The
film music radio program A Fistful of Soundtracks premiered June
21, 1997 on KZSC 88.1 FM, a college radio station in Santa Cruz, California.
It remained on the KZSC schedule for five and a half years. In 2002, episodes
of Fistful began to be streamed on a 24-hour
Web radio station of the same name. The program is hosted and
produced by me, Jimmy Aquino (pronounced uh-KEE-no). I've written
film and music reviews for the San Jose Mercury News and the Metro
and arts articles for Silicon
Valley Community Newspapers.
I
began A Fistful of Soundtracks when I went through a film geek
phase in college. These days, I'm not so much of a film geek anymore because
I don't go to the movie theater as often as I did when I was a student.
I think that has something to do with being employed now and not having
the time or willingness to screen two movies back to back in the same evening like I used to. These days, if someone
tells me the Coen brothers' latest movie just came out and I'm asked if
I've seen it yet, I'd say, "Nah, I'll wait for it to be available from
Netflix."
Also, I know movie theaters have always been asshole magnets, but in the last few years, the assholes have gotten worse, so thanks, assholes, for keeping me away from the movie theater. Finally, movies don't hook me like they used to anymore—better writing
can be found in graphic novels and on scripted cable TV shows. Sometimes, after I watch an episode
of The Wire or The Sopranos, I say to myself,
"God, that was so much better than whatever teenybopper movie is
stinking up the multiplexes this week." I know, I know, I'm contributing to the box office decline that's hurting the film industry. But the industry has long been in need of a wake-up call like the 2005 slump. Maybe studio execs will finally start thinking, "Hmm, maybe we should stop greenlighting movies that suck so much and actually read the scripts first."
Anyway, back to Fistful. Because
I was such a film geek in the late '90s, many of the episodes in the program's
earlier years featured interview segments about film and pop culture.
I originally conceived Fistful as a cross between a movie talk
show and a soundtrack music show. In fact, one of the earliest working
titles for the program was Filmtalk. During the KZSC years, I got to interview people like film and TV composer Gerald
Fried (the man who wrote that classic Star Trek fight theme), actor Mark Hamill, Batman: The
Animated Series writer/producer Paul Dini, Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Loni Ding and TV critic
Joyce Millman (formerly of Salon and the Boston Phoenix).
In
2000, I stopped editing and producing Fistful on chintzy-ass blank
cassette tapes and switched to editing and producing it digitally on my
PC. I also started to veer the program away from talk and concentrate
more on the music. Since then, the program's format has remained pretty
straightforward. The only eps that deviated from the format were the
Halloween and Christmas
editions, which featured holiday-related sketch comedy.
Each
ep of Fistful has a title and a specific theme (movies based on
comic books, 007 main title theme songs, murder mysteries, et cetera).
During Fistful's weekly run on KZSC, each ep lasted two hours.
After I left KZSC in 2002, I shortened the length of each ep to one hour
and reduced production from one new ep per week to one or two new eps per month,
making the program easier to produce.
I
always need music to play on Fistful, so since college, I've been
collecting movie soundtrack albums, though my musical tastes are not really
like those of the typical film music fan. The average film score buff
collects John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann albums. I'm
more into Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin, David Holmes, Easy Tempo-ish
compilations and blaxploitation music. I don't even put any film score
cues into my iPod. The tunes inside my iPod are mostly hip-hop, R&B and
new wave because when I'm commuting, frankly, I'd rather hear N.E.R.D.
than a Danny Elfman film score album.
Because
my film music tastes lean more towards tunes from spy flicks, blaxploitation
movies and crime dramas, I ask listeners to come up with requests so that
the program playlists don't solely consist of my tastes. The audience
has been relatively smart and savvy, although sometimes, I get mail from
a listener who asks to hear something from a soundtrack that's never been
released, and it bugs me that they didn't go to Google
or SoundtrackCollector
and check if the soundtrack release even exists first before asking me
to play a selection from it.
Although
I can't spend as much time on Fistful as I did from 1997 to 2002,
I would like to keep hosting and producing Fistful for several
more years. The Web station format allows me to continue dabbling in radio
without having it interfere with my day job—and the audience is
bigger too!
The
following are actual quotes from e-mails about Fistful:
"Your
show rocks! Your music is the best (the variety's great) and I really
like the background info and weird trivia too."
"Your
attitude is unconventional and refreshing out there on the radio waves."
"Your
show is great and I learn so much each time that I catch it."
"I've
heard/read several of your interviews and have always found them enjoyable."
"I think
your radio show is tops. Ever since my car tape player broke, I've been
listening to 88.1. I've heard your show a bunch of times and it's always
made me laugh. Sometimes the tunes get 'super tuff,' like the Planet
of the Apes score, and sometimes they're just straight-up funny, like
the German bad-schoolgirl porno music."
"I'm
a senior at UCSC and I've been listening to your radio show for all four
years. I love movie soundtracks and I have enjoyed your show so much."
"I am
a great fan of your program and have been for years, and now my children
are fans as well. Keep up the good work."
"Tuned
in for the first time today, just killing time at work. Now into my third
hour and loving it! Really enjoyed the stand-up and films show—and after hearing on A Fistful of Soundtracks that the Muppets
had covered a porn film score, I e-mailed half the office to pass it on.
Much hilarity and a few extra listeners for you here in London, U.K."
"Hey
man, just started listening to your station. Can't say enough about how
cool it is to hear all those great movie soundtracks all day... excellent
job, keep it up!!"
"Yesterday
was the first time I ever had the pleasure of listening to your show.
I was surfing for a new radio station to listen to at work and stumbled
across your Fistful of Soundtracks. It's a great show—kept me entertained
all day."
"Well,
I've been listening to your show for a couple of weeks now and I have
to say I like it. Believe me, anything that helps me get through the day
at work is a bonus."
"I love
your movie music, and especially the humor monologues you use. I haven't
been this riveted by a radio broadcast in years. Your high-quality selections
have kept me literally welded to my chair!"
"Let
me play fanboy here and tell you how much I love your broadcast... Keep
up the good work. Love the Halloween skits, by the way."
"You
do a great mix of orchestral scores and pop tracks. You play a lot of
my favorites and plenty of music that's new to me, and it's all good."
"I just
found your station today here in Boston and I love it so far. I have been
looking for a non-cheesy Internet station dedicated to soundtracks forever.
Keep up the great work, fresh music selections and witty commentary. It
is pretty damn interesting."
"I've *gasp* ventured into other soundtrack stations. They aren't as fun to listen to as Fistful though... There's something nice about having someone announcing song titles and making cracks, even if is pre-recorded!"
I.
May-December 1998
This
episode guide lists the KZSC broadcasts and their airdates, up until Fistful's
final airing on KZSC on January 5, 2003. After that broadcast, Fistful
became an Internet-only program. The guide lists these online
episodes as well. Almost all the information about shows that aired before
1998 has been lost (and those earlier shows were awful too), so the episode
summaries begin at May 1998.
May
2, 1998: "Batmay (Part 1)." Interviewed: composer Michael McCuistion,
composer/writer Randy Rogel, animation director Boyd Kirkland. "Batmay"
was A Fistful of Soundtracks' month-long tribute to Batman:
The Animated Series and Tim Burton's Batman movies. Part 1
of "Batmay" focused solely on Michael McCuistion's score to
Batman & Mr.Freeze: Subzero and included interviews with McCuistion,
Subzero co-writer Randy Rogel and Subzero director and co-writer
Kirkland.
May
9, 1998: "Batmay (Part 2)." Interviewed: Warner Bros. Animation
voice director Andrea Romano, writer Paul Dini. Part 2 of "Batmay"
featured selections from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Shirley
Walker), Batman (Danny Elfman) and Batman Returns (Danny
Elfman). (No music from Joel Schumacher's campy pieces of Bat-guano, which
owe more to Starlight Express than the comics and are a disgrace
to the Batman characters.) Romano is the voice director who has
worked on all of Warner Bros. Animation's Batman projects. She
had some great stories about Batman's portrayer, Kevin Conroy, goofing
off in the recording booth and how she coaxed an emotionally charged vocal
performance out of Roddy McDowall, who provided the voice for the Mad
Hatter and died months after this show aired.
May
16, 1998: "The Best of A Fistful of Soundtracks." The
obligatory clip show.
May
23, 1998: "Mark Hamill." "But I want to go to Toshi Station
and pick up some power converters!" Part 3 of "Batmay"
featured an interview with Star Wars alum Mark Hamill, who has
provided the voice for the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series
and The New Batman/Superman Adventures. Part of
this interview is transcribed in the Articles section of this site. Hamill
discussed Batman, Star Wars, his comic book series The
Black Pearl and his hilarious guest shot on The Simpsons, which
aired the following season. Towards the end of the show, Hamill told me
his favorite soundtracks, which include King Kong, The Seventh
Voyage of Sinbad, A Hard Day's Night, The Wind and the Lion
and any score by Danny Elfman. Then he went postal and chopped off my
hand with his light saber.
May
30, 1998: "Special Danny Elfman Edition (Part 1)." Part 1 of
a two-part birthday salute to Elfman focused on Elfman's scores from 1985
to 1990. This edition opened with a brief tribute to Phil Hartman, who
was killed during the production of this show.
June
6, 1998: "Special Danny Elfman Edition (Part 2)." Interviewed:
composer Laura Schweindinger. Part 2 of a two-part birthday salute to
Elfman focused on Elfman's scores from 1991 to the present. Laura Schweindinger,
a local composer who taught a wonderful Film Music class at UC Santa Cruz,
was the in-studio guest, and she discussed her favorite '90s Elfman scores.
June
13, 1998: "Geoffrey Dunn." Author, documentary filmmaker and
Santa Cruz public-access TV honcho Geoffrey Dunn discussed his favorite
soundtracks and previewed the Pacific
Rim Film Festival, an annual Central
Coast showcase of films from Asia and the Pacific Islands. (Originally
aired: April 25, 1998)
June
20, 1998: "A Fistful of Soundtracks' 1st Anniversary."
June
27, 1998: "Special Bernard Herrmann Edition."
July
4, 1998: "Special Fourth of July Edition."
July
11, 1998: "The Mask of Zorro."
July
18, 1998: "Special Christmas Edition." Only A Fistful of
Soundtracks could celebrate Christmas in July. (Originally aired:
December 7, 1997)
July
25, 1998: "New Summer Releases."
August
1, 1998: "Mark Hamill." (Originally aired: May 23, 1998)
August
8, 1998: "Tickle Me Elmore." Interviewed: TV critic Andrew Wallenstein
(GIST.com).
A show focused solely on the soundtracks to Out of Sight (David
Holmes) and Get Shorty (John Lurie), both based on Elmore Leonard
novels. Wallenstein discussed Maximum Bob, ABC's funny but short-lived
summer series based on Leonard's novel about a flamboyant Florida judge
(Beau Bridges).
August
15, 1998: "James Horner/Groucho Marx."
August
22, 1998: "Laurie Agard/Dead Presidents/Geoffrey Dunn."
Interviewed: Frog and Wombat director Laurie Agard, author/filmmaker
Geoffrey Dunn. In the first hour, independent filmmaker Laurie Agard discussed
her movie Frog and Wombat, starring Ronny Cox and Lindsay Wagner
and shot on location in Santa Cruz. Part of
this interview is transcribed in the Articles section of this site. Hour
2 focused on the music from Dead Presidents, the Hughes Brothers'
violent 1995 epic about a black Vietnam vet who turns to crime. Author,
documentary filmmaker and Santa Cruz public-access TV honcho Geoffrey
Dunn discussed the merits and flaws of such Vietnam War films as Dead
Presidents, Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Heaven and
Earth. Dunn has taught the popular UC Santa Cruz class "From
Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War on Film."
August
29, 1998: "Special Classic Star Trek Edition." Interviewed:
film critic Frank Lovece (TV Guide Online, GIST.com). This
show focused on the scores from the original Star Trek TV series
episodes and the six Trek films starring the original cast. Lovece
discussed the Sci-Fi Channel's highly publicized airing of the 79 restored
old-school Trek episodes.
September
5, 1998: "Special Superfly Edition." (Originally aired:
November 30, 1997)
September
12, 1998: "A Fistful of Soundtracks Goes Ape." Interviewed:
Film
Score Monthly writer Jeff Bond, Seattle
rock critic Dave Liljengren, film critic Frank Lovece (TV Guide Online,
GIST.com). Too much monkey business! This show featured Jerry Goldsmith's
scores to Planet of the Apes and Escape from the Planet of the
Apes. Bond discussed Goldsmith's Apes scores, while Liljengren
and Lovece talked about the original Apes movie and its impact
on pop culture.
September
19, 1998: "Fall '98 TV Preview (Part 1)." Interviewed: TV critic
Joyce Millman (the New York Times, Salon.com),
Philip Michaels of TeeVee, critic Andrew Wallenstein, Shelly Lyons of UltimateTV.
Part 1 of a two-parter in which TV critics like Joyce Millman and former
San Jose Mercury News reviewer Ron Miller discussed the new fall
season, in between favorite TV themes like the themes from Mission:
Impossible, I Spy and Barney Miller.
September
26, 1998: "Fall '98 TV Preview (Part 2)." Interviewed: TV critic
Joyce Millman (the New York Times, Salon.com), former San
Jose Mercury News TV critic Ron Miller.
October
3, 1998: "Special What I Did Last Summer Edition." Interviewed:
Film Score Monthly editor Lukas Kendall.
October
10, 1998: "Special Ennio Morricone Edition (Part 1)."
October
17, 1998: "Special Ennio Morricone Edition (Part 2)."
October
24, 1998: "Desperado/Six-String Samurai."
October
31, 1998: "A Fistful of Soundtracks Halloween Special 1998."
(Go here
to read about the making of the special.)
November
7, 1998: "The Living Daylights." Interviewed: Film
Score Monthly editor Lukas Kendall, Ian Fleming Foundation co-founder
John Cork.
November
14, 1998: "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Interviewed:
Ian Fleming Foundation co-founder John Cork, Salon.com film critic
Charles Taylor.
November
21, 1998: "Where the Hell's the Bug Spray?" Interviewed: Janelle
Brown of Salon.com, Film Score Monthly editor Lukas Kendall.
A show focused on the soundtracks to Antz (Harry Gregson-Williams
and John Powell) and Starship Troopers (Basil Poledouris).
November
28, 1998: "We're Off to Hear the Wizard." Interviewed: author
and Judy Garland biographer John Fricke, "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"
Web site creator Eric Gjovaag, Film Score Monthly writer Doug Adams.
A special about The Wizard of Oz.
December
5, 1998: "Thataway: The Star Trek Scores of Jerry Goldsmith."
Interviewed: Film Score Monthly writer Jeff Bond, Len P. Feldman
of GIST.com.
December
12, 1998: "Star Trek: Insurrection/Loni Ding." Interviewed:
Film Score Monthly writer Jeff Bond, filmmaker Loni Ding.
December
19, 1998: "A Fistful of Soundtracks Christmas Special 1998."
Interviewed: writer Robert Wilonsky (the Dallas Observer, New
Times). The program's second annual Christmas show, featuring music
from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
The Nightmare Before Christmas and Scrooged. Dallas Observer
sports reporter and music critic Robert Wilonsky discussed Vince Guaraldi's
beloved Charlie Brown Christmas album and revealed it's not really
a soundtrack because the special was built around Guaraldi's music, which
was released way before the cartoon was even produced.
December
26, 1998: "A Fistful of Soundtracks Christmas Special 1998."
(Originally aired: December 19, 1998)
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