Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Let’s finish the job.

Come on, man.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Tick tock motherfuckers!

This really is a full service blog.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

This fight is for everything.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / KULCHA! / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Best of the Best

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Best of the Best

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It’s delightful how delighted Carole King is… but then, who wouldn’t be? Via NYMag:

Earlier this month, Aretha Franklin graced the Kennedy Center Honors stage to pay tribute to Carole King, one of six honorees this year. Aretha received that same honor more than two decades ago, but if you think she deserved it then, hoo boy, just look at her now: The Queen of Soul arrived to slay, casually strolling across the stage in her floor-length fur coat like it was her living room, tossing her sparkling clutch on the piano and taking her seat at the keys — a rare sight these days. Already, King’s mouth is agape. Barely a minute into “Natural Woman,” which King co-wrote, President Obama’s wiping away tears. The whole room (particularly King, who can’t help but stand out) is mesmerized…

ETA: Because star commentor LAMH is correct, as always — this performance also deserves full attention:

EATA: Courtesy of TaMara, you can watch the entire show at this link.

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  2. 2.

    gogol's wife

    All I could think was, how can she play the piano in that coat? That’s hard!

    I’m hoping we can watch this on the CBS website tonight. For some reason I had it down in my calendar as being broadcast on New Year’s Eve. I blame my cold — my brain is not working right.

  6. 6.

    ThresherK

    Before Aretha’s “nobody can follow that!” performance, Miranda Lambert sang “Desperado”. Was anyone else underwhelmed by Lambert?

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    I wonder if CBS would re-air the program.

    SyFy channel starts its Twilight Zone marathon at 7:00 p tonight. Love me some Rod Serling and all the actors who later became stars and more recognizable.

    To say nothing of the stories and implications.

  9. 9.

    lamh36

    @ThresherK: Boring as hell, but she was followed and frankly upstaged by that stellar performance by CeCe Winans in tribute of Cicely Tyson followed by that musical tribute for Carole King

    I posted the performance by CeCe Winans on another thread, I know folks here aren’t always keen on “religious” stuff, but CeCe’s performance is worth mentioning because of how great she was and seeing the beautiful Black faces of her backing choir from Cicely Tyson Community School for Fine Arts (especially with all the news of young Black lives being taken out in the news)

    Also too, Cicely’s reaction was enough to make even the most big names emotional, hell, even Usher was crying.

    ICYMI: CeCe Winans performs Blessed Assurance in honor of Cicely Tyson Kennedy Center Honor

  11. 11.

    BBA

    I’ve long thought that we’d only get action on police impunity when rich white guys start getting targeted, and probably not even then.

    Well, rich white guy (and Linux god) Ian Murdock was murdered by police on Monday.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Carole King and Aretha Franklin both come across as ageless. I don’t mean “young-looking” necessarily, I mean it is almost impossible from their appearance, attitude, and energy to have any idea about their chronological ages. Turns out, they were both born in 1942 — as was I. Does a heart good.

  13. 13.

    dogwood

    Kennedy Center Honors is always a great show. The honorees are always so appreciative and worthy of recognition, that I never read reviews about the performances. It’s not a show for nit-picking. That said this year’s was especially good. I have a lot of good memories from that show over the years. The Aretha Franklin tribute, YoYoMa, Led Zeppelin, Dolly Parton, to name just a few.

  14. 14.

    donnah

    I bawled through the awards presentation. Cicely Tyson was as overwhelmed as Carole King by the tribute, and even the George Lucas segment was moving. I was so happy to see our President and First Lady enjoying the event. Seeing them singing along just made me smile. It was a great program.

    I love my President!

  16. 16.

    lamh36

    @dogwood: to be honest, the “Obama” years have been really good every year. I barely recall the Bush years, except the year with Tina Turner who was honored by Beyonce I believe.

    I was much younger during the Clinton years and do not recall ANY of those broadcast at all I honestly can’t imagine what a Trump, HRC, or Sanders KChonors would look like.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    I got home from seeing SW just in time to catch the King tributes and Aretha was simply amazing. If I’d been Carole King, I’d have been freaking out even more. She is so awesome and I just adore her and always have.

  20. 20.

    dogwood

    @lamh36:
    I don’t believe the President has anything to do with who gets honored. It’s the Kennedy center honors not the President honors. The president hosts a reception and sits with the honorees at the show. I wouldn’t not watch the program, or assume it would be bad because I didn’t like the President. The Dolly Parton tribute was during the Bush years and it’s a classic.

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    @dogwood: never said I didn’t watch because I didn’t like whatever President.

    I never had any interest in it. It just so happened that I did consistently watch during the “Obama” years…that is all. Nothing to do with who the Pres was.

    And I am aware that the Prez does pick the honorees…the bit about the future President’s programs was an attempt at a joke, as I see someone else understood

    ETA: From Wikepedia:

    Selection process[edit]
    Honoree recommendations are accepted from the general public,[7] and the Kennedy Center initiated a Special Honors Advisory Committee, which comprises two members of the Board of Trustees as well as past Honorees and distinguished artists. The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees selects the Honoree recipients based on excellence in music, dance, theater, opera, motion pictures, or television.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @BBA:

    Well, rich white guy (and Linux god) Ian Murdock was murdered by police on Monday.

    From what I’ve read, the circumstances of his death have not even been released. He apparently threatened suicide on Monday on FB/Twitter. He was apparently arrested on Monday, although it’s not at all clear whether said arrest was related in any way to his suicide threat. It is also not clear that he died in police custody, or as a result of being in police custody.

    It may well turn out to be the case, but at this point your claim of “murderd by police” seems irresponsible, to say the least. Do you have a source or link?

  24. 24.

    laura

    In addition to the Kennedy Center Honors two music news notes, one happy and one sad:
    Guns n Roses reunion in the New Year and,
    The passing of Lemmy Kilmister legendary front man of Motorhead.
    My brother intruded Slash and Carole King. They’re good pals.

  25. 25.

    dogwood

    @lamh36:
    Well, you said that you couldn’t imagine what the program would be like with a different president which led me to believe you assumed the president was central to the quality or nature of the tributes. I’m old, so I’ve watched these programs for decades. I hope that what you’ve seen during the Obama years has made you a fan.

    And on another note. The Carole King tribute was especially nostalgic for me. Over the holiday’s my sister and I were talking about our high school years and reminiscing about wearing out “Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits”, Carole King’s “Tapestry” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Bare Trees”. So seeing Aretha and Carole together really hit a nice nerve for me.

  28. 28.

    Schlemazel

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Nobody that age has a voice like that! She is amazing. My mom took me to see Mahalia Jackson when I was young. It was not until years later when I understood what time did to great voices that I really understood what a great talent she was. I had flashbacks to her while watching that video. The power, that range, simply not normal, what a blessing to her her.

  29. 29.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    There may be recordings of Aretha at a very young age floating around. A good friend of mine’s father had a record shop on Hastings in Detroit. He had a contract to make recordings of sermons at area churches and Rev. Franklin’s were always in demand. He also recorded the choirs and soloists, and pressed a few copies. This was ephemeral stuff, but collectors still dig for it. Once flipping stacks at a Goodwill I saw a guy with the VON Records (my friend’s father’s obscure brand) label tattooed on his arm. He was from Manchester England. You never know what will turn up.
    In any case, she’s a treasure and that’s an outstanding performance.

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    love this article…..LOL

    …………

    Obama cries as Aretha Franklin proves why she’s the queen of soul

    You want to know why Aretha is the indisputable Queen of Soul? Watch this. You want to know why hacks like me send her fan mail by the week pleading for an interview, knowing there is sod-all hope, but not resenting her one smidge? Watch this.

    Aretha is performing at the 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, held on 6 December in Washington and broadcast on CBS on Tuesday night. It wasn’t even Aretha’s night. Oh no. This ceremony was to award, among others, Rita Moreno,George Lucas and Carole King. Then up steps Aretha to sing the King/Goffin/Wexler 1967 classic (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.

    Look at King, open-mouthed in shock and awe (the right kind of shock and awe) – and this is before Aretha’s even opened hers. Everything about Aretha is astonishing – the range, depth, control in her voice, the phrasing, the passion, the playing, the floor-length fur, the sparkling clutch purse. The more Aretha sings, the harder it is to believe that King is not going to die and go to heaven. President Obama is wiping away tears before Aretha’s even done with the first verse. Aretha is 73, looks wonderful, and might just be singing better than ever.

    To top everything, she throws the mink to the ground with supreme elan. Nobody chucks a fur like Aretha. This is not the performance of the year, it’s the performance of the millennium. Long live the Queen.

  32. 32.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I got the Kirkus review of Becoming Phoebe today. I couldn’t have asked for one much more complimentary. It ends with:

    A triumphant tale of surviving abuse, embracing hockey, and finding love.

    I’m in a good mood this evening.

  33. 33.

    lamh36

    I think alot of folks don’t know that Aretha Franklin was accepted into Juilliard School of Music for classical piano…so she knows her way around a piano.

    It’s just so rare as she’s gotten older to see her sit at the piano to play. I’d always assumed it may have to do with her being a diabetic, diabetic nerve disease can be a real bitch.

    BB King used to talk about how hard it was to suffer from the disease especially since he fingers are his trade…

    It’s why I think Carole King was so shocked to see Aretha sit at that piano

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Schlemazel:

    I heard Mahalia Jackson sing in Chicago in probably around 1958-59 or so. She was incredible. Get-down Gospel music, spirituals, and some good old secular folk music. She sang “Everybody Loves Saturday Night” in about 20 different languages, verse after verse after verse. Just wonderful.

  43. 43.

    gogol's wife

    @lamh36:

    For me that was even better than Aretha. I love that song. I guess there’s a scene in the play The Trip to Bountiful where Tyson sings it, and it’s amazing.

  47. 47.

    Mike E

    I’m a fan of both women, and that’s why we must always honor artists…tho, did you check out George Lucas trying his hand at directing there? Heh.

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    That’s why Carole King has lived a long life…she could always count on those music publishing $$$$$. Was surprised years ago when I found out just how lucrative the writing of the song was…they make money long after the ‘performers’ of the song do.

    Honestly, until I saw the ads for the Carole King Musical, with all kinds of different musical acts – THAT I KNEW- I didn’t know how much she had written.

  55. 55.

    lamh36

    @gogol’s wife: no matter how I feel now, I was raised in the church and Blessed Assurance is one of the first song you learn to sing…

    I was literally singing my heart out to every word. I even wish they’d let her sing the entire song…loved it so much…lol

  61. 61.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @schrodinger’s cat: It will be available on Amazon on February 1. It’ll probably be ready a bit earlier than that, but I’m going to give the Kickstarter supporters first crack at it if we get it done before then.

    It will be available for your local bookstore to carry at the same time, through Ingram-Spark, but I suspect that very few will actually pick it up. I’ll be going around to the local stores and pitching it to them once I have it in hand. We’ll see how that goes.

  64. 64.

    Patricia Kayden

    Thank TaMara for the link to the entire show. Looking forward to watching it. I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s show with Sting as one of the honorees.

  67. 67.

    JordanRules

    I really enjoyed the show and tributes.

    But somebody really started cutting onions when Aretha did her thing. I just loved how excited Carole King was too.

  70. 70.

    jo6pac

    Saw her at Fillmore with Allman band nothing but tears in the eyes of all of us. The Voice of feeling to everyone’s heart. Thanks for posting:)

  76. 76.

    Anoniminous

    Brinks Truck UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!!! Hammer Time JEB! is pulling his TV ads:

    Jeb Bush’s campaign is canceling its Iowa television advertising buy and shifting money to double staff on the ground in January, the final month before the high-stakes Iowa caucuses.

    The news will raise questions about whether the former Florida governor might pull out of Iowa given his fifth-place status here, with just 6% support of likely GOP caucus goers.

  77. 77.

    Davebo

    @BBA: It’s more than a little early to blame Ian Murdock’s death on police.

    Unless you have some information not made public.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Davebo:

    Yeah, <a href="SiubhanDuinne: “>I asked him for that two hours ago and he hasn’t bothered to respond.

    ETA:Sorry about the ugly link. Thought I was embedding, but I guess not.

  80. 80.

    David Koch

    Just think how classy, luxurious, and yooooge the Kennedy Center Honors will be under President Trump.

  86. 86.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @lamh36: The story of The Homeward Choir, a choir of homeless men in Atlanta, singing in the WH (by Presidential invitation) was more than moving. “Go, Tell It On The Mountain” as they sang it was spectacular. I had something in my eye.

  88. 88.

    Howard Beale IV

    Erick son of Erick is launching a new vanity website: theresurgent.com. Adding more percentage to Sturgeons’s Law.

  89. 89.

    Davebo

    @raven:

    In this case, it’s crying wolf unless, again, you guys know more than the rest of the world.

    And doing so debases legitimate complaints and provides fodder for those who would defend police misconduct.

  94. 94.

    Anne Laurie

    @Davebo: Redstate’s pretty tainted — too many minions/underlings trying to ugly-scream their way to the top of the pyramid. Now that Erick ‘Voice of the GOP Gated Community” Erickson has what he conceives as a shot at high-dollar Respectability, he needs a new clean vehicle for his steam-polished punditory… one where his calling David Souter “a goat-fvcking child molestor” isn’t the top hit on Google search.

    Think of it this way: If Cole wanted to try for a spot on the NYTimes op-ed roster, it wouldn’t do his chances any good to be associated with a lot of foul-mouthed rabble and tasteless aggregators like yours truly. He’d have to give the NYT suits a new, more ‘professional’ site to link, with better design and no FYWP issues, providing only his own content with maybe the occasional guest-post from recognized experts like Tom Levenson or Richard Mayhew.

    Fortunately, I find it hard to imagine our John Cole desiring such a social upgrade!

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    Luvvie has weighed in on Aretha at Kennedy Center Honors.

    Aretha Franklin is Every Older Black Woman at the Kennedy Center Honors

    Awesomely Luvvie — December 30, 2015
    Last night was the airing of the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, saluting Rita Moreno, George Lucas, Cicely Tyson, Seiji Ozawa and Carole King.

    Aretha Franklin performed “Natural Woman” to a standing ovation to honor Carole. President Obama and FLOTUS Shellie were getting their entire good times because the Queen of Soul can’t help but slay. She even moved Barack to tears. She is legend and she has been on more stages than she can count. She can literally do this and leave everyone hollering IN HER SLEEP.

  98. 98.

    Mary G

    Well, I just watched the whole thing. Nothing beats Aretha’s mic drop with a full-length fur, but CeCe Winans was amazing, too. Thanks to everyone talking about it, my TV aversion would have made me miss a great show!

  99. 99.

    Davebo

    @Anne Laurie: I thought he had that with his “erickonthereadio” domain.

    Oh well, there’s no such thing as over exposure when your making bank of the rubes I guess.

  102. 102.

    lamh36

    Cicely Tyson has said that she is the last member of her family left. She was an only child, married only once to Miles Davis and has no kids. So when she leaves this mortal coil, unless her father has “outside” children, she is the end of her line of her part of the Tyson lineage.

    I don’t even know why, but that made me sad. Cicely is a legend we won’t see the like of again, in my lifetime at least.

    As for Aretha, I’m not even sure what fans of true soul music will do, especially as more and more younger artist are going more for that “pop R&B” mainstream “money” sound rather than true, blue souls music…Aretha’s heir apparent is gonna be just as hard to find when she leaves this earth.

  108. 108.

    Ridnik Chrome

    I first knew Carole King through the “Tapestry” album. My mom bought it the year it came out and played it so often that I got to know all the songs by heart. I remember being surprised to find out, when I got a little older, that she and Gerry Goffin had written so many of those Brill Building hits. Awesome talents, her and Aretha both.

    (P.S. The music site Brooklyn Vegan has a post up about this by the way. Not only did they spell King’s first name wrong, the comments are beyond stupid. Sigh. Millenials…)

  112. 112.

    Gin & Tonic

    In media news, my Google feed has a headline from 2 hours ago from ABC News saying “Four Secret Service Agents Guarding Hillary Clinton Die In a Car Crash.” Not bad, I guess, except that they weren’t actually guarding Hillary Clinton and none of them died. But they were in a car crash, so there’s that. It’s tough for the major media with breaking stories – I mean this crash was almost 24 hours ago, so you can’t expect them to have all the facts, right?

  114. 114.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Debbie: Looking around, I think things have changed. They no longer have a publication or issues; they ended that in 2009. It’s now strictly online and I’m probably not going to get a whole lot of exposure from their site. It also sounds like they aren’t nearly as tough as they were when they were publishing.

  118. 118.

    Anne Laurie

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    It’s now strictly online and I’m probably not going to get a whole lot of exposure from their site.

    But Amazon always seems to include the Kirkus reviews, if there is one, so you’ll get that quoted on your Amazon link!

    And while my only Amazon exposure is as a reader/buyer, I get the feeling that a Kirkus review probably counts towards the “You might also like… ” algorithm… I’ve actually found some great books from that line of pictures between the listing proper & the Amazon reviews…

  121. 121.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @schrodinger’s cat: JLaw is about five inches shorter than Phoebe and looks like she’s at least fifty pounds lighter. Phoebe is huge.

    Unlike Phoebe, JLaw probably didn’t have to go to men’s stores to find clothes and shoes even before she got rich enough to have everything custom made.

  124. 124.

    low-tech cyclist

    I grew up on Aretha. I could listen to her sing the phone book. That song was right in her wheelhouse, and she hit it out of the park.

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