A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: In anticipation of the anniversary Monday of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, this story of one of World War II’s many desperate and sometimes crazy ideas, many of which actually made sense. All took amazing courage, as this story illustrates.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: The musical talent and passion are both outstanding. The shallow philosophy, when compared to Aristotle or Plato or Moses (to list only a few), is kind of sad to watch. She really believes that life is that simple. As a child such shallow passion is fine. I fear however that in the arriving dark age no one will ever do anything to make her think more deeply.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
An evening pause: She plays the same Bach piece on three different cellos, valued respectively at $5,000, $180,000, and a $1 million. Can you tell any difference, and if so, which do you like the best?
Hat tip Phill Oltman.
An evening pause: If you don’t like the cold, or have a fear of heights, then this video is your best way for seeing the natural wonders of Norway.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
An evening pause: I posted this short film back on July 4, 2019 to celebrate what America stood for. Today I post it on Thanksgiving to remind this increasingly oppressed nation what we should want, and be thankful for. If you replace the religious bigotry condemned in this movie with that of today’s political bigotry, the differences vanish. My intro from that July 4th evening pause,
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[T]he news is filled with depressing outrages from ignorant social justice warriors who have no knowledge at all about the just and noble roots that founded the United States, I think it necessary to post this magnificent song performed by Frank Sinatra.
Written and produced in 1945, as World War II was ending, the short film tried to encapsulate in one short song the true meaning of the American experiment. This version below includes the lead-in scene to show the context for the song, as sung in the film. Some might find that opening overly preachy, but in the context of World War II and the recent discovery then of the Nazi death camps, it is heartfelt, real, and quite accurate. Please watch it all, and recognize this is what the United States — now being condemned routinely by leftist hate-mongers — is really about.
The song begins by asking, “What is America to me?” It answers it clearly in the final verse:
The town I live in
The street, the house, the room
The pavement of the city
Or a garden all in bloom
The church, the school, the clubhouse
The million lights I see
But especially the people
that’s American to me. [emphasis mine]
And that means all the people, not just those who agree with you.
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An evening pause: Some funny silliness from the silent movie era. And if you don’t know who Buster Keaton was, it is time you found out.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: This will not mean anything to my younger readers, but this song and commercial seared itself into the brains of everyone who went to the movies or watched television in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. The first version, shown here, was produced by Disney for the United Fruit Company.
I can think of no reason not to sear this song into some new generations.
Hat tip David Nudelman.
An evening pause: Another guitar piece, but of a very different kind from yesterday’s.
Hat tip Mike Nelson. Note also that this pause was taken from Rumble, an alternative to Youtube. I encourage those who wish to suggest evening pauses to always see if they can find something there first. Reliance solely on Youtube is not healthy, and the competition will do everyone good.
An evening pause: I think the band is named Midlife Jazzband, and they are playing the named songs. The website is unclear however and I could have some of it backwards. No matter.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: As the youtube webpage notes, “This is not an acoustic recording. This is a recording obtained by piano roll.”
Rolls for the reproducing piano were generally made from the recorded performances of famous musicians. Typically, a pianist would sit at a specially designed recording piano, and the pitch and duration of any notes played would be either marked or perforated on a blank roll, together with the duration of the sustaining and soft pedal. Reproducing pianos can also re-create the dynamics of a pianist’s performance by means of specially encoded control perforations placed towards the edges of a music roll, but this coding was never recorded automatically. Different companies had different ways of notating dynamics, some technically advanced (though not necessarily more effective), some secret, and some dependent entirely on a recording producer’s handwritten notes, but in all cases these dynamic hieroglyphics had to be skillfully converted into the specialized perforated codes needed by the different types of instrument.
Thus, we are listening now to a player piano, replaying the music as Debussy played it.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: I normally don’t post two suggestions in a row from the same reader, but this particular collapsible (!) guitar contrasts too nicely with Friday’s theorbo. From the youtube webpage:
If the ability to break down and re-assemble wasn’t crazy enough, it actually STAYS IN TUNE when you put it back together, thanks to the air-tight construction techniques and locking tuners!
The song is by Johnny Cash.
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
An evening pause: The music was written in the early 1600s by G.G. Kapsberger. The instrument is called a theorbo. I posted a different performance featuring this medieval instrument in 2019, in which the instrument’s origins is described. In both cases the quality of sound is hauntingly wonderful..
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
An evening pause: For Armistice Day. The song should remind us that the shadows cast by the first World War have been long and enduring, and even a hundred years after continue to influence us, for good and ill.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who writes,
Good friends, Astrid Paster and Franziska Pauli, are Die Twinnies. This was the girls’ debut TV performance for the popular Austrian entertainment show, “Musikantenstadl.”
This was recorded in 2009. It is said the career length of a child entertainer is about the same as the lifespan of a pet. That was pretty much true for Die Twinnies. We enjoy such performances while we can.
It might be lip-synched, but so what? Fun stuff.
A evening pause: Somehow, this seems very appropriate for today, this particualar but most important election day.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
An evening pause: Today this man would likely be forbidden from doing this, regardless of its practicality. Modern military rules would be horrified at his independent action.
Hat tip lazarus long.
An evening pause: Some surfing action in Bali off of an artificial floating platform that sometimes “kicks like a snake.”
Hat tip Roland.
A bonus second evening pause: Considering some of the foolishness being imposed on free Americans by clearly stupid politicians, their minions in various government bureaucracies, and much of the mainstream media (as illustrated by tonight’s first satirical evening pause), I thought it worthwhile to post this short video, explaining the Dunning Kruger effect. I also thought it especially worthwhile to post, prior to the election.
The solution for everyone, no matter your intelligence, is to be humble, to always consider the possibility you could be wrong. Do that, and you will take the first step in recognizing when you do stupid things.
An evening pause: We find this funny because it so accurately documents the inanity and stupidity of almost all television news. And yet, so many people who would laugh at this take with complete faith the reporting on COVID-19, all of which has been as absurd and as untrustworthy.
Hat tip lazarus long.
