Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Kennedy Center Honors aired

So I just watched the event tonight, as I was in Wisconsin Dells for Joe's family Christmas. All I can say about Kalahari is...wow. When I got home I cued up the DVR and Meryl's recognition was the first up. I was sort of wondering how it would go, assuming alphabetically, incorrectly. I don't really want to get into what everyone said, because seriously, what more can be said? We get it, she's good. I enjoyed Tracey Ullman's comedy, Bob DeNiro regurgitating comments verbatim that he made about Meryl at her AFI award ceremony in 2004, and the beautiful and talented Emily Blunt referencing her collaboration with Meryl in The Devil Wears Prada. God, since Anne Hathaway co-hosted the Oscars in March she has just bugged the shit out of me. She just never seems particularly serious, and don't get me wrong, I dig all the singing she's been doing lately (apparently wanted that role in Les Mis pretty badly), but give it a rest already.

Meryl of course did a great job of acting surprised and humble. I don't mean that as if I think it was a performance. I think that for events like this when everyone is basically inside your asshole it's got to be a bit tough to seem overwhelmingly gracious all the time. Meryl's probably gotten used to it, and it has to be nice to have such recognition from peers. It's sort of a boost for her Oscar campaign for The Iron Lady. I enjoyed the brief comment about Meryl's "full-court press" in movieline's weekly Oscar Index. I maintain that it'll be an uphill battle for her, but as I've said, I'll certainly enjoy the ride.

I wasn't sure if I would watch the other honorees, but I did. In particular I really enjoyed the segment with Barbara Cook. Didn't know much about her, but learned that she was the original Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide. Fun coincidence because just last week I got tickets for Joe and me to see Candide at the Portland Opera in May. Yes, I'm also an opera nerd, but promise to limit my blogging efforts to Miss Meryl.

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