One evening we went to a party in an old factory in Dresden. Everything about it was massive; from the building itself, made completely out of red brick, to the dance floor inside. East German kids, mainly girls, were already dancing, even though it was only 9 pm. I wanted to dance with all of them but the music was too shitty for my taste; mainly stuff like Spandau Ballet, Wham! and Duran Duran. The girls seemed to like it, but I needed beer, lots of beer, before I could enter the dance floor and show my moves.

For occasions like these I always carried around a tape. It didn’t contain dance music, just ‘Play’ by Magazine, favourite album of one of my favourite bands, prepared in such a way it would start exactly at ‘the light pours out of me’, the only song on the album that you could actually dance to. I liked other Magazine songs better but DJ’s would never play songs that were too slow or too complicated. This song was my only chance to impress strangers with my stunning taste in music. It took me 6 beers before I actually dared to hand over the tape to the DJ. For the next four minutes I frantically danced with myself. Then it was over again. The DJ didn’t finish the song and moved quickly to something else. Something like Culture Club.

That was my first and last dance. No more decent music, no more dancing. Just drinking and watching everyone else dance. I don’t remember how many beers I drank that night, I only know I suddenly found myself at the roof of the factory with a girl who started kissing me. Don’t know how we got there, don’t even know if we talked before kissing. I only know she was wearing a pink shirt and I vaguely remember thinking my friends wouldn’t agree with that fashion statement. It all was oddly romantic.

Even my sedated mind noticed the ironic mismatch between me, or what I wanted to be, and this 16 year old German girl. A very pretty in pink moment. Did my dancing impress her? Was there something irresistible in my solitary drunkenness? Or was she just drunk, just like me? I didn’t ask, too busy kissing. Fifteen minutes later she left without goodbyes, leaving me romantically shell shocked. Alone again, naturally.