theme music – Books and Coffee

While trying to choose other theme music for myself, while pondering whether Amon Tobin‘s Slowly describes me specifically enough or merely described the way the bay looked on this particular morning, I listened to Four Ton Mantis (on the album Supermodified (2000, Ninja Tune)).

Oh my gosh.

I once wrote a screenplay for a wordless film for this song. About Godzilla. Waking up, and then destroying a city. And settling in for a nap, after having a butterfly land on his nose. There were timestamps for various scenes, aligned with the music. (I posted this work to the writing group section of a dating site (!!), and my posts there somehow led to a fun, four-year relationship with another writer, though this is not an obvious outcome to such writing. [muffled question] What? [muffled question off camera] No, he wasn’t scared away by this. [muffled sound off camera] Well, “normal” people can be a bit dull…)

Anyway, it’s a great song. If I were to put on a robot suit and stage a fight with another woman (who is also in a robot suit) in a scale model of NeoTokyo, this could be the soundtrack to that fight. Or we could wear giant robot suits and fight in actual NeoTokyo, if that would be easier to film, but I don’t think we could get insurance. (Yes, I am thinking of Iczer One, and no, you can’t stop me.)

(I would link to media of Four Ton Mantis, but it isn’t visible on the iTunes version of the album currently available (even though it is on my phone), and the album version isn’t available on YouTube. The remixes give the song a different character entirely, though they are also fun – they just have less of a giant-robot-suit-fight-music character.)

I assigned theme music to a stranger a few months back*. This was a first for me, and I realized I should choose my own theme music before assigning songs to others.

Theme music isn’t a new idea. I worked at a company with a professional events team, and if you walked on stage, you were allowed to choose the music that would play during your walk-on. So, making this kind of choice has occurred to me before. (For people without events teams: It’s like the walk-on music for evening shows, but chosen by you rather than, say, Questlove, who has made some fantastic, context-based choices (only some of which he has regretted), making the song apply on a few levels).

I listen to a surprising amount of instrumental music. La cittá nuda by The Dining Rooms stands out for me as a gliding energetically through a lively city evening, so I’ll put it on my theme list:

*You had to be there, it was a “vibe” – the weather was fantastic, I finished work , SF bay was serene, this person was relaxing in front of me, Massive Attack was in my headphones – it was just a perfect moment.

Tag: theme music

Music: Theme Music For Godzilla and/or Giant Robot Fights

Music: Theme Music of the Moment