An evening pause: From Broadway Melody of 1940. This is probably one of the best tap dance duet scenes ever filmed.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
An evening pause: The first piece is an incredible acoustical guitar performance. And the second piece is as good.
Hat tip to Danae.
An evening pause: Performed live in New York, 1981.
I’ve posted a different Paul Simon performance of this song previously, but considering what SpaceX is about to try to do with its first stage, I think it appropriate to post it again. As Simon wrote,
We came on a ship they called the Mayflower
We came on a ship that sailed the moon
We came in the age’s most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune.
An evening pause: I would call this nature’s drone, now carrying some modern technology.
Hat tip tdub.
An evening pause: Hat tip Keith Douglas, who noted to me that Nile is “fairly well known around the NYC club scene. I’ve seen him live maybe 3 times, but he never brought this friend to the events I attended.”
I like watching how much fun these guys have playing this song.
An evening pause: Thanksgiving and Black Friday might be over, but there still is Christmas dinner!
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: Written for the BBC to mark the end of World War II, Vaughan Williams selected text from the Bible, Shakespeare, and Rudyard Kipling.
Teach us the strength that cannot seek,
By deed, or thought, to hurt the weak;
That, under thee, we may possess
Man’s strength to comfort man’s distress.
Teach us delight in simple things,
The mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And love to all men ‘neath the sun.
Go here for the full lyrics. It is absolutely worthwhile to print them out and read them as you watch this video. The images and words work together with amazing force, and illustrate well the importance of giving thanks on this day.
An evening pause: With yesterday’s evening pause in mind, here’s a classical orchestra showing us how they perform spaghetti western music.
An evening pause: Recorded live 2011. With sound effects, props, and drinkable musical instruments!
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman
An evening pause: This song seems especially appropriate with me on the road in Israel and Diane back home in Tucson.
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Hat tip Keith Douglas. Recorded live during the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. The music is pure 60s pop, great to listen to. The opening intro, however, shows, as Keith wrote to me, that “nerds rock!”
An evening pause: I think this is appropriate with the coming of the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
Hat tip to Diane Zimmerman.
An evening pause: This video below was done during the narrator’s warm-up prior to actually recording a Rockwell International industrial touting that company’s first effort in building heavy duty automatic transmissions. As the website notes, “Now remember this is strictly off the cuff, nothing is written down. Nothing he says is true, it’s all meaningless drivel made up as he goes along.” It is also hilarious to watch.
Sadly, this is drivel we now hear every day from government officials. Unfortunately, not enough people seem capable of recognizing drivel when they hear it. If they could, we might be able to laugh about it more.
An evening pause: On this November 11, Armistice Day.
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
An evening pause: Hat tip again to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime. As Phil wrote to me, this scene is “the sensational finale from Martin Brest’s NYU student film, Hot Tomorrows. Brest, who went on to direct Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run and Scent of a Woman, broke all the rules in scrounging every resource he could find to make this 73-minute tragi-comic riff on the subject of death.”
Makes for a perfect Halloween evening pause.
An aside: Long ago, when I was in the movie business, I worked with many of the people who helped Brest make this film, and can say without doubt that he scored the best crew one could imagine finding for a student production.
