10 Years of Sunset Gun

Kim Morgan’s great site Sunset Gun turned 10 years old this August (a nice dovetail with Dorothy Parker’s recent birthday as well). Kim, who is one of the best writers working today, celebrates the moment by re-visiting the topic of her very first post, The Bad Seed.

Her writing has enriched my life. Seriously. It’s strange: I discovered her long before I discovered her site. As a matter of fact, the first piece I read by her (in Salon.com) went up before Sunset Gun came to life. The piece made such an impression on me that I printed it out. It was in a more innocent time where I still was devoted to having hard copies of things I felt were important.

Thanks be to archives, that piece, about the “barrel-chested man”, is now available via Salon’s archives. You can feel both the authority and the emotion in her voice. Her voice is unique. There is no other voice like it. It struck me immediately as someone I wanted to listen to.

Years later, I discovered her bright pink site (I can’t remember the first piece I read), and it would be awhile before I put it together – that this woman was the same woman who wrote that Salon piece I loved so much. When I figured it out, I thought to myself, “Of course. Of course. I would recognize that voice in a dark alley.”

Her topics are wide and deep. She writes about music (she’s written pieces on Dale Hawkins and Link Wray that are high watermarks for me), but also about film and actors. Her essay on the great Warren Oates is essential. And words can’t express how excited I am to see her video-essay on Oates in Criterion’s upcoming release of Monte Hellman’s The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind. Kim gets Warren Oates like no other!

It’s rare that you discover a new writer who is actually exciting. I can count those instances on one hand. Kim Morgan is at the top of the list.

Happy birthday, Sunset Gun!