A lot of news coverage of the events in Egypt has – quite understandably – focused on the speculation and analysis that’s taking place in Washington, London and elsewhere. For a more visually immediate perspective, here’s some footage shot four days ago on the streets of Cairo by Sky News’ Duncan Sharp.
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In tonight’s tippity amusement The King buys himself a front-row seat to watch Little Egypt.
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Tonight, a young woman named Joni Craigie gives us an insider’s look at the life and the people of North Ronaldsay, the northernmost of the Orkney Islands.
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In tonight’s musical selection, from the 1987 album Road Gore: The Band That Drank Too Much, Edmonton’s Jerry Jerry & the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra let it be known that socialism is a very Bad Idea.
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Strap on those chaps and pull your hat down over your ears, as spunky Arkansas native Patsy Montana gallops and yodels her way through those Montana Plains. Yee-haw!
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In tonight’s musical selection English satirist Noel Coward sings, with lilting, caustic nonchalance, that There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner.
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In tonight’s tips music, from the 1958 album Live At Newport, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra perform Mr. Gentle and Mr. Cool.
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If French is the language most suited to the delivery of wistful love songs, German is perhaps the best language for the Sturm und Drang themes of heavy metal music. As if to prove it, here are Völklingen’s own Cindy & Bert – who were husband and wife at the time – delivering a scorching performance of Black Sabbath’s Paranoia, or, as they called it, Der Hund von Baskerville. Jawohl.
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In 1851 Great Britain held The Great Exhibition in the massive, custom-built Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park to showcase its own achievements and those of its colonies. One hundred years later, the Brits celebrated their post- WWII resurgence by holding what was called the Festival of Britain. Here’s a short documentary film (in colour) made at the time to commemorate the event.
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From a 1927 recording, here’s the great Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven stomping and swinging their way through a jaunty Potato Head Blues.
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Louis Prima was an American singer and trumpeter whose unmistakably Italian-sounding, confident voice and loose, almost jokey performing style made him a – reluctant – favourite of mobsters in Chicago, Las Vegas, and New York. In tonight’s selection, a song called Felicia No Capicia, Prima lightheartedly complains about an expensive date who for some reason doesn’t quite grasp the whole quid pro quo thing.
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Tonight we learn the essential, bare-bones facts about the country of Norway.
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Tonight’s tips thread kicks off with a rare bout of country music: here’s Virginia/Ohio native Connie Smith, along with her backing band The Sundowners, in a 1966 Grand Old Opry performance of The Hurtin’s All Over.
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The Norwegians, the Dutch and the Swedes – and probably people of other northern European nations as well – all make their own versions of thin, egg-heavy breakfast pancakes, which are typically sprinkled with sugar or some other topping and then rolled up. As anyone who’s tried them can attest, they’re very tasty and filling. Tonight, Margrét from Iceland shows us how to make Icelandic Pönnukökur.
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Edward Aczel is an office worker and part-time comedian who performs his comedy incorrectly. He reads from hand-held notes, doesn’t even vaguely attempt to amp up the crowd, draws elaborate and awkward attention to his inability to connect with the audience, and….uses charts. It’s quite funny. Here’s Edward Aczel in performance at the Edinburgh Festival.
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In tonight’s vintage amusement from 1964, French pop star Sheila sings and whistles her way through through a lighter-than-air earworm called Le Sifflet des Copains.
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Our Saturday night recipe for tippity amusement requires 50 kilograms of dynamite, a pinch of footspeed, two rascally Norwegian guys named Rune Nilson and Per Olav Alvestad, and an old cottage scheduled for demolition.
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Next Media Animation is a Taiwan-based animation studio that churns out news clips on politics and celebrity gossip for Chinese speaking audiences. Since the animators and writers clearly tend to swallow whole and then regurgitate the inherent talking points of U.S. coverage, albeit in a more animated and iconographic way, their “reports” provide a – sometimes hilarious – window into the American mass media’s political biases. Here’s an NMA news/analysis piece called Is Sarah Palin gunning for 2012?.
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Have your fingers and toes gone numb? Is the air a bit too nippy for your liking? The inhabitants of this Lake Erie Lighthouse feel your pain.
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Here’s a short look at how undersea communications cables are laid. And here I was thinking that some guy in a diving bell soldered them together.
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