A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who rightly added, “No clue what this means, but I’m certain the student animators had fun making it.”
Fun to watch too. They might have done it on a computer, but it sure has the feel of hand-drawn animation.
An evening pause: I know I’ve posted this song more than a few times previously, but this version is truly unique. I had even posted it previously, back in 2012. More than enough time however has passed, so I think it okay to show it again. As I noted then, “A very talented actor once told me that a great deal of all comedy is based on contrast, on juxtaposing extreme opposites in unexpected ways.”
This does that quite well I think.
Hat tip Frank Kelly.
An evening pause: This 9-minute documentary, made in 1952 by Bell Labs, provides a short and clear history of the transistor as well as its predecessor, the vacuum tube. It also tries to imagine the future that such a new invention might bring. As the youtube page notes,
While The Transistor’s vision of the future seems somewhat quaint in retrospect, it captures a moment in time before the transistor became ubiquitous; a time when Bell Labs wanted the world to know that something important had occurred, something that was about to bring tremendous change to everyone’s daily lives.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: It seems a lot of people took Evans singing in the center and did their own piece, singing along with him. This video puts many of them together. You can see the full list on the youtube page.
Hat tip Tom Donahue.
An evening pause: Russian-made, and filled with Russian fantasies and reality. Can you tell which is which?
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
An evening pause: The original is by Beethoven. The interpretation is American Boogie Woogie.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: This live performance is from 1999. The song was a hit in 1966.
Hat tip Roland.
I am in need of evening pause suggestions. Those that have suggested before know the routine. Those that haven’t should note their interest in participating in the comments here, and I will contact you with the guidelines. Do not post your suggestion here however.
An evening pause: Long time cavers are very familiar with the carbide lamp, as it was used routinely until around 1998, when LED lights arrived and finally superseded it.
Until then, the advantage of a carbide light was the quality of the light it produced, a soft bright glow rather than the harsh reflective rings produced by older electric lights.
The disadvantage however was the endless fiddling required to keep them working. For example, near the end of this video when he finally gets the light to work, he turns up the water flow to brighten the light. I guarantee that very soon the light would go out, as he was flooding the carbide. The water drip had to be precisely right. Too slow and not enough gas. Too fast and too much water.
I personally hated carbide lights because of that fiddling, especially because lamps made after 1970 were junk and didn’t work well. Most cavers who used carbide would scour yard sales to find old lights like this one, as older carbide lamps were made well and would work reliably.
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
An evening pause: Forgive the television artifacts in the video. Recorded live in 1982.
Hat tip Roland.
An evening pause: Performed live 2016.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
NOTE: Youtube will not allow me to embed this video. Click on the picture, and then click on the link to go to youtube where you can watch it.
An evening pause: This battle between an inventive physicist and an even more determined squirrel does raise the question, who really is smarter?
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: The future?
Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who added, “What is our responsibility to our devices when they become self-aware? And what will be our responsibility to each other?
An evening pause: Yes Minister was a British comedy show set within the halls of Parliament. In the past year I have posted a number of clips from the show (here, here, here and here) that illustrate how truthfully it skewed the political class.
Today we have a skit with two of the show’s stars performing with the actual prime minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher. She clearly understood the truthful humor of the show, as she explained once during an interview.
Hat tip Andrew Worth.
An evening pause: A cute little animated film about what we may find in our search of the heavens.
Hat tip Gary McDaniel.
An evening pause: Seems somehow right for the start of a new year. Enthusiastic and hopeful, as much of American music of the past was.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: This mix was apparently put together just after 9/11, and includes many of the most iconic sound-bites from the 20th century. One of the last lines however must speak to the new 21st century, as it appears many Americans have forgotten what it means to be an American.
“We’re not gonna be stopped! We’re not gonna be deterred! We’re not gonna stay at home! We’re not gonna be afraid!
“We’re gonna live our lives as Americans!”
God bless. Let us work to return freedom to America in 2021.
An afternoon pause: To all my readers, supporters, and even those who disagree with me, may you all have a much better year in 2021 than you did in 2020.
With good will and hope for the future, Happy New Year!
An evening pause: I have never been a fan of opera, but this piece by Verdi is truly beautiful and fun to watch.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who also notes its opulence.
