Cartoons Friday!

Plus new Sir Elton flick, a Brandi Carlile tribute, and Waxahatchee visits the Tiny Desk.

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books including “The Tunnels” “Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady” and “The Campaign of the Century” and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre” (up for an Emmy). You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free. Watch the trailer for his new film “The Atomic Bowl: Football at Ground Zero & The Forgotten Bomb.”

We’re back with usual weekly political potshot cartoon bonanza, this time with a few seasonal seasonings. But first, also as usual, a little music.

Elton John visited Stephen Colbert a couple of nights ago to pitch the new documentary about his life on Disney +. Along with him was Brandi Carlile, who we loved even before she was mega-popular. Elton has been her hero for decades and she apparently sings/writes a song with him for the new doc. We started watching the film and got through about 45 minutes, which cuts back and forth between his (alleged) final concert at Dodgers Stadium and his boyhood (not enough on that) and rise to stardom from 1969 to his emotional crash after 1975. I vividly recall the buzz over young Reg in the office of my first NY magazine job just out of college in the summer of 1970—at the legendary Zygote—especially when he came to our town that September, when we chatted with him. He did take off like a rocket, man.

Anyway, here is Brandi’s exciting live version of Elton’s “Madman Across the Water” from about six years ago.

Then, on the heels of my posting here last week Billie Eilish’s visit to NPR’s Tiny Desk, here from this week is indie fave Waxahatchee with five songs. One of them is a song on many Best Songs of 2024 lists, “Right Back To It.” Good writer but not crazy about her voice.

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No Holiday from Cartooning

Steve Brodner: