A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: This song is from the Broadway production of Cole Porter’s Guys & Dolls, which unfortunately got cut from the movie. It is song by an older man, a kind of father figure in the play, wishing the best for a young woman co-worker.
This version is actually the best live performance I could find, and amazingly it is from Beijing in 2017.
An evening pause: I just finished reading a book of letters written by a soldier who participated in the battle of Antietam, just south of Burnside Bridge. The irony was that Burnside spent more than a day and multiple attempts to capture the bridge, when in fact his troops could have simply walked across the creek at any point, never getting their legs wet above the knee. The soldier was Captain Wolcott Pascal Marsh, and his regiment actually forded the creek further south and advanced farther than almost anyone else in Burnside’s battalion. The book: Letters to a Civil War Bride.
Like all the Civil War battle fields, Antietam is definitely worth visiting.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: Hat tip Wayne DeVette, who adds this tidbit, “Shortly after he hit up on that song, his wife divorced him and demanded an outrageous cut of all his future earnings.”
An evening pause: From the Bowes Museum in northern England, east of the Lake District.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: Performed live 1971, before he rejected all of western civilization and became a Muslim.
Hat tip Ferris Akel.
An evening pause: Performed live in Bahrain in 2024. It shouldn’t surprise us that these Arabs play bagpipes. It is merely a reflection of the British colonial influence from the past century.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: Some fascinating technology history, worth fast forwarding through the annoying commercial in the middle.
Hat tip Willi Kusche.
A evening pause: It is July 4th, a time to celebrate not only the Declaration of Independence but the geniuses who created it. This wonderful song from the 1976 movie version of the 1972 musical, 1776 does it so perfectly. I posted it several times before, but it bears repeating because, as I said in those earlier Independence Day posts, “not only did the musical capture the essence of the men who made independency happen, it is also a rollicking and entertaining work of art.”
And as I have also said previously, “Despite the hate being spewed against America and its founding principle that all humans are created free with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that truth still shines. As John Kennedy said of himself, ourselves, and these founding fathers. ‘We stand for freedom.'”
I pray that most Americans still agree, and are willing to fight with me the growing mobs across our land who no longer do.
An evening pause: For the long weekend, some tricks you can use in your next poker night.
Hat tip Cotour, who adds, “Never play cards with strangers.”
An evening pause: Performed live on the television show The Midnight Special in 1973.
Hat tip wampyre.
An evening pause: Performed by the Orchestre National de Lyon, Jun Märkl, conductor.
And no, it wasn’t written for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was simply a good choice for the score.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
An evening pause: Performed live 2024. A great song to herald in the weekend. May all my readers find themselves dancing in the dark with their perfect lover.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: Music by Disturbed.
Hat tip to Wamphyr, who adds, “It’s fun to watch a grandmother rock out like this.”
An evening pause: For background, the Antikythera Mechanism is an archaeological artifact from ancient Greece:
The Antikythera Mechanism is the oldest known scientific computer, built in Greece at around 100 BCE. Lost for 2000 years, it was recovered from a shipwreck in 1901. But not until a century later was its purpose understood: an astronomical clock that determines the positions of celestial bodies with extraordinary precision.
Today’s pause shows how this very complex mechanism, that includes many metal gears, might have been made by hand, without electricity and our modern tools.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: Performed live c2016.
Hat tip Judd Clark, who also recommends the long and interesting essay at the youtube page describing the artistic and musical history of this piece.
An evening pause: A blues piece performed live 1994.
Hat tip Alec Gimarc, who adds that “Al Kooper was the creative force behind Blood Sweat & Tears.”
