Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire

Dancing in the movie "Swing Time."  The quality of the clip is good enough to justify watching fullscreen.

Incidentally, this was the movie that featured "The Way You Look Tonight," which won the 1936 Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The Morske Orgulje (Sea Organ)

Two art installations in Zadar, Croatia are featured in the video above.  The "Sea Organ" uses the power of ocean waves to generate sounds from organ pipes embedded in a shoreline structure, as explained at OddMusic:

Each musical organ pipe is blown by a column of air, pushed in turn by a column of wave-moved water, through a plastic tube immersed into the water. The pipes' musically tuned sounds emanate to the surroundings through apertures in the vertical planes of the uppermost stairs. The 7 successive groups of musical tubes are alternately tuned to two musically cognate chords of the diatonic major scale. The outcome of played tones and/or chords is a function of random time and space distribution of the wave energy to particular organ pipes.

In this part of Croatia the prevailing musical tradition is the spontaneous four-voice male singing, with melodies and chords conforming to the diatonic major scale. The 5 musically tuned pipes of each section are arranged in 1.5 meter spacings. A listener, standing or sitting on a chosen point on the scalinade, should be able to hear 5 to 7 musically tuned pipes play their natural music. Thus, whole five-pipe sections are tuned to one musical chord. The citizens of Zadar are extremely proud of the first natural musical organ driven by the sea waves ever to be constructed...

The nearby solar-powered light installation is explained at Physics Buzz (whence the video).

"Creep" covered by Chrissie Hynde/The Pretenders

This is my third post about the song, which has become sort of an earworm for me.  I missed it when it was first released by Radiohead twenty years ago; apparently its recent popularity is in part attributable to its use in the trailer for the movie The Social Network (sung by the Kolacny Brothers' Scala choir, but bowdlerized for film audiences by replacing the f-word with the adjective "very.")

Radiohead's "Creep" animated

I featured Radiohead's "Creep" in a post with two videos in November.  Here it is again, this time as the music for a video which follows the lyrics quite literally, created by Alex Heller and posted at Vimeo.  The quality is good enough for fullscreen viewing (icon lower right for newbies).

We'll Meet Again (Vera Lynn, 1939)

For New Year's Eve, instead of embedding fireworks I've chosen a classic song. "We'll Meet Again" was a signature tune of World War II:

The song... resonated with soldiers going off to fight and their families and sweethearts. The assertion that "we'll meet again" is optimistic, as many soldiers did not survive to see their loved ones again. Indeed, the meeting place at some unspecified time in the future would have been seen by many who lost loved ones to be heaven.

There have been many versions as modern performers have covered the piece, but Vera Lynn is the obvious choice, since she popularized the song during the war, and it became one of her signature pieces. The video of this song most often seen is the one using the final moments of Dr. Strangelove, but those images of nuclear blasts were a little too dismal for tonight; I thought this one employing stills from WWII was at least a bit more upbeat.

The message of the song is for all TYWKIWDBI visitors, especially the old-timers. It has been an interesting year; I've enjoyed having your company for this curious adventure. We'll meet again - tomorrow...

Update: The Guardian has a story about Vera Lynn at age 92, and about the upcoming publication of her autobiography.

Second update: Originally posted last New Year's eve, now reblogged in view of this news -

...at the age of 92, she has done it again, hitting No 1 in the album charts last night with her offering We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn and usurping Bob Dylan, 68, as the oldest artist to grace the top spot... Her album fought off stiff competition from the Beatles, who occupied the 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 21st, 24th, 29th, 31st, 33rd, 37th and 38th spots...

It is 70 years to the month since Lynn, then 22, first recorded We'll Meet Again, which became a symbolic song of the second world war... Last night's No 1 made her the only artist to feature in the UK single and album charts in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Third update:  I needed some music to post on New Year's Eve, so this repost finds life once more.  See you guys next year...

Bohemian Rhapsody arranged for four violins

Excellent.  I had this posted even before finishing listening to it on the other tab.  Performed by Joe Edmonds -

"Used GarageBand after recording to tinker with volume, add some pizzicato, and double the bottom part in a lower octave."

Via 22 Words.

Women with monkeys as prostitutes

We'll begin with the photograph above (credit here, via BoingBoing 2006):

"...the community of Beloit, Wisconsin came together on the banks of the Rock River to recreate George Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte."

They are performing a tableaux vivant to reproduce the famous pointillist painting shown here:

One difference between the photograph and the painting is that in the photograph, the woman in the foreground does not have a monkey at her feet.  This may have reflected unavailability of one in Beloit, Wisconsin - or it may have been intentional, since the monkey symbolically represents that the woman may be a prostitute:

Furthermore, the inclusion of symbols, most obviously a monkey on a leash and a woman fishing, is indicative of the painting’s satirical nature. In nineteenth century slang, ‘singesse’ (female monkey in French) meant prostitute. The wordplay of ‘pêche’ (fishing) and ‘péché’ (sin) was a pun often made in French cartoons with reference to prostitution.  Such symbols speak to the ability of “the proletarian woman [to] become superficially bourgeois through prostitution.”  Through this subtle imagery, Seurat adds another dimension to the comparison of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, noting the superficiality and immorality within high class society.

That was all new to me, so I searched the web for pictures of women with monkeys, and after discarding those with Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, Fay Wray, and Jessica Lange, I found this one by Aubrey Beardsley at La Muse Verte:

The Lady and the Monkey. c. 1897

and this one by Picasso:

- both of which presumably incorporate the monkey with woman = prostitute symbolism, as may this this depiction mocking an early American suffragette:

- both found at Infinite Thought, where there are other photos of women with monkeys.

I got started on this topic because of a Reddit thread last month, where the best comment comparing the Beloit photograph and the Seurat painting came from UserNumber42:

"Oddly enough, both were created with very small dots, one just has better resolution than the other."

And finally, since I won't have another chance to blog tableaux vivant again, I'll close with this old but quite remarkable music video by Hold Your Horses:

The art works recreated in the video are listed at Blog of an Art Admirer and History Lover.

A medley of songs from The Wizard of Oz

Performed by the Class of 2013 at Hope College (Michigan).  About 10 minutes in length; you'll know after the first 1:15 whether to switch to fullscreen or shut it off (I chose the former).

Via Neatorama.

"Baba Yetu"

One "hobby" that occasionally distracts me from blogging is Civilization IV, which can tie me up for an entire evening.  When the game menu is on the screen, and occasionally during the game, there is a musical theme that plays in the background that I have found pleasant and very intriguing.  It wasn't until today that I discovered that piece of music has a name, because it has been nominated for a Grammy - the first time ever that a song made for a video game has been so nominated.

The video above features "Baba Yetu," with visuals of the wonders of the world used in Civ IV.  The language of the song is Swahili, and the content is, I believe, the Lord's Prayer.  Enjoy.

Addendum:  Here's the same music used to accompany a fountain display in Dubai -

Via Oregon Expat.

Food court Hallelulah Chorus

A performance in a Welland, Ontario shopping mall.

Found at Sound and Fury.

Alexis conquers the hurdles

This video has been featured widely on the internet.  I'm going to repost it here because it struck a chord with me on a very personal level, which I'll explain at the end.

This is a remix; the original video (which you can view here) shows an 8th-grade girl named Alexis participating in her first school track event.  The YouTube poster comments "This video is 6yrs old. Alexis did run the hurdles again and didn't fail. She did give me permission to post the video and all of her friends have seen it, while they do find it funny they do support her and her courage."

The remix adds the audio of the Scala and Kolacny Brothers' version of Radiohead's "Creep."

The classically trained Kolacny brothers, Steven (piano) and Stijn (conducting) have turned this Belgian girls’ choir into an international phenomenon, performing imaginatively reworked covers of Radiohead, U2, Rammstein and Nirvana songs...

One can debate whether the lyrics for Radiohead's "Creep" are totally appropriate for the hurdles video, but the rendition by this girls choir is so beautifully executed, and some phrases are so perfect that the remix really "works" for me.  The original hurdles video was time-stretched to match the audio, and the resultant slo-motion effect is quite dramatic.

I've reviewed the comments about the video at 3-4 different websites.  Not surprisingly perhaps, given the shallowness of many websurfers, the dominant theme is that this is a "fail" video.  That the girl is a loser, that she missed a hurdle, that her coaching was dreadful, that this is the funniest LOLs video they've ever seen.

I have a different viewpoint.  And for that I need to tell a story.  In 1952 I contracted polio; after recovering I was left with some residual atrophy of my right quad, so I could ambulate, but couldn't run very fast.  I attended a school where participation in sports was mandatory all three seasons of the school year.  In the spring the school also held an all-school track day in which everyone was required to participate in several events.  I was entered in the discus and the 220 yard run.  For the latter event I can still remember being in the back stretch when the leaders were crossing the finish.  By the time I got to the finish line they were setting up for the next heat.

When I crossed that finish line, the school's track coach came over to me.  Mr. Bettels was a man who knew what impairment was.  He had what I think in retrospect was severe kyphoscoliosis, but he was an inspirational coach and classroom teacher.  He came to me and very quietly and privately congratulated me on finishing the race.  I hadn't viewed my circling of the track as anything heroic; I was just doing what was expected.  He viewed it a bit differently, and it took me some time to fully appreciate the import of his commendation.  In the decades since then I've won a variety of non-athletic honors and have a smattering of trophies and plaques, but those words from Coach are one of the treasured memories of my youth.

So... I offer my congratulations to young Alexis.  I don't find the video to be funny at all - it's inspirational, and it choked me up to watch it.   It's also a good reminder that every day there are children whose bravery and courage goes unrecognized.  We all need to take moments now and then to commend the "losers."

This will only take a minute...

One of the bookmarks that's been sitting in my "things to blog" folder is a video of David Garrett entering the Guiness Book of World Records by playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" in 1 minute, 5.26 seconds.  That's the video at the top.

Later Ben Lee beat David Garrett's record, with a time of 64.21 seconds.

Today I read at Arbroath that that record has now fallen.  Oliver Lewis, playing before a BBC audience (and a Guiness rep) finished in 1 minute, 3.356 seconds (second video above).

If you have a reasonable skill timing your clicking on the "play" and "pause" buttons, you can get these guys to play the piece simultaneously.

"Stayin' Alive" + "The Wall"

A mashup of the BeeGees + Pink Floyd, done so well that there were moments when I didn't even notice the segues.

If you love this music, watch this video fullscreen.

Found at Miss Cellania.

Wolf breath

A reminder that winter is coming.  Which, in turn, reminds me that I should add this Paul Winter video:

I believe my clarinet-wielding cousin once exchanged riffs with a wolf up near Ely, Minnesota.

Top photo source unknown; found at Obey the Pepsi Cat, via Lushlight.

A performance by the Portsmouth Sinfonia

The Portsmouth Sinfonia was an orchestra founded by a group of students at the Portsmouth School of Art in Portsmouth, England, in 1970. The Sinfonia had an unusual entrance requirement, in that players had to either be non-musicians, or if a musician, play an instrument that was entirely new to them. Among the founding members was one of their teachers, English composer Gavin Bryars. The orchestra started as a one-off, tongue-in-cheek performance art ensemble but became a cultural phenomenon over the following ten years, with concerts, record albums, a film and a hit single. They last performed publicly in 1979... The only rules were that everyone had to come for rehearsals and that people should try their best to get it right and not intentionally try to play badly.

A hat tip to reader Shackleford Hurtmore for alerting me to this remarkable group.

Blackfly reactions

Excerpts from an article at The Independent:

Blackflies are being blamed for an upsurge in the number of people experiencing severe reactions after being bitten by insects. In some cases, victims have suffered grotesquely swollen limbs, requiring hospital treatment with intravenous antibiotics...

The insects are a major nuisance in North America as they are a scourge to livestock, and many states operate control programmes based on spraying pesticides. In Africa, the insect plays a key role in the transmission of the parasite that causes river blindness...

Stuart Hine, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum, said: "Blackflies are quite pernicious. Their mouth parts are scissor-like and they lacerate the skin and then suck the blood. They inject an anaesthetic so after the initial bite you can't feel it. When you scratch it and germs get in, then you can get a serious infection...

"By lunchtime, my leg was so swollen, an occupational health nurse feared I had deep-vein thrombosis and sent me to an accident and emergency ward. I was limping heavily and my leg was getting bigger by the hour... The next day when I returned to A&E my leg was too big to pull up my trousers..."

Personally I've always dreaded deerflies more than blackflies.  No post about blackflies would be complete without including a video of the famous Canadian folk song by Wade Hemsworth, based on his true-life personal experience.  The lyrics are in the pulldown at the YouTube link.

Jerry Lee Lewis in 1957, and in 2010

Twenty-two years old in the video.  Those interested in his current activities can read about his upcoming tour in this Wall Street Journal article.

A media tour began Tuesday with the release of his new album, "Mean Old Man"—featuring duets with Mick Jagger, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow and other headliners. On Friday, Mr. Lewis will jam on stage with the cast of "Million Dollar Quartet," the Broadway musical. On the 13th, he will perform at New York's B.B. King Blues Club.  Then on Sept. 29, Mr. Lewis will be in Los Angeles, celebrating his 75th birthday.

From his earliest rock 'n' roll hits in the late 1950s, Mr. Lewis's wild streak and piano-pounding performances quickly came to define rock's unhinged image. John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Elton John and virtually every major rock act since has borrowed from Mr. Lewis's spring-loaded style. An original Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee in 1986, the high-strung, hell-raising boogie-woogie country shouter also is the father of rebel-rock and country-R&B...

Mr. Lewis has also had a fair share of personal heartache and trouble. His older brother was killed as a child by a truck. Mr. Lewis's son with wife Myra drowned in a swimming-pool accident in 1962. Then, in the '70s, his son with his second wife died in an auto accident at age 19. Mr. Lewis accidentally shot his bassist and ran afoul of the IRS. His fourth wife drowned in their swimming pool and fifth wife died in the early '80s of a methadone overdose. He also was hospitalized in 1981 for three months with a ruptured stomach, and he is now divorced from his sixth wife.

Janis Joplin performs "Little Girl Blue"

I'm reposting these videos of Janis Joplin because I wanted to hear the song again.  Here are two versions of "Little Girl Blue" - one a live performance from 1969, and the other a standard recording.

Sit there, hmm, count your fingers.
What else, what else is there to do ?
Oh and I know how you feel,
I know you feel that you’re through.
Oh wah wah ah sit there, hmm, count,
Ah, count your little fingers,
My unhappy oh little girl, little girl blue, yeah.

Oh sit there, oh count those raindrops
Oh, feel ’em falling down, oh honey all around you.
Honey don’t you know it’s time,
I feel it’s time,
Somebody told you ‘cause you got to know
That all you ever gonna have to count on
Or gonna wanna lean on
It’s gonna feel just like those raindrops do
When they’re falling down, honey, all around you.
Oh, I know you’re unhappy.

Oh sit there, ah go on, go on
And count your fingers.
I don’t know what else, what else
Honey have you got to do.
And I know how you feel,
And I know you ain’t got no reason to go on
And I know you feel that you must be through.
Oh honey, go on and sit right back down,
I want you to count, oh count your fingers,
Ah my unhappy, my unlucky
And my little, oh, girl blue.
I know you’re unhappy,
Ooh ah, honey I know,
Baby I know just how you feel.

Janis' lyrics (above) are a bit different from those in the original Rogers and Hart creation. You can hear that version performed by Nina Simone at Montreaux (1976), by Carly Simon, by Judy Garland, and by Diana Ross.

Jackie Evancho sings

For many of you, this won't be a "TYWK" because apparently this young lady has a large YouTube and television following, but this is the first I've seen/heard of her.  I've used Splicd to edit out the introductory drivel in order to focus on her remarkable voice.

The piece is O Mio Babbino Caro by Giacomo Puccini.  The girl is 10 years old.

The Hoppin' Frogs rock the crowd at Montjuïc Castle

This clip was filmed during a July 5 performance at the Sala Montjuïc open-air film festival

The Barcelona-based band members come from England, Scotland, the United States, and Catalonia.  Their style is a fusion of blues, rock, and alt country.

KARL FINSETH: tenor sax 

JONATHAN GLANZBERG: guitar and vocals

JONNY ENGLISH: harmonica

ANDY GEMMELL: pedal steel guitar 

ANDY HENLEY: bass and vocals

 

Hoppin' Frogs at Myspace Music.