Japanese Satellites Lyrics
© 2010 Danny Katz Music

1. BUSHWICK

You lead the way
Out of Bushwick to Astoria
As your roommate moves off the grid with his dog
To restart life in Vermont

Clear skies and I wonder what keeps us all here
In this city - that beleaguered fear
Asking for good graces
Waiting to hear your taunts

CHORUS
Though I may be ready for the fall, part two
I should roll w/the punches recalibrate my hunches
Try hard not to steamroller you (and to realize)
At 31 what's still left to be undone

But the taunts don't come at all
Canadian through and through
Rolling furniture into your U-Haul
Just to get closer to you

CHORUS

Something about the gap of 5 years back
From your 26 revolutions to claim your place in
This city's architecture - gargoyles in shades of grey
Can we find ourselves in each other's face
Can we find ourselves in each other's face

CHORUS

I may have been ready for the fall, part two
I rolled w/the punches recalibrated my hunches
Tried hard not to steamroller thru (but at 32)
I’m still waiting for you


2. PASSOVER

That was the last exit in Brooklyn
Oh no here we are in Staten Island
Your road rage is to be reckoned with
I don’t understand British GPS

Turn right there, turn right here
You're such a stupid putz my dear
Last year we ended up in Bayonne
Not so jersey fresh

Why didn't we take the train
We need a getaway plan
For when your family gets all cray-cray
And insane

CHORUS
Telling us all we're going to hell
No amount of Manischewitz can dispel
My holiday cheer I fear
Another Passover with the in-laws

Remember Uncle Morty
Throwing the shank bone at me
He said my gay agenda
Would get me dismembered

Aunt Ethel said I wasn't Jewish enough
My Buddism bullhockey in the rough
When I asked her to pass the charoset
She just growled at me

Couldn't we make other plans
A trip to the moon - a tour of Afghanistan
When your family says
We're not American enough

CHORUS

We made a wrong turn
Why are we in New London
Well nothing’s better than
Suburban Connecticut

We can say Elijah came
Early this year
Though I fear the wrath
Of the in-laws

CHORUS


3. SACRAMENTO

Oh, Sacramento - give me something tangible
Give me something real
Here's another lonely Saturday night
YouTube feeds, computer screens, Japanese satellites

CHORUS
Oh, Sacramento - give me something I can keep
Show me something real
Oh, Sacramento - leave me something I can hold
Give me something to feel

Memories reverberate through this empty room
Cardboard boxed photographs, relics of our past

CHORUS
Give me something I can keep
Show me something real

As we volley words back and forth
This love plays out in syndication
We’re shadow boxing back and forth
We play on and on in syndication
On and on in syndication

CHORUS


4. LIMITATIONS

Here I am in this restaurant
Having no idea what to order
Sushi flies right by my eyes
Taking food off a conveyer belt

Menus read like a bible
Pages long and counting
I can’t read a word cuz my Japanese is so
Atrocious that I cry into my wasabi

I’m all alone and I don’t know what to do
I’m so lost in translation baby – I’m nothing without you
Without your explanation of what’s the right dish
I’m poking my chopsticks at mysterious fish

CHORUS
And I am here – and these are my limitations
I am here – and these are my limitations

You ask why I’m not touching my food
Why the chopsticks twitch between my fingers
I had no idea what I was getting into
When I stepped through the curtains of this restaurant

I’m all alone and I don’t know what to do
I’m so lost in translation baby – I’m nothing without you
Without your explanation of what’s the right dish
I’m poking my chopsticks at mysterious fish

CHORUS

I wonder if the head chef notices me
Sweating as I try to make sense of it all
The color coordinated dishes
Stacked higher and higher and higher

CHORUS


5. FALL IN MICHIGAN

Traverse City still has a grip on my mind
After you left home and left me behind
After you stripped the love out of me
Turning your back, returning the key

I never knew fall in Brooklyn would make me cry so hard
Traffic signals turning, years to discard
I never knew fall in Brooklyn would make me cry so hard
Traffic signals turning, years to discard

You visit me claiming you have answers
Street preachers say this is your year
Staring at the peeling paint and the careless mold
Wishing I shared my anger before it took its toll

I never knew fall in Michigan would make you cry you hard
Leaves turning, years to discard
I never knew fall in Michigan would make you cry so hard
Leaves turning, years to discard

Faith melts into the tiles
Jagged time zones where romance is not on trial
Why won’t you return
I feel so stranded

I never knew fall in Brooklyn would make me cry so hard
Traffic signals turning, years to discard
I never knew fall in Michigan would make you cry so hard
Leaves turning, years to discard


6. BREAKFAST DOORKNOB MENU

A breakfast doorknob menu
Was all you left behind
Tucked in between the sheets
After you struggled to find

Your way here to Hicksville
Hating me and my buzz kill
I can see you
In the doorway sighing
One last time before you cried your way
Back to Oyster Bay

CHORUS
All the sad attempts we made
To rekindle what once was true
Now a breakfast doorknob menu
Is all I have to remember you
A breakfast doorknob menu
Is all I have to remember you

It seemed we had the best of times
It was cheaper than therapy
Motel 6s everywhere
Became our running gag

We’d stay at them any time
We couldn’t break new ground
I never thought you'd feel like
I dragged you down

One last time before you cried your way
Back to Oyster Bay

CHORUS

You disappeared no cyber trace left behind
Though my great aunt said she saw you outside Tacoma
But SeTac never had anything on Long Island
SeTac couldn't take you away from me
CHORUS


7. MAGNIFICENTLY LONELY

I first heard of your divorce
Through a MySpace event invitation
And my first thought was in this day and age
Who has a divorce celebration

Then my second thought was
Who advertises it on a cyber network
And my third thought was
That we were internet sweethearts

So not only am I confused
And I’m hurt and left wondering
What kind of lines have been crossed
And how the heck do I explain this to my therapist

CHORUS
Oh my head hurts, whoa is me
Am I just a part of your divorce strategy
Or was I part of a cyber-threesome
You know he probably wasn't my type
Oh my head hurts, whoa is me
This goes beyond Ayo technology
I'm just a little guy in Schenectady
Feeling so magnificently lonely

I thought when you friend requested me
That I would be a good cyber sport
That you liked me because I listened to Rush
Not because I'm some kind of tech dork

And though you looked so hot in your profile pic
I guess you were working that angle
And now I'm left with social networking
Demons to strangle

Do I send a sympathy card
Or a glass shard
From the wedding I wasn't invited to in the first place
Good god - this is awkward

CHORUS

I suppose I can retreat to some hideaway
Let my mind unwind from this odd baggage I drag around
It's not as though I can lean on my neighbor and say
I got cyber-dumped by a three-time divorcee
This is what I get for leaving Buffalo

CHORUS


8. REVIVAL

It’s been three years since family photo hell
You’re still doing hostile handstands on your performance scaffolding
And I am left here feeling like an overflowing worn out ashtray
And I just can’t believe all the grudges that you are holding

CHORUS
I didn’t want anything to do with your revival
I didn’t want anything to do with your revival

It’s shocking to my system how little you have changed
I may not have found emotional casing but lord – you are so deranged

CHORUS

And you say I’m still the same orchestrating pain just to play the game
And you say I’m still the same orchestrating pain just to play the game

CHORUS


9. WHAT WERE WE YEARNING FOR

Sipping bubble tea on Mott Street
Watching high school boys compete
For who can get the cutest Asian girl

And you may never quite realize
Cuz I don't have the words to tell you
That you weren't just another boy from Queens that night

I teased you once that I could see your teeth
From across a New York City street
But I always thought my love would tie me down
To the West Coast and its pseudo-sacred sound

CHORUS
And if our paths don't cross here
I think they should become clear
In San Francisco's foggy halo
Let's head out west
Where we could get lost together
Two New Yorkers with freedom to burn
What were we yearning for?

Somehow a native New Yorker
Punctured my armor
Left me questioning all the bricks I throw around

In self-justified manic rants
And crypto-fascist bleeding heart chants
Days after a wedding made me hit the ground running

CHORUS

Maybe I’m suffering from the two year itch
Maybe I’m just playing devil's advocate
Or being someone's bitch for the sake of it
Wondering if I'm just putting you up on a pedestal tonight
Cuz tonight you were the most beautiful in the world

CHORUS


10. MODESTO

Here I am a sobbing mess on the F train tonight
It's two thirty am in New York City
And no one cares at all

Curled up bawling in a corner seat
Decompressing from Stockton masquerading on the movie screen
As Detroit - with Clint Eastwood and the Hmong reminding me

CHORUS

How much I miss you now
You sucked my ignorance out to sea
If I could drive under Lodi skies
Even Modesto made a mark on me

And as the snow covers Kensington I wonder
Why I tired of fighting to keep what we had
Being let go was a swift kick in the gut
To remind me what I value and seek

CHORUS

Maybe this was a learning experience
Maybe this was a learning experience
Paying emotional dividends
Would we be able to notice the difference

CHORUS


11. TAIPEI

Watching you vanish through airport security
My head down and my hands empty
Feeling sadder than I should feel
Wandering Terminal 5 - a crushed out high school girl

CHORUS
Now I think of all these words
I never had the courage to say
I hope you’re doing well in Taipei
I hope you’re doing well in Taipei

Knowing you’re leaving this city we called home
The impression you made grows stronger
Sitting next to you alone in Carnegie
Dancing around feelings – an unappreciated art

CHORUS

Now I’m feeling all these words
I never had the courage to say
I hope you’re doing well in Taipei
I hope you’re doing well in Taipei



12. BOSTON

CHORUS
I think you should leave him
You know he ain’t the one
But in time with me
You will find love in Boston

We joke about your o.c.d.
We joke about my a.d.d.
Why you left the 510
For New England’s wintry revelry

CHORUS

I’m amazed that at 21
You know more than I do at 32
And I’m wondering how I feel
So indebted to you

CHORUS


13. I’LL PRETEND

When you asked me to go on a date
You had me more than a bit perplexed
But then you explained that your shiny new boyfriend
Only hangs out with his ex

As if our four years together
Barely registered as a blip
You wanted to turn me into
Some tired bargaining chip

CHORUS
So here's the deal
I'll pretend to be your clingy ex
If you buy me a meal
If you cut me a check

You want me to pose with your nieces and nephews
Guess it's time for the ammo photographed and on cue
Well I hope that the guy you're trying to manipulate
Has a million dollar job and takes your stupid bait

CHORUS

Oh no, what is this did you really break up
Does this mean an end to this partnership
Please find another sucker
This is the best job I've had in years

CHORUS