A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: Hat tip Judd Clark, who gives this background, “Written by Billie Holiday, who first recorded it on April 20, 1939 on the Commodore label. Performed by Billie Holiday in 1957 in a television special, The Sound of Jazz.”
An evening pause: From the youtube page: “I wanna be the best dancer in the world.”
Hat tip Tom Wilson.
An evening pause: One song from a full BBC concert from 1971. If you like it watch the whole concert, from the beginning. It is amazing how young Neil Diamond was when he did this concert.
Hat tip Rex Ridenoure.
An evening pause: Performed live in 2022 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The instruments are called Chapman Sticks.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
An evening pause: Music by Charles Barber. This comes from the 1913 silent film, Salomé, based on an Oscar Wilde play. Rarely seen, the movie represents a very early attempt to do something “edgy”. It succeeds about as well as modern “edgy” films, showing us a very shallow representation of human existence. But the visuals give us a glimpse into that early film world, when sets and costume were usually the only way to show something strange and striking.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: Using a Concorde jet in 1973 to chase the shadow for 74 minutes.
Hat tip Wayne Devette.
An evening pause: A look back at early Hollywood, and someone who was then a big star and a great comic actor but who is mostly forgotten today.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: This pause is a bit long, but you can watch it at a slightly higher speed and miss nothing. It is fascinating because of the high technology involved, combined with the work of a true craftsman.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: Some quick visual space station history. Note how almost all the non-U.S. stations are essentially assembled using revisions of the same early Soviet-era modules. Note too how the future private stations are all very different from each other. The contrast illustrates the difference between what you get when governments control everything, and when competition and freedom rule.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: I’m not sure why, but the video makers and dancers all appear to be Italian.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: Seems the perfect piece of music to herald in the first weekend of spring. This is first movement of Vivaldi’s The Seasons. Performed here by Alana Youssefian and the Voices of Music.
An evening pause: The visuals come from the 1927 German film by Fritz Lang, Metropolis, and cover the scene dubbed “Maria’s Dance.” You can see the full movie here, as well as many other places on line.
Hat tip Judd Clark, who adds, “To understand what’s going on here, one needs to see the whole movie, preferably the latest restored version, and to really understand, one needs to read Lang’s wife Thea Von Harbou’s book “Metropolis”.
An evening pause: Though I do not think his hypothesis goes far enough, this short TED talk posits some intriguing ideas about leadership. And it seems somehow appropriate today on the Ides of March, which also makes me wonder what Julius Caesar (and other successful leaders, both good and evil) would think of these ideas.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
