AFOS: "Bad Things Come in Threes (Alright, Maybe Not Always)" playlist

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of one of my favorite films, Do the Right Thing, so I'm busy putting together something Do the Right Thing-related for the blog. In the meantime, airing tomorrow at 10am and 3pm on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is the Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "Bad Things Come in Threes (Alright, Maybe Not Always)" (WEB88) from June 18-24, 2007. Every track during WEB88 comes from a threequel like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or Ocean's Thirteen.

"Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo (titoli)"

1. Hans Zimmer, "Hoist the Colours," Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Walt Disney
2. Ennio Morricone, "Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo (titoli)," Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo, GDM
3. David Holmes, "Not Their Fight," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
4. David Holmes, "11, 12 & 13," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
5. Michael Giacchino, "Mission: Impossible Theme," Mission: Impossible III, Varèse Sarabande
6. The Four Tops, "Are You Man Enough?" (from Shaft in Africa), The Best of Shaft, Hip-O
7. Survivor, "Eye of the Tiger" (from Rocky III), Ultimate Survivor, Volcano Heritage
8. Jerry Fielding, "Prologue/Main Title," The Enforcer, Aleph
9. John Williams, "The Pit of Carkoon/Sail Barge Assault," Return of the Jedi, RCA Victor
10. Howard Shore, "The White Tree," The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Reprise/WMG Soundtracks
11. David Holmes, "Snake Eyes," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
12. John Williams, "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra," Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Warner Bros.
13. Danny Elfman, "March of the Dead," Army of Darkness, Varèse Sarabande
14. Ennio Morricone, "Il Triello," Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo, GDM
15. Alan Silvestri, "End Titles" (from Back to the Future Part III), Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Varèse Sarabande

Repeats of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series air Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm.

"The Best of Jimmy J. Aquino on Twitter," Part 5

The sampling of tweets from my Twitter page concludes.

Previously on A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog: Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.

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MSNBC's Michael Jackson coverage is this close to turning into SNL's "Buckwheat Is Dead" sketch.
3:33 PM Jun 25th from web

Favorite MJ-related childhood memory: My brother and sister getting mad at our dad for not taping one of MJ's '84 AMA acceptance speeches.
4:39 PM Jun 25th from web

Tweet #500: Least favorite MJ-related childhood memory: MJ tearing his shirt off during "Dirty Diana." "Your body starts to shiver," indeed.
4:58 PM Jun 25th from web

Though I understand why Charlie's Angels fans like @>cinebeats love and miss the late Farrah, parts of Farrah's show haven't aged well...
6:20 PM Jun 27th from web

... especially the scenes w/ Charlie the double entendre-crazy recluse boss in the Montalban toupee, easily the lamest part of the show.
6:21 PM Jun 27th from web

Charlie is a lazy douche. We never see him go out and do much legwork. He's the laziest, cowardliest head of a P.I. agency in TV history.
6:22 PM Jun 27th from web

Apparently, Charlie is an agoraphobe who's too busy getting laid to do any work, so he sends out his assistants to get their asses shot at.
6:23 PM Jun 27th from web

Why do we never see Charlie's face? The facelessness makes him look evil, like he's Dr. Claw or Cobra Commander or something.
6:24 PM Jun 27th from web

Maybe Charlie looks like a white Shabba Ranks (http://bit.ly/yL81N), and the cameraman's too frightened to show Charlie's face.
6:25 PM Jun 27th from web

To borrow @scrubbles' words, the Charlie's Angels theme music by Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson is the ultimate in blow-dried fabulousness.
6:27 PM Jun 27th from web

The best rendition of the Charlie's Angels theme was the pilot version: http://bit.ly/3PQ20V. Damn, Jaclyn Smith was the hottest Angel.
6:28 PM Jun 27th from web

The chick who played Jaclyn Smith in the Behind the Camera: Charlie's Angels TV-movie was the hottest one there too (http://bit.ly/F0aWw).
6:29 PM Jun 27th from web

@cinebeats The thing I hated the most about the Charlie's Angels movies was the lack of guns.
6:35 PM Jun 27th from web

@cinebeats It just isn't the same without the heroines pointing their guns and yelling "Freeze!"
6:36 PM Jun 27th from web

Bosley, you may be a dork, but I'd like to thank you for making the air conditioning at Charles Townsend Investigations stay cold for 5 yrs.
3:16 PM Jun 28th from web

WGN has been showing the Charlie's Angels ep in which Farrah's stunt double flees on a skateboard from a bad guy.
6:05 PM Jun 28th from web

"The role of Jill Munroe is now being played by Lupe Fiasco in a blond wig."
6:05 PM Jun 28th from web

"The Best of Jimmy J. Aquino on Twitter," Part 4

My sampling of what I've been up to on Twitter continues.

Previously on A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog: Parts 1, 2 and 3.

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@aots I'm dying to know the reason for Richard Alpert's agelessness. I bet it has to do with that guyliner he's always wearing.
11:18 AM May 13th from web in reply to aots

A FISTFUL OF SOUNDTRACKS: THE BLOG: An old G.I. Joe comic has some eerie parallels to Laura Ling's ordeal: http://tinyurl.com/otblwr
12:42 PM May 15th from web

Maya Rudolph admits her Michelle Obama sucked. Now if only someone can get the otherwise funny Fred Armisen to admit his Fauxbama sucks too.
5:25 PM May 16th from web

@gcdb Kevin Smith on Superman Returns: "Shouldn't [Lois'] first question to [Supes] be 'When did you rape me?'": http://tinyurl.com/242kjp
11:33 AM May 17th from web in reply to gcdb

@gcdb I would have had Supes come back to find Lex is President of the U.S. instead of rehashing Lex's real estate plot from the '78 film.
11:38 AM May 17th from web in reply to gcdb

Saw Far from Heaven for the 1st time on IFC. Man, I miss Elmer Bernstein. Ghostbusters made me fall in love w/ NYC and Bernstein's scores.
8:26 PM May 17th from web

@ALBaroza I'm finding out the L.A. quake was 4.7. On March 30, I woke up to a 5.6 shaker up here in San Jose. Beat that, Angelenos.
8:56 PM May 17th from web in reply to ALBaroza

@ALBaroza @JavierHernandez 6.7, huh? Well, say hello to... my 6.9. The same 6.9 that made Al Michaels shit his pants on live TV.
9:22 PM May 17th from web in reply to ALBaroza

Why did Michael Mann shoot Public Enemies on digital video? It worked for Collateral, but I'm not sure if DV would work for a period piece.
11:52 AM May 19th from web


Digital video makes the fedora-clad Depp, Bale and Crudup look like they're in a very low-budget gay porno gangster movie (Pubic Enemies?).
11:53 AM May 19th from web

But if there's any director who can make digital video not look shitty, it's definitely Michael Mann.
11:54 AM May 19th from web

I mentioned earlier that Elmer Bernstein was a key reason why I enjoyed Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters II wasn't the same without him...
4:50 PM May 19th from web

... and I'm not sure if Ghostbusters III will measure up without Elmer Bernstein either: http://tinyurl.com/o58nby
4:50 PM May 19th from web

Dushku as a Ghostbuster? I'm so there--though NY is a far different NY from the '80s NY. Will GBIII be less funny in a kinder, gentler NY?
4:52 PM May 19th from web

@gcdb I wonder why you hate Mann's Miami Vice film. I've never seen it because Colin Farrell as Crockett was such a dealbreaker for me.
4:54 PM May 19th from web

@gcdb Farrell as Crockett: one of the worst cases of miscasting ever. Josh Holloway, a.k.a. Sawyer, should have been cast as Crockett.
4:55 PM May 19th from web

R.I.P. Frankenstein. http://bit.ly/x3tSf. (Frankenstein in Death Race 2000 is my favorite Carradine role.)
11:32 AM Jun 4th from web

A FISTFUL OF SOUNDTRACKS: THE BLOG: Jimmy J. Aquino's Lacuna Matata: MIGHTY MOUSE: THE NEW ADVENTURES: http://bit.ly/19n2wg
4:20 PM Jun 5th from web

One Million B.C. + Pertwee-era Doctor Who + Jonny Quest - the xenophobia and the neo-Nazi scriptwriters = '70s version of Land of the Lost
6:54 PM Jun 6th from web

'70s version of Land of the Lost - the drugs Sid and Marty Krofft were on + a hot cave-chick = '90s version of Land of the Lost
6:55 PM Jun 6th from web

Scrubs - everyone except Carla + House's pill addiction + the twist ending of Mad Men's pilot episode = Nurse Jackie's pilot episode
4:10 PM Jun 7th from web

A FISTFUL OF SOUNDTRACKS: THE BLOG: I got a basketball jones, oh baby, ooooo. Favorite b'ball movie scores: http://bit.ly/4UPwR
4:26 AM Jun 8th from web

A FISTFUL OF SOUNDTRACKS: THE BLOG: Jimmy J. Aquino's Lacuna Matata: BLACK TIE AFFAIR starring Bradley Whitford: http://bit.ly/kdqni
4:27 AM Jun 8th from web

Why did they put a cover of "Dancing w/ Myself" in ads for Eddie Murphy's latest kids' movie? That's a song about masturbation, you sillies!
1:12 PM Jun 9th from web

Didn't expect to crack up so much during a rerun of the Married... with Children 2-parter in which Al fights the cancellation of Psycho Dad.
5:30 PM Jun 14th from web

"I Want My Psycho Dad" has great jabs at Washington DC, the DC murder rate and lame '90s sitcoms (Blossom, Full House, Saved by the Bell).
5:30 PM Jun 14th from web

"Uh, close your eyes first, Dad, 'cause there's still a few minutes left of Saved By the Bell: The Prison Years."
5:31 PM Jun 14th from web

To be concluded.

"The Best of Jimmy J. Aquino on Twitter," Part 3

My archive of earlier tweets from my Twitter page continues.

Previously on A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog: Parts 1 and 2.

In a set of tweets from April, I liveblogged 1991's The Rocketeer.

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I've been rewatching Rocketeer as research for uh... something. Last time I saw it was when it aired on Disney Channel in the early '90s.
4:31 PM Apr 25th from web

3 Disney employees need to be pimp-slapped: Miley the racist ho, the equally racist Joe Jonas and whoever handled Rocketeer's DVD transfer.
>4:33 PM Apr 25th from web

It's nice to finally see Rocketeer in WS, but Disney's transfer is so janky I had the same expression I get when I hear Miley Cyrus sing.
4:34 PM Apr 25th from web


The Rocketeer DVD's non-anamorphic, grainy transfer doesn't do justice to Hiro Narita's cinematography and Jennifer Connelly's cleavage.
4:36 PM Apr 25th from web

Why do many of my favorite actioners (Rocketeer, the original Taking of Pelham, Johnnie To's The Mission) get the crappiest DVD transfers?
4:37 PM Apr 25th from web


Billy Campbell--TV's go-to guy for middle-aged scumbags when Eric Roberts is busy acting in rap videos--looks like he's 12 in The Rocketeer.
4:39 PM Apr 25th from web

I forgot that Locke was in The Rocketeer. Because it's a Disney film, Terry O'Quinn's Howard Hughes doesn't collect jars of his own piss.
4:42 PM Apr 25th from web

Though I think Timothy Dalton is underrated as 007, @nathanrabin is right on about him being more compelling as Neville Sinclair than as JB.
4:47 PM Apr 25th from web


One of the funniest scenes in Rocketeer is when Neville tries to spit game at Jenny, and she notices all his lines are from his movies.
4:51 PM Apr 25th from web

Jennifer Connelly's Jenny Blake: hottest-looking film geek ever.
4:52 PM Apr 25th from web

A lot of H!ITG!'s in The Rocketeer: Margo Martindale, Jan from The Office singing at a '30s club, Midnight Run "Hopalong Cassidiche" guy...
4:59 PM Apr 25th from web


Am I the only one who thinks Rocketeer--which tanked in '91--has aged better than the more popular actioners from that summer (T2, RH:POT)?
5:01 PM Apr 25th from web

In Living Color did a then-amusing Latino version of Rocketeer after the film came out. I remember his leafblower doubled as his jet pack.
5:03 PM Apr 25th from web

@pfunn If there'll ever be a Rocketeer double-dip, it needs an extra pointing out each of the film's countless references to Old Hollywood.
5:12 PM Apr 25th from web in reply to pfunn



A couple of clickworthy pieces on The Rocketeer, by @nathanrabin (http://tinyurl.com/d35dvz) and Scott Tipton (http://tinyurl.com/dah5o6).
5:14 PM Apr 25th from web

In his obit for Dave Stevens, @evanier said that after Rocketeer tanked, DS lost interest in doing more Rktr comics, which was unfortunate.
5:16 PM Apr 25th from web


The Rocketeer got me pumped over IDW's Rocketeer reprints, which I'm dying to read b/c I want to research more about Dave Stevens' creation.
5:18 PM Apr 25th from web

From April '08: A FISTFUL OF SOUNDTRACKS: THE BLOG: What if Rick Berman continued making #StarTrek movies?: http://tinyurl.com/cznosm
2:38 AM May 6th from web

I was searching my parents' garage for some old Starlog issues that contained articles about The Rocketeer and Gerald Fried and...
10:16 AM May 8th from web

...in my parents' garage, I stumbled into some '80s G.I. Joe comics by Larry Hama, whose work all of us Secret Identities creators admire.
10:17 AM May 8th from web

A fistful of classic Larry Hama G.I. Joe comics = some kickass bathroom reading. (Tweet number 300. This! Is! Cobra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!)
10:19 AM May 8th from web

Among the G.I. Joe comics I unearthed from the garage: G.I. Joe #61 (July 1987), which has a dope Mike Zeck cover: http://tinyurl.com/p8nkqq
10:21 AM May 8th from web

G.I. Joe #61 is about the rescue of a U.S. reporter accused of espionage, an eerie precursor to the imprisonment of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.
10:22 AM May 8th from web

G.I. Joe #61 makes me wish for a special ops unit to sneak into North Korea and get Laura Ling and Euna Lee the hell out of there.
10:22 AM May 8th from web

Though I enjoyed Abrams' #StarTrek, I'm sick and tired of time travel and madmen trying to destroy Earth a la Khan, Kruge, Soran & Shinzon.
10:14 AM May 12th from web

Trek VI & Casino Royale proved you can have villains who aren't concerned w/ global domination & yet it still feels like plenty's at stake.
10:16 AM May 12th from web

An article from my past as a journo: De Niro and Brando sleepwalk through The Score: http://tinyurl.com/ocp3yv
10:24 AM May 12th from web

Favorite #StarTrek in-joke: Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" during prepube Kirk's joyride is a nod to Shatner's TAS "sabotage" pronunciation rant.
3:26 PM May 12th from web

Why so few Filipinos during JJA's #StarTrek? "Must have been a Pacquiao fight going on that day," jokes @moonielantion: http://bit.ly/xKLUv
3:28 PM May 12th from web

To be continued.

"The Best of Jimmy J. Aquino on Twitter," Part 2

My compilation of tweets from my Twitter page that have been replied to (or retweeted) the most continues.

Previously on A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog: Part 1.

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I've posted my five favorite closing lines from movies on @LivingSocial. I'll post them in my next several tweets.
4:26 AM Apr 21st from web

Favorite closing lines from movies: 5. "God damn you all to hell!" (Planet of the Apes)
4:28 AM Apr 21st from web

Favorite closing lines from movies: 4. "Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens..." (The Thing)
4:30 AM Apr 21st from web

Favorite closing lines from movies: 3. "Maybe it was Utah." (Raising Arizona)
4:32 AM Apr 21st from web

Fave ending lines: 2. "You bastard!" "Yes, sir. In my case, an accident of birth. But you, sir, you're a self-made man." (The Professionals)
4:35 AM Apr 21st from web

Favorite closing lines from movies: 1. "Hey everybody, we're all gonna get laid!" (Caddyshack)
4:37 AM Apr 21st from web

Favorite closing lines I didn't post on my @LivingSocial list: "Shut up and deal." (The Apartment)
4:40 AM Apr 21st from web

Other fave ending lines: "Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." (Sunset Blvd.) Another great last line from a Billy Wilder film.
4:42 AM Apr 21st from web

Other favorite closing lines: "...a warning: that all glory is fleeting." (Patton)
4:44 AM Apr 21st from web

Other favorite last lines: "Hey Blond! You know what you are? Just a dirty son of a..." (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
4:46 AM Apr 21st from web

Other favorite closing lines: "I think I'll have a drink." (The Untouchables)
4:48 AM Apr 21st from web

Other favorite closing lines: "I never said, 'Thank you.'" "And you'll never have to." (Batman Begins)
4:50 AM Apr 21st from web

Other favorite closing lines: "I was cured alright." (A Clockwork Orange)
4:52 AM Apr 21st from web

Other favorite closing lines: "This life came so close to never happening." (25th Hour)
4:54 AM Apr 21st from web

Last favorite closing line before I go to bed (yeah, I sleep so late): "I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative." (Iron Man)
>4:57 AM Apr 21st from web

I know nothing about Twilight. I don't know the characters' names, like the lead guy, whom I assume is Hemo the Emo Vampire.
4:28 PM Apr 22nd from web

From Nov.: A FISTFUL OF SOUNDTRACKS: THE BLOG: Film version of '70s cartoon show #StarTrek doesn't look promising: http://tinyurl.com/63eon5
11:55 AM Apr 24th from web

To be continued.

"The Best of Jimmy J. Aquino on Twitter," Part 1

In March, I gave up resisting Twitter and launched a page there to write any blog posts that are only two or three sentences long. I didn't like Twitter at first, but I've adjusted to it, and now I think it's a more enjoyable and appealing microblogging/social networking site than the cluttered and less stripped-down Facebook.

I've found Twitter's 140-character limit to be a great way to test out my humor writing and be better at brevity. On Facebook, members have somehow discovered ways to bypass the character limit on their status updates, which has resulted in two things: 1) a lot of users writing updates that are longer than the Iliad, which kills the point of a microblog, and 2) me glancing briefly at those long-winded updates and wanting to log out of Facebook as fast as I can.

However, Twitter has a few downsides as well. Too many Twitterers have used the site to write some of the most vapid and boring microblogs I've ever come across (which resulted in Lewis Black uttering on Attack of the Show one of my favorite quotes about vapid-sounding Twitterers, "I'm not that interested in my life! What kind of ego do you have to have to think other people are interested?... If you're walking around telling people what you're doing, then guess what, you're not really doing it, are you? You're describing it!"). Instead of tweeting nonstop about every single activity in my life, I've preferred to focus most of my tweets on either the Fistful of Soundtracks radio station, movies and shows I've watched, links I want people to check out or links to the posts I write here at afistfulofsoundtracks.blogspot.com.

But the biggest downside of Twitter for me is that unlike Blogger or WordPress, Twitter doesn't automatically create archives of your older tweets, making it difficult to access older tweets that either you or someone else posted. If you want to access an older tweet without repeatedly clicking on the "more" link at the bottom of the page, you have to have previously copied and pasted the tweet's URL somewhere on your computer (like on Notepad) so that you can copy and paste that URL into your browser.

Because of the lack of an archive section on my Twitter page, here's a compilation of the tweets from my page that have received replies or have been retweeted (Twitter slang for being quoted), starting with my very first tweet.

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Dammit. I give up. I'm on Twitter now though I'm not feelin' the concept. I'm joining only b/c writing 140-ch. posts on Blogger seems lame.
12:59 PM Mar 14th from web

Awesome. My first word on Twitter was "Dammit," which, in the Cosby household, means "Russell."
12:59 PM Mar 14th from web

You know who does the best dammits on TV? Kiefer. Not since DeForest Kelley has someone taken dammiting to a whole 'nother level.
1:00 PM Mar 14th from web


@pfunn I see that dumb new name and I think, "Shouldn't it be pronounced 'sy-fee,' as in the Syufy [sy-yoo-fee] movie theater chain?"
1:31 PM Mar 16th from web in reply to pfunn

Rotten Tomatoes Show on @current is the anti-Movie Mob. Their webcam reviews come from intelligent folks, not annoying attention whores.
11:15 AM Mar 20th from web

I prefer Savage Steve Holland (Better Off Dead) over John Hughes b/c SSH's '80s comedies aren't as racist as Hughes'--and they're weirder.
11:37 AM Mar 20th from web

Savage Steve Holland's How I Got Into College is on Fox Movie Channel right now. Damn, tanktop-clad Tom Kenny is paler than @jimgaffigan.
11:38 AM Mar 20th from web

Is it me or do some Twitterers sound like Norm MacDonald as Larry King reading his USA Today News & Views column? http://tinyurl.com/d2m79h
4:08 PM Mar 21st from web

How nice. An earthquake just woke me up.
10:46 AM Mar 30th from web

Dammit, I can't get that silly Lady Gaga "this beat is sick" refrain out of my head ever since I first heard it on #Chuck last week.
1:30 AM Apr 11th from web


@gcdb She's the creation of a gay mad scientist who needed a new icon to worship b/c Madonna and Dona Versace are getting too old & creepy.
8:34 AM Apr 11th from web in reply to gcdb


@gcdb I bet every Canadian right now wants to bitchslap Billy Bob Thornton just like how Kurt Russell slaps around BBT in that movie.
7:56 PM Apr 11th from web in reply to gcdb

There needs to be an Asian American comedians' version of MST3K or Cinematic Titanic or #twitflixing (like the HGers' skewering of Crank 2).
4:08 AM Apr 17th from web

Why are Asian Americans always so serious and humorless and tweedy when they write essays or posts about racist pieces of shit like Crank 2?
4:13 AM Apr 17th from web

We Asian Americans need to take a cue from MST or HG or Paul Mooney and try a comic approach to ripping to shreds the Crank 2s of the world.
4:18 AM Apr 17th from web

@ALBaroza I want to do a live show in which an AA comic & I do snarky running com. on a racist flick. A RiffTrax-ish site might be dope too.
11:28 AM Apr 17th from web in reply to ALBaroza

"Why don't you make like a bass player and be inaudible?"--Metalocalypse. I've posted my all-time favorite basslines on @LivingSocial.
9:15 AM Apr 20th from web

Dopest basslines: 5. Jamiroquai, "Space Cowboy (Stoned Again Mix)"--the ultimate #420 anthem. Bassist: Stuart Zender.
9:18 AM Apr 20th from web


Basslines: 4. Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson's Barney Miller theme. Bassist: Jim Hughart. Rarely does a Jew on TV get a theme this funky.
9:20 AM Apr 20th from web

Basslines: 3. Freddie Hubbard, "Red Clay." Bassist: Ron Carter. ATCQ fans know this bassline from "Sucka N," which sampled a cover of "RC."
9:24 AM Apr 20th from web

Dopest basslines: 2. Slave, "Just a Touch of Love." Bassist: Mark Adams. Sampled by De La Soul ("Keepin' the Faith") and Das EFX ("Shine").
9:27 AM Apr 20th from web

Dopest basslines: 1. The Smiths, "This Charming Man." Bassist: Andy Rourke. His bass work is the coolest part of the chune.
9:30 AM Apr 20th from web


I can never hear "Ready to Go" by Republica again without thinking of Dr. Girlfriend.
4:33 PM Apr 20th from web

To be continued.

These are the bonuses of the starship Enterprise: Paramount announces its Star Trek Blu-ray/DVD extras

YouTube comedian Shyaporn pokes fun at J.J. Abrams' Star Trek in a funny spoof that calls attention to something I didn't notice even after watching the movie twice: Kirk--whether it's his preteen self or his academy cadet self--does an awful lot of hanging off cliffs during the movie.

Shyaporn's YouTube channel is a must-click channel (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and those YouTube "5000 impressions in 2 minutes" videos get nice skewerings there too). I would have discovered Shyaporn's Star Trek spoof sooner, like back when Abrams' Star Trek was, uh, more relevant, but because I'm Filipino, I'm late to everything.

Star Trek's DVD and Blu-ray release date won't be as late as I constantly am to things. Paramount has announced the street date and bonus features (from a filmmakers' commentrak to deleted scenes that were briefly glimpsed in the trailers), and the date is sooner than I expected: October 8. Here are some of the extras Paramount will include on both the DVD and Blu-ray editions of the summer's most popular and acclaimed blockbuster (suck it, Paramount's other cash cow, Transformers: Revenge of the Fetchit):

- Audio commentary (J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci) translated into Klingonese

- Audio commentary by a group of irate Trekkies who couldn't enjoy the movie because the Starfleet uniform insignia didn't stick to the original TV series' rule that each Starfleet ship has its own insignia

- Featurettes: "He Blinded Me with Lens Flares!: The Cinematography of Dan Mindel," "Red Balls in Your Mouth: J.J. Abrams' Red Ball Fetish," "How to Recreate the IMAX Experience: Just Press Your Face Against the Blu-ray Player Screen"

- Deleted scenes:

* Spock's birth

* McCoy's birth

* Uhura's birth

* Scotty's birth

* Sulu's birth

* Chekov's birth

* Spock's bris

* McCoy gets taken to the cleaners in divorce court

* Cadet Kirk is reunited with Biggs Darklighter

* Ayel tortures Pike by performing spoken-word poetry

* Nero tortures Pike with a screening of Ang Lee's Hulk

* The explanation for Kirk's swift promotion from cadet to starship captain (SPOILER ALERT: he slept with Fleet Admiral Madea)

Song for Nico: Marvel's Runaways gets a theme tune

In a post about songs I would have chosen for the Watchmen movie if I were its music supervisor, I mentioned a comic book that came with its own original soundtrack: the Devil's Due series Spooks, a Ryan Schifrin/Larry Hama collabo that spawned a score album co-composed by Schifrin's father, legendary Enter the Dragon and Mission: Impossible composer Lalo Schifrin.

Witchblade is another comic with a soundtrack. Megadeth and Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori were among the artists who contributed original songs that readers could rock out to while following the adventures of their favorite scantily clad NYPD detective-turned-warrior woman.

Spooks and Witchblade are comics I've never read, so I was kind of excited to learn a comic I do read is joining the list of comics with original theme songs: Runaways (no, not The Mark Sanford and Maria Story, but the witty Marvel teenage superhero series created by one of my favorite comic scriptwriters, Brian K. Vaughan, and featuring an Asian American Goth chick, Nico, as the team leader).

Runaways editor Nick Lowe--not to be confused with Nick Lowe of "Cruel to Be Kind" and "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" fame--has written and recorded theme music for his own series. This isn't the first time Lowe and his brother Matt, a member of the Down Lowe, created a theme for a comic Lowe edited. The brothers also recorded a theme for Nextwave.

MTV's Splash Page debuted a music video of Lowe's Runaways theme, which can be downloaded in mp3 form from Marvel's site, and interviewed Lowe about his recording:

How does the Runaways theme fare? It's alright--it breaks down the comic's premise in a tuneful way that makes me miss old-school TV themes like the ones that opened the '60s Spider-Man cartoon, The Greatest American Hero, Jack of All Trades and The Knights of Prosperity--but it's not exactly the theme I had in mind while reading Runaways.

The theme I would have gone with is "I Love Playin' with Fire" by... the Runaways.

AFOS: "Living in Paradise" playlist

Airing tomorrow at 10am and 3pm Pacific on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is the Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "Living in Paradise" (WEB19) from July 21-27, 2003. WEB19 was a salute to one of my favorite cable channels, TCM, the greatest non-porno, non-sports channel ever. The cleverly programmed, commercial-free channel celebrated its 15th anniversary in April and launched the Classic Film Union, a film geeks' social networking site, earlier this month.

I borrowed the "Living in Paradise" title from an Elvis Costello track. I briefly went through a phase where I was naming AFOS episodes after Costello and Clash songs.

The first half of this playlist consists of themes from movies I first saw on TCM, from classics like The Great Escape and The Asphalt Jungle to lesser-known flicks like Richard Lester's The Knack... And How to Get It, which is now on Hulu. The Knack opens with my favorite John Barry movie theme that wasn't written for a 007 film.

1. Elmer Bernstein, "Main Title," The Great Escape, Rykodisc
2. Elmer Bernstein, "Main Title and Calvera," The Magnificent Seven, Rykodisc
3. Miklós Rózsa, "The Asphalt Jungle (Main Title)" (from The Asphalt Jungle), Crime Jazz: Music in the Second Degree, Rhino
4. John Barry, "The Knack (Main Theme)," The Knack... And How to Get It, Rykodisc
5. Henry Mancini and His Orchestra, "It Had Better Be Tonight (Instrumental)," The Pink Panther, BMG France
6. John Morris, "Springtime for Hitler," Music and Dialogue from Mel Brooks' The Producers, Razor & Tie
7. John Barry featuring the Voices of the Accademia Monteverdiana, "Chinon/Eleanor's Arrival," The Lion in Winter, Legacy/Columbia
8. Mark Knopfler, "Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero)," Local Hero, Warner Bros.
9. Duke Ellington Orchestra, "Main Title and Anatomy of a Murder," Anatomy of a Murder, Columbia/Legacy
10. Ray Charles, "In the Heat of the Night" (from In the Heat of the Night), In the Heat of the Night/They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, Rykodisc
11. Miklós Rózsa, "Overture," King of Kings, Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music
12. Herbie Hancock, "Bring Down the Birds" (from Blow-Up), Blue Break Beats, Volume 4, Blue Note
13. The M-G-M Studio Orchestra, "Main Title (alternate version)," Singin' in the Rain: The Deluxe Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music
14. Robert Preston, "The Shady Dame from Seville (Rehearsal)," Victor/Victoria, Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music
15. Miklós Rózsa, "Finale (extended choral track)," Ben-Hur, Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music

Repeats of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series air Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm.

Five definitive Star Trek cues

I was hoping a May 21 post about my unpublished 2007 wish list for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek prequel or reboot or preboot or whatever would be my last Trek-related post for a while. No dice.

A Film Score Monthly blogger recently posted a list of five Trek score cues that best sum up or represent the venerable franchise. It's a nice list--it's cool to see Gerald Fried get some love, and though I still think the nearly wordless Star Trek: The Motion Picture travel pod sequence (in which Admiral Kirk looks like he wants to take his own starship behind a Spacedock and get her pregnant) is overlong, it's hard to dispute the post's argument that the pod sequence contains one of Jerry Goldsmith's most sublime moments as a film composer. The list inspired me to post my five favorite cues from the franchise and stream a block of these five tunes on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel all through August.

1. Charles Napier, "Heading Out to Eden," Star Trek ("The Way to Eden")
This "Way to Eden" number is one of Trek's proudest musical moments.

2. Charles Napier, "Hey Out There!," Star Trek ("The Way to Eden")
This other "Way to Eden" highlight is such a poignant expression of Gene Roddenberry's philosophy of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations).

3. Charles Napier, "The Good Land," Star Trek ("The Way to Eden")
Aw, Trek, you can do no wrong.

4. Kirk Thatcher, "I Hate You," Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
This touching melody was written and performed by a Trek IV visual effects PA who was promoted to associate producer and even got to appear onscreen as a mohawked miscreant Earthling during the playing of his own composition.



5. Bruce Hyde, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen," Star Trek ("The Naked Time")
Not a dry eye in the house.

Alright, I'm kidding.

Not exactly a shining moment in the career of legendary female Trek scriptwriter D.C. Fontana (who hid behind an even more male-sounding pseudonym for the heavily rewritten "Way to Eden"), Trek's atrocious space hippies episode is proof that network TV series writers in their 30s or 40s aren't the best people to turn to when you need someone to capture the pulse of the counterculture.

"I Hate You" is such an ersatz punk tune Avril Lavigne mistook it for the real thing.

It's funny that Thatcher complained about the inaccurate sound of the music that was previously selected for the Trek IV bus scene because lyrics-wise, the song he contributed ended up sounding only slightly more authentic. A real punk band would never say "Screw you!" like Thatcher's "Edge of Etiquette" did during "I Hate You."

Seriously, here are my actual five definitive Trek cues.

1. Gerald Fried, "The Ritual/Ancient Battle/2nd Kroykah," Star Trek ("Amok Time")
Fried would bristle whenever the show would recycle cues like what I think is his crowning achievement, the piece that launched a million Trek music parodies ("Sometimes, I thought it was ludicrous what they did [to keep the series' music budget down], and sometimes, I think, 'Well yeah, alright, it sort of works.'"), but after the show's post-network success, I bet he's been touched by how much recognition and spoofage his catchy fight theme receives.

2. Sol Kaplan, "Kirk Does It Again," Star Trek ("The Doomsday Machine")
Oh, so that's where John Williams got his Jaws theme from.

3. Jerry Goldsmith, "Spock Walk," Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The cue that best captures the cerebral and mysterious feel of The Motion Picture isn't the rousing but somewhat out-of-place main title theme. It's the eerie "Spock Walk," which accompanies the movie's only genuinely thrilling sequence (besides the still-dazzling opening shot of the Klingon armada and the upgraded Enterprise's launch sequence): Spock's thruster-suited trip into the v'gina of V'Ger. As a Trek installment, ST:TMP is uninvolving, witless and flat (the original cast comes off as nervous and stiff in their first feature film together), but it's a triumph of mood and atmosphere, especially during the spacewalk sequence and the sterling Goldsmith cue that accompanies it.

4. James Horner, "Battle in the Mutara Nebula," Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
My favorite Trek II cue, which kicks off when Kirk bites into his apple and tells Saavik, "I don't like to lose," accompanies the perfectly paced sequence in which the Enterprise and the Reliant circle each other like a matador and a bull with nacelles instead of horns.

5. Michael Giacchino's Star Trek main title theme (not found on the score album--the brief cue is most likely just snippets of "Enterprising Young Men" edited together)
The moment this enjoyably pompous new theme played over the opening title image of the gleaming Starfleet arrowhead insignia, I knew Trek was back--even though the theme wasn't Alexander Courage's classic fanfare. Like the rest of Giacchino's new material during the score, Kirk's theme, in its various forms, perfectly embodies the spirit of classic Trek.

Some viewers are disappointed that Courage's fanfare doesn't appear until the film's climax. Have they forgotten this is a prequel? To borrow Giacchino's own words, this film is about everything that came before the Trek we know. Delaying the classic Trek theme (a la the late appearance of "The James Bond Theme" in David Arnold's Casino Royale score to enhance the moment when the upstart hero finally comes into his own) was a bold and fitting move.

Auto-Tune the News: Katie Couric holdin' it down

Auto-Tune may be dead to Jay-Z and music critics, but the haters haven't been able to stop the Gregory Brothers from continuing to give news shows like the CBS Evening News the Auto-Tune treatment.

This is their best video so far.

"I Need to Score" T-shirt by Shelf Life

The Deuce's PopeyePete linked in a recent tweet to a bunch of ill exploitation cinema-related T-shirts by the Cleveland-based Shelf Life Clothing. Here's the illest of them all:

These are the legendary film music composers whose faces are on the shirt:

Shelf Life's shirt design for their film music tee is way better than the shirt design I came up with for my CafePress store a long time ago:

In a hipster T-shirt market with too many racist companies and not enough Blacklavas, it's nice to see Shelf Life defy the market and be pro-Asian for a change:

AFOS: "Kids Come Running for the Rich Taste of Samples" playlist

Airing tomorrow at 10am and 3pm Pacific on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is the Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "Kids Come Running for the Rich Taste of Samples" (WEB87) from February 26-March 4, 2007. The title is a play on the classic MST3K line "Kids come running for the rich taste of Sampo!" In WEB87, I played '70s--and at one particular point, '80s--themes that have been sampled by hip-hop artists and juxtaposed them with the songs that contain those film and TV music samples.

1. Johnny Pate, "Shaft in Africa (Addis)" (from Shaft in Africa), The Best of Shaft, Hip-O
2. Jay-Z, "Show Me What You Got," Kingdom Come, Roc-A-Fella
3. Curtis Mayfield, "Superfly," Superfly: Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition, Curtom/Rhino
4. Beastie Boys, "Egg Man," Paul's Boutique, Capitol
5. Isaac Hayes, "Hung Up on My Baby" (from Three Tough Guys), Double Feature: Music from the Soundtracks of Three Tough Guys & Truck Turner, Stax
6. Geto Boys, "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," We Can't Be Stopped, Rap-A-Lot
7. Shirley Bassey, "Diamonds Are Forever (Main Title)," Diamonds Are Forever, EMI/Capitol
8. Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)," Late Registration, Roc-A-Fella
9. Quincy Jones, "The Streetbeater (Sanford & Son Theme)," The Reel Quincy Jones, Hip-O
10. Masta Killa, Ol' Dirty Bastard and RZA, "Old Man," No Said Date, Nature Sounds
11. David Shire, "Main Title," The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Retrograde
12. Mix Master Mike, "Suprize Packidge (Remix)," Suprize Packidge (The Automator Remix), Asphodel
13. Dennis Coffey, "Theme from Black Belt Jones," Do You Pick Your Feet in Poughkeepsie?, Paul Nice Productions
14. Lalo Schifrin, "The Human Fly," Enter the Dragon, Warner Home Video
15. Love Unlimited Orchestra, "Theme from Together Brothers," Funk on Film, Chronicles/PolyGram
16. Stu Phillips, "Knight Rider," NBC: A Soundtrack of Must See TV, TVT

Time 4 sum aksion: AFOS June and July 2009 segment playlists

Starting today, these June and July '09 playlists (intro'd by yours truly, of course) will air Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4am, 10am, 3pm, 7pm and 11pm, and Saturdays and Sundays at 7am, 9am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm all through the rest of June and the first half of July on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel.

The '90s action score cues block came about after I rattled off names of my favorite original cues from '90s action flicks on Facebook's LivingSocial app and Twitter and then realized all those tracks together would make for a great block on AFOS.

"Love Theme Three-Way":
1. Isaac Hayes, "Love Scene Ellie (Ellie's Love Theme)" (from Shaft), Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More!, Film Score Monthly
2. Vangelis, "Love Theme," Blade Runner, Atlantic
3. Bernard Herrmann, "Conversation Piece," North by Northwest, Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music

"Adams Family Values":
4. Bear McCreary, "Cybernetic Life Form Node," Caprica, La-La Land
5. Bear McCreary, "Caprica End Credits," Caprica, La-La Land

"Favorite '90s Action Score Cues":
6. Mark Mancina, "Footchase," Original Score from the Motion Picture Bad Boys, La-La Land
7. Nick Glennie-Smith, Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams, "Hummel Gets the Rockets," The Rock, Hollywood
8. Bruce Broughton, "The Launch," Lost in Space: Original Motion Picture Score, Intrada
9. Bruce Broughton, "You're No Daisy; Finishing It," Tombstone: Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Intrada
10. James Horner, "The Flying Circus," The Rocketeer, Hollywood
11. David Arnold, "White Knight," Tomorrow Never Dies: The Original Motion Picture Score, Chapter III
12. Jerry Goldsmith, "End of a Dream," Total Recall: The Deluxe Edition, Varèse Sarabande
13. Shirley Walker, "Ski Mask Vigilante (Expanded)," Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, La-La Land
14. Danny Elfman, "The Chase," Sleepy Hollow, Hollywood
15. Basil Poledouris, "Klendathu Drop," Starship Troopers, Varèse Sarabande
16. Jerry Goldsmith, "The Fire Dragon," The 13th Warrior, Varèse Sarabande
17. Jerry Goldsmith, "Red Alert," Star Trek: First Contact, GNP/Crescendo
18. Trevor Jones, "Promentory," The Last of the Mohicans, Morgan Creek
19. James Horner, "The Ride," The Mask of Zorro, Sony Classical/Sony Music Soundtrax
20. Jerry Goldsmith, "Arthur's Farewell," First Knight, Epic Soundtrax
21. Danny Elfman, "Zoom B," Mission: Impossible: Original Motion Picture Score, Point Music

"Buttercream-Frosted Murdercake Mix":
22. J.G. Thirlwell, "Assclamp!," The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell, Williams Street
23. J.G. Thirlwell, "Bolly," The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell, Williams Street

"Movement of Giacchino":
24. Michael Giacchino, "To Boldly Go," Star Trek, Varèse Sarabande
25. Michael Giacchino, "End Credits," Star Trek, Varèse Sarabande

There won't be any more new episodes of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series. I've dumped the one-hour episodic format for the lengthier, more flexible and Scion Radio-inspired format that you see here. You'll still be able to check out past eps of AFOS: The Series Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm.

Score baby score

In terms of graphic design, McFarland's Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979: A Critical Survey by Genre is no Album Cover Art of Soundtracks, but as an overview of the Silver Age of film and TV score music, the same era that the excellent 1997 Little, Brown coffeetable book covered via stills of LP cover art, 1950-1979 is an informative and enjoyable read. The author is Kristopher Spencer, who runs Score, Baby!, one of my favorite soundtrack review sites.

The Silver Age saw the emergence of composers like Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Lalo Schifrin and Quincy Jones, who managed to infuse either jazz, soul, funk or rock into their scores with aplomb and without looking desperate, like say, Frank Sinatra when he tried to rock a Nehru jacket or Ethel Merman when she cut a disco album. 1950-1979 examines their groundbreaking scores, as well as the work of actual soul or rock musicians who dabbled in film scoring (Marvin Gaye) or turned it into a full-time task (the Italian prog rock band Goblin).

Spencer has launched a blog for the purpose of posting excerpts from his book to promote it. Here are a couple of excerpts he's posted:

"[On The Taking of Pelham, One Two Three] David Shire set out to create a sound that would be 'New York jazz-oriented, hard-edged' but with a 'wise-cracking subtext to it'... The music is diabolically calculated and pulsating, yet swings like a big band from hell."

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz & Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer's Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

"The Mack, one of the legendary blaxploitation productions due to its lethal behind-the-scenes politics and its fact-as-fiction footage of the notorious Player's Ball, features one of Willie Hutch's bold blaxploitation scores. Hutch got the job when the filmmakers offered a cameo appearance to the Hutch-produced singing group Sisters of Love. The score features some of Hutch's best songs, including the affirmative soul number "Brothers Gonna Work It Out," the stirring ballad "I Choose You" and the hard-driving theme. For The Mack's home video release in 1983, the studio foolishly replaced Hutch's score with an R'n'B-lite soundtrack by Alan Silvestri that pales in comparison."

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz and Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer's Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Wow, I didn't know Silvestri was involved with a butchered VHS version of The Mack. That's not the only time Hutch got the short end of the stick. A terrific, must-read 1998 Robert Wilonsky profile on Hutch mentions that his work has often been overlooked by Motown history books, despite being frequently sampled (UGK, the duo of Bun B and the late Pimp C, memorably sampled "I Choose You" for their collabo with OutKast, "Int'l Players Anthem"). In the Wilonsky article, the neglected former Motown songwriter expressed his gratitude for being sampled ("... when a guy does that, he really appreciates what you did. And that helps me as an artist, as a writer, to appreciate what I've done -- the fact that someone else respects it enough to use it like that.").

Here's an excerpt Spencer hasn't posted, about the music from a movie I watched for the first time ever over the weekend:

One of the best soundtracks of 1972, and of the blaxploitation era, is Across 110th Street, featuring music by legendary jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson, and songs performed by Bobby Womack & Peace. Hit-maker Womack's theme song boasts a memorable hook, a sweeping arrangement and a lyrical message that doesn't pull punches about organized crime and the drug epidemic. Womack also contribtes a tender ballad ("If You Don't Want My Love"), an uptempo pop number ("Quicksand"), a bit of hard funky rock ("Do It Right") and raucous feel-good soul ("Hang on in There").

Selections from all three of the above soundtracks can be heard during the "Assorted Fistful" block on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel.

Little-known fact: All the black guys in this scene were fathered by Anthony Quinn.