Michael Nesmith – Joanne
An evening pause: Performed live 1992. For my young readers, Nesmith was one of the Monkees, but was also a successful songwriter and performer in his own right.
Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Les Paul & Mary Ford – There’s no place like home
An evening pause: From the youtube page:
Les and Mary perform “There’s No Place Like Home” with some classic add libbing, especially from Les. Mary Ford was a fine guitarist in her own right and that fact is ably demonstrated here. Watch for when Les goes wild and breaks his high E string. Mary is about to punish him when… Well, watch the video. And, dig those gorgeous 1952 Gibson Les Paul guitars, heavily customized by the master himself. Trivia: Les shattered and almost lost his right arm in a 1948 car crash. Les had the doctors set his elbow at an angle so he could still play guitar but he could never again fully extend his right arm.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Oasis – Don’t Look Back in Anger
Umbilical Brothers – The Flat
Robots playing soccer
An evening pause: This is a clip from a robot competition in 2019 of what are called “kidsized” robots. Short but entertaining, especially because it demonstrates the relative stupidity and slow incompetence of state-of-the-art robots. Future versions might someday get to the level of Terminator, but these robots show that we are fortunately nowhere that close today.
Hat tip Roland.
Natalie Merchant – Wonder
Camille and Kennerly – Metallica’s “One”
An evening pause: Very nice cover, with both women playing on the same harp. Note however that this is not live, nor are the visuals from a single performance. It appears to me that the players recorded the song in a studio, then shot themselves performing it several times at different angles. Later they edited those visuals to match the studio taping.
No matter. Very well done, and quite hypnotic.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
John Ford’s The Searchers
An evening pause: A very detailed look at some of the behind-the-scenes history for one of John Ford’s best westerns, The Searchers (1956), starring John Wayne.
This isn’t my favorite Ford film. I prefer My Darling Clementine (1946). Nonetheless, The Searchers is still one of the best, and this short documentary will also give you a feel for the actual American culture of the time, a culture that cared about the truth and tried to treat people with respect.
If you want to watch but save time, you can set the playing speed at 2X normal and understand everything completely.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Larkin Poe – Black Betty
Peter Frampton – Do You Feel Like We Do
The Highwaymen – Highwayman
An evening pause: In memory of the many ordinary and great people who worked and will work hard to build good things, now and into the future.
Hat tip Cotour.
Three Dog Night – Eli’s Coming
Luna Lee – Sultans Of Swing
An evening pause: I think I like this version of this Dire Straights song best of all, as played on the gayageum.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Puddles Pity Party – Stairway To Gilligan’s Island
An evening pause: A very silly but quite entertaining cross-breed between the opening theme to Gilligan’s Island and Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
The History Guy – Dandelions and Civilization
A evening pause: Some forgotten history worth learning. Might even make you want to try the plant in your next salad.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Radiohead – Creep
Foster Brooks Roasts Don Rickles
An evening pause: For my younger readers, Foster Brooks’s comedy was based on his amazing ability to play a funny drunk. And he did it when Americans still could laugh at this stuff and knew there was no reason to get outraged.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Billy Preston – Will It Go Round In Circles
The view from the cockpit
An evening pause: This short video shows us what it is like for the pilot and co-pilot as they prepare for departure from Frankfurt, Germany, on a cargo flight to Africa and beyond. Note that even though the crew is German and the airport is German, all communications with the control tower are in English. Note also that their altitude is recorded in feet, not meters. The American big lead in the commercial airline industry in the first half of the 20th century allowed it to set the standards, including the use of feet and English in these matters.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
The Who – You Better You Bet
John Downer Productions – Half a billion monarch butterflies
The Bee Gees – Jive Talkin’
The Mash Report – Northerner terrifies Londoners by saying “Hello”
An evening pause: Nice comedy piece, based on far more truth than it could possibly imagine, performed as it were in I think 2017.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
The Association – Cherish
Salut Salon – Competitive Foursome
An evening pause: This makes a great bookend to yesterday’s evening pause. And yes, they are having as much fun playing as the musicians yesterday.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
2CELLOS – Mombasa
An evening pause: 2CELLOS is Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser. This was performed live in Tokyo in July 2015. And boy, were they all having fun doing it.
Hat tip David Eastman.
Luke Aikins – Sky diving without a parachute from 25,000 Feet
Ivashka and Baba-Yaga
A evening pause: An entertaining animated cartoon from Soviet Russia, 1938. It subconsciously reveals much about Russia’s rough society of that time between the world wars. Even in the 1930s Russia was still largely an illiterate peasant culture, less than three generations since the freeing of the serfs and now ruled by Stalin and the communists with an iron hand.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
An evening pause: A short seven minute tour of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
You will never see a museum in this manner. And as they go by, how many of these flying vehicles can you name?
Hat tip David Eastman.
Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)
An evening pause: This cover of Johnson’s song is by someone who for some reason doesn’t give his name on his youtube page. Blind Willie Johnson was a gospel singer from the 1920s who had been blinded as a child. If you want to hear him performing his magnificent guitar piece go here. There are no visuals, sadly, which is why I choose this cover, as it is I think important to see the playing to understand how brilliant the piece is.
Hat tip Mike Nelson, who in noting that Johnson’s recorded performance was one of the pieces of music included on the Voyager spacecraft the U.S. sent beyond the solar system, asks, “Is this the behavior of a “systemically” racist society?”