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Last night, for the first time ever, I watched the Kennedy Honors with my mom. I say it was my first time watching with a heavy heart because it was fantastic. A night of honoring icons of American culture with heartfelt speeches from other actors, musicians, etc., and having those artists recreate the music or movie scenes in which the honorees were immortalized. Last night the honorees were Robert de Niro (who I have finally put at number 2 on my top 3 favorite actors list), Grace Bumbry (an opera singer), David Brubeck (jazz composer), Mel Brooks (who is just so great), and Bruce Springsteen.

Jon Stewart introduced the piece on Bruce Springsteen with such a great speech. "I am not a music critic, nor historian, nor archivist, I cannot tell you where Bruce Springsteen falls in the pantheon of the American songbook, I cannot illuminate the context of his work, or its roots in the folk and oral histories traditions of our great nation. But I am from New Jersey. And so I can tell you what I believe, and what I believe is this. I believe that Bob Dylan and James Brown had a baby [and left it in between exits 8a and 9 of the New Jersey Turnpike]." What a fantastic speech.

So I got to thinking. Bob Dylan HAD to be honored! And here is the lovely footage of that night.



Robert de Niro's part was great, too. I felt like I was going to cry every time they shot to him in the balcony because you can tell he was really blessed to be there. Also, being that my Italian heritage has really taken a hit this year a la "The Jersey Shore", I want to say that he really makes me proud to be Italian. (wait for the video to load so the sounds syncs up)