Happy Birthday!

It’s spring! Like chicks peeping out of eggs and bunnies hopping out of burrows, it seems like almost everyone is celebrating a birthday. To help the festivities, we present these happy birthday videos:

• Happy Birthday Nanny! Two little girls sing happy birthday to their mother.
• Birthday Cake Three brick men bake a homicidal birthday cake (requires Real Player).
• Pillsbury Cake Mix Commercial Make a party from a package…
• A Surprise for Jean (1954) A Prelinger film about a surprise party for a six year-old.
• Happy Birthday A quick Canadian birthday salute!
• Lionheart’s Birthday Lego film celebrating a knight’s birthday, includes musical chairs and Puff the dragon!

– Renata

A Little Accordion Music Never Hurt Anybody

Invented in the early 19th century, the accordion plays an important part of musical traditions around the world from Mexican Norteño music and 1950s chanson singing to tango, polka and Zydeco. In refutation of the famous saying, “A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion… and doesn’t” we’d like to present a few items from the archive:

• Jazz Accordion, Guitar, and Bass : 5 tracks and a shameless plug for my father (the accordion player, of course!) - perhaps I’m the only person who thinks that playing “Just Squeeze Me” on the accordion is funny…
• John Hammond Blues Band : video with a midi accordion controlling a Hammond Organ
• Les Hourquets : Saz and mandolin/guitar/accordion improvisations
• Accordeus : Original and traditional solo and accompanied accordion pieces
• Accordion Tribe : video with a good performance at the beginning
• Pauline Oliveros & The Circle Trio : performing at the Other Minds Festival in 2002
• Song for XX : by Sam Tsui
• Cakewalk : a 1908 recording by John J. Kimmel
• The Banks Of Newfoundland : Irish jig recorded in 1928 by Peter James Conlon (with bajo and accordion)
• Pancevcev Becarac : recorded in 1927 by Serbian folk musician Milan G. Pancevac

– Alexis

September 11 Television Archive Returns

 

 

From October 11, 2001 through 2003 the non-profit Television Archive provided access to streaming footage of news coverage from events surrounding the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Internet Archive brings back this historically significant collection presenting news coverage from six networks for the first three days following the first attack. It is made available for non-commercial research purposes only.

– Renata