AFOS: "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" playlist

1. Michael Giacchino, "Roar!" (from Cloverfield), Little Jacket Music, Inc.
2. Akira Ifukube, "Godzilla Main Title" (from Godzilla), The Best of Godzilla 1954-1975, GNP/Crescendo
3. Akira Ifukube, "Four Monsters Attack Tokyo" (from Destroy All Monsters), The Best of Godzilla 1954-1975, GNP/Crescendo
4. Akira Ifukube, "Ending Title" (from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah), The Best of Godzilla 1984-1995, GNP/Crescendo
5. Takayuki Hattori, "Godzilla Roars/Godzilla's Theme: 2000 Millennium," Godzilla 2000: Millennium, GNP/Crescendo
6. Max Steiner, "Main Title," King Kong, Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music
7. The Radio Symphony Orchestra of Cracow, "Main Title" (from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms), Sci-Fi's Greatest Hits Vol. 3: The Uninvited, TVT
8. The Radio Symphony Orchestra of Cracow, "Main Title" (from Them!), Sci-Fi's Greatest Hits Vol. 3: The Uninvited, TVT
9. Jerry Goldsmith, "Parker's Death," Alien: Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Intrada
10. Alan Silvestri, "Main Title" (from Predator), Sci-Fi's Greatest Hits Vol. 3: The Uninvited, TVT
11. Dimitri Tiomkin, "Main Title" (from The Thing from Another World), The Thing from Another World/Take the High Ground!, Film Score Monthly
12. Ennio Morricone, "Humanity (Part II)," The Thing, Varèse Sarabande
13. Byeong Woo Lee, "Sudden Attack in Broad Daylight," The Host, Milan
14. Byeong Woo Lee, "Hyun Suh!," The Host, Milan
15. Mel Tormé, "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" (from Daffy Duck's Quackbusters), Mel Tormé at the Movies, Rhino
16. Jerry Goldsmith, "Gremlin Credits" (from Gremlins 2: The New Batch), Hollywood Soundstage: Big Movie Hits Volume 1, Varèse Sarabande

Little Bill O'Reilly

The Daily Show used to do a clever segment called "Great Moments in Punditry," which skewered right-wing pundit shows by having kids read aloud transcripts from them. The spirit of the much-missed "Great Moments in Punditry" lives on in an amusing video featuring "Little Bill O'Reilly."

When I play the video with just the audio and no picture, the pint-sized version of Babble O'Reilly sounds like Holly Hunter if she got brainwashed by neo-cons.

New AFOS episode: "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives"

Just in time for Halloween is the next new episode of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series, which will consist of selections from scores to monster movies, including cues from Byeong Woo Lee's score to The Host and the iTunes single release of Michael Giacchino's "Roar!," the closing credits theme from Cloverfield.

Episode WEB98 begins streaming Monday, Oct. 13, at midnight.

AFOS: "A Better Class of Criminal" playlist

1. Hans Zimmer, "Why So Serious?," The Dark Knight, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
2. Danny Elfman, "First Confrontation," Batman: Original Motion Picture Score, Warner Bros.
3. Danny Elfman, "Waltz to the Death," Batman: Original Motion Picture Score, Warner Bros.
4. Shirley Walker, "Phantasm and Joker Fight," Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Reprise
5. Nelson Riddle, "Emergency Operation," Batman, Film Score Monthly
6. Danny Elfman, "Selina Transforms," Batman Returns, Warner Bros.
7. Shirley Walker, "Ski Mask Vigilante," Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Reprise
8. Hans Zimmer, "Tadarida," Batman Begins, Warner Sunset/Warner Home Video
9. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, "Blood on My Hands," The Dark Knight, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
10. Hans Zimmer, "Introduce a Little Anarchy," The Dark Knight, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
11. Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Face to Face," Batman Returns, Warner Bros.

Sarah Palin reminds me of Picket Fences' Mayor Rachel Harris

Governor Palin has been called many things. Caribou Barbie. A Tina Fey lookalike. A Peggy Hill lookalike. A Chief Marge Gunderson soundalike. Bush in drag. Dan Quayle with an updo. "Mom" from Futurama. Lonesome Rhodes from A Face in the Crowd. Charo to Biden's Johnny Carson.

I once compared her grasp of foreign policy to Miss Teen South Carolina's grasp of the English language. I'd like to add another two cents to the "Palin is like..." game and compare her to someone really obscure: Picket Fences character Rachel Harris, the lingerie store owner who was hastily thrust into the job of mayor of Rome, Wisconsin despite her lack of qualifications.

Leigh Taylor-Young won an Emmy in 1995 for her role as Mayor Harris, a cougar long before the term became popular (she was an early example of Picket Fences creator David E. Kelley's obsession with cougars, which was most memorably and disgustingly depicted through Fish's wattle fetish on Ally McBeal). The mayor slept with the much younger Deputy Kenny (but he pined for Deputy Max, played by Lauren Holly).

Palin's beauty pageant past isn't as lurid or hot as Mayor Harris' porn star past, but their policies and knee-jerk, out-of-control responses to issues are similar. The former Wasilla, Alaska mayor's attempt to ban books from the local library reminds me of the Picket Fences episode in which Mayor Harris ordered MTV to be removed from the local cable company's channel roster because she thought Beavis and Butt-head influenced the youth in Rome to be violent to each other (a grade schooler was on trial for shooting one of Sheriff Jimmy Brock's sons as payback for injuring his older brother during a prank-gone-bad). Mayor Harris continued to piss off the town by enforcing weapon searches on motorists and the fingerprinting of every Rome citizen.

That's what I fear will happen if Palin wins the VP seat. Like the citizens of Rome, we'll be treated to lots of bullshit enforced by someone who plays on people's fears and uses her looks or faux-folksy demeanor to distract the public from how underqualified she is for the job and how stupid and underwhelming her policies are.