A Letter from Greenpoint (2005) - full transcript

The last load of stuff.

This is the last load
and the snow is coming down.

What does that one mean?

That's Dante.

- Dante.
- Dante.

Inferno Canto Primo.

He is going through
the different cycles, or what?

Which Dante is this?

- The Inferno.
- Yes.

To the inferno.

We made it here.



- I want to sing a song.
- Yes!

Look like... looks very French.

Like in some of those paintings.

And there are the drunk people.

Fourteenth of January,

Two Thousand and Four.

Snowing.

I came back.
Our old place... our old home.

To pick up something I had forgotten.

It's empty. Totally empty.

But, how do I feel about it?

Nothing much, just empty space.

Empty space.

Thirty years.



Winter outside. It's cold.

They say it's snow...
it will snow a lot tonight.

I'm picking up some boxes
from the basement...

That's why I'm here.

It's empty.

Memories... I don't know.

It's like memories is on one plane
and this space is on another plane.

This is just an empty, clean space.

The way we moved in,

the way it was when we moved in
thirty years ago.

But exactly thirty years ago.

1974.

There are no big...
Yes, I mean it's memories...

Life is like one thing,
and this space...

Now it's so clean,
it's like another...

with no personal...

objects in it, just space.

Just another... just a space.

There must be a lot of...

...of little atoms...

of myself, Hollis, Sebastian, Oona,

attached to it somewhere,
floating in the air.

But it's just atoms,
totally invisible,

totally somewhere else,

while we are, all of us,

in somewhere else.

Somewhere else.

The sound.

Ah, empty spaces. Empty spaces.

Here I am, in this empty space,

impregnated with thirty years of life,

every wall, floor, ceiling,
space itself.

It is full of...

me, full of Oona, Sebastian, Hollis.

This space... we are still here.

I guess we are still here.

But slowly, slowly,

everything will be...

...changed by new and different atoms

coming into this space.

Waiting for Arunas to come.

We have to move some things
from the basement,

what's left, into the Cadillac.

Let's maybe turn off the light.
That's it.

Arunas will be calling soon.

The ladder, yes this ladder,
this is the only thing left.

Across the street.

This empty space, the telephone rings.

- Hello.
- Hello.

Arunas? Arunas?

The light. The last.
I am disconnecting the light.

The first... this is the last trip.

And that is about it.
And that's the end of this loft.

Okay.

Goodbye 491.

- Goodbye. Nice.
- Yeah.

- I like it here.
- Yeah, me too. Okay.

Excuse me.

Now you walk in.

And... and come back.

All right, okay, that's it, stop.

This is good, I like this.

Now... there you are!

Okay, now we can have a pint.

Now you have to tell the camera
what you really want.

Oh yeah that is true.

We are on the corner...
we are on the corner of Sutton and...

And Driggs.

Now, this is a nice little bar,

but they don't have certain...
like, they didn't have Bushmills,

but we got Zubrowka
and we are very happy.

There's an okay bartender...

We're with our new friend...
what's your name?

- I'm Gosha.
- This is Gosha, our new friend.

- Yeah. And, basically...
- Are you of Polish extraction?

Are you Polish?

- Yeah.
- You are?

- Yeah.
- Oh, so...

Now...

I exist everywhere; I have no home.
But this was not planned.

I just looked around and found myself
in love with too many places.

My feet could walk anywhere.

I am troubadour. I am tramp.
I've been moving for years.

Me too. As you can see those boxes.

You can see me in Provence,

and by the Tower of Pisa.

Now in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

And who knows
where I will be tomorrow.

...and race and ethnicity and gender.

We need to come together now
as one people.

We've been attacked by enemies
who hate us more than they love life.

Not bad.

This is soup from the beans.

...Good ideas will stand
the test of time.

I offer the mainstream voice,

and I still believe
that that is the right choice...

I'm very sensitive
about that because I...

I get paranoid,
everybody thinks I'm twelve.

No. Once more. To tomorrow!

We are...

Tomorrow.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, today, now.

Past is... past... all past is bloody.

There is nothing much
to learn from it.

Nothing much to learn from it.

Believe me or not.

Blood is running down the hills
of every country...

you put your foot on.

That's the past.

But we are changing for tomorrow.
We are going to change it.

It's three in the morning.
I can't sleep.

My stupid mind is working.

My head is still working.

I can't sleep.

You sit there so serious,

all your awards.
Look at her Jonas, she's so beautiful.

You know she's just
standing there, quiet.

You know, she plays piano,
she's so serious.

- Come away with me.
- I will!

I will come away with you,

you just call me up
and I'm coming with you Norah.

Look at her, look!
Look! She's for real! Look.

She's playing the piano,
not sitting there like,

"oh, look, I'm pretty."
She's just there,

and she's focused for real, you know?

I mean, look. Look at this,
look at this, she's like, yeah.

You can see her in the morning,
she wakes up, all sleepy-eyed,

and she looks at you
from the other end of the bathtub

and she says, "how you doing?"

- And I says...
- "How are you doing, Benn?"

"How're you doing Benn?" And I'll go,

"Norah, you look great
at that end of the bathtub.

"Do you want to go
for coffee before we go?"

And then we go for coffee,
we sit there,

- and she whispers in my ear...
- I want to walk with you.

That's what she says.
She says, "I want to walk with you."

On a cloudy day,

in fields where the yellow grass
grows knee-high, so won't you...

Jonas you have to help me.

- I will, I will.
- You have to help me.

- and we'll kiss, on the mountain top.
- Did you hear that?

"Then come away with me,
and we'll kiss, on the mountain top."

Jonas I'm gonna cry, I think.

No, no. You maybe have to get...

I will send this to the...

Love is so sweet
and so sad at the same time.

Love can build a man,
and take him down at the same time.

For I have known love.

In my short time on this world
I have seen love.

It's like a serpent,

- it either bites you...
- Nothing like this!

This is not obsession, Jonas.
It may look like it...

No you see the thing is,

I don't know her biography
so therefore I'm not a stalker.

- Yeah, true.
- I'm not an obsessive

because I don't have pictures
of her everywhere.

I am a true man. A true gent.

- To you, Norah.
- Yeah.

- To Norah.
- To Norah. To Norah.

Mitzi, will you be my valentine?

Mitzi.

Be my valentine,
on such a sweet Valentine's Day.

I'm split, you know,
between you and Maxie a little bit,

but I still may... I may marry you.

Okay, okay. No, no. Maxie is just...

I mean, uh... No, I did not mean it!

I left Maxie. I'm with you.

Oh forgive me!

Now I'm just with
this half-finished egg, by myself.

Mitzi... I insulted Mitzi.

Will you ever forgive me?
This is for you, Mitzi.

Maybe she will come back.

You know, cats, women...

It's in Houston where he also met
Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker,

and the blues legend
Lightnin' Hopkins.

You had a big influence on Van Zandt's
songwriting and guitar playing.

This represents the society. You.

You could imagine that egg,

like something very essential
and basic, that's you.

Everything is in this egg.

You. The essence of you.

And...

...the way I see it,

your very essence is fucked up.

I can... I can swallow your essence

and it will come
to the other end of me.

That's your essence...
the society in which I live today.

It tastes pretty good though.

And that's the trouble
with you, the society...

that you taste good.

You see, you are in this
thing of pleasure and...

...megalomania of some kind...

...fantasy about
what real life really is.

It's all perfumed, embellished,

and tastes very good.

But it has no essence. No substance.

It's all...

not...

nothing that will carry you across

the time and space
and dimensional rivers,

into the eternity.

Everything remains here.

We're here. Shells, swallowed,
comes out through the other end.

Shells, I shovel up into my palm,
and throw into the garbage.

That's the society I live in today.

Thank you my friends. That's how I...

Look at the cat.

Eating,

peacefully,

with no pretentions,

conquering other countries.

With no pretentions being anything

but a cat eating cat food.

Bless you. Bless you, Mitzi.

It's not that easy
to be just like that.

Not easy.

I'm trying.

I hope someday
I will achieve that state.

Just being.

Just being, like Mitzi.

Yes.

Ladies and gentlemen...

what happened to...

music?

...to be scrounging your next meal.

How does it feel?

How does it feel?

How does it feel?

I don't know! How do I feel?
Nobody asks me!

- Like a complete unknown.
- Like a complete unknown!

- Like a rolling stone.
- Like a rolling stone!

You've gone
to the finest school all right,

miss lonely but you know you only...

Of course I want to cry!

Nobody's ever taught you
how to live out on the street,

and now you're gonna
have to get used to it.

You say you never compromise,

with the mystery tramp,
but now you realize,

- he's not selling any alibis...
- He's not selling alibis!

I understand you!

and say, "do you want to make a deal?"

How does it feel?

How does it feel?

To be on your own...

How does it feel?

- With no direction home.
- How does it feel?

- A complete unknown.
- I don't know.

Like a rolling stone.

Oh you never turned around
to see the frowns,

on the jugglers and the clowns
when they all did tricks for you.

You never understood
that it ain't no good

you shouldn't let
other people get your...

...after he took from you
everything he could steal.

How does it feel?

Nobody asks me.

- And I don't know how I would answer.
- To be on your own.

No direction home.

Like a complete unknown.

Like a rolling stone.

This is a song that Harold Arlen
and Yip Harburg wrote about Paris.

It was a... I keep remembering this
every time I hear the song,

because the song so reflects
this piece that's stuck in my mind.

The song evokes the Irwin Shaw essay

that I think ran in McCall's
many years ago,

about how desolate Paris is
in the winter, the city of light.

Here is Yip and Harold's song
called "Paris is a Lonely Town."

It was written actually
for Judy Garland,

and this is Karen Akers to sing it.

The glamour's gone,
the shades are down,

and Paris is only a lonely town.

Lonely.

When love's a laugh
and you're the clown,

then Paris is only a dreary town,

dreary for the loveless clown.

This town's a weary merry-go-round

and round

and round.

The chestnut, the willow,
the colors of Utrillo

But give me Paris anytime.

Give me, give me Paris! Give me Paris!

...playing Bizet
along the Champs Elysées

sounds like way down blues.

Paris is a dreary,

lonely, oh so lonely town.

But give me Paris anytime!

Anytime!

Give me Paris.

Better not take...
don't take away my New York too!

- Benn?
- I think they're wrong.

Paris is beautiful,
lovely and wonderful.

I agree with you Benn.
I agree with you!

She doesn't know our Paris.

...is such a lonely,

lonely

town.

If any song was wrong,
this one is absolutely wrong.

Two hours later.

And six inches of snow later.
It's crazy.

Insanity. I don't know
what to make of this at all.

Springtime in New York...

Soda is made with syrup
and seltzer water.

Why are you telling me this?
I demand more.

A couple of glass bottles
of Coca-Cola...

They're already placing
the glass Coca-Cola

next to the two-liter,
plastic Coca-Cola.

He found a revelation,
when he realizes how far we've come.

I think...

Yeah. He realizes that this is,

will be, a bit of a path
to globalization.

And we don't care anymore
about the actual sensation,

about the value.
You know the value of everything...

the price of everything,
but the value is nothing.

But whatever. Americans are strong,

and I don't think they will be seduced
by any such thing,

to punish others
instead of punish the terrorists

who are perpetrating
these atrocities.

And I think this is the main message
that the western world,

and maybe the weak Israelis,

are in the best position
to be able to say,

"this war is against all of us."

In the Middle East or in Spain,
or other parts of the world,

it stems from the same reasons...

total intolerance to something
which is different,

and hatred to the values
which all of us represent,

and therefore we have
to join forces together

in fighting until we can destroy
the sources of this war.

All right David, it's good seeing you.
Israel's Vice Prime Minister.

Thank you for making it
through the snow today.

We appreciate that very much.

Straight ahead:
"It's Your World" spins on.

John Kerry says it's not just
global leaders urging him on,

business leaders are too.

But which leaders? We're going to have
more on this topic, but first I...

...more strength to this economy,
but maybe not for long.

Some news on the housing sector
you can't afford to miss, next.

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Now this is much later in the day.

Mitzi has forgiven me.

Oh Mitzi, have you?
Yes, I think she has forgiven me.

Benn is distracting her
with his camera.

That's why she's looking
at Benn and not at me.

And that's the problem
in our conversation here.

...With Mitzi. Me and Mitzi.
Mitzi. Yes, you forgive me.

We are still... now I'm really...

I'm going to marry you, not Maxie.
It's okay.

We are friends.

The only disappointing thing
I have to tell you,

we have to wait until it
becomes legal in New York State.

Then we'll have a civil,
you know, marriage.

And, you know, I'm buying you
a lot of food, you realize?

I could have a tax deduction.

Tax deduction... oh, sweet Mitzi.

I don't care at all
about tax deductions.

We are still...

What? What?

Disappointed with humanity.

I don't think it will end well.

Things are going pretty badly.

But we had a good night.

All talking is nonsense, really,
so it's better to sing.

I don't know
what my life is all about,

and I suspect you don't know

what your own life is all about.

So we are about in the same boat,

and we can all...

drink to that...

sad, happy, fat.

We don't know,
and it's of no importance

to know what our lives are all about.

It's of no importance at all.

I don't know why humanity

always wanted to know

what this life is all about.

It's totally unimportant.

It is totally unimportant,

because what is really,

what is really,
what is really important

is to do the right thing
that you feel is the right thing

right here and now.

And that is...

that is maybe...

the only important thing.

You know, to do the right thing,

here and now, the way you feel.

That is, that you feel

that is the right thing to do.

Yes. That is the old fiddle.

Now that I said what I had to say,

I can drink my drink

and not to worry about them.

...about...

anything else, but the consequences.

Only the consequences of what I said,

and I believe what I said was right,

was right.

Call me a righteous person.
Call me a conservative.

Call me any name you want,

but what I said I won't retrieve.

I won't take back a single letter,

not talking about syllables,
but sentences.

My friends, to you.

We are here,
at the Brooklyn Rail office

...office, office, yes.

And we are toasting,
of course, Brooklyn Rail.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Jonas.

- And Greenpoint, of course.
- And Greenpoint, yeah.

So we are here,
at the end of Manhattan Avenue,

almost by the East River,

and here we are.

It's February...

maybe 20th?

Yeah I think so.

Two thousand and four.

Now this is... now I can see the year.

1818.

Life, Death and Immortality.

- Night thoughts.
- Yeah.

I have a book which I am preparing
called "My Night Life."

It's my dreams.
For one year I kept my dreams,

my night... Oh this is... Come on,
this is a... By whom is this?

- Dr. Edward Young.
- Edward Young, whoever he was.

And this is all rhyme!
This is no joke!

"Then welcome, Death!

"thy dreaded harbingers,

"Age and Disease!

Disease though long my guest..."

This sounds amazing!
This is like a...

oratorium to death.

Come, welcome, you, death!

Disease and everything
that is horrible,

and come and embrace, I embrace you.

"The guilty billows innocently roar,

and the rough sailor passing,
drops a tear."

This is all about tears
and dying and crying and...

- That what it's about!
- Yes!

"Like soft smooth oil,

"outblazing other fires?

Can prayer, can praise avert it?"

It's all a meditation on...
this is amazing, this whole book.

You know, when I found it
I was so happy because...

- It's 10 dollars.
- Yeah.

"Mark well, as foreign
as these subjects seem,

"What close connection

ties them to my theme."
It's all rhymed!

"First, what is true ambition?

"The pursuit of glory

"nothing less than man can share.

Were they as vain as gaudy-minded..."

Gaudy-minded, never heard
that expression. "Gaudy-minded...

I think that this may be
a forgotten masterpiece

that you have discovered
that may be no...

And it was inscribed for the...

Windham Library. In Vermont!
Windham is in Vermont.

Winham is not far
from South Londonderry, Jonas.

Yeah. There is no...

That's why I was so happy.

This, I'd say, it's something
that you should really someday read.

I want to.
The reason why I was happy...

And the review.

I want to review this
for the report of Brooklyn Rail.

You want to?

- A book to review from 1815.
- That would be a brilliant idea.

- Brilliant idea.
- Actually...

The only thing I know, Jonas,
it was him who inspired William Blake

to do a first illustrated book,
after that book.

This guy?

You mean you found something about it?

I know nothing,
I never heard the name.

I knew about him
through William Blake. He loved him.

So this guy...

- Edward Young, inspired...
- William Blake.

He did the first
illustrated book after his work.

I see the, you know, the connection

of this very, very, very, very deep,
deep eternal seriousness

that is in this in
connection to Blake.

I think you should review it.

We should review it, right?

You know who could review it for you?
Robert Kelly.

But my friends don't sing anymore.

But my friends don't sing anymore.

What speed.

Walking along the sidewalk,
walking along the Brooklyn sidewalk.

As close as you can get
to the water... We're good. Alright?

- Now is only the beginning.
- We're doing it.

As long as we can maintain
our own equilibrium.

You hanging a right here?

- Where's your car?
- Right over there.

Is this your car?

- It's yellow.
- Oh no.

Not that big van. I wish.

It's beautiful. It looks like
there's somebody sleeping back there.

Oh yeah.

Look at that... Look at that, man.

It's like a whole scene
back there, man. Beautiful.

It looks incredible. You could
take that across the country, man.

See you tomorrow, maybe?

- Yeah. Yeah maybe with Matt.
- I'll call you.

It's 2:10...

after midnight.

Ah, the music...

I can't sleep. I can't sleep.

But the music is so beautiful.

The music is so beautiful, I cannot...

I cannot turn it off.
I have to go to sleep.

I cannot turn it off.

The room. Dark.

I have to sleep! I have to sleep!

And I can't sleep.

With music like this

I cannot sleep it's 2:30
in the morning.

I have to sleep. I have to sleep.
Have to sleep.