Tag Archives: BillyJoel

Blogging, Gratitude, Joy, Live Concerts, Music, Wine

A Bottle of White, A Bottle of Red

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Who enjoys their wine?

I do. I mostly prefer a dry white, but OMG sipping a full bodied pinot noir or merlot is an exquisite experience.

I could happily talk more about wine here. When I first began blogging, there were topics of great interest in my mind, ones that I was certain I was going to write about all the live-long day. Food/Drink was one of those. Now, I certainly have written much in this space about my unbridled enthusiasm for cooking and baking, sometimes sharing my best recipes. But that’s not what this post is about, actually.

It’s about how I, along with my beautiful sister-in-law and Mr. None of the Above, got to see two icons-live!-in concert earlier this month: Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks (which I later learned entitled their concert “Two Icons One Night”).

You may (or may not) have read my little piece in this space where I expressed my enthusaism ahead of getting to experience this concert.

I figure “before I forget” (a common phrase for anyone who knows me IRL), especially since my brain right now is all about ChristmasChristmasChristmas, I figured I’d share my impressions of this concert.

It. Was. Awesome!

Stevie Nicks performed first. She sounded great, just like she does on the radio and her albums. She appeared quite dimunitive, and charmed us all with her chattiness between songs. She had such a fast way of speaking, though, I likely didn’t catch it all. She and Billy performed “Stop Draggin’ my Heart Around” as pictures of Tom Petty were displayed on the huge screens. She also performed a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”, prefacing it with something to the effect of “I don’t care how you vote, but we are in some very hard times in this world right now”.

Stevie performed many of her greatest hits as well, like “Gypsy” and “Gold Dust Woman”. I was amazed by how long they each performed. Her performance was about 1 1/2 hours and Billy’s was well over 2 hours.

I loved that when Billy Joel performed “Zanzibar”, everyone seemed to be singing and swaying along. I don’t believe this was a top 10 hit for him, but it’s always one I’ve loved. I felt such a sense of community, singing off-key alongside this massive crowd. It really fed my soul.

At one point, Billy stood at the microphone and shared that he was feeling anxious about performing the next song, because as he’s gotten older, his voice has gotten deeper. And this song, “An Innocent Man”, has some very important high notes. He nailed it!

I was, of course, along with everyone else in the crowd, ecstatic when Billy performed “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”. It was brilliant!

We also got treated to a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”, performed by Billy’s bandmate, Mike DelGuidice. As a Zeppelin fan, I thought this was amazing.

This whole experience was thrilling for me. I’m so grateful I got to experience it. Cheers to these iconic American treasures!

Happiness, Lifestyle, Live Concerts, Music, Rock and Roll

A Bottle of Red, A Bottle of White

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Guess who I’m seeing live in concert on Friday night?

Any of you who are fans of this artist can likely guess this based on the title of this blog post.

It’s Billy Joel! The “piano man” himself!

A significant benefit of living here in Minnesconsin is our proximity to the Twin Cities, which allows us to easily attend concerts and other happenings in Minneapolis or St. Paul. It’s not much more than an hours drive away for us.

Months ago, my wonderful sister-in-law purchased the tickets online for us and Mr. None of the Above. SIL is also a big fan of BJ’s and had seen him perform live several years ago and told us it was probably the best live concert she had ever seen.

To top it off, Stevie Nicks is on this tour as well. I’m so curious about what songs (his or hers?) they will perform together (assuming they do this at all, but they will, right?!).

Side note: I cheated and googled these two artists and learned that at other venues on this joint tour, they performed “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”, Stevie’s song with Tom Petty. I’ll let myself be surprised by whatever other songs they perform together on Friday night.

Let me just tell you, I have been a huge Billy Joel fan since I was probably 12-years old. In fact, “52nd Street” was one of the first vinyl albums I purchased to play on my turntable in my bedroom. I remember reading the liner notes, singing each song along with Billy. Before long, I knew all the words of all these songs by heart.

In fact, the first album I bought when Mr. None of the Above got me my requested gift of a turntable for Christmas last year, was “52nd Street”. My original copy is now in possession of another, as I donated it to charity along with the rest of my vinyl collection and old turntable many years ago when we were downsizing in preparation for a move.

The song I’m perhaps most excited to hear live is “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”. It’s always been a favorite of mine. I recall sitting atop my yellow gingham-checked bedspread with the canopy above it, listening/singing to this song. It would get me dreaming up a romantic rendezvous with a young, dark-haired stud at an Italian restaurant in NYC. It was just one of those songs that painted a specific picture for me, one that was, of course, fueled by teenage-girl hormones.

Really, all of Billy Joel’s songs tell a story, which is why I am so drawn to his music.

Have you ever seen him live? If so, tell me all about it in the comments! If not, share your favorite song of his instead. I’d love to know what yours is!

***Header image courtesy of https://quotefancy.com/quote/1228037/Randy-Harrison-Storytelling-with-music-is-a-really-powerful-device***

Adult children, Alphabet Soup Challenge, Ambition, Blogging, Employment, Happiness, Honesty, Imagination, Life, Mantronyms, Positivity

Alphabet Soup Challenge: H is For Honesty

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I’ve been accused of being honest “to a fault” by various people throughout my life.

Anyone else out there that has experienced this accusation?

Not the “I’m just being honest” type of honest, mind you. You know, that passive aggressive way in which a person tells you that your new haircut makes you look like Joe Dirt.

For me, it’s more of a not-always-thinking-before-I-speak or my facial expression after a comment you just made gave me away. Because I’m just a terrible liar. Lying doesn’t suit me. I can’t do it to save my life.

What’s nice for me, within this little blog, is that it is a space for me to honestly express what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling. In a controlled sort of way, because after all, I am editor-in-chief and in charge of pressing the “publish” button in these parts.

So let me be honest with you all.

I’m honestly happy with my life right now. And I honestly believe that could change at any second. Because, well, life.

So I’m soaking up the goodness.

I started a new job over two weeks ago now. The reason I was hired is because I have experience running a food pantry and the lovely lady who hired me wants to get one up and running in her non-profit.

I honestly love working there. I love that I have autonomy. I love knowing that I am listened to and supported. I love working with people who work hard. I love that there’s a variety of tasks to do each day and that not every day is a carbon copy of the day before.

I also honestly do not want to jinx it. I want to continue working hard and be honest with myself and my boss and co-workers when I’m struggling. I want to be honest in all my communications with everyone involved. I honestly want to succeed.

That’s honestly all I want to say about my current employment right now. And it’s all I honestly needed to say.

The other subject I want to be honest about is my creative writing via this blog. I sincerely love doing this. I have no illusions (perhaps hope though) that I’m going to hit the “big time” some day as a writer.

Honestly, I’m in this blogging thing for fun. To make friends. To brighten someone’s day at least once in a while. To get things off my chest. To connect. To socialize. To learn. To grow. To improve.

Let me use my favorite “Macronym” right now: KISS. The “Keep it specific, sister” version.

An appetizer in list form of what I honestly want to do and/or write about once I’ve finished my “Alphabet Soup Challenge” follows.

  1. Write a letter to someone I admire. Embrace the fandom. Writing about it later may or may not happen. That’s not the point.
  2. Capture in writing a conversation about the state of the world in this moment with the Millenials in my life. That would be my previously-known-as-spawn aka Kid #2 and Kid#1. Now outed as Rabbie and (just for now) the Eldest.
  3. Interview my 6 year old grandson about life as he knows it.
  4. Continue writing posts about all the “Gems”.

So fellow bloggers-what are the specific topics you honestly want to write about in the near future?

52nd Street was one of the first albums I ever bought. This song has always spoken to me.

***Header image courtesy of http://www.flourishtherapy.co.uk/9-reasons-why-honesty-works/