Fan sings NOI from ZAIA Cirque Du Soleil

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn608_lamG0

A ZAIA fan has recorded their own rendition of the song NOI from the show, complete with photos from the Zaia theater performances and pics of the band. (Hey, I’m in those pics!). Chicago Rose who performs this song in the show with the cast says “I love it”. And I think it’s pretty darn cool too.

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The Clowns of Cirque Du Soleil

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVwRv7tnRcA

A montage of the clowns of Cirque Du Soleil. I see Dimitri Hatton here from our ZAIA Cirque show doing his Montgolfiere passage and “Mad Conductor” act. I’m sure that Onofrio Colucci is also in this video but I’m not sure which clown he is (formerly with “O” and Zaia, currently with ZED in Tokyo).

You’ll also see Brian Dewhurst from Mystere. I had the chance to see Mystere performed in Vegas several years ago and the pre-show antics of Dewhurst stand out in my memory as one of the highlights of the show. He is SO funny.

Where do Musicals come from?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbltJNYaH0k

Where do Musicals come from? Also on my blog you can find related clips from “Broadway: The Golden Age”. I own this movie and it’s fantastic for giving an understanding of the roots and development of the American Broadway Musical. This short clip here is from the same producers. (In fact I did a glowing review of the film and one of the producers posted a comment here on my blog – not THAT’S cool.)

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PDQ Bach

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMSEPUuNP8k

(Part Two is the performance, so I post it first)

Itzhak Perlman and Peter Schickele mix it up in a hilarious duet at a Boston Pops Concert with John Williams conducting. Part 1 is mostly the setup, with Peter Schickele expounding on the life of P.D.Q. Bach, “the 21st of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 20 children.”

PDQ Bach is the ultimate in combining High Art and Low Art for awesome high brow comedy. It was great in this video to see PDQ Bach, violinist Itzhak Perlmand and composer/conductor John Williams all working together on the gags. I also like how the music makes you wait for each subsequent gag as they are interspersed with a fiarly straight ahead Riccoco style orchestration.

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Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture Part 2

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW4C2h3lPac

Compare the two conducting and performance styles for Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

Top video is concluding part two of Tchaikovsky’s famous 1812 Overture performed by the HallĂ© Orchestra, conducted by Mark Elder at the Royal Albert Hall during the Nations Favourite Prom 2004

Bottom video is the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6LY11kV444

Survivors Remember Kristallnacht: Rabbi Gerd Jacob (Zwienicki) Wiener

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clmpqf2aB5c

In this interview with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust survivor Rabbi Gerd Jacob (Zwienicki) Wiener shares his memories of Kristallnacht, the November 1938 pogroms.

Penn and Teller: Creationism

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BncRhS3NBfk

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCWEpaLBa6U

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDDxF3j4Q4g

The Creationism segment from Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” show.

Includes footage of Duane Gish from the Insitute of Creation Research and also the Cobb County school board in their voting process to include creationism as part of the school science curriculum.

One of the other websites I run is a bible discussion website. The Creation vs. Evolution debate section of that website is located at:
http://forum.bible-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

You can spend many hours there reading debates between “creationists” and “evolutionists”. The debates include specific points of biology and geology. I have been literally amazed to see the amount of effort and research members put into their posts. For me, the most telling element of these debates is to see which side consistently posts documented information to support their side; and to see which side consistently changes the argument mid-stream.

Many US residents are not aware that the creation vs evolution “debates” are primarily an issue solely in the United States. There is not such widespread conversation on this subject outside the USA; although it has begun to spread to Australia.

Penn and Teller are magicians from Las Vegas. They devote a lot of their time to bring up subjects they consider “Bullshit”. If you search their other videos on YouTube you might be surprised to see some of the other subjects they cover.

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