16th February 2000:

So the committee decided to make it a single category award again huh? Well, it will make things clean and simple. Sometimes it is hard to categorize the scores. As usual, many scores that deserve to be nominated more are not nominated. I don't think that I have to give you any examples. There are probably a dozen of them floating in your mind right now. I thought John Williams' Star Wars is going to be nominated. His score is not nominated is probably because of the movie. Oh Well, at least he has Angela's Ashes. Funny enough, I have not heard any of the nominated scores. I have not heard a lot of positive words about Gabriel Yared's The Talented Mr. Ripley. But I am not surprised that it is nominated. Why? Because it is a Miramax film. Who won in the past few years in this category? Il Postino, Full Monty, and Shakespeare In Love. They are all related to Miramax film. So don't be surprised if Mr. Yared wins this one. As for Williams' Angela's Ashes, I have only heard positive words about it. So it deserves to be on the list. As for, Portman's The Cider House Rules and Newman's American Beauty, even though I have not heard of of the score, I could imagine what they sound like (I think have heard enough of their scores to judge that). I don't think that they deserve to win the award more than John Williams. As for Corigliano's The Red Violin, same as Angela's Ashes, I have only heard positive words about it. Since I have not heard the score or any of his scores, I could not judge whether Angela's Ashes or The Red Violin is better. From my stand point, they deserve to win the award equally. In addition, Williams, Portman, and Yared have won the award before already. Newman have been nominated a few times but have never won one. This is Corigliano's second time. His score to Altered States was nominated in 1980 and lost to, guess who, Michael Gore's The Fame, one of the most undeserving winners in the history in many people's opinion. So my conclusion is:

I will pick (in order):
1. John Williams or John Corigliano
2. -------------
3. Thomas Newman
4. Rachel Portman
5. Gabriel Yared

The Academy will pick (in order):
1. John Corigliano
2. Gabriel Yared (if the movie dosen't win other awards, Yared will be No. 1)
3. Thomas Newman
4. John Williams
5. Rachel Portman

21st January 2000:

Due to many reasons, it is very troublesome for me to maintain the Soundfiles of the Week section nowadays. As you can see, it has not been updated since April of last year. And I don't think that I will update it for a while. The soundfile column of the front page would be replaced by something else soon. As for the For Sales section, it will be replaced by a different section soon too.

11th July 1999:

I have recieved many emails recently and ask me if they can access the old sound files. I am sorry but you can't. It is mainly due to the web space problem. If I have a LOT of web space, I would be more than happy to archive them like other pages do. Speaking of web space, after uploading all of the cover images that I have scanned recently, I find that I have exceeded the 5Mb web space that Tufts University provides me. Just the cover images and separate review pages are about 4Mb (500+ cover images and 400 review pages). I may have to move everything to www.geocities.com and use Tufts only as my soundfiles server.

After almost 3 years, I got the 100,000th hit. Thanks for all of your support in the past year. Keep your passion in film music growing!!

2nd June 1999:

22nd December 1998:

15th November 1998:

7th October 1998:

Some of you may access my siteserved from Geocities. But I am having FTP problems lately and the site in Geocities is not updated as quick as the site served from Tufts University. So you may want to use this link for faster update if you use the Geocities site.

5th February 1998:

14th January 1998:

20th September 1997:

13th September 1997:

29th August 1997:

This summer, I went back to Hong Kong and bought about 80 soundtracks (Since I have not updated the collections page, you guys cannot see all of the stuff that I have gotten yet.) Some of them are considered as so called "rare," "rarer," or out of print soundtracks. For example, Willow (Horner), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Williams), The Fog (Carpenter), River (Williams), Where the River Runs Black (Horner), Gorky Park (Horner), Wisdom (Elfman), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Silvetri).... Also there are some other rare soundtracks that I have seen but did not buy, including Article 99 (Elfman), Class Action (Horner), A View to Kill (Barry) and so on. The reason that I did not buy them is not because they are too expensive (each of them is about 15 US dollars) but there are plenty of them out there. Someone wrote me and said that I must be either extremely lucky or have unlimited funding on getting so many (regular and rare) soundtracks. I will say I did have some extreme luck. I got Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for 7 bucks, Where the River Runs Black for 5 bucks, Gorky Park for 7 bucks, Willow for another incredibly low price. (Now think of the prices for those regular soundtracks that I got) I find myself very lucky that my hometown is Hong Kong. Finding imports is not such a hard thing. But of course, most of those rare soundtracks are not USA press: Gorky Park (Japan Press), Willow (German Press, you guys probably know that there are tons of them out in Europe), Where the River Runs Black (Taiwan/Hong Kong Press), INDY (Japan Press, I think this is the only press.)

I personally think those Japan Releases do not worth that much money. Their original prices range from the lowet 1,700 to extrememly expensive 3,000 Japanese Yen, which is roughly about 17 to 30 US dollars. For example, the soundtrack to A View to Kill, its price is 1,700 Yen (It is one of those "budget" series in Japan and there are plenty of them in Japan.) So try to know a Japanese friend and have that person send you or bring you a copy, it will save you tons of money.

Also, for those out of print Verses Sarabande releases, they are only out of print in the US, there are many foreign record companies that manufacture VS's CDs (licensed, of course) and they are still making them, for example, Where the River Runs Black. Unless you have to get a US press (I don't think the sound quality has much different), then I have nothing to say. So the next time you buy an Expensive Collectibles Soundtrack, think tiwce if they really worth the price. The best way to get rare soundtracks in a cheap price is to check our USED CDs store a lot (because they can be poped up and gone the next day.) I think Boston, Chicago, and New York have many good Used CDs store. Again, Good Luck and have fun in your search.

Stuffs that posted here before August 1997:

Who are they?: (Info that you ought to know)

Most of the following info is compiled from "Listening To Movies" by Fred Karlin, Schirmer Books, New York 1994.

• Name: Malcolm Arnold
  Born: Oct 21, 1921, Northampton, England
  Which to get first: The Bridge on the River Kwai
  Did you know:
  Quote:

• Name: John Barry
  Born: Nov 3, 1933, York, England
  Which to get first: Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Out of Africa, and Dances With Wolves
  Did you know: The James Bond Main Theme is by him but not Monte Norman.
  Quote:

• Name: Elmer Bernstein
  Born: Apr 4, 1922, New York, NY
  Which to get first: The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven
  Did you know:
  • He got his first assignment in 1950.
  • Victor Young was too sick to score the Ten Commandments and Berstein was asked to take the job.
  • He became President of the Composers and Lyrucusts Guilt of America.
  • At various periods in his career he has been known as the King of Jazz, the King of Western, and the King of Comedy.
  Quote:

• Name: Bill Conti
  Born: Apr 13, 1942, Providence, R.I.
  Which to get first: Rocky, The Right Stuff
  Did you know:
  Quote:

• Name: Danny Elfman
  Born: May 29, 1953, Los Angeles, CA
  Which to get first:Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands
  Did you know:
  • He spent a year in West Africa when he was 18.
  • His first film score is for the film "Forbidden Zone" (1978), an extremely low-budget film movie directed by his brother Richard.
  • Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) liked the score of "Forbidden Zone"
  • Tim Burton was a fan of Oingo Boingo and used to go to its concerts before he knew Danny Elfman. (You now know why he composed the score for Pee Wee's Big Adventure.)
  Quote:
  • "By the time I was 15, I could listen to movies and say, 'That's a Goldsmith score. that's a Knorngold score, that's an Alfred Newman score."
  • "By today's standard, To Kill a Mockingbird could not happen. A producer would step in and say, 'That's too busy! Where's the theme?' We've gotten so much more conservative. Action scores used to be brash - look at Korngold's greatest scores, Alfred Newman's wonderful stuff and my favorite, Max Steiner - and now they' ve become so nondescript."

• Name: Michael Kamen
  Born: Apr 15, 1948, New York, NY
  Which to get first: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Three Musketeers
  Did you know:
  • He was an oboe player before he started his rock 'n' roll band.
  • He was the music director of David Bowie.
  • He worked with Pink Floyd and produced the film version of "The Wall."
  Quote:

• Name: Marc Shaiman
  Born: Oct 22, 1959, Newark, NJ
  Which to get first: The Addams Family, City Slickers II, The American President
  Did you know:
  • He started as a vocal arranger for cabaret acts in New York.
  • He became the musical directior of Bette Midler at the age of 17.
  • He worked on"Saturday Night Life" for many years.
  • He met Billy Crystal in "Satuarday Night Life," and through him, he met Rob Reiner, the director of "When Harry Met Sally."
  Quote:

• Name: Hans Zimmer
  Born: Sep 12, 1957, Frankfurt, Germany
  Which to get first: Crimson Tide, The Lion King
  Did you know:
  • He grew up in Germany and Switzerland, and finally England.
  • He started doing synthesizer music for commercial at first.
  Quote:

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