Whether its the loss of my own father when I was 14, or that I have experienced the challenges (and ultimately the joys) of teaching children with autism/Asperger’s — I can hardly make it through the  trailer for Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close without being […]

If the word “eustress” could be explained in music — the score for Moneyball would define it. Using sparse piano melodys underscored by buzzing violins, prolific film composer Mychael Danna invokes equal parts: self-doubt and perseverance. What interested me was ‘It’s a Process’ — a motif used […]

[Updated for 2017] Next to the Brokeback Mountain Suite, Riding Horses is my favorite selection from Gustavo Santaolalla’s iconic, Academy Award winning score for Brokeback Mountain. This music is literally the whole reason for my guitar style, this blog, musical philosophy, etc. It’s not just […]

[Updated: August 2017] Lima Lima is one of my favorite tracks from Gustavo Santaolalla’s The Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack. Rather than (his usual) simple playing approach, Lima really displays Santaolalla’s guitar prowess. I had an opportunity to see Gustavo Santaolalla play live in Pittsburgh with his band Bajofondo. […]

[Updated September 2017] Biutiful Biutiful stars Javier Bardem and is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman). Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. Uxbal (Bardem) is a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, guilt, and mortality amidst the […]

[Updated post and tab: May 2017] The Motorcycle Diaries The Motorcycle Diaries is considered to be one of Gustavo Santaolalla’s greatest film scores. Film synopsis (edited from the official Focus Features site): The Motorcycle Diaries, depicts the rich, complex human and social landscape of early […]

[Updated for 2017] Things We Lost in the Fire, is a 2007 drama starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro: A recent widow (Berry) invites her husband’s troubled best friend (Del Toro) to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his […]

[Updated: 2017] Welcome! Gustavo Santaolalla’s Epilogue was my very first blog post in 2011. Intellimusica was an idea, and I’ve winged it from this first post ever since. Santaolalla is where it all started with me. I became a huge fan of his film score […]