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dweniusFrom the Improbable Blog: Video of Tom Lehrer performing a handful of beautiful/horrible math songs at a colleague's 80th birthday celebration. Possibly the only video of him performing available anywhere (mad props to archive.org), and charming as all hell, as he is completely in his element, that being a room filled with mathematicians.
In related news, I had NO IDEA that Lehrer wrote some songs for the children's program The Electric Company. Yep, soundtracks for animated ditties like "Silent E", "N apostrophe T", and the one I know you will remember, "L-Y", featuring lines like:
On the lake your boat upset,
and your clothes got soaking wet
how do you stand and wait for them to dry?
Brrrrr-Patiently!
Brrrrr-Patiently!
Patient...L-Y!
So, for those of you still keeping score at home, let us all raise a glass and fondly recall The Electric Company, starring Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman as "Easy Reader" (the reading-crazed hippie biker equivalent to the Count on Sesame street, according to , this entertaining article, which also contains the classic phrase "Do two funny minutes on the blend 'fl' - it's a nightmare for a writer"), plus occasional music by Tom Lehrer. Short of the Muppet Show, was there anything even halfway as awesome on TV in the 70s? Why is modern children's TV so utterly bereft of kick ass actors laying it down with the mad phonics? Seriously, now.
In related news, I had NO IDEA that Lehrer wrote some songs for the children's program The Electric Company. Yep, soundtracks for animated ditties like "Silent E", "N apostrophe T", and the one I know you will remember, "L-Y", featuring lines like:
On the lake your boat upset,
and your clothes got soaking wet
how do you stand and wait for them to dry?
Brrrrr-Patiently!
Brrrrr-Patiently!
Patient...L-Y!
So, for those of you still keeping score at home, let us all raise a glass and fondly recall The Electric Company, starring Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman as "Easy Reader" (the reading-crazed hippie biker equivalent to the Count on Sesame street, according to , this entertaining article, which also contains the classic phrase "Do two funny minutes on the blend 'fl' - it's a nightmare for a writer"), plus occasional music by Tom Lehrer. Short of the Muppet Show, was there anything even halfway as awesome on TV in the 70s? Why is modern children's TV so utterly bereft of kick ass actors laying it down with the mad phonics? Seriously, now.
