In 1963 parts of the South of England and Wales were hit by a series of winter storms that left snow drifts up to 20 feet high in some places. Here, in its entirety, is Geoffrey Jones’ short film Snow, whose visual subject matter is the British train system and how it kept rolling.
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In tonight’s exotic amusement Egyptian pop star Shabaan Abdel Rahim wails the highly topical Obama Song. Longtime fans of Mr. Rahim may notice some melodic similarity to another one of his hits, the equally catchy Swine Flu Song.
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In tonight’s by-election soundtrack saxophonist John Coltrane and his boys frolic atop Rogers and Hammerstein’s 1959 standard My Favorite Things.
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Tonight, in the closest thing you’ll ever see to classical musicians dancing while they play, members of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra swing and sway their way through J.S. Bach’s catchy Brandenburg Concerto No.2, Allegro Moderato.
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Metro-Tytöt (“Metro Girls”) were a lovely vocal group comprised of Finnish sisters Anna-Liisa, Annikki, and Hearts Väkeväinen. From 1956, accompanied by sepia-tinted images of Finnish film stars past, here’s their soothing and sweetly nostalgic Muitojen maa (“Land of Memories).
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In the interests of maintaining the public’s faith in the fairness and impartiality of our legal system, it is important that justice be not just blind but also sober. In tonight’s amusement we contemplate what a civil trial might sound like if, instead of being held in a proper courtroom and overseen by a bright-eyed, razor-sharp judge, it was held at a corner table in some local tavern twenty-five minutes after last call.
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For over 40 years, American songwriter John Prine has used succinct lyrics and simple, almost nursery rhyme melodies to paint biographical vignettes of ordinary people in a way that speaks to larger truths. From Prine’s eponymous first album, released in 1971, here’s the poignant Hello In There.
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From September 1939, here’s the beloved Vera Lynn, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, who turned 93 earlier this year, singing There’ll Always Be An England. This will be followed by a stirring and stately version of God Save The Queen.
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It is cold. I wish I was luxuriating in a nice hot spring right now with these monkeys.
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Danish sailors enter Svaneke harbour on the Baltic island of Bornholm:

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In tonight’s video, vocalist Inez Andrews, backed by fellow members of the classic gospel group The Caravans, including Dorothy Norwood and founder Albertina Walker, sings We Are Soldiers.
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Strap yourself in, folks, because the excitement level is about to go through the roof as professional wrestler The Destroyer – whose favourite move was the always disorienting airplane spin – faces off against Victor the 400 pound Bear.
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Jo Stafford is greatly looking forward to completing her studies as she sings Teach Me Tonight.
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We kick off the tips tonight with a juvenile street-corner-philosopher’s tale of the life and privileges of Pablo Picasso, who was only five foot three.
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In keeping with the bracing weather out here on the prairies, here’s Yorkshire group Swan Arcade (Dave Brady, Heather Brady, and Jim Boyes) belting out an a cappella version of a seventeenth-century Quaker hymn that sounds more like a battle cry called Babylon Is Fallen.
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After searching a variety of Romanian websites, and the Romanian Wikipedia, I could find no biographical information whatsoever about tonight’s singer. I did find a surprising number of high-quality replica watches, but that was about it. Anyway, here’s Loredana Demian warbling her way through a song – I’m not sure if it’s meant to be festive or sorrowful – called La Salas la Munte Sus (“The Dwelling in the Mountain Above”).
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Julie et les frères Duguay were a Québécois country music group from some years back. I could find little info on them other than that Julie Daraîche was married to Bernard Duguay, one of the brothers, and that they apparently sold quite a few records in the 1970s. Here they are singing the nicely straightforward and unadorned Prière d’une Mère.
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The Staple Singers were a family-based gospel/soul singing group from Chicago via Mississippi. From the 1959 album Uncloudy Day, their first release, here’s Pops Staples leading his charges through a performance of I’m Coming Home.
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In our Saturday amusement en route to the tips Bjork (upper left here) of the now-defunct Icelandic group The Sugar Cubes is confused and concerned by a startling Motor Crash, so she takes one of the wounded victims home for biscuits and milk.
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The Isles of Scilly are a group of about 140 islands, five of them inhabited, that lie approximately 30 miles off the tip of Cornwall in England. Even though there are only 2,000 or so people on the islands, they manage to put together a very professional local news broadcast whose positive-minded, helpful, even-tempered, and matter-of-fact tone puts the perpetually outraged stealth-activist lemon-suckers at CBC to shame. From Scilly TV, here’s the relaxing and untroubled Scilly Weekly News Roundup. Enjoy.
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