The Good Rabbi's Blog

This past weekend, I ventured up to the Big Apple to see Billy Joel's "Last Play at Shea." For those not in the know, Shea stadium is going to be torn down at the end of this year's baseball season to make way for one of those new stadiums designed to look like an old stadium. This was easily one of the best shows that I've been to in a good long while. I have a number of observations after taking this trip that I thought I'd share with you.

First, I have no use for the state of Delaware. There are exactly 35 people that live there, and the stretch of I-95 that runs through it is only about 18 miles long. Yet, this is always where the delays are, and now the people who run the Delaware department of transportation have decided to put the entire stretch of highway under construction during the day. It's obvious that they're fairly retarded. I have no objections to construction. Hell, I'm from the northeast, and we always joked that there were four seasons up there - almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction. The only thing is, most states have figured out that you should do construction at night, when there are fewer cars on the road. Instead it took me an hour and a half to travel 18 miles (twice - it was equally delayed on the way back).

New York City is rapidly becoming a place where it is illegal to have any kind of personal enjoyment whatsoever. You can't smoke, you can't listen to an iPod if you're walking on the street, you cant eat any foods with trans fats in them, and now, restaurants have to post the calorie counts for everything. When did the big apple become the peoples' republic?

As for the show itself, it was amazing. A full string section, and guest stars including Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, Steven Tyler, Roger Daltry (from The Who), and during the encore, Paul McCartney. The set list was amazing - lots of stuff from the 70's, and as any Billy Joel fan could tell ya, that was his best stuff. Dana, over at club D has a good review of the show. She caught most of it, except the part during Summer, Highland Falls, as she was being administered oxygen (seriously, this chick loves her some Billy Joel).