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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

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Edvard Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King

An evening pause: From Peer Gynt, and performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 2019.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

8 comments

  • Peter Monta

    In the video game The Witness, there’s a time-based puzzle, set within a mountain, featuring this piece. I still remember the stress of progressing through the puzzle, musical tempo increasing, and finishing seconds before the final notes. Multiple trials were required.

  • Jeff Wright

    This is also what Peter Lorre’s villainous character whistled in “M.”

  • Rick Wakeman did a decent (but short) cover of this on his Journey to the Centre of the Earth 1974 album. Cheers –

  • Mark Sizer

    When I was a young child (about 50 years ago), my mom got me a Kids Klassics (making up the name; I no longer remember) album. This was one of the songs on it (Flight of the Bumblebee is the other that I remember). She used it to teach me to recognize the various instruments. I’ve liked this ever since.

  • Bill Farrand

    The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) did an amazing version of this on their “On the Third Day” album.

  • Mark S – Jazz trombonist Urbie Green did a version of Flight of the Bumblebee called the Green Bee. A version of the Green Bee was used as the theme song for a short-lived Green Series. I think Al Hirt did the honors on jazz trumpet. Cheers –

    https://youtu.be/FfUBnIm-zdo

  • Jeff Wright

    I rather like “The Pines of Rome.”

  • Dick Eagleson

    agimarc,

    The show was The Green Hornet starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee. It was produced by the same team that also did the Adam West and Burt Ward Batman series. It only ran one season. The opening theme was, indeed, ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ performed brilliantly by Al Hirt. Because Bruce Lee co-starred, the show is now something of a cult classic.

    Jeff Wright,

    I like ‘The Pines of Rome’ too. I’ve seen several instances of slo-mo rocket launch footage where that piece was used as background music.

    All,

    There was a Michigan rock band called SRC that had a modest hit with a rock medley of ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ and ‘Beck’s Bolero’ when I was a college freshman. The latter half of the composition was named for guitarist Jeff Beck and was co-written by him and Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin.

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