a-ha – Take On Me
An evening pause: Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Building an artificial pond
An evening pause: This engineering not only illustrates the human ability to develop complex technology, it also illustrates how difficult it can be to accomplish what nature does naturally. Think about this the next time you hear someone talking about terraforming Mars.
Hat tip Cotour.
Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata
An evening pause: Here what counts is the audience. From the youtube webpage:
Mongkol is a 61-year-old former logging elephant. His captive-held life was spent hauling trees in the Thai forest. His body shape is deformed through hard labor, he lost his right eye and tusk in this brutal logging practice. Mongkol was rescued and brought to Elephants World to spend the rest of his days relaxing peacefully in freedom by the River Kwai. I discovered Mongkol is an extremely gentle, sensitive elephant who enjoys music, especially this slow movement by Beethoven which I play to him occasionally in the day and night.
I think he listens with as much rapt pleasure as anyone who loves Beethoven.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
The B52’s – Love Shack
An evening pause: Hat tip Cotour.
America’s Iron Giants
An evening pause: Technology developed with slide rules and the English system of measurements, more than half a century ago, that still works today.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Yes, Prime Minister – The need to know
An evening pause: Stay with it. It will soon remind you of modern DC politics.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Talking Heads – Burning Down the House
An evening pause: Performed live in Los Angeles in 1983. Somehow, everything about this song symbolizes to me the entire sixties generation.
Hat tip Cotour.
Brazilian Orchestra medley
An evening pause: This appears to be a youth orchestra, but unfortunately everything on the webpage is in Portuguese, so I’m not sure.
Hat tip David Nudelman.
Yuval Salomon – Sweet Child O’ Mine
An evening pause: This is a cover for a Guns N’ Roses song.
Hat tip Lee S.
Carol Burnett Show – Singles Bar
An evening pause: Somehow this seems appropriate for Valentine’s Day.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Whitney Houston – Didn’t We Almost Have It All
An evening pause: Hat tip Cotour.
Abraham Lincoln – an annual tribute
An evening pause: Today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. As I try to do every year, I honor his memory on this date. As I wrote last year,
it is once again time to remember a man who stands as one of our nation’s — and possible one of the world’s — greatest leaders. Of our Presidents possibly only George Washington is more significant. We must above all not forget the incredible and now all too rare good will he held for everyone, even to those who hated him and wished to kill him.
Lincoln stood for freedom for all humans, the central heart of the American experiment. He was willing and did die for that stance. We should all be willing to do no less.
The video below shows probably every photograph ever taken of Lincoln, in chronological order. You can see him age and mature. You can also see a gaunt and serious man who appears to care deeply about whatever he does.
POTATO – The World’s First Smart Potato
An evening pause: Reminds me of every single commercial I see on television these days. Only smarter.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
The Temptations – Just My Imagination
An evening pause: I should have scheduled this for January 27. Diane will understand why.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
John Cougar – Ain’t Even Done With The Night
An evening pause: Performed live 1981, with what I think is one of the strangest background dance line-up ever.
Hat tip Cotour.
Brendan Kavanagh – Mums, Kids, & Boogie Woogie
An evening pause: I guarantee this will bring a smile to your face.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Rhiannon Giddens – Wayfaring Stranger
An evening pause: My brother Jon sent this to me today as a birthday present. I like it so much that I decided to reschedule my pauses to air it tonight.
Filming the Speed of Light
A evening pause: Filmed at speeds up to 10 trillion frames per second.
Hat tip Sayomara.
Grace Thomas – Electro Swing Dance Freestyle
An evening pause: The song is Lost in the Rhythm, performed by Octavia Rose.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Cerutti Mastodon Discovery
An evening pause: This story of the discovery of a mastodon site in San Diego strongly challenges all theories about the first human arrival in North America.
Hat tip Cotour.