Comptine d’un autre été, l’après midi Comptine d’un autre été, l’après midi (Nursery rhyme from another summer, the afternoon) is a piece of music by composer, Yann Tiersen. As the principle song from Amelie, it’s by far his most popular song at 326 million plays […]

Harry in Winter The fourth installment in the Harry Potter series, Goblet of Fire, marked a significant shift in tone and theme. Composer Patrick Doyle took over from John Williams, bringing a fresh, Celtic-infused soundscape. The standout piece is Harry in Winter, a haunting and […]

The Kiss The Kiss is the up-tempo, and secondary cue from The Last of the Mohicans. Another (nearly identical) version of this cue is entitled Promentory. Both songs are actually a Celtic violin motif entitled “The Gael” by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean. The Kiss can […]

D U N E Hans Zimmer’s DUNE soundtrack is absolutely gnarly. It played out brilliantly in the film too. Personally, I don’t know much about Dune (the book). The synopsis seems incredibly complicated — and it’s clearly been tough to bring this story to life […]

Futile Devices Futile Devices is a song by American singer songwriter, Sufjan Stevens. This song is from the soundtrack of, Call Me By Your Name; a 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama film, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Sufjan Stevens has such a peculiar musicality. He has the linear […]

Léon Starring Natalie Portman, Jean Reno, and Gary Oldman — Léon: The Professional is an amazingly casted and highly entertaining crime thriller. When it was first released on VHS in 1994 is was simply called “The Professional”. I believe they released a special edition (or […]

The Dark Knight Rises My hometown of Pittsburgh was the shooting location for The Dark Knight Rises. Many movies, TV, and Netflix shows are shot in Pittsburgh — but the 2011 Dark Knight Rises production was BY FAR the coolest one. Our downtown area is mostly […]

The Princess Bride The Princess Bride (1987) is a fantasy adventure comedy directed by Rob Reiner.  It was adapted from the 1973 novel of the same name, and tells the story of Westly — who must rescue his true love, Princess Buttercup, from the odious Prince Humperdinck. […]

Outer Banks: Midsummers (guitar theme) NEW Acoustic Version This piece is very obscure — and I had a bunch of folks request this all at once on YouTube and Instagram. Although it’s a great guitar riff, it might only appeal to fans of the Netflix […]

Brokeback Mountain Suite About 10 years ago, Gustavo Santaolalla performed the Brokeback Mountain Suite for the Latin program, Encuentro en el Estudio. To date, it’s his best performance of the Brokeback Mountain score (and I’ve watched them all). The guitar tone is gorgeous. You’ll notice […]

Hurt Hurt was originally written and performed by Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor). It was actually a pivotal NIN song long before the seminal Johnny Cash cover. [The dissonant note in my intro is an ode to the NIN original.] In a similar but reverse […]

Wicked Game For my money, the two greatest unrequited love songs are: U2’s With or Without You, and Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game. The former can prompt one to hold a lighter in the air and bellow “…and you give yourself a-way-a”. The latter makes (me) […]