We read in the bulletin for Sacred Heart Church that the Knights of Columbus (K of C) had a fish fry on Fridays during Lent.  We decided to give it a try because our meal schedule often required us to eat out at least once per week.  We had eaten at Farmer Boys in Irwindale using coupons for their fish platter early in Lent and the fish sandwich and clam chowder bowl late in Lent.  This year Lent went from Wednesday, February 25 to Saturday, April 11.

On the evening of Friday, March 20 we tried the K of C Lenten Fish Fry for the first time.  We drove south on Citrus Avenue, turned right on Cypress, and left on Vincent.  The Knights of Columbus Hall is just south of the train tracks on the west side of Vincent.  The exact address is 4315 N. Vincent Avenue and it’s either just inside or outside the western border of the city of Covina with unincorporated county land.  It’s a bright tan building with white trim.  It looks like part of it may have two stories and possibly be residential.  The parking lot is just to the north of the building and there’s a narrow entrance right before the building.  The lot is surrounded by a concrete fence with metal bars mounted on top.  It seems like a large lot but the spaces are small and there isn’t much room to drive around them.  Still, the door is on the north side of the hall so we didn’t have to walk very far.

We arrived sometime between 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm and entered into what seemed like a long hallway going deep into the building.  Just to the left was the door to the room where they were having the fish fry.  The other halls looked like they led to a room with a kitchen and other rooms.  We entered the large room to the left.  Just inside on our left was a large white board with the menu.  It listed the fish dinner, shrimp dinner and fish & shrimp dinner, all for $7 each and a salmon and baked potato dinner for $9.  You can also get clam chowder and a few other things.  Just past the menu board was a table where a couple of people took our order.  They took cash, checks, even credit cards though that required a staffer to take the card, leave the room, and return with the card and receipt to sign.  I noticed later that my credit card was charged to “Father Maguire, Inc.”  After completing the transaction the staff at the table gave us a receipt to give to the servers.

The room was very large with long tables extending from the end with the entrance to the opposite end where there was an elevated stage.  The walls and high ceilings were painted white and metal chandeliers hung from the ceiling.  Behind the cashiers were more tables where they served the food.  Everything was ready-made.  First they served the fried fish and/or shrimp, then the fries, corn, cups of coleslaw, cups of tartar sauce and cocktail sauce, and even some white bread and butter (margarine).  Those last 3-4 items were optional and the last items we picked up were the plastic utensils wrapped in a napkin.  On the opposite side of the entrance from the cashiers was a table with various desserts: pieces of cake, pie, and cookies.  At the opposite wall was a bar for ordering drinks such as beer.  They sometimes had a pitcher of water and cups.  Other times we got water from the bar.  The place reminded me a little of Granada Pavilion in Granada Hills, only set up as dining hall rather than a dance floor.

After getting our food we found places to sit among the long tables.  There were many people there: businesspeople in suits, families, couples, and individuals.  Many parties seemed to know each other.  We didn’t recognize anyone from church except this little blond girl and her dad who we often see at the 5:30 pm Sunday mass that we usually attend.  She was probably around 2-3 and she liked to shake people’s hands as they passed her pew on their way to communion.  She was always very restless and at dinner she would quickly wander far away up on stage or over to the dessert table and her dad would have to chase her down.  We had arrived just ahead of a long line of people.  Many got their dinner in to-go containers.

Our meals were good.  On that first time we got the fish dinners.  They each came with two long wedge-shaped pieces of breaded fried white fish along with the fries, corn, coleslaw, and tartar sauce.  The fish was fairly crispy, not as crispy as the fish from H. Salt, but then K of C didn’t have the 15-minute wait and cash-only policy of H. Salt.  The fries and tartar sauce went well with the fish.  Everything tasted good and it was a lot of food.  I can’t believe people can have bread and/or clam chowder with their meals as the servers suggested.

We liked the dinner so much that we returned the next Friday, March 27.  This time we tried the shrimp meal that was also breaded and fried and had the same accompaniments as the fish.  It was also a lot of food.  The shrimp tasted good with cocktail sauce.  There seemed to be more people there that time.  Many of the Knights of Columbus wore blue and yellow K of C shirts.  The restless little girl was there again with her dad.  We didn’t go to K of C on the Friday after that, April 3, and there was no fish fry on the next Friday after that, April 10, because it was Good Friday.  On Easter Sunday, April 12, we attended Mass in Cavanagh Hall at Sacred Heart where they had it in addition to in the church.  We look forward to going to the K of C Lenten Fish Fry during next year’s Lent, if they have it, and we hope they do.  Who knew we could have such great meals on Fridays during Lent?

Fourteen years ago when I was a junior at Willamette University I took the course Nonviolent Activism and Peace.  To graduate we had to take two integrated studies courses: a 100-level ISA course and a 400-level ISB course.  For the ISA, I took World Views with all the other freshmen during the fall semester of my freshman year.  Its focus would change every 4-5 years and that year the focus was Latin America.  I wrote my first and one of my only A+ papers on the book The House of the Spirits for that course.  I also made friends with whom I’ve kept in contact, one of whom introduced me to my future wife.  For the 400-level ISB course, we had many different options.  I chose Nonviolent Activism and Peace because my adviser, a mathematics professor, taught it.  I had enjoyed taking the math courses Logic and Proof and Sequences and Series from him during spring semester freshman year.  For this ISB course he had us read many photocopied articles along with the textbooks.  Class time was spent discussing the readings.  I had a tough time with the discussions that other students more versed in the social sciences tended to dominate.  The readings ranged from historical figures such as Frederick Douglas to early activists such as Dorothy Day and Gandhi to more recent ones such as Elise Boulding who actually visited our class.  We had other visitors such as Jesuit Volunteers and we had to write a few long papers for the class.

One reading that struck me as particularly profound consisted of chapters 1, 4, and 5 of the book Love in Action by Thich Nhat Hanh who my adviser described as a “socially conscious Buddhist”.  Hanh presented the idea that world peace begins within each of us: peace in our hearts and mindfulness of our actions.  After the semester ended I wanted to explore Hanh’s ideas further so I bought and read his book Peace is Every Step.  It further fleshed out his concepts of taking refuge in the present moment, mindful breathing, and acknowledging and taking care of the negative emotions to turn them into positive ones.  Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk from Vietnam.  He gained prominence during the 1960’s for his non-violent activism against the Vietnam War.  Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize.  He was exiled from Vietnam in the 1960’s and since then has lived in his community of practice, Plumb Village, in France.  He wasn’t able to visit Vietnam until 2005.

In January 2004 I was having a stressful time.  While reading the L.A. Times I saw an ad saying that Thich Nhat Hanh was going to speak at the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine within the next couple of weeks.  I got a ticket, though I don’t remember if it was through Ticketmaster or online.  I think it was will call.  I drove down there and I remember that all the chairs for the audience were folding chairs and the first person to take the stage was someone from UCI, I believe.  She mentioned our newly elected governor and there was a smattering of laughter.  The Governator had just been elected the year before.  The UCI official spoke with an accent and when she said “California”, she sounded similar to how the Governator says it generating more giggles from the audience.

Thich Nhat Hanh took the stage along with a contingent of monks and nuns from his order (the Order of Interbeing) dressed as he was in dark red robes.  I could only tell which one was him from the photos I had seen of him earlier.  One of the nuns introduced him and she described how some people who had his books, tapes, or CD’s would accidentally leave them in their apartment after moving out.  The new tenants would find the books, tapes, or CD’s and feel so happy and lucky for finding them.  I don’t remember a lot of what Thich Nhat Hanh said because much of it gets mixed up with what I’ve read of his before and since then.  I remember how they rang a gentle bell periodically and everyone would stop, breathe slowly, and refocus.  Thich Nhat Hanh talked for a little over an hour and then answered questions for half an hour.  One of the nuns translated the questions because, even though he spoke English, he needed some help understanding others.  When answering one question he used the analogy that if one of his hands accidentally hurt another one hammering a nail, the unhurt hand would try to soothe and help the hurt hand.  The hurt hand wouldn’t seek vengeance on the unhurt hand because they’re part of the same body.  His point was that we should treat each other the same way.  What I remember most about the talk was how calm it was.  Usually when I attend an event with crowds of people such as a concert, it’s stressful getting there, waiting in line, finding a seat, and sometimes dealing with rude people.  It usually gets more fun after the performance begins but it never really calms down.  But for Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk, the crowd wasn’t loud and unruly and everyone calmly took their seats.  Thich Nhat Hanh’s tone, more than his words, calmed me down.  Afterward I picked up a catalog and a brochure.  From the brochure I learned that Thich Nhat Hanh’s order has a monastery in Escondido, CA near San Diego called Deer Park so he comes to Southern California fairly often.

With the catalog I ordered one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s CDs, a recording of him giving a talk called “Truly Seeing”.  The two CDs focus on the idea of impermanence and non-duality.  He uses the example of how a pretty flower will eventually become garbage (in his words “on its way to the garbage”) and that garbage is “on its way to the flower”.  The CDs also contain a humorous but sympathetic and insightful story about a man with a mental illness who believes he is a grain of corn.  It also emphasizes taking refuge in the present moment (e.g. eat breakfast in order to eat breakfast and not to have energy for the day) and mindful living.  I’ve listened to the CDs many times, usually in the car when I have to drive a long distance by myself.  I’ve one of his earlier books, Being Peace, that repeats many of his ideas, and listened to his book (not read by him but by an English actor, Ken McCloud, I believe), No Death No Fear.  Among other repeated ideas, the latter book describes how our lives run “vertically” from birth to old age and how we also live “horizontally” through how we affect other people and the world around us.  I don’t subscribe to all of his ideas and many seem a bit “New Agey” but I find some of them comforting.

At the beginning of this year it was suggested to me that I needed to lower my stress level.  I thought listening to another talk by Thich Nhat Hanh would help me with that.  My wife had a gift certificate for Borders Digital Audiobooks.  I looked up whether they had a talk called The Present Moment.  They did but it cost over $70 which we couldn’t afford even with the gift certificate.  There were several audiobooks by him but not narrated by him but rather by English actors such as Michael York.  The less expensive ones tended to be short, only 2-3 CDs.  But there was one 5-CD book that was also less expensive.  It was a newer book written and recorded in 2007-2008 called The Art of Power.  I had some reservations because I thought it would be about foreign policy rather than peace in one’s daily life.  But reading some reviews assured me that it did contain the usual themes only this time applied to the workplace.

We downloaded the book from the Borders Digital Audiobooks website and loaded it onto the Sansa Clip.  I listened to it over the course of 2-3 months usually while I was folding clothes or riding home on the train.  It does re-emphasize many of Thich Nhat Hanh’s main ideas: deep conscious breathing, meditation, walking meditation, living in the present moment, practicing mindful living.  The book applies these ideas to more modern, everyday work situations.  It describes how office workers program a “bell” into their computers to remind them to breathe clear their minds.  It mentions how one worker’s only time to herself was when she was walking between the buildings so she would practice walking meditation, focusing on each of her steps, breathing, and paying attention to what she saw along the way.

The book using more modern day examples to illustrate concepts.  It describes how going from a negative to a positive environment is like first listening to a CD of music you don’t like, taking it out and playing a CD of music you like.  The book mentions how there are so many devices that allow us to do many things at the same time but insists that we’re happier and more productive when we’re only focused on one thing at a time.  We tend to over-think things.  Often we’re in one place while our mind is in another.  We’re with our loved ones but we’re not really “there” for them.  In addition to modern examples the book cites examples from the story of the Buddha and from things going on at Plumb Village.

Some of the book seems to be addressing bosses and managers at companies, insisting that they respect their employees, get to know them, and treat them fairly.  Pretty obvious stuff but still important to emphasize.  The book also insists on getting proper rest, having the right work-life balance, and being mindful of whether you work is making a positive or negative difference.  Parts of the book address politicians and leaders about using their power responsibly, how true power comes from respect and understanding and not from being feared.

But the book covers more than just work and politics.  It addresses family, relationships, mental and physical peace of mind, all familiar themes since they are connected to work and power.  The last section of the book is a history and profile of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia written by its founder, Yvon Chouinard, as an example of a company that models many of the concepts in the book.  At Patagonia they allow employees to take time off without much advance notice.  They have onsite childcare facilities.  They don’t just try to make their profits grow, but do so responsibly.  I didn’t know that 100% cotton is actually 70% cotton and 30% chemicals including formaldehyde.  At Patagonia they look for ways to be environmentally responsible.  They also encourage their employees’ creativity.  It sounds like a great place to work though I bet it’s difficult to get a job there.

I liked the parts of the book about managing work stress, how rest and time away can lead to better focus and productivity and the parts about living in the moment that I’ve always found comforting.  It seems like each of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books applies his ideas in different contexts: Being Peace in general, Peace is Every Step in the home, No Death No Fear to mortality, and The Art of Power to work and leadership.  He has written many other books and it may be interesting to learn how they apply the concepts.

The first concert we attended in 2009 was on Saturday, March 28 and featured about the biggest name acts available anywhere.  Even my mom acknowledged that they were big names and she usually hasn’t heard of the acts we see live.  We had always wanted to see either of them separately.  Together was even better and at a great venue like the Honda Center in Anaheim we couldn’t pass this up.  I’d enjoyed listening to both of them on the radio through most of the 1980’s.  The stations in Juneau liked to play them on the morning shows I listened to when I woke up and when I took the bus to school.  I never bought any of their records.  My wife had a few of their greatest hits CD’s.  They are probably some of the oldest acts we’ve seen, yet they’ve both been continuously popular.  They haven’t faded into obscurity like some other younger acts.

Like all concerts in Socal, the first step was getting to the venue.  We left around 6:00-6:15 pm and took the 210 east to the 57 south.  We had thought we could exit Katella but the Honda Center website said that Katella was often blocked off when there were concerts there.  Following the website’s recommendation we exited at the Ball Road exit, turned right (west) onto Ball Road, left (south) on Sunkist and then left (east) on Cerritos that turned right (south) into Douglas Road.  From there we thought we could turn left into the parking for the Honda Center as we had done in the past.  But some lanes were blocked and a sign said that only those with parking passes could turn left into the lot.  We followed some other cars and turned right into the parking lot for Westwood College that’s on the west side of Douglas Road, opposite Honda Center on the east side.  They charged $20 for parking, the same as they charged at Honda Center.  We parked close to one of the college buildings and followed the crowd of concertgoers across Douglas Road to the queues to get in.  As we waited we heard a security guard say that professional cameras with a long lens were not allowed, meaning that regular cameras were OK.  Security consisted of getting wanded and opening bags and purses.  We entered the venue and passed where they were selling merch, food, and where someone was selling tickets to a wine tasting.  We climbed up the stairs to the top level (400) and found the sign for our section (407).  To get to our seats we had to climb to the very top, to the back row, row U.  It was a long, high, and steep climb.  Still, the seats weren’t that bad.  They were on the left side towards the back.  We arrived at our seats at 7:15 pm.

On the way in we noticed that most of the other concertgoers were older than us.  Some looked like they were our parents’ age or not much younger.  The only younger concertgoers looked like they came with their parents.  I noticed that very few wore T-shirts.  Many men wore polo shirts or shirts with collars.  They looked more like they were going to an orchestra (though business casual) than a rock & roll concert.  A few wore T-shirts and one older guy wore a Beatles T-shirt and a “Hard Day’s Night” cap.  The concertgoers were mostly Caucasians with a few Asians also in the mix.  After we sat down, we noticed more people who looked to be around our age sitting in the upper rows.  I guess our age group can only afford the cheap seats high up in the back.  Well, they could have been worse.  Every seat in Honda Center was sold, even the ones on the top level behind the stage.  Talk about nosebleed seats.

The stage did not have a backdrop but was open all around.  It was curved in front and back and it looked like it was made of brown wood paneling, though probably faux.  The front had the lowest and largest space.  A few steps up and behind it was a narrowest space: a long curved ledge with a rail in the back.  Against the rail rested many instruments, some in stands: several guitars, a saxophone, trumpet and a trombone.  There were also eight microphones stands set up on the ledge.  Behind the rail was a larger space with six slightly lowered panels.  The stage had long curved ramps in front so people entering from the sides could easily get up on it.  Above the stage was a large treble clef and bass clef that looked like they could be lit up.  Between them were musical notes in white lights against a black background.  This setup mixed in with large banks of spotlights and speakers.   Another large bank of spotlights hung above the first few rows of floor seats.  Canned music played over the speaker including the song “Laid” by James.  In early October we saw the band James perform at the House of Blues Anaheim.

Around 7:40 pm a couple of guys came by and said we were in their seats.  It turned out we had sat down in section 408 by mistake.  We hastily made our way to the top level of row 407 as the lights dimmed and the canned music got louder and mellower at the same time.  On stage two large motorized sliding trap doors opened and two large black grand pianos rose through them.  They were set up so that the players would face each other and the audience in front of the stage would see them from the side.  The audience cheered and cheered even more loudly as Billy Joel and Elton John walked on stage from opposite sides and sat down at the pianos, Elton John at the one on the left and Billy Joel at the one on the right.  They then started playing and singing Elton John’s “Your Song” with only their piano playing for accompaniment.  Billy Joel sang the first verse, Elton John sang the next and they alternated vocals.  Meanwhile we made our way to our seats.  It was hard because the only light on in the venue were the spotlights on Billy Joel and Elton John.  We made it to the top (back row) of section 407 and, to get to our seats, we went behind them and climbed over.  The performers then sang and played Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” again alternating vocals and with only piano accompaniment.  Through my binoculars I saw that Billy Joel was wearing a gray suit, black shirt and no tie.  Elton John wore black pants and what looked like a black shirt or suit coat with long tails in the back.  There was writing in bright yellow letters on the back of his shirt/coat.  He also wore slightly tinted sunglasses, an earring, and had bright blond short hair.  Toward the end of the song a saxophone player joined them on stage.  He wore a black pinstriped suit and red shoes.

Things got brighter for the next song, Elton John’s mellow but more grandiose “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”.  Orange, red, and yellow spotlights shined on stage.  Other lights shined out on the audience and we were not longer sitting in the dark but in a virtual sunset.  The lights alternated blue and green.  Out of the panels in the back of the stage rose a drummer with full kit, keyboard player with keyboards, and standing percussionist with a set of congas and other instruments.  A guitarist, bassist and other musicians joined them on the narrow midstage.  Elton John and Billy Joel again sang alternate verses.  At the end of the song the audience on the floor gave them a standing ovation.  Elton John and Billy Joel got up and conferred a bit before sitting back down at their pianos.  Billy Joel would always refer to his co-performer as “Sir Elton John.”  They started playing their pianos very fast and went into a rockin’ version of “California Here I Come”.  The audience clapped out the rhythm and the spotlights shone purple and red.  The music then changed into Billy Joel’s “My Life” that mentions the West Coast and L.A.  The musical notes in lights and their black background that hung above the stage became a screen that showed Billy Joel and Elton John singing.  At the end of the song Billy Joel left the stage and his piano lowered back through its trap door.

There was the sound of wind followed by loud orchestral sounds accompanied by a loud guitar solo.  Elton John played his piano and soon added vocals.  It was a long, rockin’ song about having “this feeling in my hand.”  Elton John’s band consisted of a keyboard player, drummer, percussionist, guitarist, and bassist.  The guitarist had long blond hair and the bassist had long black hair.  We would learn later that Billy Joel would have a different band.  The steps between the different levels onstage also served as screens and green light flashed on them along with the larger screen above the stage.  Towards the end of the song the music got very fast and was accompanied by blinking spotlights.  The next song was the more familiar “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”.  Blue lights blinked on stage and images of burning skulls and dinosaurs moved across the screens.  Elton John added a long piano solo at the end.

Following that song, the sixth of the evening, Elton John said, “Good evening” and mentioned that it was the 40th year since his first visit to Los Angeles.  “I am so lucky,” He remarked.  He then said the next song was from the album “Tumbleweed Connection” and it was “Burn Down the Mission”.  I had heard the song at least once before on 100.3 FM, The Sound.  “Tumbleweed Connection” was in the Album Madness competition put on by the station.  It’s a slow to mid-speed song with these fast instrumental interludes where Elton John played some fast piano.  The screen showed religious imagery: angels and the Virgin Mary.  Towards the end they sang a loud, fast chorus of “Burn it Down” and the screens depicted flames.  Elton John mentioned that the next two songs were from the album “Madman Across the Water.”  The first was the title track that I hadn’t heard before, a dark, heavy song with a loud bass drum beat.  Blue and green lights shined on the stage and the song had a long instrumental end.  The next song was more familiar.  Before singing it, Elton John said he could only see the first few rows but still noticed that there were “many beautiful girls here.”  He dedicated the next song to all the beautiful girls and it began with him singing and playing the piano.  It was “Tiny Dancer” and the audience loved it, singing along to the words “softly, slowly”.  By this time it was 8:30 pm so Earth Hour had begun, though they didn’t really do anything to observe it at the concert.

Elton John said, “Feel free to sing along” to the next three songs.  He sang the mellow but very popular “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” with yellow spotlights shining on the stage and into the audience.  He then sang the equally popular and mellow but less grandiose “Daniel”.  Next he sang “Rocket Man” that starts slow and gets faster and grander.  Strange, psychedelic images appeared on the screen: large flowers in outer space, images of a younger Elton John, rows of pink flamingos.  It showed a rocket taking off with Elton John’s smiling face on the side.  Blue lights shone in the audience.  The song ended with a long piano solo and the repeated line “I’m a Rocket Man.”   Elton John got up to shake hands with some of the audience and then returned to his piano and played a solo to begin the song “Levon”.  It started slower but got louder when the rest of the band joined in after the first verse.  They ended the song with the repeated line “he shall be Levon.”  He played another fast piano solo that led into the loud, fast, and defiant song “I’m Still Standing”.  The screens showed a view of flying over a black and red checkerboard with white lines separated into squares on the sides.  There were blue and white spotlights blinking and the drum was loud and prominent.

The fast organ chords began the next song: “Crocodile Rock,” a favorite on radio morning shows in Juneau, Alaska when I was younger.  The screens showed images of cartoons.  Different colored spotlights blinked and many people on the floor stood up and danced.  Elton John had the audience sing the high-noted words “La la la la la la . . . . ”  At the end the screen showed the faces of the crowd singing.  After they finished the band left the stage.  Elton John bowed and left and the lights went dark.  The screen showed the words “Elton wows em”.

The spotlights shone onstage revealing a different band.  They played similar instruments: drums, keyboards, percussion; but they had risen from alternate panels from Elton John’s band.  There was also a guitarist, bassist, saxophone player (same as before in black pinstripe suit and red shoes) and a musician who switched between trumpet, trombone, and background vocals.  Elton John’s piano had been put away and Billy Joel’s piano was there.  Billy Joel came out onstage, sat down at the piano and they played a fast, ranting song.  Billy Joel played some fast piano and sang about “an angry young man.”  I didn’t know that song, but I knew the next one.  With a “1-2-3-4” they played “Moving Out” that featured a very loud bass drum.  The African-American woman playing percussion picked up a saxophone and joined the main sax player and trombone player as they played and danced in the front part of the stage.

As the applause from “Moving Out” quieted Billy Joel said, “Thank you and good evening, Anaheim.”  He introduced a member of his band and would introduce others after most of his songs.  They were from many different places such as Brooklyn, NY; New Jersey; Indiana; and one member of the band was from right there in Orange County.  Billy Joel addressed the audience behind the stage.  “Those seats aren’t too bad, right?”  He turned to the audience to the side of the stage and said, “It’s you who are getting screwed.  Actually, you’re getting a lot of head.”  It was a joke since they saw the back of Billy Joel’s head when he sat at the piano.  He described how he was a solo artist so he couldn’t break up with himself.

A factory whistle signaled that the next song as the very topical “Allentown”.  It’s about a factory town affected by a bad economy.  The screens showed images of the inside of a car factory and American flags.  Billy Joel’s piano revolved around as he sang.  Before the next song Billy Joel said, “Thank you for buying tickets to our show.  We’re happy to have jobs.”  He explained that the next song was from the 1978 album “57th Street” and was called “Zanzibar”.  He wasn’t sure if it was a single.  It was fast and also sounded very ‘70’s.  It featured the trombone/trumpet player who played two different trumpets for different parts of the song.  The screens showed images of boxers boxing and baseball players.  After the song Billy Joel introduced the trumpet player and spoke with a mock accent, either German or Norwegian, I couldn’t tell.

Billy Joel mentioned that the next song was from the album “Glass Houses”.  It was the mid-speed rant “Don’t Ask Me Why”.  They then slowed down with “She’s Always a Woman”.  The audience sang along with the chorus.  I wasn’t as familiar with the next song “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”.  It started slowly with the lyrics “Bottle of red, bottle of white . . . ”  The scenes showed restaurant employees setting up the table cloths.  The song got faster and sounded like old-style Nawlins jazz a bit.  There was a saxophone solo.  The sax player and other horn players would wave goodbye when Billy Joel sang “Waving goodbye.”  Towards the end they went back to the slow part from the beginning “Bottle of red, bottle of white . . . ”  For the next song they performed the fast, fun “River of Dreams” that begins “In the middle of the night, I got walking in my sleep . . . ”  The song seemed louder with more sound then I’m used to hearing in it.  In the middle of the song they did one verse and chorus of the Beach Boy’s “California Girls.”  Billy Joel finished the song with a long piano solo.

Billy Joel stood up and his piano went back down its trap door.  The staff set up a microphone, handed him a guitar and they performed the fast, kinetic “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”  On the screen they showed pictures of everything mentioned in the song: Joseph Stalin, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television, etc.  But for “England’s got a new queen” they showed a picture of a young Elton John.  During the last chorus, they just showed fire on the screen.  Billy Joel put down his guitar and the band played some blues music.  Billy Joel sang the lines “What does it mean?” and “It doesn’t mean anything”.  The song quickly turned into “It’s still Rock and Roll to me.”  During the instrumental parts Billy Joel tossed and spun his microphone stand.  At the end he threw it high across the stage where it was caught by a staffer.  Billy Joel’s piano returned and they played the fun but slightly morbid “Only the Good Die Young”.  At the end the entire band stood in the front part of the stage and bowed.  Billy Joel said, “Thank you, Orange County” and the lights went out.  It was 10:30 pm.

The cheering and applause were loud and it didn’t take long for the stage lights to turn back on to reveal Elton John, Billy Joel, and both their bands combined.  The back of the stage had two keyboard players, two drummers, and two percussionists.  Midstage there were two bassists, two guitarists, and several other musicians.  There was only one main saxophone player, though, the one introduced by Billy Joel with the black pinstripe suit and red shoes.  Elton John was wearing a different black suitcoat or shirt with tails.  This one didn’t have the yellow writing on the back but just had what looked like streaks of gold glitter.  They played Elton John’s song “That’s Why they Call it the Blues.”  It sounded faster than the familiar recorded version.  Naturally, blue lights shone around the stage.  They then did the more upbeat Billy Joel song “Uptown Girl”.  I could see Billy Joel flexing his arm muscles when he sang the line “I’m not so tough.”  With these two songs they alternated singing verses as they did for the songs at the beginning.  The next song started with fast and fun music from the bands.  Both Elton John and Billy Joel climbed on top of their pianos.  Elton John climbed down and they performed “The Bitch is Back”, a loud and fast song accompanied by fast blinking lights.  Billy Joel’s sax player did a solo.  They then performed Billy Joel’s ranting song “You May be Right” that had very loud piano playing.

The loud piano continued and they performed Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets.”  The spotlights shone purple, blue, orange, and white.  Billy Joel’s piano revolved.  Blue spotlights shone on half the audience and white shone on the other half.  When each loud piano note of the chorus played the color switched: the white half turned blue and the blue half white.  They ended the song with dueling piano solos.  They then wished everyone in the audience with a birthday “happy birthday” and for them (“Rather than the usual song” as Elton John said) they performed the Beatles song “You Say it’s Your Birthday.”  They followed that with another Beatles song, the fast “Back in the USSR”.  The band left after that song and with only their pianos for accompaniment, Elton John and Billy Joel performed “Candle in the Wind”.  They alternated singing verses as they had for the past several songs.  Billy Joel sang soulfully and the audience sang along with the chorus.  For the next song, that would be the last, Billy Joel had a harmonica set up so he could play it without holding it.  I think it was around his neck but I couldn’t tell even with binoculars.  They then performed Billy Joel’s signature tune “Piano Man”.  Even though it was just the two of them playing pianos and harmonica, the sound seemed to fill up the venue.  The audience sang along.  I don’t remember what was one the screens, just the great music.  Towards the end, Elton John improvised one of the lines a bit: “You’re a very good crowd for a Saturday . . . ”  They finished, bowed, and left the stage to a long standing ovation.  It was 11:13 pm.

The lights went out, the audience cheered and it seemed as if there might even be another encore, but soon the lights came back on and the canned music returned.  It took a while to work our way through the crowd of middle-aged people down the stairs, out of the Honda Center and across Douglas Road to the Westwood College parking lot.  Traffic was jammed all through the lot.  When we finally reached the exit to the street, we could only turn left (north) onto Douglas Road.  They seemed to have turned it into a one-way street as it veered left (west) into Cerritos Ave.  We carefully merged to the rightmost lane and turned right (north) on Sunkist.  Next we turned right (east) on Ball Road.  To get on the 57 freeway north, we stayed towards the right.  The entrance is on the right side after the entrance to go south and after driving under the freeway.  It’s one of those loops.  We made it home after 12 am on Sunday, March 29, 2009.

Well, Billy Joel and Elton John put on an impressive show.  Not bad for a couple of 59- and 60-year olds.  Our cousin with whom we discussed the concert later said Elton John should have introduced his band as Billy Joel did.  They didn’t perform all the songs that we knew such as Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time” and Elton John’s “Sad Songs they say So Much” but they did many of the big songs along with a few lesser known ones.  We’re glad Billy Joel did the very timely “Allentown”.  It was also cool to see them singing and performing each other’s songs.

Yeah, “Moving Out” of the parking lot was difficult but it turned out that “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” traffic.

My wife got me a Sansa SlotMusic player as an early anniversary present.  I had never owned a portable MP3 player or other iPod-type device before then, though my wife has several and let me borrow one of her older ones.  It mostly contained music she favored.  When I wanted to listen to my music I would use my portable CD player or Sony Walkman portable tape player.  My wife got me the Walkman a few years ago primarily to listen to books on tape from the library.  Several months ago my wife entered an online contest and won a Sansa SlotMusic.  It came with a jacket or outer shell with a picture of the rapper Akon and a chip of Akon’s music.  The player doesn’t store music itself but has a slot for small chips that can contain music.  The chips can be placed into a device with a USB plug, plugged into a computer, and have digital music tracks stored on them.  All Sansa MP3 players are made by SanDisk who also makes flash drives.  The chips for storing music come in different memory sizes.

We replaced the Akon jacket with a generic Sansa jacket.  The jacket slides on and off and looks like a taco shell.  The whole SlotMusic looks like a taco and, like other users, I just call it a Taco.

As part of my anniversary present, my wife transferred the music from most of my 170+ CD’s that I have accumulated over the past 12 years onto our computer.  She then transferred them to an 8 gigabyte chip for the Sansa SlotMusic.  It’s amazing that the music from all those CD’s fits on a chip that’s not much bigger than a dime.  We put the chip in the Taco and now I can listen to my music anywhere.

The Taco is a very simple MP3 player.  It doesn’t have a screen or the ability to select specific tracks or playlists.  It has one button for play, pause, on and off; a dual button for volume up and down; separate buttons for forward and reverse; and a headphone jack.  It doesn’t pick songs at random but just plays them in the order in which they are stored.  It seems to have put the CD’s and many of the individual tracks in alphabetical order.  There’s some limited song selection capability with the forward and reverse buttons but it would be very tedious to scroll through everything and not be able to see the song titles on a screen.  The Taco uses one AAA battery that provides about 15 hours of listening.

I’ve used the Taco just about every weekday since my wife put the songs on the chip.  I listen to it on the train to block out the noise from the other passengers and at work to get through the tedious, but necessary, tasks.  I go through one battery per week.  So far, I’ve listen to everything though Queen Greatest Hits III (as of the first (written) draft; through Salsa Fresca as of the second (typed) draft; through The Colors of Latin Jazz – Corcovado as of the third (posted) draft).  The music started with my Coachella 2002 CD since the alphabetically earlier CD’s were loaded later.  Every time I start listening I have to turn down the volume because the default is set so high.  It has worked well and I believe it has lowered my stress levels.  I once forgot my headphones and had a tough time getting through the day without my Taco to listen to.