WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.660 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.660 --> 00:00:04.500 align:middle line:84% Of California at Berkeley, the State University of Iowa 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:10.620 align:middle line:84% and the University of Oregon, which is where I met him. 00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:13.380 align:middle line:84% He's now teaching at Southern Oregon 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:19.440 align:middle line:84% College in Ashland, Oregon, is married with two sons. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:24.240 align:middle line:84% His first book of poetry, Before the War 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:29.250 align:middle line:84% was published in 1971 by William Morrow and Company. 00:00:29.250 --> 00:00:32.040 align:middle line:84% And he is represented with two other Northwest 00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:36.810 align:middle line:84% poets in an anthology called Three Northwest Poets. 00:00:36.810 --> 00:00:39.720 align:middle line:84% The other poets are Albert Drake and Douglas Lawder. 00:00:39.720 --> 00:00:42.180 align:middle line:84% And his poetry has appeared in many magazines 00:00:42.180 --> 00:00:45.870 align:middle line:84% around the country, including the Chicago Review, Evergreen 00:00:45.870 --> 00:00:50.370 align:middle line:84% Review, Kayak and Northwest Review. 00:00:50.370 --> 00:00:55.800 align:middle line:84% Of his poems, I'll say that I think they're exciting. 00:00:55.800 --> 00:01:01.380 align:middle line:84% And they deal with themes of irony, despair and love. 00:01:01.380 --> 00:01:04.646 align:middle line:90% We welcome Lawson Fusao Inada. 00:01:04.646 --> 00:01:07.111 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:07.111 --> 00:01:14.482 align:middle line:90% 00:01:14.482 --> 00:01:15.440 align:middle line:90% Thanks very much, Bill. 00:01:15.440 --> 00:01:27.780 align:middle line:90% 00:01:27.780 --> 00:01:33.810 align:middle line:84% As a poet, I feel it's my duty to reach you 00:01:33.810 --> 00:01:37.050 align:middle line:84% in some way, person to person in the most effective way 00:01:37.050 --> 00:01:38.685 align:middle line:90% that I can. 00:01:38.685 --> 00:01:42.386 align:middle line:90% 00:01:42.386 --> 00:01:46.660 align:middle line:84% I'm hoping to share with you the experiences that I've had, 00:01:46.660 --> 00:01:49.300 align:middle line:84% things I've learned, where I hope to be. 00:01:49.300 --> 00:01:52.510 align:middle line:90% 00:01:52.510 --> 00:01:56.470 align:middle line:84% With the eventual aim of bringing about a greater 00:01:56.470 --> 00:01:59.860 align:middle line:90% understanding between us. 00:01:59.860 --> 00:02:02.630 align:middle line:84% Also, of a particular importance to me, 00:02:02.630 --> 00:02:11.180 align:middle line:84% is the creation and discovery of Asian-American culture. 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:14.570 align:middle line:84% And I feel that this is another obligation of mine, 00:02:14.570 --> 00:02:19.490 align:middle line:84% is to share with you what we call 00:02:19.490 --> 00:02:22.820 align:middle line:90% the Asian-American experience. 00:02:22.820 --> 00:02:27.590 align:middle line:84% And also, to attempt to record that particular history 00:02:27.590 --> 00:02:31.520 align:middle line:90% for ourselves and for you. 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:34.910 align:middle line:84% But this sense of obligation on that particular level, 00:02:34.910 --> 00:02:38.240 align:middle line:84% comes from the fact that because of various sociological 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:44.000 align:middle line:84% reasons, there are very few Asian-Americans today, 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:45.650 align:middle line:90% writing and speaking. 00:02:45.650 --> 00:02:53.780 align:middle line:84% And this in the throes of our entire what? 00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:57.230 align:middle line:84% Movement in this country, of not only the youth speaking out, 00:02:57.230 --> 00:03:03.170 align:middle line:84% but all the various ethnic groups attaining some position, 00:03:03.170 --> 00:03:05.690 align:middle line:90% telling it like it is. 00:03:05.690 --> 00:03:08.000 align:middle line:84% So this will be my position in coming to you tonight. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:18.210 align:middle line:90% 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:21.900 align:middle line:84% Where I'm from is Fresno, California. 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:28.100 align:middle line:84% A rather nondescript place, or a place that 00:03:28.100 --> 00:03:30.225 align:middle line:84% really isn't too different from anyplace else. 00:03:30.225 --> 00:03:31.850 align:middle line:84% Not very different from here, from what 00:03:31.850 --> 00:03:35.630 align:middle line:90% I've seen that this might be. 00:03:35.630 --> 00:03:39.230 align:middle line:84% And one thing it seems that places like this 00:03:39.230 --> 00:03:41.030 align:middle line:84% have in common, is the fact that you always 00:03:41.030 --> 00:03:45.530 align:middle line:90% have your groupings of people. 00:03:45.530 --> 00:03:49.040 align:middle line:84% Perhaps belying the fact that rather than a melting pot 00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:52.850 align:middle line:84% existing in our country, we have more like a piece of pie 00:03:52.850 --> 00:03:55.520 align:middle line:90% cut in different pieces. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:59.060 align:middle line:84% And where I'm from especially, is a place 00:03:59.060 --> 00:04:03.502 align:middle line:84% that has a set of railroad tracks down the middle, 00:04:03.502 --> 00:04:05.210 align:middle line:84% which very conveniently break it in half. 00:04:05.210 --> 00:04:08.480 align:middle line:84% And of course, if you were one type, 00:04:08.480 --> 00:04:11.600 align:middle line:84% you have to live on this particular side of town. 00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:14.513 align:middle line:84% So where I'm from people call the ghetto, 00:04:14.513 --> 00:04:15.930 align:middle line:84% now they've jazzed it up and said, 00:04:15.930 --> 00:04:18.079 align:middle line:84% well, it's a third world community. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:19.160 align:middle line:90% It's the same thing. 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:21.393 align:middle line:90% 00:04:21.393 --> 00:04:23.060 align:middle line:84% You can stand there and what do you see? 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:28.840 align:middle line:90% 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:31.960 align:middle line:90% "Catch the skyline, baby. 00:04:31.960 --> 00:04:43.230 align:middle line:84% Security, townhouse, PG&E. You know what I mean? 00:04:43.230 --> 00:04:46.040 align:middle line:90% That's white-a-rama, baby. 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:48.820 align:middle line:90% The big wide screen. 00:04:48.820 --> 00:04:53.000 align:middle line:90% 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.600 align:middle line:90% Something holds it in place. 00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:00.590 align:middle line:84% Something keeps it from exploding. 00:05:00.590 --> 00:05:04.790 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, it would be all wars rolled into one. 00:05:04.790 --> 00:05:07.940 align:middle line:84% Mexicans punctured on chopsticks. 00:05:07.940 --> 00:05:11.570 align:middle line:84% Blacks gagging on crucifixes, curses, 00:05:11.570 --> 00:05:13.570 align:middle line:90% croaking in broken English. 00:05:13.570 --> 00:05:16.970 align:middle line:90% 00:05:16.970 --> 00:05:22.760 align:middle line:84% But wait, that's why the railroad snakes 00:05:22.760 --> 00:05:25.850 align:middle line:90% through the town like a fence. 00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:32.120 align:middle line:84% That's why they toss in a few wigs and gray suits, 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:35.120 align:middle line:90% and sit and wait. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:38.270 align:middle line:90% 00:05:38.270 --> 00:05:43.380 align:middle line:90% Purple, the grape. 00:05:43.380 --> 00:05:47.790 align:middle line:90% Purple, the mind aged in wine. 00:05:47.790 --> 00:05:53.160 align:middle line:84% Purple, the vine wine cannot puncture. 00:05:53.160 --> 00:06:03.150 align:middle line:84% Purple, the face burning on trays of new empty lots 00:06:03.150 --> 00:06:07.410 align:middle line:90% of purple urban renewal. 00:06:07.410 --> 00:06:11.610 align:middle line:90% 00:06:11.610 --> 00:06:16.260 align:middle line:84% The sun never sets on the Mexican section. 00:06:16.260 --> 00:06:24.060 align:middle line:84% Sunset, big street lights keep them awake, out of trouble. 00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:29.340 align:middle line:84% Fingering the hoes of Mexican golf. 00:06:29.340 --> 00:06:33.120 align:middle line:84% Mexicans commute to find trouble. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:39.420 align:middle line:84% They sing, they cut at wrestling arenas. 00:06:39.420 --> 00:06:44.100 align:middle line:90% Mexicans beat the bad Japanese. 00:06:44.100 --> 00:06:47.170 align:middle line:90% Mexicans are fun. 00:06:47.170 --> 00:06:53.280 align:middle line:84% The sun never sets on the Mexican section. 00:06:53.280 --> 00:06:56.670 align:middle line:90% It never comes up. 00:06:56.670 --> 00:07:03.480 align:middle line:84% Jericho's a citadel slab of plaster by the Black villas, 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:07.710 align:middle line:84% by the slaughterhouse, by the city dump. 00:07:07.710 --> 00:07:14.280 align:middle line:84% Police dogs keep vigil, sniffing out white man, a minstrel cop. 00:07:14.280 --> 00:07:18.570 align:middle line:90% Upstairs, slabs on the racks. 00:07:18.570 --> 00:07:21.930 align:middle line:90% You can stab them and giggle. 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:25.200 align:middle line:90% You can get in and wiggle. 00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:28.110 align:middle line:84% Downstairs, the dices, mammy grin. 00:07:28.110 --> 00:07:34.050 align:middle line:84% The jukebox squeaks the blues drunk on a funky harmonica. 00:07:34.050 --> 00:07:35.910 align:middle line:90% Blackie stay happy. 00:07:35.910 --> 00:07:38.380 align:middle line:84% Mornings when Black garbage men come, 00:07:38.380 --> 00:07:41.010 align:middle line:90% they play buckets like drums. 00:07:41.010 --> 00:07:44.340 align:middle line:84% Sometimes a Black fetus dances out 00:07:44.340 --> 00:07:47.310 align:middle line:90% in the gutter with the ribs. 00:07:47.310 --> 00:07:48.990 align:middle line:90% Come on over and wail. 00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:52.710 align:middle line:90% Jericho, slaughterhouse, dump. 00:07:52.710 --> 00:07:58.200 align:middle line:90% 00:07:58.200 --> 00:08:02.850 align:middle line:84% I always thought a Okie was a white man gone 00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:08.280 align:middle line:90% fake, play acting, a spy. 00:08:08.280 --> 00:08:14.130 align:middle line:90% Now I know Okies are OK. 00:08:14.130 --> 00:08:16.110 align:middle line:90% They dig music. 00:08:16.110 --> 00:08:17.940 align:middle line:90% They cut each other up. 00:08:17.940 --> 00:08:21.770 align:middle line:90% 00:08:21.770 --> 00:08:26.960 align:middle line:90% Armenians are screwed up. 00:08:26.960 --> 00:08:32.120 align:middle line:84% I mean, they won't move to the West Side. 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:35.809 align:middle line:84% They're known as the Fresno Jews. 00:08:35.809 --> 00:08:37.549 align:middle line:90% That's screwed up. 00:08:37.549 --> 00:08:41.720 align:middle line:84% I mean, they shave names and noses, 00:08:41.720 --> 00:08:45.590 align:middle line:84% and herd hairy Mustangs to school. 00:08:45.590 --> 00:08:50.100 align:middle line:90% 00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:55.350 align:middle line:84% You know about the sound barrier. 00:08:55.350 --> 00:09:00.870 align:middle line:84% Well, don't you know Willie broke the color barrier? 00:09:00.870 --> 00:09:06.130 align:middle line:84% Screaming through white town with a white girl at 95 per. 00:09:06.130 --> 00:09:09.070 align:middle line:90% 00:09:09.070 --> 00:09:18.040 align:middle line:84% After the funeral, his Cadillac hubcaps flew over in formation, 00:09:18.040 --> 00:09:18.700 align:middle line:90% in tribute. 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:22.210 align:middle line:90% 00:09:22.210 --> 00:09:27.250 align:middle line:90% Filipinos are sharp. 00:09:27.250 --> 00:09:29.410 align:middle line:90% That's why they're barbers. 00:09:29.410 --> 00:09:34.390 align:middle line:84% Sharp trousers, sharp elevator shoes. 00:09:34.390 --> 00:09:37.720 align:middle line:84% When they see white girls, they go, sook, sook, sook, sook. 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:42.600 align:middle line:90% 00:09:42.600 --> 00:09:45.090 align:middle line:84% Ching Chong Chinaman sitting on a fence, 00:09:45.090 --> 00:09:46.440 align:middle line:90% trying to make a dollar. 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:50.070 align:middle line:90% Chop, chop all day. 00:09:50.070 --> 00:09:54.630 align:middle line:84% Education, education, that's what they say. 00:09:54.630 --> 00:09:58.410 align:middle line:84% When the war came, they said, we Chinese. 00:09:58.410 --> 00:10:02.520 align:middle line:84% When we went away, they made sukiyaki saying, yellow, all 00:10:02.520 --> 00:10:05.190 align:middle line:90% same. 00:10:05.190 --> 00:10:10.080 align:middle line:84% When the war closed, they stoned the Jap's homes. 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:16.530 align:middle line:84% Grandma would say, marry a Mexican, a nigger. 00:10:16.530 --> 00:10:18.160 align:middle line:90% Just don't marry no Chinese. 00:10:18.160 --> 00:10:22.380 align:middle line:90% 00:10:22.380 --> 00:10:26.490 align:middle line:90% Japs are great imitators. 00:10:26.490 --> 00:10:35.020 align:middle line:84% They stole the Greeks' skewers, used them on themselves. 00:10:35.020 --> 00:10:39.760 align:middle line:90% Their sutras are face and hide. 00:10:39.760 --> 00:10:45.070 align:middle line:84% They hate everyone else on the sly. 00:10:45.070 --> 00:10:51.010 align:middle line:84% They play Dr. Charley's games, bowling, raking, growing 00:10:51.010 --> 00:10:54.010 align:middle line:90% forks on lapels. 00:10:54.010 --> 00:10:59.560 align:middle line:84% Their tongues are yellow with R's, with L's. 00:10:59.560 --> 00:11:04.780 align:middle line:90% They hate themselves on the sly. 00:11:04.780 --> 00:11:09.260 align:middle line:90% I used to be Japanese." 00:11:09.260 --> 00:11:15.570 align:middle line:90% 00:11:15.570 --> 00:11:17.820 align:middle line:84% So much for that kind of a background, and you 00:11:17.820 --> 00:11:19.950 align:middle line:84% take someone coming out of that sort of a scene. 00:11:19.950 --> 00:11:28.710 align:middle line:84% And if you're really one for adventure, 00:11:28.710 --> 00:11:35.310 align:middle line:84% you might end up someplace in the Midwest in the snow, which 00:11:35.310 --> 00:11:37.590 align:middle line:90% is where my book begins. 00:11:37.590 --> 00:11:39.958 align:middle line:90% With the character-- 00:11:39.958 --> 00:11:42.000 align:middle line:84% "Plucking Out of Rhythm" is the name of the poem. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:51.090 align:middle line:90% 00:11:51.090 --> 00:11:55.920 align:middle line:84% "Start with a simple room, a dullish color. 00:11:55.920 --> 00:11:58.840 align:middle line:90% 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:02.080 align:middle line:90% Draw the one shade down. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:07.360 align:middle line:84% Hot plate, bed, little phonograph in a corner. 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:10.990 align:middle line:90% 00:12:10.990 --> 00:12:14.500 align:middle line:84% Put in a single figure, medium height and weight, 00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:19.960 align:middle line:90% but oversized as a child might. 00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:24.790 align:middle line:90% The features must be Japanese. 00:12:24.790 --> 00:12:29.440 align:middle line:84% Then stack a black pompadour on, and let the eyes slide 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:32.380 align:middle line:90% behind a night of glass. 00:12:32.380 --> 00:12:34.990 align:middle line:90% The figure is in disguise. 00:12:34.990 --> 00:12:39.340 align:middle line:84% Slim green suit for posturing on a bandstand. 00:12:39.340 --> 00:12:43.300 align:middle line:90% That turned up shoes of Harlem. 00:12:43.300 --> 00:12:49.360 align:middle line:84% Then start the music playing, thick jazz, strong jazz. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.930 align:middle line:84% And notice that the figure comes to life, sweating, 00:12:52.930 --> 00:12:55.780 align:middle line:90% growling over an imaginary bass. 00:12:55.780 --> 00:12:59.620 align:middle line:84% Plucking out of rhythm as the music rises and the room is 00:12:59.620 --> 00:13:02.095 align:middle line:90% full, exuding with that rhythm. 00:13:02.095 --> 00:13:04.690 align:middle line:90% 00:13:04.690 --> 00:13:07.690 align:middle line:84% Then have the shade flap up, and daylight 00:13:07.690 --> 00:13:10.420 align:middle line:90% catch him frozen in that pose. 00:13:10.420 --> 00:13:15.640 align:middle line:84% As it starts to snow, thick snow, strong snow 00:13:15.640 --> 00:13:19.660 align:middle line:84% blowing in the window, while the music quiets. 00:13:19.660 --> 00:13:23.620 align:middle line:84% The room is slowly covered, and the figure 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:26.665 align:middle line:90% is completely out of sight." 00:13:26.665 --> 00:13:33.060 align:middle line:90% 00:13:33.060 --> 00:13:37.980 align:middle line:84% One thing you can do is remember, 00:13:37.980 --> 00:13:41.400 align:middle line:84% a common phrase in our vocabulary is before the war. 00:13:41.400 --> 00:13:43.110 align:middle line:84% And maybe if you're about my age, 00:13:43.110 --> 00:13:44.940 align:middle line:90% that means something to you. 00:13:44.940 --> 00:13:48.240 align:middle line:84% Before the war, and of course, my people 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:50.340 align:middle line:84% are constantly making references to that. 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:53.400 align:middle line:90% It's like BC or something. 00:13:53.400 --> 00:13:57.380 align:middle line:90% 00:13:57.380 --> 00:14:00.180 align:middle line:84% And you can remember how it was perhaps before the war. 00:14:00.180 --> 00:14:02.810 align:middle line:84% During the war, if you can remember, try to remember. 00:14:02.810 --> 00:14:06.280 align:middle line:84% Even as a child, certain things come home to you, 00:14:06.280 --> 00:14:08.780 align:middle line:84% even though you don't realize the entire magnitude of what's 00:14:08.780 --> 00:14:10.040 align:middle line:90% actually happening. 00:14:10.040 --> 00:14:15.890 align:middle line:84% You can remember perhaps, seen a rat get squashed in the swamps, 00:14:15.890 --> 00:14:17.060 align:middle line:90% in the mud in Arkansas. 00:14:17.060 --> 00:14:20.480 align:middle line:90% 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:22.610 align:middle line:84% One of the things you do if you are incarcerated 00:14:22.610 --> 00:14:28.250 align:middle line:84% in the desert of Southern Colorado, 00:14:28.250 --> 00:14:34.790 align:middle line:84% for fun, the soldiers take you out to their practice range. 00:14:34.790 --> 00:14:37.550 align:middle line:84% And they allow you to go, and dig out the slugs 00:14:37.550 --> 00:14:39.770 align:middle line:90% that they shoot into the dunes. 00:14:39.770 --> 00:14:42.102 align:middle line:84% Which as a child of course, you would highly prize. 00:14:42.102 --> 00:14:43.310 align:middle line:90% They also shoot other things. 00:14:43.310 --> 00:14:46.775 align:middle line:90% 00:14:46.775 --> 00:14:48.400 align:middle line:84% Some things you might watch your people 00:14:48.400 --> 00:14:52.750 align:middle line:84% doing is a strange way that people 00:14:52.750 --> 00:14:56.410 align:middle line:84% have for eking out survival in any situation, 00:14:56.410 --> 00:14:59.170 align:middle line:84% you find them creating beauty in the desert. 00:14:59.170 --> 00:15:03.550 align:middle line:84% Gathering bits of wood, creating some kind of garden 00:15:03.550 --> 00:15:04.060 align:middle line:90% out of this. 00:15:04.060 --> 00:15:06.790 align:middle line:84% Maybe using a couple of artillery shells, 00:15:06.790 --> 00:15:09.520 align:middle line:84% putting a little tortoise into this. 00:15:09.520 --> 00:15:12.910 align:middle line:90% Things happen to tortoises too. 00:15:12.910 --> 00:15:15.490 align:middle line:84% Or perhaps if you're lucky, someone 00:15:15.490 --> 00:15:18.400 align:middle line:84% is clever enough to make a trap and you trap a pheasant. 00:15:18.400 --> 00:15:21.160 align:middle line:84% And you get that pheasant, set those rations aside 00:15:21.160 --> 00:15:25.490 align:middle line:84% and you cook that pheasant like in the old days. 00:15:25.490 --> 00:15:28.780 align:middle line:84% In the meantime, people let you know that your uncles are going 00:15:28.780 --> 00:15:32.050 align:middle line:90% off to war, to fight the enemy. 00:15:32.050 --> 00:15:35.140 align:middle line:90% 00:15:35.140 --> 00:15:41.800 align:middle line:84% Or your father who's deaf in one ear, also a dentist, 00:15:41.800 --> 00:15:44.260 align:middle line:84% doesn't do anything but drive you to a butcher truck 00:15:44.260 --> 00:15:47.140 align:middle line:84% where you see creatures being slaughtered. 00:15:47.140 --> 00:15:50.950 align:middle line:84% One of your friends maybe is an older kid, about eight, 00:15:50.950 --> 00:15:53.410 align:middle line:84% who isn't too swift in the head, but he 00:15:53.410 --> 00:15:58.870 align:middle line:84% knows how to deal cruelty to other creatures. 00:15:58.870 --> 00:16:03.430 align:middle line:84% You might notice also and remember that in 1944, your dad 00:16:03.430 --> 00:16:06.820 align:middle line:90% went off to Chicago to work. 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:08.680 align:middle line:84% And what you remember about what he told you 00:16:08.680 --> 00:16:11.390 align:middle line:90% about that experience. 00:16:11.390 --> 00:16:15.190 align:middle line:84% So this sequence is called "From Our Album." 00:16:15.190 --> 00:16:18.370 align:middle line:90% Before the war, it means Fresno. 00:16:18.370 --> 00:16:23.800 align:middle line:84% A hedged in house, two dogs in the family. 00:16:23.800 --> 00:16:29.140 align:middle line:84% Blackie, the small one, mine, leapt at his insides 00:16:29.140 --> 00:16:34.540 align:middle line:84% on the floorboard on the way to the doctor. 00:16:34.540 --> 00:16:38.020 align:middle line:84% Jimmy, my father's shepherd, wouldn't 00:16:38.020 --> 00:16:40.540 align:middle line:90% eat after the evacuation. 00:16:40.540 --> 00:16:43.060 align:middle line:84% He wouldn't live with another master, 00:16:43.060 --> 00:16:46.030 align:middle line:90% and pined away skin and bone. 00:16:46.030 --> 00:16:48.550 align:middle line:90% 00:16:48.550 --> 00:16:55.735 align:middle line:84% With feelings more than pride, we call him our one man dog. 00:16:55.735 --> 00:16:58.570 align:middle line:90% 00:16:58.570 --> 00:17:01.210 align:middle line:90% Mud in the barracks. 00:17:01.210 --> 00:17:03.310 align:middle line:90% A muddy room, a chamber pot. 00:17:03.310 --> 00:17:07.030 align:middle line:84% Mud in the moats around each barracks group. 00:17:07.030 --> 00:17:10.030 align:middle line:84% Mud on the shoes trudging to the mess hall. 00:17:10.030 --> 00:17:13.990 align:middle line:84% Mud in the swamp, where the men chopped wood. 00:17:13.990 --> 00:17:19.720 align:middle line:84% Mud on the guts under a loaded wagon, crushed in the mud 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:20.664 align:middle line:90% by the wheel. 00:17:20.664 --> 00:17:24.740 align:middle line:90% 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:28.099 align:middle line:84% Because there was little else to do, 00:17:28.099 --> 00:17:33.110 align:middle line:84% they led us to the artillery range for shells, all 00:17:33.110 --> 00:17:37.850 align:middle line:84% that we gathered, and let us dig among dunes for slugs 00:17:37.850 --> 00:17:41.030 align:middle line:90% when they were through. 00:17:41.030 --> 00:17:45.440 align:middle line:84% Because there was little else to do, one of them 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:49.460 align:middle line:84% chased a stray with his tail between his legs 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:51.620 align:middle line:90% and shot him through the head. 00:17:51.620 --> 00:17:54.790 align:middle line:90% 00:17:54.790 --> 00:18:00.190 align:middle line:84% A desert tortoise, something mute and hard. 00:18:00.190 --> 00:18:05.140 align:middle line:84% Something to decorate a desert Japanese garden, 00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:11.320 align:middle line:84% gnarled wood, smooth artillery shells for a border. 00:18:11.320 --> 00:18:17.680 align:middle line:84% When a guard smashes one, the shell cracks open 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:19.810 align:middle line:90% and the muscles ooze. 00:18:19.810 --> 00:18:23.990 align:middle line:90% 00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:26.420 align:middle line:84% The pheasant is an oriental creature, 00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:32.150 align:middle line:84% so it is only natural that one should fly into camp. 00:18:32.150 --> 00:18:36.080 align:middle line:84% And famished by rations and cans, 00:18:36.080 --> 00:18:43.560 align:middle line:84% break out in secret native dance over a fire on a black coal 00:18:43.560 --> 00:18:44.060 align:middle line:90% stove. 00:18:44.060 --> 00:18:48.270 align:middle line:90% 00:18:48.270 --> 00:18:50.580 align:middle line:90% Song of the 442nd battalion. 00:18:50.580 --> 00:18:53.180 align:middle line:90% 00:18:53.180 --> 00:18:56.740 align:middle line:84% Caged creatures have curious moods. 00:18:56.740 --> 00:18:59.300 align:middle line:90% 00:18:59.300 --> 00:19:05.300 align:middle line:84% Some of them choose to be turned loose in a group, 00:19:05.300 --> 00:19:08.300 align:middle line:84% to take their chances in the open. 00:19:08.300 --> 00:19:13.230 align:middle line:90% 00:19:13.230 --> 00:19:17.310 align:middle line:84% Because a dentist logically drives a butcher truck, 00:19:17.310 --> 00:19:24.510 align:middle line:84% I rode with my father to the slaughterhouse in an afternoon. 00:19:24.510 --> 00:19:31.080 align:middle line:84% Not hammers, not bullets could make him close his eyes. 00:19:31.080 --> 00:19:34.420 align:middle line:90% 00:19:34.420 --> 00:19:40.300 align:middle line:84% He jerks the eyes from birds, feet from lizards and punishes 00:19:40.300 --> 00:19:44.860 align:middle line:90% ants with the gaze of a glass. 00:19:44.860 --> 00:19:50.330 align:middle line:84% And with his sly gaze, his child's face, 00:19:50.330 --> 00:19:54.290 align:middle line:84% he teaches what has its place and must 00:19:54.290 --> 00:19:56.570 align:middle line:90% be passed on to others. 00:19:56.570 --> 00:20:02.210 align:middle line:90% 00:20:02.210 --> 00:20:07.130 align:middle line:84% When the threat lessened, when we became tame, 00:20:07.130 --> 00:20:11.150 align:middle line:84% my father and friends took a train to Chicago 00:20:11.150 --> 00:20:16.340 align:middle line:84% for factory work, for packaging bolts. 00:20:16.340 --> 00:20:20.960 align:middle line:84% One grew a mustache and called himself Carlos, 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:23.420 align:middle line:84% and they all made a home with those 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:26.885 align:middle line:84% of their own, rats, bedbugs, Blacks." 00:20:26.885 --> 00:20:43.778 align:middle line:90% 00:20:43.778 --> 00:20:45.070 align:middle line:90% Different things happen to you. 00:20:45.070 --> 00:20:52.830 align:middle line:84% Perhaps you might move to the East coast, 00:20:52.830 --> 00:20:58.600 align:middle line:84% find love, which of course, what else is there? 00:20:58.600 --> 00:21:00.870 align:middle line:84% This is called "Images of a Day, Congealed." 00:21:00.870 --> 00:21:05.580 align:middle line:90% 00:21:05.580 --> 00:21:12.120 align:middle line:84% Nothing eventful, from noon waking and the warm cocoa 00:21:12.120 --> 00:21:15.840 align:middle line:90% warming us within, sweet. 00:21:15.840 --> 00:21:21.660 align:middle line:84% You across your kitchen table, in your checked red duster 00:21:21.660 --> 00:21:24.960 align:middle line:90% and your dark hair down. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:29.520 align:middle line:84% Chickadees on the feeder, sleeker with the snow gone. 00:21:29.520 --> 00:21:33.180 align:middle line:84% Clearing the meadow, the new colors coming in. 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:36.250 align:middle line:90% 00:21:36.250 --> 00:21:40.240 align:middle line:84% And what an awareness of trees, their fists of leafy greens, 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:45.130 align:middle line:84% as we watched white islands skimming toward the sea. 00:21:45.130 --> 00:21:48.280 align:middle line:84% At dusk, casual couples pirouetted 00:21:48.280 --> 00:21:51.250 align:middle line:84% where drifts had been, sharing remnants 00:21:51.250 --> 00:21:54.130 align:middle line:84% of the sun and that white ball floating 00:21:54.130 --> 00:21:57.730 align:middle line:84% high above the nets and quiet lobbings. 00:21:57.730 --> 00:22:03.445 align:middle line:84% Softly and softly, as a white ball came the April moon. 00:22:03.445 --> 00:22:06.680 align:middle line:90% 00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:09.550 align:middle line:84% Then we were home again, tuning the radio 00:22:09.550 --> 00:22:13.570 align:middle line:84% in a game across the continent night. 00:22:13.570 --> 00:22:20.380 align:middle line:84% Melancholy from Fort Wayne, sleepily fading in and out 00:22:20.380 --> 00:22:21.580 align:middle line:90% with the radio. 00:22:21.580 --> 00:22:25.240 align:middle line:84% You remember that drive some time ago, 00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:30.190 align:middle line:84% unable to say exactly why we were driving, except that it 00:22:30.190 --> 00:22:36.310 align:middle line:84% was also spring and a corrugated hut in a high country clearing 00:22:36.310 --> 00:22:38.560 align:middle line:90% caught our eye? 00:22:38.560 --> 00:22:43.680 align:middle line:90% And we noted it for remembering. 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:49.200 align:middle line:84% Nothing eventful since then, nothing eventful today. 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:53.100 align:middle line:84% Surely, goodness and mercy will follow 00:22:53.100 --> 00:22:56.250 align:middle line:90% us all the days of our life." 00:22:56.250 --> 00:23:13.320 align:middle line:90% 00:23:13.320 --> 00:23:18.470 align:middle line:84% Things go on, specifically what happened to me. 00:23:18.470 --> 00:23:20.570 align:middle line:84% I moved back to the West, this time moving up 00:23:20.570 --> 00:23:21.935 align:middle line:90% into the Northwest. 00:23:21.935 --> 00:23:24.478 align:middle line:84% And things go on, there is a new war going on. 00:23:24.478 --> 00:23:26.270 align:middle line:84% I don't know which one it was, which one it 00:23:26.270 --> 00:23:27.562 align:middle line:90% is, they're all about the same. 00:23:27.562 --> 00:23:31.550 align:middle line:90% 00:23:31.550 --> 00:23:35.270 align:middle line:84% Turn on the TV, you might see what I saw. 00:23:35.270 --> 00:23:38.390 align:middle line:90% 00:23:38.390 --> 00:23:39.480 align:middle line:90% It's called "Bandstand." 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:44.970 align:middle line:90% 00:23:44.970 --> 00:23:52.410 align:middle line:84% The focus is youth, casual stances on the ballroom floor. 00:23:52.410 --> 00:23:57.390 align:middle line:84% The boys are smooth, the girls stick out all over. 00:23:57.390 --> 00:24:00.030 align:middle line:90% 00:24:00.030 --> 00:24:02.400 align:middle line:84% Every mother's son calls the tune, 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:04.980 align:middle line:90% and bodies snap into action. 00:24:04.980 --> 00:24:09.570 align:middle line:84% Slanting the best angles to the camera. 00:24:09.570 --> 00:24:13.530 align:middle line:84% They have been carefully screened, 00:24:13.530 --> 00:24:19.180 align:middle line:84% outside the dusk on Philadelphia. 00:24:19.180 --> 00:24:22.170 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile they reach their peak, doing 00:24:22.170 --> 00:24:26.820 align:middle line:84% the hitchhiker on national TV, standing in place, 00:24:26.820 --> 00:24:27.795 align:middle line:90% thumbing a ride. 00:24:27.795 --> 00:24:31.950 align:middle line:90% 00:24:31.950 --> 00:24:36.075 align:middle line:84% One of them of course, is Richard Speck. 00:24:36.075 --> 00:24:40.530 align:middle line:90% 00:24:40.530 --> 00:24:44.310 align:middle line:84% He's in the corner of your screen, having a blast. 00:24:44.310 --> 00:24:48.060 align:middle line:84% Dancing his ass off with a tease little trick. 00:24:48.060 --> 00:24:51.870 align:middle line:84% He got here early, stashed his Mustang in the alley. 00:24:51.870 --> 00:24:54.330 align:middle line:84% He'll probably get tagged, but who cares? 00:24:54.330 --> 00:24:58.830 align:middle line:84% He's got a part time gig, she finally accepted. 00:24:58.830 --> 00:25:02.130 align:middle line:90% He's on the scene. 00:25:02.130 --> 00:25:08.460 align:middle line:84% Then it's time for an ad, some huge tube oozing out of itself. 00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:14.670 align:middle line:84% And 'ol dickie, cool gum popping dickie, 00:25:14.670 --> 00:25:18.150 align:middle line:84% struts it into the men's room for a smoke, 00:25:18.150 --> 00:25:21.570 align:middle line:90% to contemplate a pimple. 00:25:21.570 --> 00:25:26.250 align:middle line:84% To ponder, to ponder whether to get a new tattoo 00:25:26.250 --> 00:25:31.200 align:middle line:84% or join the Merchant Marines for kicks. 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:33.660 align:middle line:84% Then he makes it on out to join the music." 00:25:33.660 --> 00:25:42.320 align:middle line:90% 00:25:42.320 --> 00:25:43.175 align:middle line:90% "Countries of War." 00:25:43.175 --> 00:25:45.980 align:middle line:90% 00:25:45.980 --> 00:25:49.700 align:middle line:84% "It must be like being postmaster, living 00:25:49.700 --> 00:25:52.850 align:middle line:90% in a country of war. 00:25:52.850 --> 00:25:56.540 align:middle line:84% The mail comes in, addressee unknown. 00:25:56.540 --> 00:26:01.040 align:middle line:90% The dead, more dead. 00:26:01.040 --> 00:26:05.990 align:middle line:84% When your father dies, you hide behind the parcels and cry. 00:26:05.990 --> 00:26:10.370 align:middle line:84% Your brothers go one by one, counselled. 00:26:10.370 --> 00:26:14.990 align:middle line:84% Your son is torn open, and scattered first limbs. 00:26:14.990 --> 00:26:21.590 align:middle line:90% And I, do you know this life? 00:26:21.590 --> 00:26:24.750 align:middle line:90% When were you born? 00:26:24.750 --> 00:26:28.580 align:middle line:90% I have always been postmaster. 00:26:28.580 --> 00:26:29.500 align:middle line:90% Buy stamps." 00:26:29.500 --> 00:26:35.360 align:middle line:90% 00:26:35.360 --> 00:26:37.730 align:middle line:90% Student came to see me one time. 00:26:37.730 --> 00:26:39.740 align:middle line:84% Kind of a hollow look in his eyes, 00:26:39.740 --> 00:26:42.110 align:middle line:84% and was telling me about this composition 00:26:42.110 --> 00:26:46.700 align:middle line:84% he's writing for me about when he went to R&R in Bangkok. 00:26:46.700 --> 00:26:49.310 align:middle line:84% So I wrote about it, because he's telling me 00:26:49.310 --> 00:26:51.380 align:middle line:90% with this look in his eyes. 00:26:51.380 --> 00:26:54.920 align:middle line:84% And at the same time, this is about when 00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:57.320 align:middle line:84% the Haight-Ashbury and all the while dancing 00:26:57.320 --> 00:26:59.420 align:middle line:84% was coming on, with the lights and stuff. 00:26:59.420 --> 00:27:01.340 align:middle line:84% And for some reason, he's talking 00:27:01.340 --> 00:27:03.800 align:middle line:84% and I remember he was mentioning this watch 00:27:03.800 --> 00:27:05.330 align:middle line:84% and traded it on a chick and stuff. 00:27:05.330 --> 00:27:10.070 align:middle line:84% And the room, hit the watchmen, it was lights, 00:27:10.070 --> 00:27:14.270 align:middle line:84% and it was the strangest ballroom I've ever been in. 00:27:14.270 --> 00:27:16.160 align:middle line:90% "R and R in Bangkok." 00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:20.930 align:middle line:84% Something about the eyes going over my shoulders, 00:27:20.930 --> 00:27:26.300 align:middle line:84% up the slow rise of grass and giving back something 00:27:26.300 --> 00:27:31.580 align:middle line:84% instead called R and R in Bangkok. 00:27:31.580 --> 00:27:34.040 align:middle line:90% Buying without shopping much. 00:27:34.040 --> 00:27:36.560 align:middle line:84% Bargaining by paying the duration. 00:27:36.560 --> 00:27:38.930 align:middle line:90% Rubbing yourself numb on it. 00:27:38.930 --> 00:27:42.050 align:middle line:90% Washboard that does not wash. 00:27:42.050 --> 00:27:47.240 align:middle line:84% Same old song and trance, sick kid, sick something. 00:27:47.240 --> 00:27:52.220 align:middle line:84% Finally, finding a thin hipped, thin titted child beside you 00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:53.840 align:middle line:90% on a reeking beach. 00:27:53.840 --> 00:27:57.170 align:middle line:84% Sick, tired, trading it on a watch. 00:27:57.170 --> 00:28:00.440 align:middle line:84% Watching the city reel from a drunken pagoda. 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:06.860 align:middle line:84% Sick, flying back to the same sort of patrol. 00:28:06.860 --> 00:28:11.210 align:middle line:84% All that in and eyes, reciting what 00:28:11.210 --> 00:28:16.550 align:middle line:84% is to be told as the afternoon crashes off a watch band, 00:28:16.550 --> 00:28:20.750 align:middle line:84% bringing ballrooms to these simple walls in which there 00:28:20.750 --> 00:28:28.265 align:middle line:84% is no crying, no laughing, no music, no dancing." 00:28:28.265 --> 00:28:37.940 align:middle line:90% 00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:41.030 align:middle line:84% People use the term getting it together. 00:28:41.030 --> 00:28:45.560 align:middle line:84% This happens sometimes, probably for many people 00:28:45.560 --> 00:28:49.730 align:middle line:84% by reaching back in some affirmative way 00:28:49.730 --> 00:28:51.890 align:middle line:90% and grabbing hold of your roots. 00:28:51.890 --> 00:28:54.740 align:middle line:84% Whatever you've been exposed to, whatever is meaningful to you. 00:28:54.740 --> 00:29:02.410 align:middle line:90% 00:29:02.410 --> 00:29:04.510 align:middle line:84% The book ends on the poem, "The Great Bassist," 00:29:04.510 --> 00:29:07.090 align:middle line:84% which is dedicated to Charles Mingus, who is a great bassist. 00:29:07.090 --> 00:29:10.870 align:middle line:90% 00:29:10.870 --> 00:29:15.280 align:middle line:90% "I am the great bassist. 00:29:15.280 --> 00:29:18.670 align:middle line:90% Music, life are one. 00:29:18.670 --> 00:29:21.210 align:middle line:90% 00:29:21.210 --> 00:29:25.830 align:middle line:84% And it is fine, it wasn't always that way. 00:29:25.830 --> 00:29:28.690 align:middle line:90% 00:29:28.690 --> 00:29:34.740 align:middle line:84% When I was young, music plugged my veins and wouldn't run. 00:29:34.740 --> 00:29:39.300 align:middle line:84% I bought a bass and practised, nothing would come. 00:29:39.300 --> 00:29:45.540 align:middle line:84% Wire, lance, the flesh only, that ache inside unletting. 00:29:45.540 --> 00:29:49.200 align:middle line:84% Lacerations of a master's whip, cutting down 00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:52.710 align:middle line:84% through the calluses, society in the cracks like salt 00:29:52.710 --> 00:29:53.265 align:middle line:90% and pepper. 00:29:53.265 --> 00:29:56.190 align:middle line:90% 00:29:56.190 --> 00:29:58.380 align:middle line:90% Then bass was woman. 00:29:58.380 --> 00:30:00.990 align:middle line:90% I, her master. 00:30:00.990 --> 00:30:05.280 align:middle line:84% She was Black, Africa's shape, misshapen. 00:30:05.280 --> 00:30:08.610 align:middle line:90% We made love like hate. 00:30:08.610 --> 00:30:11.640 align:middle line:90% We bled all over each other. 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:14.955 align:middle line:84% I plucked her guts until we almost died. 00:30:14.955 --> 00:30:17.770 align:middle line:90% 00:30:17.770 --> 00:30:22.660 align:middle line:84% One night I saw a light shouldering the horizon. 00:30:22.660 --> 00:30:25.240 align:middle line:90% A light we made. 00:30:25.240 --> 00:30:28.160 align:middle line:90% It accompanied us. 00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:30.550 align:middle line:84% And when the blues came down like rain, 00:30:30.550 --> 00:30:32.560 align:middle line:90% we played away the rain. 00:30:32.560 --> 00:30:36.340 align:middle line:84% And love fell into place like syllogisms. 00:30:36.340 --> 00:30:41.080 align:middle line:84% The best of nights we made sea rhythm, pulse of wave strength. 00:30:41.080 --> 00:30:45.310 align:middle line:84% Lapping, sand, moon and Earth, each of the other. 00:30:45.310 --> 00:30:49.900 align:middle line:84% We strummed telephone wires and a cold field music, 00:30:49.900 --> 00:30:51.790 align:middle line:90% like blood rushing. 00:30:51.790 --> 00:30:54.775 align:middle line:84% Blood of all peoples humming, rushing. 00:30:54.775 --> 00:30:58.600 align:middle line:90% 00:30:58.600 --> 00:31:03.700 align:middle line:84% I am in Levi's now, that doesn't matter. 00:31:03.700 --> 00:31:07.510 align:middle line:84% And when I walked the streets, wind flattens my beard 00:31:07.510 --> 00:31:11.470 align:middle line:90% and I look tired, tattered. 00:31:11.470 --> 00:31:17.020 align:middle line:84% That doesn't matter, but I need your love. 00:31:17.020 --> 00:31:21.170 align:middle line:90% We need each other. 00:31:21.170 --> 00:31:25.750 align:middle line:84% So when I come down your street with my great bass, 00:31:25.750 --> 00:31:27.760 align:middle line:90% toss us your love. 00:31:27.760 --> 00:31:34.990 align:middle line:84% Will play you love petals, love us back. 00:31:34.990 --> 00:31:42.280 align:middle line:84% If you don't, we'll kill you, all of you. 00:31:42.280 --> 00:31:43.000 align:middle line:90% We will." 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:54.800 align:middle line:90% 00:31:54.800 --> 00:32:00.500 align:middle line:84% I'm going to conclude with a series of recent things, 00:32:00.500 --> 00:32:03.742 align:middle line:84% hoping that you will have my book 00:32:03.742 --> 00:32:06.200 align:middle line:84% in the privacy of your room 3 o'clock in the morning, where 00:32:06.200 --> 00:32:08.750 align:middle line:90% you can really check it out. 00:32:08.750 --> 00:32:12.733 align:middle line:84% All right, you know how it should sound now. 00:32:12.733 --> 00:32:14.525 align:middle line:84% You can just fill in the rest of the tunes. 00:32:14.525 --> 00:32:45.930 align:middle line:90% 00:32:45.930 --> 00:32:48.870 align:middle line:84% This series of poems deals with where 00:32:48.870 --> 00:32:50.820 align:middle line:84% I've been living for the last couple of years, 00:32:50.820 --> 00:32:53.010 align:middle line:90% as Bill mentioned. 00:32:53.010 --> 00:32:57.660 align:middle line:84% In southern Oregon, just over the border from my home state. 00:32:57.660 --> 00:33:03.810 align:middle line:84% And as with anywhere you go, strange things transpire. 00:33:03.810 --> 00:33:06.153 align:middle line:90% 00:33:06.153 --> 00:33:07.570 align:middle line:84% Around the time of Kent State, I'm 00:33:07.570 --> 00:33:10.330 align:middle line:84% sure strange things transpired around here even. 00:33:10.330 --> 00:33:11.755 align:middle line:90% And maybe even in Phoenix. 00:33:11.755 --> 00:33:20.550 align:middle line:90% 00:33:20.550 --> 00:33:24.300 align:middle line:84% In the time that has elapsed since then, many of us 00:33:24.300 --> 00:33:27.720 align:middle line:84% have since gotten our feet on the ground. 00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:30.300 align:middle line:84% And maybe I'll become a little more realistic about things, 00:33:30.300 --> 00:33:34.420 align:middle line:84% but at that time, it was a beautiful thing. 00:33:34.420 --> 00:33:37.290 align:middle line:84% At least for me, and for others that I 00:33:37.290 --> 00:33:42.600 align:middle line:84% was closest with where I live it was something else. 00:33:42.600 --> 00:33:45.610 align:middle line:90% It was something else. 00:33:45.610 --> 00:33:47.350 align:middle line:84% A lot of this something else feeling 00:33:47.350 --> 00:33:48.760 align:middle line:84% was dispelled a couple of weeks after that, 00:33:48.760 --> 00:33:50.343 align:middle line:84% when the Jackson State thing came down 00:33:50.343 --> 00:33:53.380 align:middle line:84% and we tried to raise up a group of students, 00:33:53.380 --> 00:33:56.500 align:middle line:84% and couldn't get any kind of support. 00:33:56.500 --> 00:33:59.040 align:middle line:90% It was like everything was over. 00:33:59.040 --> 00:34:00.090 align:middle line:90% The impetus was gone. 00:34:00.090 --> 00:34:03.450 align:middle line:90% All the problems were gone. 00:34:03.450 --> 00:34:07.470 align:middle line:84% And this was after myself and a group 00:34:07.470 --> 00:34:09.719 align:middle line:84% of other so-called minority peoples, 00:34:09.719 --> 00:34:10.943 align:middle line:90% had joined in on the march. 00:34:10.943 --> 00:34:13.110 align:middle line:84% Largely of our own volition, even though we realized 00:34:13.110 --> 00:34:15.840 align:middle line:90% it was rather dangerous. 00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:19.020 align:middle line:84% Because when the stuff comes down and the rifles come out, 00:34:19.020 --> 00:34:21.239 align:middle line:90% who makes the easiest target? 00:34:21.239 --> 00:34:23.858 align:middle line:90% You know what I mean? 00:34:23.858 --> 00:34:26.400 align:middle line:84% But anyway, at this particular time it was beautiful I think. 00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:28.365 align:middle line:84% Underneath all of this though, there 00:34:28.365 --> 00:34:33.280 align:middle line:84% is a current going that is still extremely important. 00:34:33.280 --> 00:34:37.739 align:middle line:84% So what happened was in our particular area, 00:34:37.739 --> 00:34:39.420 align:middle line:90% we had a march. 00:34:39.420 --> 00:34:41.143 align:middle line:90% In that area-- 00:34:41.143 --> 00:34:42.810 align:middle line:84% I don't know what it's like around here. 00:34:42.810 --> 00:34:45.690 align:middle line:84% This is probably super liberal country. 00:34:45.690 --> 00:34:48.690 align:middle line:84% In our area, our area, it happens 00:34:48.690 --> 00:34:52.530 align:middle line:84% to be the center of the committee 00:34:52.530 --> 00:34:56.639 align:middle line:84% for the preservations for your right to keep and bear arms. 00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:58.980 align:middle line:90% Everybody's got to pickup. 00:34:58.980 --> 00:35:01.200 align:middle line:84% Everybody's got a rifle rack and a pickup, 00:35:01.200 --> 00:35:03.030 align:middle line:84% and everybody got rifles in a pickup. 00:35:03.030 --> 00:35:05.340 align:middle line:90% You know what I mean? 00:35:05.340 --> 00:35:08.790 align:middle line:84% And nevertheless though, the whole student body joined in. 00:35:08.790 --> 00:35:10.590 align:middle line:84% So there was a march, or maybe 700 people 00:35:10.590 --> 00:35:13.710 align:middle line:84% marching through town with candles in silence. 00:35:13.710 --> 00:35:16.170 align:middle line:84% And it's the first and last time I've done that, 00:35:16.170 --> 00:35:18.490 align:middle line:90% and what else can I do? 00:35:18.490 --> 00:35:20.890 align:middle line:84% Well, I can read you about what happened. 00:35:20.890 --> 00:35:22.800 align:middle line:90% It was an all night vigil. 00:35:22.800 --> 00:35:26.340 align:middle line:90% We tried to bring the flag down. 00:35:26.340 --> 00:35:30.562 align:middle line:84% Rifles came out, the flag went up. 00:35:30.562 --> 00:35:31.770 align:middle line:90% There was an all night vigil. 00:35:31.770 --> 00:35:33.840 align:middle line:84% A lot of singing and stuff on the lawn 00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:36.270 align:middle line:84% of the campus, which slopes down onto a highway. 00:35:36.270 --> 00:35:38.665 align:middle line:84% Across the highway was Dottie's Place. 00:35:38.665 --> 00:35:40.790 align:middle line:84% Dottie's Place, there's a lot of antennas up there. 00:35:40.790 --> 00:35:42.840 align:middle line:84% It's an all night coffee shop for truckers, 00:35:42.840 --> 00:35:44.250 align:middle line:90% and there's rifles up there. 00:35:44.250 --> 00:35:48.610 align:middle line:90% 00:35:48.610 --> 00:35:51.660 align:middle line:84% What happens in the form of course, 00:35:51.660 --> 00:35:55.510 align:middle line:84% towards the end, happened to a certain extent. 00:35:55.510 --> 00:35:58.050 align:middle line:84% Maybe not as flashy as it happens here, 00:35:58.050 --> 00:36:00.231 align:middle line:84% but maybe it's something that's still happening. 00:36:00.231 --> 00:36:04.470 align:middle line:90% 00:36:04.470 --> 00:36:06.770 align:middle line:84% One thing I also want to mention is, 00:36:06.770 --> 00:36:10.010 align:middle line:90% I mentioned Bud Powell here. 00:36:10.010 --> 00:36:14.450 align:middle line:84% Bud Powell is a great pianist who died in the late 60s, 00:36:14.450 --> 00:36:18.020 align:middle line:84% but he had been having mental problems since the 50s. 00:36:18.020 --> 00:36:21.410 align:middle line:84% Absolutely brilliant, brilliant pianist, fantastic. 00:36:21.410 --> 00:36:24.350 align:middle line:84% People like that die, no one knows about it. 00:36:24.350 --> 00:36:27.830 align:middle line:84% But this was happening when-- about this time 00:36:27.830 --> 00:36:29.540 align:middle line:84% when I got a record, a new release 00:36:29.540 --> 00:36:32.060 align:middle line:84% cut by Bud Powell, which kind of brought me 00:36:32.060 --> 00:36:34.130 align:middle line:90% out of wherever I was. 00:36:34.130 --> 00:36:37.950 align:middle line:84% And this is where I get most of my energy anyway from. 00:36:37.950 --> 00:36:41.400 align:middle line:90% It from this music. 00:36:41.400 --> 00:36:42.650 align:middle line:90% It's called "Making a Living." 00:36:42.650 --> 00:36:47.300 align:middle line:90% 00:36:47.300 --> 00:36:51.080 align:middle line:84% Daylight, I didn't know I was sleeping, 00:36:51.080 --> 00:36:56.030 align:middle line:84% lost in a drift of guitars and traffic. 00:36:56.030 --> 00:36:58.010 align:middle line:84% The baby needs changing, so I give him 00:36:58.010 --> 00:37:03.680 align:middle line:84% my keys for a plaything as Janet fastens him under a blanket. 00:37:03.680 --> 00:37:06.140 align:middle line:90% Dew on the grass. 00:37:06.140 --> 00:37:08.180 align:middle line:90% Miles can't find his shoes. 00:37:08.180 --> 00:37:10.640 align:middle line:90% And when he does, they're damp. 00:37:10.640 --> 00:37:12.215 align:middle line:90% And his socks need changing. 00:37:12.215 --> 00:37:15.610 align:middle line:90% 00:37:15.610 --> 00:37:20.920 align:middle line:84% We gathered last night after a march with silence and candles, 00:37:20.920 --> 00:37:22.810 align:middle line:90% 700 strong. 00:37:22.810 --> 00:37:26.770 align:middle line:90% The wax disfiguring our fingers. 00:37:26.770 --> 00:37:30.550 align:middle line:84% 700 strong, the figures keep changing. 00:37:30.550 --> 00:37:36.370 align:middle line:84% Two weeks ago, 100 held up traffic and business as usual. 00:37:36.370 --> 00:37:40.360 align:middle line:84% Two years ago, an even dozen matched 00:37:40.360 --> 00:37:44.620 align:middle line:90% the brunt of a carton of eggs. 00:37:44.620 --> 00:37:48.250 align:middle line:84% Everyone's hungry, we break bread and clean our teeth 00:37:48.250 --> 00:37:49.990 align:middle line:90% with the crust. 00:37:49.990 --> 00:37:53.710 align:middle line:84% We're not prepared, but we're ready. 00:37:53.710 --> 00:37:58.180 align:middle line:84% The custodian comes, fastening the flag in his uniform. 00:37:58.180 --> 00:38:03.700 align:middle line:84% This brings us to our feet, and the people from Dottie's out. 00:38:03.700 --> 00:38:05.800 align:middle line:84% They've been keeping their vigil. 00:38:05.800 --> 00:38:10.840 align:middle line:84% Cussing us out, crouching among the crosshair antennas. 00:38:10.840 --> 00:38:15.970 align:middle line:84% They say the flag must stay up, lower it again 00:38:15.970 --> 00:38:18.580 align:middle line:90% and they'll kill us. 00:38:18.580 --> 00:38:22.780 align:middle line:90% The flag catches wind then dies. 00:38:22.780 --> 00:38:28.600 align:middle line:84% All night the wind kept hitting the mast and cable, 00:38:28.600 --> 00:38:30.805 align:middle line:84% and they clung to like a broken bell. 00:38:30.805 --> 00:38:33.750 align:middle line:90% 00:38:33.750 --> 00:38:37.650 align:middle line:84% These past few years, things have really been spinning. 00:38:37.650 --> 00:38:41.070 align:middle line:84% Those space shots hooked us to the moon, 00:38:41.070 --> 00:38:43.920 align:middle line:90% and doubled our orbit. 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:47.100 align:middle line:84% Even at home, I still feel the spin. 00:38:47.100 --> 00:38:51.390 align:middle line:84% And when I tip in to the children's room, 00:38:51.390 --> 00:38:54.760 align:middle line:84% they spin out of their blankets in a shower of sparks. 00:38:54.760 --> 00:38:57.740 align:middle line:90% 00:38:57.740 --> 00:39:02.270 align:middle line:84% Lately, my classrooms have been invaded with the news, 00:39:02.270 --> 00:39:04.670 align:middle line:84% projectionist cut the light in the middle 00:39:04.670 --> 00:39:08.720 align:middle line:84% of lectures and splash on oil spills, blood spills. 00:39:08.720 --> 00:39:12.755 align:middle line:84% My face becomes the screen, what am I teaching? 00:39:12.755 --> 00:39:16.010 align:middle line:90% 00:39:16.010 --> 00:39:18.500 align:middle line:84% I never joined their movements, because I 00:39:18.500 --> 00:39:20.780 align:middle line:90% couldn't stand the people. 00:39:20.780 --> 00:39:25.700 align:middle line:84% A mass of dungarees and tresses, who would be most visible? 00:39:25.700 --> 00:39:29.870 align:middle line:84% Next year I'd say, next year in our own movement, who is 00:39:29.870 --> 00:39:31.370 align:middle line:90% it killing niggers and gooks? 00:39:31.370 --> 00:39:35.500 align:middle line:90% 00:39:35.500 --> 00:39:39.110 align:middle line:84% Last night scared the hell out of me. 00:39:39.110 --> 00:39:43.150 align:middle line:84% It was beautiful, with all those threatening calls, 00:39:43.150 --> 00:39:46.450 align:middle line:84% we expected violence as usual and came out 00:39:46.450 --> 00:39:50.380 align:middle line:84% in the rain prepared to squat down and cry. 00:39:50.380 --> 00:39:53.800 align:middle line:84% Children kept the inner lane, but even those 00:39:53.800 --> 00:39:56.245 align:middle line:84% weren't lethal with the cross streets darkened. 00:39:56.245 --> 00:39:59.230 align:middle line:90% 00:39:59.230 --> 00:40:03.310 align:middle line:84% Perhaps it was our size, our children. 00:40:03.310 --> 00:40:10.330 align:middle line:84% Perhaps it was a new set of rules, beat us and you lose. 00:40:10.330 --> 00:40:13.630 align:middle line:84% Perhaps it was the march conspiring and the others 00:40:13.630 --> 00:40:16.300 align:middle line:84% tugging at their bowels to join us, 00:40:16.300 --> 00:40:19.160 align:middle line:84% but as we pass through their darkness, 00:40:19.160 --> 00:40:22.780 align:middle line:84% their cries seem pleased for another order. 00:40:22.780 --> 00:40:23.980 align:middle line:90% Help me, God damn it. 00:40:23.980 --> 00:40:26.780 align:middle line:90% Help me, I don't understand. 00:40:26.780 --> 00:40:27.740 align:middle line:90% Help me, God damn it. 00:40:27.740 --> 00:40:29.095 align:middle line:90% Just try it, please. 00:40:29.095 --> 00:40:31.640 align:middle line:90% 00:40:31.640 --> 00:40:34.120 align:middle line:84% And after gathering at the flagpole, 00:40:34.120 --> 00:40:38.350 align:middle line:84% after songs I'd never sung, a spontaneous shudder 00:40:38.350 --> 00:40:39.520 align:middle line:90% spun among us. 00:40:39.520 --> 00:40:41.650 align:middle line:90% And it was love sweeping us up. 00:40:41.650 --> 00:40:44.860 align:middle line:84% A mass of dungarees and tresses, hugging and dancing 00:40:44.860 --> 00:40:46.390 align:middle line:90% on the grass. 00:40:46.390 --> 00:40:47.245 align:middle line:90% I would have run. 00:40:47.245 --> 00:40:51.080 align:middle line:90% 00:40:51.080 --> 00:40:54.950 align:middle line:84% This march was as much my idea as anyone else's. 00:40:54.950 --> 00:40:57.560 align:middle line:90% I was only half serious. 00:40:57.560 --> 00:41:00.330 align:middle line:90% I knew they wouldn't do it. 00:41:00.330 --> 00:41:02.810 align:middle line:90% I knew it couldn't be done. 00:41:02.810 --> 00:41:05.000 align:middle line:90% I had been waiting for a leader. 00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.500 align:middle line:84% I had been waiting for my movement. 00:41:09.500 --> 00:41:12.110 align:middle line:84% As soon as our words were out, we all 00:41:12.110 --> 00:41:14.420 align:middle line:90% had on armbands and badges. 00:41:14.420 --> 00:41:16.145 align:middle line:90% The march was on. 00:41:16.145 --> 00:41:19.170 align:middle line:90% 00:41:19.170 --> 00:41:22.340 align:middle line:84% We set up headquarters on the campus lawn, a couple 00:41:22.340 --> 00:41:25.640 align:middle line:90% of old tents and a table. 00:41:25.640 --> 00:41:33.440 align:middle line:84% For an instant, I saw my people as they slumped off to camp. 00:41:33.440 --> 00:41:38.990 align:middle line:84% Then wind and all those lives blew that away, I mobilized. 00:41:38.990 --> 00:41:41.690 align:middle line:90% 00:41:41.690 --> 00:41:43.730 align:middle line:90% Breakfast is over. 00:41:43.730 --> 00:41:46.040 align:middle line:90% We rise for a song. 00:41:46.040 --> 00:41:50.570 align:middle line:84% I hum along, but in the midst of these 00:41:50.570 --> 00:41:54.980 align:middle line:84% singings was a record in the mail yesterday, by Bud Powell, 00:41:54.980 --> 00:41:58.430 align:middle line:90% cut in Europe in 1962. 00:41:58.430 --> 00:42:01.460 align:middle line:84% Killed in the 50s, died in the 60s. 00:42:01.460 --> 00:42:04.700 align:middle line:84% All that swift little bop plucked out of him, 00:42:04.700 --> 00:42:06.620 align:middle line:90% and jagged clusters. 00:42:06.620 --> 00:42:09.860 align:middle line:90% It takes the mind away. 00:42:09.860 --> 00:42:14.450 align:middle line:84% Though his was gone, each song said something. 00:42:14.450 --> 00:42:17.060 align:middle line:84% That's right, I'm Black and I'm crazy. 00:42:17.060 --> 00:42:18.470 align:middle line:90% What time is it? 00:42:18.470 --> 00:42:20.780 align:middle line:90% Ever hear the keys cackle? 00:42:20.780 --> 00:42:23.240 align:middle line:84% I play straight jacketed, upside down 00:42:23.240 --> 00:42:26.840 align:middle line:90% in a rest home in Willow Grove. 00:42:26.840 --> 00:42:30.620 align:middle line:84% Richie just died, my sweet little brother. 00:42:30.620 --> 00:42:35.990 align:middle line:84% Along with brilliant Clifford, I weep with a fist. 00:42:35.990 --> 00:42:39.140 align:middle line:84% Got to, I'm strapped to the piano. 00:42:39.140 --> 00:42:42.470 align:middle line:84% Check out the left hand tugging at the nut. 00:42:42.470 --> 00:42:46.790 align:middle line:90% Got to check it out, yeah. 00:42:46.790 --> 00:42:50.000 align:middle line:90% Fuck it, I'm the King of Paris. 00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:51.770 align:middle line:90% The loneliest who? 00:42:51.770 --> 00:42:57.290 align:middle line:84% There's cracks in this piano, fuck you. 00:42:57.290 --> 00:43:02.270 align:middle line:84% I'm dying now, in this place you call America, baby. 00:43:02.270 --> 00:43:03.470 align:middle line:90% What time is it? 00:43:03.470 --> 00:43:08.570 align:middle line:84% Listen, white keys sharp as knives, 00:43:08.570 --> 00:43:10.520 align:middle line:84% they're done fucking with my fingers. 00:43:10.520 --> 00:43:14.400 align:middle line:84% Look for them under a stoop in Brooklyn. 00:43:14.400 --> 00:43:16.440 align:middle line:84% And yet this record finds his fingers 00:43:16.440 --> 00:43:18.380 align:middle line:90% fast again, out of hand. 00:43:18.380 --> 00:43:22.650 align:middle line:84% Boosted out there by the beat of a 15-year-old Swedish bassist. 00:43:22.650 --> 00:43:25.640 align:middle line:84% 15-year-old Swedish bassist busting with bud, 00:43:25.640 --> 00:43:27.380 align:middle line:90% and all those heavy tunes. 00:43:27.380 --> 00:43:30.710 align:middle line:84% A 15-year-old kid, Bud is back, I cried. 00:43:30.710 --> 00:43:32.090 align:middle line:90% Bud is back, baby. 00:43:32.090 --> 00:43:33.860 align:middle line:90% Bud is back, and he's beautiful. 00:43:33.860 --> 00:43:37.370 align:middle line:84% And I sat there weeping between mobilization meetings, 00:43:37.370 --> 00:43:39.020 align:middle line:90% needing to share with them. 00:43:39.020 --> 00:43:42.140 align:middle line:90% Needing to give them the word. 00:43:42.140 --> 00:43:44.360 align:middle line:90% The march is starting. 00:43:44.360 --> 00:43:47.780 align:middle line:84% We're singing together, the march is starting. 00:43:47.780 --> 00:43:49.460 align:middle line:90% Our music must be heard. 00:43:49.460 --> 00:43:52.230 align:middle line:90% 00:43:52.230 --> 00:43:54.650 align:middle line:84% Now as we move out into the street, 00:43:54.650 --> 00:43:59.090 align:middle line:84% we break ranks and reach into the community. 00:43:59.090 --> 00:44:03.380 align:middle line:84% Our own communities, and start teaching beads, flowers, 00:44:03.380 --> 00:44:05.030 align:middle line:90% freedom, happiness. 00:44:05.030 --> 00:44:06.440 align:middle line:90% We move in many ways. 00:44:06.440 --> 00:44:10.290 align:middle line:84% We use the democratic process, beads, flowers, freedom, 00:44:10.290 --> 00:44:11.060 align:middle line:90% happiness. 00:44:11.060 --> 00:44:12.990 align:middle line:90% We see the ways of detonation. 00:44:12.990 --> 00:44:16.470 align:middle line:84% We see the ways of corporation, beads, flowers, freedom, 00:44:16.470 --> 00:44:17.420 align:middle line:90% happiness. 00:44:17.420 --> 00:44:19.820 align:middle line:84% The boundaries are down, will you kill your brother? 00:44:19.820 --> 00:44:22.280 align:middle line:84% Beads, flowers, freedom, happiness. 00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:24.860 align:middle line:84% Will anyone step forward for induction? 00:44:24.860 --> 00:44:28.520 align:middle line:84% Beads, flowers, freedom, happiness, put us in jail. 00:44:28.520 --> 00:44:32.150 align:middle line:84% Put us in camps, beads, flowers, freedom, happiness. 00:44:32.150 --> 00:44:36.590 align:middle line:84% We spread out over passes riding sitars and harmonicas, beads, 00:44:36.590 --> 00:44:38.300 align:middle line:90% flowers, freedom, happiness. 00:44:38.300 --> 00:44:40.820 align:middle line:84% A mule-drawn cart starts a Black march 00:44:40.820 --> 00:44:43.940 align:middle line:84% through Georgia, beads, flowers, freedom, happiness. 00:44:43.940 --> 00:44:46.970 align:middle line:84% A yellow snake dance on coils in Kyoto, 00:44:46.970 --> 00:44:49.340 align:middle line:84% beads, flowers, freedom, happiness. 00:44:49.340 --> 00:44:51.560 align:middle line:84% The boundaries are down, will you kill your brother? 00:44:51.560 --> 00:44:54.140 align:middle line:84% Beads, flowers, freedom, happiness. 00:44:54.140 --> 00:44:57.260 align:middle line:84% The children across the street with the father in Vietnam, 00:44:57.260 --> 00:45:00.440 align:middle line:84% listen to them, beads, flowers, freedom, happiness. 00:45:00.440 --> 00:45:04.230 align:middle line:84% My children joined the chant, beads, flowers, freedom, 00:45:04.230 --> 00:45:05.690 align:middle line:90% happiness. 00:45:05.690 --> 00:45:07.145 align:middle line:90% Can anyone silence that? 00:45:07.145 --> 00:45:17.950 align:middle line:90% 00:45:17.950 --> 00:45:20.590 align:middle line:90% OK, ready? 00:45:20.590 --> 00:45:23.230 align:middle line:90% Here we go. 00:45:23.230 --> 00:45:26.800 align:middle line:84% And we stand on both sides of the contraption, 00:45:26.800 --> 00:45:30.910 align:middle line:84% like horses about to grind corn, but peering 00:45:30.910 --> 00:45:34.150 align:middle line:90% through blinders at each other. 00:45:34.150 --> 00:45:36.040 align:middle line:84% Both of us are about the same age, 00:45:36.040 --> 00:45:41.020 align:middle line:84% but him thinking I'm some kind of young punk, a yellow hippie. 00:45:41.020 --> 00:45:45.220 align:middle line:84% And me keeping an eye on the old fat captain, 00:45:45.220 --> 00:45:47.650 align:middle line:90% close cropped and on furlough. 00:45:47.650 --> 00:45:52.870 align:middle line:84% Baggy Bermudas, white socks over military shoes. 00:45:52.870 --> 00:45:56.200 align:middle line:84% His little pink girl in a sun suit, 00:45:56.200 --> 00:46:00.190 align:middle line:84% and my Toady with a red tint to his hair, 00:46:00.190 --> 00:46:04.600 align:middle line:84% lovely enough to be taken for a girl. 00:46:04.600 --> 00:46:06.580 align:middle line:84% But they're already on the merry go 00:46:06.580 --> 00:46:10.000 align:middle line:84% bench, that screams attention as we shove off. 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:13.810 align:middle line:84% Each keeping our own side, and the effort down. 00:46:13.810 --> 00:46:18.730 align:middle line:84% Shoving with all our cool to keep it going. 00:46:18.730 --> 00:46:20.860 align:middle line:84% Then more kids want on, and they're really 00:46:20.860 --> 00:46:23.560 align:middle line:84% checking me out, bristling a light sweat, 00:46:23.560 --> 00:46:24.940 align:middle line:90% screaming attention. 00:46:24.940 --> 00:46:28.120 align:middle line:84% So we hit the swings, where a pomade guy 00:46:28.120 --> 00:46:32.890 align:middle line:84% with eagles on his arms parks his miniature self. 00:46:32.890 --> 00:46:34.540 align:middle line:90% Keep your feet up, Donnie. 00:46:34.540 --> 00:46:36.730 align:middle line:90% Keep your feet up. 00:46:36.730 --> 00:46:40.780 align:middle line:84% So we drift off by the creek, where kids whisper on the water 00:46:40.780 --> 00:46:43.420 align:middle line:90% and let my senses on focus. 00:46:43.420 --> 00:46:47.830 align:middle line:84% Toady keepin' by me, like my shades, a leash. 00:46:47.830 --> 00:46:51.190 align:middle line:84% He's a shy one, and I got to watch him. 00:46:51.190 --> 00:46:54.610 align:middle line:84% Young chicks cutting by with t-shirts and nipples 00:46:54.610 --> 00:46:58.870 align:middle line:84% beneath like Mickey Mouse, stiff and inside out. 00:46:58.870 --> 00:47:03.670 align:middle line:84% Dudes in shorts, tans, tight ribs like something to strum. 00:47:03.670 --> 00:47:09.070 align:middle line:84% Cool gated like they've just been tokin' up in the bushes. 00:47:09.070 --> 00:47:11.230 align:middle line:84% Wish I was young, says the captain 00:47:11.230 --> 00:47:14.560 align:middle line:84% who snuck up, nudging my shadow as his girl grins at Toady 00:47:14.560 --> 00:47:17.230 align:middle line:90% from the sandbox. 00:47:17.230 --> 00:47:20.320 align:middle line:84% So we go down over the lawn to the duck pond. 00:47:20.320 --> 00:47:23.320 align:middle line:84% This fountain spouting about itself. 00:47:23.320 --> 00:47:25.870 align:middle line:84% Two swans tired of crumbs, and nipping 00:47:25.870 --> 00:47:27.880 align:middle line:84% at the corrective kicks of ladies 00:47:27.880 --> 00:47:31.900 align:middle line:90% vacationing with Shakespeare. 00:47:31.900 --> 00:47:34.090 align:middle line:90% Then squat on a rock. 00:47:34.090 --> 00:47:37.300 align:middle line:84% Run through some changes on the bass, like Percy Heath. 00:47:37.300 --> 00:47:38.292 align:middle line:90% [AUDIO OUT] 00:47:38.292 --> 00:47:52.390 align:middle line:90% 00:47:52.390 --> 00:47:55.180 align:middle line:84% Some kids bust up the session with guitars and frisbees, 00:47:55.180 --> 00:47:58.210 align:middle line:84% and two chicks give stale bread to Toady. 00:47:58.210 --> 00:48:01.940 align:middle line:84% Green bread for green ducks, who are full anyway. 00:48:01.940 --> 00:48:04.900 align:middle line:84% Just want to spit the stuff up to keep others from getting it. 00:48:04.900 --> 00:48:07.470 align:middle line:90% 00:48:07.470 --> 00:48:11.640 align:middle line:84% But one of the chicks got on cute perfume and a smile, 00:48:11.640 --> 00:48:14.310 align:middle line:90% so this makes me smile. 00:48:14.310 --> 00:48:18.360 align:middle line:84% So Toady's leading me around the pond, where the trail takes off 00:48:18.360 --> 00:48:23.040 align:middle line:84% up the hill and pretty soon we're way up on a steep side. 00:48:23.040 --> 00:48:25.260 align:middle line:84% And I'm keeping an eye out for a poison oak, 00:48:25.260 --> 00:48:26.325 align:middle line:90% whatever it looks like. 00:48:26.325 --> 00:48:29.340 align:middle line:90% 00:48:29.340 --> 00:48:31.440 align:middle line:84% And trying to stay on a thin trail, 00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:34.990 align:middle line:90% and watch out for snakes. 00:48:34.990 --> 00:48:37.260 align:middle line:84% There's a rattlesnake in the yard, 00:48:37.260 --> 00:48:38.880 align:middle line:84% and maybe that's where it started 00:48:38.880 --> 00:48:41.340 align:middle line:90% to continue this morning. 00:48:41.340 --> 00:48:45.660 align:middle line:84% Janet come running in, locking doors and the kids in. 00:48:45.660 --> 00:48:50.550 align:middle line:84% He's a small one, but I saw his head and he's got the markings. 00:48:50.550 --> 00:48:54.120 align:middle line:84% And I put on my boots thinking, if I don't get him, 00:48:54.120 --> 00:48:56.460 align:middle line:84% how the hell will our yard be safe for the kids 00:48:56.460 --> 00:48:58.710 align:middle line:90% out here in this country? 00:48:58.710 --> 00:49:02.490 align:middle line:84% And if I see him, will a hole be enough? 00:49:02.490 --> 00:49:04.110 align:middle line:84% Or will it give me just a scratch, 00:49:04.110 --> 00:49:08.670 align:middle line:84% which will make me sick enough or even die. 00:49:08.670 --> 00:49:10.740 align:middle line:84% We're leaving for Missouri in five days. 00:49:10.740 --> 00:49:15.060 align:middle line:90% 00:49:15.060 --> 00:49:18.150 align:middle line:84% Then I creep out watching each step slowly, 00:49:18.150 --> 00:49:21.600 align:middle line:84% and finally seemed stretched out about two feet long 00:49:21.600 --> 00:49:25.320 align:middle line:84% under the clothesline and raise the hole. 00:49:25.320 --> 00:49:28.350 align:middle line:84% And though the grass is long, I can see his markings, 00:49:28.350 --> 00:49:32.910 align:middle line:84% but notice no diamond head and no rattles. 00:49:32.910 --> 00:49:35.580 align:middle line:84% And just about to cry out, gopher snake. 00:49:35.580 --> 00:49:39.660 align:middle line:84% And do tell the kids and Janet to come out and see our friend 00:49:39.660 --> 00:49:41.400 align:middle line:90% who eats mice and gophers. 00:49:41.400 --> 00:49:44.430 align:middle line:84% And who hears the fuss, and goes under the house harmless. 00:49:44.430 --> 00:49:47.580 align:middle line:84% And I just about cry, and do hug my wife and kid. 00:49:47.580 --> 00:49:50.700 align:middle line:90% 00:49:50.700 --> 00:49:54.270 align:middle line:84% And so there's no snakes on this trail, 00:49:54.270 --> 00:49:55.640 align:middle line:90% but it's steep and sandy. 00:49:55.640 --> 00:49:57.860 align:middle line:90% And slippery, dry grass. 00:49:57.860 --> 00:50:00.920 align:middle line:84% And when we come to those spots where bigger kids slide down, 00:50:00.920 --> 00:50:02.990 align:middle line:84% we have to creep and jump over them. 00:50:02.990 --> 00:50:06.080 align:middle line:84% And risk slipping all the way down and getting scraped. 00:50:06.080 --> 00:50:09.950 align:middle line:84% And Toady's leading the way, and doesn't want my hand and help 00:50:09.950 --> 00:50:11.390 align:middle line:90% and I'm scared for him. 00:50:11.390 --> 00:50:13.670 align:middle line:84% Keeping up steep hillside cliffs, 00:50:13.670 --> 00:50:17.210 align:middle line:84% until we come to a clearing or a structure 00:50:17.210 --> 00:50:22.040 align:middle line:84% it was, but there's just a foundation and steps 00:50:22.040 --> 00:50:24.560 align:middle line:90% going down. 00:50:24.560 --> 00:50:27.560 align:middle line:84% And even though there's a landing midway, 00:50:27.560 --> 00:50:29.960 align:middle line:90% it's still steep and no railing. 00:50:29.960 --> 00:50:34.520 align:middle line:84% And I feel like a dream, or I'm on an Aztec temple, 00:50:34.520 --> 00:50:38.160 align:middle line:84% sweaty and scared over 100 steps. 00:50:38.160 --> 00:50:42.890 align:middle line:84% And finally, turn tail and crawl down backwards. 00:50:42.890 --> 00:50:45.830 align:middle line:84% But this time, grab Toady's hand and he 00:50:45.830 --> 00:50:50.990 align:middle line:84% leads me frontwards, slowly back to creekside, 00:50:50.990 --> 00:50:55.460 align:middle line:84% where a cameraed guy pushing a stroller checks me out 00:50:55.460 --> 00:50:57.920 align:middle line:90% like I'm going to cop his kid. 00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:01.370 align:middle line:84% But I'm so damn glad to get down, smile and nod. 00:51:01.370 --> 00:51:04.670 align:middle line:84% And we head downstream, tossing rocks in the water, 00:51:04.670 --> 00:51:06.350 align:middle line:84% until we're back at the playground. 00:51:06.350 --> 00:51:08.630 align:middle line:84% And this time on the merry go around, 00:51:08.630 --> 00:51:10.910 align:middle line:84% the cameraed guy puts his little girl 00:51:10.910 --> 00:51:13.460 align:middle line:84% on with Toady and the other kids, come for the ride. 00:51:13.460 --> 00:51:15.710 align:middle line:84% And then we really get things spinning. 00:51:15.710 --> 00:51:18.740 align:middle line:84% The kids are cracking up as we dash around in circles 00:51:18.740 --> 00:51:19.430 align:middle line:90% and get dizzy. 00:51:19.430 --> 00:51:22.670 align:middle line:84% And I spin off and fall down laughing, 00:51:22.670 --> 00:51:25.190 align:middle line:90% and the kids jump off and on me. 00:51:25.190 --> 00:51:27.830 align:middle line:84% And wear bare spots on me, and my chin 00:51:27.830 --> 00:51:31.070 align:middle line:84% sprouts grass and my feet are rocks. 00:51:31.070 --> 00:51:34.730 align:middle line:84% And kids dabble there feet off of them into the stream. 00:51:34.730 --> 00:51:37.370 align:middle line:84% And teenagers sprawl in my stomach, 00:51:37.370 --> 00:51:40.280 align:middle line:84% and pop open cans and play radios. 00:51:40.280 --> 00:51:43.970 align:middle line:84% And Toady runs up the steep bridge of my nose, 00:51:43.970 --> 00:51:47.990 align:middle line:84% and over my forehead and disappears big, and grown 00:51:47.990 --> 00:51:51.500 align:middle line:84% and strong through the widening path in my hair." 00:51:51.500 --> 00:51:59.310 align:middle line:90% 00:51:59.310 --> 00:52:01.353 align:middle line:84% Oh, you like those kind of things, eh? 00:52:01.353 --> 00:52:11.510 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:52:11.510 --> 00:52:13.640 align:middle line:84% I'll conclude with a series that I read recently 00:52:13.640 --> 00:52:22.580 align:middle line:84% at a session we had in Berkeley, at the university there. 00:52:22.580 --> 00:52:26.360 align:middle line:84% It was a poetry reading, gathering together a group 00:52:26.360 --> 00:52:27.470 align:middle line:90% of Asian American poets. 00:52:27.470 --> 00:52:28.928 align:middle line:84% And it was the first time something 00:52:28.928 --> 00:52:30.680 align:middle line:84% like this has happened on the West Coast. 00:52:30.680 --> 00:52:34.000 align:middle line:84% And so to commemorate that occasion, I wrote something. 00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:38.060 align:middle line:84% I thought perhaps it might be meaningful to you too. 00:52:38.060 --> 00:52:41.210 align:middle line:84% What it was based on, was the current feeling 00:52:41.210 --> 00:52:44.390 align:middle line:90% that we've messed up. 00:52:44.390 --> 00:52:46.970 align:middle line:84% That all this military industrial complex, 00:52:46.970 --> 00:52:49.010 align:middle line:84% et cetera, is kind of messing things up. 00:52:49.010 --> 00:52:52.010 align:middle line:84% And you know where all that comes from too. 00:52:52.010 --> 00:52:58.220 align:middle line:84% And so since this reading was for poetry 00:52:58.220 --> 00:53:02.390 align:middle line:84% of the new Asian nation, it got me thinking, well, perhaps 00:53:02.390 --> 00:53:07.340 align:middle line:84% if we had been the ones who came over here, 00:53:07.340 --> 00:53:08.880 align:middle line:90% it might have been different. 00:53:08.880 --> 00:53:11.690 align:middle line:84% And I envisioned history as it might have been, 00:53:11.690 --> 00:53:16.010 align:middle line:84% in which the Asians came over here. 00:53:16.010 --> 00:53:25.520 align:middle line:84% And with all that wisdom, landed on the West Coast. 00:53:25.520 --> 00:53:28.130 align:middle line:84% And then made up of course with their long lost brothers, 00:53:28.130 --> 00:53:29.960 align:middle line:90% the red man. 00:53:29.960 --> 00:53:35.670 align:middle line:84% And lived in harmony and peace with the red man, 00:53:35.670 --> 00:53:40.460 align:middle line:84% and realizing the factors of ecology, et cetera. 00:53:40.460 --> 00:53:44.207 align:middle line:84% And linked up with the other brothers, 00:53:44.207 --> 00:53:46.040 align:middle line:84% those brothers that have become so important 00:53:46.040 --> 00:53:47.413 align:middle line:90% in American culture today. 00:53:47.413 --> 00:53:49.080 align:middle line:84% That everybody is trying to get with it, 00:53:49.080 --> 00:53:52.760 align:middle line:84% either dressing or in Chinese clothes to dig in soul music, 00:53:52.760 --> 00:53:55.910 align:middle line:90% or eating tacos and stuff. 00:53:55.910 --> 00:54:00.050 align:middle line:84% So anyway, the colored brothers got together. 00:54:00.050 --> 00:54:02.630 align:middle line:84% And everything was beautiful, but we have to keep our eye out 00:54:02.630 --> 00:54:08.600 align:middle line:84% for the ghost who lived over in a funny land across the ocean. 00:54:08.600 --> 00:54:13.760 align:middle line:84% Because the ghosts had their funny thing going on. 00:54:13.760 --> 00:54:16.970 align:middle line:84% This is called "You Know How It Was." 00:54:16.970 --> 00:54:20.060 align:middle line:84% Of course you know how it was, but I 00:54:20.060 --> 00:54:22.940 align:middle line:84% couldn't think of anything more fitting to commemorate 00:54:22.940 --> 00:54:24.830 align:middle line:90% this occasion. 00:54:24.830 --> 00:54:29.060 align:middle line:84% So I thought I'd run it down anyway to us. 00:54:29.060 --> 00:54:34.610 align:middle line:84% That was way, way back, you know those famous dates. 00:54:34.610 --> 00:54:38.870 align:middle line:84% But those first ships knew exactly what was happening. 00:54:38.870 --> 00:54:44.390 align:middle line:84% The happiest minds in all of Asia had seen to that, 00:54:44.390 --> 00:54:46.820 align:middle line:84% but they didn't quite plan on meeting up again 00:54:46.820 --> 00:54:49.040 align:middle line:90% with their long lost brothers. 00:54:49.040 --> 00:54:53.570 align:middle line:84% Those who had cut out when things were bad. 00:54:53.570 --> 00:54:56.690 align:middle line:84% Now those brothers had their own culture going, 00:54:56.690 --> 00:55:00.110 align:middle line:84% in a beautiful way of being and seeing, 00:55:00.110 --> 00:55:03.290 align:middle line:90% not too different from our own. 00:55:03.290 --> 00:55:06.290 align:middle line:90% Naturally, we got together. 00:55:06.290 --> 00:55:08.810 align:middle line:90% Grooved on things together. 00:55:08.810 --> 00:55:14.480 align:middle line:84% And naturally, left the land and animals as they were. 00:55:14.480 --> 00:55:17.420 align:middle line:84% We knew better, remembering how some of the old folks 00:55:17.420 --> 00:55:21.050 align:middle line:90% tried to mess our homelands up. 00:55:21.050 --> 00:55:24.650 align:middle line:84% We knew better, but also knew about the ghosts 00:55:24.650 --> 00:55:25.700 align:middle line:90% across the ocean. 00:55:25.700 --> 00:55:28.370 align:middle line:84% So decided to set up defensive measures 00:55:28.370 --> 00:55:31.520 align:middle line:84% in small parts of our lands, just to keep the ghosts 00:55:31.520 --> 00:55:33.980 align:middle line:90% from off our back. 00:55:33.980 --> 00:55:36.920 align:middle line:90% And things really got nice. 00:55:36.920 --> 00:55:39.440 align:middle line:84% That was the start of this new nation as we know it, 00:55:39.440 --> 00:55:43.100 align:middle line:84% people yellow, brown, Black, red going, back and forth 00:55:43.100 --> 00:55:47.210 align:middle line:84% or settling, exchanging wisdom and gifts. 00:55:47.210 --> 00:55:50.360 align:middle line:90% We joined our lands together. 00:55:50.360 --> 00:55:54.980 align:middle line:84% We had so much to share with each other. 00:55:54.980 --> 00:55:57.940 align:middle line:84% So when the ghosts came crawling with their crosses 00:55:57.940 --> 00:56:01.630 align:middle line:84% to our shore, we sent them south. 00:56:01.630 --> 00:56:04.510 align:middle line:84% Burdened down with their monstrosities of war, 00:56:04.510 --> 00:56:07.090 align:middle line:84% figuring to let them take out their primitive aggressions 00:56:07.090 --> 00:56:08.410 align:middle line:90% in the jungle. 00:56:08.410 --> 00:56:12.520 align:middle line:84% You know their funny books, about how 00:56:12.520 --> 00:56:15.970 align:middle line:84% some Washington drowned in the Amazon 00:56:15.970 --> 00:56:17.725 align:middle line:90% with a cannon in a canoe. 00:56:17.725 --> 00:56:21.030 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:56:21.030 --> 00:56:25.600 align:middle line:84% Or how some dude named Boone got chewed up by piranhas 00:56:25.600 --> 00:56:27.130 align:middle line:90% while wrestling a python. 00:56:27.130 --> 00:56:29.140 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:56:29.140 --> 00:56:31.810 align:middle line:90% Those ghosts were crazy, Jack. 00:56:31.810 --> 00:56:34.450 align:middle line:84% Tried to curve their faces on a mountain, 00:56:34.450 --> 00:56:37.420 align:middle line:84% and fell flat on their collective ass. 00:56:37.420 --> 00:56:40.182 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:56:40.182 --> 00:56:41.890 align:middle line:84% And about that time, we got hip that some 00:56:41.890 --> 00:56:44.970 align:middle line:84% of our baddest brothers were settled there, really doing 00:56:44.970 --> 00:56:47.470 align:middle line:90% it up beautiful in the jungle. 00:56:47.470 --> 00:56:49.750 align:middle line:84% So we got together, and tossed the ghosts back 00:56:49.750 --> 00:56:52.030 align:middle line:90% to their land of "Okrahoma." 00:56:52.030 --> 00:56:56.240 align:middle line:84% You know what that means in our language. 00:56:56.240 --> 00:57:01.360 align:middle line:84% So if you still see some of them ghosts around, take pity. 00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:05.410 align:middle line:90% Help them out, it's your duty. 00:57:05.410 --> 00:57:08.920 align:middle line:84% They knew they were foolish, and called us in to give them color 00:57:08.920 --> 00:57:12.580 align:middle line:84% and culture, so they too could flourish. 00:57:12.580 --> 00:57:14.417 align:middle line:90% Take pity. 00:57:14.417 --> 00:57:16.000 align:middle line:84% A couple more generations, and they'll 00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:20.050 align:middle line:84% be together and beautiful like the rest of us. 00:57:20.050 --> 00:57:22.480 align:middle line:84% And you know that's how it's supposed to be." 00:57:22.480 --> 00:57:28.980 align:middle line:90% 00:57:28.980 --> 00:57:31.320 align:middle line:90% History as it was. 00:57:31.320 --> 00:57:38.400 align:middle line:84% This was inspired by the death of my grandmother last year. 00:57:38.400 --> 00:57:40.275 align:middle line:84% It's called Asian Brother, Asian Sister. 00:57:40.275 --> 00:57:45.962 align:middle line:90% 00:57:45.962 --> 00:57:47.670 align:middle line:84% The old adage about not missing something 00:57:47.670 --> 00:57:49.420 align:middle line:84% until it's gone of course, happened to me, 00:57:49.420 --> 00:57:51.210 align:middle line:84% but I had some experience of being 00:57:51.210 --> 00:57:54.870 align:middle line:84% able to partially speak with my grandmother in her language. 00:57:54.870 --> 00:57:57.600 align:middle line:84% And I felt that I had to write down 00:57:57.600 --> 00:58:01.380 align:middle line:84% what had happened to her as part of history, that would never 00:58:01.380 --> 00:58:05.250 align:middle line:90% be written down otherwise. 00:58:05.250 --> 00:58:07.680 align:middle line:84% As a point of explanation, I can say 00:58:07.680 --> 00:58:09.840 align:middle line:84% that the poem begins with me living 00:58:09.840 --> 00:58:15.240 align:middle line:84% in my current place, which is in many ways not dissimilar 00:58:15.240 --> 00:58:17.640 align:middle line:90% let's say, with areas of Japan. 00:58:17.640 --> 00:58:20.340 align:middle line:84% Mountains, snow, this kind of thing. 00:58:20.340 --> 00:58:22.530 align:middle line:84% And it leads me to think, how would it be 00:58:22.530 --> 00:58:25.710 align:middle line:90% if we didn't come here perhaps? 00:58:25.710 --> 00:58:29.760 align:middle line:84% And then coming back to the fact that she did come here, 00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:31.770 align:middle line:90% and what she did. 00:58:31.770 --> 00:58:34.020 align:middle line:84% One of the things she did was sing songs to me 00:58:34.020 --> 00:58:34.840 align:middle line:90% when I was a child. 00:58:34.840 --> 00:58:37.650 align:middle line:84% One particular one about temples coming back. 00:58:37.650 --> 00:58:40.650 align:middle line:84% I mean, about pigeons coming back to a temple to roost. 00:58:40.650 --> 00:58:44.940 align:middle line:84% Hato poppo, hato poppo, the child's lullaby. 00:58:44.940 --> 00:58:48.060 align:middle line:84% Something else I mention is a medallion 00:58:48.060 --> 00:58:50.407 align:middle line:84% she gave me the last time I saw her. 00:58:50.407 --> 00:58:52.740 align:middle line:84% That was commemorating the fact that our people had been 00:58:52.740 --> 00:58:54.180 align:middle line:90% in the country for 100 years. 00:58:54.180 --> 00:58:57.120 align:middle line:90% 00:58:57.120 --> 00:59:01.116 align:middle line:84% "Asian Brother, Asian Sister," for Yoshiko Saito. 00:59:01.116 --> 00:59:04.392 align:middle line:90% 00:59:04.392 --> 00:59:10.410 align:middle line:84% "Not yet dawn, but the neighbors have been here, 00:59:10.410 --> 00:59:12.120 align:middle line:90% bringing condolences. 00:59:12.120 --> 00:59:15.105 align:middle line:84% Assurances that my pupils will be seen to. 00:59:15.105 --> 00:59:18.040 align:middle line:90% 00:59:18.040 --> 00:59:21.640 align:middle line:84% Though I am new to their village, they include me, 00:59:21.640 --> 00:59:25.460 align:middle line:90% are grateful for what I do. 00:59:25.460 --> 00:59:31.160 align:middle line:84% The teacups are rinsed, the bedding is stacked. 00:59:31.160 --> 00:59:34.910 align:middle line:84% While my wife wraps our basket, the children 00:59:34.910 --> 00:59:36.830 align:middle line:90% kneel on the tatami. 00:59:36.830 --> 00:59:41.780 align:middle line:84% Fingering the beads of the rosary like an abacus. 00:59:41.780 --> 00:59:45.590 align:middle line:84% In their way, they are hushed and seem 00:59:45.590 --> 00:59:48.060 align:middle line:90% to sense the solemnity. 00:59:48.060 --> 00:59:49.040 align:middle line:90% Sa. 00:59:49.040 --> 00:59:51.050 align:middle line:90% Iki-ma-sho. 00:59:51.050 --> 00:59:55.130 align:middle line:90% A cold wind greets us. 00:59:55.130 --> 00:59:58.790 align:middle line:84% There will be snow soon in this prefecture. 00:59:58.790 --> 01:00:05.810 align:middle line:84% Burnt wood, sweet fields, not yet done. 01:00:05.810 --> 01:00:08.450 align:middle line:84% In one of these houses, my grandmother 01:00:08.450 --> 01:00:10.325 align:middle line:90% is rising to go to school. 01:00:10.325 --> 01:00:13.080 align:middle line:90% 01:00:13.080 --> 01:00:16.140 align:middle line:84% By 16, she was in this country, making 01:00:16.140 --> 01:00:18.870 align:middle line:90% a living, children on the way. 01:00:18.870 --> 01:00:23.940 align:middle line:84% I don't know what it cost in passage, in the San Joaquin. 01:00:23.940 --> 01:00:29.230 align:middle line:84% I'm beginning to understand the conditions. 01:00:29.230 --> 01:00:32.470 align:middle line:84% To get back to the source through doors 01:00:32.470 --> 01:00:35.770 align:middle line:84% of dialects and restrictions, Brazil to the south, 01:00:35.770 --> 01:00:38.530 align:middle line:90% this blue shore on the horizon. 01:00:38.530 --> 01:00:41.020 align:middle line:84% To get back to the source, the need 01:00:41.020 --> 01:00:44.920 align:middle line:90% to leave and bring it with you. 01:00:44.920 --> 01:00:49.795 align:middle line:84% In 1912, they opened the Fresno Fish Store. 01:00:49.795 --> 01:00:52.300 align:middle line:90% 01:00:52.300 --> 01:00:55.650 align:middle line:84% Ika, the squid to slither down your throat. 01:00:55.650 --> 01:00:58.660 align:middle line:90% Saba, the mackerel to roast. 01:00:58.660 --> 01:01:02.740 align:middle line:84% Maguro, the tuna, slice it thin and raw. 01:01:02.740 --> 01:01:03.790 align:middle line:90% Kani, the crab. 01:01:03.790 --> 01:01:05.950 align:middle line:90% Awabi, the abalone. 01:01:05.950 --> 01:01:09.490 align:middle line:84% All these shipped in slick and shiny. 01:01:09.490 --> 01:01:13.450 align:middle line:84% All these to keep our seasons, all these. 01:01:13.450 --> 01:01:16.270 align:middle line:90% 01:01:16.270 --> 01:01:21.250 align:middle line:84% Grandmother never learned the language, just a few choice 01:01:21.250 --> 01:01:24.910 align:middle line:84% phrases to take care of business. 01:01:24.910 --> 01:01:27.850 align:middle line:90% Grandfather ordered the fish. 01:01:27.850 --> 01:01:32.530 align:middle line:84% But when the nice white man bent down to her level and said, 01:01:32.530 --> 01:01:34.630 align:middle line:90% how long you've been here, mama? 01:01:34.630 --> 01:01:37.643 align:middle line:90% She told him, come today, fresh. 01:01:37.643 --> 01:01:43.070 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 01:01:43.070 --> 01:01:47.900 align:middle line:84% Before the war, after the old scrape of stench and scale, 01:01:47.900 --> 01:01:51.800 align:middle line:84% she'd come to see what her new grandson could do. 01:01:51.800 --> 01:01:53.930 align:middle line:84% 9 o'clock, but you got to wake him, 01:01:53.930 --> 01:01:57.650 align:middle line:90% so I can flip him in his crib. 01:01:57.650 --> 01:01:59.390 align:middle line:84% Bring him down into store tomorrow, 01:01:59.390 --> 01:02:00.860 align:middle line:90% so I can get him some manju. 01:02:00.860 --> 01:02:03.380 align:middle line:90% Let him chew on an ebi. 01:02:03.380 --> 01:02:04.640 align:middle line:90% Part his hair in the middle. 01:02:04.640 --> 01:02:08.390 align:middle line:84% Slick it down, so I can wheel him around to the people. 01:02:08.390 --> 01:02:13.400 align:middle line:84% Listen big baby, Mexican tunes moving around the jukeboxes. 01:02:13.400 --> 01:02:17.750 align:middle line:84% Listen big, fat, round-headed baby in white shoes, 01:02:17.750 --> 01:02:20.030 align:middle line:84% what do you mean you got small eyes? 01:02:20.030 --> 01:02:21.530 align:middle line:90% What do you mean? 01:02:21.530 --> 01:02:23.120 align:middle line:84% That's how you're supposed to be, 01:02:23.120 --> 01:02:27.410 align:middle line:84% what do you mean, big, fat baby in a hood? 01:02:27.410 --> 01:02:31.460 align:middle line:84% In depths of bed, to roll to where the shore was, 01:02:31.460 --> 01:02:34.250 align:middle line:90% undulating coves and foals. 01:02:34.250 --> 01:02:39.920 align:middle line:84% Drunks dancing, wounded under a wounded streetlight. 01:02:39.920 --> 01:02:43.010 align:middle line:84% Then the Danish Creamery screaming about its business, 01:02:43.010 --> 01:02:44.450 align:middle line:90% and we couldn't sleep. 01:02:44.450 --> 01:02:47.270 align:middle line:84% Sing me, sing me, sing me please, 01:02:47.270 --> 01:02:50.690 align:middle line:84% about the pigeons cooing home to the temple to roost. 01:02:50.690 --> 01:02:54.530 align:middle line:90% Sing me, please. 01:02:54.530 --> 01:02:57.590 align:middle line:84% For our sweet tooth, she kept a store 01:02:57.590 --> 01:03:00.950 align:middle line:84% of canned fruit buried in the dirt, 01:03:00.950 --> 01:03:04.430 align:middle line:90% beside her barracks in Arkansas. 01:03:04.430 --> 01:03:07.340 align:middle line:84% Water flopping over the furo's edges 01:03:07.340 --> 01:03:09.950 align:middle line:84% as we entered, feet sliding on slats. 01:03:09.950 --> 01:03:12.545 align:middle line:84% A soft iceberg in the heat and the steam. 01:03:12.545 --> 01:03:15.290 align:middle line:90% 01:03:15.290 --> 01:03:17.600 align:middle line:84% So you've got a son in New Guinea, another 01:03:17.600 --> 01:03:21.290 align:middle line:90% at some fort, what do you do? 01:03:21.290 --> 01:03:22.530 align:middle line:90% What have you been doing? 01:03:22.530 --> 01:03:25.100 align:middle line:90% Try to keep busy and eat. 01:03:25.100 --> 01:03:28.490 align:middle line:84% And as the children leave to dicker with the enemy, 01:03:28.490 --> 01:03:31.160 align:middle line:90% try to keep busy and eat. 01:03:31.160 --> 01:03:33.560 align:middle line:84% Float around him, bump and nudge him, 01:03:33.560 --> 01:03:35.570 align:middle line:90% and try to keep busy and eat. 01:03:35.570 --> 01:03:38.720 align:middle line:84% Shuffle off to the store, 10 feet behind him 01:03:38.720 --> 01:03:41.870 align:middle line:90% and try to keep busy and eat. 01:03:41.870 --> 01:03:46.490 align:middle line:84% And when the sons take over, try to keep busy and eat. 01:03:46.490 --> 01:03:49.250 align:middle line:84% Go in and scream about the business. 01:03:49.250 --> 01:03:53.780 align:middle line:84% Grandchildren stumbling over their own skin in the suburbs. 01:03:53.780 --> 01:03:58.760 align:middle line:84% Hubcaps and money cluttering the driveways. 01:03:58.760 --> 01:04:03.080 align:middle line:84% One day they found her flipping in the driveway like a fish. 01:04:03.080 --> 01:04:05.760 align:middle line:90% 01:04:05.760 --> 01:04:09.570 align:middle line:84% If your hip is broken, you can't ever go home. 01:04:09.570 --> 01:04:15.000 align:middle line:84% Roaming through Wakayama, for what the war didn't own. 01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.080 align:middle line:84% If your hip is broken, you can't ever go to Oregon. 01:04:19.080 --> 01:04:21.630 align:middle line:84% You've got to wheel to your drawer 01:04:21.630 --> 01:04:24.960 align:middle line:84% for your Issei medallion, that steamer 01:04:24.960 --> 01:04:29.220 align:middle line:90% rioting a starry striped sea. 01:04:29.220 --> 01:04:31.800 align:middle line:84% If your hip is broken, you've got 01:04:31.800 --> 01:04:36.645 align:middle line:84% to give that medallion with a moan, as though you could know. 01:04:36.645 --> 01:04:39.720 align:middle line:90% 01:04:39.720 --> 01:04:44.790 align:middle line:84% My grandmother is in the beauty of release. 01:04:44.790 --> 01:04:50.250 align:middle line:84% As the heart subsides, as the blood runs its course, 01:04:50.250 --> 01:04:52.530 align:middle line:90% she is gowned and attended. 01:04:52.530 --> 01:04:56.640 align:middle line:90% Chanting incantations to Buddha. 01:04:56.640 --> 01:05:00.480 align:middle line:84% I am touched by the beauty, by the peace 01:05:00.480 --> 01:05:03.300 align:middle line:90% that is the end of her life. 01:05:03.300 --> 01:05:09.210 align:middle line:84% Fluttering eyelids, the murmuring barely audible. 01:05:09.210 --> 01:05:11.490 align:middle line:90% It is goodbye. 01:05:11.490 --> 01:05:13.530 align:middle line:90% It is beautiful. 01:05:13.530 --> 01:05:17.410 align:middle line:90% I do not need to cry. 01:05:17.410 --> 01:05:20.710 align:middle line:84% As the sheet flows over in its purity, 01:05:20.710 --> 01:05:22.930 align:middle line:90% I note the smoothness of skin. 01:05:22.930 --> 01:05:26.275 align:middle line:84% The gray, blue hair echoed faintly over the lips. 01:05:26.275 --> 01:05:29.110 align:middle line:90% 01:05:29.110 --> 01:05:33.430 align:middle line:84% Then the sheet becomes a paper bag, 01:05:33.430 --> 01:05:36.760 align:middle line:90% and she slips out of that sack. 01:05:36.760 --> 01:05:43.000 align:middle line:84% Off the kitchen table, and lands on her back on the linoleum, 01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:47.920 align:middle line:84% naked, moaning, the impact having stunned her into fright. 01:05:47.920 --> 01:05:53.350 align:middle line:84% And she grabs both legs of mine, and bends the knees. 01:05:53.350 --> 01:05:57.940 align:middle line:84% And brings me down upon her blue mouth 01:05:57.940 --> 01:06:04.060 align:middle line:84% without teeth, food beginning to swell in her belly, where 01:06:04.060 --> 01:06:10.330 align:middle line:90% I am crying and not yet born. 01:06:10.330 --> 01:06:13.300 align:middle line:84% This house, this house, the paths 01:06:13.300 --> 01:06:17.170 align:middle line:84% become trenches to the telephone, the bathroom. 01:06:17.170 --> 01:06:20.710 align:middle line:84% This house, the scent of orient and seven existences. 01:06:20.710 --> 01:06:25.210 align:middle line:84% This house, the bedrooms tacked on then sealed off as each move 01:06:25.210 --> 01:06:26.510 align:middle line:90% to the colonies. 01:06:26.510 --> 01:06:29.410 align:middle line:84% This house, 50 years in this house, 01:06:29.410 --> 01:06:32.170 align:middle line:84% lie in front of the heater and dream. 01:06:32.170 --> 01:06:35.020 align:middle line:84% Flames eating the snowflake, mica 01:06:35.020 --> 01:06:39.190 align:middle line:84% that shudder with color like fish scales, blue, red. 01:06:39.190 --> 01:06:41.590 align:middle line:84% Dream, lie in front of this heater, 01:06:41.590 --> 01:06:44.620 align:middle line:84% and knead the parts where fish fins stuck. 01:06:44.620 --> 01:06:48.040 align:middle line:84% Your dreams of fish wilting over this heater. 01:06:48.040 --> 01:06:50.710 align:middle line:84% This house, creamery and cleavers 01:06:50.710 --> 01:06:53.470 align:middle line:84% going at each other down the wintry street. 01:06:53.470 --> 01:06:56.230 align:middle line:84% Bitches in alleys, bottles and dreams, 01:06:56.230 --> 01:06:58.930 align:middle line:84% who knew the Black whore in the alley of this house? 01:06:58.930 --> 01:07:01.300 align:middle line:90% Dead a week, wrapped and leaves. 01:07:01.300 --> 01:07:03.350 align:middle line:90% Tread lightly in this house. 01:07:03.350 --> 01:07:06.070 align:middle line:84% Appliances try the edge of trenches. 01:07:06.070 --> 01:07:08.530 align:middle line:84% Grandchildren balance on the shelves, 01:07:08.530 --> 01:07:11.800 align:middle line:84% tasseled offspring of another culture. 01:07:11.800 --> 01:07:14.530 align:middle line:84% This house, the basement crammed with ballast, 01:07:14.530 --> 01:07:16.480 align:middle line:90% dolls, kimonos, swords. 01:07:16.480 --> 01:07:19.690 align:middle line:84% This house that survived the war and got stoned. 01:07:19.690 --> 01:07:23.290 align:middle line:84% This house, exhausted fumes knowing the garden 01:07:23.290 --> 01:07:25.750 align:middle line:90% on the shore. 01:07:25.750 --> 01:07:31.960 align:middle line:84% In the midst of that shore, the chrysanthemum droops and nods. 01:07:31.960 --> 01:07:36.025 align:middle line:84% This house, it drops into the freeway and I drown. 01:07:36.025 --> 01:07:38.830 align:middle line:90% 01:07:38.830 --> 01:07:40.720 align:middle line:84% Then the doors burst open, and people 01:07:40.720 --> 01:07:43.570 align:middle line:84% come flooding in from all over the San Joaquin, 01:07:43.570 --> 01:07:46.990 align:middle line:90% come to form the procession. 01:07:46.990 --> 01:07:50.620 align:middle line:84% There was a trench to the temple. 01:07:50.620 --> 01:07:53.420 align:middle line:84% When you are in that trench, there 01:07:53.420 --> 01:07:55.840 align:middle line:90% is no room for much people. 01:07:55.840 --> 01:07:59.440 align:middle line:84% There was no room for much movement. 01:07:59.440 --> 01:08:01.990 align:middle line:84% All that you move from, comes in on you. 01:08:01.990 --> 01:08:05.140 align:middle line:90% All that you do is judged upon. 01:08:05.140 --> 01:08:09.730 align:middle line:84% Trapped in the trench, I am smothered in my people. 01:08:09.730 --> 01:08:12.415 align:middle line:84% Chanting in procession to the temple. 01:08:12.415 --> 01:08:15.020 align:middle line:90% 01:08:15.020 --> 01:08:18.500 align:middle line:84% And when we merge in the temple, I 01:08:18.500 --> 01:08:23.990 align:middle line:84% am 5 feet 2, flat-faced, bent-legged, epic and thick 01:08:23.990 --> 01:08:27.590 align:middle line:90% as I will ever be. 01:08:27.590 --> 01:08:30.140 align:middle line:90% Do my eyes lie? 01:08:30.140 --> 01:08:33.560 align:middle line:90% My people see I am beautiful. 01:08:33.560 --> 01:08:37.370 align:middle line:84% Yes, I am rocked in the lap of Buddha. 01:08:37.370 --> 01:08:40.340 align:middle line:90% Yes, incense owns my clothes. 01:08:40.340 --> 01:08:42.979 align:middle line:90% Yes, I am wrapped in beads. 01:08:42.979 --> 01:08:44.960 align:middle line:90% Yes, my people. 01:08:44.960 --> 01:08:47.870 align:middle line:84% Grandmother, take me in your arms. 01:08:47.870 --> 01:08:49.940 align:middle line:90% What you say I will do? 01:08:49.940 --> 01:08:52.859 align:middle line:90% 01:08:52.859 --> 01:08:54.270 align:middle line:90% The procession continues. 01:08:54.270 --> 01:08:59.040 align:middle line:84% My grandfather migrates to my mother's house in the suburbs. 01:08:59.040 --> 01:09:04.740 align:middle line:84% Even the chrysanthemum finds new root, in the suburbs. 01:09:04.740 --> 01:09:06.960 align:middle line:84% I have the medallion forever sailing 01:09:06.960 --> 01:09:11.055 align:middle line:84% on my breast, a family in the seven gods of luck in the hold. 01:09:11.055 --> 01:09:14.560 align:middle line:90% 01:09:14.560 --> 01:09:22.300 align:middle line:84% Brothers, sisters, understand this, you are in passage. 01:09:22.300 --> 01:09:27.640 align:middle line:84% Wherever you go, you are slanted down to the bone. 01:09:27.640 --> 01:09:30.140 align:middle line:90% Do your eyes lie? 01:09:30.140 --> 01:09:36.880 align:middle line:84% Brothers, sisters, understand this, you are beautiful. 01:09:36.880 --> 01:09:41.260 align:middle line:84% And your beautiful grandmother is dancing in your eyes, 01:09:41.260 --> 01:09:44.454 align:middle line:84% cooing and cooing you home to roost." 01:09:44.454 --> 01:09:52.392 align:middle line:90% 01:09:52.392 --> 01:09:54.600 align:middle line:84% I'll conclude with a little number, so you can go out 01:09:54.600 --> 01:09:56.970 align:middle line:84% into the air and be singing, and carrying on 01:09:56.970 --> 01:09:58.355 align:middle line:90% and all that kind of stuff. 01:09:58.355 --> 01:09:59.730 align:middle line:84% I told some people today, we were 01:09:59.730 --> 01:10:03.240 align:middle line:84% going to march up there and knock that A off that mountain. 01:10:03.240 --> 01:10:08.790 align:middle line:84% And I'm ready, so if people are still around, 01:10:08.790 --> 01:10:10.260 align:middle line:84% I'll check you out backstage here 01:10:10.260 --> 01:10:11.850 align:middle line:90% and we'll go up there and do it. 01:10:11.850 --> 01:10:15.270 align:middle line:90% 01:10:15.270 --> 01:10:15.930 align:middle line:90% I'll conclude. 01:10:15.930 --> 01:10:20.220 align:middle line:84% I'll conclude with this idea of past 01:10:20.220 --> 01:10:23.190 align:middle line:84% and present merging perhaps into future. 01:10:23.190 --> 01:10:30.090 align:middle line:84% And what you have here is a reuniting of these elements, 01:10:30.090 --> 01:10:32.400 align:middle line:84% exemplified by this particular person 01:10:32.400 --> 01:10:34.410 align:middle line:90% here who's coming back home. 01:10:34.410 --> 01:10:37.080 align:middle line:84% Getting back down there to the roots, and the roots move. 01:10:37.080 --> 01:10:40.770 align:middle line:84% And out of these roots, come some kind of movement. 01:10:40.770 --> 01:10:42.450 align:middle line:84% And specifically, it's a thing that 01:10:42.450 --> 01:10:45.690 align:middle line:84% happens to me just about every time I go home, from north 01:10:45.690 --> 01:10:47.220 align:middle line:90% coming south to California. 01:10:47.220 --> 01:10:49.770 align:middle line:84% It's like going through different time changes and time 01:10:49.770 --> 01:10:56.430 align:middle line:84% lapse photography, because the climate changes, et cetera. 01:10:56.430 --> 01:10:58.430 align:middle line:90% And many things happen. 01:10:58.430 --> 01:11:00.930 align:middle line:84% And one of the things that has happened in my area-- and I'm 01:11:00.930 --> 01:11:04.440 align:middle line:84% sure it's happening here in wonderful downtown Tucson, 01:11:04.440 --> 01:11:05.940 align:middle line:84% is that there's a whole lot of bread 01:11:05.940 --> 01:11:08.270 align:middle line:84% being spent for some things like convention centers. 01:11:08.270 --> 01:11:10.320 align:middle line:84% In this case in Fresno, they created 01:11:10.320 --> 01:11:13.180 align:middle line:90% a mall, which is second north. 01:11:13.180 --> 01:11:17.310 align:middle line:84% It's first along with downtown Burbank, super mall. 01:11:17.310 --> 01:11:19.380 align:middle line:90% You know what I mean? 01:11:19.380 --> 01:11:22.680 align:middle line:84% And in this case, so they're tearing down all 01:11:22.680 --> 01:11:25.740 align:middle line:84% of one side of town, tearing out homes 01:11:25.740 --> 01:11:28.530 align:middle line:90% and building a super mall. 01:11:28.530 --> 01:11:31.350 align:middle line:84% So a few shoppers can go there, and look at some sculptures 01:11:31.350 --> 01:11:33.370 align:middle line:90% and fountains. 01:11:33.370 --> 01:11:35.370 align:middle line:84% Trying to revitalize downtown where nobody gives 01:11:35.370 --> 01:11:37.787 align:middle line:84% a damn anyway, but it's going out to the shopping centers, 01:11:37.787 --> 01:11:39.840 align:middle line:90% right? 01:11:39.840 --> 01:11:44.072 align:middle line:84% But you take these things in perspective, with your past. 01:11:44.072 --> 01:11:45.780 align:middle line:84% In this case, I was thinking about people 01:11:45.780 --> 01:11:48.347 align:middle line:84% from way back, high school, who never leave you. 01:11:48.347 --> 01:11:50.430 align:middle line:84% You're always carrying these people with you, man. 01:11:50.430 --> 01:11:55.950 align:middle line:84% Carrying girls' phone numbers from 1948 and stuff. 01:11:55.950 --> 01:11:58.530 align:middle line:84% That's what you got to build on, right? 01:11:58.530 --> 01:12:03.750 align:middle line:84% And in this case, seeing people who were from way back. 01:12:03.750 --> 01:12:06.030 align:middle line:84% A couple of other things I guess you'd be hip to, 01:12:06.030 --> 01:12:09.015 align:middle line:84% is that where I'm from, we have all these various cultures. 01:12:09.015 --> 01:12:11.680 align:middle line:90% 01:12:11.680 --> 01:12:13.950 align:middle line:84% One of my guests is still in existence around here. 01:12:13.950 --> 01:12:16.080 align:middle line:84% I saw drawing up there at Pima College 01:12:16.080 --> 01:12:18.720 align:middle line:90% today, about this pachuco. 01:12:18.720 --> 01:12:22.440 align:middle line:84% The pachucos have played out in '51, 01:12:22.440 --> 01:12:25.532 align:middle line:90% but this is a beautiful thing. 01:12:25.532 --> 01:12:27.240 align:middle line:84% It's something that is inexplicable, man. 01:12:27.240 --> 01:12:29.150 align:middle line:90% It's just there. 01:12:29.150 --> 01:12:30.150 align:middle line:90% Where does it come from? 01:12:30.150 --> 01:12:30.692 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 01:12:30.692 --> 01:12:34.690 align:middle line:84% It influenced a nation in many ways, influenced us. 01:12:34.690 --> 01:12:37.405 align:middle line:84% You gave yourself a couple of little tattoos. 01:12:37.405 --> 01:12:39.030 align:middle line:84% You drew a couple of things right here, 01:12:39.030 --> 01:12:41.960 align:middle line:84% if you didn't have the nerve or access to a Navy tattoo. 01:12:41.960 --> 01:12:43.335 align:middle line:84% You had to use your ballpoint pen 01:12:43.335 --> 01:12:47.442 align:middle line:84% to put a couple of little tattoos. 01:12:47.442 --> 01:12:48.400 align:middle line:90% And this was beautiful. 01:12:48.400 --> 01:12:50.770 align:middle line:84% This is what it's about, this lifestyle. 01:12:50.770 --> 01:12:54.480 align:middle line:84% This joy, man, of things may be down, 01:12:54.480 --> 01:13:00.270 align:middle line:84% but you kind of got on some new Levi's and a little something 01:13:00.270 --> 01:13:03.210 align:middle line:84% in your hip pocket here, and you're feeling nice. 01:13:03.210 --> 01:13:04.620 align:middle line:90% Right, just got paid. 01:13:04.620 --> 01:13:06.900 align:middle line:84% You only make $1.45, but that's nice. 01:13:06.900 --> 01:13:08.430 align:middle line:84% Man, you make it and it's beautiful. 01:13:08.430 --> 01:13:09.930 align:middle line:84% You're really enjoying what you're doing. 01:13:09.930 --> 01:13:11.222 align:middle line:90% You're singing, you're dancing. 01:13:11.222 --> 01:13:13.920 align:middle line:84% And man, this is something that the country never 01:13:13.920 --> 01:13:15.780 align:middle line:90% did for many, many years. 01:13:15.780 --> 01:13:17.460 align:middle line:84% Now the young people are reviving it. 01:13:17.460 --> 01:13:20.850 align:middle line:90% So this is what this is about. 01:13:20.850 --> 01:13:23.940 align:middle line:90% 01:13:23.940 --> 01:13:28.140 align:middle line:84% I'll move out here, so I can move around a little bit. 01:13:28.140 --> 01:13:29.610 align:middle line:90% It's called "I Told You So." 01:13:29.610 --> 01:13:34.030 align:middle line:90% 01:13:34.030 --> 01:13:37.750 align:middle line:84% You get it by Shasta in the past, 01:13:37.750 --> 01:13:40.180 align:middle line:90% and all that air comes at you. 01:13:40.180 --> 01:13:44.290 align:middle line:84% All that breath you used comes blasting at you. 01:13:44.290 --> 01:13:48.880 align:middle line:84% Hot, stale, punctured, out of a tube. 01:13:48.880 --> 01:13:50.530 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:13:50.530 --> 01:13:53.230 align:middle line:84% When you left, it was numbest winter. 01:13:53.230 --> 01:13:55.660 align:middle line:90% Lugging a bass on the Santa Fe. 01:13:55.660 --> 01:13:58.210 align:middle line:84% I, told you so oh yes, coming down now. 01:13:58.210 --> 01:14:00.400 align:middle line:90% It's time lapse photography. 01:14:00.400 --> 01:14:02.050 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:02.050 --> 01:14:05.380 align:middle line:84% Up north winter, down here things getting brown. 01:14:05.380 --> 01:14:07.000 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:07.000 --> 01:14:09.220 align:middle line:84% That bad heat bringing it all out. 01:14:09.220 --> 01:14:11.080 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:11.080 --> 01:14:14.050 align:middle line:84% Bugs ooze and melt like conk pomade. 01:14:14.050 --> 01:14:15.670 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:15.670 --> 01:14:18.280 align:middle line:84% A bunch of love notes clog a culvert. 01:14:18.280 --> 01:14:19.900 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:19.900 --> 01:14:24.040 align:middle line:84% A shoe blunt, thick soles, pachucos used to blow. 01:14:24.040 --> 01:14:27.430 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:27.430 --> 01:14:31.000 align:middle line:84% So when you get into Red Bluff, it's fuck the attendant. 01:14:31.000 --> 01:14:32.920 align:middle line:84% You got to bust out and one of them 01:14:32.920 --> 01:14:37.510 align:middle line:84% jive, ass, crooked-leg, floating, Fresno struts. 01:14:37.510 --> 01:14:38.980 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:38.980 --> 01:14:42.820 align:middle line:84% You get closer and lose your family, I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:42.820 --> 01:14:45.340 align:middle line:84% They sink into the deepest back seats. 01:14:45.340 --> 01:14:47.230 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:47.230 --> 01:14:49.870 align:middle line:84% And you're cruising around with Polly, 01:14:49.870 --> 01:14:54.190 align:middle line:84% fine young thing in daylight darkness, looking for a place 01:14:54.190 --> 01:14:55.390 align:middle line:90% to park. 01:14:55.390 --> 01:14:57.310 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:14:57.310 --> 01:15:01.150 align:middle line:84% She just snuck from spiritual practice, I told you so, 01:15:01.150 --> 01:15:03.610 align:middle line:90% oh yes. 01:15:03.610 --> 01:15:06.160 align:middle line:84% You were grunting around judo school. 01:15:06.160 --> 01:15:08.800 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:08.800 --> 01:15:11.590 align:middle line:84% Above all there's a song to sing, 01:15:11.590 --> 01:15:17.890 align:middle line:84% got you on my mind, feeling kind of sad and blue. 01:15:17.890 --> 01:15:19.450 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:19.450 --> 01:15:22.390 align:middle line:84% You're in a car, you got to have a yard of your own 01:15:22.390 --> 01:15:24.580 align:middle line:90% in the vineyards after dark. 01:15:24.580 --> 01:15:26.890 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:26.890 --> 01:15:32.300 align:middle line:84% Every flashlight finds you out, going over your belongings. 01:15:32.300 --> 01:15:34.510 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:34.510 --> 01:15:38.200 align:middle line:84% They called the clan who got a good thing going, who say, 01:15:38.200 --> 01:15:41.530 align:middle line:90% you clash with the upholstery. 01:15:41.530 --> 01:15:43.810 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:43.810 --> 01:15:45.910 align:middle line:90% Where do you go from there? 01:15:45.910 --> 01:15:47.500 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:47.500 --> 01:15:51.130 align:middle line:84% Woodland, Sacramento, a certain sameness to the Valley. 01:15:51.130 --> 01:15:52.780 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:52.780 --> 01:15:56.800 align:middle line:84% Skid marks, viaducts, what California does to itself. 01:15:56.800 --> 01:15:58.210 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:15:58.210 --> 01:16:03.730 align:middle line:84% The giant orange, I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:03.730 --> 01:16:09.310 align:middle line:84% Fresno's grown, the new businesses lit for blast off. 01:16:09.310 --> 01:16:11.380 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:11.380 --> 01:16:15.100 align:middle line:84% You get off where it tells you, West Side. 01:16:15.100 --> 01:16:17.500 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:17.500 --> 01:16:21.400 align:middle line:84% It's already blasted off by the laws of progress, 01:16:21.400 --> 01:16:24.430 align:middle line:84% by the cause of commercial parks. 01:16:24.430 --> 01:16:27.630 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:27.630 --> 01:16:30.180 align:middle line:90% Tore out most the wino's dark. 01:16:30.180 --> 01:16:33.210 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:33.210 --> 01:16:37.020 align:middle line:84% You take your old name back, Chano. 01:16:37.020 --> 01:16:39.240 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:39.240 --> 01:16:42.630 align:middle line:84% Chano, and stamp it on the back of your hand. 01:16:42.630 --> 01:16:45.510 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:45.510 --> 01:16:49.950 align:middle line:84% You did it all over yourselves, on all the walls you knew. 01:16:49.950 --> 01:16:52.500 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:52.500 --> 01:16:57.090 align:middle line:84% I must have told you something, I told you so, oh yes. 01:16:57.090 --> 01:16:59.400 align:middle line:84% Of course, all your friends are gone. 01:16:59.400 --> 01:17:01.950 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:01.950 --> 01:17:07.510 align:middle line:84% A decade is more than 10 years, I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:07.510 --> 01:17:10.600 align:middle line:84% You feel them in the darkest downtown elevators, 01:17:10.600 --> 01:17:12.340 align:middle line:90% going through the changes. 01:17:12.340 --> 01:17:15.270 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:15.270 --> 01:17:17.700 align:middle line:84% You read about them in the darkest pages. 01:17:17.700 --> 01:17:19.860 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:19.860 --> 01:17:22.020 align:middle line:84% You hear them in the darkest carwashes, 01:17:22.020 --> 01:17:25.950 align:middle line:84% swallowing, stroking in the foam and spew. 01:17:25.950 --> 01:17:28.410 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:28.410 --> 01:17:32.820 align:middle line:84% Dusk, and the blue devourers don't know you. 01:17:32.820 --> 01:17:35.410 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:35.410 --> 01:17:39.280 align:middle line:84% Sweat falls, thick juice on the shoes. 01:17:39.280 --> 01:17:42.080 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:42.080 --> 01:17:43.400 align:middle line:90% Looking good, Jim. 01:17:43.400 --> 01:17:45.530 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:45.530 --> 01:17:46.880 align:middle line:90% Que tal, vato. 01:17:46.880 --> 01:17:48.590 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:48.590 --> 01:17:49.970 align:middle line:90% I mean, you know I sir. 01:17:49.970 --> 01:17:51.980 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:51.980 --> 01:17:54.530 align:middle line:84% Side pockets high, ways and means 01:17:54.530 --> 01:17:57.950 align:middle line:84% gliding down, nodding clean neon. 01:17:57.950 --> 01:17:59.690 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:17:59.690 --> 01:18:01.550 align:middle line:90% Get it, I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:01.550 --> 01:18:02.840 align:middle line:90% I mean, you got it, Jack. 01:18:02.840 --> 01:18:05.270 align:middle line:84% Orale pues ese, I said, vineyards, thick menudo, 01:18:05.270 --> 01:18:07.910 align:middle line:84% noodles, chopsticks them, cotton, mama, 01:18:07.910 --> 01:18:11.660 align:middle line:84% thick dust, heavy breeze, I mean, I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:11.660 --> 01:18:14.840 align:middle line:84% Sweat, temples, mosques shine, parlors, gym, I mean, 01:18:14.840 --> 01:18:18.800 align:middle line:84% you got it, chambara, mariachi, funky armpit, blues. 01:18:18.800 --> 01:18:20.210 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:20.210 --> 01:18:26.470 align:middle line:84% Blow, blow, blow, I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:26.470 --> 01:18:32.390 align:middle line:84% But the sick council dude, sirens through the West Side. 01:18:32.390 --> 01:18:35.200 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:35.200 --> 01:18:37.570 align:middle line:90% He got 1,000 holsters. 01:18:37.570 --> 01:18:39.250 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:39.250 --> 01:18:41.530 align:middle line:90% He got 1,000 bulldozers. 01:18:41.530 --> 01:18:43.270 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:43.270 --> 01:18:47.650 align:middle line:84% He's tore out half the West Side searching for a soul. 01:18:47.650 --> 01:18:50.660 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:50.660 --> 01:18:56.830 align:middle line:84% And took all those dredgings, and created the mall. 01:18:56.830 --> 01:18:59.150 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:18:59.150 --> 01:19:01.690 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:19:01.690 --> 01:19:07.060 align:middle line:84% Sculpture, trees, the moonlight leaning. 01:19:07.060 --> 01:19:08.980 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:19:08.980 --> 01:19:14.845 align:middle line:84% Soft water, soft fountains, the ravines of sleep. 01:19:14.845 --> 01:19:17.770 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:19:17.770 --> 01:19:24.210 align:middle line:84% It's peaceful now, no traffic, nothing. 01:19:24.210 --> 01:19:27.290 align:middle line:90% It's peaceful now. 01:19:27.290 --> 01:19:34.090 align:middle line:84% Something like the Aztecs did, it's peaceful now. 01:19:34.090 --> 01:19:39.250 align:middle line:84% And with this perfect light, it's a Japanese garden. 01:19:39.250 --> 01:19:43.480 align:middle line:84% And you're contemplating it, it's peaceful now. 01:19:43.480 --> 01:19:47.050 align:middle line:84% Seeing how a man can truly overcome, 01:19:47.050 --> 01:19:54.340 align:middle line:84% can mesh his force with nature, it's peaceful now. 01:19:54.340 --> 01:19:58.810 align:middle line:84% You think of your friends, and New Hampshire and Oregon, 01:19:58.810 --> 01:20:02.230 align:middle line:90% and all you've been through. 01:20:02.230 --> 01:20:03.520 align:middle line:90% It's peaceful now. 01:20:03.520 --> 01:20:09.690 align:middle line:84% Sculpture, trees, the moonlight leaning, it's peaceful now. 01:20:09.690 --> 01:20:14.980 align:middle line:84% Sleep, sleep, peaceful one, it's peaceful now. 01:20:14.980 --> 01:20:18.310 align:middle line:84% You're home, I told you so, oh yes. 01:20:18.310 --> 01:20:21.460 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:20:21.460 --> 01:20:25.540 align:middle line:84% Then dawn shows up, and there's people 01:20:25.540 --> 01:20:28.670 align:middle line:90% sleeping in the fountains. 01:20:28.670 --> 01:20:32.140 align:middle line:84% Knotted up in the crooks of sculptors, 01:20:32.140 --> 01:20:37.060 align:middle line:84% children draped over playground ladybugs. 01:20:37.060 --> 01:20:39.550 align:middle line:90% Hey, what the fuck's up? 01:20:39.550 --> 01:20:43.900 align:middle line:84% There's Gerry the whore, cut in half on the tracks. 01:20:43.900 --> 01:20:46.930 align:middle line:84% Dickie, the harelip, cackling in his lap, 01:20:46.930 --> 01:20:49.270 align:middle line:90% where they find him finally. 01:20:49.270 --> 01:20:53.200 align:middle line:90% Tommy, the OD kid. 01:20:53.200 --> 01:20:54.400 align:middle line:90% Opalee, the cripple. 01:20:54.400 --> 01:20:57.190 align:middle line:84% His wife's knife still sticking in him. 01:20:57.190 --> 01:21:00.260 align:middle line:84% Hey, Opalee, look here man, what's happening? 01:21:00.260 --> 01:21:03.320 align:middle line:84% Then all the brothers and sisters come out of the cracks, 01:21:03.320 --> 01:21:05.540 align:middle line:90% and start tearing things down. 01:21:05.540 --> 01:21:06.800 align:middle line:90% It's mine, ese. 01:21:06.800 --> 01:21:09.020 align:middle line:84% Raise off that brick, motherfucker. 01:21:09.020 --> 01:21:12.200 align:middle line:84% And they're blending all their separate songs into one, 01:21:12.200 --> 01:21:14.330 align:middle line:84% and they're not even concerned about all that shit 01:21:14.330 --> 01:21:15.560 align:middle line:90% in the storefronts. 01:21:15.560 --> 01:21:18.230 align:middle line:84% Hey, that's my blood in the fountain. 01:21:18.230 --> 01:21:21.110 align:middle line:84% There's a whole lot of my pomade in the fountain. 01:21:21.110 --> 01:21:23.750 align:middle line:90% That tree came out of my yard. 01:21:23.750 --> 01:21:27.620 align:middle line:84% Oi ko-re na-ni-ka Shit, this is my yard. 01:21:27.620 --> 01:21:32.180 align:middle line:84% And they're tearing things apart, and carting them home. 01:21:32.180 --> 01:21:35.780 align:middle line:84% Even your grandmother shows up limping, twitching, 01:21:35.780 --> 01:21:38.690 align:middle line:90% fists stuck full of fish bones. 01:21:38.690 --> 01:21:41.570 align:middle line:84% Grandma, grandma, chotto mat-te chotto mat-te. 01:21:41.570 --> 01:21:45.410 align:middle line:84% They haven't tore the fish store down yet, and she won't listen. 01:21:45.410 --> 01:21:48.260 align:middle line:84% And she's tugging at a fish sculpture, 01:21:48.260 --> 01:21:50.540 align:middle line:90% and you're helping her. 01:21:50.540 --> 01:21:53.750 align:middle line:84% And there's the helicopter spraying you, 01:21:53.750 --> 01:21:56.810 align:middle line:90% and the spray makes a rainbow. 01:21:56.810 --> 01:21:59.300 align:middle line:84% And it's beautiful, and you're cracking up. 01:21:59.300 --> 01:22:03.770 align:middle line:84% Jack saying, God damn man, this is Fresno, baby. 01:22:03.770 --> 01:22:06.020 align:middle line:90% Where can you go from here? 01:22:06.020 --> 01:22:07.700 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:22:07.700 --> 01:22:09.320 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:22:09.320 --> 01:22:10.910 align:middle line:90% I told you so, oh yes. 01:22:10.910 --> 01:22:12.890 align:middle line:90% I told you so. 01:22:12.890 --> 01:22:13.820 align:middle line:90% OK, thanks very much. 01:22:13.820 --> 01:22:24.850 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:22:24.850 --> 01:22:26.550 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 01:22:26.550 --> 01:22:36.000 align:middle line:90%