Name of the Year? More like Name of the Millennium

I didn't know there's an actual contest for Name of the Year until angry asian man blogged that a Pinay named Iris Macadangdang (pronounced macka-dong-dong) is competing in it. She instantly got my vote.

You know what would be really cool? If she wins, I think Iris Macadangdang should meet up with Texas state Rep. Betty Brown to discuss names that are "easier for Americans to deal with."

I have a special attachment to the name "Macadangdang." In high school, there was a guy with that last name who would elicit snickers from douchey white kids whenever his name was read over the PA. As a shout-out to that poor Filipino kid--had I ever met him when I did time at that school, I would have told him, "Be proud of that billboard space-hogging indigenous Filipino name and tell them fools to eat your 'dangdang"--I have used "Macadangdang" repeatedly in my writing, particularly in A Fistful of Soundtracks Halloween Special sketches back when I was on terrestrial radio. I plan to continue to slap that last name onto Filipino characters, in much the same way Wonderland and Friday Night Lights creator Peter Berg continues to name hot female characters after Lyla Garrity, a girl he had a crush on when he was a kid.

Go Macadangdang!

AFOS "A-to-Z April" playlist

1. American Gigolo: Giorgio Moroder, "Hello Mr. W.A.M. (Finale)," American Gigolo, Polydor
2. Battlestar Galactica: Bear McCreary, "Mandala in the Clouds" (from "Maelstrom"), Battlestar Galactica: Season 3, La-La Land
3. Confessions of a Police Captain: Riz Ortolani, "Il ricordo di Serena" (from Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della Repubblica), Easy Tempo Vol. 1: A Cinematic Easy Listening Experience, Right Tempo
4. Damage: Zbigniew Preisner, "The Last Time" (from Damage), Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration Volume Two, Varèse Sarabande
5. ER: James Newton Howard, "Theme from ER," ER, Atlantic
6. Finishing the Game: Brian Tyler, "Ready or Not," Finishing the Game, Brian Tyler
7. Game of Death: John Barry, "The Big Motorcycle Fight" (from Game of Death), Game of Death/Night Games, Silva Screen
8. The Hunchback of Soho: Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra, "The Hump" (from The Hunchback of Soho), Futuremuzik, Scamp
9. Infamy: DJ Z-Trip and Garron Chang, "Infamy Movie Theme" (from Infamy), djztrip.com
10. Justice League: The New Frontier: Kevin Manthei, "Plan to Action," Justice League: The New Frontier, La-La Land
11. The Knack...And How to Get It: John Barry, "Here Comes Nancy Now!," The Knack...And How to Get It, Rykodisc
12. Lupin the 3rd: You & the Explosion Band, "Theme from Lupin III '78," Lupin the 3rd, Pioneer
13. The Man Who Knew Too Little: Christopher Young, "The Man Who Knew Too Little," Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration Volume Two, Varèse Sarabande
14. Northern Exposure: David Schwartz, "Alaskan Nights," Northern Exposure, MCA
15. Ocean's Thirteen: David Holmes, "Snake Eyes," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
16. The Prisoner: Ron Grainer, "Main Titles," The Prisoner [File #1], Silva Screen
17. Quantum of Solace: Four Tet, "Crawl, End Crawl," Crawl, End Crawl (from the Motion Picture Quantum of Solace), Columbia/MGM
18. Raiders of the Lost Ark: John Williams, "Airplane Fight," Raiders of the Lost Ark, DCC Compact Classics
19. Shaft in Africa: Johnny Pate, "Shaft in Africa (Addis)," Shaft in Africa, Hip-O Select/Geffen
20. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Bear McCreary, "Highway Battle" (from "Queen's Gambit"), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, La-La Land
21. The Untouchables: Ennio Morricone, "The Strength of the Righteous (Main Title)," The Untouchables, A&M
22. V for Vendetta: Dario Marianelli, "Remember Remember," V for Vendetta, Astralwerks
23. WALL·E: Thomas Newman, "Define Dancing," WALL·E, Walt Disney
24. XXX: Randy Edelman, "Prague Arrival" (from XXX), Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Varèse Sarabande
25. You Only Live Twice: John Barry, "Fight at Kobe Dock - Helga," You Only Live Twice, EMI/Capitol
26. Zodiac: David Shire, "Graysmith's Theme," Zodiac, Varèse Sarabande
27. John Williams, "Superfeats" (from Superman: The Movie), Superman: The Music, Film Score Monthly
28. John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, "The Siege of Justiceville," They Live: 20th Anniversary Edition, AHI
29. Maurice Jarre, "Building the Barn" (from Witness), Paramount Pictures' 90th Anniversary Memorable Scores, Sony Classical
30. The City of Prague Philharmonic, "Fanfare/'I ain't Captain Walker'" (from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), The Essential Maurice Jarre Film Music Collection, Silva Screen
31. Shirley Manson, "Samson and Delilah," Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, La-La Land

The two-hour "A-to-Z April" block repeats Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4am, 10am, 3pm, 7pm and 11pm, and Saturdays and Sundays at 7am, 9am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm all through April on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel.

Mike Patton covers the Danger: Diabolik theme

Because I'm an Ennio Morricone fan and I like Mario Bava's Morricone-scored 1968 comic book flick Danger: Diabolik, I got a kick out of Mike Patton's awesome cover of Morricone's "Deep Down" theme from Diabolik. The track, which was originally sung by a female vocalist named Christy, will be part of Patton's forthcoming Mondo Cane album of covers of '50s and '60s Italian pop songs. Also next up from the frontman of Fantômas and previously, Faith No More: the Crank: High Voltage score.



Tim Lucas, who did the Diabolik DVD's audio commentary and wrote Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, said on his blog that "seeing ['Deep Down'] performed live by such an expressive vocalist, a full choir and orchestra brought tears to my eyes."

The Mike Patton's Mondo Cane version of "Deep Down" is my favorite cover by Patton since his cover of the Nestlé "Sweet Dreams You Can't Resist" jingle from his Faith No More days.

Patton and I happen to share both the same birthdate and a love for film and TV scores, especially Morricone's. I didn't come up with the name A Fistful of Soundtracks--another DJ at my college radio station did--but I chose that name for my college radio show because I thought it would be a cool way to pay tribute to Morricone and his work on the Fistful trilogy and A Fistful of Dynamite, a.k.a. Duck, You Sucker.

This post is also an excuse to show Marisa Mell in her Diabolik hot pants.

Alphabet St.

Hey, those letters are trying to say "cougars." I didn't know Prince likes him some Roscoe's Chicken and Wattles.

I'm recording a bunch of new segments for the Fistful of Soundtracks channel that I'll begin streaming this Tuesday. They'll be put on a loop for the rest of April.

During these segments, I'll be introing 26 film or TV score tracks, and each one will represent a different letter in the alphabet. It'll be like A Fistful of Soundtracks-meets-Children's Television Workshop. (I don't care that it's now called Sesame Workshop. It's always going to be CTW to me, just like how I always called it Candlestick Park, even when it was renamed 3Com Park and then Monster Park before wisely reverting to its original name.)

Also, in remembrance of Maurice Jarre(*), I'll be introing a couple of Jarre tracks that aren't "Lara's Theme" or the Lawrence of Arabia theme--the Zhivago and LOA themes are both classic but a bit overplayed.

(*) The beyond, deux blog has given my brief post about Jarre a nice mention. Thanks, beyond, deux!

There won't be any more new episodes of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series. I'm eschewing the episodic format for something more Scion Radio-like. You'll still be able to hear past eps of AFOS: The Series Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm Pacific, starting this Hump Day.

List habit

Matthew from the Culture Kills blog says he would like me to post what my 10 favorite film scores are.

That's too much pressure, Matt! I dig so many of them. Scores come in many different categories or genres (film, TV, synthesizer, 80-to-100-piece-orchestra, blaxploitation, espionage, poliziotto, lederhosen porn...). It's too broad a question, and it'd be difficult to narrow them down to 10.

I don't spend much time on Facebook(*) anymore (mostly because I now prefer the more stripped-down Twitter), but there's one thing I enjoy doing on Facebook: making lists(**) of my favorite pieces of music on Facebook's LivingSocial and iLike apps.

(*) Damn, even Facebook's CFO doesn't like the new Facebook either. He hates it so much he quit!

(**) The title of this post refers to the "List Habit" tag that Kim Morgan uses for her list-crazy posts.

In LivingSocial's case, the app has you post Top 5 lists of your favorite things. So instead of a "Top 10 favorite scores" list, I'll repost the Top 5 lists of favorite score cues (or scores) under certain categories that I've been posting on LivingSocial and Twitter.

Five favorite marches from original film or TV scores
5. John Williams, "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)," The Empire Strikes Back
4. John Williams, "March from 1941"
3. Jerry Goldsmith, "Main Title," Star Trek: The Motion Picture
2. John Williams, "Main Title," Superman: The Movie
1. Terence Blanchard, "Fruit of Islam," Malcolm X

God, the Oscars are a joke. How could they not nominate Terence Blanchard for his 1992 Malcolm X score, which is filled with awesome themes like "Fruit of Islam," the cue he wrote for the film's Harlem march sequence? What was the score that won in 1993? Oh right, Aladdin. Give me a break.

Gene Roddenberry dug the Star Trek: The Motion Picture march so much that he recycled it for Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. TV composer Dennis McCarthy wrote an updated arrangement of the march, and it was performed by an orchestra that was smaller than the 90-piece orchestra that performed it back in 1979. That explains why the TNG version lacks oomph. I prefer the original 1979 rendition. I like how the brass sounds jazzier.

Five other favorite marches
5. Ennio Morricone, "March of the Beggars," Duck, You Sucker
4. Jerry Goldsmith, "Attack," Patton
3. Elmer Bernstein, "Main Title," The Great Escape
2. Elmer Bernstein, "Stripes March"
1. John Williams, "End Credits," Raiders of the Lost Ark

Five favorite film scores frequently sampled by beatmakers
5. The Mack (Willie Hutch)
4. Superfly (Curtis Mayfield)
3. Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye)
2. Enter the Dragon (Lalo Schifrin)
1. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (David Shire)

Five favorite Danny Elfman film scores
5. Dead Presidents
4. Pee-wee's Big Adventure
3. Mission: Impossible
2. Batman
1. Midnight Run

Five favorite original TV themes
5. It Takes a Thief (third season version) (Dave Grusin)
4. I Spy (Earle Hagen)
3. Barney Miller (Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson)
2. The Persuaders! (John Barry)
1. Cowboy Bebop (Yoko Kanno)

Listeners like Portland film critic and CulturePulp artist Mike Russell have told me they became Yoko Kanno fans after hearing her Cowboy Bebop score tracks on my station.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, what's the crappiest original TV theme of all time? I was going to say Enterprise, but then I remembered the Diane Warren-penned "Where My Heart Will Take Me" wasn't an original work. It was recycled from Patch Adams, of all movies. (In a sketch I wrote for A Fistful of Soundtracks' 2002 Halloween special, gangbangers torture a hostage by subjecting him to the Enterprise theme.)

The worst original TV theme is Joanie Loves Chachi, hands down. Click at your own peril.