Piano Man

Looking for a quiet place with fewer partially-cooked (and a not few badly overdone) tourists that also happened to have a WiFi, I landed in the ship's piano bar situated just off the ship's casino. A fairly dim place that was forgiving of my weak, battery-saving display. Settling in, I bought a beer located, a quiet corner and sat down to do a bit of housekeeping on the Crabitat, clearing the comment queue and such. (Note to readers, if you run afoul of the spam traps, I am not going hand over hand through that queue to try to recover legit comments. The per minute charge is too high for that.)

A man sat at the piano, a really good player. I'd seen him last night, he was the regular performer at the bar. Today, he was clearly practicing, wearing old blue jeans rather than the neat outfit he'd worn last night.He played his best even though there were only a few people in the place and none of them were really listening. I've always loved the sound of a well-played piano and this guy could really play. Complicated arrangements that were still recognizable as many of my personal favorite songs. Some I didn't recognize, but still enjoyed. He sat there at the piano, nobody around him and still played his heart out on the keys.

When a large group that appeared to be related came in they immediately surrounded him and started calling out requests. They sat at the stools around the piano and in the booths behind me. It wasn't quiet any longer. But these people were having a ball and the fun was infectious. People started singing along with his clear baritone singing voice. His accent indicated he was originally from Jamaica.

But I thought of Billy Joel's old song even though there was no despair in the room, only people having a grand time listening and singing along with a talented performer.