Piano Man & The Following

We attended a special musical feature at the Arizona Broadway Theatre last night, Terry Davies and his band doing a tribute to the music of Elton John and Billy Joel. What a really fun evening. And the house was packed, a capacity crowd of 461 there to see and listen to the songs we know and love. It was the first time we've ever been there when there wasn't an empty spot anywhere, even up in the overhead balcony. If you ever get a chance to see Terry Davies in concert, don't miss it. You'll love what he does with such oldies but goodies as Sir Elton's "Candle in the Wind," "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Bennie and the Jets," and Billy's "We Didn't Start the Fire," Uptown Girl," "New York State of Mind," and, of course, "The Piano Man."





I’m watching Fox’s rather gruesome thriller, The Following, with Kevin Bacon playing a fallen FBI agent who is called back to help the bureau recapture a serial killer who has just escaped from prison. From what I’d heard about it before the pilot, I wasn’t sure I wanted to take the blood bath the previews had promised. And the promise about blood was accurate. There’s blood everywhere, mostly the result of knives to the belly or eyes. Despite the gore, I’m enjoying the tension and the surprises. Joe Carroll is a charismatic English professor specializing in Edgar Allen Poe. His charisma allows him to recruit a following of young psychopaths who do his bidding even when he’s behind bars. There are echoes of other cult leaders like Charles Manson, David Koresh, and Jim Jones, with an emphasis on the manipulation of the followers. And for anyone who’s a fan of The Mentalist on CBS, he will be reminded of Patrick Jane’s Red John. Unlike Red John, who remains faceless through all five seasons of The Mentalist, Joe Carroll is evident from the pilot on. The back story of how Carroll was originally captured by Ryan Hardy is seen in brief flashbacks as far back as 2003, when Hardy goes to see Carroll for his help with the Poe references that some killer of young women has been leaving behind. I’m sure that as the series progresses we will be shown the entire beginning as a series of flashbacks. I can hardly wait.