Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Hazegrayart – A visual comparison of the space age’s unbuilt rocket concepts
An evening pause: None of course were ever built. Most were government concepts that would have cost a fortune and never considered profit as a motive. The last concept is the wildest, and uses exploding nuclear bombs to propel it.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
Swingrowers – That’s Right!
Tim “Randm” Salaz – Modern dance
An evening pause: As one commenter on youtube said, “This guy’s body must be fully made of water.”
Hat tip Dave McCooey.
James Kennerley – John Philip Sousa’s Liberty Bell March
An evening pause: I bet you didn’t know that this music was by Sousa. I also suspect Sousa would have never guessed how this march would become so well known in the late 20th century.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Busby Berkeley – Tap dance sequence from Lullaby of Broadway
An evening pause: Time for another Berkeley extravaganza. This except is only a small part of the full thirteen-plus minute Lullaby of Broadway number in the movie Gold Diggers of 1935. This movie was made when the talking pictures were still new, and making films that highlighted “All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing!” was the rage. It was also a time when all Americans danced arm-in-arm as one of their main forms of entertainment, so interest in great dancing like this was at its height.
Hat top Judd Clark.
Real Engineering – The Secret Invention That Changed World War 2
An evening pause: How old fashioned Yankee ingenuity helped win the war, in a way you would not expect.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Tower of Power – Me & Mrs Jones
Smothers Brothers – Hippie Chick Clip
An evening pause: A wonderful moment from the 1960s, performed brilliantly by actress Leigh French and resulting in some wonderful and gentle satire of the hippie culture of the time. Context is also important, because the Smothers Brothers were constantly having problems with their television censors.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Ella Roberts – Wild Mountain Thyme
An evening pause: I normally dislike music videos like this one, with their fake drama and stagey lip-synched performance, but this song is so beautiful and the visuals match so well that I gladly make an exception this time, especially because I have wanted to post this song as a pause for years, but never could find a version I liked.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
REO Speedwagon – Roll With the Changes
An evening pause: A 1978 music video.
Hat tip Blair Ivey, who notes “The lyrics suggest a man asking a woman to leave her current relationship,
but the metaphor could be extended to the nascent ‘What the heck are you doing to my country?!!'”
Inside a Mellotron M400 and how it works
An evening pause: A very strange instrument from the 1970s whose keys play strips of magnetic audio tape for each note. You can listen to a performance of “Nights in White Satin” on a Mellotron here. This is definitely a sound from the 1970s, used in many songs of that time.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Leanne Morgan – When You Go To Concerts With Old People
An evening pause: A warning: If you are younger than sixty, this describes your future, whether you want to believe it or not.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Phil Collins – Two hearts
Busby Berkeley – By a Waterfall
An evening pause: From the 1933 Hollywood musical, Footlight Parade, one of Berkeley’s most spectacular overhead dance numbers. Remember, no CGI. These are real women performing this number.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
James Brown & Luciano Pavarotti – It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World
Justin Johnson – Ghost of the Mountain
Steve Ibsen – The Kitty Cat Dance
An evening pause: I posted this as an evening pause a dozen years ago. Diane found it again and said it must be posted again. I agree. It is absurdly silly but I guarantee that once you watch you will never forget it. It also appears, from the comments on the youtube page, that young children — who understand the importance of silly — like it especially.
Dusty Henricksen’s snowboard run in 2020 U.S. Open
A evening pause: Let’s go downhill fast again, but in an entirely different manner.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Tina Turner – Proud Mary
An evening pause: Performed live during her 1996-1997 Wildest Dreams tour. May she rest in peace.
Hat tip Rex Ridenoure.
Jethro Tull – For Michael Collins Jeffrey and Me
A evening pause: This song seems fitting on this, the anniversary of the day Neil Armstrong took the first human step on the Moon. The song however honors Mike Collins, who remained in orbit on Columbia, never to touch the surface of the Moon itself.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
FanTECHstic – How Reese’s PB Cups Are Made
Priscilla Ahn – The Boobs Song
Graham Mackenzie – Josh’s Jigs
Fatoumata Diawara – Nterini
An evening pause: Diawara grew up in Mali but at eighteen went to France to become an actor and performer.
Hat tip to Tom Donohue, who correctly adds, “Interesting mix of music cultures.”
Chase Hiller – Skateboarding down a mountain in Columbia
An evening pause: For the weekend, some recreational activity. There are two or three cuts, but in general he makes the whole run non-stop. If you want to get your palms sweating play some of this at 2x normal speed. The location is in San Felix, Columbia.
Hat tip Tom Wilson.
The Turtles – Happy Together
Elaine Paige – Memory
An evening pause: From Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway musical Cats, based on poems by T.S. Eliot.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Top Secret Corp Band vs Royal Marines Corp Band
An evening pause: This is called a battle of the drum bands, but in truth this particular performance demonstrates their ability to merge their talents into one grand show.
Hat tip Phil Berardelli.
Otta orchestra – Shades of Red
An evening pause: Performed live 2022 during an all-Russian musical ethnic festival.
Hat tip Judd Clark.