Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Forbidden Planet
An evening pause: Forbidden Planet (1956). Almost a half century after its creation, this science fiction film is still one of the best every made. The story is supposingly inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This is also the film that gave Gene Roddenberry his inspiration for Star Trek.
Falling Hare (1943)
Tour of ISS, part 4
An evening pause: Mike Finke’s tour of ISS continues in the Progress freighter, moves through the Zarya functional cargo module into the Zvezda service module at the aft end of the station, showing us a Russian crew cabin and the station’s main bathroom facilities.
A Man for All Seasons
An evening pause: Thomas More, played by Paul Schofield, explains why he would allow even the devil his due in law, from A Man for All Seasons (1966).
ISS tour continues, part 3
An evening pause: Astronaut Mike Finke’s tour of ISS continues, taking us through the Unity module and into the Russian part of the station, showing us the inside of a Soyuz lifeboat, the Zarya functional cargo module, the Piers docking module/airlock, and ending looking into the hatch of a Progress freighter.
Camino del Rey
An evening pause:El Camino del Rey (The King’s Road) is a crumbling walkway high on the cliff walls of El Chorro canyon in Andalusia, Spain. The hike is not for the faint-hearted.
ISS tour, part 2
An evening pause: Mike Finke’s tour of ISS continues, showing us the Columbus module, a crew cabin, the Destiny module, and into the Harmony module.
Kevin Branagh – Henry V
An evening pause: From Kevin Branagh’s 1989 film of Shakespeare’s Henry V, the battle speech “upon Saint Crispin’s day”.
ISS tour, part 1
An evening pause: We talk a lot about the International Space Station. Why not take a tour? In this January 2009 video, part 1 of 4, astronaut Mike Finke starts us out at the docking port used by the shuttle and takes us through the Harmony and Kibo modules. Along the way he gives a great view out the port side of the station.
You can see the remaining parts of Mike’s tour by clicking through, or you can wait until I post them over the next week.
Moody Blues – For My Lady
Kate Rusby – Polly
An evening pause: Kate Rusby, singing her song Polly. The video and audio might not be great, but the performance is stellar. And the lyrics, telling such a simple story of love, make it worthwhile regardless.
Superman – The Underground World
The Moon and I
Duck Amuck
ABBA performing Dancing Queen
An evening pause: ABBA, performing Dancing Queen in 18th century costumes for King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Farewell song from Davy Crockett
An evening pause: From Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955), a moment of quiet reflection.
Muppets: Playing the Sax
Rube Goldberg machine, part 1
An evening pause: We’ve had animated machines and actors pretending to be machines. Now, let’s have a Rube Goldberg machine.
Eddi Reader singing Willie Stewart
An evening pause: Not only does Eddi Reader probably have one of the most beautiful voices in the singing world today, she links that voice to some of the best Irish instrumentalists in the game. Watch her and her band bring down the house in this live performance of “Willie Stewart”.
Your Show of Shows: the clock skit
An evening pause: Yesterday we had a modern animation of a machine that made music. Tonight let’s watch a very different take on a vaguely similar idea, this time to produce comedy. This is a classic skit from Your Show of Shows, Sid Caesar’s variety show from early television. The four performers are, left to right, Sid Caesar, Imogene Coco, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris.
Pipe Dream by Animusic
An evening pause: Though it might look real, the music machine in this short is animated, a creation of Animusic, a company dedicated to producing animated shorts set to music.
Poker face, by geeks
An evening pause: Here’s some modern music, Poker Face, performed not by its original singer, Lady GaGa, but by Molly Lewis, someone far more appealing.
Chamberlain’s speech from movie Gettysburg
An evening pause: In our modern “politically correct” society, many people object strenuously when I express my unwavering preference for the British-American culture that founded the United States. It seems that today’s polite society considers it judgmental and unfair to suggest our way of life is superior to others. Well, before you protest, please listen to this speech from the movie Gettysburg, in which Colonial Joshua Chamberlain explains why he decided to fight for the Union in the Civil War. To quote, “We are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free.” Then he adds this most important point: “Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was.”
That is our culture. That is what we as a society have always stood for. And it is these values that I wish to propagate to the stars, a desire for which I will make no apologizes.
Whisper of the heart
An evening pause: Of all the animators in the world today, Hayao Miyazaki is probably the best. Every single one of his films is an incredible viewing experience. Here is a clip from Whisper of the Heart (1995), a truly wonderful film about young love and hope. Though he didn’t direct it, Miyazaki wrote the screenplay and storyboards as well as produced it. Not surprisingly, the film is seeped in his style, with the same unique but believable characters, unpredictable but compelling story-telling, and a magical originality that is rare in movies today.
Jackie Gleason and Frank Fontaine
An evening pause: In the 1960s, the Jackie Gleason Show was one of television’s most popular variety shows. Each episode had one regular routine, where Gleason played Joe the bartender, visited by an unseen Mr. Dunnaghy. Invariably, Joe would bring out his friend, Crazy Guggenheim, played by Frank Fontaine. Fontaine, as Crazy, would then hold everyone spellbound for five plus minutes with the most silly charactor humor one can imagine.
Tell me on a Sunday
An evening pause: Sarah Brightman again, this time singing “Tell me on a Sunday,” a lovely song from the musical Song & Dance.
Julie Andrews and Cass Eliot medley
An evening pause: Though the sound and video quality from this recording from the Julie Andrews Hour (1972) is not the best, watching Julie Andrews and Cass Elliot do this medley of some of Cass Elliot’s hit songs is still breathtaking.
Footage of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon
An evening pause: Since it is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, let’s watch it as it happened on July 20, 1969. This footage, in a single continuous shot, shows the view out of the lunar module window, beginning when the spacecraft was approximately 40,000 feet above the lunar surface. The key quote as they drop to less than 100 feet off the surface is a voice that first says “60 seconds,” than later “30 seconds.” This is astronaut Charlie Duke, the capsule communicator (capcom) in mission control, telling Neil Armstrong exactly how much time he has left before running out of fuel. Despite these warnings, Armstrong took a careful, almost deliberate look at the surface, realized they were heading for a crater and decided he needed to reposition the landing site. As a result he used almost all the fuel in his tanks, which had people in mission control going nuts as they watched.
Life as it should be
An evening pause: Tomorrow will be the 41st anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. So, let’s start the week with a clip from the 1972 film version of Man of La Mancha to show why some impossible dreams are certainly possible. In this short scene, Peter O’Toole, as Cervantes, explains why he does not like to look at life, “as it is.”