother (who had a few years on us and was therefore ‘the responsible one’) we found our second home in The Green Frog Video Store, in Napier. We were not early adopters. We did not have a VHS player. But my […]

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May 16, 2022 by Simon Sweetman

Watching Music

The best way you can learn about music is by listening to it – sure, you can research, ask questions, read up, get opinions from others…these are all smart ways to build your knowledge, but number one is to listen widely. And far too often. Reading about music has been a big part of my […]

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February 11, 2022 by Simon Sweetman

Movies of My Life # 25: The Shining

The Shining is a film I can watch again and again. A perfect horror film. Existential fear right there. Amazing performances, brilliantly filmed – that feeling of unease that trickles in with Wendy Carlos’ amazing music and the sound-design just so. Just a brilliant film. And a fine example of Stanley Kubrick’s vision too. Many […]

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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 […]

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November 18, 2020 by Simon Sweetman

Sweetman Podcast # 239: Andrew Armitage (Aro Video)

Welcome to episode 239 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T and Yeastie Boys Now – as you probably know, as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can now get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify […]

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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 […]

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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 – […]

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August 21, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Tom Roston: I Lost It At The Video Store – A Filmmakers’ Oral History of a Vanished Era

I Lost It At The Video Store: A Filmmakers’ Oral History of a Vanished Era Tom Roston The Critical Press This well-intentioned, slim volume aims to bring together a range of voices around the idea of the local video store being the birth place of modern independent cinema and indie-filmmaking; most famously Quentin Tarantino and […]