Thoughts of the month and
A Fistful of Soundtracks episode
previews for June 2001.
Jim Aquino hosts and produces A Fistful of Soundtracks (Sundays 2-4PM on
KZSC 88.1 FM in Santa Cruz), writes for the Metro
in San Jose and is amazed that after four years of broadcasting,
barely anybody ever spells the program's damn title correctly.
(Thanks to fan e-mails and KZSC's own program schedule brochures,
I never knew there were so many variations on how to spell "Fistfull."
Or is it "Fist Full?")
Fistful
turns four
This month, A Fistful of Soundtracks
celebrates its fourth anniversary. Fistful first aired
on KZSC on Friday, June 21, 1997. A funny thing about that first
show (besides the fact that I sucked on the air) is that two hours
before I was supposed to start broadcasting, I wasn't even sure
if I was supposed to go on because the station hadn't really finalized
my time slot yet. That's non-commercial public radio for you.
Because of this fourth anniversary,
I'd like to look back at my top five personal favorite editions
of Fistful.
5. "March Madness" (March
4, 2001) — The all-march show. This one was so fun to put
together. It was a fast one to produce too; I think I finished
recording this edition a few hours early. Dan from the KZSC Friday
morning fixture Bushwhackers called me up during the broadcast
to tell me he and his bridge buddies were enjoying the show and
were trying to guess each march that was played.
4. "Mondo Morricone 2000"
(October 8, 2000) — The music was awesome on this show. For
the 2000 edition of Fistful's annual birthday salute to
Ennio Morricone, I played a bunch of Morricone pieces and then
played the same pieces as interpreted by the Austrian string group
Triology on their 1998 RCA album Triology Plays Ennio Morricone.
I wish I had discovered Triology's album sooner; it's a terrific
CD. Some of Triology's covers are even better than Morricone's
original versions, like their sensual take on the theme from the
1973 Italian drama For Love One Can Die.
3. "April Fools Day" (April
1, 2000) — I'm not sure if anyone was even listening that
day, but I thought Fistful's first April Fools show turned
out well. Every time Fistful airs on April Fools, I pull
a prank. For this first April Fools show, I pulled two: the show
opened with the themes from Star Wars, Goldfinger
and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly played backwards, and
then was interrupted by an angry, foulmouthed listener named Tony
who didn't find the prank funny — and sounded an awful lot
like Tony Clifton, Andy Kaufman's abrasive lounge-singer character.
Tony's phone calls, as well as profanity-laced songs from South Park: Bigger,
Longer & Uncut and Blazing
Saddles, resulted in the most bleeped-out show in Fistful's
history. (The guy providing Tony's nasal voice was none other
than...yours truly.) For this year's April Fools show, I made
it sound like a pirate radio show that was playing Barry Manilow
songs was interrupting the radio signal.
2. "A Fistful of Soundtracks
Christmas Special 2000" (December 24, 2000) — This was
another show that I don't think anybody caught; I think all the
regular listeners were on vacation. Whenever it's a week when
I don't think anybody's going to be around to tune in, I see that
as a perfect opportunity to goof around with the program, and
that's what I usually do with the Christmas shows. The 2000 Christmas
special was better than the previous year's Christmas show: the
holiday tunes were more diverse (this time out, I decided to include
cuts from soundtracks to movies set during Christmas, like Batman
Returns and On Her Majesty's Secret Service), as well
as sillier (the selections from the South Park holiday
album Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics); the sketches were
funnier; and my friend Necip Mehmet did a killer Schwarzenegger
impression.
1. "Fistful Internacional"
(November 5, 2000) — If I had to choose one show that would
best sum up Fistful, it would be "Fistful Internacional."
I've gotten a few enthusiastic responses to this particular show,
in which I compiled funky themes from trashy '60s and '70s Italian
movies, Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos, Germany's Schoolgirl
Report porn series and Bollywood musicals. Mac Hillenbrand
wrote to me and said, "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 school girl porno music...
Your show is the s**t..."
Jim Aquino
May 29, 2001
© 2001 Jim Aquino