MusicFromTheFilm

2009-12-23T09:47:00.002-05:00

She said: "I just don't get it! I mean, I don't understand it at all. These are the boys who cheated on their school tests who became the men who cheated on their wives, the spoiled stuck up kids who stole pennies from their Grand Mom's kitchen. These are the liars and the stealers and the dope users who think it's OK because they are Office Suite muckitee mucks; who have staff at their beck and call; who get what they want just because they want it. These guys, and I tend to think that they are all "guys", used to get billion dollar tips from their places of employement. They used to think, and still think, that they deserve it because of who they are. Who they are, in fact, are the same guys who brought the entire U.S. economy down into the dirt. And, yet, they think that they have done a good job and deserve a whole lot of money for what they have done. They can't understand why someone like me would find this offensive and that they should be taken out around the barn and thrashed to within an inch of their sorry ass lives! This is Financial Porn! And I don't like it one little bit. You'd think that grown up men would do better. But you would be wrong. And what does AIG stand for anyway?"

2009-12-21T06:53:00.002-05:00

He said: "Well, I've been sick for as long as I can remember. If it wasn't one thing, then it was something else. The cancer is the latest one. I kind of always felt like that was gonna sneak up on me and bite me in the butt, and it sure enough did just that. The doctors got me all medicated out so that I don't feel no pain and that's fine, but it does kinda make me dopey and all and sometimes I can't even remember who came to see me. To tell the truth, I just want to live long enough to get some access to that medical marijuana. Then I'll be all right."

2009-12-19T11:59:00.002-05:00

He said: "You know? It's work. That's what it is: it's work. No matter how much satisfaction there is in it or how much new you learn from it, or any of that stuff, its still work. It's all work. There ain't no Fairy Angel gonna land on your head and say: 'There! How's That?' Uh uh. It don't go like that, because its work, y'all".

2009-12-18T14:31:00.003-05:00

He said: "I guess you would have called her radical, but I didn't think of her that way. I met her because of a note tacked on a campus billboard about tutoring kids in "the projects". I volunteered. It didn't last long because the program was being run by the Panthers and word came back from Oakland that the movement didn't need no white people. So, that was that. She left eventually and moved to San Francisco and I, after a time, moved there myself and wanted to see her, so she gave me directions where to meet up with her. The place turned out to be a church in the Haight and when I got there the place was packed with people. There was a band playing and there was "testifying" and eventually she came on stage to tell how the 'spirit' had helped her kick drugs and how the 'Reverend' was helping the poor people in the city get and keep their health and all. We met up and I was introduced to the Reverend Jones and we talked and then she was gone and I later found out that she and the whole church had moved to South America. I didn't see her again until after the inquiry about the murders in the jungle. Several hundreds of people, young, old, as well as babes in arms, died. She was in the house in town when it all happened and she survived the killings. I often think about her, but I don't think we'll see each other again. Sometimes, things just end permanently."

2009-12-17T12:40:00.002-05:00

She said: "The first thing you'd notice about him is his hands. These would be hands that have lasted a lifetime making object of beauty. When I first saw him and he took my hand in his in greeting, I almost lost it. At close to 90 he still looks strong. His hands are still strong hands and he is still working every day. His studio was amazing. There were art works everywhere I looked. Every corner, every inch of floor, every table and chair has work "in progress" on it. The only space that was free, and it was a very small space, was where he set down his coffee cup. We talked a lot about what he was currently doing. He didn't want to talk about the past. He said that it didn't mean anything to him; he was happy everyday, so the past and the present were all one for him. It was just such an honor to meet him for the article. He has lived such a large life in his art. We got some good footage and some good video and the film will be good, I'm sure, but the thing that I took away with me was the image of his hands."

2009-12-15T10:29:00.002-05:00

He said: "I met her at a show. I was with someone and so was she. We went out a few times and then became friends. As it turns out, a close friend of her's works in my building, so I see more of her friend than of her. Her friend, Jessi, is a bubbly, chatty woman. She's always talking about "the world". She peppers her conversations with chat about "this part" or "that part" of the world as if the world was divided up into uniquely interesting states that you could pop in to and out of on the way to somewhere else. At first I thought is was kind of cute, the way she talked about the world. Then I started to think about why I though is was strange first and then irritating more recently. There isn't really any "this part" or "that part of the world. There never was. The world is a whole thing and we all live on it. There isn't any "part" of the world. The world is the world and it is heating up. All of it is world and it is heating up."

2009-12-11T09:44:00.002-05:00

He said: "Here's how I do it. This is what works for me: I dream my life forward, just a little, every day. What I mean to say is that I dream the life I am living before it actually happens. Or, maybe a better way of saying it is that what I dream becomes the life I have. It all happens really fast and the pieces that get dreamed that eventually become my experiences are experienced first as tiny bits of a dreamed story. Isn't that weird? It works for me though. It might be considered as a way to control my life, but that's not correct at all. It think of it as a technique where I dream forward and don't look back. Somehow everything always falls into place and the life I have makes sense somehow. As I said: it works for me. I appreciate the coming attractions very much. They allow me to relax for the rest of the show, even though I might not always know how the story ends. It's sometimes enough just to know how the story starts."

2009-12-10T10:13:00.002-05:00

She said: "I don't know why this is happening. I can't for the life of me imagine what goes through the heads of these children. Does it say something about their parents? Yes it does. Does it say something about our country? Yes it does. Does it say something about our culture, the culture of violence and our culture of war and our culture of 'If I Can't Get What I Want, Then I'll Just Have To Take It At Any Cost'? My goodness, it certainly does. But all of that does not excuse what is going on here. It's shocking. I'm shocked to my very core. How can this continue to happen? What is causing it? How can we stop this? We simply have to find a way to stop these students from shooting their teachers! This can't continue this way!"

2009-12-07T13:26:00.002-05:00

He said: "I'm going to make sure that I can swim. That's going to become an important part of our lifestyle in the next decade or so. The scientists say that the water is going to come up and drown the people who can't or won't swim. I have to believe that the scientists know something about this, otherwise they wouldn't be saying stuff like that and getting folks all agitated and stuff. I never needed to swim here in Iowa. There's not much water around; just enough to water the crops and the cattle and all. But now they're saying that the oceans are going to spill over into the land because big pieces of ice, like the ones that used to sink boats, are going to melt and and water will come up on the land and if you can't swim, well, you're going to be in bunch of trouble. So I'm going to learn to swim. I just hope I don't drown."

2009-12-04T09:17:00.002-05:00

She said: "There are only two kinds of people in American. In other countries there may be more, but in the U.S. there are only two and everybody knows this fact. There are Cat People and there are Dog People. That's it. Dog People are the ones who don't mind scooping poop. They are active people who like to get out a lot, in any weather. They love their dogs because they believe that their dogs love them. They don't mind their dogs lifting a let and peeing on almost anything available. Cat people are different from Dog people as night is from day. Cat people like having mostly silent and unknowable creature living with them. They like cats because cat catch and kill things like mice and such using their own ideas and making their own plan. They like animals that sleep most of the day and them explode into activity around meal time. They like order in their life and are happy with a quiet and unknowable companion. I have learned all this by being both a Cat and a Dog person in my life."

2009-12-01T09:25:00.002-05:00

He said: "The shaman was called to perform his duty on this sacred ground. He came a long distance with his bottles and his powder and his power to clean this place of what had happened here before. It was not long before a crowd gathered to watch. Then the police came to move the growing crowd back to allow the shaman to do his work. Soon there were the sounds of keening and the wails of the women. The men stood and stared with intent into the distance, not say a word. The children who came with their parents or who appeared out of nowhere, were silent, taking in what was happening before them. He had been a great man, a great leader. Now, he was gone."

2009-11-30T09:28:00.002-05:00

He said: "For the vets of Vietnam, I say 'Welcome Home'; for those bleeding now across an ocean, 'Welcome Home'. For the Brothers and Sisters who marched for us, 'Welcome Home'. For those who stood up and who raised their voices demanding justice and who risked their lives for who we are today, 'Welcome Home'; for the men and women who love each other and who, in turn, love themselves because we are all spirits of the light, 'Welcome Home'. For the ghosts guiding us through the passage, for those who are loved and those who love; for the ones who will not be forgotten, 'Welcome Home' and Amen!"

2009-11-24T09:28:00.002-05:00

She said: "We built the house under the ground. That way it keeps cool. We're prepared for the planet to warm and we understand how important it is for at least some of us to survive the coming heat. We have water that flows beneath the house and it is drinkable most of the year. We have, just like everyone else, solar panels for electricity, but there is really only so much light that can economically be generated; we have gotten used to the dark. We get mail over the networks so we try to keep in touch with the friends and family we have left. All in all, it's not too bad. You can get used to anything in time. Funny; you know what I miss the most? Going to the beach. Isn't that funny? Going to the beach!

2009-11-23T11:28:00.002-05:00

She said: "It was like a dance where one person catches another person in the air, before they fall to the ground. It was about faith and about trust and about falling in love in an instant, forever bound, willingly, to another soul. It was like an awakening. I opened my eyes and there she was; almost like she was waiting for me to find her on that cool Autumn afternoon in the park."

2009-11-19T10:17:00.002-05:00

She said: "It was a bleak place, a bleak surround: a coin laundry, mud and brown water reflecting us as we passed by, broken down cars and houses; fog and wet scrawny dogs without collars. Inside, a pistol in a kitchen drawer; brown stains on the tub; a hungry cat, the radio tuned to static."

2009-11-16T14:16:00.002-05:00

She said: "It's all about being free; I mean Really Free, with a capital R. When I'm up there, I forget about the world and all of it's problems; I forget about maybe having a bad day or if there's enough money to pay the bills or any of that stuff. It's just so great to be up in the air, over everything, swinging free and then, suddenly, being ready to catch her as she flies across a small amount of space, being free herself, and then grabbing her arms and the two of us become one creature, joined together, swinging and knowing that we have to soon come down, but not caring, not ever really understanding, because we are, for that short time, not of this earth."

2009-11-14T14:29:00.002-05:00

He said: "When I was 16 years old I swore that I would never, ever, set foot in Alabama or Mississippi. I don't know why I didn't include Florida or Georgia or the Carolina's; it was just Alabama and Mississippi. Those two places identified for me The South and all of the torture, the misery, the injustice, the "Strange Fruit", the burning churches, the shots in the night, everything about these places was frightening and repulsive to me, so I swore that I would remove them from my world. For me, it was that easy, even though I knew that wasn't an option to the people who lived there. For them, it was a twisted history that went back as far as time and showed no chance of changing before the pastor said the last words over the casket. But, I made up my mind early, before the marches, the dogs, the water cannons and all of the prayers and to this day I have held fast to my younger self's pledge. I haven't yet, and I never will. I just feel like I can't go back now. Even now, I can't go back there."

2009-11-11T14:37:00.002-05:00

She said: Sometimes I feel as though I might have missed some part of my life. There seem to be more people who claim to know me than I can claim to know. Maybe it's because I look like a lot of people look, which is to say maybe I just look like everyone else and that there isn't anything unique about how I look or how I dress. Maybe that's what allows people that I don't think I know to come up to me and say with a big old smile on their face "Well, Hello"! Of course, I always say "Hello" back to them, even when I don't know who they are. Maybe the world is just full of friendly, happy people who just say "Hi!" to everyone they see. That would make me pretty tired by the end of the day, but maybe I just don't have the verve that others have. I don't know. Sometimes it creeps me out, but on other days, it gives me a boost to know that so many people know me in a good way and not just because I'm a movie star."

2009-11-10T10:01:00.002-05:00

He said: "The Elephant followed him everywhere, always six to eight feet behind him. Of course, the two of them together made quite a specticle, especially inside of elevators or on the subway. He couldn't remember why, exactly, it came about that his closest friend would be a white elephant, but there was no getting away from the fact that the elephant was not a temporary piece of unpleasant luggage but a kind of soul mate.. He and the elephant were one now. Where one went, the other had to follow. It became like an a so-so marriage, you know the kind, where neither party gets along too very well with the other. But, they make accommodations and it seems to all work out somehow. See? There are many things that are odd or strange, or unique that somehow, over time, work themselves out somehow and everyone just soldiers on. We abide, don't we?"

2009-11-09T09:52:00.002-05:00

She said: "Sometimes I wonder how people can live out there, in that open emptiness, on the edge of nowhere, surrounded by strip malls and a kind of neutral solitude that feels like nothing more than a forced quietude and a dim memory of some other place, where even the trees lay down quietly to die."

2009-11-05T09:15:00.002-05:00

He said: "The Vets that I knew were missing something. It would be trite to state that they had lost their soul, because it was more than just that kind of abstraction. They came back different people than the ones that had been sent over there. On the surface, they seemed like the person that they were before the war, but underneath they had changed. There were subtle signs that told of the damage they had suffered as a person: some could not sleep, others closed down into themselves into a place that no one could find or get to. Others took up drugs or drink. Some times these grown men would begin weeping for no apparent reason. Others became violent and lashed out at the ones they loved or just whoever was present then. All of them struggled to regain themselves, but it wasn't hard to tell who was who; it wasn't hard to see that they were different, that they were hurting and that they knew that there would be no turning back, that there would not be a homecoming for them because they left so much of themselves behind back there."

2009-11-03T11:41:00.002-05:00

She said: "It was a sign, I'm certain of that much at least. It was a sign that it was time to straighten up and fly right. It was frightening. I shook for an hour, I swear, after I saw it. It is a sign, if not from God, from something, and if not for us, then for someone. There can be no mistake. It's not natural. You don't just run into an arm, or a hand, like that. It was just there. Just there on the tree. All by itself, without blood or anything. Like it was part of the tree and had grown there. All by itself. It sure enough is some kind of a sign."

2009-11-02T12:44:00.002-05:00

He said: "I realized one morning, that what I had was not enough. It seemed to me that I didn't have the life that other people had; that my life wasn't as rich or as varied or as lyrical as other people's and this made me sad. I wanted to have a life and dream the dreams that other people had and dreamed, but try as I may, I was powerless to change my life. It continued as it always had. So, I worked harder. I observed more closely, listened more intensely, lingered where other people gathered and learned from them. I began to change slowly. Realizing that, I worked harder and over time my life began to change radically. I became another person, and my secret was simple: I have successfully made other people's memories my own. I have found the way to a meaningful life! I take the dreams of others and make them my own."

2009-10-29T09:34:00.002-04:00

He said: "It is amazing how many men in Washington, DC are undergoing chemo of one type or another. You can see for yourself, just walking down the street, and seeing how many men have lost their hair because of the radiation. Not one hair left on they're naked head. I never thought that so many men could be that sick. Maybe it has to do with AIDS or something. A few years ago, you could see the woman who had breast cancer and who had lost all of their hair, but the men loosing their hair like that is new; seems like I noticed it just in the passed few months. Of course I don't feel comfortable asking how they lost their hair, all of it. It's none of my business. But I sure hope it doesn't happen to me, whatever it is."

2009-10-28T11:17:00.002-04:00

She said: "Oh, she was a funny one! Both of them, actually; two strange birds. Nice though. Good neighbors and all; just a little nutty. Like with their three sons: named them Rick, Dick and Chick. For real! And no middle names, just "Rick", "Dick" and Chick". Sounds like a comedy team, but they weren't. They were good kids, though. Rick was the oldest and a little shy. He's at University now, I guess. Dick was a handful. Boy, he was into everything, causing all kinds of trouble. I wouldn't be surprised to read about him in the morning paper some day. Chick was the youngest and I guess still is. No one sees much of him. He's the shy one. What a bunch, though. I guess it just takes all kinds to make a world, or even a neighborhood. Rick, Dick and Chick. You can't make this stuff up."