L’ altra sera Bruce Springsteen è stato premiato dal presidente Obama, ecco l’ articolo del New York Times sulla consegna dei premi al Kennedy Center.

The recipients of the award this year were Robert De Niro, Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, the mezzo-soprano and soprano Grace Bumbry and the jazz musician Dave Brubeck. A gala performance on Sunday night at the Kennedy Center capped off a busy weekend for the recipients, who also attended a dinner Saturday hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a Sunday reception with President Obama at the White House.
The performance, which was scheduled to include appearances by Meryl Streep, Aretha Franklin, Sting and Herbie Hancock, will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 29.
In remarks at the White House, Mr. Obama thanked the honorees for “the joy and the beauty” they brought to people’s lives.
“In times of war and sacrifice, the arts — and these artists — remind us to sing and to laugh and to live. In times of plenty, they challenge our conscience and implore us to remember the least among us,” Mr. Obama said. “In moments of division or doubt, they compel us to see the common values that we share; the ideals to which we aspire, even if we sometimes fall short. In days of hardship, they renew our hope that brighter days are still ahead.”
A 19-time Grammy winner firmly rooted in the Jersey Shore, Mr. Springsteen has made top-selling albums including 1975’s “Born to Run” — which, in addition to the title track, included “Thunder Road” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” — and 1984’s “Born in the U.S.A.” He has also won an Academy Award.
At the State Department dinner, which was emceed by the comedienne and 2003 honoree Carol Burnett, the violinist Itzhak Perlman spoke of how Mr. Springsteen, 60, who is known for his famously long concerts with his E Street Band, connected with his audience.
“He gives his audience what it wants, but he also lets them know what they want and helps teach them to want more,” said Mr. Perlman, also a 2003 honoree.
The dinner was also attended by Jon Stewart, Martin Short, Caroline Kennedy and Melissa Etheridge.
Mr. De Niro, 66, who was born in New York, won Oscars for his portrayal of Vito Corleone in the 1974 film “The Godfather: Part II” and 1980’s “Raging Bull,” in which he played the boxer Jake LaMotta under the direction of his longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese, a 2007 Kennedy Center Honor recipient. The two also worked together on, among other movies, “Goodfellas,” “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver.”
Mr. Brooks, who was born in Brooklyn, is among an elite group of performers who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards. “The Producers,” a 1968 film that was retooled as a musical and brought to Broadway more than three decades later, captured 12 Tony Awards and won Mr. Brooks an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. At the State Department dinner, Mr. Brooks said becoming an honoree at age 83 was “better late than never.”
Susan Stroman, who directed the musical version of “The Producers,” said, “I don’t know anyone who loves being themselves as much as Mel Brooks loves being Mel Brooks.”
Mr. Brubeck is perhaps best known for “Time Out,” the 1959 album he made with the Dave Brubeck Quartet that included the single “Take Five.” According to event organizers, Mr. Brubeck, who turned 89 on Sunday, is believed to be the first honoree to celebrate a birthday on the day of the gala performance.
On Saturday night, former President Bill Clinton spoke of humming a portion of Mr. Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk” to prove to the jazz pianist he was a fan.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Clinton recounted, he received a signed picture from Mr. Brubeck and the chart to the song. “It hangs in the music room of my home today,” Mr. Clinton said. “It hung in the White House every single day I was there.”
Ms. Bumbry, 72, made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1960, playing Amneris in “Aida.” She performed in honor of Marian Anderson at the first Kennedy Center Honors in 1978.

Il video dal Corriere delle sera:  Obama premia Springsteen.

A quanto riporta Rolling Stone a breve sarebbe prevista l’ uscita del tanto atteso cofanetto di Darkness on the Edge of Town più un DVD live del tour appena concluso di Working on a dream.

La versione originale la trovate qui:

This Sunday, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will wrap up their two-year tour by performing their 1973 debut album Greetings From Asbury Park in its entirety (stick with Rolling Stone for a full report). After that, Springsteen’s next moves are unclear. His manager, Jon Landau, says the only plans for 2010 are the release of the long-delayed Darkness on the Edge of Town box set and a DVD of the Working on a Dream tour. “The Darkness box set is 93 percent done,” he tells RS. “It’s absolutely fantastic and there are just some finishing touches that we need to turn our attention to and finalize and we’ll get it out there.” As for the Dream DVD, Landau says, “We’re working on some different approaches to a DVD for this tour. We’ll release it sometime fairly soon, post-Christmas.” Grab the next issue of RS, out November 25th, to read E Street’s reflections on their magical two years on the road.
See the Dream: Springsteen launches his tour with the E Street Band.
The Darkness box will likely contain a remastered edition of the disc, a new documentary about the making of the LP, as well as live footage from the 1978 tour. A handful of pro-shot shows circulate through the fan community, but there’s no word on which concert will be brought out of the vaults for the set. In 2005, fans were stunned when a previously unknown complete performance from London in 1975 appeared on the Born to Run box set. The Darkness on the Edge of Town tour is widely regarded as the high water mark of Springsteen’s live career.
There are no plans for another E Street Band album or tour next year. “We just had back-to-back tours and back-to-back records,” Landau says. “That’s never happened before, so we’re going to have substantial downtime at this point. The E Street Band does have an illustrious future, but I don’t have anything more specific to tell you about next year except those two media projects that are on the horizon.”
Check out photos of E Street’s epic set and more from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anniversary concert.
The E Street Band have mixed feelings about the tour coming to an end. “I really don’t want the work to end, but I need to go home,” says guitarist Nils Lofgren. “It’s kind of an inherent level of homesickness that wears on you. I’m really looking forward to being home and actually unpacking my suitcase. It sat there with my dogs giving me dirty looks for two years.”
Steven Van Zandt has similar feelings. “It feels very much like The Sopranos,” he says. “Everybody was like, ‘Well, we’re extremely successful and still very high on the ratings,’ but David Chase knew it was time to stop. In the end I agreed and I feel like it’s the same thing here.” He says he hasn’t had any discussions with Springsteen about future work. “I’m always afraid to stop,” he says. “You think, ‘If we stop, can we get this thing going again?’ After a year or two off, you find yourself at the bottom of Mt. Everest looking up and thinking, ‘How are we gonna get there?’ I will be surprised if we don’t continue and if you ask me if I think we’ll continue I’ll certainly say yes. It’s just a matter of what happens to everybody physically, beginning with Clarence [Clemons] I suppose. He may fantasize about retiring, but with all his ex-wives I doubt it.”

Noi ci resta che sperare che sia la volta buona, anche se a leggere quello che scrivevo a gennaio di quest’anno sono molto pessimista.