Still/Here (2001) - full transcript

We walk down the
street and we see all these

houses.

And all these houses
have some kind of brick.

And you have to understand
the magnitude of work when you

realize that each one of those
bricks was touched by a human

hand.

There's no machine that
lays bricks at this point.

♪ jazzy bass plucking ♪

And you realize that every one
of those bricks was put down by

hand.

A hand, a man that
fought, fed, well,



he worked, he went to
bed, he had a family,

he had a life and this
hand put that brick down.

And you look around and you see
all those bricks and you realize

how people have worked.

Relationships between people.

Relationships
between people and things.

One on one, man
and woman, groups,

they're all part of the
things that I deal with.

They're all
touched by human beings.

For instance, I
went into the uh,

in the New York Public Library.

There was this door, where one
door knob... this big massive

oak door... one door knob is
shiny and bright and the other

one is dull.



Why is that?

Because that's the one that
people pull open and use and

over the years it has become
different than the one that's

not used.

And that fascinated me.

Now nobody understands
that when I take the picture,

but I understand it.

But from
that... from knowing that...

I look for it in other things.

So that picture may not be a
success in that sense but it

kind of cues me in
to other things.

So then I look at steps and
if you look at steps whether

they're marble or wood

they're worn

and they get a lovely patina.

You see all these steps, these
people, day in and day out.

You look at the subway steps,
day in and day out people walk

up and down those steps
without thinking about it,

yet those steps
were put there by men.

They're used by man, you know?

And they take a little piece of
that step home with them on the

sole of their shoe.

That's fantastic!

Do you realize that?
I mean under your shoe!

There are
microcosms of that material,

that step.

And all the bullshit and shit
that you walk on in the street

also go with them.

But I mean, this is the way
I think and this is the way,

uh, some of these things
I want to be in the work,

I mean which is impossible.

But who said we shouldn't
try to do the impossible?

♪ angular string music ♪

Thank you for
calling the St. Louis Housing

Authority.

If you know the extension of
the person you are calling,

press pound.

For the Section 8
Division, press one.

For the Human
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Division, press three.

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Redevelopment Department,

press five.

For the Procurement
Department, press six.

For the Housing
Operations Division,

press seven.

For the Executive Offices,
press eight or press zero to be

connected to an operator.

Thank you for calling the
St. Louis Housing Authority.

If you know the extension of
the person you are calling,

press pound.

For the Section 8
Division, press one.

For the Human
Resources Division,

press two.

For the Legal
Division, press three.

For the Finance
Department, press four.

For the
Redevelopment Department,

press five.

For the Procurement
Department, press six.

For the Housing
Operations Division,

press seven.

For the Executive Offices,
press eight or press zero to be

connected to an operator.

Thank you for calling the
St. Louis Housing Authority.

If you know the extension of
the person you are calling,

press pound.

For the Section 8
Division, press one.

For the Human
Resources Division,

press two...

Uh the
psychology of have... of to... of

experiencing
those sorts of things.

Yeah, 'cause in some
ways um I think parts of what

I'm talking about is what goes
on in one's head um at the time

and I try... I mean it's a
difficult line to walk that, uh,

the work doesn't promote a kind
of victimization uh and I don't

mean to support that but
it's more the feeling and the

sensation and the psychology
of experiencing those sorts of

things.

and kind of emptiness...

it's that grey area...

it's more the feeling
and the sensation...

You've got two new
communities here that you're

working on today.

We're at Green Tree Meadows.

Tell us a little about that.

Why is this such a
phenomenal community?

Well it's a nice, it's
a nice area Lake St. Louis and

uh, our, the Green
Tree Meadows uh has uh,

we have a hundred and
nineteen lots here uh available,

we have three displays and
uh all of the uh lots are on

cul-de-sacs.

There's just one entrance in
and one out so that makes it,

you know, nice and
secure that way.

We're, we wrap around the uh,
elementary school here and uh,

Wentzville triple A
rated school district.

Yeah that's a
top-rated school district.

And there's a walking
trails from each cul-de-sac

that, that adjoin uh the school
trails which adjoins the city

park of Lake St. Louis.

Uh, you have to ask yourself,

when you look at any
metropolitan area,

who gets to make the region-wide
decisions about how money is

spent, where is the
clout in this area,

where are the calls being
made about public infrastructure

investment and in
whose interest?

Sir, where did
you come from in the back,

did you just get on?

Where are you from?

St. Louis?

I was in St. Louis four times,
I ate at the McDonald's in

St. Louis.
Near the, near the Arch.

You ate there too?

Near the train station,
the Greyhound station,

I went on Amtrak to St. Louis.

Oh, yes, meet me in
St. Louie Louie...

oh yeah, Louie Louie...

It's like
coming home to a vacation.

In the single-family section,
we could have put twice as many

homes but we wanted every home
site to back to trees and that

happened.

In our single
family attached units,

we have a hundred and one home
sites on 60 acres so there's a

lot of common ground, a
lot of beauty to it...

There are several
ways to lay bricks when building

a brick wall.

One way is called the
American common bond.

I'm not sure what
to make of that,

but I do find it interesting.

Then close to
here we have golf courses,

Six Flags, parks everywhere,
and this has to be one of the

prettiest
developments we have ever...

♪ curious string plucking ♪

There are several
ways to lay bricks when building

a brick wall.

One way is called the
American common bond.

I'm not sure what
to make of that,

but I do find it interesting.

I was reading a glossary from a
preservation plan for St. Louis.

One of the terms
that I came across,

was story, which it defined as
the space between any two floors

of a building.

Reading that, it of course
occurred to me that between any

two floors of any
given building,

there are a
multitude of stories.

Another term in the
glossary was return,

which it defined as an
architectural element that

extends from one
exterior surface to another.

My story is about a different
kind of return but it is related

to architecture.

It has to do with my return to
the city of St. Louis after a

prolonged absence.

I suppose that I hadn't been
back in the city for very long

when I had a dream that I
only recently remembered and the

dream was about a memory, so I
guess you could say that this is

a memory, of a
dream, of a memory.

In the dream, and in the memory,
I was about seven years old and

I was in bed at night sleeping
when I awoke to the sound of my

father snoring.

I laid there for some time in
the dark listening to my father

snore.

It occurs to me now that the
sound was a bit like I imagine

one would hear if the
night were able to breath.

I listened for as long as I was
able and then drifted back to

sleep.

Perhaps I had this dream
because by the time of my return

to St. Louis, my father had
long since passed away.

When I saw that the
city had also passed away,

I must have felt that the night
had somehow learned to breath

and all that remained was
the sound of that breathing.