The Key of Awesome – Somebody that I use to know parody
An evening pause: It appears that there are others who can do this also.
Hat tip Peter Fenstemacher.
Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Walk off the Earth – Somebody that I used to know
An evening pause: Nicely performed, especially as the performers were all playing the same guitar.
Hat tip James Mallamace.
Noble Sissle and his Ciro’s club dance orchestra – Little White Lies/Happy Feet
Boeing 747 brake test
An evening pause: A brake test for possibly the greatest plane ever built, and one that is now being phased out.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Scandal – Goodbye To You
An evening pause: I will think of this song whenever we see huge cuts in the federal bureaucracy.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Didn’t It Rain
Crowded House – Don’t Dream It’s Over
An evening pause: The very last song during the band’s farewell tour in 1996. The band did re-form in the 2000s, but without the drummer Paul Hester, who committed suicide in 2005.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Carrot harvester
An evening pause: Stay with this, because when you see this machine smoothly lift three rows of carrots simultaneously out of the ground your jaw will drop. Isn’t engineering amazing?
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Gustav Holst – Jupiter from The Planets
An evening pause: Holst dubbed Jupiter the bringer of Jollity. To me, the central epic theme from this movement has always evoked vastness and epic planet-sized storms, even before we really knew how epic and vast the storms on Jupiter really were.
Hat tip Danae.
The Champs – Tequila
The life of Robert Mitchum
An evening pause: While a little long for an evening pause, this half-hour documentary does a nice job of telling the surprisingly normal story of actor Robert Mitchum. What struck me most about it was how ordinary Mitchum’s life was. I’ve also seen the same thing with almost every Apollo astronaut that I have interviewed. Like most very famous people from the mid-twentieth century, they do not see themselves as particularly special. In fact, they led life with a certain humbleness, something that is hard to find today, especially among modern actors.
Hat tip Willi Kusche.
Aaron Copland – Fanfare For The Common Man
An evening pause: Performed live by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Terminal 2, Dublin Airport.
Hat tip Danae.
Daniel Boaventura & Carlos Rivera – Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (Quizás, Quizás, Quizás)
An evening pause: As I head out for a week of caving in Belize, how about a little Latin American culture? (I know Belize is actually a former British colony, but it is in the middle of Central America, so that’s close enough.)
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Pan Am Boeing 707 – 1965 Emergency Landing
An evening pause: This television news report about a 1965 near disaster where a Pan American passenger jet’s engine and wing fall off and the captain brings everything down safely is fascinating to watch, partly because of the live action footage taken by one passenger, but also at how television news has evolved since then, for the worse. This 1965 report has no shots a newsperson standing in front of the camera telling us what happened, as is typical today. Instead, the filming focuses on the events and the witnesses themselves, and lets them tell the story in as straight-forward a manner as possible.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Janet Devlin – Time After Time
An evening pause: This cover of the Cyndi Lauper is fascinating and mesmerizing, all because of the singer’s face.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Mexico’s supermarket dancing cow
George Jones – The Grand Tour
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who wrote, “Classic country music had loss, booze and infidelity as three main themes. This selection from 1974 is by George Jones, whose real-life often mirrored these classic country themes.”
The Feather King
John Paul Young – Love Is In The Air
Olivia Millerschin – Look Both Ways
Suzanne Vega – Tom’s Diner
An evening pause: I like the simplicity, as it forces you to listen to the words.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
The Warning – Enter Sandman
An evening pause: This Metallica cover was performed by Daniela on guitar (14 years old), Paulina on drums (12 years old), and Alejandra on bass guitar (9 yrs old).
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
How Differential Gear works
An evening pause: Though the first 1:50 of this very well done 1930s industrial is somewhat irrelevant and can be skipped, I think it is worth watching anyway. And the rest does a great job of explaining this mysterious piece of automobile equipment.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Educated Fish
An evening pause: I especially like the worm’s imitation of Mae West.
On a more serious note, these old animated films provide a very real window into the culture that existed in America in the 1930s. If you want to know where we are going, compare this to today’s art.
Hat tip James Mallamace.
The wit of Ronald Reagan
An evening pause: On this, the birthday of Ronald Reagan, I think it appropriate to get a taste of the man’s humility and humor in the face of the pressures of politics. If you are too young to remember him, you might want to get this short taste.
Jean Redpath – How Can I Keep from Singing
A evening pause: Performed live June 13, 1987. I think of these words whenever I am in a truly glorious place underground:
My life goes on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear it’s music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness ’round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I’m clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
Tyrone Wells – Beautiful Girl, Beautiful World
An evening pause: Make sure you watch for at least 20 seconds. You will watch the rest. As the website notes, it’s “the only thing that works every time.”
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
An evening pause: A very nice overview of the SR-71, the fastest plane ever built.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Dan Licht – Dexter Suite
An evening pause: This performance is especially interesting in its unusual use of instruments.
Hat tip Danae.
Elon Musk’s design vision
An evening pause: I’m not sure if his concept for a different way to interact with the computer is really the best way to do it, but his willingness to try something new makes it all worthwhile. There will — and have been — payoffs.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.