An evening pause: A comedy sketch by David Mitchell and Robert Webb, in honor of today’s anniversary of that moment in 1969.
“Wouldn’t it be great to make everyone think we’d landed on the moon?”
“Why don’t we just release the footage of the Mars landings?”
Check out this incredible image of yesterday’s storm over New York City, taken by an amateur photographer.
Answering the important questions: What would happen if a fastball pitcher could throw a baseball at 90% speed of light?
Knowledge is power: Outlining the optimal military tactics for taking the Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle.
Above all, we can all agree on this secondary objective:
While in Fantasyland we will have the opportunity to take down the menace of all parents everywhere. The “It’s a Small World” ride will be within our reach. Our secondary objective is to eliminate the ride with extreme prejudice. This isn’t a capture mission like the castle, but one of complete annihilation. Expect heavy casualties as their adorable repetitiveness burns into your skulls like white phosphorous in the jungle. Our sacrifices will be great, but our suffering is in the name of protecting others.
An evening pause: From Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.
I always voted at my party’s call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.Chorus.
He never thought of thinking for himself at all.I thought so little, they rewarded me
By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
An evening pause: Once, a long time ago, the concept of charity was something that you gave voluntarily, not forced upon you by the will of others.
A technical aside: If you listen closely to the soundtrack to Mary Poppins (1964), you will discover hints of the melody from this song sprinkled throughout. The composers clearly considered it a central theme on which they wished to link to the rest of the score.
And now for something really important: Cat photos taken at just the right moment.
An evening pause: Good avant-garde music that was actually a hit song in 1981. Listen and watch close and you will catch hints of the naive and anti-American anti-nuke movement of the early 1980s.
The music is still haunting, has a touch of humor, and is definitely worth hearing.
News you can use: The Internet Cat Video Film Festival.
News you can use: How fireworks work.
Having worked for several years on a fireworks team setting up and lighting a county fireworks show in Virginia, I can say that lighting these things is by far more fun that sitting at a distance and watching them go off.
An evening pause: I once awoke from a powerful and indescribable dream, its searing images (soon lost) invoked by this haunting song as performed by Judy Collins from her 1967 recording. Here it is performed beautifully here by Rufus Wainwright and set to some very appropriate visuals from the various Pirates of the Caribbean films.
And in the night the iron wheels rolling through the rain
Down the hills through the long grass to the sea.
And in the dark the hard bells ringing with pain,
“Come away, alone.
Come away, alone.
With me.”
An evening pause: More information about this video here. They note that “The dancers in Syria are blurred for their safety.”
