This year’s honorees are Martin Scorsese, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Brian Wilson, and Leon Fleisher.
The only one who doesn’t make me say “WTF?” is Scorsese.
Why do they make you say WTF?
Diana Ross was one of the biggest stars of the 70s and early 80s, before that being in the very popular Supremes.
Steve Martin has crossed from zany critically acclaimed stand up comedy, to serious novels to really bad movies with Queen Latifah. Ok. I can almost see WTF, there. But, soley on his Wild and Crazy Guy days I can see him getting in for standup comedy.
Pet Sounds is a pop album that is almost always mentioned in top 10 lists of greatest of all time. It’s cited as an influence by countless artists. In addition, Wilson wrote a bunch of hits that everyone has heard atleast 10 million times.
I don’t know Leon Fleisher’s work. But, looking at his wiki page he seems pretty worthy.
pat
Diana Ross was a singer, nothing more, nothing less. She didn’t particularly add to the cultural life of this country in any lasting, significant way.
Wow, that’s a pretty ignorant statement. Just a singer? Actor, producer, writer, singer… she even designed costumes for her tours.
Also, tell the young African-American girls who finally saw someone on television who was popular and talented that she didn’t add to the culteral life of this country. Lasting way? Four decades (plus) of work isn’t lasting? Strange scale you’ve got there.
She’s won a Tony a Golden Globe, and been nominated for an Oscar and numerous Grammy awards. She’s sold over 100 million records, and was the top female artist of the 70s and 80s.
She was the center of one of the most popular acts of the 60s, and did her part to help form the “Motown sound.” Girl groups existed before The Supremes, but their popularity paved the way for other female artists. Many female musicians & singers cite her as a big influence in their lives.
Certainly you may spout “WTF?” at all of the honorees, but they’ve all contributed to entertainment in a big way. I can’t imagine why you’d think they are undeserving.
Brian Wilson? As in, *In my Room * Brian Wilson? Or is there another Brian Wilson I don’t know about? I’m with the twickster on that one.
I am sorry you dislike In My Room. But, it’s hard to deny the extent of Brian Wilson’s cultural impact. He helped create songs that were not only top sellers, but influential with the best musicians of his generation and beyond. Forget all that, he deserves the Kennedy Center Honors for putting God Only Knows together. The rest is gravy.
I wan’t dissing *In My Room * so much as I was commenting on my perception that a Kennedy Center Honor should go to someone who has spent a significant portion of their career contributing to their art, rather than a significant portion of their career pouting in isolation because they felt no one took their music seriously enough to suit them.
Okay, here is a list of previous honorees. (Hm, quite a run of dancers there in the late '90s.)
Compare the honorees from, say, the first five years – George Balanchine, Aaron Copland, Agnes DeMille, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman (to pick one, fairly randomly, from each of those years) to Diana freakin’ Ross.
What the fuck, say I.
Oh, come on. Without Diana Ross, we wouldn’t have Micheal Jackson as we know him. Now that’s cultural influence. 
They started in 1978. They had a lot of catching up to do, and many of the early people had done their best work 30 or 40 years earlier.
Okay, look at 2000-2006: Steven Spielberg, Zubin Mehta, Tony Bennett, Joan Sutherland, James Brown, Paul Simon.
vs. Diana Ross.
Sorry, still not seein’ it.
twickster, I’m surprised that you went WTF at Fleisher’s selection.
His cycle of LvB piano concertos are pretty much the reference set. Brahms, as well.
And I thought I vaguely remembered reading about you liking Beethoven, so I did a search. Yup.
Yeah, you’re right, I retract my WTF on Fleisher. Esp. since just yesterday Iposted about dragging out those exact CDs to listen to on the way to work. :o
twickster, wait. Your argument against Diana Ross was that she was nothing more than a singer, how is that different from Tony Bennett? I’m not a huge Diana Ross fan, but I fail to see how Tony Bennett’s career outshines hers.
Tully Mars, I didn’t know Wilson often complained about being unappreciated. I thought his reclusion was due to mental illness. I could see how his complaints would color your perception.
I think you’re not seeing it on purpose. No one said that YOU have to personally like the honorees. You said she was just a singer while my previous comment showed you to be clearly wrong. You ignore that and continue with your “duhhh, I don’t see it!” song and dance.
It isn’t a battle royale between the honorees…it isn’t this one vs that one. It’s honoring performers who’ve made an impact in their fields. If you still don’t get how she qualifies, I’m not sure what else can be explained to you.
Maybe if you used smaller words, I could get it through my thick skull?
Sleeps with Butterflies, you responses to **Twickster **strike me as being unnecessarily abrasive. Surely you can disagree with someone without implying that their intelligence is not up to scratch. But, perhaps I misread. I have also been accused of having a thick skull, best penetrated by monosyllabic reasoning.
You consider THAT unnecessarily abrasive? Perhaps if Twickster feels they’ve been wronged they can speak for themselves.
But since you’ve decided to take me to task, how do you get through to someone who refuses to acknowledge information presented?
He/she made a rather ignorant statement regarding the topic:
I provided them with information which demonstrated that they’re clearly ill informed on said topic. They choose to completely ignore and keep on beating the same drum of ignorance. Another poster also attempted to address the OP’s statement which he/she also ignored.
Why start the topic if no matter what information is imparted to you, you insist on repeating the same thing? This strikes me as someone who is being deliberately obtuse or just wanting to rant without hearing anyone else’s point of view. Either the OP needs
a) A journal so they can rant without anyone trying to show them how
their statement is ill informed
b) Someone to just come in and agree with them
c) Stronger worded statements they might pay attention to.
I don’t even like Diana Ross very much. But to read someone saying what they said when history so clearly shows a different thing, it’s just makes me WTF my head off.
She didn’t do any of these jobs particularly well (with the *possible * exception of singing) – indicating, to me, more egomania and attention seeking rather than talent.
Popular, yes – talented, not so much. (Have you seen Mahogany?) My beef very specifically is with rewarding popularity and not talent.
Work, okay – significant contribution, maybe a few years.
Etc.
Also – I’m not a “they,” there’s only one of me.