Tag: entertainment
Jonasquin – If Stayin’ Alive Had Been Written in 16th Century
Peter Schickele performs Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach
An evening pause: A performance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1987.
Hat tip Alex Gimarc.
Bing Crosby – Let’s Start the New Year Right
An evening pause: From the 1942 film Holiday Inn. Stay with this after the song for a truly spectacular dance number by Fred Astaire, dancing as a New Year’s Eve drunk with Marjorie Reynolds.
Paolo Ercoli – Song for a winter’s night
A evening pause: A nice rendition of the Gordon Lightfoot song on an instrument called the squareneck dobro.
Hat tip Cotour.
Rita Hayworth – Steal a Show
A eveningpause: From the 1947 musical Down to Earth, where Hayworth places the goddess of dance, who comes down from heaven to save the show.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Marula Eugster Rigolo – One feather
Brigham Young University Choir & Orchestra – Oh Come All Ye Faithful
An evening pause: I hope all my Christian readers had a wonderful and joyous Christmas, from your Jewish but very secular host. With good will to all!
Hat tip Judd Clark.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
An afternoon pause: This TV movie, the first ever, was produced by NBC and first aired in 1957. It subsequently played every Christmas season for most of the next decade. It has been forgotten in the ensuing years, something I think must be rectified, especially for the children of today. It is clever, sophisticated, innocent, entertaining, and above all, firmly American in every way.
Thus, I will now renew that past tradition.
An afternoon pause: This TV movie, the first ever, was produced by NBC and first aired in 1957. It subsequently played every Christmas season for most of the next decade. It has been forgotten in the ensuing years, something I think must be rectified, especially for the children of today. It is clever, sophisticated, innocent, entertaining, and above all, firmly American in every way.
Thus, I will now renew that past tradition.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
A mid-day pause: As I now do practically every Christmas, I bring you the classic 1951 version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim. In my opinion still by far the best adaption of the book and a truly wonderful movie.
And as I noted in a previous year:
Dickens did not demand the modern version of charity, where it is imposed by governmental force on everyone. Instead, he was advocating the older wiser concept of western civilization, that charity begins at home, that we as individuals are obliged as humans to exercise good will and generosity to others, by choice.
It is always a matter of choice. And when we take that choice away from people, we destroy the good will that makes true charity possible.
And in 2016 I said this:
I watched this again and felt like weeping, not because of the sentimentality of the story itself but because it is so seeped in a civilized world that increasingly no longer exists. There was a time when this was our culture. I fear it is no longer so. As noted by the Spirit of Christmas Present, “This boy is ignorance, this girl is want. Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy.”
It seems for the past few decades we have not heeded that warning, and are now reaping the whirlwind.
A mid-day pause: As I now do practically every Christmas, I bring you the classic 1951 version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim. In my opinion still by far the best adaption of the book and a truly wonderful movie.
And as I noted in a previous year:
Dickens did not demand the modern version of charity, where it is imposed by governmental force on everyone. Instead, he was advocating the older wiser concept of western civilization, that charity begins at home, that we as individuals are obliged as humans to exercise good will and generosity to others, by choice.
It is always a matter of choice. And when we take that choice away from people, we destroy the good will that makes true charity possible.
And in 2016 I said this:
I watched this again and felt like weeping, not because of the sentimentality of the story itself but because it is so seeped in a civilized world that increasingly no longer exists. There was a time when this was our culture. I fear it is no longer so. As noted by the Spirit of Christmas Present, “This boy is ignorance, this girl is want. Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy.”
It seems for the past few decades we have not heeded that warning, and are now reaping the whirlwind.
Kathy Mattea – Mary did you know
An evening pause: Another reprise, this time from 2020. As I wrote then: “This song honoring Jesus I think really speaks of every child born on Earth, and how every parent should see them. As Wordsworth said, they come ‘trailing clouds of glory.'”
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kissed your little baby then you kissed the face of god.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve/Sarajevo
An evening pause: I posted this Judd Clark suggestion previously in December 2023, but Judd sent it to me again and I agree, it deserves a reprise. It reminds us that despite all the craziness that has happened in the world in the past half century, children still see wonderful things we have forgotten exist.
Handel – Pastoral Symphony from Messiah
An evening pause: One of the most beautiful sections of Handel’s masterpiece, often missed because it is quiet and gentle in tone.
Toilet Cat, The Kiffness, & Juzzie Smith – Christmas Blues
Celtic Woman – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
An evening pause: Performed live 2013. I know this song is a bit over-played this time of year, but this performance brings a freshness to it well worth experiencing. And it is about what Christmas actually celebrates.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Geoff Castellucci – I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Elahn Zetlin – Hanukkah in Jerusalem
An evening pause: Music by Hicham Chahidi.
As I watched this I could not help think once again of the Jewish saying that practically describes all Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat!”
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Melinda Kathleen Reese – O Come O Come Emmanuel
An evening pause: As has become my own tradition, I always begin the Christmas/Hanukkah season’s evening pauses with this particular piece, because it not only speaks to both religions, it is amazingly beautiful to hear.
The video replays her singing the same thing three times. There is a good reason, as she almost appears to have begun singing as a lark, and the acoustics of the church astonish her. The repeats help bring out this amazing quality.
Sidetrack Adventures – World’s only moving geyser and its path of destruction
Stray Cats – Rock this town
Svetlana Zakharova – Nikiya’s Death in La Bayadère
An evening pause:This website provides a quick summary of what is happening during the dance:
Nikiya’s epic “death” solo at the end of La Bayadère‘s second act is more than a test of stamina: It’s integral to the ballet’s plot. In it, Nikiya laments her doomed relationship with Prince Solor, rejoices upon receiving a basket of flowers she believes to be from him and collapses after being bitten by a snake hidden in the basket.
Hat tip Judd Clark, who adds, “The High Brahmin offers to give Nikiya the antidote to the poison if she will renounce her vow to Solor, but she chooses death rather than life without her beloved.”
Eric Clapton – Signe
Soggy Bottom Boys – I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman
An evening pause: I normally don’t post pauses that are not live and have no visuals, such as this one. However, in this case I have reasons for using this original recording of this wonderful song, which will become evident in tomorrow’s evening pause.
Larry Kimpel, Billy Cobham, & George Duke – Stratus
Jefferson Starship – Jane
Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire – Swing Time
An evening pause: From the 1936 film of the same name. Fred improvises to save Ginger’s job as a dance teacher. Watch how Rogers’ impression of him and her interaction during the dance evolves so naturally. I have always found her to be not only a great dancer, able to keep up with Astaire (the king of all dance), but also a marvelous actress.
Note too how this is not the gymnastics of modern dance, which is often only one small step above a Jane Fonda exercise video, but an amazingly nuanced and choreographed sequence of complex steps and moves, set to American pop music but with graceful classical ballet in mind.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Thanksgiving repost: Miracle on 34th Street
An evening pause: This was posted in 2023. Time to repost.
Original text:
—————————
This movie used to be a tradition for television on Thanksgiving. At that time the holiday was well linked with the then joyous and relatively Christian Macy’s Day Parade (now warped into a queer agenda demonstration). [Editor: an agenda that thank god appears to be on the run.]
I think it makes for a good opening to the holiday season.
Josephine Baker – Dance Josie, Dance
Dexys Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
An evening pause: Performed live on a children’s television show (!), 1982. Stay with it, the beginning was part of the show’s shtick.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.