Louis Armstrong – What a wonderful world
An afternoon pause: We are all too busy right this moment with turkey, friends, family, and socializing. Here Louis Armstrong tells you what it all means, really.
Recorded in 1967.
Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Paul Smith – Typewriter artist
An evening pause: For Thanksgiving week. If life gets you down, think of this man and buck up.
Hat tip Cotour.
Paganini in gypsy jazz style
A evening pause: The performers are Florian Cristea (violin), Richard Smith, Bina Coquet, Fernando Seifarth (guitar), and Nando Vicencio (bass).
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Janik & Arnaut – Snake dance
An evening pause: From the 1954 Colgate Comedy Hour Christmas Special with Abbott & Costello.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
A house in the forest
An evening pause: They call this an off-grid house, but that really isn’t true. Though he isn’t linked to either an electric or water utility, pay close attention to the amount of technology he uses to make the house and living there functional and practical.
Nonetheless, it is fascinating and educational to see some of the tricks that people will do to live as they wish.
Hat tip Cotour.
André Rieu – Lippen Schweigen
An evening pause: From the opera The Merry Widow. If anything, Rieu knows how to put on a good show. And it helps that his Austrian audience understands the lyrics.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Red Skelton & Walter Brennan
An evening pause: More silliness from 1960s television.
Hat tip from Tom Biggar.
Carolina Eyck – The Ecstasy of Gold
An evening pause: The music is by Ennio Morricone. She is playing a theremin, which is played without any direct contact by the player. The antennas sense the positions of the hands and fingers.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Wayne Brady – Thriller
An evening pause: This Postmodern Jukebox version does Michael Jackson’s song in the style of 1930s jazz.
I remember the passion for this song when Jackson first released it in 1982, including crowds forming on the street near Times Square to watch the music video. Yet, I have always wondered why. To me the song and video has always seemed quite uninteresting, almost boring. This version, however, I think brings it to life much better than Jackson. The two dancers are especially good.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Homemade model StarHopper & Starship launch & landings
An evening pause: The youtube website only states that this was “constructed out of paint cans and an American football,” but I see some drone computer technology hidden in these models as well. Regardless, quite cool and quite breath-taking.
Hat tip Martin Kaselis.
Shashi Tharoor – Is Your Vocabulary Up to Mark?
An evening pause: This is entertaining, in that it demonstrates the ability of English to absorb an endless number of words, even words that are absolutely ridiculous. Most of these words are unknown because they are hard to say and their meaning can be stated more efficiently and simply using normal vocabulary. I must also add that Tharoor is a Indian politician from the socialist Congress Party, now the minority party in India with the rise the present conservative government under President Modi.
I am therefore not surprised that he is skilled with using big words that can help him obfuscate his meaning, while making him seem erudite.
Hat tip Diane Wilson.
The Snow Cruiser: Antarctica’s abandoned behemoth
An evening pause: I think I have posted previously about this 1930s engineering marvel, but no matter, this documentary does a very nice job of telling the wild story of biggest vehicle ever sent to Antarctica.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.