With 2009 coming to a close, some of the last indelible images of the year for Stuyvesant students included the flashing lights of fire engines and locked bathroom doors. For many, the fires were an ultimatum on a year marred with problems of budget cuts, overcrowding, and increasing student apathy. It was the last straw for both students and the administration. Principal Stanley Teitel, fed up with the increasing number of problems in the school, issued threats of a lockdown. Students, fed up with the fires, protested in the only way they knew how--on Facebook and with allusions to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire."
As this "worst year ever" comes to an end, let's take a look back into history. Although students took it upon themselves to establish the Billy Joel hit as their protest theme, the original purpose of the song was to rebut critics of the Baby Boomer generation and refute claims that the generation's rejectionary attitude caused the political upheaval and social atmosphere that characterized the later half of the 20th century. In light of the recent events in the school, I was moved to create this music video, which brings together historical archival clips of the people and events referenced in the song with concert footage from the band's 2006 River of Dreams Tour in Germany. It took me close to a month to find clips of all 119 items mentioned in the song.
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