Lest We Forget.

If you don’t believe that a soul can be reborn in someone else’s body, tonight’s passing amusement will change your worldview faster than you can say sugoii sugoii: from Japanese television, here’s the living reincarnation of Bruce Lee. Now, back away slowly.
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Every two years in the southern provinces of Spain teams of fifteen or twenty people or more, known as colles castelleres, compete to build human towers up to nine or ten people tall. Here’s a high-def video (do watch it full-screen) showing the colourfully-attired castellers of Tarragona in action. Clearly, it’s not a sport for the obese.
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The Festival Express was a three stop Canadian tour that featured a who’s-who of then-current rock performers who traveled by private train, at great expense to the promoter, to stops in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. At each stop, the tour – which was a financial wipeout – was met by mini-riots and protests by 60’s-intoxicated youths who felt it was an outrage that they had to pay to get in.
From the documentary movie named after the tour, here’s a performance by blues artist Buddy Guy, who may or may not have been reminding the kids about the necessity of him making a living, and getting paid, with his enthusiastic performance of Money; either way, it’s definitely the best forklift solo ever.
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Tonight, the superb Carmina Quartet (L-R Mathias Enderle, Wendy Champney, Susanne Frank, and Stephan Goerner) plays Luigi Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D, and the 4th movement of Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 73/4.
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Tonight we get to watch some hardworking border collies doing their level best to get it right. Hosted by Radio Scotland presenter Robbie Shepherd – don’t forget to roll those R‘s when you say his name – here’s the second semifinal from the Grampian Sheepdog Trials held at the Balcairn Farm in Aberdeenshire.
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From 10 am to 1 pm, day after day, the sound of Beethoven’s music being beautifully played on an upright piano can be heard coming from suite #6 in a north London apartment building. From director Malcolm Clarke’s short documentary film Alice Dancing Under The Gallows, here’s a look at the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, the ineffably beautiful Alice Herz-Sommer.
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Tonight’s amusement sees the Boys Choir School of Moscow State and lead soloist Alexander Yudenkov singing a song written from the point of view of some war orphans who fondly remember the warm welcome and care they received from the kindly old couple in their House On The Neva.
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The only thing worse than a being sore loser is a being bad winner who rubs his victory his opponent’s face. Common grace demands that winners always accept their victory graciously and modestly; one must never, ever, under any circumstances, verbally taunt the losing party.
It is, however, perfectly acceptable to celebrate with an unbridled victory dance. So go to town:

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Tonight’s amusement, suitable for this exciting election night, sees Japan’s spectacular J-Marimba Ponies crashing their way through Aram Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance. Holy smokes.
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For any young boy, nothing could ever replace the breathless adrenaline rush of hunting down one of your mates in a wooded area and finishing him off with a well-aimed shot to the torso before he gets to you first. Realistic toy guns are, of course, pretty much outre in this post-hippy age, but there was a glorious time in the not-so-distant past when toy makers knew exactly what boys actually like and were allowed to sell it to them big-time.
Hoo-ah! On the ground, running dog! I will not arrange your flowers!
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Tonight we’ve got a couple of Tom Waits songs suitable for Halloween. First, the scary little number God’s Away On Business (“digging up the dead with a shovel and a pick / it’s a job, it’s a job”). And if you run out of candy for the trick-or-treaters, simply hide a couple of speakers behind your pumpkins and crank up The Black Rider – that oughta keep the porch clear.
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Sixty nine years ago animator/producer/director Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker, produced a animated short film set in a fictional place called Lazytown, in America’s deep south, where the weather is hot and humid, and the denizens’ thought processes – and reaction times – are sluggish. Everything seems to happen in slow motion – until, that is, a stylish, lighter-skinned woman from the north shows up to liven things up. Centered around an eponymous song by The Andrews Sisters, here’s the 1941 Universal release Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat.
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The late Jacques Tati was a French actor and film director most famous for a series of dialogue-less comedy films featuring a stoically put-upon character named Monsieur Hulot, who was played by Tati himself. In tonight’s amusement, from his 1953 film Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday), Hulot and a herd of his fellow travelers cluster together in a train station listening for arrival and departure information via the public address system.
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A lot of veteran teachers suggest that the children of immigrants, particularly those from from Asia, tend to be more disciplined and less distracted than other students who are often more interested in partying and video games than the pursuit of scholastic excellence. American songwriter Randy Newman proposes a solution to this lack of discipline: non-immigrant students should simply purchase their very own Korean Parents.
They’ll be strict, but they’ll be fair.
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In tonight’s musical selection, a lighter-than-air musical artifact from the the murky depths of the nostalgia barrel, Cathy Carroll sings her 1963 non-hit I’m Available.
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There are great love songs, and then there’s tonight’s amusing misfire which sees a legendary Wagnerian tenor making an ill-advised foray into popular music. Intended (one assumes) as an earnest romantic plea, the song instead evokes a Homer Simpson-esque chap with a chewed up stogie in one hand and an oniony hot dog in the other pleading his hopeless case to an indifferent moll. When the backing choir swells to prop up his wailing entreaty, it just gets worse. From the Florence Foster Jenkins-heavy album Murder On The High C’s – I highly recommend it – here’s Lauritz Melchior singing – nae, begging – Please Don’t Say No.
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At one point during the appearance on FOX that got him fired from NPR, Juan Williams said “I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts.” He was, sadly, incorrect; members of the progressive left are more than capable of getting away from any fact whatsoever. Here’s a short and funny animated primer on How Liberals Argue. Sound familiar?
(h/t Robert W.)
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Twelfth century Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen, a deeply religious woman beset by visions, was a polymath of sorts – an early pharmacologist, poet, preacher, visual artist, and composer. Here are the Benedictinians of Abbey St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany (where von Bingen’s remains are encased in stone) chanting von Bingen’s Spiritus Sanctus.
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Prompted by a lyrical snippet posted last night by SDA commenter John Begley, our Saturday night selection will be a performance of the opening song from Brendan Behan’s 1954 play The Quare Fellow. Backed by the vocals of his fellow Dubliners (from left to right) Barney McKenna, John Sheahan, and Jim McCann, here’s the late Luke Kelly belting out a bracing version of The Auld Triangle.
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