About
Smells Like Screen Spirit was founded in the summer of 2008 by filmophile Dave Campbell, after being influenced and encouraged by his wife Vickie Howell to put his education and love of film to creative use.
With his friends and fellow writers Don Simpson, Dirk Sonniksen, & JP Chapman, the boys of SLSS enjoy discussing and debating the subject of movies. When they’re all together this usually takes place over pitchers of beer at The HighBall.
The SLSS goal is to provide readers with the latest movie reviews, news, advance screening contests, interviews and more by covering press screenings, film festivals, and other related events.
Our opinions on the films that we review are only that; opinions. In no way do we feel that our opinions hold a greater weight than anyone else’s, so we welcome you to please leave comments on any individual post or e-mail Dave directly at dave@smellslikescreenspirit.com with tips, questions, or suggestions as your voice and opinions are valued.
Smells Like Screen Spirit along with VickieHowell.com, are housed under Vickie & Dave’s company Craft.Rock.Love Media, LLC.
Thank you for checking out SmellsLikeScreenSpirit.com
The Smells Like Screen Spirit team is:
Dave Campbell
Editor-In-Chief
Location: Austin, TX
Email: dave@smellslikescreenspirit.com
Twitter: @ScreenSpirit
Facebook: facebook.com/smellslikescreenspirit
Founder and Editor-In-Chief Dave Campbell, a child of the 80's who strived to one day befriend Dr. Emmett Brown and drive a DeLorean 88 MPH into 1955, was born and raised in "The Town that Dreaded Sundown". Growing up in a small town left him no choice but to spend his days, surrounded by the films of some of his favorite directors, Robert Zemeckis, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Tim Burton, P.T. Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, & Sam Raimi.
Dave founded Smells Like Screen Spirit in 2008 after being encouraged by his wife Vickie Howell to do something that would both utilize his film school experience and feed his passion for movies and the layers of artistry that goes into making them. SLSS is housed under the umbrella company they own together, Craft.Rock.Love Media.
JP Chapman
Contributing Writer
Location: Cedar Park (The CP), TX
Email: chapman.johnp@gmail.com
Facebook: JP Chapman
Hailing from the Bay Area of CA, JP Chapman grew up a child of the Star Wars era--spending a great deal of his youth engrossed in the fantasy and sci-fi films of the 80's. As a teen, JP was gradually sucked into the independent music scene of Northern California and began gaining interest in the popular indie directors that ran synonymous with it. Relocating to Austin in late 2004, JP and SLSS founder, Dave Campbell, bonded over a shared interest in music and film, and began what would become a gratuitous and fruitful friendship.
JP's favorite directors are Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, P.T. Anderson, and David Fincher; with their films also being amongst his all time favorites.
Dirk Sonniksen
Associate Editor
Location: Austin, TX
Email: dirk@thedirkshow.com
Twitter: @Sonniksen
Facebook: Dirk Sonniksen
Dirk Sonniksen was born in Steinbeck country, which stinks of garlic, gangs, and if one has a particularly keen sense of smell...the ocean.
He loves writing, playing drums, and watching humanity slowly disintegrate from stupidity.
His greatest hope in life is that his kids will turn out better than he did...and that someone, someday will comment on one of his posts.
Don Simpson
Executive Writer
Location: Austin, TX
Email: simpsondon@gmail.com
Facebook: Don Simpson
The first films that Don remembers seeing were Star Wars IV: A New Hope, The Black Hole, and Moonraker. He also recalls watching The Elephant Man at way too early an age, having a demented effect on his psyche for several years.
During his high school and college years, Don randomly selected directors and rented every VHS tape he could find. His discovery of the amazing TLA Video stores (Philadelphia, PA) thrust this obsession into overdrive – this is how he discovered the cinematic worlds of Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, Jean-Luc Godard, Charlie Chaplin, Luis Bunuel, Wim Wenders, Terry Gilliam, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Akira Kurosawa; and rediscovered, albeit hesitantly (thanks to his premature experience with The Elephant Man), David Lynch.
Like Dylan in the movies, Don never looked back…Upon graduating college as an accountant, he dove with eyes wide open into a Master’s program in Cinema Studies at Temple University. Don studied a semester in London, England where for the first time in his life he found himself seated in a cinema at least once per day (a daily cinematic vitamin supplement of sorts). Soon after returning stateside, he found himself covering film festivals for Aint It Cool News – which didn’t last long…but it got him started on the path he finds himself on today. Besides writing for Smells Like Screen Spirit, Don is also a regular contributor for Jesther Entertainment. Other highlights of Don's writing career include: Devil in the Woods magazine, Pop Culture Press and the Los Angeles Journal.
