"If you can't laugh at yourself, we're in real trouble. And you make me laugh at myself a lot."

[malaise]

How many times did Biden an others laugh at the Slobfather without calling his name last night?
https://deadline.com/2021/12/kennedy-center-honors-joe-biden-saturday-night-live-1234885290/


David Letterman opened Sunday night’s Kennedy Center Honors by telling the audience in the Opera House, “Tonight, it is quite nice, very nice, to see the presidential box once again being occupied.”

The crowd cheered and then gave President Joe Biden a standing ovation, after which Letterman quipped, “The same with the Oval Office.”

The ceremony marked a return to a large-scale, lavish gala of tradition, as Covid-19 forced last year’s ceremony to be postponed and later scaled back. But it also was the return of the presidential seal of approval, after four years in which President Donald Trump did not attend or host a pre-ceremony reception at the White House.

Instead, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hosted honorees Justino Diaz, Berry Gordy, Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler and Lorne Michaels for an event in the East Room before the ceremony. The president gave Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live, a little ribbing, “He’s trying out seven guys to play me.”

[hlthe2b]

1. Read the whole article, folks. So poignant to read about the return to a traditional, if lavish

celebration of those who have entertained and meant a lot to most of us.

One night of reassurance.

Off to set my DVR to make sure I don't miss it.

[malaise]

9. I sure enjoyed the article

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Two Canadians. Joni Mitchell is especially deserving. Best side of America, the way this is open to

I'm happy to see Joni Mitchell is well enough to travel.

It shows the best side of the USA that these Honors are extended to foreign nationals. Arthur Rubinstein, Hume Cronyn, Joan Sutherland, Elton John, Zubin Mehta, Natalia Makarova, Led Zeppelin, and others were previously honored.

I hope Neil Young receives the Honor soon.

[2naSalit]

5. Thanks for the picture...

I'm glad Ms Mitchell was well enough to travel too. She was a big influence for me. An amazing artist.

The others as well, though. Bette Midler is unique and amazing, too.

Well deserved honors for all of them.

[bullwinkle428]

12. Joni Mitchell: 'I'm hobbling along but I'm doing all right'

Joni Mitchell addressed her health difficulties in a rare public speech as she accepted her Kennedy Center Honor, one of the most prestigious awards in American cultural life.

At a ceremony attended by Joe Biden – in a show of support for the arts after the awards were snubbed by Donald Trump – Mitchell discussed the issues she’s faced in the wake of an aneurysm in 2015 that left her temporarily unable to walk or talk.

“I always think that polio was a rehearsal for the rest of my life,” she said, referring to the disease she suffered aged nine. “I’ve had to come back several times from things. And this last one was a real whopper. But, you know, I’m hobbling along but I’m doing all right!”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/06/joni-mitchell-health-kennedy-center-award

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Thank you for that update from her. So good to hear. . . . nt

[Tomconroy]

3. Am I right in thinking that David Letterman is right and the ass clown

never visited the Kennedy Center?

[ShazzieB]

4. I believe so.

No doubt someone will know for sure.

[llmart]

6. Probably because it had the name Kennedy on it.

I'm surprised he didn't rename it for himself with an executive order.

[mcar]

15. Letterman is correct

I watch the KC Honors every year. IMPOTUS II broke long-standing tradition and never went to one of the shows. I read back then that it was because he knew he'd be booed.

[Lonestarblue]

7. It's interesting that Trump supporters claim they are saving our history and traditions,

yet they support a man who cares nothing for our traditions and indeed took a wrecking ball to many of them. While most of us will never attend this type of ceremony at the Kennedy Center, its occurrence has always been an opportunity to feel good about the US as the President and First Lady honor the amazing artists who have entertained all of us. Such traditions are important.

And it’s good to see the White House returned to traditional Christmas ornaments and scenes instead of black trees straight from a Soviet gulag or blood red trees from some unknown fantasy but possibly a link to the red robes of the Handmaid’s Tales.

[secondwind]

8. Beautifully said.....

[malaise]

10. Well said

[Tanuki]

14. "Wrecking ball" is not just a metaphor... he literally destroyed historically significant art

to build Trump Tower!

https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/09/trump-files-when-donald-destroyed-priceless-art-build-trump-tower/

"The construction of Trump Tower may have been Donald Trump’s greatest achievement, but it was a disaster for the city’s artistic legacy.
To build his skyscraper, Trump first had to knock down the Bonwit Teller building, a luxurious limestone building erected in 1929. The face of the building featured two huge Art Deco friezes that the Metropolitan Museum of Art wanted to preserve. The museum asked Trump to save the sculptures and donate them, and the mogul agreed—as long as the cost of doing so wasn’t too high.

But then, according to journalist Harry Hurt III in his book Lost Tycoon, Trump discovered that taking out the sculptures would delay demolition by two weeks. He wasn’t willing to wait. “On his orders, the demolition workers cut up the grillwork with acetylene torches,” Hurt wrote. “Then they jackhammered the friezes, dislodged them with crowbars, and pushed the remains inside the building, where they fell to the floor and shattered in a million pieces.”

The art world was shocked. “Architectural sculpture of this quality is rare and would have made definite sense in our collections,” Ashton Hawkins, the vice president and secretary of the Met’s board of trustees, told the New York Times. Robert Miller, a gallery owner who had agreed to assess the friezes, told the paper that “the reliefs are as important as the sculptures on the Rockefeller building. They’ll never be made again.”...(more)

[Joinfortmill]

13. Truly, I love Joe Biden. He's such a normal human.

[malaise]

16. Lots more here including video

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216118314