Stephen King: The Rolling Stone Interview October 31,2014

       This interview happened only 5 years ago, and the author Andy Greene reports in his interview that this is probably the only interview that Uncle Stephen (a purely affectionate term, I am not related to Stephen King. I could only hope!) has given since he was hit by a car 20 years ago. I'm here to tell you folks that I've looked pretty hard, and I don't think that he's EVER given a print interview that is this lengthy or personal.  At home, I have an entire shelf dedicated to Stephen King's works. Twenty-one books so far, and we've recently had to start to laying them vertically on top of the other books on that shelf. My husband is in the middle of the Dark Tower series, while I am only 24 chapters into The Stand. Lord, please give me stamina!

   Its not hard to read Mr. King's stories. He's pretty easy to follow.  In this interview, he speaks at length many times of his views on religion, his views on writing genre, where his ideas come from, and his family and his beginnings. He speaks at ease and makes you feel like he lives next door to you. Even if he does seem a bit quirky or weird. 
 

   That is not his real house, by the way. But it is A HOUSE that Stephen owns in Bangor, Maine. Stephen's office is a few miles away in Bangor on a somewhat deserted road near a tractor dealership and, appropriately, a cemetery. There isn't really any defining characteristics that its Stephen's office. The reason being is to keep his staff feeling safe. According to Stephen's staff, "He draws some weird people." Stephen lives with his wife Tabitha about 2 1/2 hours away in Lowell, Maine, which is about a stone-thow away from the New Hampshire state line. Or at times, they also live in Sarasota, Florida. 
      I have never found Stephen King's body of work hard to understand as far as where he gets his ideas. He's a small town guy, raised mostly by a single-mother. He had a few close friends growing up, but he probably wasn't what you'd call 'popular' in school. Probably very similar to Gordie Lachance in The Body, which later became the film Stand By Me. 
      I think to understand or enjoy his work better, its important to read his collections of short stories, like Skeleton Crew and Everything's Eventual. They're pretty short, incredibly compelling, and there's usually an introductory paragraph by Stephen. You'll understand alot more about him. 

 

Proven Innocent (TV Show on FOX) 2019

          I don't normally like to review a television show when its in its infancy. Proven Innocent is only five episodes into its first season, but I hope it stays on the air with new episodes for at least five years.

      Madeline Scott (Rachelle Lefevre) is more that just your average attorney in Chicago. She was wrongfully convicted for a murder she didn't do. While she was in jail for ten years, she earned her degree, found an attorney and ended up proving her innocence. When she was released from jail, she went to law school and ended up starting a law firm with her attorney that tried her appeal. The firm only takes wrongful conviction cases. Her office is currently on a crusade to overturn convictions of  the prosecuting attorney Gore Bellows(Kelsey Grammer) that convicted her. 

       Madeline Scott's firm is looking into trying to find the real killer of her best friend in high school that she was convicted of killing. 
       

         I think that this show has some interesting potential. So far, so good, in my opinion. I hope it stays that way. Proven Innocent is on FOX on Fridays at 9pm.

Almost Famous-2000

As per the picture should show above, my first official review here is for the 2000 film Almost Famous. I always thought this film was so interesting and entertaining, not really recognizing at the time how much I identified with William Miller( Patrick Fugit) because he was a writer and how much we naturally notice things around us.

     This movie comes directly from director Cameron Crowe's experiences as a rock writer for Rolling Stone magazine. The first article he ever did for the magazine was in January of '73 for the band Poco, they paid him $350. Kinda a small band, I remember some of their hits vaguely. But by the March 13 issue, Cameron was the featured author of the band on the cover which was Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

      Cameron has said of this film, that the experiences he drew from most was when he was with the bands Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, and Glenn Fry of The Eagles. 
         Penny Lane was based on a real groupie called Pennie Lane a girl from Oregon who had a school for groupies called Flying Garter Girls and gave them specific rules to live by.

     Cameron was only fifteen years old when he started writing for Rolling Stone and still is to this date the youngest correspondent they have ever had working for them. Remember who YOU were when you were fifteen and who you were listening to? How totally boss would it have been to go on the road with your favorite band or singer and report on it ? Totally awesome and way better than a book report on Romeo and Juliet.
 

Lemme explain what I'm trying to do here . . .

Obviously, my name is Colleen. Google+ went crapshoot so now I'm here trying to do what I did there. It won't be exactly the same, but for those of you who never looked at my page THERE, I write reviews of movies, TV shows, musical artists and/or bands, and of course books, with the occasional original short story myself. I'm only reviewing works that I find pleasing to myself.