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) 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 series, Outer Banks. […]

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) […]

All Gone (Seasons) The Last of Us Volume 2, is the supplemental soundtrack for ‘The Last of Us: Left Behind’ – downloadable expansion content that would be later bundled into ‘The Last of Us Remastered’. The music features compositions from the game, composed and produced […]

Breathe Me Sia’s Breathe Me, is from her 3rd album, Colour the Small One (2004). The song was used to great effect in the poignant finale of Six Feet Under — a landmark HBO drama that premiered 20 years ago last week. Created by screenwriter […]

The Departure HBO’s The Leftovers begins three years after the “Sudden Departure” — where 2% of the world’s population suddenly vanished.  The series focuses on a police chief (played by Justin Theroux) and other grieving families as they struggle to adjust to life after The […]

Wonderful Tonight Wonderful Tonight is far and away Eric Clapton’s most famous song — and one of the most romantic songs ever written. I’ve had this arrangement in my back pocket for 20 years. I had been developing and playing it at wedding ceremonies for […]

Chevaliers De Sangreal Chevaliers De Sangreal (The Da Vinci Code) is a glorious piece by Hans Zimmer. He has this knack for writing film music with a slight pop sensibility. If we think of Gladiator, Inception and Interstellar — the underpinning of the music is […]

Schitt’s Creek I’m definitely late to the game with Schitt’s Creek, but I love it so far. My wife and I are on season 4. Interestingly, the quirkiness of the central theme is totally lost with my sober guitar style. Although it’s note-for-note, my arrangement […]