We Didn't Start the Fire.... Updated

So I'm a history/politics/pop culture nerd so, naturally I love the Billy Joel song, "We Didn't Start the Fire" The following is my attempt at updating it starting from where it left off at the end of the 80s. The rhythm is tough but here it is.

Charles Taylor, Estonia, game boy, Latvia,
Sandinista, Johnny Carson, Pablo Escobar,

Bart Simpson, Magic Johnson, later Nancy Kerrigan
Desert Storm, Desert Shield, War in East Timor.

Clarence Thomas, Arafat, Seinfeld, Yitzhak,
Fertility pill, Brady bill, Walmart's gotta new new store..

Time Warner, Marion Barry, Rwanda’s gotten really scary
Rap, Gotti, Ebay, Ukraine, oh, and say goodbye to McVeigh!

CHORUS
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the worlds been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light
But we tried to fight it.

Douglass Coupland, Kurt Cobain, Rumsfeld met Saddam Hussein,
Newt Gingrich, Jian Zemin, Mike Tyson takes it in the chin.

IPO, Monica, Liebermann, Slovakia,
Free Tibet, the internet, and all of Enron’s shit

Putin, Blair, Ken Starr, Shell wants the ANWAR
OJ, Kobe, Heaven’s Gate, and foot and mouth in cattle.

Pokeman, MoveOn, trouble in Florida
Tony Hawk, Tiger Woods, and the Battle for Seattle!

CHORUS

Anorexic, Atkins’s, Napster, invade another nation
“A Clash of Civilization” and Bin laden’s in Wazuristan,

Xbox, Matrix, Ali G, anthrax,
China, Chavez, Cheney, Juarez.

Taliban, Harrison, “Brokeback Mountain”

Ipod, Hezbollah, peak oil, Africa,
Venezuela, Gaza, Hurricane Katrina
Victor Prodi, Spiderman, tsunami, Koizumi
Frodo, TiVo, Daily Show, and Chechens seiging Moscow!

CHORUS

Same Night Revisited

Go out somewhere new. In some roaring group. Or just wrangle lonesome. Find some wild bar or if short in the pocket: friend's apartment. And keep up the sleepless fight by means of 520 yen MAXIO genki drink. Keep with the wit. Keep out the wrinkles. Wear this but not with that. Dance. Goof. Remember all that silly glossy Men’s Health and Playboy advice! Look at her, but not at her…for too long anyways. Fresh breath, always fresh breath! All manner of recommendations on how to act and attract, but I can’t remember any of it and let loose and ‘cause I wanna drunk, I do!

And I do by orange juice and tequila.

And after the last dance in Roppongi, CRASH the genki potion wears off and everyone flees to coat lockers and then into the subways to avoid the judgmental and somehow parental crows that sound like my angry mother waking me up early in the morning with “Maaaaaaaaaaax Maaaaaaaax”. Go underground with the other late night refugees. Ghastly girls with strange chemical skin in miniskirts and suede Selfish Queen boots sit with dapper gents in refined flimsy hats leaning against white tiled subway walls. Sprawled. It’s early morning in West Tokyo and it’s full of friends and ringing ears.

These boots are actually say, "Selfish Queen" on them. This may be the only picture I put on this whole blog. Ever.

The Last Slow Dance in Roppongi

It was the last slow dance in Roppongi. I was there dancing with a girl I’d never spoken a word to. A Japanese girl, with soft cute face, almond eyes, dressed smart-— but otherwise difficult to describe. Her right hand rested quietly on my chest. She felt feminine and oddly familiar like the incarnation of some Ernest Hemingway goddess made real.

It was the last slow dance in Roppongi. The natural attraction of Italian car jocks and girls with eyes for diamonds and glitter was over. They'd all gone home to bon vivant lifestyles. Done too was consumer frenzy, and the click-clack of designer heels on rain soaked concrete.

Note by slow note that music was playing softly as if to cleanse the testosterone so carelessly spilled on the dance floor. It felt as if all my bop heros in heaven were saying, "all is well". It was the last slow dance in Roppongi, so I kissed her.

Overheard in Toyama

Overheard in Toyama

Drunk 1: Do you wanna go to that place that hates foreigners.
Drunk 2: Man, they really hate us there don’t they… but the beer is cheap. Alright let’s go.

On alternative lifestyles:

ALT1: He was so amazing he chopped wood all day. I’d love to be like that.
ALT2: Mongolian woodcutters don’t have ipods though.
ALT1: Yeah that’s true.

On the phone in staff room.

Japanese teacher on phone: Hai, moshi moshi
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: onegaishimasu
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: onegaishimasu
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: onegaishimasu
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: onegaishimasu
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: onegaishimasu
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: sumimasen
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: sumimasen
Caller: (inaudible)
Japanese teacher on phone: sumimasen

On what’s next:

ALT1: damn people are dying a lot this season [on LOST], what do you think they’ll do?
ALT2: I don’t know, maybe just focus on those other people walking around on the beach.

On what’s next 2:

Me: Damn dude, I like your post-JET plan.
ALT2: Yeah, It’s my plan… this week.

On false Expectations:

I don’t think the water is any better here than the water anywhere else.