An evening pause: Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of the new edition of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime, who notes, “Producer Mike Todd lured dozens of stars to appear in cameos in his still-glorious take on the classic Jules Verne novel, and nowhere were they more delightful than in the San Francisco saloon scene.”
How many well known actors and performers can you spot doing cameos in this short clip?
An evening pause: This hilarious parody of BBC science documentaries, which are not much different than many American PBS science documentaries, captures perfectly the typical empty-headed interviewers that I myself have sometimes had to deal with during too many of my television and radio appearances. They are not only often ignorant of some basic science, they are also ignorant of their own ignorance. They think they know a lot, and thus are easily confused and defensive when suddenly confronted with that ignorance.
I especially like her description of “the famous Greenwich Marillion line.”
Hat tip to Danae.
An evening pause: I must admit I am entirely ignorant of what the Angry Birds game is. The music here and the playing however is stellar.
Hat tip to Danae.
An evening pause: Comedy meets the Beatles in this 1969 performance from the Glen Campbell television show.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: As always, it is enormously pleasurable to watch performers who clearly are having a good time.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: As the youtube website explains, “This is perhaps the only hotel in the world where you may need to make way for passing elephants when checking in. During the month of November, a small herd of pachyderms nonchalantly tromps through reception on their way to a wild mango tree.”
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Rybak returns, this time performing live in 2014 his song for the animated film How to Train your Dragon 2 (2014). I normally don’t post videos made by audience members, but this time I make an exception because the performance is good and the videographer had the sense to soon ignore the dancers and stay focused on Rybak, who grabs the audience and holds them.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Hat tip Danae. Tomorrow the evening pause will be an entirely different piece of music written by tonight’s violinist. As Danae noted in describing Rybak to me, “Composer, singer, dancer, musician on violin and piano, actor and impersonator of famous vocalists on Eurovision TV’s equivalent of American Idol, this 29 year-old, though occasionally temperamental, is a rising star in Europe. He was born in the Soviet Union, but has lived in Norway since he was four years old, and speaks Russian, Norwegian and English fluently.”
An evening pause: I posted a 1960s television performance in 2012, but this recent live version is also worth watching, if only to see how time has changed the performers.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: Tonight we take a short aerial tour of a mountaintop that every Boy Scout who has backpacked at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico will immediately recognize.
Hat tip to Steve Golson, whose son is currently doing this very hike.
An evening pause: Also called “The Egyptian”, performed live by the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jean-Yves Thibaudet on the piano.
A nice way to end the week. Put it up in the background if you find focusing on classical music too difficult. You will find yourself coming back to it to watch and listen. Quite beautiful and enchanting.
An evening pause: Rather than waste your time watching the childish reporting of the presidential campaign on cable news, watch this short satire of NPR instead. It sums things up nicely, poking great fun at liberal news coverage.
Sadly, most of the conservative coverage has been as childish.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
An evening pause: Hat to Phill Oltmann, whose comment was, “Too tight for me!” Me too, though I definitely would be willing to try.
An evening pause: Hat tip Danae, who notes correctly, “Terrible lifestyle, terrible message, but they knew how to play.”
An evening pause: It could be argued that all classical music would be better played in this manner.
An evening pause: How about a wonderful country rendition of this pop classic?
An evening pause: I posted a 1999 Clapton performance of this song in 2011, but this 2013 version is worth watching as well.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Performed live on the Johnny Carson Show sometime in the 1960s.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman
