WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.570 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.570 --> 00:00:06.030 align:middle line:84% This is in a way also a poem about the mismanagement 00:00:06.030 --> 00:00:07.950 align:middle line:90% of civilization. 00:00:07.950 --> 00:00:10.620 align:middle line:84% And it's about that-- it's about that feeling, 00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:11.520 align:middle line:90% I'm sure you've had. 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:14.340 align:middle line:84% It seems generic and contemporary, 00:00:14.340 --> 00:00:18.390 align:middle line:84% where you're in a Walmart or a drug store or something 00:00:18.390 --> 00:00:19.770 align:middle line:90% like that, and-- 00:00:19.770 --> 00:00:21.420 align:middle line:84% I'm struggling with this microphone-- 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:26.460 align:middle line:84% and you're walking down the aisles, 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:30.360 align:middle line:84% looking for your latest purchase to cry out for your attention. 00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:35.460 align:middle line:84% And you hear the muzak that's being played 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:38.010 align:middle line:84% and you recognize a song that you once 00:00:38.010 --> 00:00:40.100 align:middle line:84% held dear has been turned into xylophone music. 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:43.850 align:middle line:90% 00:00:43.850 --> 00:00:49.940 align:middle line:84% Same feeling you get when you hear Thoreau's words 00:00:49.940 --> 00:00:51.305 align:middle line:90% being used to sell cars. 00:00:51.305 --> 00:00:54.710 align:middle line:90% 00:00:54.710 --> 00:00:56.330 align:middle line:90% And so this is about-- 00:00:56.330 --> 00:00:59.780 align:middle line:84% it's like hearing John Lennon's "Imagine," you know, 00:00:59.780 --> 00:01:02.630 align:middle line:90% when you're in the Walgreens. 00:01:02.630 --> 00:01:05.060 align:middle line:84% You know, there's something really depressing about it. 00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:08.132 align:middle line:84% So, this is about hearing the old Bob Dylan song, 00:01:08.132 --> 00:01:09.590 align:middle line:84% "It's a Hard Rain's Going to Fall," 00:01:09.590 --> 00:01:11.960 align:middle line:84% which is an apocalyptic song predicting 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:17.420 align:middle line:84% the end of the Earth, or at least a serious paradigm 00:01:17.420 --> 00:01:18.590 align:middle line:90% change. 00:01:18.590 --> 00:01:19.983 align:middle line:90% And it's about hearing-- 00:01:19.983 --> 00:01:22.400 align:middle line:84% it's about hearing that, and it sort of plays off of that. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:23.400 align:middle line:90% It's called "Hard Rain." 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.440 align:middle line:90% 00:01:26.440 --> 00:01:32.050 align:middle line:84% "After I heard 'It's a Hard Rain's Going to Fall' 00:01:32.050 --> 00:01:36.910 align:middle line:84% played softly by an accordion quartet 00:01:36.910 --> 00:01:42.470 align:middle line:84% through the ceiling speakers at the Springdale Shopping Mall, 00:01:42.470 --> 00:01:48.880 align:middle line:84% I understood there's nothing we can't pluck the stinger from, 00:01:48.880 --> 00:01:52.525 align:middle line:84% nothing we can't turn into a soft drink flavor or a t-shirt. 00:01:52.525 --> 00:01:55.090 align:middle line:90% 00:01:55.090 --> 00:01:59.890 align:middle line:84% Even serenity can become something horrible 00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:03.250 align:middle line:84% if you make a commercial about it, using 00:02:03.250 --> 00:02:07.960 align:middle line:84% smiling white-haired people quoting Thoreau to sell 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:12.100 align:middle line:84% retirement homes in the Everglades 00:02:12.100 --> 00:02:15.610 align:middle line:84% where the swamp has been drained and bulldozed 00:02:15.610 --> 00:02:20.440 align:middle line:84% into a 19 hole golf course with electrified alligator barriers. 00:02:20.440 --> 00:02:24.280 align:middle line:90% 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:26.920 align:middle line:84% You can't keep beating yourself up, 00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:32.470 align:middle line:84% Billy, I heard the therapist say to the teenage murderer, 00:02:32.470 --> 00:02:34.075 align:middle line:84% about all those people you killed. 00:02:34.075 --> 00:02:37.510 align:middle line:90% 00:02:37.510 --> 00:02:39.550 align:middle line:84% You just have to be the best person 00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:41.920 align:middle line:90% you can be one day at a time. 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:46.720 align:middle line:90% 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:49.450 align:middle line:84% And everybody in the audience claps and weeps 00:02:49.450 --> 00:02:54.940 align:middle line:84% a little, because the level of deep feeling has been touched. 00:02:54.940 --> 00:02:58.270 align:middle line:84% And they want to believe that the power of forgiveness 00:02:58.270 --> 00:03:04.150 align:middle line:84% is greater than the power of consequence, or history. 00:03:04.150 --> 00:03:10.750 align:middle line:84% Dear Abby, my father is a businessman who travels. 00:03:10.750 --> 00:03:14.170 align:middle line:84% Each time he returns from one of his trips, 00:03:14.170 --> 00:03:18.760 align:middle line:84% his shoes and trousers are covered with blood, 00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:23.170 align:middle line:84% but he never forgets to bring me a nice present. 00:03:23.170 --> 00:03:27.280 align:middle line:90% Should I say something? 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:28.720 align:middle line:90% Signed, America. 00:03:28.720 --> 00:03:32.290 align:middle line:90% 00:03:32.290 --> 00:03:35.860 align:middle line:84% I used to think I was not part of this, 00:03:35.860 --> 00:03:39.820 align:middle line:84% that I could mind my own business and get along, 00:03:39.820 --> 00:03:42.010 align:middle line:84% but that was just another song that 00:03:42.010 --> 00:03:45.790 align:middle line:84% had been taught to me since birth, whose words I was 00:03:45.790 --> 00:03:49.960 align:middle line:84% humming under my breath as I was walking through the Springdale 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:51.500 align:middle line:90% Mall." 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:52.000 align:middle line:90%