Birdmen (2015) - full transcript
I've came out,
seen birds struggling,
helped them out, and that's it.
I'll give them a little crack
on the shell here and there.
Now there's some guys
who'll say,
"I wouldn't do that man,
they got to get out of there.
They too weak if they do that."
But...
they give you all these rules
they think are for life
as far as pigeons, but
people have the same problems.
Babies are born early,
they put them in the incubators
and all this stuff
all hooked up to them.
Trying to say they should die,
'cause they weren't
strong enough to live?
No.
You can help them out. They might turn
out to be some of your best birds one day.
If I look and I see a bird hatching in the
morning, and if I come back in the evening
and he hadn't got too much
farther than he was in the morning,
something gone wrong,
and I help him out of it.
I just put a little
extra cracks going around,
so he can break out easier.
I know once he start
breathing in oxygen,
he got to get out that shell
soon and get fed, or he'll die.
So, that's why
I make sure they get out.
Daddy in now.
He got to feed it.
How many?
20.
- On! Time in.
- Time in!
Oh, Jesse!
That was sweet. I don't care
what nobody else said,
it was sweet in my book.
I liked it like that. Oh, yeah.
Basically these are rollers.
These are Birmingham Rollers,
that were brought to the
United States by William Pensom.
Pensom brought the original
rollers from Birmingham, England.
That's the name
Birmingham Rollers.
Roller pigeons
are bred to perform.
The average
Birmingham Roller can do
four to five revolutions
in a split second.
We're trying to get them
to perform together,
something like
synchronized swimming.
Oh, that's what
I'm talking about.
That's a bust.
Let me see what he give.
Let me have 12.
- 12.
- Yeah!
So basically, to score
you have to have a minimum
of five pigeons
rolling together.
A lot of guys don't understand
the word together.
That means together.
Not one starts,
and then three go,
and then another goes,
and then you have a five.
They have to roll together.
- How much time is left?
- Three twenty.
That's a
good kit right there.
You want your birds
to kit tight,
you want them all
to fly together in one unit.
If you got one that
want to lead the pack,
then that's called an out bird.
You get two birds out,
then you can't score.
Hey, one of your birds
is out the kit!
What the hell is this? My birds is
definitely more impressive than this!
But we live
to fly one more day though.
Time.
- Time
-Time.
Time!
Yeah, I got it, I, I heard it.
I know.
Okay, so 197.34, score.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
You got to sign here.
- Got to sign?
- Yeah.
Right on, okay.
Here in South Central,
you score over 100 points,
you're the man. Anything
below 25, you aren't shit.
Anything below that, that's considered
a donut, or a disqualification, a DQ,
you are getting talked about.
Today we champions, man, we
eliminate you all motherfuckers.
That's what we do today,
we eliminate you all.
We're going
to Red house, right?
No, we are going to Choo Choo's.
Man, don't shoot me.
Don't shoot me.
You see a nigga.
Are you ready?
You better be ready
to score some points.
I thought something was going on
with my brother in law down here,
you all should be in church, you
all got the street blocked up
for these pigeons.
You got the street
blocked up for these birds!
Mr. London!
When the birds work real hard,
we open their breast feathers up,
and it should be pink, it's purple. It's
real dark. Rest them up a few days.
- And then it come back pink.
- It come back pink.
And 20 is full turn times five.
All right, so that would be
a 100 raw points. Straight up.
I got that
with the rest of them. It was...
- Mr. Jackson, are you ready?
- Yeah.
Thank you.
Uh-oh, I got the bird God.
Uh-oh.
I got the bird blessing
from Mr. London, aw shit.
Oh, boy.
No, he going to be hurt
if he don't get up there.
That's
when he going to be hurt.
Oh, that motherfucker
don't want to get up, what!
Come on, man, it's fly day,
if you don't get
your ass up and fly!
- He didn't go up that way.
- One of his birds coming down from up there already.
- Yeah.
- You got a replacement?
No,
I got no replacement.
That's your first out bird then.
So what
if he get back up?
Well, he's down more than
20 seconds, he's out, period.
- That little bitch.
- One bird down.
Learn your birds. Just learn
your birds. That's all you got to do.
It's a lot of work. Them birds should
have fought to get back in the kit,
and they didn't, they started
doing their own thing.
I won't even use
the birds like this.
That out
bird still out there?
Yeah, he's, he's way
over here now.
Okay,
keep an eye on him.
I got him.
They're not
very accurate.
No, they're not.
I don't know what's up
with today, but you know.
- Hey, you missed some breaks because of that...
- Got one out there.
...because him down, can't have
one out up there, if you lose your...
- 'cause that's two birds, so you missed some...
- Alright.
- ...that's why, sign here.
- Okay.
But that's why
you missed a lot of birds.
- See my point?
- Alright.
Where's that bird at?
The dun?
Ah, here.
I'm a take him in here.
Solitary.
Put him over there.
♪ Oh darling you
♪ I believe
♪ All I need to make it
♪ Oh, darling you
♪ Oh, darling you
♪ All I need to make it
♪ Darling, darling
♪ I don't do that, I love you.
Boothie.
Boothie!
Kids.
Sleepy kids.
Hey!
Come on!
Got to do your homework?
Come on.
Uh, uh.
I'm trying to find the,
the world cup plaque.
2007 CSRA, old cock,
first place, show trophy.
LA Roller Festival,
West Side Roller Clubs trophy.
Regional champion for
Fall Fly and World Cup.
Second place overall
champion for the National.
QSDC Summer Fly champion.
Most points scored in one fly.
It's more work
than people think it is.
Everybody think it's real easy.
It's not hard,
but it's a lot of work.
It's not hard work,
it's just a lot of it.
You got to be very
meticulous about everything.
Last round you guys.
Shoo.
I would put Keith
in the top five in the world.
The top five in the world.
In California?
No, no... No if, ands,
or buts about it, number one.
In the United States, from the
people I've met, and then seen
and heard about,
no doubt about it, number one.
Or no lower than number two.
Everything together,
that's the key.
You want them to roll together,
fly together, eat together.
Everything together. You got to make
them learn that, that's their teammate.
I'm demoting a bird
and moving a bird up.
This bird is being
demoted to this kit.
And I'm moving this bird right here
up to the other kit, this kit right here.
Well, he took off
this year to kind of,
just regroup, but, uh, he'll be
back. I mean, he's a champion.
Once you're a champion, it's pretty hard
to, to knock a champion off his throne. Um,
he pretty much knows what
he has to do. He'll be back.
I'm right here, baby.
You're almost finished, man.
Two, two more things
and you're free,
free to roam the country,
my friend.
It's all... It's all over with,
man, it's over with.
You're free, you're free.
Mommy.
I learned how to take care
of the birds from zero.
- Then I started learning different things...
- Nah, Choo Choo, you...
- I, I'm telling you I, I learned the things...
- You probably learned that,
- no, you probably learned that...
- ...I learned things from Jaime. Jaime taught me that.
- I didn't even know that when I was a little kid.
- But you, no, but you, you...
- 'Cause, listen to me, I learned from the best.
- ...you was not eager to learn.
You, you was hard headed
when it comes to flying birds.
We went to a bird show and
you spent 60 dollars on a bird.
- Yeah, I did.
- Choo Choo, why the fuck you buy that bird?
Do you... You don't even
know what it go with.
Like Keith London will tell you,
anything you need
to know about birds.
The key point is,
you go fuck with somebody
that's competing.
- Yeah.
- You go fuck with somebody that on any given day,
can win whatever fly they in.
You should be smart enough to
get up under that person to learn.
Mr. London.
Mr. London.
Not Choo Choo!
I figured
the best way I'm to be good,
I got to come to the best.
So far the best is,
you know, in this yard.
I just want to be good. That way I
can, you know, have something right.
That way I can beat up
all the club members,
and people outside the club.
There's a few dudes that might have a little
something to say about that in the club.
Well, it's up to them for them to put
their work in, to make a difference.
You right. I'm trying to build
a whole loft full of Kobes.
Kobes and LeBrons.
Kobes, LeBrons, then
give me a Lisa Leslie in there.
Know what I'm saying?
I want them like that.
That's what
I need though, Mr. London.
- What?
- That you come over here and just see what I got.
Even if you need me to come
get you, I'll come get you.
I just want to make sure
I got my shit together.
You'll come get me,
buy me lunch?
If it need be.
Got to do what
I got to do to win, man.
- I am not bullshitting.
- Shit, winning don't come overnight though.
- Huh?
- All you want to do is be competitive.
Yeah, I know the win
is not going to come overnight.
If it was like that, there'd be a whole lot of
bad motherfuckers in this game, and there's not.
It don't happen like that.
I had people tease me, all
kind of stuff, about the birds.
Matter of fact, look, you see I got
a trophy right here that say, "Loser."
Now I need to get the other one.
That's next on my list.
Everybody in the yard
get retrained.
Put my team together.
I'd love to see myself
in the top ten of...
...new people flying.
Just come from nowhere
and do something.
And to be able to do that
with my own family of birds.
Yeah.
I'll make you some bacon.
You make your own oatmeal, alright?
- Daddy?
- Yes?
When are you going to
take us school shopping?
You are in charge of the shoes.
I'm going to buy one shoe,
then buy the other shoe.
Buy one next week
and then, buy one shoe...
- One pair?
- ...no, one shoe.
Then buy another
shoe, then buy another shoe.
I'm a cheat then,
if I'm in charge of shoes.
What is it with women and shoes?
This the bird right here, he's
buying, these are the parents.
Those are the parents to that one, those
are the parents to that one and so forth.
There's a pedigree
to the lineage of the bird.
They are going to Kentucky.
Anything in there, liquid, fragile,
perishable, or potentially hazardous.
Fragile. These are live
birds, these are very fragile.
Okay,
let me have them please?
I used to have
my own pigeon shop.
I used to, called
the Pigeon Connection.
It was right there, that
little gray looking building.
I don't even know
what it is now.
I think it's like a...
...smoke shop or something.
I think. Well, I know
it was a smoke shop.
But I don't know what it is now,
'cause I don't see no signs nowhere.
They got it after
I had to shut down, so,
it is what it is.
- Wassup, Choo Choo?
- Good evening, Mr London.
All them babies that's what you see
over there, in the first one, number three.
I still got a few in here.
This is going to be
my next team flying over here.
This is where the dun came from.
But I got two babies
from out of there.
I just took them out,
they're over here.
What do you think
about my birds, Keith?
What do I think
about your birds?
You have to focus
on the breeding.
It's all in the breeding.
What's up people,
it's November 17th.
I got a little bored, so I decided to
come out here and do a little filming.
Just got a little bored.
This is a real nice
cock bird right here.
Ms Model, nice 40-foot roller.
She has one of the fastest birds
in my A team right now.
This is 960.
I use her to put
strength on, on cocks
that be a little
weaker in strength,
without making a bird stiff.
Naturally,
pigeons will mate for life.
They don't mate
for life in our world
because we control
all the breedings.
I'm the one who pair them up.
They got to learn
to love the one they're with.
This is LeBronze. You know
what year he was born? 2000.
He's almost
as old as my daughter.
LeBronze babies.
The object is to breed
two birds together
that give you everything
you want in the babies.
The best birds are going to
produce you everything you want,
or close to it, on any mate.
My favorite thing
about the hobby is the birds.
Sorry, guys, sorry to interrupt.
Excuse me, gentlemen.
I want to apologize
for being rude.
I do want to give you
the opportunity
to be able to purchase anything
that I have in this case here.
Would you like to buy
a movie or a CD?
- No, thank you, man.
- No, thank you?
What about you, sir?
You good?
- Fuck you all.
- Tell me. You know what? I want to ask you this question.
I want to ask you this question.
I should have taken a shit.
I came by some bullshit.
Why... why do
birds roll? Why do they flip?
- Why do they flip?
- Yeah?
They're having a seizure.
Didn't I tell you that? I said
something wrong with them.
- No, it's not something wrong with them.
- It is something wrong
with them, 'cause you're not
supposed to have a seizure.
- That's not true. It's, it's a...
- It's a gene thing...
- Yeah, it's genetics.
- ...it's in their blood. Didn't I say that?
That's just like you're black, you don't got
no choice. Like Benny, where you from Benny?
- My mom is Salvadorian and my Dad is Brazilian.
- So he had no choice in that.
It, it have nothing to do
with you, it's your parents.
Only birds that carry
that strong gene you can breed.
Them the ones that
you keep breeding too?
Yeah.
Those become your breeders.
But what I said is,
why do each bird
- come out doing, rolling though?
- They bred that way.
- Okay, now look, now if I'm mentally retarded, right?
- Yeah.
All my kids are not going to be mentally
retarded, you see what I'm saying?
- But it's a possibility.
- Right.
Yeah,
'cause you carry that gene.
- Right.
- Yeah.
Because people treat them
birds like real people, man.
They feed them, they clean them,
everything, just like real people.
I used to do it, man. Talking about it
now make me want to get back into it again.
- Then get back into it, man.
- Yeah. Like, you know I forgot,
you know, how you do something
when you are younger,
and you forget about it
'cause you're onto other stuff?
I forgot all about that. That was a
love that I had with them birds, man.
I take pride
in all the shit I raise.
It's an extension of me.
Is that everybody?
You know, you got to play
with them, make them think
that they are not
going to eat today.
You ready?
Let's get it.
Always been
fascinated by Area 51.
Nobody knows what goes on there,
you just know something going on.
That's just how I do the birds. They
know I'm doing something over here,
they just don't know
what I'm doing.
This is Wayne, I call him Wayne.
You see this side
of the face is white,
and then on this side
of the face he got the teardrop.
That Lil' Wayne.
That's young money.
Let's let the Navy Seals out.
It's a new day, tee-da-lee.
Come!
Is that everybody?
Oh, why you all
on my neck, bitch?
This bird right here,
I call him Bill Clinton.
This bird is
my foundation cock bird.
I call him Thug, because he
bullied everybody in the cage.
And he's also
the grandson to Bill Clinton.
- We've chosen the pigeons over girlfriends and wives.
- Yeah, that's right.
I mean, I've dated people and I
let them know, this is the deal.
The birds were here before you,
and the birds will be here
after you're gone.
I go, "Hey, whatever
happened to that bird?"
He goes, "It's in the freezer
up in the front." I go, "Oh, boy!
Well you know what? He passed away
like probably like six or seven years ago
and I want to mount him.
I don't know, I'll put him right
here on the shelf by grandma.
You know.
If today's hope should vanish,
like footprints
in the shifting sand,
I hope you get some inspiration
from the story
of the rolling man.
A true lust for life
was what he had,
you could tell
from the glow in his eyes.
A pigeon fanatic indeed he was,
and this not a soul denies.
Infinite patience
to see his plans unfold,
and unswerving faith
that wouldn't break.
He could tell you
the history of every bird,
from hatching time, till now.
Each strength,
each fault, from beak to tail,
just when
the roll came in, and how.
He had never found a bird
he could truly say was ideal.
Some were close, most were not.
But his love for each was real.
Once you get around the birds,
you are a different person.
Like you're not angry anymore.
But when I'm at home,
I'm just angry.
But once I get around
the birds...
I like his temperament.
He's real, he trusts me a lot.
More than all of them.
When I was five years old, I kept
seeing my uncle go in the back,
inside this little box thing,
and he said,
"All my pigeons are in there."
And then he let them out,
and I saw them fly around,
and those colors, and they
started flipping, I was hooked.
I used to ride my bike
towards to their house
just to look
at the pigeons all day.
That's it.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
How you doing? You good?
Let's get your raffle tickets.
Get your raffle tickets.
Got a lot of feed, perches,
feed trays, sprayer, magazines.
- Would you like to buy raffle tickets?
- Yeah, I'm going to get them
later. If I get them at the end or
the middle, I might win something.
You know what they call you? The Kobe Bryant
of the pigeon world. You didn't know that?
I don't want to be Kobe, Kobe
going to go out in a minute.
Yeah, but that's what they used
to call you back in the day, though.
But he made so much money
he is sitting real low.
Look, look at him, he can't
get up, money won't let him.
I see you're
going hard in the yard, huh?
When you talk to him, ask him what the
pedigree is. I did not go get him from there.
No, but I've been
thinking by the time.
Poo, can I ask you this?
The man is in jail, alright!
You want me to ask him
about a pedigree in jail?
- He's in jail.
- Yeah, I want you to ask him about a pedigree in jail.
- Nigga, I just said it. Didn't I just say it?
- That dollar a minute?
- I want you to ask that nigga about a pedigree in jail.
- We talking about lawyers and,
- and everything else.
- Oh, yeah, that's it right there, that's the one.
Alright, this is the red spangle that was in
the air, with the three little red-tail feathers
that all you guys where
ooh-ing and aah-ing about.
We're going to start it off
at 55, we got 75 in the front.
We got 100 over here.
One ten. We got a one ten.
Do I got a one fifteen?
We got a one fifteen.
One fifteen in the corner
going once?
One fifteen going twice?
Sold for one fifteen.
Make sure you guys are keeping
your eyes on the sky.
The birds that's in the air
will be auctioned off.
They will be auctioned off.
All these birds are bred
by Mr. Keith London.
Shoo, shoo.
Come on, Blue, shoo.
Ah, damn!
- I haven't seen that over there yet.
- Yeah, Me neither.
No, no, you know what? No, no, my birds
are putting them birds to shame up there.
Anybody can come and see it
right now, I could throw them up now.
My bird breaking
with every turn.
Don't have us waste
our gas with this bullshit, man.
My level's was always going
to be up here, because of that.
You just run your mouth.
See you talking,
I done already did this,
I done scored more points in one fly
than you ever going to score in your life.
If you wanted to stop, do
you think you could stop? Doing birds?
No, I wouldn't want
to stop. Stop for what?
What would be the reason?
Just if you had to.
If I had to,
yeah, I could.
I would, if there was
a reason for it.
Nah, for a day or two.
And then the next day
you're right back.
Nah, if I had to I would,
but I don't have to.
I've been back there
a lot sometimes, a lot,
but that's the reason why I'm a
champion, and everybody else isn't.
That's why people
call me for advice,
- and not everybody else.
- Who says you're a champion?
A champion? Everybody.
I know, but why does it always
have to be about competing,
to where you have to stay
back there forever
- and do the birds, all day?
- Because, come on,
- you, you don't have to.
- And then come get out of the cage and get on the phone,
"Hey, you man, what...
...you see the blue cock hen
off of Jerry Higgins...
...and all that?"
- Obsession.
- You got to be obsessed or passionate about something
or you're never going
to be good at nothing.
Passionate about something and
being obsessed about something
- is two different things.
- What is obsession?
You just said, you can't stop.
You won't stop.
I didn't say I can't stop, I said,
I won't stop until I have a reason to stop.
- But you won't stop.
- I don't have a reason to stop.
- Okay, what if we want you to stop?
- Just like a crackhead.
- A crackhead is dying.
- No, I meant...
A crackhead kill themselves,
steal from his people
to go get crack. They, they say,
"I can stop when I want to."
Yes, you just
said the same thing,
"I can stop when I want to."
If... I said If I had to.
- You said...
- Had, I said had, I didn't say want.
I don't want to,
it's not that I don't have to.
I don't want to.
'Cause if you do that, if you stop
this, then you got to do something else.
I am going through a divorce.
And the cold thing about it is, I'm not, I'm
not even sure if we'll even get a divorce.
We could be together now, but
the reason why we're not, honestly,
she wants me to stop
being me and be somebody else.
And I can't do that.
Welcome, Mr London, welcome!
Still warm in here.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, oh, hello, hello.
Wait a minute.
Pensom made a statement,
it's in his book.
It says, it take
the average flyer 30 years
to figure out his family.
And he isn't lying,
it take about that much time.
Say he breed you two sons?
One in the air
is like phenomenal,
the best bird you ever seen,
even better than his daddy.
You got the other one, who's just
marginal. But the one that's okay
got all the physical attributes you want
to see, everything, and you breed them.
Guess which one more probably
going to out produce the other one?
The marginal one is probably going to
out produce the one that was the best one.
- Probably because...
- Why, because cocks carry more than one gene.
- 'Cause you got to understand...
- So, how... how do you make your family go in that direction?
- Because like me...
- It take time.
It's, it's one step at a time.
You can't just boom,
and the next day
or next year, you right there.
No, it's a gradual process.
Real roller talk, truth be told.
Signing off, we see you all next
week, same time, same place.
Peace!
Let's see, hopefully this works.
What are you doing?
Trying to find it?
Yeah, I'm trying to find...
Man, we talked all
that time and we get nothing?
Aw, that'd be jacked up, now
we going to have to, oh, man.
Well, all I can say Keith,
if it's not on here,
damn, damn, damn!
We just got to come
back and do it again.
Sometime I come over here
in the morning time
and the hawk's sitting
on top of here,
or sitting on top
of this cage, or...
The neighbors are like,
"Yeah, you got a bird out,
"there's a big old bird
you got out," it's the hawk.
Or sometime I come, he's sitting
on the wire cage right here,
or he's back here
yanking on the cage,
just trying to get him a bird,
take home with him.
I shut down about,
like, three months ago,
'cause I had lost a whole kit. So I
was like, no, it don't make no sense
to keep trying to fly them out,
and the hawk keep coming.
They want to fly everywhere,
but they locked in here.
It's like they prisoners.
This is Miracle's daughter.
She's kind of afraid
because she got chased
by the hawk the other day.
So, I'm like, when they don't come
out, when they don't want to fly,
don't force them to fly,
from the hawk.
What you do is you just
keep them in for a few days,
let them forget about
being chased,
then they go back
to normal again.
It's like you
watching a scary movie,
and you don't want
to go sleep in your room
by yourself for
a couple of days,
so it's like the same, you know.
Back in the '60s,
there were no hawks.
Not prevalent as they were then.
Birds used to fly,
back then there was tumblers,
and then, I didn't have
to worry about no hawks.
But now, I've lost
too many birds to hawks.
If I had had
these kind of conditions
when I first started raising,
I wouldn't, I wouldn't be
raising birds anymore.
That's just me. But now, I've
had so much time in these birds
and, um, that, you know, it's
just been part of my life for so long
that, I'm, I'm never
going to quit.
The other birds are supposed
to be able to breed and flourish.
They're here killing
and eating, they should be gone.
A migratory bird
that don't migrate?
It's not because...
It's because of them,
the government,
they're the ones
that place them here.
Raise them in captivity
and place them
where they want them to be.
They see him.
It could be right there.
Oh, yeah.
You all hiding out,
I thought something was wrong.
What you all doing?
Falcon came through
and got a bird,
and it pushed
the kit off that way.
That's not good.
This is the US
Fish and Wildlife service,
it's September 21st 2006.
This is the home
of Keith London.
It's a hawk trap
in his backyard.
Currently, the trap is sprung,
and it appears
to have a hawk
in the upper part of it.
It's really flapping around. I wonder if he
just caught it within the last hour or two.
Crap, where is it? Come on.
Shit, he just beat it I think.
You can see there's a pellet
gun, he's got it in his hand.
- He shot it, didn't he?
- Yeah, he shot it. I didn't see him though,
- because I couldn't...
- He's pumping right now. I can see him pumping it.
- Right there.
- There he goes.
He shot it.
Crap, I can't
hold my camera still.
- He just shot it, did you hear it?
- I heard it.
I can't see, I heard the shot.
- Unbelievable.
- He's pumping it again.
He's going to hit it again.
Hey.
Um, maybe some milk
or something?
Yeah!
Um, you're going back
to the house?
Okay! Okay!
I'll call you
in a little bit, okay?
- Got it?
- Yep, he's opening it.
I still don't have
a face shot, though.
It's okay.
It's now 10:47 a.m.
That is a shed
on the top of Keith London's,
or on top of a shed in the
backyard of Keith London's house.
Oh, you got
to be kidding me here.
Black, there it goes,
that's the hawk, right on top.
Beautiful.
Alright, it's now 11:13 a.m.,
that's the home of Keith London.
Good evening
once again, I'm Colleen Williams.
And I'm Chuck Henry, in for Paul Moyer.
This evening, they are federally protected,
hawks and falcons, and dozens
of them have been killed,
and now several
southern California residents
have been charged with beating
and shooting these protected birds.
Channel 4's Doug Kriegel is
live for us in South Los Angeles
with more on this, Doug?
Well, Chuck,
in parts of LA and Riverside,
there's been an epidemic
of killing birds of prey
by pigeon club owners,
according to federal game officials.
Now, seven pigeon club owners,
like this one on Western Avenue,
have been arrested and charged
with killing these protected
hawks and falcons.
One of the seven arrested
pigeon club owners who lives here,
claims his birds are being
attacked by hawks and falcons,
and he's just protecting
his flock of rolling pigeons.
You consider your pet
a part of your family,
and you have the right
to protect your family.
And that's how I see my birds,
as part of my family.
But you can't protect them
against the hawk.
You swear, I... I just robbed
a bank or something.
Hm, Nalanni, the little baby,
my little daughter,
she was... she was in a stroller,
that's how little she was.
And they came back here with
guns aimed, and she's right there.
I'm like, really?
I got caught for killing a hawk,
not killing a person
or robbing a bank.
We had an air rifle,
not a 12 gauge, not a...
But we went to court, and
the stipulation of our release
and all that, we had
to sign a little bond thing.
Get out, go to court,
pay your 6000 dollars,
be good while you're on
probation, and that's it. Nothing else.
A lot of the money I used to pay
the fine was really for my shop.
So I was like, I... I got to
pretty much start all over
and I just said,
"Forget it, just let it stop."
What the heck?
What the heck was that?
Do you see the car
that you're driving?
What?
That's my choice, buddy.
- Please believe it.
- What?
I said, look at
the car you driving!
- A minibike.
- Well, that's a bike.
- With a motor in it.
- There's no motor on that bike.
- So fast, you don't know.
- Bet.
Eighty miles per hour wagon.
Man, Keith had every car
that we ever wanted
when we were young.
A buggy, a chevy electro?
Whatever, whatever we wanted,
he had it.
- What kind of, what kind of car?
- Astro Vans, El Caminos,
Caprices.
I do gym coverage
about three times a week.
A few people lobbied for me,
you know, staff,
staff from other parks.
So, I got in as... a part time.
It's still just
part time though.
They say I can't, I can't be hired
full time because of my background.
I was a street pharmacist
for a while.
You know that stuff
they go.
Ah, you know, hey!
Yeah, I used to get
out there, do my stuff.
Had my times out there.
That time's when
everybody was on drugs.
My brother, my mother,
everybody was on drugs.
When I was like 24, that's
when I started selling drugs.
I just got fed up and said, "Man, see all
these people on drugs, I'm going to start..."
And I just got into it.
Went to jail once for it.
But, one day I said to myself,
"It's time to stop."
And I stopped, just like that.
Cold turkey.
Left a whole lot
of money out there,
that I wish I had right now.
But, that was that.
And guess what my refuge was?
Pigeons.
For as long as I have
the pigeons, I'm alright.
My commercial right now?
If you're having problems
with any birds going light,
with no appetite, getting
sick, disease, salmonella,
paramyxo, miracle plus.
The plus stands for,
also does fertility.
If a cock bird is not hitting, or a female's
not laying hard eggs, bam, right here.
Miracle plus tabs.
Guess where you get them from?
Keith London.
Mr. London, what's going
on with the fertility pills?
It's not like the other ones, is
it? Where you give it to your bird,
and they die once you stop
giving it to them?
Those weren't for pigeons
though. Those not...
Those were for like
roosters and stuff like that.
So the pills you got,
what they do?
Look, this is what they do,
they, uh, they, they work
for fertility
in the cocks and hens.
They cure E. Coli,
salmonella, and coccidiosis.
And they help with
the symptoms of paratyphoid,
well not paratyph, paramyxo.
So you give these pills
to the hens and the cocks?
Hens and cocks,
while they breeding.
Okay. Let me see the pills,
you made them, you made them?
Of course.
I'm a mad scientist.
Oh, shit.
For 100 it's 40.
And if you cut it
in half, it goes to 25.
And, if you want to go less than
that, then it goes up every single time.
Count your money now,
Mr. London.
I don't want to owe
no money, man.
I don't need nobody
knocking on my door.
♪ Jumped in the cab
Here I am for the first time ♪
♪ To my right
And I see the Hollywood sign ♪
♪ This is all so crazy
Everybody seems so famous ♪
♪ My tummy's turning and
I'm feeling kind of homesick ♪
♪ Too much pressure
And I'm nervous ♪
♪ That's when the taxi man
Turned on the radio ♪
♪ And a Jay-Z song was on
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah
- Let me see your arms!
- No!
Let me see the muscle.
Make a muscle.
Muscle.
Come here. It's not waterproof.
People wash it and
then it's not waterproof.
Everybody's going to be
in the same position
when they fly, every time.
The only time it gets messed up
is when somebody gets sick,
or somebody might roll
a little low, hit the wire,
- or a roof, or something like that.
- I've noticed that.
You know it,
it is really amazing,
the way, you know, they,
they interact with one another,
and the way they do the same
things and they fly different.
And just like you just said,
if one is sick or
something's wrong, it's lower...
- Yeah.
- ...or, yeah and...
And it's not really keeping up
with the rest of them.
That's exactly, she act like she raised
birds. Because that's exactly what happens.
- Yes, I...
- And that throws everybody else off.
...because I love watching them.
You know, I love watching them
- fly and everything.
- Yeah.
And then especially when
they be way, way up in the air
and then they just,
they flap they wings,
and then they just cruise,
it is beautiful,
I love it, yeah.
- So, good morning class.
- Good morning.
Okay, so how did everybody's
job searches go yesterday?
- I had a job interview at Walmart.
- Okay,
- what position was it for?
- Cashier.
But according to her,
when you apply for cashier,
you have to do everything
from cleaning toilets,
to maybe possibly
unloading a truck. So,
that's just, yeah, you have
to be able to do everything.
- And how did you feel about that?
- I was okay with it.
And how did
you respond in the interview
when she mentioned
that she would let you know
by the end of the week?
I knew it wasn't a no.
So, a maybe's better than a no.
Thank you, anybody else?
I went to the lake shore
for the warehouse,
warehousing and everything,
and, uh, I got to be honest with
you, it was like a zoo there.
And I couldn't hear, the person
was sitting right in front of me like this,
and I couldn't' even hear them.
That was the first interview.
So whoever qualified, they're
going to check our backgrounds,
or, you know, of course,
and everything like that.
Whoever qualifies they're
going to call us back, you know.
So...
Anybody else?
Okay, so let's go
into the job searches.
For this job fair
on April 13th in Carson,
it's the sixth
annual career fair...
I wouldn't mind being a big
basketball coach for somebody, or...
...I want to do something
in the creative writing field.
Creative, I... I got to be creative,
I got to be doing something.
Or I could be
a professional pigeon flyer.
Ah, that's funny.
Because I used to think that
when I was a kid.
I actually am
a professional pigeon raiser.
Shoo!
Get your ass out of there punk.
I'm trying to get your son a
bird so he can fly in our club.
Because I know he like
the birds like that.
- The South Central Rollers?
- Yeah, he...
- Who all in there?
- We've been on there.
We got like
17 members right now.
I'll come.
How many birds
are you flying in your kit?
Ah, hold on, let me check.
- He said let me check.
- You supposed to know.
You got it wrote down?
Three, I got four pairs.
- And they're all sitting on eggs.
- Okay.
I think I got like, seven
or eight eggs and one baby.
Oh, man. Ah, damn, Choo.
- Huh?
- Right there, dropped down hard.
Oh, yeah, it happens,
it happens.
- Walk it off.
- Days off.
Walk it off.
You might get a chance
to take that bird
home with you, man.
It's got
my fingerprint on there man.
Take him home with you, dog.
Set this bird up
and feed it up good, man,
so you can breed from it.
It roll good.
All right, man! All right.
Hello!
I'm at home.
Alright, we got to go get Paris.
- Ready to roll, kid?
- Yes!
What kind of candy you eating?
A Jolly Rancher.
Hmm. It's loud
and I can smell it.
Who did your makeup?
- Makeup?
- Somebody at my school.
That's a little too short.
Let's see what you got.
Can you take this off, please?
- Too sweat.
- Why?
- 'Cause you look funny.
- Okay.
You can leave it on.
Oh!
You got a little,
something right there.
Don't let Paris
tell you to take your...
I didn't tell her,
I said, can she.
Don't let Paris
talk you into taking it off?
You know you wanted to keep
it on, you had it on all day.
Oh, no, Paris.
Nice hairline.
Call me, 'cause I got to come
get my car from your mama,
just 'cause she don't call me.
It's all good though.
She's the one
that's going to miss out.
See you all later.
I'm not going to lie, I would
love to see them fly on television.
These people that's getting these
outrageous scores, let's see how they doing.
I just want to see some
of these people in England, man,
I want to see why
we can't beat them.
It isn't the dudes in England that's really
doing it. It's the dudes in, uh, Holland.
- So, that's, that's where it's at?
- South Africa.
- You going to fly for the world cup this year?
- Yeah, most likely.
I want to be ready before then.
If I get one fly
this year coming up,
and I could score 500 points,
nobody is going to want
to talk to me, Keith.
I'm not going to stop
until I win. I got to win.
When you win, you aren't going to stop. You
definitely aren't going to stop when you win.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's more incentive to win.
Man, you don't eat these. Stop
trying to peck this out of my hand.
These birds are picky. She
don't, she don't eat the white ones
but I can put the brown ones
in there, and she'll eat them.
Bird's picky.
Crazy.
These are the birds
I'm training right now.
I'm going to try to get these
birds ready for the world cup.
Shoo!
Shoo!
The world cup
is not your average fly.
You're competing
against people around the world,
from your backyard.
When you win the world cup,
you have bragging rights.
Your stock goes up, so to speak.
The world cup is a big
event in the bird world.
You flying against
all the top notch fliers,
and it's not an easy task.
Your elements have to be right.
If you get a real good day,
anybody could win this.
It's purely luck.
It only take one fly.
You get one good fly in,
and you can be good
for the whole year.
For competition, birds
have to fly for 20 minutes.
If they land before 15 minutes,
you're disqualified, it's called a DQ.
Huh!
Each kit I try to spend
30 minutes a day with them,
at least, a minimum.
Flying... if they fly
over their time
then I let them fly
as long as they want to.
These are my little standby
birds, you know what I'm saying.
Like if I get hit
by a hawk or something,
I can take one of these birds
I've been flying, I fly them more.
Everyday I fly them
30, 40 minutes, a hour,
and I can add them to my team
if I run out of birds,
or I get hit,
to keep my team up.
I've been practicing since last
season to get to this point.
So I got to get...
get it together.
Look, this is the big secret.
The secret to this
whole thing is selection.
That's the real key.
You have to select
which family to work with.
You have to select
which birds to pair together.
Select which birds are
going to come in from the kit,
which ones you
going to take out the kit.
Selection,
everything is selection.
Trying to figure out which
one of them birds be coming up.
Trying to figure
which one it is.
Man, I can't tell
which one it is yet, dang.
That one.
I'm taking that one out.
- I just think Saturday going to be a good day though, 'cause...
- I hope you do good.
- I do too.
- But my thing is, when you, when you fly
for a fly like that,
you want to really be ready.
You know it's a put
together team, but...
Choo got it together
though, he isn't nervous.
He's just butt
blowing and bullshiting, man.
- Is that what it is?
- I'm nervous. A lot of people are coming,
- and you don't want to look bad.
- Don't stop man.
You don't want to look bad.
- One thing you can't do man...
- I don't care what you do, you don't never want to look bad.
...one thing you can't do with
these birds, man, is, is, is...
- Predict what they going to do.
- ...no, sir!
Once they come out,
it's all on their own.
I think that's
all, all of us need,
it's just luck in this game.
Just got to get that right.
I need some real luck.
- Huh?
- I need some of that lottery luck.
We all ask for that luck, man.
Oh, I hope you do good.
- I do too.
- I hope you do good, dog.
We're going to let the
fog die out a little bit.
But if it's a scheduled fly,
it should be flown, you know.
But he's quite under
some pressure, I understand.
Eddie, Eddie,
you're complaining.
I'm not going to put them
in the fucking fog.
You want to go fucking fly, right
now? We'll go fucking fly you right now.
- No, I can't have everybody going.
- Well then, why you complaining?
I'd put them up
if it was my schedule, Chris.
Eddie, they're not going to make
nobody fucking fly in the fog.
The birds are not going to lift,
you know better than that.
Plus, you still owe 10 dollars.
They got to understand, Sal, we can't
control weather, we can't control traffic.
I'm not going to make this guy
push his birds up in the fog.
Look, they weren't
even trying to lift.
- What's up with it, Red?
- Hello.
What's up, man?
- Nothing new.
- You ready?
Keith London's coming right now.
- Who coming?
- Keith London.
- Ah, man!
- I wonder how
everybody else did today?
I just flew right now,
the falcon got me one.
- Yeah?
- He got me the other day.
Damn!
- You got them ready?
- I hope so, man.
I hope so.
- Whenever you're ready, Choo Choo.
- Alright.
Okay.
These trailers,
they got nice wing beat.
They flying way better
than last time, way better.
Time in.
- Oh, one down on the pole.
- Look at that one.
- One went down?
- It's on the pole.
Oh, yeah,
I see him right there, yup.
- You got to get him up though.
- If you're going to scare them.
You got to get him up 'cause, the
World Cup, they can DQ you for that.
His bird's staying down
a little bit now.
They usually climb way quick.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're a little low, huh?
That's real bad.
You see how one bird
can distract the whole kit?
Just one, it only takes one.
Man.
- You see them over there?
- They got their landing gear on.
Yeah, I don't think
they going to make the time.
The birds are down.
It's over.
They didn't make the time.
Everything they did today
was out of character.
Everything, the way
they flew, the way they kit,
the way they rolled,
all that shit.
Unacceptable.
I don't even know if I want to go to
work right now, that's just how I feel.
I might take the day off,
that's the way I feel.
Can't have those flying, have
them suckers all flying fast and weird.
- You got them ready?
- Yeah!
Yeah, take your time.
They should be out front now.
There they go!
Oh! There they go!
Dang,
look at that little check.
Oh, that was nice.
This is a nice kit here.
That's some rollers right there.
- Keith, how many you got up there Keith?
- Nineteen!
Now, that's a break.
There we go.
Give me a count on them.
Uh-oh,
Houston, we have a problem.
Oh, they just
split up right now.
Something's got them
spooked up there.
Yeah,
there's something up there.
- Yeah, there he is, right there!
- Falcon!
Right there!
Falcon broke up the kit.
And they was rolling good too.
There he go, right there.
See, I knew
he was coming back up in there.
There he go,
he's trying to get something.
Time.
Sorry about that.
You have some nice birds.
What's the score, Keith?
He got one break.
Thirteen five.
Thirteen five.
There's always
next year man.
He got too close to your head?
Chin up, son, chin up.
Chin up.
Lock down time.
Shoo!
So what happened with your fly?
What do you think went wrong?
- You think it was the heat?
- I think it's the heat and me.
Honestly.
- They didn't do no rolling.
- They kitted?
They kitted,
but they didn't roll.
Man, I don't know
what the problem was.
I got to figure it out, Keith.
Got to figure it out, man.
♪ Hey fellas
Hey man ♪
♪ Could you help me out
A little bit? ♪
♪ Yeah
Can you? ♪
♪ That's a bet
What you doing? ♪
♪ Really? Could you
Help me out a little bit? ♪
♪ Yeah, we can help you
All right fellas, go ahead ♪
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ What you got
To say over there ♪
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ I can't hear you all
What you say ♪
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ I bet you all better say
Something right about here ♪
♪ Been doing what you're doing
What you're doing ♪
♪ If you're doing
♪ If you're doing
What you're doing ♪
♪ What you're doing
♪ If you're doing
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ Well, what you doing
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Go ahead fellas
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Aha
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ Just keep on doing
♪ Oh, yeah
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Oh, yeah
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Oh, yeah
seen birds struggling,
helped them out, and that's it.
I'll give them a little crack
on the shell here and there.
Now there's some guys
who'll say,
"I wouldn't do that man,
they got to get out of there.
They too weak if they do that."
But...
they give you all these rules
they think are for life
as far as pigeons, but
people have the same problems.
Babies are born early,
they put them in the incubators
and all this stuff
all hooked up to them.
Trying to say they should die,
'cause they weren't
strong enough to live?
No.
You can help them out. They might turn
out to be some of your best birds one day.
If I look and I see a bird hatching in the
morning, and if I come back in the evening
and he hadn't got too much
farther than he was in the morning,
something gone wrong,
and I help him out of it.
I just put a little
extra cracks going around,
so he can break out easier.
I know once he start
breathing in oxygen,
he got to get out that shell
soon and get fed, or he'll die.
So, that's why
I make sure they get out.
Daddy in now.
He got to feed it.
How many?
20.
- On! Time in.
- Time in!
Oh, Jesse!
That was sweet. I don't care
what nobody else said,
it was sweet in my book.
I liked it like that. Oh, yeah.
Basically these are rollers.
These are Birmingham Rollers,
that were brought to the
United States by William Pensom.
Pensom brought the original
rollers from Birmingham, England.
That's the name
Birmingham Rollers.
Roller pigeons
are bred to perform.
The average
Birmingham Roller can do
four to five revolutions
in a split second.
We're trying to get them
to perform together,
something like
synchronized swimming.
Oh, that's what
I'm talking about.
That's a bust.
Let me see what he give.
Let me have 12.
- 12.
- Yeah!
So basically, to score
you have to have a minimum
of five pigeons
rolling together.
A lot of guys don't understand
the word together.
That means together.
Not one starts,
and then three go,
and then another goes,
and then you have a five.
They have to roll together.
- How much time is left?
- Three twenty.
That's a
good kit right there.
You want your birds
to kit tight,
you want them all
to fly together in one unit.
If you got one that
want to lead the pack,
then that's called an out bird.
You get two birds out,
then you can't score.
Hey, one of your birds
is out the kit!
What the hell is this? My birds is
definitely more impressive than this!
But we live
to fly one more day though.
Time.
- Time
-Time.
Time!
Yeah, I got it, I, I heard it.
I know.
Okay, so 197.34, score.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
You got to sign here.
- Got to sign?
- Yeah.
Right on, okay.
Here in South Central,
you score over 100 points,
you're the man. Anything
below 25, you aren't shit.
Anything below that, that's considered
a donut, or a disqualification, a DQ,
you are getting talked about.
Today we champions, man, we
eliminate you all motherfuckers.
That's what we do today,
we eliminate you all.
We're going
to Red house, right?
No, we are going to Choo Choo's.
Man, don't shoot me.
Don't shoot me.
You see a nigga.
Are you ready?
You better be ready
to score some points.
I thought something was going on
with my brother in law down here,
you all should be in church, you
all got the street blocked up
for these pigeons.
You got the street
blocked up for these birds!
Mr. London!
When the birds work real hard,
we open their breast feathers up,
and it should be pink, it's purple. It's
real dark. Rest them up a few days.
- And then it come back pink.
- It come back pink.
And 20 is full turn times five.
All right, so that would be
a 100 raw points. Straight up.
I got that
with the rest of them. It was...
- Mr. Jackson, are you ready?
- Yeah.
Thank you.
Uh-oh, I got the bird God.
Uh-oh.
I got the bird blessing
from Mr. London, aw shit.
Oh, boy.
No, he going to be hurt
if he don't get up there.
That's
when he going to be hurt.
Oh, that motherfucker
don't want to get up, what!
Come on, man, it's fly day,
if you don't get
your ass up and fly!
- He didn't go up that way.
- One of his birds coming down from up there already.
- Yeah.
- You got a replacement?
No,
I got no replacement.
That's your first out bird then.
So what
if he get back up?
Well, he's down more than
20 seconds, he's out, period.
- That little bitch.
- One bird down.
Learn your birds. Just learn
your birds. That's all you got to do.
It's a lot of work. Them birds should
have fought to get back in the kit,
and they didn't, they started
doing their own thing.
I won't even use
the birds like this.
That out
bird still out there?
Yeah, he's, he's way
over here now.
Okay,
keep an eye on him.
I got him.
They're not
very accurate.
No, they're not.
I don't know what's up
with today, but you know.
- Hey, you missed some breaks because of that...
- Got one out there.
...because him down, can't have
one out up there, if you lose your...
- 'cause that's two birds, so you missed some...
- Alright.
- ...that's why, sign here.
- Okay.
But that's why
you missed a lot of birds.
- See my point?
- Alright.
Where's that bird at?
The dun?
Ah, here.
I'm a take him in here.
Solitary.
Put him over there.
♪ Oh darling you
♪ I believe
♪ All I need to make it
♪ Oh, darling you
♪ Oh, darling you
♪ All I need to make it
♪ Darling, darling
♪ I don't do that, I love you.
Boothie.
Boothie!
Kids.
Sleepy kids.
Hey!
Come on!
Got to do your homework?
Come on.
Uh, uh.
I'm trying to find the,
the world cup plaque.
2007 CSRA, old cock,
first place, show trophy.
LA Roller Festival,
West Side Roller Clubs trophy.
Regional champion for
Fall Fly and World Cup.
Second place overall
champion for the National.
QSDC Summer Fly champion.
Most points scored in one fly.
It's more work
than people think it is.
Everybody think it's real easy.
It's not hard,
but it's a lot of work.
It's not hard work,
it's just a lot of it.
You got to be very
meticulous about everything.
Last round you guys.
Shoo.
I would put Keith
in the top five in the world.
The top five in the world.
In California?
No, no... No if, ands,
or buts about it, number one.
In the United States, from the
people I've met, and then seen
and heard about,
no doubt about it, number one.
Or no lower than number two.
Everything together,
that's the key.
You want them to roll together,
fly together, eat together.
Everything together. You got to make
them learn that, that's their teammate.
I'm demoting a bird
and moving a bird up.
This bird is being
demoted to this kit.
And I'm moving this bird right here
up to the other kit, this kit right here.
Well, he took off
this year to kind of,
just regroup, but, uh, he'll be
back. I mean, he's a champion.
Once you're a champion, it's pretty hard
to, to knock a champion off his throne. Um,
he pretty much knows what
he has to do. He'll be back.
I'm right here, baby.
You're almost finished, man.
Two, two more things
and you're free,
free to roam the country,
my friend.
It's all... It's all over with,
man, it's over with.
You're free, you're free.
Mommy.
I learned how to take care
of the birds from zero.
- Then I started learning different things...
- Nah, Choo Choo, you...
- I, I'm telling you I, I learned the things...
- You probably learned that,
- no, you probably learned that...
- ...I learned things from Jaime. Jaime taught me that.
- I didn't even know that when I was a little kid.
- But you, no, but you, you...
- 'Cause, listen to me, I learned from the best.
- ...you was not eager to learn.
You, you was hard headed
when it comes to flying birds.
We went to a bird show and
you spent 60 dollars on a bird.
- Yeah, I did.
- Choo Choo, why the fuck you buy that bird?
Do you... You don't even
know what it go with.
Like Keith London will tell you,
anything you need
to know about birds.
The key point is,
you go fuck with somebody
that's competing.
- Yeah.
- You go fuck with somebody that on any given day,
can win whatever fly they in.
You should be smart enough to
get up under that person to learn.
Mr. London.
Mr. London.
Not Choo Choo!
I figured
the best way I'm to be good,
I got to come to the best.
So far the best is,
you know, in this yard.
I just want to be good. That way I
can, you know, have something right.
That way I can beat up
all the club members,
and people outside the club.
There's a few dudes that might have a little
something to say about that in the club.
Well, it's up to them for them to put
their work in, to make a difference.
You right. I'm trying to build
a whole loft full of Kobes.
Kobes and LeBrons.
Kobes, LeBrons, then
give me a Lisa Leslie in there.
Know what I'm saying?
I want them like that.
That's what
I need though, Mr. London.
- What?
- That you come over here and just see what I got.
Even if you need me to come
get you, I'll come get you.
I just want to make sure
I got my shit together.
You'll come get me,
buy me lunch?
If it need be.
Got to do what
I got to do to win, man.
- I am not bullshitting.
- Shit, winning don't come overnight though.
- Huh?
- All you want to do is be competitive.
Yeah, I know the win
is not going to come overnight.
If it was like that, there'd be a whole lot of
bad motherfuckers in this game, and there's not.
It don't happen like that.
I had people tease me, all
kind of stuff, about the birds.
Matter of fact, look, you see I got
a trophy right here that say, "Loser."
Now I need to get the other one.
That's next on my list.
Everybody in the yard
get retrained.
Put my team together.
I'd love to see myself
in the top ten of...
...new people flying.
Just come from nowhere
and do something.
And to be able to do that
with my own family of birds.
Yeah.
I'll make you some bacon.
You make your own oatmeal, alright?
- Daddy?
- Yes?
When are you going to
take us school shopping?
You are in charge of the shoes.
I'm going to buy one shoe,
then buy the other shoe.
Buy one next week
and then, buy one shoe...
- One pair?
- ...no, one shoe.
Then buy another
shoe, then buy another shoe.
I'm a cheat then,
if I'm in charge of shoes.
What is it with women and shoes?
This the bird right here, he's
buying, these are the parents.
Those are the parents to that one, those
are the parents to that one and so forth.
There's a pedigree
to the lineage of the bird.
They are going to Kentucky.
Anything in there, liquid, fragile,
perishable, or potentially hazardous.
Fragile. These are live
birds, these are very fragile.
Okay,
let me have them please?
I used to have
my own pigeon shop.
I used to, called
the Pigeon Connection.
It was right there, that
little gray looking building.
I don't even know
what it is now.
I think it's like a...
...smoke shop or something.
I think. Well, I know
it was a smoke shop.
But I don't know what it is now,
'cause I don't see no signs nowhere.
They got it after
I had to shut down, so,
it is what it is.
- Wassup, Choo Choo?
- Good evening, Mr London.
All them babies that's what you see
over there, in the first one, number three.
I still got a few in here.
This is going to be
my next team flying over here.
This is where the dun came from.
But I got two babies
from out of there.
I just took them out,
they're over here.
What do you think
about my birds, Keith?
What do I think
about your birds?
You have to focus
on the breeding.
It's all in the breeding.
What's up people,
it's November 17th.
I got a little bored, so I decided to
come out here and do a little filming.
Just got a little bored.
This is a real nice
cock bird right here.
Ms Model, nice 40-foot roller.
She has one of the fastest birds
in my A team right now.
This is 960.
I use her to put
strength on, on cocks
that be a little
weaker in strength,
without making a bird stiff.
Naturally,
pigeons will mate for life.
They don't mate
for life in our world
because we control
all the breedings.
I'm the one who pair them up.
They got to learn
to love the one they're with.
This is LeBronze. You know
what year he was born? 2000.
He's almost
as old as my daughter.
LeBronze babies.
The object is to breed
two birds together
that give you everything
you want in the babies.
The best birds are going to
produce you everything you want,
or close to it, on any mate.
My favorite thing
about the hobby is the birds.
Sorry, guys, sorry to interrupt.
Excuse me, gentlemen.
I want to apologize
for being rude.
I do want to give you
the opportunity
to be able to purchase anything
that I have in this case here.
Would you like to buy
a movie or a CD?
- No, thank you, man.
- No, thank you?
What about you, sir?
You good?
- Fuck you all.
- Tell me. You know what? I want to ask you this question.
I want to ask you this question.
I should have taken a shit.
I came by some bullshit.
Why... why do
birds roll? Why do they flip?
- Why do they flip?
- Yeah?
They're having a seizure.
Didn't I tell you that? I said
something wrong with them.
- No, it's not something wrong with them.
- It is something wrong
with them, 'cause you're not
supposed to have a seizure.
- That's not true. It's, it's a...
- It's a gene thing...
- Yeah, it's genetics.
- ...it's in their blood. Didn't I say that?
That's just like you're black, you don't got
no choice. Like Benny, where you from Benny?
- My mom is Salvadorian and my Dad is Brazilian.
- So he had no choice in that.
It, it have nothing to do
with you, it's your parents.
Only birds that carry
that strong gene you can breed.
Them the ones that
you keep breeding too?
Yeah.
Those become your breeders.
But what I said is,
why do each bird
- come out doing, rolling though?
- They bred that way.
- Okay, now look, now if I'm mentally retarded, right?
- Yeah.
All my kids are not going to be mentally
retarded, you see what I'm saying?
- But it's a possibility.
- Right.
Yeah,
'cause you carry that gene.
- Right.
- Yeah.
Because people treat them
birds like real people, man.
They feed them, they clean them,
everything, just like real people.
I used to do it, man. Talking about it
now make me want to get back into it again.
- Then get back into it, man.
- Yeah. Like, you know I forgot,
you know, how you do something
when you are younger,
and you forget about it
'cause you're onto other stuff?
I forgot all about that. That was a
love that I had with them birds, man.
I take pride
in all the shit I raise.
It's an extension of me.
Is that everybody?
You know, you got to play
with them, make them think
that they are not
going to eat today.
You ready?
Let's get it.
Always been
fascinated by Area 51.
Nobody knows what goes on there,
you just know something going on.
That's just how I do the birds. They
know I'm doing something over here,
they just don't know
what I'm doing.
This is Wayne, I call him Wayne.
You see this side
of the face is white,
and then on this side
of the face he got the teardrop.
That Lil' Wayne.
That's young money.
Let's let the Navy Seals out.
It's a new day, tee-da-lee.
Come!
Is that everybody?
Oh, why you all
on my neck, bitch?
This bird right here,
I call him Bill Clinton.
This bird is
my foundation cock bird.
I call him Thug, because he
bullied everybody in the cage.
And he's also
the grandson to Bill Clinton.
- We've chosen the pigeons over girlfriends and wives.
- Yeah, that's right.
I mean, I've dated people and I
let them know, this is the deal.
The birds were here before you,
and the birds will be here
after you're gone.
I go, "Hey, whatever
happened to that bird?"
He goes, "It's in the freezer
up in the front." I go, "Oh, boy!
Well you know what? He passed away
like probably like six or seven years ago
and I want to mount him.
I don't know, I'll put him right
here on the shelf by grandma.
You know.
If today's hope should vanish,
like footprints
in the shifting sand,
I hope you get some inspiration
from the story
of the rolling man.
A true lust for life
was what he had,
you could tell
from the glow in his eyes.
A pigeon fanatic indeed he was,
and this not a soul denies.
Infinite patience
to see his plans unfold,
and unswerving faith
that wouldn't break.
He could tell you
the history of every bird,
from hatching time, till now.
Each strength,
each fault, from beak to tail,
just when
the roll came in, and how.
He had never found a bird
he could truly say was ideal.
Some were close, most were not.
But his love for each was real.
Once you get around the birds,
you are a different person.
Like you're not angry anymore.
But when I'm at home,
I'm just angry.
But once I get around
the birds...
I like his temperament.
He's real, he trusts me a lot.
More than all of them.
When I was five years old, I kept
seeing my uncle go in the back,
inside this little box thing,
and he said,
"All my pigeons are in there."
And then he let them out,
and I saw them fly around,
and those colors, and they
started flipping, I was hooked.
I used to ride my bike
towards to their house
just to look
at the pigeons all day.
That's it.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
How you doing? You good?
Let's get your raffle tickets.
Get your raffle tickets.
Got a lot of feed, perches,
feed trays, sprayer, magazines.
- Would you like to buy raffle tickets?
- Yeah, I'm going to get them
later. If I get them at the end or
the middle, I might win something.
You know what they call you? The Kobe Bryant
of the pigeon world. You didn't know that?
I don't want to be Kobe, Kobe
going to go out in a minute.
Yeah, but that's what they used
to call you back in the day, though.
But he made so much money
he is sitting real low.
Look, look at him, he can't
get up, money won't let him.
I see you're
going hard in the yard, huh?
When you talk to him, ask him what the
pedigree is. I did not go get him from there.
No, but I've been
thinking by the time.
Poo, can I ask you this?
The man is in jail, alright!
You want me to ask him
about a pedigree in jail?
- He's in jail.
- Yeah, I want you to ask him about a pedigree in jail.
- Nigga, I just said it. Didn't I just say it?
- That dollar a minute?
- I want you to ask that nigga about a pedigree in jail.
- We talking about lawyers and,
- and everything else.
- Oh, yeah, that's it right there, that's the one.
Alright, this is the red spangle that was in
the air, with the three little red-tail feathers
that all you guys where
ooh-ing and aah-ing about.
We're going to start it off
at 55, we got 75 in the front.
We got 100 over here.
One ten. We got a one ten.
Do I got a one fifteen?
We got a one fifteen.
One fifteen in the corner
going once?
One fifteen going twice?
Sold for one fifteen.
Make sure you guys are keeping
your eyes on the sky.
The birds that's in the air
will be auctioned off.
They will be auctioned off.
All these birds are bred
by Mr. Keith London.
Shoo, shoo.
Come on, Blue, shoo.
Ah, damn!
- I haven't seen that over there yet.
- Yeah, Me neither.
No, no, you know what? No, no, my birds
are putting them birds to shame up there.
Anybody can come and see it
right now, I could throw them up now.
My bird breaking
with every turn.
Don't have us waste
our gas with this bullshit, man.
My level's was always going
to be up here, because of that.
You just run your mouth.
See you talking,
I done already did this,
I done scored more points in one fly
than you ever going to score in your life.
If you wanted to stop, do
you think you could stop? Doing birds?
No, I wouldn't want
to stop. Stop for what?
What would be the reason?
Just if you had to.
If I had to,
yeah, I could.
I would, if there was
a reason for it.
Nah, for a day or two.
And then the next day
you're right back.
Nah, if I had to I would,
but I don't have to.
I've been back there
a lot sometimes, a lot,
but that's the reason why I'm a
champion, and everybody else isn't.
That's why people
call me for advice,
- and not everybody else.
- Who says you're a champion?
A champion? Everybody.
I know, but why does it always
have to be about competing,
to where you have to stay
back there forever
- and do the birds, all day?
- Because, come on,
- you, you don't have to.
- And then come get out of the cage and get on the phone,
"Hey, you man, what...
...you see the blue cock hen
off of Jerry Higgins...
...and all that?"
- Obsession.
- You got to be obsessed or passionate about something
or you're never going
to be good at nothing.
Passionate about something and
being obsessed about something
- is two different things.
- What is obsession?
You just said, you can't stop.
You won't stop.
I didn't say I can't stop, I said,
I won't stop until I have a reason to stop.
- But you won't stop.
- I don't have a reason to stop.
- Okay, what if we want you to stop?
- Just like a crackhead.
- A crackhead is dying.
- No, I meant...
A crackhead kill themselves,
steal from his people
to go get crack. They, they say,
"I can stop when I want to."
Yes, you just
said the same thing,
"I can stop when I want to."
If... I said If I had to.
- You said...
- Had, I said had, I didn't say want.
I don't want to,
it's not that I don't have to.
I don't want to.
'Cause if you do that, if you stop
this, then you got to do something else.
I am going through a divorce.
And the cold thing about it is, I'm not, I'm
not even sure if we'll even get a divorce.
We could be together now, but
the reason why we're not, honestly,
she wants me to stop
being me and be somebody else.
And I can't do that.
Welcome, Mr London, welcome!
Still warm in here.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, oh, hello, hello.
Wait a minute.
Pensom made a statement,
it's in his book.
It says, it take
the average flyer 30 years
to figure out his family.
And he isn't lying,
it take about that much time.
Say he breed you two sons?
One in the air
is like phenomenal,
the best bird you ever seen,
even better than his daddy.
You got the other one, who's just
marginal. But the one that's okay
got all the physical attributes you want
to see, everything, and you breed them.
Guess which one more probably
going to out produce the other one?
The marginal one is probably going to
out produce the one that was the best one.
- Probably because...
- Why, because cocks carry more than one gene.
- 'Cause you got to understand...
- So, how... how do you make your family go in that direction?
- Because like me...
- It take time.
It's, it's one step at a time.
You can't just boom,
and the next day
or next year, you right there.
No, it's a gradual process.
Real roller talk, truth be told.
Signing off, we see you all next
week, same time, same place.
Peace!
Let's see, hopefully this works.
What are you doing?
Trying to find it?
Yeah, I'm trying to find...
Man, we talked all
that time and we get nothing?
Aw, that'd be jacked up, now
we going to have to, oh, man.
Well, all I can say Keith,
if it's not on here,
damn, damn, damn!
We just got to come
back and do it again.
Sometime I come over here
in the morning time
and the hawk's sitting
on top of here,
or sitting on top
of this cage, or...
The neighbors are like,
"Yeah, you got a bird out,
"there's a big old bird
you got out," it's the hawk.
Or sometime I come, he's sitting
on the wire cage right here,
or he's back here
yanking on the cage,
just trying to get him a bird,
take home with him.
I shut down about,
like, three months ago,
'cause I had lost a whole kit. So I
was like, no, it don't make no sense
to keep trying to fly them out,
and the hawk keep coming.
They want to fly everywhere,
but they locked in here.
It's like they prisoners.
This is Miracle's daughter.
She's kind of afraid
because she got chased
by the hawk the other day.
So, I'm like, when they don't come
out, when they don't want to fly,
don't force them to fly,
from the hawk.
What you do is you just
keep them in for a few days,
let them forget about
being chased,
then they go back
to normal again.
It's like you
watching a scary movie,
and you don't want
to go sleep in your room
by yourself for
a couple of days,
so it's like the same, you know.
Back in the '60s,
there were no hawks.
Not prevalent as they were then.
Birds used to fly,
back then there was tumblers,
and then, I didn't have
to worry about no hawks.
But now, I've lost
too many birds to hawks.
If I had had
these kind of conditions
when I first started raising,
I wouldn't, I wouldn't be
raising birds anymore.
That's just me. But now, I've
had so much time in these birds
and, um, that, you know, it's
just been part of my life for so long
that, I'm, I'm never
going to quit.
The other birds are supposed
to be able to breed and flourish.
They're here killing
and eating, they should be gone.
A migratory bird
that don't migrate?
It's not because...
It's because of them,
the government,
they're the ones
that place them here.
Raise them in captivity
and place them
where they want them to be.
They see him.
It could be right there.
Oh, yeah.
You all hiding out,
I thought something was wrong.
What you all doing?
Falcon came through
and got a bird,
and it pushed
the kit off that way.
That's not good.
This is the US
Fish and Wildlife service,
it's September 21st 2006.
This is the home
of Keith London.
It's a hawk trap
in his backyard.
Currently, the trap is sprung,
and it appears
to have a hawk
in the upper part of it.
It's really flapping around. I wonder if he
just caught it within the last hour or two.
Crap, where is it? Come on.
Shit, he just beat it I think.
You can see there's a pellet
gun, he's got it in his hand.
- He shot it, didn't he?
- Yeah, he shot it. I didn't see him though,
- because I couldn't...
- He's pumping right now. I can see him pumping it.
- Right there.
- There he goes.
He shot it.
Crap, I can't
hold my camera still.
- He just shot it, did you hear it?
- I heard it.
I can't see, I heard the shot.
- Unbelievable.
- He's pumping it again.
He's going to hit it again.
Hey.
Um, maybe some milk
or something?
Yeah!
Um, you're going back
to the house?
Okay! Okay!
I'll call you
in a little bit, okay?
- Got it?
- Yep, he's opening it.
I still don't have
a face shot, though.
It's okay.
It's now 10:47 a.m.
That is a shed
on the top of Keith London's,
or on top of a shed in the
backyard of Keith London's house.
Oh, you got
to be kidding me here.
Black, there it goes,
that's the hawk, right on top.
Beautiful.
Alright, it's now 11:13 a.m.,
that's the home of Keith London.
Good evening
once again, I'm Colleen Williams.
And I'm Chuck Henry, in for Paul Moyer.
This evening, they are federally protected,
hawks and falcons, and dozens
of them have been killed,
and now several
southern California residents
have been charged with beating
and shooting these protected birds.
Channel 4's Doug Kriegel is
live for us in South Los Angeles
with more on this, Doug?
Well, Chuck,
in parts of LA and Riverside,
there's been an epidemic
of killing birds of prey
by pigeon club owners,
according to federal game officials.
Now, seven pigeon club owners,
like this one on Western Avenue,
have been arrested and charged
with killing these protected
hawks and falcons.
One of the seven arrested
pigeon club owners who lives here,
claims his birds are being
attacked by hawks and falcons,
and he's just protecting
his flock of rolling pigeons.
You consider your pet
a part of your family,
and you have the right
to protect your family.
And that's how I see my birds,
as part of my family.
But you can't protect them
against the hawk.
You swear, I... I just robbed
a bank or something.
Hm, Nalanni, the little baby,
my little daughter,
she was... she was in a stroller,
that's how little she was.
And they came back here with
guns aimed, and she's right there.
I'm like, really?
I got caught for killing a hawk,
not killing a person
or robbing a bank.
We had an air rifle,
not a 12 gauge, not a...
But we went to court, and
the stipulation of our release
and all that, we had
to sign a little bond thing.
Get out, go to court,
pay your 6000 dollars,
be good while you're on
probation, and that's it. Nothing else.
A lot of the money I used to pay
the fine was really for my shop.
So I was like, I... I got to
pretty much start all over
and I just said,
"Forget it, just let it stop."
What the heck?
What the heck was that?
Do you see the car
that you're driving?
What?
That's my choice, buddy.
- Please believe it.
- What?
I said, look at
the car you driving!
- A minibike.
- Well, that's a bike.
- With a motor in it.
- There's no motor on that bike.
- So fast, you don't know.
- Bet.
Eighty miles per hour wagon.
Man, Keith had every car
that we ever wanted
when we were young.
A buggy, a chevy electro?
Whatever, whatever we wanted,
he had it.
- What kind of, what kind of car?
- Astro Vans, El Caminos,
Caprices.
I do gym coverage
about three times a week.
A few people lobbied for me,
you know, staff,
staff from other parks.
So, I got in as... a part time.
It's still just
part time though.
They say I can't, I can't be hired
full time because of my background.
I was a street pharmacist
for a while.
You know that stuff
they go.
Ah, you know, hey!
Yeah, I used to get
out there, do my stuff.
Had my times out there.
That time's when
everybody was on drugs.
My brother, my mother,
everybody was on drugs.
When I was like 24, that's
when I started selling drugs.
I just got fed up and said, "Man, see all
these people on drugs, I'm going to start..."
And I just got into it.
Went to jail once for it.
But, one day I said to myself,
"It's time to stop."
And I stopped, just like that.
Cold turkey.
Left a whole lot
of money out there,
that I wish I had right now.
But, that was that.
And guess what my refuge was?
Pigeons.
For as long as I have
the pigeons, I'm alright.
My commercial right now?
If you're having problems
with any birds going light,
with no appetite, getting
sick, disease, salmonella,
paramyxo, miracle plus.
The plus stands for,
also does fertility.
If a cock bird is not hitting, or a female's
not laying hard eggs, bam, right here.
Miracle plus tabs.
Guess where you get them from?
Keith London.
Mr. London, what's going
on with the fertility pills?
It's not like the other ones, is
it? Where you give it to your bird,
and they die once you stop
giving it to them?
Those weren't for pigeons
though. Those not...
Those were for like
roosters and stuff like that.
So the pills you got,
what they do?
Look, this is what they do,
they, uh, they, they work
for fertility
in the cocks and hens.
They cure E. Coli,
salmonella, and coccidiosis.
And they help with
the symptoms of paratyphoid,
well not paratyph, paramyxo.
So you give these pills
to the hens and the cocks?
Hens and cocks,
while they breeding.
Okay. Let me see the pills,
you made them, you made them?
Of course.
I'm a mad scientist.
Oh, shit.
For 100 it's 40.
And if you cut it
in half, it goes to 25.
And, if you want to go less than
that, then it goes up every single time.
Count your money now,
Mr. London.
I don't want to owe
no money, man.
I don't need nobody
knocking on my door.
♪ Jumped in the cab
Here I am for the first time ♪
♪ To my right
And I see the Hollywood sign ♪
♪ This is all so crazy
Everybody seems so famous ♪
♪ My tummy's turning and
I'm feeling kind of homesick ♪
♪ Too much pressure
And I'm nervous ♪
♪ That's when the taxi man
Turned on the radio ♪
♪ And a Jay-Z song was on
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah
- Let me see your arms!
- No!
Let me see the muscle.
Make a muscle.
Muscle.
Come here. It's not waterproof.
People wash it and
then it's not waterproof.
Everybody's going to be
in the same position
when they fly, every time.
The only time it gets messed up
is when somebody gets sick,
or somebody might roll
a little low, hit the wire,
- or a roof, or something like that.
- I've noticed that.
You know it,
it is really amazing,
the way, you know, they,
they interact with one another,
and the way they do the same
things and they fly different.
And just like you just said,
if one is sick or
something's wrong, it's lower...
- Yeah.
- ...or, yeah and...
And it's not really keeping up
with the rest of them.
That's exactly, she act like she raised
birds. Because that's exactly what happens.
- Yes, I...
- And that throws everybody else off.
...because I love watching them.
You know, I love watching them
- fly and everything.
- Yeah.
And then especially when
they be way, way up in the air
and then they just,
they flap they wings,
and then they just cruise,
it is beautiful,
I love it, yeah.
- So, good morning class.
- Good morning.
Okay, so how did everybody's
job searches go yesterday?
- I had a job interview at Walmart.
- Okay,
- what position was it for?
- Cashier.
But according to her,
when you apply for cashier,
you have to do everything
from cleaning toilets,
to maybe possibly
unloading a truck. So,
that's just, yeah, you have
to be able to do everything.
- And how did you feel about that?
- I was okay with it.
And how did
you respond in the interview
when she mentioned
that she would let you know
by the end of the week?
I knew it wasn't a no.
So, a maybe's better than a no.
Thank you, anybody else?
I went to the lake shore
for the warehouse,
warehousing and everything,
and, uh, I got to be honest with
you, it was like a zoo there.
And I couldn't hear, the person
was sitting right in front of me like this,
and I couldn't' even hear them.
That was the first interview.
So whoever qualified, they're
going to check our backgrounds,
or, you know, of course,
and everything like that.
Whoever qualifies they're
going to call us back, you know.
So...
Anybody else?
Okay, so let's go
into the job searches.
For this job fair
on April 13th in Carson,
it's the sixth
annual career fair...
I wouldn't mind being a big
basketball coach for somebody, or...
...I want to do something
in the creative writing field.
Creative, I... I got to be creative,
I got to be doing something.
Or I could be
a professional pigeon flyer.
Ah, that's funny.
Because I used to think that
when I was a kid.
I actually am
a professional pigeon raiser.
Shoo!
Get your ass out of there punk.
I'm trying to get your son a
bird so he can fly in our club.
Because I know he like
the birds like that.
- The South Central Rollers?
- Yeah, he...
- Who all in there?
- We've been on there.
We got like
17 members right now.
I'll come.
How many birds
are you flying in your kit?
Ah, hold on, let me check.
- He said let me check.
- You supposed to know.
You got it wrote down?
Three, I got four pairs.
- And they're all sitting on eggs.
- Okay.
I think I got like, seven
or eight eggs and one baby.
Oh, man. Ah, damn, Choo.
- Huh?
- Right there, dropped down hard.
Oh, yeah, it happens,
it happens.
- Walk it off.
- Days off.
Walk it off.
You might get a chance
to take that bird
home with you, man.
It's got
my fingerprint on there man.
Take him home with you, dog.
Set this bird up
and feed it up good, man,
so you can breed from it.
It roll good.
All right, man! All right.
Hello!
I'm at home.
Alright, we got to go get Paris.
- Ready to roll, kid?
- Yes!
What kind of candy you eating?
A Jolly Rancher.
Hmm. It's loud
and I can smell it.
Who did your makeup?
- Makeup?
- Somebody at my school.
That's a little too short.
Let's see what you got.
Can you take this off, please?
- Too sweat.
- Why?
- 'Cause you look funny.
- Okay.
You can leave it on.
Oh!
You got a little,
something right there.
Don't let Paris
tell you to take your...
I didn't tell her,
I said, can she.
Don't let Paris
talk you into taking it off?
You know you wanted to keep
it on, you had it on all day.
Oh, no, Paris.
Nice hairline.
Call me, 'cause I got to come
get my car from your mama,
just 'cause she don't call me.
It's all good though.
She's the one
that's going to miss out.
See you all later.
I'm not going to lie, I would
love to see them fly on television.
These people that's getting these
outrageous scores, let's see how they doing.
I just want to see some
of these people in England, man,
I want to see why
we can't beat them.
It isn't the dudes in England that's really
doing it. It's the dudes in, uh, Holland.
- So, that's, that's where it's at?
- South Africa.
- You going to fly for the world cup this year?
- Yeah, most likely.
I want to be ready before then.
If I get one fly
this year coming up,
and I could score 500 points,
nobody is going to want
to talk to me, Keith.
I'm not going to stop
until I win. I got to win.
When you win, you aren't going to stop. You
definitely aren't going to stop when you win.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's more incentive to win.
Man, you don't eat these. Stop
trying to peck this out of my hand.
These birds are picky. She
don't, she don't eat the white ones
but I can put the brown ones
in there, and she'll eat them.
Bird's picky.
Crazy.
These are the birds
I'm training right now.
I'm going to try to get these
birds ready for the world cup.
Shoo!
Shoo!
The world cup
is not your average fly.
You're competing
against people around the world,
from your backyard.
When you win the world cup,
you have bragging rights.
Your stock goes up, so to speak.
The world cup is a big
event in the bird world.
You flying against
all the top notch fliers,
and it's not an easy task.
Your elements have to be right.
If you get a real good day,
anybody could win this.
It's purely luck.
It only take one fly.
You get one good fly in,
and you can be good
for the whole year.
For competition, birds
have to fly for 20 minutes.
If they land before 15 minutes,
you're disqualified, it's called a DQ.
Huh!
Each kit I try to spend
30 minutes a day with them,
at least, a minimum.
Flying... if they fly
over their time
then I let them fly
as long as they want to.
These are my little standby
birds, you know what I'm saying.
Like if I get hit
by a hawk or something,
I can take one of these birds
I've been flying, I fly them more.
Everyday I fly them
30, 40 minutes, a hour,
and I can add them to my team
if I run out of birds,
or I get hit,
to keep my team up.
I've been practicing since last
season to get to this point.
So I got to get...
get it together.
Look, this is the big secret.
The secret to this
whole thing is selection.
That's the real key.
You have to select
which family to work with.
You have to select
which birds to pair together.
Select which birds are
going to come in from the kit,
which ones you
going to take out the kit.
Selection,
everything is selection.
Trying to figure out which
one of them birds be coming up.
Trying to figure
which one it is.
Man, I can't tell
which one it is yet, dang.
That one.
I'm taking that one out.
- I just think Saturday going to be a good day though, 'cause...
- I hope you do good.
- I do too.
- But my thing is, when you, when you fly
for a fly like that,
you want to really be ready.
You know it's a put
together team, but...
Choo got it together
though, he isn't nervous.
He's just butt
blowing and bullshiting, man.
- Is that what it is?
- I'm nervous. A lot of people are coming,
- and you don't want to look bad.
- Don't stop man.
You don't want to look bad.
- One thing you can't do man...
- I don't care what you do, you don't never want to look bad.
...one thing you can't do with
these birds, man, is, is, is...
- Predict what they going to do.
- ...no, sir!
Once they come out,
it's all on their own.
I think that's
all, all of us need,
it's just luck in this game.
Just got to get that right.
I need some real luck.
- Huh?
- I need some of that lottery luck.
We all ask for that luck, man.
Oh, I hope you do good.
- I do too.
- I hope you do good, dog.
We're going to let the
fog die out a little bit.
But if it's a scheduled fly,
it should be flown, you know.
But he's quite under
some pressure, I understand.
Eddie, Eddie,
you're complaining.
I'm not going to put them
in the fucking fog.
You want to go fucking fly, right
now? We'll go fucking fly you right now.
- No, I can't have everybody going.
- Well then, why you complaining?
I'd put them up
if it was my schedule, Chris.
Eddie, they're not going to make
nobody fucking fly in the fog.
The birds are not going to lift,
you know better than that.
Plus, you still owe 10 dollars.
They got to understand, Sal, we can't
control weather, we can't control traffic.
I'm not going to make this guy
push his birds up in the fog.
Look, they weren't
even trying to lift.
- What's up with it, Red?
- Hello.
What's up, man?
- Nothing new.
- You ready?
Keith London's coming right now.
- Who coming?
- Keith London.
- Ah, man!
- I wonder how
everybody else did today?
I just flew right now,
the falcon got me one.
- Yeah?
- He got me the other day.
Damn!
- You got them ready?
- I hope so, man.
I hope so.
- Whenever you're ready, Choo Choo.
- Alright.
Okay.
These trailers,
they got nice wing beat.
They flying way better
than last time, way better.
Time in.
- Oh, one down on the pole.
- Look at that one.
- One went down?
- It's on the pole.
Oh, yeah,
I see him right there, yup.
- You got to get him up though.
- If you're going to scare them.
You got to get him up 'cause, the
World Cup, they can DQ you for that.
His bird's staying down
a little bit now.
They usually climb way quick.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're a little low, huh?
That's real bad.
You see how one bird
can distract the whole kit?
Just one, it only takes one.
Man.
- You see them over there?
- They got their landing gear on.
Yeah, I don't think
they going to make the time.
The birds are down.
It's over.
They didn't make the time.
Everything they did today
was out of character.
Everything, the way
they flew, the way they kit,
the way they rolled,
all that shit.
Unacceptable.
I don't even know if I want to go to
work right now, that's just how I feel.
I might take the day off,
that's the way I feel.
Can't have those flying, have
them suckers all flying fast and weird.
- You got them ready?
- Yeah!
Yeah, take your time.
They should be out front now.
There they go!
Oh! There they go!
Dang,
look at that little check.
Oh, that was nice.
This is a nice kit here.
That's some rollers right there.
- Keith, how many you got up there Keith?
- Nineteen!
Now, that's a break.
There we go.
Give me a count on them.
Uh-oh,
Houston, we have a problem.
Oh, they just
split up right now.
Something's got them
spooked up there.
Yeah,
there's something up there.
- Yeah, there he is, right there!
- Falcon!
Right there!
Falcon broke up the kit.
And they was rolling good too.
There he go, right there.
See, I knew
he was coming back up in there.
There he go,
he's trying to get something.
Time.
Sorry about that.
You have some nice birds.
What's the score, Keith?
He got one break.
Thirteen five.
Thirteen five.
There's always
next year man.
He got too close to your head?
Chin up, son, chin up.
Chin up.
Lock down time.
Shoo!
So what happened with your fly?
What do you think went wrong?
- You think it was the heat?
- I think it's the heat and me.
Honestly.
- They didn't do no rolling.
- They kitted?
They kitted,
but they didn't roll.
Man, I don't know
what the problem was.
I got to figure it out, Keith.
Got to figure it out, man.
♪ Hey fellas
Hey man ♪
♪ Could you help me out
A little bit? ♪
♪ Yeah
Can you? ♪
♪ That's a bet
What you doing? ♪
♪ Really? Could you
Help me out a little bit? ♪
♪ Yeah, we can help you
All right fellas, go ahead ♪
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ What you got
To say over there ♪
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ I can't hear you all
What you say ♪
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ I bet you all better say
Something right about here ♪
♪ Been doing what you're doing
What you're doing ♪
♪ If you're doing
♪ If you're doing
What you're doing ♪
♪ What you're doing
♪ If you're doing
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ Well, what you doing
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Go ahead fellas
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Aha
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ Just keep on doing
♪ Oh, yeah
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Oh, yeah
♪ They say that
Goodness kind of cool now ♪
♪ So just keep on doing it
♪ Oh, yeah