A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: From the 1944 Humphrey Bogart film To Have and Have Not, which was also Lauren Bacall’s unbelievably spectacular screen debut. “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: Getting hit in the face with a pie had once been a running gag in many Hollywood comedies, beginning in the silent era but continued repeatedly in movies for decades. This scene, from the 1965 film The Great Race could be one of the last. It surely wins for the most pies ever thrown.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: He starts out by very carefully placing a score before him on his stand, but then never opens or looks at it during the entire performance. Instead, he plays the whole thing from memory, wielding his mandolin as if it is part of him. And he and the entire group is clearly having a great deal of fun doing it.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: As we sit in the depths of the summer, this song about of all things roadkill somehow seems fitting to me.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
An evening pause: I know very little about opera, having never been much of a fan, but I must admit that the old woman’s song here is most intriguing, and seems to lay the foundation for a good tale.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: I think we all would benefit, especially America’s Democrats, if we took this song as some solid advice.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: This song seems fitting considering the fake Russian indictments by Mueller and the kerfuffle over the Trump-Putin press conference during their summit, all of which have been as silly as this song.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: A translation of the song, by the songwriter, can be found here.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: Originally written for a film that was never made, this song speaks to the emotion of every parent, watching their child asleep.
Oh, hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us
And black are the waters that sparkled so green
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between
Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow
Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee
Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas
Asleep in the arms
Of the slow swinging seas
Whitacre is the conductor in this performance by Junges Vokalensemble Hannover.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: I would not be surprised if some of the younger readers of Behind the Black would need the instructions in this silent film in order to properly use a rotary phone.
Introducing any new technology requires instruction. This was strange stuff to homeowners in 1927, but a great improvement over party line phones that required an operator to do the dialing. And this was cutting edge then, and a symbol of the future.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: Recorded in 1988 as part of an album and DVD entitled In Session that was released in 2012, about the time that Alzheimer’s Disease was ending Campbell’s career.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: As John Adams predicted right after ratification of the Declaration of Independence, Independence Day “…ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”
It was a declaration for freedom. And even if freedom dies here in this country, the idea will live on, as long as the individual soul of any human beats strong.
As an aside, check out this old post, before I moved to Arizona, when I used to participate on a fireworks team.
Hat tip Willi Kusche.
An evening pause: Don’t ask me to explain. The youtube website is in spanish, but it sure seems to be some wild finale performed at the end of the school year, performed with only the kind of energy teenagers can bring to it.
And the teacher in the lead ain’t bad either.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
