Bill Bailey – Duelling Sitars
An evening pause: We could also call this Hollywood vs Bollywood, the West vs the East, America vs India.
Or we could simply say it is a wonderful example of how music can transcend culture.
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers – Jumpin Jive
An evening pause: The dancing here is as good if not better than anything you will see in an Astaire & Rogers movie.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar.
The Game Of Thrones Theme Song
An evening pause: Don’t ask me, I’ve never seen the show, but the guitar work here is fun to watch.
Hat tip Cotour.
Foster & Allen – After All These Years
Shoe Salesman
An evening pause: From the Carol Burnett Show, a skit staring Don Rickles, Nanette Fabray, and Harvey Corman.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Movimiento 7 – Song of Sea Exile
An evening pause: I really have no idea who is performing this, as the Vimeo link provided no information. Web searches also came up dry. I couldn’t even find the lyrics.
Nonetheless, it is beautiful, and worth more than one listen.
UPDATE: I have finally located a description of this work of art. It is called The Wound in the Water,
music by Kim André Arneson (2016); libretto by Euan Tait (August 2015). This is from part 2, “The cry of the exile” and is called “Song of the Sea Exile.” The lyrics:
I, the exile,
my heart burning,
my lost life
a terrible fire,
songs of loved ones
crying all around me.
Oh endless,
endless home, the sea.
Oh my missing,
I am listening,
yet your silence
cannot answer me.
There, we left
our singing unfinished,
and our lives now
fall into the endless sea.
This the broken
gift of love:
the exile calls,
remembered names.
What you were
scorched on me,
your wounded names
sung to the endless sea.
Waves like voices
roar around you:
we’re not silenced,
but cry out like the
sea.
Your anger,fiery, living
is like love
that bleeds
like the endless sea.
Oh our exile,
torn by love,
singing words
you can no longer sing,
where’s the shores,
the harbour, the horizon,
wanderer,
calling to the endless sea
calling to the endless sea?
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Downey To Lubbock
Pomplamoose – Can’t Stop Feeling Billie Jean’s Face
Tim Conway & Dean Martin – Old Man in diner
An evening pause: The sad part is that there is a cut in the middle, which I think suggests they were forced to delete some really funny but probably risque stuff that was unacceptable for television.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Leroy Troy – Ghost Chickens In The Sky
Dylan Elise – Drum solo
An evening pause: Stay with it. The first half is good, but it is merely an appetizer for the second half.
Hat tip Rex Ridenoure from Ecliptic Enterprises, who says of this clip, “This video went viral, and he’s now the drummer for the Blood, Sweat and Tears band and seeing the world.”
Anastasia Tyurina – Valenki
An evening pause: She was seven when this was performed live in Moscow on September 13, 2018.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar.
Lang Lang & Mark Guiliana – Why Bartók Rocks
Jim Radford – The Shores of Normandy
An evening pause: I know this is late for the anniversary of D-Day, but I think it actually expresses well the same determination that made it possible for Americans to go to the Moon. Those men at Normandy, as well as in Apollo, stood for freedom, to paraphrase John Kennedy. And they were willing to die to make sure their friends, families, and nation remained free.
What do you stand for?
Hat tip commodude.
Max Vandervorst & Marc Hérouet – Music for abandoned objects
An evening pause: The first is amazingly beautiful, the last especially silly.
Hat tip Diane Wilson.
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Fly Me Off the Händel
An evening pause: It’s been awhile since this group has been an evening pause. And here they do it all, at once.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Smarter Every Day – Where does NASA keep the Moon Rocks?
July 24, 1969: Apollo 11 splashdown
An evening pause: “…and returning him safely to Earth.”
Splashdown from the perspective of the frogmen. Stay with it, as they show every detail, including the recovery of the capsule after the astronauts are already on board the aircraft carrier.
July 20, 1969: “We came in peace for all mankind.”
An evening pause: In honor of the fiftieth anniversary.
The astronauts plant the American flag, after they had unveiled a plaque on the lunar module with the words, “We came in peace for all mankind.”
This was an American achievement, accomplished because our free and competitive society gave us the resources and trained talent to make it happen. We did it for all mankind, in good will, but we did it, no one else.
It is time that we as well as everyone else do it again.
July 20, 1969: “One small step…”
An evening pause: In honor of the fiftieth anniversary.
Neil Armstrong takes the first steps on the Moon. Note his focus is almost entirely on describing what he sees and experiences. He is doing this for two reasons, first to provide knowledge of the Moon to the world, and second to provide engineers as much information as possible for future missions.
This focus explains why the first thing he does is to get a contingency rock sample, just in case they need to leave the Moon quickly.
Note also that when Buzz Aldrin joins Armstrong on the surface, he is as professional and calm, proving that the way he has been portrayed by some recent movies as as undisciplined jerk is simply a slander. He would not have been picked for this mission if he really behaved that way.
He wanted to be the first, and lobbied to get that chance. After the decision was made he got down to work to make the mission a success.
For a different view of these same events, watch this video.
July 20, 1969: “The Eagle has landed”
An evening pause: In honor of the fiftieth anniversary.
Note the calm tone in all the voices, even when something is not quite right. To do really great things, one must not let one’s emotions run the show. You need to be cool-headed and focused on the task at at hand. If only today’s adult generation, especially in the world of politics, would do the same.
Just before Armstrong brings Eagle down, you will hear a voice say “60 seconds,” then “30 seconds.” That is mission control telling him how much time they estimate he has before he runs out of fuel.
Below the fold is the same last few minutes of the landing, produced by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) science team using its high resolution images to recreate a simulation of what Armstrong saw in his window. Remember, the view in the original 16mm film was out Aldrin’s window.
Eagle undocks, Apollo 11, July 20, 1969
An evening pause: In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11, today’s evening pause shows the moment when the lunar module Eagle undocked from the command module Columbia. Though this video includes communications with mission control at the start, the actual undocking occurred on the back side of the moon, when the astronauts were out of touch with the Earth.
Near the end of the video, after they have reacquired communications with the ground, you can hear a recitation of a long string of numbers. This is mission control providing the astronauts the numbers that had to be uploaded into their onboard computer so that it could correctly fire the spacecraft engines at the right time and for the right duration.
Apollo 11 astronaut telecast, July 17, 1969
Apollo 11 First Stage liftoff
An evening pause: This was originally posted as an evening pause in 2016. I think that today, the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, it is appropriate to repost it. As I wrote then,
Though the video is more than 8 minutes long, the actual events recorded lasted only about 30 seconds, beginning 5 seconds before T minus 0.
What struck me most as I watched this was the incredible amount of complex engineering that went into every single small detail of the rocket and the launch tower and launchpad. We tend to take for granted the difficulty of rocket engineering. This video will make you appreciate it again.
It is also mesmerizing. A lot happens in a very short period of time.
Tonight’s evening pause begins eight days of pauses dedicated to celebrating, and reliving, the Apollo 11 mission. To the Moon!
Mew & Copenhagen Philharmonic – Comforting Sounds
An evening pause: Hat tip Danae, who noted that this “represents the mindset of a large segment of contemporary youth: enervated, alienated, effete victims of Life and Everyone Else.”
Robert Houdin – Joueuse de Tympanon
John Farnham – You’re the Voice
Keiko Matsui – Whisper from the Mirror
An evening pause: Contrast her firm style of playing with the relaxed style of Valentina Lisitsa here. Both play great, but do it in such different ways.
Hat tip Rex Ridenoure from Ecliptic Enterprises.
NEC Jazz Orchestra – Maharajah of Magador
Aliaksei Zholner – Paper Piano
An evening pause: Humans can make anything out of anything. From the youtube website:
The model is completely made of paper and cardboard….Strings are made of paper strips, tension mechanism is like one in guitar, using worm-gear (worm is made of paper, gears – from cardboard). Soundboard is combined with stiffness frame and made of 2.5mm cardboard enforced with stiffening ribs. Hammers – from paper and cardboard, dampers – from rolled up paper napkin, keys – from paper. Body is made of cardboard and painted.
Hat tip Martin Kaselis.