Tom Lehrer – The Irish Ballad
An evening pause: Recorded live, September 5, 1967, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Having some fun with the old folk ballads.
Hat tip Danae.
Tag: entertainment
MTNS – Lost track of time
An evening pause: The song, which is really nice, is really just background music to a beautiful video of what it is like to fly fish in Montana. As always, I want to note the sophistication of the human engineering and design that makes this activity possible. It is as beautiful as the countryside and the music.
Hat tip Rocco.
Mark Knopfler – Last Exit To Brooklyn
Ben-Hur – The Chariot Race
An evening pause: This clip is actually only the last half of the chariot race scene from Ben-Hur (1959), still one of the greatest action sequences ever put on film. And not only was it on film, but they did it without any computer animation. What you see is real, real horses and real chariots and real actors and real very skilled and brave stunt men. (See this short film on how the even earlier 1925 silent-era epic film Ben-Hur version was made, in a similar manner.)
If you get the chance, watch the 1959 film. Truly a great Hollywood epic.
Hat tip Phil Berardelli, author of the new edition of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
Don Henley – Take A Picture Of This
Ella Fitzgerald – Angel Eyes
Joaquin Rodrigo – Concierto de Aranjuez, 2nd movement
An evening pause: One of my favorite pieces of music, performed by Xuefei Yang and Barcelona Symphony.
Hat tip Danae.
Next New Shepard test flight expected before December
The competition heats up: Blue Origins has revealed that the next test flight of its suborbital New Shepard capsule and launch rocket will take place before the end of 2015.
They also noted that they will not be selling any tickets for suborbital flights for at least two more years, until they are satisfied that the test flights have proven the system. This is a far cry from other suborbital companies like Virgin Galactic and XCOR, who have made big promises to garner ticket sales, and have yet to deliver. Jeff Bezos’s company has instead decided to deliver first, and then sell tickets.
In the end, we shall see who wins the race to put the first tourists into space. What is certain in all this however is that Virgin Galactic has squandered the ten-year headstart it had when it started out in 2004.
In related news, Virgin Galactic says that construction of its second SpaceShipTwo ship is progressing well.
The competition heats up: Blue Origins has revealed that the next test flight of its suborbital New Shepard capsule and launch rocket will take place before the end of 2015.
They also noted that they will not be selling any tickets for suborbital flights for at least two more years, until they are satisfied that the test flights have proven the system. This is a far cry from other suborbital companies like Virgin Galactic and XCOR, who have made big promises to garner ticket sales, and have yet to deliver. Jeff Bezos’s company has instead decided to deliver first, and then sell tickets.
In the end, we shall see who wins the race to put the first tourists into space. What is certain in all this however is that Virgin Galactic has squandered the ten-year headstart it had when it started out in 2004.
In related news, Virgin Galactic says that construction of its second SpaceShipTwo ship is progressing well.
Sounds of a Glass Armonica
Nat King Cole – Red Sails In The Sunset
The Lion Roars
An evening pause: A very short pause, but one that I think is appropriate today with the success of the grassroots tea party movement in forcing John Boehner out as House Speaker.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Harvesting tulip bulbs with modern engineering
An evening pause: The harvester is the equivalent of a mobile factory assembly-line that operates in the field. It also reminds me of the animated cartoon Transformers.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Robert Tiso – Moonlight Sonata on glass harp
Around the World in 80 Days
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?
Philomena Cunk’s Moments of Wonder: Time
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.
Auckland Symphony Orchestra – Angry Birds
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.
Lou Reed and David Bowie – Waiting for the Man
Gale Garnett – We’ll Sing in the Sunshine
Brandon Ridenour & Rachel Kudo – Fantasy Variations” on a theme by Paganini
Earl Scruggs & Men with Banjos – Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Al Stewart – Year of the Cat
Glen Campbell & Flip Wilson ~ Rocky Racoon
An evening pause: Comedy meets the Beatles in this 1969 performance from the Glen Campbell television show.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
The Tokens – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
An evening pause: As always, it is enormously pleasurable to watch performers who clearly are having a good time.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Jay Ungar & Molly Mason – Ashokan Farewell
The elephants of Bushcamp Company’s Mfuwe Lodge
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.
Alexander Rybak – Into A Fantasy
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.
Alexander Rybak & Stefan Ibsen Zlatanos – Clair de Lune
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.”
The Statler Brothers – Flowers On The Wall
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.
Rod Hull And Emu – How To Groom An Emu
Tooth of Time
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.