Homeless Guy NAILS Styx Song; He's Now Suddenly Famous

Donald Gould at the piano in Sarasota, Florida. 

I've seen this kind of thing before, but I always like it when it happens.

A homeless guy, the kind of person a lot of us go out of our way to ignore, does something brilliant.

Here, Donald Gould finds a piano in the street in Sarasota, Florida and starts playing the Styx classic "Come Sail Away." He's brilliant.

The video, just uploaded on June 30,  has gone viral, with nearly 6 million views as of Monday morning.

Everybody's talking about him now. He's been all over social and mainstream media over the past few days.

A star is born!

The pianos, like the one Gould found were placed in various areas around Sarasota by the Art and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.

A follow up video features an interview with Gould, who says he plays the piano on the street every day to collect tips. He used to play the clarinet in the Marine Corps.

Gould says he has been homeless for six or seven years, when the economy tanked and he got laid off. Unemployment benefits kept him afloat for a couple years, but that ended. He says he has a construction background and can do that, but I agree with the woman in the follow up video that maybe a career in music would be better.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Gould, and that has raised about $29,000 as of Monday morning. So that will at least get a roof over his head.

Here's the video of Gould playing "Come Sail Away."

Homeless Guy Sees Piano On Sidewalk; Plays It: Result: Beauty

Maybe he doesn't look like he belongs in
Symphony Hall, but this guy can sure play the piano.  

There's been a mini-trend, especially in Canada, of arts groups placing old pianos in public places in cities and inviting people to stop and play them.

Such is the case in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where a homeless guy named Ryan stumbled upon one of the pianos in a park and started playing.

An organization called #OpenPianoYeg put the pianos in the streets. Founder David Rauch told the CBC: "I want really great people to play. I want really bad people to play,"

I do like the idea of putting random pianos in public places. I think they can be soothing, given the right circumstances.

Ryan apparently never had piano lessons, he's just able to play.

He also proves that you never know where you'll find talent.

See and hear for yourself:

I Want To Run Into THIS Guy Next Time I'm Stuck At The Airport

This guy sure knows how to lift the
gloominess of airport terminals.  

My new favorite person is Maan Hamadeh.

I'll be in airports today. I find terminals terminally gloomy. So I wish I could take Hamadeh with me. Here's why:

He's from Lebanon, was traveling and recently ended up waiting at an airport in Prague.

According to the Daily Star of Lebanon, Hamadeh describes what happened:

"I spent 12 days in Europe without playing music, so I missed playing and became very excited about it....While we were looking for the gate to board our next flight, my friend stopped me and he pointed toward a piano, and so like a baby who has found his mother after getting lost, I ran to it."

Which made the whole scene in the Prague airport so much better. Hamadeh played various versions of
Beethoven's "Fur Elise" (you'll recognize it when you hear it) and part of the score from the movie "Titanic"

As you can see in the viral video below, you wish every airport gate had a piano player. It makes unpleasant terminals so much better. For proof, watch the face of the woman in the blue shirt behind Hamadeh in the video:

Bored Kids Wows Costco Shoppers With Piano Skills

Most young boys become bored out of their minds when their parents drag them off to Costco to shop for gallon jugs of mayonnaise, 120-packs of toilet paper or whatever.

The Costco piano playing kid.  

But in a 2011 video that is just now going viral, one kid found a way to occupy himself while his parents were seeking deals, Deals, DEALS!!!!

He found a piano, and started playing.

Note to piano playing kid: The hat's a nice touch, too.

Sorry for the vertical video syndrome (You YouTubers have GOT to stop that!) But it is worth seeing what the kid came up with:

Putting The Piano Scene In The Movie "Big" To Shame

Some of you might remember the adorable scene in the 1988 movie "Big" in which Tom Hanks and Robert Laggia danced on the giant piano on the floor of the toy store FAO Schwarz. They banged out a nice version of "Heart and Soul"

The piano scene from "Big" Now try it with
a Bach number.  

One of the better movie moments I can remember.

But as always, somebody had to outdo them.

The video below was uploaded to YouTube way back in 2009 but for some reason it's just going viral now, so it came to my attention.

Same idea, same basic scene as in the "Big" piano. But these two women are more ambitious.

Be prepared to be amazed as these two people perform "Toccata & Fugue in D- Minor" by Bach: