Thoughts of the month, listener
mail and A Fistful of Soundtracks
episode previews for August 2002.
Jim
Aquino hosts and produces A Fistful
of Soundtracks (anytime at Live365.com and Sundays
2-4PM on KZSC
88.1 FM in Santa Cruz), writes for Silicon Valley Community
Newspapers in San Jose and wonders if
James Traficant's cellmate will do something creepy and Oz-ish with that squirrel on Traficant's head.
That girl
Often when I'm bored, to keep myself
awake, I'll make like John Cusack in High Fidelity and
reel off Top 5 or Top 10 lists of some odd thing in my head or
in my reporter's notebook or on my computer. One really exciting
morning at work, I started scrawling in my notepad a list called
"I Prefer This Over That." The list reads like this:
"I prefer…
…pre-Elmo Sesame Street
over Elmo-era Sesame Street…
…old-school Star Wars over
new-school Star Wars…
…early-to-mid '90s hiphop over
mid-to-late '90s hiphop…
…the Pat Riley-led Lakers over
the Phil Jackson-led Lakers…
…Hong Kong-era John Woo over Hollywood-era
John Woo…"
And
so on. Another day, I came up with a list of "Top 5 Favorite
Forgotten Music Video Hotties." See if you remember any of
these five lovely and underrated video honeys that I've had crushes
on. If you're lucky, you might be able to catch one of them on
MTV2 in the wee wee hours of the morning someday:
1. That girl in the '70s-ish white skirt
and white heels in Heavy D's 1991 "Now That We Found Love"
video. She looked like a cross between Tisha Campbell and Vonetta
McGee from Shaft in Africa.
2. That feisty girl with the nice eyes
grooving to Q-Tip's "Vivrant Thing" in the Hype Williams-directed
video. When I saw that this sly scene-stealer wasn't your average
pouty music-video chick — she looked like she was having
a ball on the set — my heart went bump-bump-ba-dump like
the bassline in that song. The girl doesn't really qualify as
"forgotten" because she's Leila Arcieri, better
known to FX's 13-year-old viewers as Jamaica St. Croix on the
Baywatch spoof Son of the Beach. Here's a photo
of her on the right.
3. "Allison" in Scapegoat
Wax's "Aisle 10 (Hello Allison)" video. She was this
petite and probably half-Latina shopper at a supermarket who caught
the eye of smitten store employee Scapegoat Wax.
4. That teary-eyed half-Indian girl
in one-hit wonder Johnny Hates Jazz's arty, glossy 1988 "Shattered
Dreams" video, which was made by future Seven and
Panic Room director David Fincher. The girl in "Shattered
Dreams" wore a black slip and looked a bit like British anchorwoman
and David Letterman crush Daljit Dhaliwal. She spent the entire
video looking sad in her bathroom and kitchen, and at one point,
had a memorable slow-motion tantrum, tossing dishes and coffee
cups around like an old dude at a Greek wedding reception. She
was probably looking so miserable because the song was such a
piece of dentist's office-friendly adult contemporary shite.
5. That brown-skinned brunette —
was she Latina or half-Filipina? — in the strapless black
leather skirt in the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right
(to Party)" video. She was in that scene in which the punch
gets spiked. You couldn't miss her. I always loved the way she
squashed that girl's face into that pie.
A midsummer night's stream
Since June — which was about five
months after I launched the 24-hour online incarnation of Fistful
— I've been getting four or five listener e-mails per week,
which ain't too shabby. They're all from new fans of the program,
or as they often call it, "the station." I'm thinking
of someday giving the 24-hour station a more streamlined and hipper
name, like "Fistful24" or "FOS" or "FOS24"
or something. I can hear the "Fistful24" ID playing
in my head right now: a montage of clips from famous movie themes,
followed by a clip of that ticking digital clock from 24…
"… beep… BEEP… beep…
BEEP…"
Anyway, here's some background info
about the Fistful episodes featured on the stream this
month:
"International Music of Mystery 2002." Aw yes, the Austin Powers-esque episode. This
is actually the second show to bear the "International Music
of Mystery" moniker; the first one aired back in February
2001 with a different playlist, filled mostly with tracks from
the Austin Powers score CD. The Live365 and iTunes listeners
are luckier than the KZSC listeners because they got to hear this
show online the week before its broadcast on KZSC. I enjoyed putting
together "IMM 2002." I wanted to introduce this episode
with a British-accented voiceover in the style of the voiceovers
that were done by Eric Idle for the Spy Who Shagged Me
trailer (I like that voiceover a lot) and Michael York for the
Goldmember Pepsi Twist and Taco Bell ads. After I recorded
the intro the first time, I didn't think it was all that, so I
pinched my nose and then re-read the intro with the pinched nose.
That take sounded funnier to me — the pinched nose made me
sound like a hyper announcer for some cheesy '70s British game
show or variety show — so I went with that take. My newspaper's
photo editor thinks I sound Scottish. Yeah right, like there's
a burr in that intro.
"Summer Overtures 2002." This is the second "Summer Overtures"
show. The first one aired last summer and was inspired by a 1996
Entertainment Weekly issue about the greatest summer songs
of all time. Celebrities were interviewed about tunes like The
Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City," Sly and the
Family Stone's "Hot Fun in the Summertime," Percy Faith's
cover of "Theme from A Summer Place" and so on.
So one day, I thought, "How about I do a show about the best
summer-related movie music?" I tried not to go for the most
obvious choices, like "Theme from A Summer Place"
— I'm sorry, that tune's just too white for me — and
went for really sultry selections like the themes from A Streetcar
Named Desire and Wild Things and some not-so-sexy tracks
like the "Man Against Beast" theme from Jaws.
Do I have a favorite summer song? Yes, and it's not a movie theme
song. I always had a thing for "Summer in the City"
(which is why I used the opening organ riff from "Summer
in the City" for the "Summer Overtures" ID). I
guess I'm more of a "Summer in the City" guy than a
"Theme from A Summer Place" guy. "Hot Fun
in the Summertime," Kool and the Gang's "Summer Madness"
and the song that sampled "Summer Madness," DJ Jazzy
Jeff and the Fresh Prince's "Summertime," are some other
favorite summer songs of mine. So is Public Enemy's "Fight
the Power," from the Do the Right Thing soundtrack,
which I included in the 2001 "Summer Overtures" episode
just for the sheer pleasure of hearing Flavor Flav say something
really nice about John Wayne.
"I've Got Mail." The listener request episode. That was another
fun show. I would read some of the e-mails in the accents of the
countries they came from.
"Up, Up and Away." I did an episode once in which I asked soundtrack
radio show hosts to pick their favorite soundtrack mixtape tunes,
and I noticed that one of the deejays chose a lot of tracks from
movies that involved aviation. So last summer, I thought, "How
about I do something like that — an entire show with a flight
theme?" Then I thought it would be cool if the show was structured
like a plane flight, from takeoff to landing, and then I thought
it would be even cooler if I did the show as a smarmy plane captain,
introducing each tune on the cabin loudspeaker. Then I thought
it would be funny if as the captain, I would often say or do something
stupid without knowing everyone on the plane can hear me. I would
talk about banging the stewardesses and plotting to steal the
passengers' electronic devices while they're asleep. I gave the
co-pilot a friendly slap on the back, which accidentally made
him blow chunks. At one point, the loudspeaker is turned on while
I'm rapping an old Egyptian Lover rap song to myself. The line
about "Any person caught smoking in the lavatories will be
asked to leave the plane immediately" was actually said on
a flight once. It came from a Web site that collected offbeat
or funny sayings heard on airline loudspeakers. My publicist friend
Gracie liked this episode so much she took a copy of it with her
on a plane trip.
On a more serious note, I found that
after Sept. 11, it was a bit hard to listen to or even think of
rebroadcasting this pre-9/11 show that lightly poked fun at airline
experiences. I didn't even do any jokes about airport security
or terrorism in "Up, Up and Away," yet for a while,
I still wasn't sure if rebroadcasting "Up, Up and Away"
would be a good idea. Later on, I realized that people needed
to get over their post-Sept. 11 hypersensitivity, so I finally
did air "Up, Up and Away" again when I added it to the
Live365 stream a few months ago. It's still one of my personal
favorite shows. It manages to be both mocking and affectionate
about air travel: it's mocking during the between-song segments
and affectionate during tunes like the "Top Gun Anthem,"
"The Flying Sequence" from Superman: The Movie
and "You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!" from Disney's
Peter Pan.
"Stand Up and Score." Both the KZSC and Live365 listeners really like
this episode, in which a clip of a stand-up comic yakking about
a certain film or a certain movie genre is followed by a selection
from the soundtrack of that particular movie or something similar.
On his Knee to the Groin CD, Pablo Francisco talks
not just once or twice but three times about soundtrack music,
and he does some really dead-on impressions of folks like Arnold
Schwarzenegger and John Travolta. So "Stand Up and Score"
came about because I wanted to do a show with those movie-related
clips of Pablo Francisco, as well as clips of Rex Navarrete spoofing
Star Wars and Starship Troopers, which I used to
play often on my old KZSC acid jazz/hiphop program Sookie Sookie.
During the 24-hour stream, the Live365 listeners get to hear some
material that I left out of "Stand Up and Score," including
an uncensored clip of Paul Mooney ranting about the stereotypes
in Driving Miss Daisy.
"Make Way for the Bad Guy." The title of this episode comes from Al Pacino's
drunken monologue at the restaurant in Scarface, which
is played at one point during the show. I first came up with the
idea for this show about a year and a half ago, but I didn't have
enough villainous movie music in my library at the time, so I
sat on the idea for a while and then later thought it would make
a great fifth anniversary episode. Some people really like hearing
the Pinky and the Brain theme during that show (more on
that later).
So those are the Fistful episodes
that are playing on the stream this month. The next new Fistful
episode won't air on Live365 or KZSC until the end of the summer.
It will be a two-parter of my favorite score tracks and songs
from movies and shows produced by Paramount Pictures, which is
celebrating its 90th anniversary this summer. The title of the
two-part show will be "Mountain Town," which I took
from the title of the opening musical number in one of my favorite
Paramount movies, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
Once more, with filling
One recent listener request that was
amusing to hear again was Steve Martin's "Dentist!"
musical number from Little Shop of Horrors, which was requested
by a listener in Santa Cruz. When that movie came out when I was
a kid, everyone on the schoolyard used to imitate that clip of
Steve Martin singing "You'll have a talent for causing pain!"
and then punching out his assistant in the Little Shop of Horrors
commercials. The American Dental Association's PR department must
really love that song.
I remember when Head of the Class
did that episode in which the students put on a production of
Little Shop of Horrors. I know Arvid (the nerd who turned
into quite the babe magnet on the show) played Seymour, but I
forgot who sang the "Dentist!" number. Was it that guy
with the mullet who always wore the shades and the leather jacket?
Anyway, it's time to take a peek into
my mailbag once again. There are some e-mails about the "Check
It Out Now, The Funk Soul Fratello" episode — one guy
asks about the origins of the Muppets' favorite nonsense song,
"Mah Na Mah Na," which opened "Funk Soul Fratello"
— and two other e-mails praise the way I followed up the
Pinky and the Brain theme with Khan's theme from The
Wrath of Khan in the "Make Way for the Bad Guy"
episode:
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 13:29:31 -0700
From: "Toby Lyons" <toby57@... >
Subject: soundtrack request
Jim:
Howzabout something from "Diva"
-- possibly Wilhelmina Wiggins doing
her gorgeous thing?
Toby
from olde England
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 08 Jul 2002 16:19:56 +0100
Subject: Soundtrack Request
From: "James Kelleher" <james@... >
Hi there,
Have you got anything from 'The Way Of The Gun' soundtrack? Would
love
to hear something from that. Great show, by the way.
Regards,
James.
(in Dublin, Ireland)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
"Richard Ryan" <Richard.Ryan@... >
Subject: First Timer
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 15:25:51 +0100
Hey Jim,
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 emailed half
the office to pass it on. Much hilarity and a few extra listeners
for you
here in London, UK.
Cheers for the soundtrack to a great
day,
Rich
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 21:29:39 -0400
Subject: question
From: "Rob Osattin" <rosattin@… >
Cool site. I stumbled onto "fistful"
while surfing the eclectic section
of the playlist on my mac's itunes and have been a fan since.
One question: you played something
on Fistful Internacional that you
said was from an Italian porn movie but was popularized and played
here. I'd like to play it for my friends but don't remember its
name
or composer. Do you remember the answer?
Also (2nd question): do you know
where I can get an mp3 of it?
Thanks,
Rob
Atlanta
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim here: You must be referring to "Mah
Na Mah Na" by Piero Umiliani, from the
1968 Italian docu-porn Swedish Heaven and Hell. Try typing
"Mah Na Mah Na"
or "Umiliani" at whatever media-sharing software/site
that you use.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: question
From: "Rob Osattin" <rosattin@… >
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 14:44:24 -0400
That was it. Thanks. See how much we all learn from your show!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 16:31:21 +0100
Subject: Request
From: "Sam Hart" <samh@… >
Jimmy ,
greets from Newcastle (UK)
can you play SuperFly ?
I'm sure it is on your play list
somewhere but I want to hear it anyway
!
S a m : _ D
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 09:38:21 +0100
Subject: Requests
From: "Sam Hart" <samh@… >
Greets once again from Newcastle
(UK still)
how about "Self Preservation
Society" (or whatever it is called)
from the "Italian Job"
regards
S a m : _ D
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 15:03:33 +0100
Subject: Re: Requests
From: "Sam Hart" <samh@… >
Hey Jim
jus heard my requests : )
cheers !
keep em comin'
S a m : _ D
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mikepearlstein@…
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 01:15:05 EDT
Subject: Check out "S C O R E , B A B Y ! NEW REVIEWS"
Hello Jim- my name is Mike P. I bet you already knew about this
site(link)?
I'm big on soundtracks(and all music,for
that matter),and I stumbled upon
your show while I was messing around with the itunes radio station
list.
I was trying(also)to find ANY 'alternative'
station,that played truly indie
music. Of course,every last station(claiming to be truly 'alternative')played
the same,hackneyed crap(stuff you can easily hear on reg radio/mtv):
"Green Day" and stuff of that ilk. know where I can
hear really left-field
indie stuff?
By the way- I just ordered the newest
Peter Thomas cd: "peter scores"
it's all from the reperban films(german)of the late 60's and 70's.
Like
Thomas' stuff? heard of this cd on Diggler records: "St.
Pauli Affairs" (more
in the vein of Vampyros, and gert wilden's shool report). I love
any and
all,groovy 60's 70's stuff.
you might enjoy the reissues: Cliff
Wade's :"looking For shirley' and "Barry
Booth's": "Diversions" this Barry Booth cd,is reissued
from the 60's,and......
He sings lite-psych-pop,in the Ray
Davies vein. the songs on "Diversions"
were actually written by pre-Python Michael Palin and Terry jones.
Interesting stuff!(I dunno what your
tastes,in pop for example,are) I do not
have a request(right this moment)per se.....Except that,I'm looking
for any
radio stations that truly play alternative-of
the-alternative(pop/indie/guitar band stuff).Why does my Mac's
itunes list
only 'mainstream' type radio?I mean,the listed stations,all have
these
(kinda)cool names,and tout themselves as being alt-eclectic.......And
then I
hear green day,or linkin park,sreaming out of them??? I'll take
"Mull
historical "or anything CLOSER to the true indie music. Where
can it be
found?certainly,not on these 34?streams on offer on itunes.
If you have any recommendations,please
send! Peace! -Mike P. (great
show,by the way!!! I tuned in for the Italian funk-60's/70's show)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:06:31 -0400
(EDT)
From: "Barry" <f7_9159@… >
Subject: Hi, from Toronto
Hi Jim!
I am an Avid video editor, E-mailing
from Toronto.
I just tuned in today for the first time.
It would be great to hear some tracks
from "The
Mission".
I look forward to many hours of listening.
=====
--------------
Barry Silverthorn, The Electric Wallpaper Co.
http://www.brant.net/gvmr/electric.htm
Supervising Editor, VisionTV Insight
"It's easier to get forgiveness
than permission"
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 07:32:01 -0700
From: "Tom" <tommein@… >
Subject: request - planet of the apes
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!! If there's any way you could locate
the
music from the original "Planet of the Apes" - from
the chase scene,
where the apes are chasing Charlton Heston through the field -
it's some
pretty wild, dissonant-sounding piano - that would be great, I
would
love to hear it.
Anyway, keep it up! You've got a
fan for life!
--
Tom Mein
Prep Supervisor / CTP Specialist
Graphic Edge, Inc.
Phoenix, AZ
"For the Cutting Edge in Graphic Arts Technology"
www.graphicedgeinc.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 10:10:37 -0700
(PDT)
From: "Saira Khan" <SairaKhan@… >
Subject: indian song
Hi Jim,
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 fisful of soundtracks. It's a great show - kept
me entertained all day.
There was one song in particular that I would love to
know more about (ie: song title and performer). It was
an Indian song, sung (is that a word?) by a group of
women - perhaps a Mehndi song, I don't know. But it
was just thrown in your set, probably around noon or
so (I'm listening from Toronto, Ontario), yesterday
- July 18th, 2002. It came on just minutes before your
set entitled "up, up and away", where the playlist
consisted of sountracks from movies to do with flying.
If you could let me know the name of that Indian song,
I would REALLY appreciate it. And if you could let me
know at your earliest convenience, I'd really
appreciate that too. I was hoping to play that song at
an occassion that's fast approaching.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Keep up the excellent show.
Saira Khan
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim here: The song is "Mehndi/Madhorama
Pencha," performed by Madan Bala
Sindhu, from the Monsoon Wedding soundtrack.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Becky Bates" <shibbysaxgurl@…
>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 12:55:52 -0500
Subject: Play This!
I would like to hear anything from Harry Potter, I love John
Williams and anything he's done.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Becky Bates" <shibbysaxgurl@…
>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 15:35:09 -0500
Subject: End theme
I love the end theme to that movie "Tombstone", ya know,
with val
kilmar and kurt russel. You should play that.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 10:13:34 +0100
Subject: A request
From: "Aidan Goatley" <a.goatley@… >
Greetings from the South Coast of
England.
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.
Anyway as to a request could you
possibly play the theme to the
original Get
Carter by Roy Budd at some point?
I'd appreciate it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 20:50:26 -0700
From: "Samuel Hall" <psame@… >
Subject: Batman
I'd like to hear 'Decent Into Mystery' from the Batman score by
Danny
Eflman.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 10:45:00 -0700
(PDT)
From: "Laurie Galvan" <galvanlg@… >
Subject: Fistful of Soundtracks ROCKS!
Dear Jim,
I am a HUGE fan since discovering
your broadcast on iTunes on my
Macintosh (under Eclectic). 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!
So I looked you up on the web. On
your website you ask for ideas from
listeners for music loops. I
have one. Do you know the soundtrack from Federico Fellini's Amarcord,
music by NINO ROTA? (Long
a favorite composer of mine). A strange movie, but awesome music.
Selections from it - you will
know the ones - are perfect for a romantic Italian dinner...
red-checked tablecloth, breadsticks,
candles. I don't know what to call this kind of music, or if it
even
has a name. (If you know the
name, please, please tell me!) There's a similar-feeling piece
from The
Scent of a Woman
soundtrack: cut 7, the lovely tango, Por Una Cabeza, performed
by The
Tango Project.
Many romantic lovers would ADORE
a loop of this to use as background
music for special dinners for
our sweethearts - intelligent, sophisticated, romantic, Latin
music.
Love; joie de vive! You
obviously have the sources, but much more importantly, the EAR
to put
it together.
Warmest regards from a new Southern
California fan,
Laurie
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Becky Bates" <shibbysaxgurl@…
>
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 15:08:52 -0500
Subject: Play this
Hi,
This is Becky from Baltimore. Ever since I was really little I've
loved the music from the movie "Homeward Bound", ya'
know,
with the two dogs and the cat that run away and get lost in the
Cali' wilderness. I'd like to here the end theme music o
something from that please!
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
Thu, 01 Aug 2002 11:19:35 -0700
Subject: H E L L O , M R. J I M
From: "Alan Ten Tenorio" <atenorio@… >
Sup Jim,
Just started listening to your show
yesterday, and you play a dope selection
of tracks. I'd have to say that the clincher was preceding "The
Wrath of
Khan" with the theme song to "Pinky and the Brain".
Pure genius, my man.
And the sound bite you used for "Khan!!!"
wasn't bad either! Very
unexpected.
All right, take care and happy 5
year anniversary to the show I should have
been listening to all this time.
- T E Ndog
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 21:21:30 -0400
From: "Fred Nelson" <frednelson@… >
Subject: Good job, Jim!
Jim,
I got to playing around with the
radio stations built into iTunes on my
iMac and came across your station. I had never heard the "Pinky
and the
Brian" theme before, but loved it.
Then you floored me by following
it up with the Klingon theme from
STII:TWOK. I loved Horner's work on that film, but you're right
-
Titanic is a bit too much. My wife is always blaring that freakin'
soundtrack too much as it is! :)
While that was playing, I was skimming
through your website and
thinking, hmm, if I did take the time to make a request, what
would I
ask for. I thought "Elfman, or maybe John Williams".
What should the
next two songs be? Elfman from Batman and Williams from Superman.
Ok, that's just way too scary, buddy!
For Mancini, I'd say "Baby Elephant
Walk" or "Inspector Clouseau" (NOT
the Pink Panther theme, Clouseau's theme.)
Also, what are you like on Bond music?
Ever play anything from Casino
Royale - it's cheezy, but I loved that soundtrack!
Also, I don't know what your collection
is like (only my first time
listening), but can you/would you accept mp3's donated from grateful
listeners?
I worked in radio and television
for 20 years in California and on
Guam.
I also did a stint as production director at Guam's NPR/PRI affiliate.
Is your show on a public station over there on the West Coast?
OK enough questions. Keep up the
good work!
Fred Nelson
Senior Media Editor
The Kamber Group, Washington DC
Jim Aquino
August 3, 2002
© 2002 Jim Aquino
See previous "Intros"
July 2002:
On listener requests and favorite summertime TV shows, and also,
another peek into the Fistful mailbag
June 2002:
On Fistful's fifth anniversary
May 2002:
On Spider-Man, "Fistful Internacional Month,"
Cowboy Bebop
April 2002:
On streaming, an April Fools prank, Room 222, Chuck Jones
and Billy Wilder
March 2002:
On Lalo Schifrin at Cinequest and Fistful getting streamed
February 2002:
On excerpts from a reporter's notebook-style diary