Tuesday TV Touchbase: Elton & Brandi & Other Things

Welcome to the Tuesday TV Touchbase, my weekly blog post on Tuesday where I touch base on what I’ve been watching on TV.   

 

Everybody clear on the concept? Let’s move on.

 

Let’s start today’s touchbase with a special.  

A week back, Andrea and I watched the Elton John & Brandi Carlisle special.  Centered around a live performance at the Palladium in London recorded in March, the show spotlights music from the new album by Elton and Brandi called “Who Believes In Angels?” but also features performances of classic Elton John tunes and Bardi Carlisle’s catalog as well.

 

Brandi’s acoustic set of “Me Without You” (a song about a mother realizing her child doesn’t need her anymore) made Andrea cry.  I will admit it was a very moving performance.  

 

Interspersed with the music were interview segments hosted by Dan Levy.  Elton and Brandi have been friends for 20 years and mostly it's Dan getting the two of them to say how great each other is.

 

And we see clips from a behind the scenes documentary on the making of the new Elton/Brandi album.  Warning: Elton can be a bit of a diva during the writing and recording process. 

 

Well, it seems that whatever came out of the process is good.  Everything I’ve heard from “Who Believes In Angels?” so far sounds fantastic. 

 

At 78 years old and beset by various health ailment, Elton John still sounds in fine form during this special. 

This is not from the special but here is the music video for my favorite track from the Elton/Brandi album, "Swing For the Fences".  

Other Things

A 5th season Phineas & Ferb will be debuting this summer.  Meanwhile, Anderea and I are halfway through season 1. 

Phineas and Ferb plot different ways to do something extraordinary with each day of summer vacation. These schemes often defy laws of physics and logic and poor put upon sister Candace can never quite catch them in the act to tell on them: "Mom! Phineas and Ferb are defying the laws of physics and logic again!"  

While they are doing their crazy plans, Phineas and Ferb's pet platypus Perry works as a secret agent for a government organization named O.W.C.A. ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym") with the objective of defeating the schemes of Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, an evil scientist driven largely by a need to assert his evilness over the "Tri-State Area".  

I finished season 1 of A.P. Bio.  Jack Griffin uses his A P Bio class he refuses to teach biology for his own selfish purposes, specifically to seek revenge on his arch rival Miles Leonard and to help Jack extricate himself from Toledo, Ohio. Ultimately Jack and the class are able to destroy Miles' reputation but at the cost of getting Jack out of Toledo. 

My favorite student in Jack's class is Heather, a quiet, shy mouse-like girl who turns out is handy with a meat cleaver and  becomes one of Jack's most devoted disciples in his quest to destroy Miles. Do not let that timid, reserved demeanor fool you; Heather is not to be fucked with.  

Yesterday, I watched Gayle King (anchor of CBS Mornings) go into space! She was nervous as hell about it but apparently Oprah Winfrey double dog dared her to go and no one says "no" to the Oprah. 

Yeah I know it's just billionaire Jeff Bezos playing with his toys paid for with the hard work of Amazon employees who are not allowed pee breaks but it was still kind of cool to see Gayle and the rest of an all female crew pop into space for a quick sight see. 

 That is that for this week's Touchbase 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.