WEBVTT

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And I had a boyfriend.

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But now I'll tell the
story for those of you

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who are in the classes
and I wouldn't mention it.

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Well, he was just-- he was
a gypsy, a European gypsy.

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And it was his lifelong aim
to become a South American

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dictator.

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And I suspect he's in
Bolivia now working on it.

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His last words were,
you're too naive.

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And he just laughed.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Anyway, so he was--

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I don't know.

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These were-- if they were
lies, they were a good lies.

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I appreciate a liar who can tell
such fantastic ones that you

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can't really dispute them.

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[LAUGHTER]

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He said he worked
for the CIA and he'd

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run guns between Cuba
and South America.

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But like when we broke
up for a whole week,

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I would hear footsteps
outside my window.

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But then I found out it
was some ex Hell's Angel

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guy who lived in the building.

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And he just-- there was a pool.

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He would take one,
two, three, four, five,

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six steps toward
the pool one night

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a week, every Wednesday
night about 4:00 AM.

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And I was always up then,
see, because I write

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from about 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM.

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Those are my good work hours.

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Six steps and then he'd
stop, and he'd walk back.

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And so then when I just told a
manager and he said, oh, yeah,

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Billy never quite makes it.

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He just-- he never
made it to the pool.

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He said-- and he wore
those heavy stomper boots.

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Like the stomp the hell
out of you those boots.

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And I was convinced, though,
that the mafia or somebody

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was after me.

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After the-- you should stay away
from people like that gypsy.

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He ran away with $300.

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He was-- he managed
the San Clemente Hotel.

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President Roosevelt had
once slept in his room.

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[LAUGHTER]

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It's occupied chiefly
by Marines and hippies.

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And the Marines actually, I
think they wear long hair wigs.

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A lot of the Marines did.

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I'd see one one day with
his skinhead, that's

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what they called them out here.

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And then he'd have hair--

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it was down past his waist,
headband and everything.

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Hey, man.

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Having a party tonight.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Anyway, we should
get to the poem.

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But anyway, he
managed that hotel.

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And they don't like it
because it's the biggest

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building in San Clemente.

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It's very-- the tallest
building and all those hippies

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are there.

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And they were trying to
close it down when I left.

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I don't know if they
succeeded, but it's run,

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owned by this queer who still
lived with his mother who

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is 45 named Bill Hossler.

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And he was like a
hippie hotel magnate.

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He had couple in Hollywood,
two in Laguna Beach,

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and one in San Clemente.

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But I lived in a real nice one.

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See ours had a pool.

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It was a little step
up from the other ones.

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It was-- they
catered to Canadians.

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After I got there, I
found out if you were gay

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or if you just
didn't give a shit

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and if you were a Canadian
dealer, it was all right.

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But then-- but then
one of the managers,

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he said, you can
smoke a little grass.

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It's all right.

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But then he would bust people.

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He would say-- [LAUGHS]
he would say, look

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where I found in that room.

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And he'd show me
what he'd found,

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like maybe a spoon, some
heroin, or like grass.

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And he'd say, I don't know how
the cops found out about it.

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And he did-- he had
no compunctions.

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Like there was a Black
guy who lived there

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and I went to dinner with.

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He was gay.

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He and his wife, sort
of, like his roommate.

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I got trapped in a queer
triangle for a while.

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That's real-- it's really--

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it's real sad.

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It's heavier than anything.

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It's really hard.

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I had to go and help him--

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help him leave George.

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I had to help Fred leave George.

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And I was so tired when Fred
left, but anyway George--

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I went to dinner
with George though.

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He took me out and
he says, well, I'm

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going to lower your rent.

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George was English.

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Then I found out that
all along that Black--

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he had been charging
the Black guy more rent

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than anybody else. $20 more.

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Like he didn't care.

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I can't be-- he'd be real nice
to me and take me to dinner

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and all along he'd
been charging me

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$20 more than other
people paid for my rent.

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It's incredible.

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That's California.

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Now I'm going to read.

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Oh, boy, I'm really
talking a lot.

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Jesus!

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This is called "Cuba, 1962."

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"When the rooster jumps
up on the windowsill

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and spreads his
red gold wings, I

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wake thinking it is the
sun and call Juanita.

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Hearing her answer,
but only in my mind.

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I know she is already
outside breaking the cane off

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at ground level using
only her big Indian hands.

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I get the machete and
walk among the cane

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until I see her lying
face down in the dirt.

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Juanita dead in the
morning like this.

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I raise the machete.

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What I take from the
Earth, I give back,

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and cut off her feet.

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I lift the body and
carry it to the wagon

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where I load the cane
to sell in the village.

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Whoever taste my woman
in his candy, his cake,

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taste something sweeter
than this sugar cane.

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It is grief.

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If you eat too much
of it, you want more.

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You can never get enough."

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