An evening pause: Normally I don’t post videos with no visuals, but for this I will make an exception. It is probably the first time anyone has ever done the hard work necessary to translate the mumblings of the singer to find out the lyrics of this pop tune. Before now, who knew?
Hat tip Phil Berardelli.
An evening pause: Even though it is more seven decades since this was recorded, it remains as fresh and as vibrant as anything sung today. Almost more so because of its simplicity. Bowlly was a big name singer in the 1930s, and he shows why here.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: The silliness couldn’t be greater.
Hat tip Peter Fenstermacher.
As always, I welcome suggestions from anyone for evening pauses. If you have made them before, please feel free to send me more. You know how to reach me. If you’ve never suggested any but want to, comment here (without including the suggestion-that would give it away) and I will contact you myself.
An evening pause: A gently humorous tribute to American music. Hat tip Dick Jones, courtesy of Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: I’ve posted the original version by Elvis Presley from the movie Blue Hawaii (1961) back in 2013, but this live version,live at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on January 8, 2016, is definitely worth seeing. She dedicated the song to her fiancé, Adam Weaver, and during the performance it is obvious that she is singing directly to him in the audience.
I also dare you to watch it without singing along.
Hat tip Edward Thelen from reminding me that this song needs a revisit.
An evening pause: Performed live August 19, 1972 on The Midnight Special. As one commenter noted on the youtube webpage, “This really happened right?” Sadly, as Danae noted to me in an email, both are now gone, far too soon.
Update: The music video itself has been pulled from youtube for copyright reasons that I don’t quite understand. However, the making of video is still available, and that will give you a pretty good feel for some of the stuff in the original piece.
I was going to make this an evening pause, but then decided it shouldn’t wait. This music video, by OK-Go, is unique and somewhat historic, as it I think is the first to have been done in zero gravity, using an airplane to fly parabolic arcs. It demonstrates clearly the fantastic and as present almost unimaginable possibilities of dance in weightlessness, as it also might be the first time that professional dancers, the two women, are given a chance to do moves in microgravity.
Be sure to also watch the making of video below the fold. And go here for the story behind the video.
An evening pause: Another nice song performed live on the 1970s television show The Midnight Special..
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: In one of the most powerful death scenes ever, Louise Fletcher plays a scientist who suddenly realizes it is about to happen. From the 1983 film Brainstorm.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
An evening pause: The song, aired initially during World War II by the Nazis for their troops, became a popular hit for soldiers on both sides of the war. Marlene Dietrich then recorded it as part of her effort to win the war for the Allies, in both English and German. She noted once that the German version is “darker”. Here is the English version.
Hat tip Engine Mike.
An evening pause: From the 1956 film High Society. And for my wife Diane today.
Hat tip Edward Theen.
An evening pause: Two things to note: First, they purposely knock the rings down periodically to show that they are not held up very firmly. Second, one of the musical pieces they play is the main theme from the film Exodus (1960). The score won an Oscar for Ernest Gold.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Stick with it, as they finish slightly early and need to improvise a bit at the end to fill time.
Hat tip Kyle Kooy.
An evening pause: I am not a big fan of the movie adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I find them heavy and over-wrought, focused too much on special effects and what I call “cool adolescent stuff”, none of which has anything to do with the very real and human story that Tolkien created about the battle between good and evil.
This short piece from the music score, however, evokes everything about hobbits that Tolkien intended. As he has Gandalf say, in describing hobbits, “Soft as butter they can be, but sometimes as tough as old tree roots.”
And since hobbits and the Shire are nothing more than Tolkien’s metaphor for England and the British culture he knew from before World War II, this song also evokes the quiet majesty and humbleness of that now lost world, “a nation of shop-keepers” who, like the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings, were in the end able to stand firm and beat back the evil of the Third Reich despite overwhelming odds.
Hat tip Rocco.
An evening pause: As they state on their webpaye, AirPano is a not-for-profit project created by a team of Russian photo enthusiasts focused on taking high-resolution aerial panoramic photographs. These are not videos, but stills. Quite amazing.
Hat tip George Petricko.
An evening pause: From the 1983 film, Cotton Club.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
An evening pause: Performed live on “The Glenn Reeves Show” on February 23rd, 1963.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: What could be better? Glowworms, a cave, and beautiful music by Dexter Britain called Light Bridges.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford from the 1950 classic, Born Yesterday.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
