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  • ("Keep my Heart" by Deep Sounds)

  • - I was always laughing in church.

  • There's nothing that makes me laugh more than

  • being in the situation where you're not supposed to laugh.

  • Funerals.

  • People crying, breaking down, telling you their life.

  • I mean, yeah, I'm the worst. I'm the worst at that.

  • (smooth jazzy music)

  • - [Voiceover] What are you reading about?

  • Are you reading this?

  • - Somebody gave this to me so I'm trying

  • to memorize all the streets of London

  • and I'm doing quite well if you want to quiz me later.

  • - [Voiceover] Okay, so you can be a cab driver.

  • - I'm ready. I'm ready to take the exam.

  • - [Voiceover] Where have you never been that

  • you would like to go?

  • - I've never been to Stonehenge.

  • There are moles beneath Stonehenge,

  • the most elaborate system of mole

  • catacombs is beneath Stonehenge.

  • There are more moles beneath Stonehenge than

  • there are anywhere in the world.

  • In that community, they reward moles

  • that have the courage to tunnel beneath great rivers.

  • It takes an understanding of physics

  • and engineering, that type of thing.

  • Because if you make a false move,

  • you bring the river in on you, you wipe out the whole world.

  • They have executions for moles

  • that have made the wrong turn.

  • ("Mariner" by Anne-Marie Bernert)

  • New York forces you to be in

  • an endless surreal situations

  • where the $50,000 Mercedes,

  • gun-metal Mercedes,

  • pulls up into the puddle of blood

  • and out steps the 25-karat,

  • blonde transvestite with a $2 wristwatch.

  • It's always setting you off balance.

  • A night club in a church.

  • Smoking reefer under a stain glass window.

  • I think it's good.

  • It fractures you a little bit.

  • I think it's stimulating for artists because

  • if you're visually susceptible to images as optically

  • it's constantly bombarding you with a lot of information

  • if you can take it without becoming part of it.

  • ("Ten Men Dead" by Deep Sounds)

  • I think you just write, and you don't

  • try to make sense of it.

  • You just put it down the way you got it.

  • You don't try to organize it or give meaning to it.

  • I think the best thing to do is just take pictures of it.

  • It’s like you go in there with a safari rifle

  • and a telephoto lens, and just wait in the bushes.

  • ("Clap Hands" by Tom Waits)

  • When I first got into show business,

  • my step-father bought me a wild shirt which was,

  • said more about what he thought

  • show business was than what I thought it was.

  • It was this lime-green shirt with seven different kinds

  • of fabrics and textures on it with wooden buttons.

  • It looked like a Hawaiian nightmare.

  • He gave it to me, very serious when he gave it to me,

  • and it was like he was giving me a sword:

  • to go out into the world of show business

  • "and kill some dragons, pal, and bring us back the skins."

  • I looked at that shirt, and I was like, "God damn."

  • ("Gypsy Twang" by Paul Lenart, Bill Novick)

  • - [Voiceover] Do you think you've made the big time

  • or is that just a hint of irony there?

  • - Yeah, I think quite a bit of irony.

  • I don't know what the big time is, really,

  • except that it's probably some terrible place

  • that you can't get out of, or that you fall from

  • and break all your bones, or try to go further and burn up.

  • So I don't know. It's one of those expressions

  • that's been around for so long.

  • It's curious, so I don't know. It's a riddle. Big time.

  • ("Hang Down Your Head" by Tom Waits)

  • Hush a wild violet,

  • Hush a band of gold

  • I met a guy one night who came up to me

  • with his hand out, I said, "Oh, no, no."

  • He said, "Yeah, yeah, listen, man, it's not what you think.

  • "I don't want any money. I just want to be your friend."

  • He said, "My name is Charlie.

  • "What's your name? How you doing?"

  • He said, "That's all I wanted, see."

  • He went all the way around the block, came all the way back,

  • and then when he came around the corner, he saw me.

  • He said, "Hey, Tom, it's your old buddy Charlie.

  • "Could you loan me a couple of bucks?"

  • I got a kick out of that.

  • (jazzy trumpet music)

  • Subtitles by the Amara.org community

(tape rewind)

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