Handel's Messiah: A Random Act of Culture

The Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus, together with singers from a cross section of community groups, infiltrate a department store as shoppers and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah," in one of 1,000 Random Acts of Culture. Watch the performers, delighted children, spontaneous videographers, and the entire public within earshot together "create culture."

Pete Seeger -- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

For a biographical account of America in song, look to Pete Seeger (1919-2014). This song of Pete's is the one he chose to sing on national TV in 1968, ending his more than decade-long blacklist, and showing that he hadn't made peace with war and injustice.

One Holy Night - The tale of the 1914 Christmas Truce

H Patricia Hynes, Frances Crowe; Jan Barry; John McCutcheon Portside
The tale of the 1914 Christmas Truce survived through the letters and photos of soldiers who, along 600 miles of trenches, suspended war and shared Christmas - with their enemy. The war to end all wars did the opposite, sowing seeds of future ones. Industrial warfare - bombing cities; using chemical poisons; and a punitive peace treaty, with the winners dividing up the empires of the losers - all but guaranteed that future conflicts would be settled by military force.

"Café Society Swing" is Glorious Jazz and Troubling History

Lucy Komisar The Komisar Scoop
1948, the tenth birthday of Café Society, where great jazz and cabaret in a corner of Greenwich Village clashed with the worst know-nothings of the McCarthy era. But we're over that now, so come to this musical memoir to enjoy the delicious sounds of the 30s and 40s. And recall how evil the thought police of that era were...the vicious House Un-American Activities Committee (the ironically well-named HUAC) goes after the entertainers. Some get scared.(Closes Jan. 4)

Tidbits - December 25, 2014- Holiday edition

Portside
Reader Comments-Colbert Nation; Is It Band Enough Yet; Southern Jim Crow Murder; Cuba; How America's Relationship With Cuba Will Change; We express our condolences - Millions March NYC and Center for Constitutional Rights; Angela Davis on police violence; Youth Shall Lead in struggle against police violence; Political Athletes; "Negro-Jewish Unity" and IWO; torture; FBI; Panama invasion; New resources: On Torture; Staughton Lynd book; Stevie Wonder; theater review

Springsteen: My Oklahoma Home

Bruce Springsteen, live in Dublin, sings Woody Guthrie's classic song of humor for surviving Dust Bowl and Depression."All except my mortgage blowed away." 

Friday Nite Videos -- November 28, 2014

Portside
Redemption Song: Playing for Change. #BlackoutBlackFriday. Michael Brown Protesters Urge Black Friday Boycott. Free Education Demo: London. Walmart Workers' Flash Mob.

Redemption Song: Playing for Change

A version of "Redemption Song" performed around the world in honor of Bob Marley's birthday, featuring Bob Marley and his son Stephen, suffused with a feeling of rising above the past. 

The Other America - A Riot is the Language of the Unheard

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Grosse Pointe Historical Society
"...it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard." [March 14, 1968]
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