Sunday Salon, May 22, 2016, Billy Joel edition

The Big Screen Announces the concert, Billy Joel at Safeco Field

Weather: Currently sunny but not sure if it will hold. Grey skies seem to be moving in.

Billy Joel: Friday night Don and I attended a Billy Joel concert in Seattle at Safeco Field where the Mariners play baseball. As the stadium lights went down and the stage lights went up, Billy Joel started singing the songs of my life. I had never thought of it before, but it is true. Billy's first hit, "She's Got a Way" hit the scene in 1972 when I was in secondary school. I probably listened to it at school dances or on the radio when I was learning to drive. "Piano Man" (1973) has long been a favorite because I too played the piano. In 1975 as my classmates and I sashayed down the aisle to receive our diploma's, Billy Joel was making it big with "The Entertainer." No doubt we listened to it at our grad party later that night. We had friends and brothers who fought and died in Vietnam and we were angry about it. Billy Joel gave voice to our feelings with "Goodnight Saigon" and "We Didn't Start the Fire." His songs "She's Always a Woman" and "Just the Way You Are" were favorites at house dances at my sorority in college.  I remembered hearing his song "Honesty" for the first time when I was in London on a study abroad program in 1979. "She's Got a Way" made a resurgence in 1982 just in time for my wedding. About that time. as I moved into the working world. I stopped associating songs with particular events in my life, but many of Billy's songs were favorites to hum along with as I drove to work and back and just lived my life. "Allentown", "Uptown Girl", "So It Goes", and "The River of Dreams" were a few I loved. Who didn't? I seem to have stopped paying attention altogether for a few years and then Movin' Out hit Broadway in 2004 and a traveling troupe eventually came to Tacoma for a one-night show. We got tickets and took our daughters to see it. Wow. Cue the love. After that night all four of us were singing and humming his songs, not just me. Now, after over 40 years of following and loving his music, the music playing in the background of my life, I finally got to see Billy Joel live and it was awesome!

Billy Joel and his band played five songs for their encore. "Uptown Girl", "It's Still Rock-n-Roll to Me", "Big Shot", and two others not recorded here, "You May Be Right" and "The Good Die Young." Wow!

Hints of the sunset happening behind the stadium while we waited for the concert

Books read this week:

• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys...set in Poland/Prussia near the end of WWII when thousands of people were attempting to get away from the advancing Russian Army. They crammed onto a ship heading for Germany, The Wilhelm Gustloff...and the rest is history.
• Exit, Pursued by Bear by E.K. Johnston...a YA novel about cheerleading and surviving rape. This was my audiobook selection of the week.

Currently reading: (I'm in the middle of four books right now which I'm unlikely to finish. How did that happen?)

• Lit Up by David Denby...still plodding along in this one.
• Samurai Rising by Pamela Turner.... when narrative nonfiction isn't very engaging it is hard to want to read on even when the topic is of interest.
• The Art of X-Ray Reading by Peter Clark...I hope to skim this whole book looking for tips to help me enjoy reading literature even more.
• Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling by Tony Cliff...a graphic novel. I may abandon this one since I didn't read the first book in the series.

Cue the music: Go to your music library and cue up a few Billy Joel songs. Right now I am listening to "Innocent Man." Enjoy!