Man, What Are You Doin' Here?

For six months in 1972, Billy Joel played in LA's Executive Lounge piano bar under the name "Bill Martin." This experience is what gave him the material for "Piano Man." That song sold more than 4 million copies. As of January 2007, the song "Piano Man" is still in the top 100 rock songs on iTunes. As I was rolling along this afternoon in my portable karaoke lounge on 4 wheels, I found myself singing along with Billy Joel and I kept coming back to the refrain in "Piano Man" where the people in that bar keep asking "Bill," "Hey man, what're you doin' here? As I pound away on my own keyboard, that phrase resonates in my soul: "Hey, man, what're you doin' here? Unlike Billy Joel, I am not going to end up in any Hall of Fame, nor do my compositions sell millions of copies. Instead, I just keep bloggin' and (once in a while) vloggin'. If this is (fair & balanced) futility, so be it.

[x YouTube/WogBlogger Channel]
Billy Joel — "Piano Man"

[William Martin (Billy) Joel's first major album Piano Man was released in 1974, and it showcased his gift for writing ambitious pop tunes that were both catchy and sentimental. Expansive singles like "New York State of Mind" (1976) and "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" (1977) cemented Joel's position as a blue-collar New York troubadour and helped make him one of the decade's most popular touring acts. His 1977 album The Stranger was packed with hit singles, including "Movin' Out, "Just the Way You Are and "Only the Good Die Young," and was perhaps the height of his fame. He continued to produce hit singles like "Uptown Girl" throughout the 1980s, though critics carped that he had replaced his early passion with nostalgic ditties and highfalutin message songs. Still, by the turn of the century he had sold over 100 million records and was one of the most successful recording artists in history. Joel's albums include Turnstiles (1976), 52nd Street (1978), Glass Houses (1980), An Innocent Man (1983), River of Dreams (1993) and My Lives (2005). "Movin' Out," a dance musical based on his songs and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, played on Broadway from 2002-2005. Joel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.]

Copyright © 1974-2005 Billy Joel

Get an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Reader at no cost from Google. Another free Reader is available at RSS Reader.

Today's Trifecta: Rat Has A New Use For His "No Stupidity Zone" Sign

Rat shows Goat his latest invention: The No-Stupidity Zone Sign. If only Sparky The Wonder Penguin could have borrowed Rat's invention to use on Turd Blossom. But we don't live in a perfect world. If this is a (fair & balanced) deterrent against stupidity, so be it.



[x Pearls Before Swine]
By Stephan Pastis

Click on image to enlarge.

[ Stephan Pastis was born in 1968 and raised in San Marino, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 with a degree in political science. Although he had always wanted to be a syndicated cartoonist, Pastis realized that the odds of syndication were slim, so he entered UCLA Law School in 1990 and became an attorney instead. He practiced law in the San Francisco Bay area from 1993 to 2002. While an attorney, he began submitting various comic strip concepts to all of the syndicates, and, like virtually all beginning cartoonists, got his fair share of rejection slips. Then, in 1997, he began drawing "Pearls Before Swine," which he submitted to the syndicates in mid-1999. In December, 1999, he signed a contract with United Features (and resigned from the law firm three years later).

Copyright © 2008 Stephan Pastis

Get an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Reader at no cost from Google. Another free Reader is available at RSS Reader.

Tom Tomorrow Gives Turd Blossom What Patty Gave The Drum (A Beatin')

Why doesn't Karl Rove wear a flag pin on his lapel? Hmmmmmmmm? What has Sparky The Wonder Penguin discovered about Turd Blossom? (Plus in Tom Tomorrow's alternative universe, Sparky gets to shake Turd Blossom until The Blossom's eyes rattle around in his head. Go, Sparky, Go!) If this is (fair & balanced) low-information signaling, so be it.

[x This Modern World]
By Tom Tomorrow

Click on image to enlarge.

[Political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, aka Dan Perkins, draws a weekly cartoon, "This Modern World," that appears online in Salon, and "WorkingforChange.com," as well as in dozens of alternative newspapers across the United States. He won the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for "This Modern World." Tom Tomorrow has penned six books, including, When Penguins Attack!, Tune In Tomorrow, The Wrath of Sparky, Greetings from This Modern World, and The Great Big Book of Tom Tomorrow.

Sparky The Wonder Penguin, is one of Tom Tomorrow's most inspired characters. The penguin is a strong liberal advocate, but he briefly became a Republican after being hit on the head with a random falling toilet in an early appearance in "This Modern World."]

Copyright © 2008 Tom Tomorrow

Get an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Reader at no cost from Google. Another free Reader is available at RSS Reader.

Don't Be Fuelish

By way of YouTube, this vlog (formerly blog) presents the work of Marcy Shaffer on our fuelish dilemma. If this is (fair & balanced) fuelishness, so be it.


[x YouTube/VersusPlus Channel]
All Pumped Up
[Gas at $3.00 $3.50 $4.00 a Gallon]
To "What Kind Of Fool Am I" (Words & Music By Briscusse & Newley)
Parody LyrIcs By Marcy Shaffer
Janis Liebhart - Lead Vocal
Greg Hilfman - Music Director