A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: The music is the Flower Duet from the opera Lakme by Léo Delibes. Tomorrow’s evening pause will be a magnificent short documentary about this man and how he came to kite flying. And I wonder if you can guess what he had done for a living.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: From the movie Topsy-Turvy (2000), Shirley Henderson, Dorothy Atkinson and Cathy Sara singing. The movie is about the creation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado. Not surprisingly, the best scenes in the movie are the scenes where they perform songs from the operetta, such as this 2010 evening pause.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: I usually dislike most music videos because of their cliches and fakery, preferring live performances instead. However, this 1967 Nancy Sinatra music video, from the very early days of such things, is so simple it doesn’t bother me that much. In a sense, it even highlights the music.
Hat tip t-dub.
An evening pause: Hat tip Sayomara. This pause is slightly different, and is really two-for-one. The background music is Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” but the visuals are of SpaceX’s future spaceport site at Boca Chica beach near Brownsville, Texas. Apparently someone used a drone to fly over the site and videotaped it. As Sayomara noted, this “shows how far away this site is from being usable.”
An evening pause: Performed during a wedding reception, December 2012, in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who wrote, “Pietro Mascagni’s ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ is often translated as ‘Country Ways.’ His opera departed from those of his day in that his characters were not of the nobility. He portrayed the lives and struggles of ordinary people. The performance is by the Gaetano Donizetti Symphonic Orchestra of Gessate and conducted by Pierangelo Pelucchi.”
An evening pause: As I have said before, it is very important to be silly once in awhile.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: As I return from Israel and the Middle East, this piece somehow seems appropriate, played on the Sumerian long-neck “gishgudi.”
Hat tip Sayomara.
An evening pause: I would never sit through a performance of the music played during this 1949 short film showing the power of the steam locomotive. Juxtapositioned with the powerful images of the train in motion, however, this music works splendidly. The film itself is an example of the kind of short avant garde films produced during the 1950s and 1950s, and well worth watching.
Hat tip Blair Ivey.
An evening pause: The song is Tom Waits, and is performed as part of a show put on by the group, Lady Sings it Better.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: This recreation attempts to recapture the reality of how Lincoln himself might have said the speech. Listen to the words, however. This is no pandering speech, as we routinely see today. It is hard, muscled, and honest, bluntly recognizing that all, from both sides of the Civil War, must pay for the scourge of slavery.
It is fitting to watch it today, on the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: From the really evocative science fiction film Dark City (1998). The film ain’t perfect, but it sticks with you long after you see it.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: This short Israeli film seems pertinent as I leave for Israel again to visit family. The film was made before 2012, and attempts to portray a moment in the future.
When I first scheduled this, I suggested that people make sure they read the analysis at the youtube website. Youtube however has terminated this filmmaker’s account. I wonder why. Could it be because some from the Islamic world complained? Could it be that some within the google/youtube world didn’t like its message?
The video is still on youtube, however, posted by others. Freedom lives, even as some try to squelch it.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: The song’s sentiment, that one should speak with care, I endorse heartily. One should always have the right, however, to say harsh things, if only because sometimes harsh things must be said. It is a shame that too many people in today’s culture think instead that they have the right to preemptively silence such speech, because it might offend someone.
Hat tip Joe Griffin.
An evening pause: My, does he enjoy what he is doing. From a 1960s television appearance.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: Performed on televsion, 1956.
Hat tip Edward Thelen, who added, “per LocalFluff’s request.”
An evening pause: I like this verse, which they reprised, with the chorus, which all people should echo.
When Britain first, at Heaven’s command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: The song has two parts, Your move, followed by All Good People. This performance was performed live in 2004, was entirely acoustic, and was filmed live before a studio audience and transmitted live to 25 theaters throughout the United States.
Hat tip Frank Kelly.
<An evening pause: Performed on Sha Na Na’s television show, that aired from 1977 to 1981.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
An evening pause: More evidence that a good future is possible. All it takes is freedom and a determination to fulfill a need.
Hat tip Gene Shipp.
An evening pause: For tomorrow. I think this is information every car owner should have. Make sure you watch to the very end.
An evening pause: The video focuses on a shuttle launch, but I think the words apply to all launches, and especially to those that break new ground.
Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife
Technology…high, on the leading edge of life
Hat tip Commodude.
