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‘ Mystic River, on the other hand, will burn itself into your memory. Twenty years from now, you’ll

be able to recall Sean Penn’s terrible cries of grief when he realizes his daughter is dead.’

King sums up this two-part essay: ‘Maybe the point is this: The movies that matter (and the

books, and the music) call out to us in their own voices—voices that are sometimes low but always

compelling. Movies are the highest popular art of our times, and art has the ability to change lives.

That means that some movies matter, and the best matter a lot.’

The Pop of King: Don’t Go To Sleep (December 5, 2003)

This column deals with the decline in sales in different entertainment media and, more

specifically, books. King’s view: ‘I think we’re seeing an entire generation—my generation, the

baby-boom generation—turning off the lights upstairs and putting a sign on the door: SORRY, BUT

I’M TAKING A NAP. MIND CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Pretty much the same deal is

going on with music sales. Piracy and illegal downloads, although covered to a fare-thee-well in the

press, account for only a fraction of the drop in $$. I think what’s happening is all too clear: We baby

boomers are just too pooped to party.’

King had written of his generation before—most notably in his collection of short fiction, Hearts

in Atlantis—but here he is worried, and is frank with readers: ‘I can reach millions of people with

this column, but I can’t convince them that this is a very bad time to go to sleep. Outside, the world is

changing rapidly. Inside, too many of us are sitting at home on our ever-expanding asses, watching

Gilligan on TV Land. At the time we baby boomers were buying our first hardcover books, we were

apt to question authority (and very likely flout it). Now, however...maybe Bob Dylan said it best (he

often does): “I used to care, but things have changed.”’

He urges readers to buy a new novel or an album. Finally, he again urges them not to go to

sleep: ‘The brain is the most obedient organ in the body; if you tell it to shut up awready and stop

bothering you, it will. I hope you don’t do it. Fifty-five, even 60 isn’t too old to rock & roll; you’re

still young enough to boogie. Just don’t go to sleep, okay? Please don’t go to sleep.’

The Pop of King: You Don’t Know Jackson (February 13, 2004)

King starts writing of his recent illness, which resulted in a hiatus in The Pop of King columns.

‘Did you miss me? After this column, you may not. But, if you remember way back at the start, I said

I’d tell you exactly what I thought about American pop-cult, and if you didn’t like it...hey, grab a

quarter and call someone who cares’. Here, King is prepared to tackle a subject that was on a lot of

American minds (no matter their opinion): the Michael Jackson trial.

He relates the story of his caretaker driving him to the hospital and their conversation regarding

the trial. This had him thinking about the subject for some time afterward: ‘I think it’s sad that talk-

show hosts think it’s okay to make fun of this eccentric and obviously disturbed man; I think it’s

horrible, almost sick-making, that tabloids like the New York Post and the NewYork Daily News can

regularly vilify him as Wacko Jacko and (for pix with the umbrella, natch) Scary Poppins. Maybe

he’s a child molester and a jury will say so, but right now, sir or madam, he is as innocent as you are.

Right now, he’s just this weird guy who came by his kooks and kinks from being raised in a gotta-

sing, gotta-dance family where he was the principal breadwinner because he and Janet were, quite

clearly, the only ones who really could sing and dance. When your childhood is stolen from you, it’s

probably not all that unusual to try to steal a little back in your early middle age.’

King concludes with a statement that attempts to demonstrate what our celebrity-worshipping

society had come to: ‘What I’m asking is whether this is still a country where a peculiar person such

as Michael Jackson can get a fair shake and be considered innocent until proven guilty...or is this just

a 21st-century American barnyard where we all feel free to turn on the moonwalking rooster...and

peck it to death?’

The Pop of King: The Rating Game (March 5, 2004)

‘Back in ’69, when I was young and full of revolutionary fire, Jack Valenti and the MPAA’s

motion picture ratings system attracted my less-than-admiring attention. In a column written for the

University of Maine’s campus newspaper, I opined that they ought to throw both the system and

Valenti out. Now here I am, taking the whipping stick to the very same dog, and damned if the very

same guy isn’t still holding the chain,’ King writes. The campus newspaper reference is to his King’s

Garbage Truck column for January 8, 1970 (see our Early Columns—Garbage Truck chapter).

He even devoted a lengthy essay to the same subject, The Dreaded X in the December

1986/January 1987 issue of Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter; and talks about this issue (in

relation to his film project Maximum Overdrive) in A Postscript to ‘Overdrive’ in the February 1987

issue of Castle Rock (both covered in our Opinion—Venturing into Politics chapter).

He writes that the subject of the ratings system came to mind after he saw a trailer for the remake

of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Because of the movie’s R rating, he says ‘veteran

moviegoers know exactly what they won’t see, because guys and gals like us know exactly where the

border between the Land of R and the Wilderness of NC-17 lies.’

King has mellowed only slightly on issues of censorship over the years (as the reader can see

from the numerous articles on the subject discussed in this book). Employing typical humor he says,

‘In spite of the hypocrisy and changing morality, I’ll no longer argue that the Rating Board should be

abolished—that was yesterday’s King. I do think that ratings take some of the damn fun out of it. Some

of the surprise. Except for big-budget PG-13s, that is. In that case, watch out for flying severed

heads.’

The Pop of King: The Passion of Alicia (March 19, 2004)

King opens, ‘I write about pop culture here, but I had no more intention of writing about The

Passion of the Christ than I had of writing about Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl booby prize. It takes me

weeks instead of days to get my mutterings into print, and that means every talking (and writing) head

in America will have had his or her say on this film and What It Means by the time this issue of EW

reaches your hands. So my idea was to write something a bit fresher, thank you very much.’ The Janet

Jackson reference refers to a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ that exposed her breast during live Super Bowl

entertainment.

He thought ‘ The Passion was a pretty terrific film, full of emotion and commitment. Is it uneven,

sometimes going way, way over the top? You better believe it. It’s easy to imagine Mel Gibson

deciding it would be worth $25 million just to show people the crucifixion The Way It Was, down to

the last broken bone, gaping wound, and buzzing fly. He’s delivering the very painful truth of a

particular form of execution. And his enthusiasm—or religious fervor—for the task takes him again

and again into a world of hyper-violence: Sam Peckinpah does Good Friday.’

King then comes to the main point of this column, which is a little girl he calls Alicia, and

relates the story of a theatre manager telling a woman that the film may not be appropriate for a child

of her age (8-10 years). The woman took her in anyway and the little girl was obviously horrified by

the scenes of violence in the film, as she was probably too young to be able to put them into context.

This makes King extremely uncomfortable. This column is important, as it ties into the issues of

violence in film and on television and their effect on children that King discusses in other non-fiction

articles.

The Pop of King: Enquiring Minds...(April 9, 2004)

In this column King discusses the National Enquirer tabloid ‘newspaper’ and why Americans

enjoy it: ‘All right, show of hands—who out there buys the National Enquirer, or at least noodges

through it while waiting in line at the supermarket checkout? Come on now, get ‘em up, Uncle Stevie

can see you through his magic word processor and knows if you’re holding back. Besides, I do it, and

when I buy it, I read it just as soon as I finish helping my wife put the groceries away. If I can confess,

you can too. So get those hands up. You too, Lisa and Owen [a reference to two EW staff members—

Lisa Schwarzbaum and Owen Gleiberman] I’m watching you.’

King asks, ‘What in the hell makes the Enquirer so damned addictive? What’s the secret of its

success?... I can tell you there’s not just one secret but at least four.’ He outlines these ‘secrets’:

‘THE CELEBRITY IS YOUR NEIGHBOR!; THE CELEBRITY IS NAUGHTY!; RICH PEOPLE

ALWAYS GET IN TROUBLE!’; and ‘FAMOUS PEOPLE GET TO DIE IN PUBLIC!’

He closes, ‘Hey, maybe it’s just human nature. Human curiosity. Or a taste for fresh meat. Maybe

you readers have an idea. If so, give it up. Enquiring minds want to know.’ Of course, “Enquiring

minds want to know” is the National Enquirer’s slogan, hence the closing line and the column’s

subtitle.

The Pop of King: Head-Bangor’s Ball (April 30, 2004)

‘I was going to begin this by blasting American Idol, but after sitting for nearly 20 minutes in

front of a computer screen with nothing on it but a blinking cursor, I’ve decided to admit defeat’. King

says he knows American pop has never been very exciting, although one exception was radio—in

fact, he’s always had a love/hate affair with this medium (see Between Rock and a Soft Place in our

Opinion—Radio, Music, Film and Television chapter).

The growing trend of satellite radio was what saved King’s love for the medium: ‘There’s a

happy ending to this story. Someone gave me an XM satellite radio. As a local radio station owner

(Bangor, Maine), I suppose I should hate satellite radio, but with over a hundred channels and

commercial-free multiformat capability, it’s almost certainly the future of radio (assuming radio has

one, which is open to question). After maybe 12 years of listening to the radio less and less, I find

myself suddenly listening to it all the time again.’

He lists some of the artists and albums he has come to love and explains why. The albums are:

Wheels of Fortune by the Flatlanders; Wishbones by Slaid Cleaves; Tangled in the Pines by BR549;

Your Country by Graham Parker; and Live in Aught-Three by James McMurtry. King finishes by

saying none of this type of music would ever be on a show like American Idol, and that this is

‘probably a good thing’ because ‘Simon’s head would explode.’ This last refers to the famously

grumpy American Idol judge, Simon Cowell.

The Pop of King: It’s Alive! It’s Alive! (May 21, 2004)

Beginning this column King claims there hasn’t been any good news in years and no good food

either, because ‘everyone is watching their calories’. As far as television and movies go, everything

is out to lunch for the time being. Books, on the other hand, are a different story: ‘Usually once each

spring and fall—when the publishers issue their major titles for the year—some ill-tempered dodo

whose familiarity with American fiction ends with Sherwood Anderson will proclaim the novel

dead, nothing but a time sink for adults stuck in airport lounges between planes or for kids at camp

with lightning-bolt scars decaled on their foreheads. Don’t you believe it. The Great American Novel

is livelier than ever, and here are three that prove it; just pick the one(s) that fit your hammock.’

The three are: The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman; The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos

Ruiz Zafon; and The Narrows, by Michael Connelly. He closes, ‘So, with books like these, who

needs good news, or even good TV?’

King is a big fan of Connelly’s work and gives The Narrows ample praise, saying ‘the story is

told in slightly dislocated fashion—first-person-narrative chapters from the Bosch point of view

interwoven with third-person chapters from the point of view of FBI agent Rachel Walling—but the

clarity of Connelly’s writing and the steadily building pace of his narrative more than compensate for

the slightly uncomfortable feel of that back-and-forth. This is scarifying in a big way—a Thomas

Harris kind of scary, which is high praise indeed.’ The Narrows is a sequel to Connelly’s The Poet

for which King contributed an introduction to certain editions (see the Introducing the Work of

Others chapter).

The Pop of King: Lines to Live By (June 11, 2004)

In this piece King relates attending a film society meeting, where a gentleman told him that the

screenwriter ‘has become almost dispensable, and there are no more great cinema lines.’ A longtime

fan of movies, both old and new, King disagrees: ‘I have a theory that Americans fall into two

groups: those who are passionate about movies and those who aren’t. Those who are live in families

that develop a whole stock of great lines, a kind of inner slanguage that helps to trace a family’s

growth just as accurately (and sometimes just as poignantly) as old videotapes or Kodaks in a

scrapbook. My own kids are now grown up, but they’re still passionate about the movies, and when I

asked them for some of their favorite lines from childhood, they were more than happy to comply.’

‘So here come some lines that track the history of my family. I’m curious to know if any of these

resonate with you—if they call up the sort of memories we more ordinarily associate with

photographs or pop music. If they do, would you write and say so? And if these aren’t the ones that do

the trick for you, which ones do? Please let me know.’ This, of course, led to an influx of mail to

Entertainment Weekly (covered in King’s Now Hear This—see our Opinion—Radio, Music, Film

and Television chapter).

King finishes the article with quotes from the following movies: Jaws; The Godfather, Part II;

E.T.; Deliverance; Sling Blade; Finding Forrester; Die Hard; Road to Perdition; Ghostbusters; Reservoir Dogs; Unforgiven; Gladiator; and Aliens.

The Pop of King: A Kingdom That Didn’t Come (July 9, 2004)

King co-wrote Kingdom Hospital, a TV miniseries based on Lars von Trier’s Danish

miniseries, The Kingdom. One US ABC-TV press release described Kingdom Hospital as a

‘shocking and frightening tale of a haunted hospital that was built over an ancient graveyard. The

doctors have put all their faith into science and technology, and are dismissive of any suggestion of

mysticism or unseen powers... at their own peril.’ Unfortunately, the mini-series was a failure—as

good as it was, the viewers just did not tune in after the first few episodes!

This column is important, as it gives King’s views on why Kingdom Hospital failed to rate. He

says he does not want to blame the ABC network for the failure of the show: ‘that would be an easy

answer—ABC has fallen on hard times—but it won’t wash.’ King believes the reason for the show’s

decline was that he and the network ‘were asking viewers to give us a week or two, maybe three, and

that was more time than most were willing to.’ (For a similar situation see How I Created Golden

Years...and Spooked Dozens of TV Executives in our Miscellany chapter).

After explaining the possible reasons behind Kingdom Hospital’s failure, King seems resigned:

‘Am I putting TV viewers down, accusing them of being dumb? I am not. You come home tired, you

want something that’s fun and familiar? That’s fine. It doesn’t preclude the thrill of discovering

something new—just look at the success of 24. All I’m saying is that inertia is a tough barrier to crash

through, and Kingdom Hospital wasn’t capable of doing it. Those last four episodes sure are fine,

though—for me, they pay off like a jackpot in Vegas. I only wish I could have brought a larger

audience along to collect it.’

King commented on the same subject in Kingdom Come, a two-page essay in the liner notes for

the DVD box set of Kingdom Hospital released in October 2004 (see our Miscellany chapter).

The Pop of King: The Four-Star Follies (August 20/27, 2004)

‘I love the movies. Let’s get that up front. Have since I was a kid. And I’m from an

unsophisticated school of thought that believes a movie (always a movie and never a film, even if it

comes with subtitles) should be fun before it’s anything else: an ice cream cone for the brain. Because

of this I especially like the summer season, when the studios shoot off so many of their big fireworks.

And usually I have fun, because it doesn’t take a lot to please me. I mostly go to be entertained, not to

learn the meaning of life’, King opens this column, as if those of us who follow his work closely

didn’t already know that (of course, many EW readers may have thought King was nothing but a

writer!)

King has never been an elitist and states he sneers at ‘people who sneer at entertainment for

entertainment’s sake.’ However: ‘There’s been a steady critical gradeflation—what could even be

called four-star fever—that makes me uncomfortable when I page through the entertainment section of

The New York Times. Here ads for major studio movies now routinely appear trailing kite tails of

critical superlatives’, he complains.

The column closes with summer blockbusters compared to one of King’s favorite films, Sam

Raimi’s The Evil Dead: ‘When you looked at Evil Dead, you knew you were looking at low-budget.

When you look at Spider-Man 2, you know you’re looking not just at high-budget but at top-end

Hollywood Humvee budget. Nothing wrong with that, either. But Evil Dead had a raw and horrifying

beauty that has stayed with me for 23 years, and in my mind that makes it a true four-star movie.

Spider-Man 2? Very cool, but I doubt if I’ll be able to remember many of the details by the time next

June rolls around with a new load of summer pix. But that’s okay, because—like Troy; Dodgeball; I,

Robot; and The Day After Tomorrow—it’s a pretty good movie’.

The Pop of King: Paint It Black (September 17, 2004)

This column, about celebrity deaths, opens: ‘I’m writing this on the 27th anniversary of Elvis

Presley’s death, and I can still remember what a shock it was to walk into the house and hear he had

left the building for good.’ King continues, commenting on the deaths of comedian John Belushi and

musicians Warren Zevon, George Harrison and Rick James.

He says he knows everyone has an idea of what happens to us when we die, ‘but even the most

cynical among us probably likes to think that there might be something afterward; something to go on

to’; and claims that celebrities, such as those mentioned, will live on in people’s hearts and minds

forever because of their work and talent.

The piece closes: ‘For Elvis there’s an afterlife of a hundred songs, and people will be listening

to them long after we’re gone. Folks born years after he died will make a pilgrimage to Memphis to

put flowers on his grave, and that’s not a bad thing. It doesn’t make me stop wishing the big stupe had

laid off the pills and fried banana sandwiches, but no—memory and pilgrimage are how we honor

those who have brightened our lives and made us happy, and that’s not a bad thing at all.’

The Pop of King: Shut Up ’n Play Yer Guitar (October 8, 2004)

King begins this column talking about the infamous anti-George W. Bush comment Dixie Chicks

singer Natalie Maines made in 2003. At the time this article was written the Dixie Chicks were

joining Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Jackson Browne and John Mellencamp

on a ‘Vote for Change’ tour of the ‘swing states’ 138 before the US Presidential election a few weeks

later.

The American public was torn on the issue of the Iraq war, and the tour drew strong criticism

from some. ‘As America becomes ever more entertainment-oriented (witness the splendid success of

this very magazine, if you doubt), the talking heads who hang out on the news channels have become

ever more wary of actors, writers, and rockers who want to get involved in the political process.

These talk-for-their-supper specialists (as opposed to those who only sing for theirs) often disparage

entertainers as dilettantes who only dabble in politics every four years, while at the same time

ignoring guys like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who have used their celebrity and

relaxed, camera-friendly personae to attain high public office’, King opines.

The subtitle of this column reflects the negative “shut up ’n play yer guitar” press accorded the

Vote for Change tour by significant players in the media. Once again, King uses his non-fiction to

inform readers of his opinion on a subject more important than pop culture: ‘I also think the

politicians, George W. Bush in particular, who happen to be on the wrong end of this guitar attack

may have reason to be worried. Music is powerful. Music can change hearts. And hearts can change

minds’, he writes. President Bush narrowly defeated Senator John Kerry in the election.

The Pop of King: Pet Peeves of 2004 (October 29, 2004)

Beginning this column King writes, ‘Pop culture is full of pleasures, but it also has its share of

annoyances; for every pretty, talented Elisha Cuthbert there is a Paris Hilton (and her little dog, too).

We soldier on bravely in spite of this, but sometimes it helps to unbutton that stiff upper lip and

verbalize. In that spirit, I offer the First Annual Pet Peeves Column in the selfless hope that by

exposing my own annoyances (in all their triviality), I may encourage you to speak of your own and

thus lighten your psychic load.’

He proceeds to list the things that ticked him off in 2004 and also rates each peeve, from mild to

severe headache level. The list: ‘I’m George W. Bush/John Kerry and I approved this message’

(referring to presidential campaign ads); Britney Spears; ‘TV talking heads who wanted Martha

Stewart to do hard time’; the song Many Men (Wish Death) by 50 Cent; high-concept TV ads; Dr.

Phil; ‘The Donald’ (referring to Donald Trump); classic-rock FM stations (as King readers know,

this isn’t just a 2004 rant); and commercials airing before theatrical movies.

The Pop of King: A Dozen Thanks (November 19, 2004)

‘The last time I monopolized this space at the back of the magazine, I wrote about pet peeves and

petty annoyances, but now it’s the Thanksgiving season, and time to turn the flip side’, King opens and

goes on to list twelve things he is thankful for, with some supporting detail for each.

They are: writer Donald E. Westlake; Jack Ketchum (author of The Girl Next Door, for which

King wrote an introduction)139; the novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke; Laura

Lippman’s novel Every Secret Thing; two albums (Tom Waits’ Real Gone and The Inmates’ Fast

Forward); the music downloading service/program iTunes; ABC’s television show Lost; the new

season of FOX’s 24 beginning in January; the television soap opera All My Children (no, he is not

kidding); the DVD release of the Dawn of the Dead remake; the Filthy Critic review web site; and

last, but not least, the Boston Red Sox, who finally won the World Series that year!140

The Pop of King: 2004: The Year in Music (December 10, 2004)

King opens, ‘Compiling a year-end “best-of” list is a tradition for most critics, but it has also

become something of a tradition to adopt a tone of lofty, humorous disdain while offering them (I

think of this style as New York Times Modern). “What a very silly thing to be doing,” the critic seems

to be saying, “but if you want to waste your time—here’s my list.” You won’t find that attitude here. I

love end-of-the-year lists (although I have a tendency to avoid the ill-tempered 10 Worst bitchfests). I

love them so much in fact that it’s going to take me three whole columns to elucidate my own

favorites.’

He begins with individual music tracks, including the Eminem songs Mosh and Just Lose It; and

also mentions Suds in the Bucket by Sara Evans; Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) by Big & Rich;

Earthbound by Rodney Crowell; I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness; and John

Sinclair from the reissue of John Lennon’s Acoustic album.

Finally, the best six albums of the year ‘with no apologies (and no fake boredom)’: Mojo Box by

Southern Culture on the Skids; Tonight Alright by Spiderbait; Live in Aught-Three by James

McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards; The Revolution Starts...Now by Steve Earle; Ollabelle by

Ollabelle; and American Idiot by Green Day.

This piece is listed as Ear Candy on the Entertainment Weekly web site.

The Pop of King: 2004: The Year in Books (December 17, 2004)

This column begins: ‘Every family has its holiday rituals. One of the best-loved in mine is the

annual New Year’s Day lists. We sit around the kitchen table with cans of soda and slices of pizza,

announce our picks for the 10 best books we read and the 10 best movies we saw in the past year,

then defend our choices while other family members scoff (said scoffing sometimes accompanied by

loud throwing-up noises). The films are always from the year itself, but when it comes to the books,

the only rule is that they must have been read between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31. That’s the rule I’ve

followed here. And here’s a bonus: With the exception of A Fan’s Notes, none of these books were

finalists for a National Book Award, so you may actually have already heard of a couple. Isn’t that a

treat?’

The top ten books of this year: Double Play by Robert B. Parker; Eventide by Kent Haruf;

Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan; The Punch:One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed

Basketball Forever by John Feinstein; Double Vision by Pat Barker; Absolute Friends by John le

Carré; Life of Pi by Yann Martel; A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exley; Vernon God Little by DBC

Pierre; and The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.

The Pop of King: 2004: The Year in Movies (December 24, 2004)

King opens: ‘I love the movies. At my local theater they know me at the box office, at the snack

bar, where my order rarely varies (popcorn and a medium soft drink, half Pepsi and half Diet Pepsi),

and at the entrance to the cinemas, where the ticket taker in the wheelchair always asks after the wife

and kids. If any of this strikes you as juvenile, all I can say is let’s hear it for arrested development. I

love living those other lives for a while; I love those bright stories played out in the dark. And

although my mental reach is longer than it was when I was 16, what I ask of the movies hasn’t

changed much: Entertain me for a while. Touch my emotions without insulting my intelligence. I saw

more than 60 movies in 2004, and many entertained me hugely. I’ve been disappointed by a sense of

creative exhaustion in this year’s holiday offerings—the only two I look forward to are the remake of

The Flight of the Phoenix and Kevin Spacey in Beyond the Sea—but there were enough good ones in

the months before Thanksgiving to make up the difference. Here’s my list of 2004’s best. It comes

with the usual lack of apologies, but one small caveat: For every flick that made this list, there were

two (Super Size Me and Friday Night Lights, for instance) that almost made it. And to me, that makes

it a really good year at the movies.’

King’s ten favorite movies of the year were: Red Lights, The Bourne Supremacy, Collateral,

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