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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 2/18/2025: Kennedy Center Memories [1]
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Date: 2025-02-18
Carl Larsson: Lisbeth Reading (1904)
Good evening, Kibitzers!
Well, just as predicted, we got plenty of snow here over Saturday night, then it rained all day Sunday, making the snow extremely heavy. People who cared to go anywhere still needed to shovel it, because there was too much to of it disappear promptly in the rain. By Monday morning, most of it was gone, but there were howling winds all day with 50 mph gusts, accompanying a cold front that’s supposed to stick around most of the week. The “wind advisory” stayed around until 5 pm Tuesday. Good thing I no longer live where the power goes out every five minutes.
I know there are SO many things, in this ugly time, whose ongoing destruction makes us sad, but surely the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts is high on the list. Last time, Biff was content to just avoid the place and let its programs, including its annual awarding of honors, continue unmolested. This time, he’s fired the board and made himself the chairman.
Accordingly, I was attracted to their YouTube channel, where there are hundreds of videos showcasing everything that goes on there. And yet, I was kind of afraid to base a diary on it, because one never knows when stuff is going to disappear. I took a chance and focused in on the Kennedy Center Honors shows. As I write this, we’re only two hours away from posting time, so I am hopeful everything I’ve embedded will stay long enough for me to show it to you.
I looked at their playlist Kennedy Center Honors Highlights through the Years, and picked some of the many performances I enjoyed. Caution: quite a few of these performers and/or honorees are unaccountably not white men, so I imagine we’ll later be surprised to learn that they are not the most highly qualified to appear here. Oh well, those are the breaks when you let me write your KTK, since I am not a white man either! What do I know?
The awards have been presented since 1978, but there aren’t as many videos available pre-21st-century. Here’s one of them, though.
Honoring Gene Kelly ❧ Gregory Hines: I Got Rhythm/Fascinating Rhythm (1982) [5:30]
Honoring Smokey Robinson ❧ The Temptations: My Girl (2006) [2:14]
I apologize for the early shot of W. It’s only about 3 seconds but it seems longer because there is no earthly reason we should have to see him.
Honoring Barbra Streisand ❧ Beyoncé: The Way We Were (2008) [3:23]
Honoring Paul McCartney ❧ Dave Grohl and Norah Jones: Maybe I'm Amazed (2010) [2:33]
Honoring Yo-Yo Ma ❧ John Williams and James Taylor: Here Comes the Sun (2011) [3:50]
Some of these clips are in this “Honors Memories” format, meaning they open with a brief teaser of the performance and then include some comments by the honoree. Don’t worry, the performance follows that!
Honoring Buddy Guy ❧ Beth Hart and Jeff Beck: I’d Rather Go Blind (2012) [3:33]
Honoring Carlos Santana ❧ Juanes, Tom Morello, Fher Olvera: Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va (2013) [3:41]
Honoring Sting ❧ Bruno Mars: So Lonely /Message in a Bottle (2014) [4:44]
Honoring Al Green ❧ Mavis Staples and Sam Moore: Take Me To the River (2014) [3:13]
Honoring Carole King ❧ Aretha Franklin: Natural Woman (2015). [4:40]
Here’s the one that makes everyone cry. As I know we’ve said before, Carole King didn’t know Aretha was appearing, and believed she was too ill to play the piano, or to sing — that’s the source of her astonishment.
Honoring Carmen de Lavallade ❧ Misty Copeland, with Robert Fairchild and Rebecca Luker: Bill (2017) [3:11]
Honoring Cher ❧ Cyndi Lauper: If I Could Turn Back Time (2018). [3:57]
Another demonstration that the honorees aren’t told who’ll be performing — apparently Cher had asked Cyndi Lauper if she was going to the event, and Cyndi told her no, she had to be in Los Angeles.
Honoring The Grateful Dead ❧ Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, Maggie Rogers, Leon Bridges, Susan Tedeschi: Not Fade Away (2024). [2:02]
The full YT playlist for the 2024 show is here. Paramount+ owns the complete shows, so I’m sure you could stream the whole thing there. Honorees this year, in addition to the Dead, were Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval, Francis Ford Coppola, and the Apollo Theater.
If you would like to see more from the Kennedy Center (while you can???), here’s the page with all their playlists. You might like:
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