The blog is named after two of my loves. One is obviously my career as a chef instructor, but the other might not be as clear unless you know me pretty well.
If you talk to people who know me, there are probably two things that pop into their head about "Ben, that Asian kid". Well I guess the Asian thing might be one, but ignore that for now (that'll be a whole other topic of blogness later)... >.> ... sorry...
Two things: Chefin' and Billy Joel.
Yeah I said it. Billy Joel. I love me some Billy Joel. When most people find out my love for Billy I usually get one of two reactions. The first is "awesome". The second is "why?!".
Well here's the why: I had always liked a few of Billy's songs. The "hits" if you will (The Longest Time, My Life, Uptown Girl etc.) In 2001 I was on a family trip to China. I had my discman (remember those?) with me and a few cds, one of which was Billy's greatest hits vol.1 and 2. I hadn't listened to it much on the trip. However, a little something changed that. We had come back to the hotel after a long day of touring around to get changed before dinner. I flipped on the tv just in time to see a live shot of a plane (the second one), flying into a building. We were scared. I was scared. We were in China with talks of bombing Afghanistan (which is right next door btw). I was, along with every other American on the planet, feeling very patriotic. The most American thing I had to listen to? No not the Backstreet Boys. Billy.
I played the shit out of those two cds for the next couple of weeks (until we got home) and what had been a soothing tool, morphed into a musical disection. I engrossed myself into this music and began to just pick apart each song and having a huge admiration of what he was doing. You have to get away from the "hits" and get into the "deep tracks" in order to get a real appreciation for what that guy can do. When we got home I immediately bought all of his albums and proceeded to listen to them all, in order, start to finish, and the rest is history.
So that's "why?!".
Oh right... the reason I started this blog. The name of the blog is a based on Billy's song Angry Young Man. I guess I could've just said that, but that wouldn't have been much of a blog now would it?
Great story. And so true about being scared in China. Looking back, I am glad CNN was the only english channel we got. Otherwise, we wouldn't have known what was going on. - David
ReplyDeleteYeah
ReplyDeleteI've pretty much had that song stuck in my head since your first post yesterday