“Let’s just let it suck for a second.” — J.J. Abrams. While I haven’t seen 10 Cloverfield Lane yet — this movie has excellent reviews. I hear it’s not what you’d expect, and that there’s a crazy ending. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, “And […]

Mel Gibson is undeniably one of the greatest actors, directors, and creators on this earth. The Passion of the Christ is a beautifully shot, and moving movie, with an Academy Award nominated score by John Debney. All of this good has unfortunately been sullied by Mel Gibson’s […]

Spotlight is an excellent and well acted movie — and very disturbing. I didn’t understand the magnitude of this story, and having just seen Spotlight, I formed a couple obvious opinions. It should be noted at the outset, I regard the Catholic church as a […]

My late father was in the seminary when he met my mother, while working part-time in a department store in downtown Pittsburgh. Needless to say we grew up very, very Catholic. My dad was only 41 when he passed away of a heart attack in […]

[Update: this melody runs through a bunch of songs from the official score. I’m convinced that it can be considered “the theme” of Batman v Superman. This is most notably played in the final 3rd of Men Are Still Good (The Batman Suite).] I’ve never […]

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations One of the many benefits of my son arriving into the world last year, is that I have very little time to dwell on anything else […]

My gosh, if anything else, the Netflix series Making a Murderer highlights the unscientific (and uncertain) design of our American justice system. I’m not judging, as it might be the best we can do. Beyond a traffic ticket, most of us will never be caught up […]

I’m usually mimicking the actual guitar, ronroco, or instrumentation of my favorite composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. For the Making a Murderer opening theme, I had the opportunity to use Santaolalla’s tragic music to create my own guitar arrangement. My wife and I are almost through with the […]

I love this. This music says a lot about world-class director, Alejandro González Iñárritu. He’s clearly a minimalist when it comes to the music in his films – valuing open space between notes. In addition, the music is just off the center axis. Whether it’s […]

Han and Leia is essentially the “love theme” between Han Solo and princess Leia. This melody punctuated their tension and attraction way back in the original Star Wars, and I’m glad it’s returned for The Force Awakens. My favorite use of this song is The […]

I’ve been eagerly anticipating Ennio Morricone’s score for The Hateful Eight: the new film by Quentin Tarantino. The title theme, L’Ultima Diligenza di Red Rock was a chance to do something totally different from my normal guitar style on this blog.  L’Ultima Diligenza di Red […]

I really dig R & B fingerstyle guitar playing. One of my favorite performances is John Mayer playing Human Nature at the Michael jackson memorial. I had the occasion to hang out with Mayer in 2001. His first album had just been released and my […]