The Kennedy Center Socially Distanced Honors

[calimac]

These were accumulated and broadcast yesterday, so I watched the result. I enjoy the disparate styles and specialties of the honorees, and this was a good year for that.

There was a classical musician, as there is about half the time. This year it was the violinist Midori, whom I've heard live once. She got a reasonable ration of tribute performances: fellow former child prodigy Yo-Yo Ma in some solo Bach, Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony (a married couple, by the way) in a bit of Bach two-violin concerto, Hilary Hahn in part of Bernstein's Symposium (definitely not one of his populist works), and a young violinist named Randall Goosby in a Paganini caprice.

Of the other honorees:

• Nobody else sings classic Joan Baez songs as well as she does;
• It was worth honoring Dick Van Dyke for the acappella rendition of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang theme song alone;
• I'd not previously heard of Debbie Allen nor known her work, but I enjoyed her choreographic style;
• Garth Brooks was the final honoree and took the most honoring. Judging from the clips provided, I wouldn't enjoy his stage shows, but his songs (all new to me) were all right, and a couple of them made admirable socio-political points, which allies him with Joan Baez more than I'd have expected.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

It sure sounds as though it's worth watching!

[wild_patience]

As I mentioned, I'm a big Debbie Allen fan. I loved the TV show Fame, which she starred in. (It was set in the High School of the Performing Arts in NYC. She was the dance instructor and choreographed everything on the show.) I watched the movie (same title) after the show started. I don't recall if she was in that as well, but she may have been.

I've been enjoying her work on Grey's Anatomy for the last few years. I'm also a big fan of Loretta Devine, who played the first wife of the character whom Allen's character is currently married to. Allen has also done a great deal of community work. I'm happy to see her honored.