Music

New York Post: Billy Joel as classical composer.

Link via Garret.

Billy Joel is one of my favourite musicians. He wrote some wonderful songs. I especially like Summer, Highland Falls and Say Goodbye to Hollywood a lot. I have notes for the songs, but they’re too difficult for me to play on the piano. I’m really curious about his classical music, so I think I need to buy the classical album.

I wanted to see him live in concert in 1998 when he was touring together with Elton John (Rocket Man and Piano Man, Face to Face Tour). My parents and I had tickets for the concert in Düsseldorf, but Billy Joel couldn’t perform because he had an inflammation of the vocal cords. Elton John played and sang by himself, and while it was still a great concert (he even did a song or two by Billy Joel), it would have been much more special with both of them. I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to see these two great musicians perform together…

I believe I can fly…

John:

“I remember being really disappointed when I found out that you couldn’t actually fly using a propeller cap. I must have been about seven.”

One of my favourite episodes of Calvin and Hobbes is the one in which Calvin orders a propeller beanie, waits for weeks (an eternity for first-graderes, I’m sure) for it to arrive – and then finds out it doesn’t make him fly.

Kenya

Monday, October 2, 1995: From Mombasa to Nairobi.

Astronomy

A reader pointed out an Astronomy Picture of the Day to me: Moon AND Stars. I think it’s one of the most beautiful photos of the moon I’ve seen so far.