Piano Man

[FS]

*cue Megaman 2 music*

So a mystery man estimated between the ages of 25-35, possibly of Eastern European origin, and dressed in a suit and tie, was found drenched on British shores. He hasn't said a word so far, and was taken to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. The guy's timid and seemingly badly traumatized by something, and when hospital employees gave him paper and pen, he drew a picture of a piano. When they then brought him to a piano inside the hospital, he became completely relaxed and played like a pro for two hours straight. Police are trying to find out if any orchestras know who he is, and expanding the search through Europe.

Mistifying. No doubt there's Hollywood vultures out there hoping his first word will be 'yes' to a book and subsequent movie deal.

[Emu]

I smell a South Park episode.

[AChimp]

There was a movie about something like this already, I think.

[ziggytrix]

sounds like an elaborate prank.

[FS]

It might be, but I believe the story's six weeks old and still running.

[ziggytrix]

yeah, that'd be the elaborate part. :P

[Miss Modular]

I went into this thread thinking Billy Joel had crashed his car into another house. :(

[FS]

Fuck!! He was hot as hell, too. His music wasn't too bad, either.

[sspadowsky]

Has anyone asked the kid to play any Billy Joel?

[AChimp]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117631/

[FS]

Well, the similarity seems to stop at that both guys are kind of weird and play the piano. This guy has the added possibility that before he washed up on the beach, he was a highly trained genetically superior spy with the added talent of playing the piano.

[Spectre X]

"This is Number Six. He is genetically perfect. He is able to see farther and clearer than any human. His hearing exceeds that of dogs. His sense of smell is more powerful than that of most mammals. He is faster, stronger, tougher and smarter than any human before him. He is trained in two-hundred martial arts and is able to kill a person with each one within two blows."

*Number Six starts playing a ditty on a piano*

"He can also play the piano. We got bored."

[Skulhedface]

Maybe it's Jesus :chatter

[kellychaos]

Truly, truly, I say to you,

He who believes in me will also do the works that I do;

like Chopin, Mozart and Bach;

and Greater Works than These will he do...

[ziggytrix]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/05/18/international/piano.184.jpg
photo: New York Times



Mime Artist Claims to Know 'Piano Man'
By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press Writer

LONDON -- Many callers have offered information about the mysterious "Piano Man," including a mime who said he was a fellow street musician, but the hospital patient who loves to play Tchaikovsky has yet to be positively identified, officials said Wednesday.

Michael Camp, the man's social worker, acknowledged claims by a Polish immigrant in Rome who believes the so-called "Piano Man" is a street musician from France -- but he said officials will continue to follow up on more than 600 calls they have received from as far away as Australia and Canada.

"I'm concerned that we don't just stop at the step of this particular person," Camp told reporters. "He might be him but at the same time he might not be."

Italian police reported that Polish mime artist Dariusz Dydymski had approached them claiming the pianist -- found wandering, distraught and soaking wet on the Isle of Sheppey in southeast England on April 7 -- is Steven Villa Masson, a pianist with whom he worked in the French resort of Nice.

Hospital officials Monday released a photograph of the man, who is tall and thin with blond hair and believed to be in his 20s or early 30s.

He has not said a word since being found, but he has drawn intricate picture of pianos for staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital at Gillingham, where he was first taken, and played on the chapel piano, performing snippets of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and the music of John Lennon.

The man now is being cared for at a psychiatric unit in Dartford and is regularly playing a piano provided for him by a tabloid newspaper.

Adrian Lowther, a spokesman for the West Kent National Health Service Trust, which is caring for the man, said officials have received calls and e-mails from Australia, Canada, Sweden and Holland.

"They are just suggestions and they will now be looked at and until we do we can't rule any of them in or out," he said.

Italian police say they have taken a statement from Dydymski which will be passed to British authorities.

The British press has likened the case of the "Piano Man" to the Oscar-winning 1996 movie "Shine," about acclaimed pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a nervous breakdown while playing. But the man seems to be nothing more than an accomplished amateur.

Camp, the social worker, says he remains very anxious and uncommunicative, only seeming to relax when at the keyboard.

Hospital staff already have ruled out reports that he recently attended a local funeral. Interpreters from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania were brought in to see if he was from Eastern Europe and possibly an asylum seeker, but no one was able to get through to him.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-piano-man,1,1830854.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines