Authors: Arturo Silva
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No, Tokio only.
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We met in August, remember?
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And you left in August.
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You didn't have a plane ticket, remember?
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Negligent of me.
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Right.
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I know â “August, Tokyo” â like a date, a time and place.
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It opens with cicadas â¦
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No, that's the happy sound.
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Cicadas are happy?
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I'm not sure. But all that energy â
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Beating their wings to death?
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Ok, ok, but they are August. And yes, energy.
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Ok. So what then, at the beginning?
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Crows. “Caw-caw!” It starts out somber â
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â and ends with the cicadas, wistful â
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â filled with promise. The heat burns into you, everything comes out, you just spill, drip â
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â this song's getting a bit too graphic.
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No, you know what I mean.
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I know â I'm joking â I think.
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You know: the Sun! Even in the city, there's only the Sun! You have to confront something elemental. It seems to attack, but then you realize it's actually life-giving, invigorating. You're down to essentials â and you love it. Memory, the body â the heat is on you.
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It's getting on me. Come here a minute.
[They kiss.]
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Ok, so we have a sad beginning with crows, and at the end a sort of happy ending with cicadas â but are crows seasonal? And once the cicadas fade do we head into cold and darkness?
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No, no, we head into you and me: the heat, both of them, then the cool of Autumn; followed by Winter in Tokio â another great song we ought to write â you were the first to tell me how beautiful Winter is here
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Our “Winter's Tale” â reborn.
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Yes. We'll write that song too. “A Winter's Tokio Tale.” But first, “August.”
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Well, we have the sound effects for the beginning and end. What about the middle?
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Didn't Buster say that the middle always took care of itself?
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So, we're the middle?
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We're the lyrics. You're my middle.
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And you're my â
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Let me get some paper â where's the next temple?
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?
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Let's go. We can write the lyrics as we go along.
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Tempura too?
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All of it. Looks like we've got work to do.
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This sounds like fun!
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Rhymes with â