Cyd Charisse, John Brascia, & Sammy Davis Jr. – Frankie & Johnny
An evening pause: From the 1956 film, Meet Me in Las Vegas. The dancing is great, but I really think Sammy Davis makes the piece with his singing.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Tag: entertainment
Patricia Neway – Climb Every Mountain
An evening pause: The Rodgers and Hammenstein song from The Sound of Music, performed live on the Ed Sullivan Show, 1959.
Makes an interesting contrast with yesterday’s pause.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
MIT – Quicker than a Wink
An evening pause: This 1940 short film won an Academy Award for best one-reel short. It provides a nice and witty demonstration of the first technology that allowed very high speed slow motion movies to be made.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Glen Campbell – Galveston
Family Tree Nuts – Annie Moore, Ellis Island’s first immigrant
Happy Childhood Dance Ensemble – Kalinka
Jude Kofie – Rock The Casbah
An eveing pause: More young talent. This is different in that he improvises his own piano version based on only hearing a portion of the original.
Hat tip Cotour.
The Graystones & J8KE – Baker Street
An evening pause: Hat tip Mike Nelson, who adds, “by a group of kids that make me jealous as I never had ANY musical aptitude whatever.”
Ethel Merman – Anything Goes
Dolly Parton, Stella Parton, & Cassie Parton – Break My Mind
Billy Gibbons, Kingfish Ingram, & Orianthi – La Grange
An evening pause: Performed live 2025, and beautifully directed by Gibbons as well.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Annie Lennox – There Must Be An Angel
Elmer Bernstein – To Kill A Mockingbird Suite
An evening pause: Performed live 2014 by the Beethoven Academy Orchestra with Sara Andon on the flute.
Some movies are made special because of their score, and I think this applies to the 1962 film, To Kill a Mockingbird. It is a superb work of art, but it rises above many comparable films due to the music that Elmer Bernstein wrote for it. His suite only gives a hint of its effectiveness, in the movie.
Johnny Cash & June Carter – Jackson
Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes
Cyd Charisse & Ricardo Montalban – Bar dance
Stephen Sondheim – Someone in a Tree
An evening pause: For my birthday, a repost of a 2010 evening pause of one of my favorite Broadway songs, from Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures, which I only recently learned was his favorite song as well.
It tells the story of a significant moment in history, the moment when Japan’s leaders signed their first international treaty in 1852 with the United States, but from the point of view of outside witnesses. Its point is profound, that history is not just made by the leaders who sign the deals, but by every individual who makes up the whole of human society.
It’s the fragment, not the day
It’s the pebble, not the stream
It’s the ripple, not the sea
That is happening.
Not the building but the beam
Not the garden but the stone
Only cups of tea
And history
And someone in a tree.
Midnight repost: Truth, Justice, and the American Way
Tonight Diane and I decided to watch again the 1978 Richard Donner movie, Superman. The overall film is lighthearted entertainment that captures the myth of this super-hero perfectly. However, it has two scenes that remain among the best moments in movie history (which you can watch here and here). The first captures the myth in every way. The second shows us that Superman truly stood for the best in America.
In watching the movie tonight again and reliving the myth I grew up with — that great things are possible if you believe and follow sincerely Superman’s motto of “truth, justice, and the American way” — I decided to repost my essay from 2020 where I attempted to explain what that motto really meant.
Enjoy!
———————
George Reeves as the heroic Superman as envisioned
in the 1950s television show, emulated later by Richard
Donner in his 1978 movie. Click for show’s opening credits.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way
The words spoken during the opening credits of a 1950s children’s television show:
Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Look up in the sky!
It’s a bird.
It’s a plane.
It’s Superman!
Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.
Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American Way.
That television show was obviously Superman, starring George Reeves, and these opening words expressed the mythology and basic ideals by which this most popular of all comic-book super-heroes lived.
I grew up with those words. They had been bequeathed to me by the American generation that had fought and won World War II against the genocidal Nazis, and expressed the fundamental ideals of that generation.
Much of the meaning of these fundamental ideals is outright and clear.
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Judy Garland -Trolley Song
An evening pause: From the 1944 film, Meet me in St. Louis. I posted this in July 2010 as one of the very first evening pauses. As I wrote then, “The last line of the song says it all, about life and love.”
Hat tip to Judd Clark, who suggested it, which convinced me it was time to post it again.
Journey – Who’s Crying Now
Doris Day – Shaking the Blues Away
The Warning – Dust To Dust/Dull Knives
An evening pause: In 2017 I posted an evening pause of this band, when Daniela (on guitar) was 14 years old, Paulina (on drums) was 12 years old, and Alejandra (on bass guitar) was 9 yrs old. Today’s evening pause is from their 2023 tour in Mexico (where they are from), celebrating the band’s tenth anniversary. To put it mildly, they are a bit older.
Hat tip Matt Falk, who adds, “They are all adults now who’ve become one of the best live rock bands playing today, while still maintaining complete control of their career (a feat in itself).”
Emmylou Harris – Tulsa Queen
826aska – James Bond theme
An evening pause: Who needs an orchestra when you have a modern synthesizer, properly programmed?
Hat tip Cotour.
Paul McCartney – Let It Be
An evening pause: Performed live 2009.
I must ask: It seems almost no one in pop music writes gentle ballads like this any longer. Everything must pound, with beautiful melody no longer a major consideration.
Dionne Warwick, Hal David, Burt Bacharach – I Say A Little Prayer studio rehearsal
Foreigner – Urgent
An evening pause: Performed live 1982, with a truly great sax solo by Mark Rivera.
Hat tip Ferris Akel.
Badgerland Birding – Five things you didn’t know about Owls
Chris Rea – The Road To Hell
An evening pause: Performed live 2006.
Hat tip Alec Gimarc, who adds these details: “Chris Rea passed away last week. About our age. Over 30 studio albums. British. Very much an acquired taste. Been listening to him for nearly 40 years. Smooth, smoky voice. He specialized in slide guitar. Road to Hell is probably his greatest hit.”