Hope and Cagney dancing
An evening pause: From the 1955 Bob Hope film, The Seven Little Foys, with James Cagney playing George M. Cohan. Neither man is remembered for their dancing, but from this scene you wouldn’t know it.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Tag: music
John Williams – Flying theme from ET
An evening pause: I have always thought Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) to be incredibly over-rated, poorly edited, shallow with a predictable script, and not very interesting. Why the public went mad for it in 1982 always baffled me. Nonetheless, Williams’ score was and is magnificent, and a listen here might explain that madness somewhat.
Hat tip Danae.
The United Kingdom Ukulele orchestra – Tubular Bells
An evening pause: There are no bells here, nor tubes, but it sounds right nonetheless.
Hat tip Danae.
Aaron Copland – “The Promise of Living” from The Tender Land
An evening pause, posted early for Thanksgiving: I posted this for Thanksgiving back in 2012. It is worth watching and singing again, in these terrible times. The hope of America will always live on, even when America is gone. Ordinary people want freedom, love, family, and the right to live their lives as they wish, without harming others, so they can bring in “the blessings of harvest,” whatever that harvest might be. It must be our goal to allow that to happen, and to stop those that wish to prevent it.
The promise of living
With hope and thanksgiving,,,
Tommy Emmanuel, John Jorgenson, Pedro Javier González – Sultans of Swing
Gene Pitney – Last Chance To Turn Around
An evening pause: This 1950s song, which many think is titled “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” actually has no connection to the 1950s book with that title. As noted at the youtube webpage, “Maybe Hubert Selby, the book’s author objected or Gene didn’t want to confuse people since they are unconnected.” Thus, the different title.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
The Pacific Crest Trail in Three Minutes
An evening pause: I prefer to do it a bit slower, but this will give the couch potatoes here a sense of why I and others like to go hiking.
Hat tip Danae.
The Portland Cello Project – Denmark
John Rich – The Battle of New Orleans
Mendes Harmónica Trio – Beethoven’s 5th Symphony
Copenhagen Phil – Ravel’s Bolero
An evening pause: You really can’t pick a better classical piece for a flash mob performance than Bolero. It builds bit by bit, allowing the performers to slowly gather as if by accident. I also noticed that they seemed to be really enjoying the casual dress nature of this performance, which occurred at Coperhagen Central Station on May 2, 2011..
Hat tip Danae.
Vera Lynn – We’ll Meet Again
David Arnold – Independence Day
An evening pause: Vienna’s Radio Symphony Orchestra performs an excerpt of David Arnold’s soundtrack to the 1996 film Independence Day during the 2013 Hollywood in Vienna concert.
The film was incredibly silly, but fun nonetheless. The performance here captures some of that silliness, with the lighting and the smoke and the film clips. Also, the score’s use of a drum and flute in a short section near the middle is clearly intended to refer to the American Revolution, since in the movie the human race, led by Americans, conquers the aliens on the 4th of July, Independence Day..
Hat tip Danae.
An evening pause: Vienna’s Radio Symphony Orchestra performs an excerpt of David Arnold’s soundtrack to the 1996 film Independence Day during the 2013 Hollywood in Vienna concert.
The film was incredibly silly, but fun nonetheless. The performance here captures some of that silliness, with the lighting and the smoke and the film clips. Also, the score’s use of a drum and flute in a short section near the middle is clearly intended to refer to the American Revolution, since in the movie the human race, led by Americans, conquers the aliens on the 4th of July, Independence Day..
Hat tip Danae.
Noteworthy – Amazing Grace
An evening pause: Normally I do not post music videos where the singers are lip-syncing so that they can stage some clever visuals, as is done in this video. However, the singing is so good, and the singers and song is filled with such joy, that it is worth listening and watching regardless. A good way to end the week.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Tony MacAlpine Band – Tears of Sahara
An evening pause: Hat tip Danae. Like Danae, I don’t go in much for progressive metal, but the playing here is so good. And if you like the music, even better.
Kingston Trio – They’re rioting in Africa
An evening pause: The amazing thing about this song is that it was written in the 1960s and does a good job of describing the insanity today. In the 60s it was actually exaggerating the chaos a bit. Today, it probably understates it. The only thing about the song that I objected to then, and now, is its eventual pessimistic view of humanity. We ain’t perfect, but we ain’t all bad either. In fact, I think there is probably more good than evil in most of us. We just need to listen, think, and choose. Chaos happens when we don’t, and instead act like mindless instinct-driven animals.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
John Jorgenson Quintet – Ghost Dance
Camille Saint-Saëns – La danse macabre
An evening pause: Performed with spirit by the Radio France orchestra, in anticipation of Halloween.
Hat tip Danae.
Boots Randolph – Yakety Sax
John Williams – Dry Your Tears, Áfrika
Mason Williams & Deborah Henson-Conant – Classical Gas
Chris Botti & Sting – Bourbon Street
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.
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
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.