Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Cass Elliot, Mary Travers, & Joni Mitchell – I shall be released
Fred Astaire & Leslie Caron – Something’s Gotta Give
Roy Clark & Buck Trent – Dueling Banjos
An evening pause: While the version of this song for the movie Deliverance (1972) was quite good, I really dislike how that film made all country folk look like they were mentally and physically crippled. The portrayal seemed quite bigoted.
This performance, however, just shows us some great banjo playing, the way it should be done.
Star Trek – Amok Time
A Saturday pause: In memory of Leonard Nimoy.
T’pau: “Live long and prosper, Spock.”
Spock: “I shall do neither. I have killed my captain — and my friend.”
The Honey Trees – Moon River
An evening pause:
Moon river, wider than a mile
I’m crossing you in style some day
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you’re going, I’m going your way
Two drifters, off to see the world
There’s such a lot of world to see
We’re after the same rainbow’s end, waiting, round the bend
My Huckleberry Friend, Moon River, and me
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An even bigger tiny engine
An evening pause: In 2012 I posted a video of this company’s V12 miniature engine. They’ve now built something even more impressive.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
World Order – Mind Shift
An evening pause: I posted this group previously as an evening pause, but the hypnotic and original nature of their dance choreography calls for a revist.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Louisville Leopard Percussionists – Zeppellin
An evening pause: To quote the youtube webpage, “The Louisville Leopard Percussionists began in 1993. They are a performing ensemble of approximately 55 student musicians, ages 7-12, living in and around Louisville, Kentucky. Each student learns and acquires proficiency on several instruments, such as marimbas, xylophone, vibraphone, drum set, timbales, congas, bongos and piano.”
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman
Highlights from Dream Lines IV
An evening pause: I haven’t posted a wingsuit video since 2012, so this clip is overdue, especially since the scenery is quite beautiful. My only complaint is that they cut just as one flyer releases his chute for landing. I would have preferred to see the whole flight, including its gentle end.
Hat tip tdub.
Dave Mason – Sad And Deep As You
Will Rogers – The Ropin’ Fool
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.
JJ Cale & Eric Clapton – After Midnight & Call me the Breeze
Rupert Holmes – Escape (The Pina Colada Song)
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.
Sierra Hull – Someone Like You
Movies before the code
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.
Abraham Lincoln – a tribute on his birthday
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.
Procol Harum – A Whiter Shade of Pale
Emmylou Harris – Pancho & Lefty
Eleanor Powell – Hula
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.
42 second engine change
Maurice Chevalier & Hermione Gingold – I Remember It Well
An evening pause: Somehow this seems right for my 62nd birthday. From the 1958 classic movie Gigi.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
The Browns – Little Jimmy Brown
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.
Lars Andersen – Archery done the right way
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.
Hayley Westenra – Scarborough Fair
Itzhak Perlman & Janet Guggenheim – Two pieces
Madre Luna – Aelfheim
Michael Davis – Juggler
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.