A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: It is more than a decade since I last posted this magnificent piece of music from the 1972 John Wayne film, The Cowboys. Time to post it again, because I think it makes a great start to a new year. Rather than John Williams conducting, this time we have a 2018 performance by the Stanisław Moniuszko School of Music Orchestra in Bielsko Biała, Poland, Andrzej Kucybała, conductor.
A evening pause: This silliness is perfect as we head into the New Year’s eve weekend.
Note: He was anticipating a Michigan victory in the Rose Bowl, which wouldn’t happen until the next day. Unfortunately, Michigan lost.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: The studio this was recorded in was once a church, and that apparently gave Hart some extra inspiration.
Hat tip John Jossy.
An evening pause: The guitar playing is great, but if this is supposed to be a demonstration of the abilities of self-driving cars, to me it is a utter failure. The drive was on a test track, with no other cars. The car itself was probably never going faster than 25 miles per hour.
In fact, if anything this proves the impracticality of self-driving cars. Such technology might work in a completely controlled environment, but as soon as you add any random human element, it can’t work. Thus our options: we continue to drive ourselves, or we give up our freedom to drive so that all vehicles can be autonomous.
But as I say, the guitar playing is great.
Hat tip Wayne Devette.
An evening pause: A truly talented singer who has sometimes been her own worst enemy.
Hat tip Wayne Devette.
An evening pause: In English this is better known as “Jesu joy of man’s desiring.” Nick Deutsch is on the oboe and Alexander Hamilton is on the organ.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: From their 1967 Christmas show. More information here.
An evening pause: The performers are obviously Russian, but they provide no English version of their name.
An evening pause: Performed live on television 2013, with the help of Trisha Yearwood and Reba McEntire.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
An evening pause: This was first posted in February 2019. I think it bears repeating this Christmas season. 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.
An evening pause: A Spanish Christmas song, with some English lyrics, sung in Germany. Makes for a good start to this Christmas week.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
An evening pause: Performed live 2020, probably early in the year before the Wuhan panic struck.
Hat tip Tom Wilson.
An evening pause: There are endless and wonderful ways to make a living. This is just another example.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: This music by Philip Glass, seems quite appropriate for December.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
An evening pause: Apparently it took two years to make this video, painting the house along the way. More information here.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: For tonight, the anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, I think this documentary created by Frank Capra for the U.S. government in 1943 is most appropriate.
Though created to rally Americans to the war effort, the film is not propaganda. It is a remarkably accurate telling of the history leading up to Pearl Harbor in detailing how Hitler was able to gain control of almost all of Europe, through lies, force, and the weak-kneed opposition of his opponents. Only with Soviet Russia and its secret pact with Germany to divide up Poland does the film fail to tell the facts thoroughly, but here it fails by omission, not lies. In the end, however, it is accurate, because the Soviet Union’s pact, intended to bring it security from German invasion, failed. Hitler had lied once again, and the U.S.S.R. became only another victim of his greed for power.
It is worthwhile for Americans to watch it now, because the same lies and greed for power is eating away at our own country from within. Any honest open-minded viewing of this mid-20th century history cannot help but see the parallels.
I should add that Capra knew how to make movies, and he made sure this history was told in a riveting and compelling manner. You will not be bored.
An evening pause: Performed live November 29th 2013 at the Lutheran Church, The Hague. There is something hypnotic about this. Watch and try to distinguish the different melodic lines produced by his feet vs his fingers.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: Best to play this with the captions on, considering the thick accents. As noted on the youtube webpage:
Andy Crow is clearing the barn of straw which has become home to lots and lots of rats – and he wants them off the farmyard. As a final effort to get rid of as many as possible Andy has enrolled the help of a couple of terriers, a lurcher and a lab/springer cross. As he moves the bales the dogs and sticks start flying.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: The producers of this video, VideosRecordedLive, describe this as music used as the theme for the television show, Mad Men, to which they added lyrics from a Nat King Cole song. However, Annie Haslam performed this song with these lyrics as far back as 1997.
No matter. They do a beautiful job.
Hat tip Wayne Devette.
An evening pause: This is not a complete list, as it leaves out some very deep caves and mines that I myself have actually visited, but it truly does provide a sense of scale. It also mixes artificial structures with natural features.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: This pause is my apology for forgetting to schedule something tonight. Pauses shall resume as normal tomorrow.
An evening pause: A brilliant simple cover of the Leonard Cohen song. Seems right to start the holiday season, right after Thanksgiving.
Hat tip Dan Morris.
An evening pause: As Linus most correctly notes, “Ours is the first country in the world to make a national holiday to give thanks,” and then adds, in saying grace before the dinner:
In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of its brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain Miles Standish were honored guests. Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: “We thank God for our homes and our food, and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice.”
Accurate and well put. Keep Brewster’s prayer in mind the next time someone tries to slander the U.S.
