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Mike Oldfield – The Source of Secrets

An evening pause: Actually, this is three pieces, “The Source of the Secrets,” “Secrets,” and “Far above the Clouds.”

Hat tip “t-dub” Tom Wilson.

I’d like one piece of feedback about this video. When you watch it embedded on Behind the Black, is the music interrupted by commercials? That happens when you watch on YouTube. I am curious it this happens when a song is embedded on another webpage.

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 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

16 comments

  • Alex Andrite

    … just for you Mr. Z.
    5 by 5. No breaks.

    Although I did sort of suffer through this shallow, linear, and boring presentation. Tapped my foot a bit when the ‘pipes’ got involved.
    Perhaps I had to be there ?

    Nope.

  • wayne

    Mr. Z.,
    –Watched the whole thing straight through– no ads served to me.

    from the google adsense page:
    “Embedded videos may show In-stream and InVideo overlay ads.” ” If you’ve associated your YouTube and AdSense accounts and have allowed embedding videos, you’ll automatically be opted into showing ads. Note that embedded videos will honor the same ad enablement settings as videos on youtube.com.” “If you don’t want to show ads on your embedded videos, there’s no way to directly turn off ads on embedded videos only.”
    “YouTube works diligently so that our advertisers’ brands appear on sites that reflect our respective core values. Our systems closely evaluate websites and their content against various factors when finding out whether to turn on In-stream ads on YouTube embeds. These factors include a strict set of guidelines on content like adult imagery, violence, inappropriate and hateful language, and sites that promote infringement.”

    Tangential Tip:
    I consume a lot of video from yt.
    –If you want to eliminate the vast majority of adverts, the practical way is to download the entire file and view at your leisure. (you’ll then have the file physically on your hd, so when they age-restrict it and/or simply make it disappear so you can never find it again, you’ll still have it.)
    –You will be given the pre-roll advert (if there is one) but when you download the entire file there will be no ads in-program, even if enabled.
    Personally, I use “Internet Download Manager,” but any download program will function similarly. (You can test IDM for free, for a month, o/w it’s like’ $30 for the program. I’ve used mine for 12 years, and they regularly update it.)
    The upside is no adverts and you can download the file in the any resolution that is available.

  • wayne: Interesting that you saw no ads. Since I don’t have a youtube account and never will have one, it could be that the ads can’t be “associated” with my account, and they thus don’t show up in the embeds I post. If so, great!

  • John

    I can’t believe anyone can stand surfing the internet without an ad blocker. I canceled youtube ads and google a long time ago.

    Ads are just the tip of the iceberg, it’s more than just marketing. Privacy, anti-tracking, tech tyrant blocking- should be a concern of every freedom minded person on the planet.

    Sad what they can do, and what people allow to be done.

  • wayne

    Mr. Z.,
    I don’t have a yt account and never sign in. (which immediately restricts my access to “age-restricted” video)
    [tangentially–there is an increasing amount of WW-2 related video that is amazingly age-restricted at yt. It was ok to watch it for the last 75 years, but yt apparently knows better. They also blur out selected imagery from historic films as well, that is a more insidious form of mind-control.]

    –> If people actually sign in to watch yt video, they know all about you (and never forget)
    –> Ads are enabled (or not) by the content-owner, so it doesn’t matter if you have an account.
    –>Yt knows when content is being routed through 3rd party sites, like this one, and can block ads from appearing in video-player embeds. ( I bet they know all about your site, you have a “score,” we just don’t know what it is…)
    –>All yt videos are electronically watermarked– if anyone knows how to strip that out of the file, let me know!

  • wayne

    John–
    what does this site look like with an ad-blocker? (
    I ask because I have relatively slow internet speed, and I can sometimes watch all the “share” links Mr. Z., has enabled, load onto this page. Is there any way to block those?

  • Jay

    Wayne,
    To get around YT country-specific blocks or logins needed to view, just copy the title of the YT video, put it in the DuckDuckGo search engine, select the Videos tab, click on it, and you can watch it anonymously.

  • Jerry Greenwood

    No ads. I remember the splash he made in 73. On the original Tubular Bells he played all the instruments… His first attempt was ruined because he wore out the tape. The second attempt was magnificent. I will seek out the original King Crimson Flour Hour video.. Better than this.

  • t-dub

    I’m glad so many people have strong opinions about Mike Oldfield and this video. I never said it was the best or anything else. I merely thought it was a nice, live, edition of an old song I used to love with some new variations. All of you “aficionados” out there are welcome to post what you will in response.

  • Jerry Greenwood

    Oops! King Biscuit flour hour. It’s been 50 years…

  • John: It has been noted that the Internet is ‘free’ because people will exchange privacy for access.

    “Don’t exactly set [me] apart from the rest of us.”

    Jayne Cobb

    Firefly ‘Trash’

  • Jeff Wright

    “The Songs Of Distant Earth” has a countdown theme I thought worthy of Clarke,

  • zenman

    No ads, here. Started watching on YouTube, ad came up first thing.

    I enjoyed that particular piece. The “Tubular Bells” line of music still gives me goosebumps. I’m guessing my parents shouldn’t have taken me to go see “The Exorcist” when I was 10. Or “Easy Rider,” or “The Trip” or any number of adult movies. Did enjoy “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” the James Bond and Dirty Harry series.

  • RCMoeur

    A number of years ago, I was driving back from I-15 one evening with a co-worker originally from Bangladesh, and this album and “Songs of Distant Earth” were on the playlist for the long drive. She translated many of the lyrics – now it would nice to remember those translations.

  • John

    Wayne- I have social media blocked with brave browser, I don’t see the share buttons. Brave browser is a great start, I recommend it. Spend time setting up the shields and filter lists. For me there are 7 things blocked on this site, I guess it’s the share buttons.

    Blair- The internet is free because you are the product. I don’t mind advertising, but the tech tyrants went much further. There’s no privacy online but you can mitigate the problem.

    Trying not to preach about VPNs now.

  • wayne

    John-
    Thanks for that info, that’s sorta what I assumed. (ref: share buttons)

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