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. Miklos Rosza, "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. Miklos Rozsa, "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. Miklos Rozsa, "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.

"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:

Composer name pronunciation key

"Joy, we're back in Brooklyn, alright? Alright? In Brooklyn, it's Joy, not Joie, okay? It's not Jackée, alright? It's Jackie. It's not Sade, alright? It's Say-dee, alright? Whatchu gonna call me next? Whatchu gonna call me? Spi-kay?"

--Spike Lee (Tommy Davidson), reminding his sister Joie (T'Keyah Crystal Keymah) to stick to Brooklynese pronunciations of names, In Living Color

The most challenging part of playing film and TV score music on Internet radio is having to pronounce the composers' often baffling-looking names. Over the years, I've Googled the correct ways to read their names and compiled them to create a pronunciation key for myself. Here's an excerpt from it:

Bruno Coulais (Coraline composer): [coo-lay]
Christopher Tyng (Futurama and Rescue Me composer): [ting]
Craig Safan (Cheers and The Last Starfighter composer): [saw-fawn or sawf-on]
Elmer Bernstein: [burn-steen]
Ennio Morricone: [en-yo more-a-cone-ay]
Gustavo Santaolalla: [santa-o-larya]
Jan Hammer: [yahn hah-mer](*)
Leonard Bernstein: [burn–stine]
Maurice Jarre: [jar]
Michael Giacchino: [jah-kee-no]
Mikis Theodorakis (Zorba the Greek and Serpico composer): [thay-uh-doe-rahk-is](**)
Miklos Rozsa: [mee-kloash ro-zha ("zh" as in "leisure")](***)
Ramin Djawadi (Iron Man composer): [rah-meen juh-vaw-dee]
Randy Edelman: [eddle-man]
Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run and The International director): [tick-ver]
Trevor Rabin: [rah-bean]
Wojciech Kilar: [voy-check kee-lar]
Zbigniew Preisner (Three Colors trilogy composer): [zbig-new prize-ner]

And now, here are some actors, singers, filmmakers or music supervisors whose equally challenging name pronunciations I've had to research or double-check before saying them on AFOS:

Alexandra Patsavas: [pot-saw-vuss](****)
Amitabh Bachchan: (uh-mi-taabh buh-chun)
Bobby Cannavale: [canna-vah-lay]
Chris Douridas: [door-ree-duss](*****)
Djimon Hounsou: [jie-mon hahn-soo]
Franka Potente: [frahn-kuh poh-ten-tay]
Krzysztof Kieslowski: [kzhish-tof kee-es-lof-ski]
Nina Persson (Cardigans frontwoman): [peer-son]
Seu Jorge: [say-oo zhor-zee]
Sidney Poitier: [pwah-tee-yay]
Zhang Yimou: [jahng ee-mow (rhymes with "cow")]

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(*) Source: New England Jazz Radio Cooperative

(**) Source: "Once Banned, Now a Hero of Greek Music" by Ralph Blumenthal, New York Times, October 23, 2000

(***) Source: SoundtrackNet

(****) Source: "Music of 'The O.C.'" by Cheryl Corley, All Things Considered, April 24, 2004

(*****) Source: "The Man Behind the Music of the Movies" by Michele Norris, All Things Considered, May 27, 2003