Don't go changin'...

Yesterday was a good day to be a Billy Joel fan.

My concert tickets arrived in the mail. I suppose I always knew that they would, but I hate Ticketmaster. Four tickets cost less than $160, but the fees that they tack on brought the total to over $190. I view them in about the same regard as pillagers. In that vein, I don't trust them much and am grateful to have the tickets in my own hands.

Of course, it also means that I now have about three months to lose said tickets.

As an added bonus, BJ was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It was a previously aired show, but one that I had not seen. Actually, it was a good episode of Conan. He had his "Tree Lighting" episode, which featured Abe Vigoda (gotta love "Fish"); the hot chick from "Access Hollywood"; and Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog! Alan Alda, who I hate (personally, not professionally) was the "lead" guest, but he only had one very short segment pimping his new book and his new role on "The West Wing."

Joel got a sit-down segment to push his new box set and two additional, one song segments. I hope the upcoming concert echoes this mini-set -- semi-obscure older tracks, such as "Everybody Loves You Now" from his first album, "Cold Spring Harbor"; and "Vienna" from his fourth (and, arguably, best) album, "The Stranger." In all the times that I have seen/heard him live, this is the first time that I have heard either of these two songs performed live.

During his interview, I also learned that Billy and I have something else in common. He said:

My family is Jewish; my friends are all Italian; and all the women who ever broke my heart are Irish.

Even Billy knows....dang redheads'll get you every time.