Well this is an exciting surprise—the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is debuting a “new” piece by the late James Horner, “Skyward Spirit,” which was discovered in his archives and brought to life by his longtime collaborator, Simon Rhodes. Their video is NOT the full piece, alas, but the story behind it. Very excited for this!

We’ve made some improvements at FSMCDs.com in the store interface, making the shopping carts easier to use, and giving some new search options. Hope they help—thanks!

The new issue of FSM Online is live and I am looking forward to reading (well, listening, it’s an audio interview) Tim Burden’s interview with Barry Levinson about his entire composer history—wow! Go here for the new issue—and if you haven’t subscribed, please do so, we need you!

Here’s an interesting interview with the film editor of Tomorrow Never Dies, including discussion of David Arnold and his score: The Brosnan films really haven’t held up, I’m afraid.

Many thanks to Cine Circle films for including our Sky Fighter short film in a new sci-fi anthology called Final Orbit. Their first teaser trailer: More info here. Happy to get more exposure!

I love the original RoboCop—an all-time classic. All the sequels and remakes pale in comparison—because Robo’s storytelling arc is so complete in the original. I’ve long though of Paul Verhoeven as a director with a unique sensibility, but this video essay helped me appreciate what a good technical director he is as well: It’s all in the blocking and the moving masters. And today everything is just shot as coverage by multiple cameras. And get off my lawn!

Congrats to La-La Land Records as they make their way through the James Bond catalog, this time with a long overdue 2CD set of Michel Legrand’s score to Never Say Never Again. At last—the “horse chase” music, which I know now is “Escape From Palmyra (Film Version).” (I never realized there’s evidently an alternate of this on the album, also called “Escape From Palmyra.”) What a catchy piece! And yeah, they actually dropped a horse in the ocean—1980s moviemaking: This movie—oy

I saw the Star City season finale, but I was traveling right afterwards, so I forgot to write about it. I loved it! What a great show. Way better than I hoped! Apple has not yet renewed the show and I hope this is not another Counterpart—another chilly/smart show that at least got two seasons. (I was obsessed with Counterpart.) You can read a good interview with the Star City creators at Variety.

Mighty Orbots blew my 10-year-old mind when it aired Saturday mornings in the fall of 1984. Visually, at least—the writing was so juvenile, I remember one reviewer said it was only fit for “ormons.” But those dazzling, swirling images (24-frame Japanese animation), and the futuristic designs—and the cool title song and jazzy background music—what a presentation! The show only lasted a season, which was typical for anything space-oriented back in the day so I didn’t pay it muc

Thanks for all your orders from yesterday’s new CD listings! Here is an updated spreadsheet of inventory as of this morning—and the store, as always, is at FSMCDs.com. Thanks!

We are live at FSMCDs.com with more CDs! We have some top-rare Jerry Goldsmith collector’s editions, as well as some film music books from my personal collection, and more odds and ends from Jeanne Jones’ massive collection. Here is a spreadsheet of everything, but keep in mind this does not update as items sell. But it is faster to review than the site itself, which you’ll need to use to order. Hope you find some goodies, thank you!

Be here tomorrow, Tuesday, July 28, at 10AM Pacific / 1PM Eastern for a small new lot of CDs and film music books. Oh, and by the way, we only have a couple dozen mugs left from our 35th anniversary Kickstarter. They’re pretty neat!

Many thanks to Yow TV who have carried our Sky Fighter short film and did a social media push over the weekend. They are a free on-demand streaming service. I am getting over the surprise of having our anamorphic 16:9 short reformatted for vertical phone screens!

Congrats to Leigh Phillips, with whom we’re working on our James Horner TV music album, on his new Kickstarter for a volume 3 of Jerry Goldsmith’s Thriller music. He very quickly made his initial goal, but having done some of these things, I can tell you how fast the money goes. Check out the campaign and hope you can contribute. Thanks!

Many thanks to Philippe Blumenthal for reaching out for a short interview, which you can find on their site as of today. The intro and journal is in German, but the interview itself is in English.

Check out this two-hour interview with our friend John Ottman, going behind the scenes of so many important projects: Enjoy!

I am back in L.A. after a nice week away. We are putting together a small new sale for next Tuesday, July 28, at 10AM Pacific / 1PM Eastern at FSMCDs.com. Thanks!

I am out of town this next week. FSMCDs.com is open for business but any orders that come in after this evening (Saturday, July 11) will ship the week of the 20th. Enjoy your summer!

I’ll be out of town for this, but the great Joe Hisaishi is at the Hollywood Bowl next weekend: “Join us July 21–23 at 8 PM for an unforgettable evening celebrating the legendary composer behind beloved Studio Ghibli classics like Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Ponyo. As the Hollywood Bowl's 2026 Composer in Focus, Joe Hisaishi will conduct a breathtaking performance of his timeless music, accompanied by some of his favorite film clips.” Tickets here.

Check out this playlist for Lefties Symphonies Through Time, a recording project of Henry Mancini themes and arrangements by Nazareno Bicocchi meticulously reconstructed by ear from the original performances. I can’t imagine the time that went into this—lovely work! Much more at the playlist link. And here’s a behind-the-scenes article on how it was all made.

Thank you for your CD orders from yesterday’s new list. We will start the shipping at once! Here is an updated spreadsheet of our inventory. This is for browsing only, please use fsm.cds.com to order. Thank you!

NOTE 10:20AM: We seem to be having a snag with PayPal. Credit card payments are working. We will get PayPal straightened out asap!!! UPDATE: FIXED!!! ### We are live at FSMCDs.com with around 380 new listings from a few different collections. There are some hot Goldsmith titles, more sealed FSM releases from my mom’s basement (really!), Lorne Balfe promos, vintage cassettes (including sealed Varèse) and more—check it out! Here is a spreadsheet of the complete inventory. As a

Be here tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7, at 10AM Pacific / 1PM Eastern for nearly 400 listings added to FSMCDs.com, including autographed titles from the Jeanne Jones collection. Some fun stuff—thanks!

I happened to be on the road last night around 9:30 and couldn’t believe the amount of fireworks going off—not shows, but people lighting their own. We hear them at night every New Year’s Eve and Fourth of July but I didn’t realize how many there are, all over LA. It felt like I was driving through a warzone. I made a turn in Boyle Heights and there were some guys lighting off big ones from the middle of the street. We used to light off a few firecrackers as kids but never th