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The Piano Man

Nanda Devi said:
That's a fantastic book, and I've met very few people who have read it. Sacks also wrote Awakenings, which was made into a very good film with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams.
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I would add Uncle Tungsten, my favourite of the three.

with all the media coverage, we'll know who he is within a week.
 
PlaceofDis said:
wow, i want to hear how this ends for sure, and as suggested, why was he not recorded so someone could maybe identify the music!? puzzling to say the least
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Apparently he plays for several hours a day and has performed an entire rendition of Swan Lake. The Independant reports that he also drew a picture of the Swedish flag.

How very bizarre. I really want to know what the story is behind his trauma.
 
hmmm...

okay, so when is the movie coming out? Seriously, I am a huge fan of piano music, I think if played by the right person, it can be very emotional and meaningful. And if you tie in this guys life and then the problems of the people around him and stuff it would make for a great script. Let Adrian Brody play the guy lol. Let Paul Thomas Anderson or Cameron Crowe write the script and direct it. Sorry, not trying to turn this into a movie forum, just think the whole thing is very interesting.


P.S.
(And sorry if that came off like I think that we should not be considerate to the hospital patients, I didn't mean it that way.)
 
"The man has since written music, which has been verified as genuine."

What does THAT mean!? Can you write counterfeit music?
 
I don't know how music can otherwise be written and be made genuine, If he composed it its his and nobody has ever heard it before.
 
Ms Dorey-Rees was unable to say what music he had played.

"Nobody was skilled enough to recognise the music, they just knew it was classical music and he played very well."
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How could this be verified then if they didn't know what he was playing, I would like to know who said it was genuine.
 
MacNut said:
I would like to know who said it was genuine.
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The news story author said it but the article has no byline. It is just credited to BBC NEWS. It's probably not the kind of story where they get all the details right on the first try.
 
BBC are now reporting that he may have been identified as a street musician from France. Nothing is confirmed but hopefully the police will be able to follow this lead and trace his family.

I'd rather see a documentary about this man and real footage of him playing than a hollywood style movie. Hollywood is bound to get all the details wrong... they'd probably turn him into an American hero....
 
Ugg said:
Hey, stop bashing Billy! He was the coolest guy in the world while I was in high school and his older stuff is way up the list on my play count column.
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Did you grow up in or around Allentown, Pennsylvania?
 
Piano man was faking it

News link:
Germany's Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that the unidentified man who washed up on a British beach four months ago is a 20-year-old Bavarian. Apparently he's not an amnesiac -- and not much of a piano-player either.

According to British broadsheet The Daily Mirror, the Piano Man uttered his first words last Friday, only to reveal that he cannot play piano and only drew one for his doctors because it was the first thing that came into his head.

Reports that he astonished staff at the Little Brook Hospital in Dartford with his virtuoso playing were grossly exaggerated, said the paper. In fact, all he ever did was tap one key over and over again.

"A nurse went into his room last Friday and said 'Are you going to speak to us today?' He simply answered, 'Yes, I think I will,'" a hospital insider told the paper.

Allegedly, he also told hospital staff that he was a German who'd travelled to Britain by Eurostar. According to Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung, he comes from the small town of Waldmünchen near the Czech border in eastern Bavaria. He also revealed he'd recently lost a job in Paris, was gay, and had two sisters and a father who owned a farm.

Crucially, he also said that he'd worked with mentally ill patients. The revelation clears up at least one mystery -- how a suicidal German managed to fool so many people for so long. Experts now believe he copied some of their behavioral mannerisms in order to convince therapists he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. His tactics worked.

With the Piano Man now back in Germany, the Mirror also reports that doctors are considering suing their former patient, arguing that his treatment cost the cash-strapped National Health thousands of pounds and wasted expert time.
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Doctor Q said:
With the Piano Man now back in Germany, the Mirror also reports that doctors are considering suing their former patient, arguing that his treatment cost the cash-strapped National Health thousands of pounds and wasted expert time.
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Sounds more like former patients should sue the "experts."

If the only way to diagnose someone is by them telling you what's wrong, then how much of an expert is someone? I think they're just mad that they were fooled.

It reminds me of the study years ago where perfectly sane people checked into clinics, told the staff a general disorder story, and then acted normal the whole time there. The staff came up with all kinds of disorders wrong with the people... and all because they were under the assumption that something was wrong, minus any empirical evidence showing otherwise.

I have a degree in psychology and stuff like this always gets under my skin with how the field of psychology is right now.
 
But what I'm wondering is...why? Why did he fake this in the first place?

By the way & off topic, AmigoMac - Love the new 'tar - I think that might be my new favorite!
 
If it is indeed a hoax, the "Piano Man" isn't the only one involved by a long shot. If you look back at the original BBC News story, two different people made comments about his piano playing. One is his social worker, a Mr. Camp, who's quoted as saying:
"The first time we took him down to the piano he played for several hours, non-stop."
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That sounds like a first-hand account to me. Another is a Karen Dorey-Rees, the adult mental health manager for the West Kent NHS and Social Care Trust, who's quoted as saying:
"Nobody was skilled enough to recognise the music, they just knew it was classical music and he played very well."
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In her case, it could be second-hand information (she wasn't there to hear him play, but others told her about it).
 
Doctor Q said:
If so, how could they verify that? They'd have to be able to recognize every other song ever written.
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Indeed, it appears as though neither social workers nor journalists know diddly-squat about music. :D
 
That is very sad that "piano man" would have pulled off a hoax like this. It's amazing that someone with musical knowledge wouldn't have been able to detect a problem. He should have to pay for the care that he received.
 
m-dogg said:
But what I'm wondering is...why? Why did he fake this in the first place?
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Bored? "May I have your attention please?" "WTF, I do it because I can"
, all of them?

m-dogg said:
By the way & off topic, AmigoMac - Love the new 'tar - I think that might be my new favorite!
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Thank you, as most of you know, it's from joy of the tech but WTH, I do it because I can. :p
 
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