TRACKLIST
1. Klaus Doldinger - "Fantasia" (The Neverending Story)
2. Gerald Fried & Alexander Courage - "The Naked Time" (Star Trek)
3. Jimmy Cliff - "The Harder They Come" (The Harder They Come)
4. Toto - "Desert Theme" (Dune)
5. Dick Tracy - "Tokyo-Ga" (Tokyo-Ga)
6. Trevor Duncan - "Heartbeat" (La Jetée)
7. Masahiro Ikumi - "Mima's Theme" (Perfect Blue)
8. Crime & The City Solution - "Six Bells Chime" (Wings of Desire)
9. Chu Ishikawa - "Megatron" (Tetsuo: The Iron Man)
10. Andrzej Korzynski - "The Man With The Pink Socks" (Possession)
11. Mdou Moctar - "Tada Dounia" (Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai)
12. Johann Strauss II - "The Blue Danube" (2001: A Space Odyssey)
13. Ennie Morricone - "Love Theme" (Cinema Paradiso)
14. Boris - "Farewell" (The Limits of
Control)
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
I love movies. I used to watch them often. I vividly remember a time when I knew no joy greater than visiting a video store and scanning it's shelves for something new and interesting. I really started getting into film as an art form around the time I graduated high school and entered college. I wasn't anywhere near as social as I am today back then, so I spent a lot of time at home either digesting hours of new music, or watching hours of movies at a time. I remember going down film era wormholes in my early 20s; French New Wave, Italian Neo-Realism, Surrealism, Giallo, classic anime films—all part of my self-education in the world of film. I made a particular effort to focus on the music used in these films, with sonic palettes so impossibly diverse they could articulate even the most subtle nuances of a film's story or an actor's performance. In fact, these scores and soundtracks are largely responsible for cementing most of these films in my memories.
Today's show features music from a wide variety of genres, opening with the "Fantasia" theme from The Neverending Story, a true classic of the fantasy genre, and a key film from my childhood. Following "Fantasia", we air a section of the suite composed by Gerald Fried & Alexander Courage for "The Naked Time", a cherished episode from the first season of the original Star Trek series, in which an epidemic spreads throughout the Enterprise causing crew members to behave in wildly strange ways after coming into contact with a mysterious substance that was brought aboard the ship after a mission. I picked this episode in particular because, as I mention in the broadcast, I delayed the airing of last night's episode in order to go see George Takei speak at UTRGV in Brownsville, and his character on Star Trek, Hikaru Sulu, is responsible for one of the most memorable scenes in this episode—arguably the entire franchise—where he stomps around the ship holding a rapier, and challenging crew members to duels, under the impression that he is some sort of nefarious pirate. Takei even referenced this scene in his talk, though he assured the audience he had no plans to recreate it any time soon, especially on stage.
One of the selections on this broadcast that I'm most endeared to at the moment is the 5th track I played, "Tokyo-Ga" by the group Dick Tracy, which is comprised of Laurent Petitgand, Chico Rojo Ortega, and Mèche Mamecier, for Wim Wenders documentary film of the same name. Wenders' film, which he considers a "visual diary", follows the filmmaker as he explores Tokyo, Japan in 1985 in search of the intimacy with which he was introduced to Japan through the works of one of the country's most celebrated filmmaker's, Yasujiro Ozu. I found this documentary on the Criterion release of Ozu's Late Spring, which I recently checked out from the McAllen Public Library. (I've been doing that more and more lately, so much so that I've even cancelled my Mubi subscription.) Anyway, the piece I play on the show is only a snippet of a longer 19-minute composition that squeaks and rumbles it's way throughout most of the film, an odd juxtaposition to the calm, sometimes cold and industrial, but ultimately harmonious imagery Wenders puts on film. It was this contrast in particular that made the music stand out to me, and inspired it's inclusion on tonight's show.
I've been spending a lot of time watching movies lately. I like it. I missed doing this. Watching movies gets me out of my head, which I think I need a little bit more of these days. The public library's recent aquisition of a Kanopy service will undoubtedly make this much easier to do, I think, which is good. Did I need to get out of my head back then too? I don't remember. Perhaps it's better that way.
-A
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