Soundtrack Feed: One Night in Rio - Louie Austen

One, one night in Rio, (in Rio)
Two, two days in LA (in LA)
We had a short, a short stop in Moscow
But there was no, (no…) no time to stay (to stay, to stay, to….)

We’ll had to meet this promoter in New York
So we met at the Hilton Hotel at the lobby
We said we have to leave immediately to Germany
So we hired a cab,
When I saw the cab I thought I’ll faint! because this little cab
Was jut a Mitsubishi, a shifted car,
I’m used to ridin’ limousines, luxury cars, with all my stuff,
a minimum one suitcase, two pairs of shoes and three backup singers
I’m used to this, I need this!

Anyway, this driver had no idea how to get to the airport,
‘cause at the 14th street he took a left turn, instead of a right turn,
and I was really mad at him which us:
Hey man we have to.. to be at the airport in a few moments!
So how hard can you do that!
‘cause the flight, leaves, to Berlin!

One, one fancy cocktail (in the sky)
Two, two pieces of lemon
Three, three crying babies (next to me)
And after four drinks, they wouldn’t serve me no more…

Well after flying for seven hours in economy class
I was really mad, three crying babies
And no more liquor, and no sleep
So finally we arrived in Berlin
It was raining, of course
So nobody’s picking us up
‘cause where the hell are these guys?
But anyway, so let’s go get the luggage
And we went down and, there was no luggage, there was no luggage!
So I waited half an hour for my luggage
So I went down to the counter and said: excuse me, where is my luggage?
We flew from New York to Berlin
So he looked into his computer, and he said:
Sir, it’s on the way to LA (LA, LA, LA…)

I had one, one, one bedroom apartment (one bedroom apartment)
There were two, two things on my mind (my mind)
I want to go back (back), back to my luggage
I want to leave (leave), leave this place behind

Ok, I’m sitting at the airplane to Los Angeles to get my luggage back
It’s quiet and next to me there is a friendly guy from Morocco or somewhere
So we talk, and I wanted to show him the pictures of my boat, and guess what?
I find out, that I forgot my wallet in the apartment, in Berlin!
And here I am, no cash, no credit cards, not wearing a suit, for four days!
Suddenly, the nice guy beside me jumps up with a pistol in his hand!
Runs to the cockpit and demands that the pilot has to go to Rio de Janeiro!

One, just one night in Rio (in Rio)
Too, too tired to complain (buagh)
Three, three stamps in my passport
For you it might sound funny (well…)
But I was in pain

All right after twenty six hours
We got rescued by the brazilian anti-terror squad
Nice guys by the way
Later at the gate, I see this BEAUTIFUL lady smiling at me
I go over there, and talk to her
And she, invites me to go to her house
Sounds like, there’s a chance to shave

And is one, one night in Rio (Rio)
We had two, two glass of champagne (champagne)
And after three, three minutes of talking (hahaha)
We made love (love...), again and again (again again again…)

Aagghh, its four o’clock in the morning and I’m getting a little rest
You know what I’ll say, hah it was a rough night
My cell phone rings it’s my agent Steve
He’s telling me he’s waiting on my boat in Malibu
with all my luggage Thank God!
Ready to go to Honolulu, I could dress, go to the airport,
pick up my ticket,
because I have to go back, back to LA

The Magical Dance of Life

|when fiction and realities collide|

"Otsukaresama desu." I looked up and replied shortly.. "Good night". I walked slowly, heading back to my desk. It was already 10PM and I was the only one in my team that still staying in the office. As I sat down and logged in to my Lotus Notes, I couldn't help but thinking what actually I was doing here. I quickly scanned through those email subjects and decided to call it enough for the day.

...

"Hello, Nick. What's up with that look?" the bartender teased me while throwing her lovely smile. "Just another one too many long day, dear. Can I have .." "Gin tonic, sure, Nick..haha. Are you sure you don't want something stronger?" "Wish I can..wish I can..ahh what the heck, just give me a tequila shot..happy?" "As long as you're happy, Nick" she said back to me with a wink. I took down the shot and started to look around. Same old view..strangers talking to strangers, trying to win each other "love" for the night and if no love should be found, then just move on to another stranger until they find their love of the night. Is it Cupid that playing around or will he be crying seeing such situation? Hah..wtf..who cares, right?

...

I walked toward the big glass window and looked outside. Tokyo in the night time from 52nd floor. It's an amazing view of artificial lights, indeed. Suddenly I felt a presence next to me..and I heard a deep voice saying "We're at party with some of the hottest girls in the world and we're staring at a bunch of fucking lights. What the fuck, Nick?" Haha..Lei is here. "What's up, yo Lei? I see that you've been practicing on every dialogues from Entourage, eh? A perfect line you had there, Mr. Gold..haha." "Cut the crap, Nick..I see that you're in vain. You wanna roll some dices? Surely winning some chips will make you're happier..jya nai?" "That depends..on who will be our companion?" "Like I said..there are so many hot chicks here, why you worry that much? Just make sure you keep having combination of aces, kings and all the fucking pictures on your hand. Let's go, mate!" "Ah..fuck it, let's go!"

...

One hour later since the conversation with Lei..we're already busy at an illegal den inside one of the apartment buildings where all proud expat lives in Tokyo. Yeah..you know what I'm talking about..the area where the residents called themselves as part of "The Tribe". Whatever. Anyway, I got a pretty good game tonight despite after having such a long meaningless day at the office. I think I'm already up by about 100man..not bad at all, until we got some assholes joining our table. Those aholes were just ruining the night..never saw their faces before and they were just so fucking urusai with some annoying attitudes. As usual, it's always tourist who can't really respect the environment. As I saw Lei already close to his explosive state, I gave a sign to him to get out. He was a bit hesitant and still holding his glass like wanting to crash it to their heads. So, I winked his girl to drag him out which apparently worked out..haha. We cashed in and stepped out with the girls.

...

"So, Nick..what's next? Don't tell me you want to go for ramen now." "Actually, I do want a bowl of ramen, Lei. But first..let me make a phone call." "Damn it. It's only 3 in the morning..night still young, mate!" "Trust me..I'll take you all to the best ramen..hehe." I reached for my cellphone, looked up the number and start dialing. "Yo, buddy..this is Nick. Is any of the car free now? Yeah? Cool..we're in front of Tsutaya, can you pick us up? Nice, thanks!" Lei was a bit confused and asked "Did you just call a taxi? We can just get a taxi over there yo. Are we going to the ramen shop in Ebisu?" "Shut up, Lei. You asked too many questions..haha." After waiting for about 15 minutes..a black Hummer limousine is approaching and stopped in front of us. The driver stepped down from the car and asked "Nick-san desu ka?" I was laughing and pull my girl up from her seat "Hai, sou desu. Let's go guys!" "Whoa..I didn't know you're calling a limo service..where are we going, Nick?" "Ahh..can't you stop asking questions for tonight? You'll thank me for this."

...

About 1 hour later, we arrived at Kamakura. We made a stop at a konbini nearby the beach to get some cup ramen and coffee cans..haha. I told Lei "You know what, fucker..if we can enjoy watching artificial lights from a room filled with smokes and smells of alcohol..seeing sunrise and having simple things like cup noodle and cold coffee can is surely much more than that. Agree?" No answer. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Lei already busy making out with one of the girls that joining us from the den. Haha..

...

I was just sitting down on the sand, holding one of the girls from behind while waiting for the sunrise to come up. Then, as the sunrise slowly showing her face..I felt so much joy in my heart. The combination of yellow, orange, and red lights blended with blue color of the sea..dark sand and smell of fresh air slowly getting into my senses..the love of mother nature..the love from the Almighty. Suddenly I felt so small and slowly as the ray of lights sweeping my face, my cheeks getting warmer as some drops of tears started to run down..

Oh, Lord..please forgive me, please give me wisdom and the strength to carry on. Thank you for all the blessings you've given..

Vodka, Mochi and Sakura - part 2

|when fiction and realities collide|

"So, what's your full name?" I asked Mika after I ordered a set of yakitori to the waiter. "Mikhail Arjuna. My great grandfather from my mom is a Russian..so my mom asked my dad to use a Russian first name as a way for me to keep remembering my mixed Russian-Javanese blood line." "That's cool. I think you're the first one like that that I've met in my life. Let's drink to that! Hey..teach me something..how do you say "cheers" in Russian?" "Chtob vse byli zdorovy. To our health, cheers, mate!"

...

The conversation turned out to be as warm as sake in the summer time. I found that Mika used to live in Jakarta and Bandung until he was 20 years old. He used to hide his part of Russian identity due to stupid political campaign back at that time. Though he grew up a bit introvert, somehow he could manage his teen life in Jakarta. When I asked what made him moved to Tokyo, he was hesitant in answering the question. He simply answered "I got bored and came here to study." He said that he moved to Tokyo for a change in life. There was time when he was a Japanese language school student in the day time and at night time he would do some part-time trance dj-ing at some small clubs. Fancy answer but I still could sense there were more than that underneath the iceberg. I didn't want to be pushy so I took every answers he gave without trying to argue with him.

...

"So..what did you do here in Niigata? Let me guess...you went for snowboarding in Echigo Yuzawa, somehow got bored and wanted a piece of action here in Bandai area? Haha." Mika was just smiling and he said "Something like that but actually I'm on my way to Vladivostok. I'll have my plane on Sunday afternoon." "Wow..that's really cool! Are you going for leisure?" "Hahaha. Well..you can say that, Nick." Mika answered my question with a wink on his eye. Hmmmmm..very interesting. I was curious what actually his connection with my source but I decided not to ask any questions on that..at least for now.

...

3AM in the morning and we were still drinking. Luckily I had enough dinner and quite relaxed which made my level of resistance to alcohol quite high. On the other hand, both Mika and Nadya already getting super drunk. I actually didn't want to fish in more and just wanted to enjoy the rest of the night..however, suddenly Mika said "Nick, listen, I know what you're doing here with our common friend. Have you ever wondered how he got all the insider information?" "Hahaha..what do I do? What information?" I tried to be cool and answering his question with some jokes. "Cut the crap, Nick. I can tell exactly what a guy like you doing with him. Just like what Gordon Gekko said...greed is good..and correct me if I'm wrong but you're here to be good. No?" "Hahaha..fair enough. So what do you want to say?" "Listen...everything that you got from him..those came from me initially. I'm the one who rolled the sleeve and digging the gold so people like you can make the gold into jewelries." I was just smiling and nodded my head while raising my glass to give a kanpai to Mika. Hah..kids nowadays..

...

Though I was skeptical at the time Mika told me about it, somehow I got drawned into believing his story. I learned from his story on how he got the information. Here was my guess. He basically plays an impostor role, pretending to be a programmer and then our friend will place him as an IT engineer into the company that will go for IPO. Once he gets into the company, he will hack the database and download any confidential information using his infiltration skills. His trip to Vladivostok tomorrow was part of the plan..he would go to fix some database issues in one of the company's factories and while he was doing his job, he would connect to the company mainframe and retrieving information. Once it's done, he would fly back to Niigata, handed the information to our friend and I..alongside with some other people, would pay for it. Whoa! This Arjuna surely can use keyboard as his long bow and shooting out codes as the arrows!

...

Anyway..after some more drinks, the clock already showed 4 something in the morning. None of us was sober..of course, what else to expect? Before we split out, we exchanged our contact info and promised to catch up in Tokyo. I went back to hotel and Mika went separate way together with the girls. As I walked back to my hotel, I was smiling and saying to myself "Indonesian hacker in Japan..leaking hot IPO information to global greedy boys by hacking it..unbelievable..haha"

...

Back to Ueno Koen, Early Spring 2009

I got up from my past recollection and walked towards Mika and Nadya. As I hugged both of them from behind, I told Mika "Hey..little fucker..I just remembering the first time we met. Haha. What a rock and roll journey, heh? Glad to have you in the family. Osu!" Mika was just laughing while Nadya pretended that she didn't hear what I just said and kissed me on my cheek. I smiled to both of them, looked around and then shouted to the gang.."Lunch ikou yoo!" (let's have lunch!)

..in memory of the night when thing is going to change big time..