The SDS Story

I started writing in 2012. Blogger provided me with a personal space to share my thoughts and opinions.

But what would I call it? There’s a story to that.

At the tender age of fifteen I was at my mate’s house playing video games. For the curious, that likely meant Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, or Super Monkey Ball. My friend’s Dad, John, was a little worse for wear. Enlivened by a healthy amount of whiskey, he wandered into the living room, sized me up, and called me “Super Duper Chrissy Cooper”.

It stuck.

The nickname’s amusing simplicity remained with me into my first job, and I was regularly known as Super Duper in the office, as well as at the athletics track. No irony, just a funny thing. So at the age of twenty one, and with the name firmly entrenched…I had it tattooed on my leg! It was here to stay.

Sadly, ‘S.D.C.C’ took on a deeper level of meaning in 2008, when John passed away. Always a mixture of amusingly chiding and supportive, he was like a second father to me. Whenever the tattoo catches my eye I’m reminded of a man gone far too soon. A man that knew, despite our protestations, that we had borrowed a Ford Fiesta he’d purchased and answered the question ‘what happens when a moving car is jammed into reverse gear?’*

So Super Duper is important to me.

So when it came to a name for the site, things came together pretty neatly. I wanted to talk about stuff, and my nickname is Super Duper. Super Duper Stuff.

With the name originating from the Father it was only right that the son would be involved in the origin of the content. Years ago, I’d visit the cinema every Thursday with that same best friend. As we heard the rousing beats of Pearl & Dean, we’d give each other a thumbs up or thumbs down. We’d then discuss the film on the drive home, and scribble a score out of ten onto the ticket stub. Over time I found myself reading more and more reviews online, mainly to see how our views lined up with critics.

I discovered a complete disregard for spoilers, mixed with padded out word counts and lazy opinions. To me the path forward was clear; I could complain, or I could write my first film review.

Through a friend I contacted the Editor of an up-and-coming website, Flickering Myth. I nervously awaited any kind of feedback on my first piece, a review of The Amazing Spider-Man. Would that B in A/S Level Film Studies pay off?

They already had more than one review for the film, so although TASM didn’t make it up, I was encouraged to write more. Eventually I realised I needed my own space to write about ‘stuff’ on my own timeline. So SDS was born.

That’s the how and why of Super Duper Stuff.

So what is the point of all this? I’ve recently started reading Mark Kermode’s Hatchet Job, and he quickly lays out that whilst it’s easy to lambast a film, there’s far more vulnerability in proclaiming your love for something. Mark goes on to set out his reasons for being a film critic, while also questioning the validity of the critic as a profession when the Internet has opened it to all.

While I understand the fear of dilution, as someone who has benefited from being easily provided with a URL to scream my opinion from, I can’t agree. I don’t have 1% of his cinematic knowledge – I don’t even think of myself as a critic – but I enjoy film and I can only hope that passion is present in my writing. I enjoy writing it. Hopefully you can enjoy reading it.

I’ve said before that if something brings you joy, and it isn’t hurting anyone, then crack on. So lets embrace who we are and what we love! If something is bad, I’ll call it out. But if I love it, there’s no holding back.

I call the shots with everything related to SDS. Agree or disagree, good or bad, it’s on me. The honest opinion of someone who likes to share his.

Welcome and thank you for reading.

*The gearbox falls out of the bottom.