The collected works

[Updated 11/10/10.]

This is an index of the online writing I've done for various websites, publications, etc. It's more for my own reference than anything else, but casual readers may find something that amuses them.

• Hollywood Elsewhere:

I did a small handful of DVD reviews in 2005 for enterprising entertainment journalist Jeffery Wells' website.

• Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
• Fanny and Alexander: The Criterion Collection
• Garden State
• Heat (1995)
• M: The Criterion Collection
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
• Mean Creek
• P. S.
• Secrets and Lies
• Silver City

• Film Score Monthly:

This LA-based publication started out in Lukas Kendall's college dorm room back in the 1990s. Their line of CD restorations of film scores is intimidatingly good; the magazine is no longer published in hardcopy format, but is flourishing quite nicely online.

All I can say about all this stuff is that a young writer with more enthusiasm than skill or real-world experience has to start somewhere; most of it is a rank embarrassment to me, juvenile and knee-jerk in all the worst ways. Just read "Memoirs of a True Geek" and leave it at that.

There are a few pieces that were in the print magazine and not online; they can be read at FSM's site, with a $5 monthly subscription. Below are the pieces that live on the free side:

• 15 May 1997: “Father’s Day” and the Dilemma of Comedy Scoring
• 8 October 1997: Two Faces of Herrmann: “Psycho” & “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”
• 13 October 1997: Has Film Music Innovation Died?
• 16 October 1997: Discovering Alex North
• 22 October 1997: Feedback: The Death of Film Music Innovation
• 29 October 1997: Howard Shore: Giving Darkness Elegance
• 12 November 1997: “I’m Your Huckleberry:” The Music of Bruce Broughton
• 26 November 1997: Zimmer: A Chorus of Disapproving Voices
• 17 December 1997: Goo a Little Dance, Make a Little Flub, Get Neuralyzed
• 24 December 1997: Thomas Newman’s Dichotomy
• 5 January 1998: CD Review: Jerry Goldsmith’s Frontiers
• 2 April 1998: Reconciling a Golden Age
• 23 April 1998: “You Never Know How to Do It:” An Interview with Elmer Bernstein
• 30 April 1998: Missing the Boat for Skull Island
• 25 May 1998: David Arnold’s Stomping Ground
• 26 May 1999: The Fandom Menace
• 16 August 1999: Midsummer Round-Up
• 21 February 2000: CD Review: “S&M” (Metallica / Michael Kamen)
• * 14 March 2000: CD Review: “End of Days”
• 5 July 2000: Confessions of a FSM Intern: Installation #1 - “Look Ma, No Hands”
• 10 July 2000: “The Patriot” Film Review: Déjà vu All Over Again
• 12 July 2000: Confessions of a FSM Intern: Installation #2 - “It’s Interesting...”
• 17 July 2000: The “Perfect” Score?
• 19 July 2000: Confessions of a FSM Intern: Installation #3 - Los Angeles Strikes Back, and Some Random Observations
• 24 July 2000: X-Men: Insert Pun Here
• 31 July 2000: What Lies Beneath? Don’t Ask Me
• 3 August 2000: Confessions of a FSM Intern: Installation #4 - Duties of an Intern, and Musings on the System
• 14 August 2000: Confessions of a FSM Intern: Installation #5 - This Concludes Our Broadcast Day
• * 16 August 2000: CD Review: “Maltin’s Choice”
• 28 August 2000: Summer Retrospective: Why Are the Movies So Bad?
• * 31 August 2000: CD Reviews: “Bullitt,” “The Fox”
• * 14 September 2000: CD Review: “Running Free”
• * 18 September 2000: CD Review: “Escape from New York”
• 20 September 2000: Almost Famous
• * 21 September 2000: CD Reviews: “The Faculty,” “Deep Water”
• * 25 September 2000: CD Review: “Guns of San Sebastian / Dark of the Sun”
• 21 November 2000: Dissecting the Horror Score
• 22 November 2000: How the Fun Was Stolen From the Grinch
• * 18 December 2000: CD Review: “Grand Prix / Ryan’s Daughter”
• * 2 January 2001: CD Review: “Pursued”
• * 31 January 2001: CD Review: “Into the Arms of Strangers”
• 5 February 2001: “Cast Away:” Escapism of a Different Kind
• * 8 February 2001: CD Review: “Austin Powers”
• 28 February 2001: Interview: John Ottman on “Urban Legends: Final Cut”
• * 19 March 2001: CD Review: “Fever”
• 21 March 2001: “Hannibal,” Or: A Question of Taste
• * 16 April 2001: CD Review: “Farscape”
• 18 April 2001: Comerford on Criticism
• 30 April 2001: Jason’s Short Takes
• * 2 July 2001: CD Review: “The Dish”
• * 23 July 2001: CD Reviews: “Pavilion of Women,” “The Tailor of Panama”
• 1 October 2001: “Nothing else matters”
• * 31 December 2001: CD Review: “The Musketeer”
• * 18 February 2002: CD Review: “Project X”
• * 6 May 2002: CD Review: “The Affair of the Necklace”
• * 17 June 2002: CD Review: “Black Hawk Down”
• * 1 July 2002: CD Review: “In the Bedroom”
• * 19 February 2003: Six Things I’ve Realized About Film Music: 2002 in Review
• * 21 July 2003: CD Reviews: “The Hunted,” “Darkness Falls,” “Children of Dune”
• 15 October 2003: Memoirs of a True Geek

* - From the printed editions of Film Score Monthly. All other non-asterisk'd articles were written exclusively for the FSM website.

• Errata:

Miscellaneous other stuff that I've written. There's a lot of other non-film- and film-music-related material that I've written for various jobs, etc. that I plan on archiving online at some point.

• 9 September 1997: Soundtrack.net essay Summer (1997) Movie Wrap-Up
  
• 19 November 1997: Soundtrack.net CD review of "The Mephisto Waltz / The Other."
  
• Note for above links: If for some reason you get an error message, just copy and paste the link and it should work. I'm not sure why it doesn't work correctly, but that's technology for you.
  
• 24 December 1997: Thomas Newman Complete essay Thomas Newman's Dichotomy
  
• circa 1997: Thomas Newman Complete essay Scoring Ambience
• circa 1998: Wikipedia claims an interview/profile I did with composer Brian Tyler is available online, but at the moment the link just takes you to a blank page.
• circa 1999: The 4th Floor (Soundtrack): I wrote the liner notes for this CD. I'm surprised it's still in print. I am nonetheless happy to have been proven correct about the trajectory of Brian Tyler's career, which has grown impressively ever since.
• March 2010: White Dog: Liner notes for Film Score Monthly's limited-edition CD of Ennio Morricone's score to the Samuel Fuller film.
• October 2010: 13 Chills: 13 Memorable Moments in Horror Film Music, hosted by Howlin' Wolf Records.