An evening pause: A bright cheery way to start the last week in the Christmas holiday season. CORRECTION: I have discovered that the performer here is not Mariah Carey, as listed in the video, but another singer doing a nice cover. I have corrected the post.
An evening pause: Yes, I know it is a commercial, but it is right for the season. And it reminds us of the never-ending human desire — not often possible — to always believe all things can be made better. Such a belief enriches us. We should never lose it, no matter how bad things become.
An evening pause: On this, the last day of Hanukkah, we finish with a moving song that celebrates the city of Jerusalem, first published just days before the 1967 Six-Day war, and then revised slightly by its author, Naomi Shermer, after the eastern half of the city was recaptured by Israeli troops and made available to both Jews and Muslims for the first time since the 1948 war. Before then Jordan had barred Jews from entering, and had allowed many Jewish religious sites to be desecrated. When Israel took over that ended, and all sites were opened to all. (In subsequent years Muslim intransigence has slowly once again closed to Jewish Israelis the areas under Muslim control.)
The song is also sad, because it recognizes the thousands of years of conflict by many over this small spot on Earth. Most of those conflicts were caused by those who wished to kick the Jews from this place, even though they probably have more right to it than anyone else on Earth.
An evening pause: Though the prayer is recited every fall during services during the Ten Days of Repentance, from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, this music is modern, originally sung by Barbara Streisand. It is fitting now both for Hanukkah and the events in Israel. Activate closed captions to read the English translation. It is a prayer asking God for forgiveness for past sins as well as renewal and mercy in the coming year.
An evening pause: This piece seems appropriate for the first night of Hannukkah, which celebrates the miracle of the lights during the Maccabbean revolt against religious oppression, a revolt that led to the restoration of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, part of which still stands and is called by the Wailing Wall by many Jews. The medley includes two songs, “Oh Hanukkah,” and “Al Hanisim” (Thank You For the Miracles).
An evening pause: When I posted a different version of this song last year, I said this:
This song honoring Jesus I think really speaks of every child born on Earth, and how every parent should see them. As Wordsworth said, they come “trailing clouds of glory.”
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kissed your little baby then you kissed the face of god.
Still applies, to my way of thinking. That there are people in the world that think it good to kill such things means only that those people need to be removed from human existence as quickly as possible, as they represent the worst evil anyone can conceive.
An evening pause: The music from the soundtrack of the Charlie Brown television specials, with sections from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The man playing the drums, Jerry Granelli, is the last surviving member of the original group that played Vince Guaraldi’s music for the television show itself.
An evening pause: This was first posted in February 2019. As I noted then,
The video replays her singing the same thing three times. There is a good reason, as she almost appears to have begun singing as a lark, and the acoustics of the church astonish her. The repeats help bring out this amazing quality.
I think I shall always want to open the Christmas-Hannukah holiday season with it, as it speaks to both religions. And it is one magnificent song, sung here magnificently.
An evening pause: Performed live 1965 on the Ed Sullivan Show. Only in my latter years have I realized that this is really a Mexicon mariachi band, its music refined to appeal to a wider audience.
An evening pause: A short film that attempts to visualize what it would really be like to be on a rotating interplanetary spaceship, with artificial gravity. Quite mesmerizing.
An evening pause: This movie used to be a tradition for televion on Thanksgiving. At that time the holiday was well linked with the then joyous and relatively Christian Macy’s Day Parade (now warped into a queer agenda demonstration).
It I think makes for a good opening to the holiday season.
An evening pause: I’m not sure if John Tams is singing, but these are his lyrics used in the British historical television series, Sharpe, set to a traditional British song from the 18th century (hence the line “King George commands and we obey). I like this lyric however:
When Evil stalks upon the land
I’ll neither hold nor stay me hand
But fight to win a better day,
Over the hills and far away.
An evening pause: For those like myself who as a kid watched all of Irwin Allen’s sometimes good, often boringly predictable, but always truly cheesy sci-fi television shows, this documentary will bring back memories. Allen’s shows also explain why Star Trek became the phenomenon it did, as it was so much better.
And can you guess the name of the documentary’s narrator/anchor?