A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
An evening pause: Most people, when asked to describe Will Rogers, usually focus on his witty political commentary. What we have forgotten however is that he initially made his fame as a cowboy with an amazing ability to do rope tricks. The film excerpt below, narrated by Rogers’ son Will Rogers Jr., was made in 1922 to highlight these tricks.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: I love songs that tell great stories. This is a classic.
Note: As always, I am always looking for evening pauses and am very open to suggestions. If you want to suggest something, comment here, though please don’t post the actual suggestion. I will email you direct so you can forward it to me.
An evening pause: I had doubts about posting this initially, not because I’m a prude but because, as I wrote to Phil when he sent me this suggestion, “What is the point? Watching three minutes of 1930s girls taking off their robes to reveal their underwear? I’m not sure that is my goal with my evening pauses.”
But then I thought, why not? The compilation definitely illustrates the differences and similarities between then and now. What was risque then is almost innocent today. And at the same time, what is interesting in terms of sex then is not much different than what is interesting today. Sex still sells. Humans remain human. And Valentine’s Day is tomorrow.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
An evening pause: As I have done before, on Lincoln’s birthday it behooves us to remember him.
We should also remind ourselves, especially in this time of increasing anger, bigotry, and violence, of these words from his second inaugural address, spoken in the final days of a violent war that had pitted brother against brother in order to set other men free:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
An evening pause: From Honolulu (1939). What I like about this is that everyone involved has no worries about offending anyone. They are free to take the native cultural music of Hawaii and embellish it as the whim takes them. They were free (to repeat that forgotten word) to be as creative as they like. The result is a pretty hot dance number.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: Somehow this seems right for my 62nd birthday. From the 1958 classic movie Gigi.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: Anyone who has ever spent any time in the backwoods of the eastern United States will recognize the culture and social framework from which this song springs.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: This short clip is fascinating in that it separates the myths about archery vs historical reality, then proves its point with actual demonstrations.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: I saw Davis perform live in the Bahamas back in 1992. He was the warm-up act, and was far far better than the star attraction, which I don’t remember any longer. His style is so nice and silly and funny you just want to keep watching and watching forever. Part 2 of this performance can be found here.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: From the 1932 film Love Me Tonight, starring Maurice Chevalier. Stay with it, because it gets quite entertaining. And don’t you want to know what happens next?
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause; Hat tip Tom Biggar, who made me realize that I had never previously posted any Nanci Griffith on BtB. Shameful!
An evening pause: It might only be a Honda commercial, but trust me, it’s worth watching.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: In honor of Joe Cocker’s passing last month. No visuals, but the performance from his 1974 album “I can stand a little rain” is sterling.
