A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: On this day, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, we must remember all those who died to keep us free. Or as one of the memorials shown in the video says, “We mark the price of freedom.”
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: From 1967. If this doesn’t scream “The Sixties” I don’t know what does.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: May they both rest in peace.
Make sure you watch the guitarist in the background near the end, shaking his head in disbelief at what he is hearing.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
An evening pause: I especially find the mixture of human labor and machinery here fascinating.
And what better to watch as we enter the holiday season then the making of wine barrels?
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
An evening pause: Recorded live on television in 1952.
Hat tip Edward Thelen, who is making the effort to find videos on alternative venues from youtube.
An evening pause: Does this make you hungry? It should also make you want to give thanks.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: From the 1985 film, Witness.
Collective action can be a great thing, as long as it is done voluntarily and with good will. Makes a good introduction to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: From the youtube website:
The Atacama desert is home to the darkest and cleanest skies in the world. …The environment is harsh though. Filmed in freezing temperatures, altitudes up to 5000m/16000ft, salt lakes and icy slopes, the Atacama is not friendly to life and equipment.
Hat tip Willi Kusche.
An evening pause: Performed live on television in 1966. This was Haggard’s first #1 hit.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: Beautiful, and the sentiment is right. I do however wonder in this song whom she is referring to with the pronoun “they,” and if she thought about this with any depth.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Something a bit different, and very fascinating if you want to understand the sophistication of some classic rock.
Hat tip Dan Covert.
An evening pause: I don’t know why, but somehow I think this is appropriate for election day.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: In honor of tomorrow’s election day, I bring you Gil Fulbright.
And as Robert Heinlein wrote, “We laugh because it hurts.”
An evening pause: From the 1958 movie of the great Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, South Pacific.
I first saw this movie as a child when I was around five years old. I didn’t understand the story really, and was especially puzzled by some lyrics, especially because my young mind took them very literally. (Just consider “I’m going wash that man right out of my hair!”)
What I do remember was that this song became one of my favorites throughout my early childhood. In hearing it recently again, I was struck by something I clearly remember, from that childhood. The song is about the draw of love and desire, which is what Bali Ha’i partly represents. However, Hammerstein’s lyrics refer to more, to the greater magic hidden in life everywhere, the mystery that lies behind the black, you might say. It is a theme he repeated in many of the songs he wrote for Richard Rodgers..
What struck me now was how I clearly remember, as a child of five, being very aware of this second somewhat sophisticated meaning. At first I was a little surprised that a child of five could comprehend such concepts, but then as Wordsworth wrote,
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
and not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
As a child I knew nothing of the sexual draw of Bali Ha’i, but I understood its mystical nature quite naturally. I have since spent my life trying to hold onto those “clouds of glory,” because they help connect us better to the enigma that is existence.
This version uses Juanita Hall’s own voice, from an earlier recording. For the movie they dubbed her singing because Rodgers no longer thought her aging voice sounded right.
An evening pause: Halloween might have been yesterday, but it deserves a song as well as a short film.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Read by Tom O’Bedlam. Listen close, and you will understand why this poem came after a dream induced by taking opium. Most fitting, the day before Halloween.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: As described on the website, this was an “individual ‘freestyle clogging’ exhibition by the Green Grass Cloggers with old time string band music by Strictly Strings from Boone, North Carolina.’
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
