A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: Performed live on television in 1973. Back then, a song like this was entirely okay for a mainstream band to perform and mainstream TV show to air. Today, such songs are put into a “Christian music” ghetto, regardless of their quality.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: Performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra. I think this makes for a good way to start the weekend. If you have time, get the movie and watch it. One of the greatest ever made.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
An evening pause: One of the most famous comedy routines ever written. From the 1945 film, The Naughty Nineties.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: The memory of this man and what he stood for and accomplished must not be forgotten, which is why I try to celebrate his memory each year with a tribute on his birthday. As I wrote in 2021,
[T]hough he freed the slaves, I think Lincoln’s most enduring contribution to American history, a contribution that now has sadly been lost, was his limitless good will for everyone, even to those who hated him and wished to kill him. Had he not been assassinated, American history might have been far better because Lincoln would have had the clout to ease the worst elements of Reconstruction, while forcing through reforms in the former southern slave states.
Those reforms did not happen until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and are now being abandoned in the 2020s by black supremacists in the academic community who are imposing new racist Jim Crow laws nationwide, designed to favor blacks and other minorities.
Listen to the words of the first song, which was a Lincoln campaign song. He stood for freedom for all, and put his life on the line for that principle. From the pictures you can see the evolution of this kind-hearted but determined man from youth to mid-age, with all the troubles of the Civil War reflected in his face and mouth.
An evening pause: Performed live 1973 on the Midnight Special. A very fun group from the 1960s that also produced some beautiful songs (such as the second in this set).
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: From the 1964 film, Mary Poppins. I post it to celebrate my birthday. I saw this movie in the theater that year, as an eleven-year-old, and its optimistic and hopeful look at existence has never left me, even now in these dark times. If only today’s adults would focus on teaching these same positive and hopeful lessons to their own children.
An evening pause: Some American history, when America considered fun important.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
An evening pause: This television performance from 1965 is lip-synched, but it appears the only live one available anywhere.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: Sung at the funeral in December 2023 for Shane MacGowan, who wrote it.
Hat tip Altons Blevins.
An evening pause: Today is the 75th anniversary of the moment astonomers took the lens cap off the Hale Telescope at Palomar, what astronomers call “first light.” In honor of this anniversary, tonight’s evening pause is a somewhat well-done news piece produced by PBS in 1991, describing the state of ground-based astronomy at that time, which was actually another key moment in the history of astronomy. After decades of no advancement following the Hale telescope, the field was about to burst out with a whole new set of telescopes exceeding it significantly, based on new technologies. We today have become accustomed to those new telescopes, but in 1991 they were still incomplete or on the drawing board.
This was also after the launch of Hubble but before it was fixed, so this moment was also a somewhat dark time for astronomy in general. Watching this news piece gives you a sense of history, as seen by those living at that time. It also lets you see some good examples of the standard tropes of reporters as well as some astronomers. They always say this new telescope (whatever and whenever it is) is going to allow us to discover the entire history of the universe, even though it never can, and never will.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
An evening pause: She is 15 years old, and has an interesting backstory. I have cued the video to begin at the song’s start, because you should judge her solely on her talent. If you replay from the start Rieu explains that backstory.
Hat tip Tom Donohue.
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
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An evening pause: Performed live 2012. Dolby sings and plays keyboards. Mat Hector is on drums and Kevin Armstrong is on guitar.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: The pianist from the Doors describes how this song was created. If you want to hear it as performed, go here, which notes, “This was the last song recorded by the members of The Doors, according to Manzarek, as well as Morrison’s last recorded song to be released.”
Hat tip Doug Johnson
An evening pause: This video I think is excellent for taking us into the weekend. It shows nine different Starlink launches simulataneously, illustrating in a creative way how incredibly routine and reliable SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has become.
Hat tip Steve Golson.
An evening pause: A bit of technological history for the geeks out there. The complexity and precision required, all designed before computers, is incredible.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: This song is an example of what the group calls the tribal music of Sephardic Jews. The title of the song means “My rose.” Leave the closed captions on to see an English translation of the lyrics, which are quite beautiful. It is all very Middle Eastern, and something the Palestinians would recognize and like, until you told them it was by their fellow Semites, the Jews.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
An evening pause: Some intriguing music history centered on the electronic instrument called the Theremin, which you play electronically by moving your hands through an electric field (go here to see two previous evening pause examples).
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
