The Kennedy Center Honors

Widely touted as the best Awards show each year this seasons Kennedy Center Honors broadcast aired the day after Christmas on CBS. As our family was still in the midst of holiday travel our blessed TIVO allowed me to tape this.

As usual this years broadcast featured an interesting group ranging from legendary guitarist Buddy Guy, actor Dustin Hoffman, ballerina Natalia Makarova, talk show host David Letterman and the legendary rock act Led Zeppelin.

On this awards show the inductees do not perform, they do not even speak. They are spoken to, and about, their work is showcased, and in the case of musicians often performed. This can lead to some moments you will not find on other programs.

The actual event is usually a couple of weeks before airing and consists of about three hours, therefore the broadcast at two hours is an edited version of the show. Trying to respect all honorees but pay attention to the audience viewing our ballerina honoree while getting about fifteen minutes did receive short shrift on the broadcast.

Dustin Hoffman was praised for his immense body of work. Looking at Hoffman in a couple of his early movies like The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy and it is easy to see how this man never allowed himself to be typecast. Over recent years we may have forgotten the brilliance of Hoffman's acting but a review of his past work puts that to rest. His presentation also convinced me that I have to view his performance as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.

Buddy Guy is an incredible guitar player. Being one of the artists that is more well known in the music community than in the real world has it's advantages, but still it is a shame someone with his talents never found mass appeal. For those who sing and appreciate the blues however Guy is a legendary. A clip of Guy performing with The Rolling Stones years ago and being presented at the end with Keith Richards guitar as if Richards is saying he cannot compete was special to see. I myself remember watching Guy perform with Jeff Beck at the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anniversary concert, the man is amazing. At 76 years old we can all be thankful that this amazing talent has received one of the highest honers a performer can gain while he is still with us to enjoy it.

Anyone who knows me is aware of my fondness for David Letterman. I love the man and his show. For much of the last ten years Dave has consistently come in second to nobody's friend Jay Leno. It does seem odd to me that this man of the Midwest should lose the ratings in the heartland while Jay Leno an East Coast boy living on the West Coast can with his bland style of humor and interviewing win the mass audience. I'm not bitter though and one guesses Dave is not either. He was visibly touched by this award and in being honored by Ray Romano and Jimmy Kimmel along with countless other of today's talent in spirit Dave is firmly entrenched as today's equivalent of Johnny Carson. This is fitting as Dave revered Johnny and still mists up when he talks of the night Johnny called him over to the couch after his performance. This is the " big breakthrough" for a young comedian, Ellen DeGeneres talks about how it happened for her as well, and it is very rare. It sent Dave on his way. When the men speaking tribute to Dave tell him that as much as Johnny meant to him he means to them it is pretty moving.

Ending the show was the induction of the incomparable Led Zeppelin. Jack Black was in his glory as he spoke of the band, it's influence on him and as he attested " everyone here except those who are here for the ballerina lady." Certainly they have had their influence on both me and my teenage son. The music is really timeless and a great joy of mine has been seeing my son go through his Zeppelin phase. I have even written previously about that transfer of loyalties from a father to a son. Zeppelin was formed in the late sixties around former Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page and was met with universal criticism and universal popularity at the same time. It took a long time for music critics to switch sides with Zeppelin, when they were staging the worlds biggest tour in 1975 to support their sixth album, all had been multiple platinum, Physical Graffiti John Paul Jones, their bassist, heard a radio Deejay ripping them and called in to complain. Whether they admitted it or not, as popular as they were, the criticism hurt and wounded. Still the fame, private airplanes, millions, and the attention of countless women will ease the pain of that one supposes. The band ruled the album charts for years and still sells a million of albums a year off its back catalog. When the band, sans drummer Jon Bonham who died in 1980, booked a charity reunion show in 2007 over four million people placed their names in a lottery for tickets. Still it appears they may be the last holdout of the great dinosaur bands of that fruitful period of the late sixties and early seventies, thus far they have resisted all overtures to have one last gobsmacking world tour. The performance that honored the band was a showstopper indeed with Kid Rick and Lenny Kravitz both taking turns fronting a band as Zeppelin songs were performed. Still without a doubt the showstopper, the moment you will remember, was the performance of the legendary song Stairway to Heaven. The song was performed by Ann and Nancy Wilson until about halfway through as small group of about ten to fifteen folks joined them for harmonies as the song sped up. Then about halfway through the song and the curtain went up for an amazing scene, a full orchestra and choir. The performance became spectacle, albeit spectacle in a very not Led Zeppelin kind of way. The camera panned to the band members high above the stage, Page his hair pure white in a ponytail looking like he belongs in a fine wine commercial was thrilled while Jones, still looking youthful was obviously pleased. The reaction that strikes though was Plant's. Ornery probably would be a generous word to describe the bands lead singer, cantankerous might fit better. Plant at his advanced age looks like a character out of The Hobbit, with long curly locks of must be dyed hair, wrinkles and bags around his eyes that if lines are character make him venerable indeed, Plant was stunned silent as the choir appeared. Wiping tears from his eyes and smiling to Page's nods to him one hopes that Mr. Plant found a peace in his popularity that bypassed all the hurtful things said about the band. Finishing up the touches was at the end of the song seeing Jason Bonham, who sat in on drums that performance in 2007 in his fathers stead, and who also played during the Stairway performance here, stand and salute his " uncles" as it were. It would be a harder man than me not to feel the emotion in that room.

So for another year the Kennedy Honors are complete and each year the show keeps getting better. One might assume that the older one gets the more they enjoy the show, which by then will be honoring the heroes of ones youth. It might well be true.

All the President's Men

Alan Pakula directed this 1976 movie adapted from the book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book of the same name. The book, of course, told the story of Woodward and Bernstein's reporting for The Washington Post that broke the Watergate story and coverup.

The movie is nothing short of fantastic. Starting with the discovery of the break in at The Watergate Hotel by a security guard that led to the arrest of the five burglars. Assigned to the case is Woodward, played by Robert Redford, a young reporter. At the arraignment Woodward is surprised to see that these small time burglars have a country club lawyer, and even more surprised when one of the burglars, Kent McCord claims he has been a CIA operative.

Eventually Woodward and then Bernstien, played by Dustin Hoffman, work thier way up the chain of the case. They tie Howard Hunt into the case, Hunt works for Charles Colson the President's counsel and eventually find the slush fund dispensed by the Commitee to Reelect the President, or CREEP, is controlled by H R Haldemen and John Mitchell. Haldemen as the President's Chief of Staff is considered the second most powerful man in the country and Mitchell is the former Attorney General who now heads up the President's Reelection campaign.

Jason Robards is perhaps the best actor in the movie, no mean feat, playing Editor Ben Bradlee. Bradlee continually pushes on his young reporters to get more information and more sources and get somebody to go on the record. Still when the reporters publish and the White House attacks the reporting he silently passes around a note at a staff meeting with his editors that says simply" We stick with the story." Bradlee is a hero and should be considered such.

The movie ends with Nixon taking the oath of office in 1973, the story did not break soon enough and deep enough to prevent that, and then we see headlines typed out over the next two years detailing the collapse of the Nixon administration.

The movie could have been twice as long but ends in a good spot. Once Haldeman and Mitchell were implicated the rest of the story only needed time.

This is a movie that as you watch it you are amazed at the ways that the reporters have to gain information as clearly everyone is scared to speak, and pressure is certainly coming from on high to protect the administration. Were the reporters, it should be noted young reporters at that time, not supported by Bradlee then this story might well have not broken.

A great movie.

Luck

Hbo's new series debuted last weekend. To gain interest they also have made the second episode available right away on demand.

After watching the first two episodes one thing I know is that horse racing is much more complicated than I knew.

With two episodes in the books we do not know much about the show. We do know that the show has an incredibly strong cast and a story that is not going to be easy to follow.

I plan to watch this series but hope that I can figure out some of the relationships. Each of the characters have a back story which we are learning slowly. In some cases we do not know yet.

The acting in this show is first rate. The cast is as strong as you will find. Dennis Farina, John Ortiz, Jason Gedrick and Richard Kind are very strong. Farina and Kind especially so. The heart of the show however is Dustin Hoffman as Ace Bernstein and Nick Nolte as Walter Smith. Nolte has become a fixture of jokes on the late night shows but make no mistake...Nolte can act and this part looks like it fits him like a second skin.

This with patience should prove to be an excellent show.

Little Fockers

On a rainy Sunday afternoon during Hurricane Irene somehow this movie had found its way to the top of our Netflix list. I enjoyed the first movie in the series, thought it was a funny concept and Robert DeNiro is always good. The second movie was entertaining but weaker. The interplay berwwn DeNiro and Hoffman was very good.

This movie was abysmal. The humor in many cases is juvenile with two many sex jokes and viagra references. Ben Stiller is fine, Deniro is over the top while Hoffman and especially Barbara Streisand are just annoying. This is not a good movie.