Original subtitles

Rembrandt did not believe in immortality.

Perhaps if it existed for him as the object of a religious faith, it did not

become for being that a human certitude, active and consoling.

It was the origin of his anguish.

And as he couldn't transcend the feeling of mortality, as he couldn't project in

a superhuman life hereafter the continuity of what stops here below, he

remained prisoner of his immense dreams.

and of his mortal, insatiable, irreconcilable flesh.

Thus space and time became for him dimensions of his cell.

He did not cease to measure with a bitter enjoyment the oppression, as if

the foreboding of the infinite was nothing but a more sorrowful

consciousness of our end.

This was written by some Frenchman, Marcel Briand, 1946.

It's you.

It's who?

What are you doing here?

Hi. Oh, it's eight in the morning.

I know it's eight in the morning.

Well, and do you know why you're here?

I'm here to see you. I have a little surprise for you.

A surprise?

Yeah. What?

Why so early?

Well, I figured if I didn't get here early, it wouldn't be a surprise, would

it? Oh, yeah.

I mean, if I came Sunday at 8 p.m., you'd expect that, wouldn't you? Oh,

Martin.

Yeah, you're right.

Of course I'm right.

Oh, Martin.

Well, I'm here.

I thought I might cook up a feast for breakfast, maybe some...

Eggs and pancakes and bacon. Do you want bacon or sausage? Or bacon and sausage?

Well, as long as you're here, you might as well.

Coffee, tea, muffins? I've got it. Okay.

I want it.

Why don't you get me some more orange juice while you're out there?

Okay.

You want that hand squeezed?

Oh, you bet.

All right, it'll take me just a minute to pick those, but I'll be right with

you.

Let's see, coffee still in the freezer?

Uh-huh.

Did you get it yet?

Hey, Claire.

Hello? Did you get it yet?

Get what?

Did you get the whole thing about the surprise, you know?

Oh, the surprise.

I forgot about it.

Oh, what a fun you are.

Well, you can surprise me now.

You could surprise me again.

Again? Yeah, we'd double surprise.

I didn't even remember the first one.

Oh, come on, Martin.

What is it? Tell me.

I'm up now.

Have you got it now?

Got it.

Uh-huh. Keep going. You're almost there. Uh-huh.

Your surprise is... That's it?

Five fingers. Right?

Uh-huh.

Five fingers of fate.

Well, sure.

Uh-huh.

But what about the... Five, uh...

Five senses.

That's good. Uh-huh. No, that's not it. Five sense.

No. Uh-huh.

Five. Uh-huh.

Five humors.

Keep going.

Uh-huh.

Five minutes in hell.

Martin, what is it?

Five. Five, five, five. Five years to the day, to the hour, to

the minute, and almost to the second since we broke up.

This is our fifth year breaking up anniversary, and I got

you a little present.

How romantic.

What is it?

It's an etching.

No, I mean, who is it?

It's Rembrandt.

One of his most famous self-portraits.

Martin, it's not an etching. Well, of course it's an etching. What do you

think? It's an aquatint or a litho or a woodcut or what? Of course it's an

etching. It's a photocopy, Martin.

Well, I'm sorry. I didn't have enough in petty cash to pick up the original.

It's not an...

object. It's not an investment.

It's just something to enjoy, you know? It's just a nice piece of art.

It's very nice.

It's very nice.

Well, there's something in the tone of your voice when you say photocopy, you

know, that reminds me of something that I thought I'd forgotten, but I guess

not.

No, no, no.

It's very nice.

Glad you like it.

Yeah. Mind if I ask you a serious question?

Uh, yeah.

Yeah. If a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody around, does it make a

sound, do you think?

Morning. Well, I don't know. What I wanted to ask was, do you think we did

the right thing?

The right thing?

Yeah. You know, five years ago?

Yeah.

And I thought so.

I don't know, I just, uh... I really liked living with you, you know?

Well, I didn't.

I gotta get going. I have to play a little bit today.

It's something that... I don't know.

It's really special.

It's like you.

You're sweet.

Oh, come on.

I love you. I love you, too.

I gotta get out of here. Alright, good luck.

Cool.

That was your weekend.

That's really nice.

I like this over here.

That's looking good.

Oh, pretty good.

Pretty, uh... Any hot dates?

No, no hot dates.

An old friend of mine stopped by and gave me a... gave me a present

of sorts.

How was that date you had on Friday?

It was a creep.

It was a creep?

Yeah. Why? What happened?

They won't, you know, one day they think they own you, you know.

They didn't?

Where are those photographs of the Palachuk house?

Over there by the light table.

Okay, I want to look at them.

They look pretty good.

Yeah, I think that project went along pretty well.

It's about done.

So what'd you do? Where'd you go for Friday?

Oh, we went to some loser comedy club.

Well, the comic was funny.

It was just that my date thought that he was funnier.

Oh, did he want to talk to the whole thing?

He wanted to talk to the whole thing and tell jokes.

I guess the comedy spurred him on to be hilarious, but he wasn't.

I don't know. It just wasn't a good night for me.

Glad you weren't there.

I went to a movie.

It was pretty good.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, kind of arty. I'd never heard of it before.

Was it foreign?

Canadian.

Semi-foreign.

Something about birds.

This house is looking good.

Yeah, look at the bathroom.

Yeah, that's just what I was... That's really something.

They'd be happy about it.

Yeah, well, they ought to be. They got what they wanted.

Really? I swear I don't know that I'd want to be in a glass house shower,

but... I know.

They must not be very modest.

Well, yeah.

You want to go to lunch?

Sure.

I'm just darned.

It's not time, but maybe we can go semi-early.

Okay.

Yeah, this is coming along well enough.

I got a couple things over here I want to finish up.

And then as soon as I get that done, I can go find something to eat.

Okay.

Tomorrow morning? Yep.

I've got about 14 things I've got to do here before tomorrow morning.

I know you want it tomorrow. It's going to be ready.

But I have some other things I want to talk about.

That schnauble that came in the crate, well, most of it's been borrowed in the

crate.

Well, we have to do something about it.

Do you want to call the insurance agent?

No, I don't think I can do that.

No?

No, I'm sure it can be fixed, but it's going to take a long time.

I know you want it tomorrow, but it's going to take a long time to fix it.

Really, about half of it's in the bottom of the crate.

It's like a big puzzle.

You know, how are we going to put it back together?

We're going to call him. We're going to tell him.

What's he going to think of that?

I know he'll think it's a joke, but I don't think it's a joke. I paid the

insurance on it.

Well, if you want it tomorrow morning, that's all we can do.

There's nothing else we can do. We can work all night and glue it back

together. We don't know where it goes together.

No, they might not know.

Well, I don't know what to do about that.

I don't see how we can possibly have it at the museum tomorrow morning.

But if it has to go, I think it's probably better to go just the way it

is, and then put it back together later if they want to.

All right.

No, I can't do that.

Why don't you just come over here and look at it yourself?

You know, we can't conduct all this sort of thing on the phone.

I mean, it's a disaster.

Right.

Well, we'll just spruce it up and tip it over.

Forget that job?

Oh, I don't know. It's one of those situations where I need the money, but

I'm going to be in the position of having three different jobs at once. I

don't know if I can handle it.

Really? Why?

I've never done that before.

I'm trying to do things that are in relation to one another whatsoever.

I'm doing manual labor one day, and I'm trying to talk about science with kids.

Just a little elementary school kid.

I just don't know if I can handle it.

Remember Jerry?

Sure. This is a really amazing story.

He was over in the greenhouse in Golden Gate Park.

Oh, yeah, that's a great place. I love that.

And he was taking some pictures, and he had a camera set up on a tripod, and he

was looking down at... Something of a very exotic flower there. It could have

been one of those birds of paradise sort of thing. Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, just focusing it in and concentrating it on it. And a group of

tourists come walking along, sort of later middle-aged, two years older than

us, probably.

Yeah, we have to watch how we use that.

I know.

I know.

We've caught up to our own jokes.

But at any rate, these people come along and they look down over his shoulder.

You know how everyone always taking a picture of him and sort of therefore

gets interested in what's going on, what you're doing. They look and they say,

one of them says to the other, something like, Ethel, that flower looks like it's

from outer space.

And Jerry just sort of hears this and turns around and looks at them and goes,

we are in outer space.

That's pretty good. I know, Jerome's got his old... He does, he's still got it.

Right, right, right.

The cosmic tweak.

Yeah, he can still get off a good one when he has to, which I suppose is

often, probably more often than not.

It's his Irish Indian background.

Yeah, I always said that was a good name.

An intemperate mixture.

But I was going to say, on this training course I'm taking, and

they're trying to teach me about science, but I have to get it down to

the level that kids can understand it. So I'm reading all this basic stuff,

stuff I hadn't thought about in years, and I was reading the other day about

the supernova. Did you read about that, what happened?

The chronicle?

It was all over. It was on TV. It was in all the scientific magazines and

everything. I didn't pay that much attention to it at the time.

everybody was talking about it. I know those articles in the, the science

articles in the paper are actually, those in the obituaries are the only

things in the paper which sort of lift the paper out of its completely... Yeah,

absolutely, yeah.

Well, you would have liked this story, but this is a good combination.

It's a guy 70 years old who looks into a telescope. He's down in New Zealand, I

think.

Looks into his telescope one night and sees...

huge unidentified object out in space somewhere.

So he calls it into the proper authorities over the observatory and

they discovered that the guy had seen an actual, actual supernova. The star

exploded. He's just an amateur.

Just an amateur, yeah. A guy who's gone up on his roof and looked in his

telescope every night for who knows how long.

And they found out, through however they measure this stuff, that this star

exploded.

173,000 years ago.

And he just happened to see it.

You mean that... Well, it didn't... In other words, it didn't just explode for

a second. I mean, it's a long explosion. And it's still going on, yeah.

We're only 173,000 years behind. I guess we won't find out where it is now until

somewhat later, huh?

Well, this, to me, this stuff... I'm saying to myself, this is mind-boggling,

you know? How am I going to explain this to a four-year-old kid?

The star exploded X number of years ago. How would you explain to someone how far

away that is?

It took the light that long to get here.

I know, as a kid I used to lie in bed and try to understand what infinity was.

I'd take my mind and try to make, you know, like you'd be sick in bed for two

weeks or two months and just try to... I remember it well, yeah.

Right, and just try to imagine something that was supposed to be infinite, like a

universe, and you couldn't.

You could think of distance maybe across the country or something, but it would,

like, stretch your mind.

But then I noticed as you get older, somehow all these giant distances don't

even seem like such a big deal.

Oh, it seems like a big deal to me.

A little better, or you're going to lose that job. Yeah.

Okay, used to my job, huh?

Pretty good suit.

Hey, do that again.

No, play that.

A little tune on there later for you.

What's the next chorus?

I think that's about it, Martin.

You mean I come all this way and all I get is a measly bowl of miso soup?

Well, you know, I just came back from being away for two weeks, and, well,

this is sort of an excuse, but there's not much food around.

I mean, I would think with all the money you're making out there, I thought you'd

be putting out a seven-course spread for us here.

Well, it sounds like a lot of money, but I really can't stand to do it that

often. It sounds like a lot. It is a lot. Well, it's a lot while you're doing

it, except if I did it all the time, I would be here talking to you right now.

You've got everything. You've got free time. You want to have lunch with your

friends. You've got plenty of time. I think it's great.

No, it's great. I really shouldn't complain.

It's actually a good situation.

A little painful.

That's all you need, you know.

What, a little bit of pain?

Don't you think it goes a long way? I mean, it helps.

I guess if you're being paid for it.

You're not being paid to have a good time, I guess, ultimately.

You're not being paid for what you're really doing, that's for sure.

Right.

But, you know, I caught your Toyota ad.

Was it Toyota?

Yeah, Toyota, right? Yes, yeah, yeah.

Fabulous. Yeah, like that dissolved in the backwood cactus. It was so flabby.

Unbelievable. I bought one.

Yeah, I got it parked up. Yeah, I know. It's parked up front.

The amazing thing about this is that, well, first of all, technically, it's

incredible. You know, you find yourself mesmerized when this thing is running.

Don't you?

Well, yes. I mean, that's like, I mean, mesmerized when the ad is going. Yeah,

absolutely. Yeah, well, I guess the whole idea is not to let people think

too much. I mean, to keep the thing pretty tight.

And, yeah, tight is right, but still it's got that spark, you know, it

really, it's great. Right, tight, bright, alluring.

You've got your whole list of buzzwords on the wall. Well, yeah. This one's got

to be so, and this one's got to be so, yeah.

Right, and each one's got to get tighter and brighter than the next one.

Well, it works, whatever it is.

The system actually works, because you know what?

What? Yeah, I went out and bought one.

No, come on. Yeah, I did.

You know, I watched a football game last week, and there might have been 40 or 50

ads for this car, you know, weaving its way around corners.

I did not know at the end of the game what car was being advertised. I had no

idea.

Well, I wasn't talking about the car. I didn't get a car. I just, I got a cactus

on the back. A backlash cactus thing.

I'll send you a Spielberg gift shop. I love it. As long as it comes with a

backlight.

I got a postcard from Claire.

From Claire? Yeah, it's really nice. I'm going to say it's from Nepal.

From Nepal?

Yeah, I heard she had gotten, you know, I'm not sure if she, at one point she

had some interest in doing it.

She isn't in Nepal.

No? No, that was three years ago.

I just saw her.

Well,

what's it say? Well, wait, I can read the postmark. Wait a second. My eyes are

beginning to go.

Is that it?

That's a sign.

Actually, the postmark is two or three years ago.

Oh, great.

Well, let's hear it.

Well, it's a long time coming.

It was certainly nice to hear.

This is, Dear Daniel, Today, while meditating on the luminous blue in my

heart, gazing at the infinity of limpid blueness beyond, I connected with the

light and beauty of your blue eyes.

What are you up to?

Wow. She wrote that?

Yes. You know, that's sort of a nice little blessing to get for a nice

little... Oh, yeah.

Hmm.

That's amazing.

She wrote that?

It's awfully sweet, huh?

The two is a two.

It does remind me of, you know, when things were really nice with her. I must

say, in certain ways we could get along like... i never got along with anyone

you know it was so wonderful and on another way i know exactly what you mean

yeah well i don't know she never sent me a card like that that's for sure

So Claude was on a dig over in Crete, and he brought that back for you.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, it's beautiful, huh? Thank you.

Thanks for contributing to the world's most questionable collection.

You will live in many memories.

Oh, it looks really, really nice. You know, I have sand from, like, Greece, a

few places, but none from Crete, and I must say, this is a real treat.

That's great. Yeah, well, it sounds like he had a good time collecting them. He's

got some warm over there, and he's collecting them off his feet or whatever

they do over there.

He had a hard time getting back home.

Look at this. Wow.

Beautiful.

Gosh.

It's so pretty.

You can almost see the Persians invading.

Yeah, you can, you can. They really actually have some kind of quality of, I

know the cliche of timelessness, but gosh, you look at them and they're

almost like little messengers.

It's interesting how something so simple coordinates, you know, hooks up with

your mind, you know.

You look at it, it just does something.

It's actually very generous, the sand.

This is really great. You don't expect that many colors to bounce around when

you look at sand.

I know. It always amazes me.

I have the idea of sewing it to a travel agency.

You know, like we went to the rug store and the rug samples.

Yeah. You know, this could be your, pick your beach.

Oh, great.

Stick your finger in a bottle.

So this is actually a...

potential for this project.

Yeah, you've got a good mind for that kind of gimmick.

I'll put that in a prominent spot here for you.

They actually are very nice.

Put together your own beach, I like it.

You know, there is a, this sounds a little awkward, being a little awkward

because I feel a little awkward about it, but it's no big deal as they say,

you know, nothing.

It's one of the reasons I asked you over is I wanted to ask you to be, I'm going

to call it, executor of my will.

Executor of your will? Yes. Now, as they say on daytime television, this is, you

know, nothing to worry about.

No, it's just that I'm, you know, getting, you know, on, so to speak. Oh,

what's the deal? You're not getting on. What do you mean? What I mean is

basically I do have a little bit of money put away and with the situation,

my legal situation now, so to speak, is that if I...

You know, I've just got in an accident or something. This money would go to

some relatives, you know, back east or something who I haven't seen in 20

years. So it just seems like something, you know, I should do.

Anyway, because, you know, I've known you so long or something and I don't

want to go to a lawyer because... Yeah, save your money.

Well... And do it yourself. I got kids, you know.

There are actually some funny things in the...

There's some just odd things in the will. I mean, I'm just sort of being a

little playful with it. And if I went to a lawyer and paid him $75 and he just,

you know... I can imagine you said, I'd like to be a little playful with the

will. Right, and then I would just be paying for torture. Yeah, that would go

over great. I would be paying for torture.

So I'm asking you as an old friend to just take this on.

So there's nothing to it?

No, I'll write it up and I'll get someone to witness it and you'll be the

executor. But I just wanted you to know.

Well, sure, I'll do it. Okay.

I'm getting sort of... Just talking is so odd. You just talk about it.

It's nothing.

No, no, no.

Sure, I'll do it.

Actually, reality is great.

You know what I mean.

possible to do well that gets well you just get off the phone if they don't

want to find out but you know you it's talking to the people that come in there

and you just you meet so many interesting people but you know what

i've decided and it's an honor to help them right oh god oh please well i did

feel good about helping the 45 year old missionary whose husband got disabled

and he absolutely had to go get a job but you know

Oh, this lady came in and said she couldn't do anything. Oh, she had to get

a job. She had to start working right now.

Her husband was disabled. The only thing she had been doing was being a

missionary in South Africa for 14 years.

And I found her a job in a day's time.

Well, that's great. For $4 now.

I'd rather be married than not married.

Sometimes you just want a little relief from it. You want a break from it.

Just like you want a break from being single.

You want a break from life. From life itself, right.

Get on a boat and sail away.

Not go back to work in five minutes.

Or take care of the kids' matches.

Right, or be sure you're there to pick them up before the place closes at 6 o

'clock and you get sent to a foster home.

The mother all night.

Oh, yeah. It's true.

I know. Every single parent I know worries about that. Their kids are going

to be snatched away from them for child abuse.

My parents beat me and never thought about it. I know. It never used to be an

issue.

I don't know about you. I'm getting tired of standing.

It's a nice day.

It is. It's beautiful.

Spring is coming.

Do you think Kevin has a new secretary?

No. Uh-uh.

I mean, they've got that guy there, Kevin.

He seems like he's never going to move on.

No,

I don't think about that at all, really.

I didn't know we did that.

What?

We could walk right out to the end.

Yeah.

But it looks a little nippy out there.

You know, this lady, gal, came in to work the other day.

She just graduated with a degree in international relations and economics.

Did all these internships.

Really bright.

She's going to have to take a job in the receptionist someplace.

It's amazing.

Because she's a woman.

Because she doesn't have skills.

She doesn't have skills. She's not a secretary or an accountant.

And what do you tell your kids when they want to go to college?

You've got to study accounting.

Now, what made the computer generated? Well, I don't know. It's developed out

of something that's new. It's a new scientific discipline called chaos.

And apparently, out of that discipline, the mathematicians have somehow

developed... Chaos is a new discipline?

That's what I understand.

I've lived in it my whole life. Right.

And formations like this. I mean, form apparently generated out of chaos.

That's the amazing thing. Look at this beautiful stuff.

Strawberries. Yeah. Look at that.

Amazing.

It is amazing. It has a lot of applications to a lot of different

disciplines like architecture as well.

Could we use this stuff? Sure. I mean, it's the same kind of organic, you know,

arrangement that could be.

adapted to a plan or a site plan. Jennifer, you ought to give it a try.

Don't you think that's a challenge? I'm putting it to you. I want to see

something developed out of this. Claire, you give it a try, too. I mean, this is

exotic enough for you, isn't it?

I think so.

Sure. All right. Now, when are we going to... Would you get that, please?

Look at that, Claire. Look at that.

I mean, this book is full of this stuff.

I mean, this goes on and on. Apparently... This was chaos?

No. Okay.

Right there.

Look at these

things.

I don't get it. I still don't understand.

What's the idea here?

I don't know. What's the idea here?

Chaos. I like that whole idea.

June, let me write it down. Wait a minute. I will never get it right. Let

me write it down. I've got it right. Now go. Go. Tell me what it is.

United Airlines.

Flight. What's that? Flight 210.

And that arrives at 210. Okay. That's easy.

This is great.

Now we'll do up the town. Really.

You're going to be here with your husband, or what?

Oh, really? Okay, good. Well, no, that's fine. No, we can do it by ourselves,

sure.

Right, I look forward to it, too.

It's been ages.

Really? Yeah, have you been well?

Good, good.

Everything's okay?

Terrific, terrific.

I'll be there. I'll be there with bells on. I look forward to it.

Good, good, June.

See you soon.

Okay.

You too.

Okay. Bye.

Roger, old chum.

Yes. I need you.

Actually, I need your car.

Tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon, a little while, not too long. What time would you

do this for? About 2 o'clock. My car's sick, very sick. And I've got to pick

somebody up at the airport. I don't think I'll be all that long.

And I'm just going to bring her back here, and then I can get transportation

at this end. You remember, tomorrow at 2 o'clock, our meeting starts for the rest

of the afternoon.

Meeting? What meeting?

The meeting that you planned a week ago.

Oh, God, with those people.

All right, I got you.

We'll get somebody else to do it.

Can I use your card?

You can use the card, sure.

Okay. My mind is sick. I can't do it.

That's great. It won't be going long. Okay. I'll find somebody to do it. Okay.

Good. Thanks.

Claire,

I need you. I got myself in a terrible jam, dear.

Yes, Roger. I have an old friend coming in. I'm supposed to do the pickup at the

airport tomorrow at 2 o'clock.

And I just have been told by Roger I can't be there. We've got this meeting

with the grandbosses tomorrow. I can't go do what I promised I would do.

And can you go, please, and do the pickup for me? Come back here. Pick up

at 2 o'clock, airport.

And it'll only take you about an hour.

Would you please?

Yeah. Okay.

Okay. All right.

210 United Airlines. Mm-hmm.

And the name is Brandt. Why don't you page, do the page, and that'll produce

the person, okay?

Make it easy for yourself.

210. All right. What's this, UA?

UA 210.

All right. Okay.

Let's see. Okay. Maybe I'll cancel my lunch with Johnson.

Oh, you don't have to do that.

It won't take long.

Okay? All right. Okay, good. You're dear. Thanks a lot. But you'd better

come in with a contract with the Grumbowskis. I'm going to do it. Believe

me. All right. All right, great. Thanks. Mm-hmm.

Hi,

Hart. Lover boy.

Great.

Bye.

A lot of them out there today.

Yeah, they're wild, aren't they?

About ready, Martin?

I guess so. I keep asking myself, do I really want to go out there and explain

science to kids? What do I know?

That's fun.

You'll love it. Everybody here loves it.

Well, it's a great place. I think I'll get used to it.

I'm just a little bit nervous.

Well, relax.

Take it easy.

See what you got.

Okay.

Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to the Exploratorium.

I especially want you to take note of the name of our museum, the

Exploratorium. The reason we call it that is because we want you to explore

science and nature in a way that you probably haven't ever done it before.

Have any of you ever been here before?

How many? Let's see. Three, four, five. That's good.

Perhaps you can help your friend and explain some of the exhibits to them.

Now what we're going to do today is we're going to learn about all the

interesting things in nature.

Color, light, water, sound.

We're going to learn about astronomy.

We're going to talk about the sun, the moon, the stars, the whole solar system.

In fact, even the entire universe.

And it's very important that you're just trying to have fun with these ideas.

And in order to help you have fun with these ideas,

We've got a lot of fantastic exhibits here at the museum.

And they're all designed so that you can do things yourselves.

There are machines that you can turn on and off.

There are things to see. There are games to play.

There are scientific experiments.

And they all try to explain nature in the way that modern science sees it now.

And even though I want you to have fun,

I want you to understand that this is also going to be serious, and we're

going to talk about things that have very far-reaching effects.

For example, we might even discuss how the universe began. We might talk about

the Big Bang, which is the theory of an infinitesimally tiny, tiny

piece of matter that suddenly exploded in an explosion so massive that it's

going on to this very day.

And as far as we know, the universe will continue to expand and expand on and on

infinitely into time.

Now, we have a few rules at the Exploratorium, and I want you to note

them very carefully. The main thing that we want to be careful of is no eating

and drinking in the exhibits.

You know, when we spill pop or bubble gum or candy bars or anything like that

into the gears of the machine, it really makes a mess, so try to be very careful.

Another thing that's very important is to stay with your group at all times.

The only exception is if you need to go to the restroom.

In that case, you just ask me and I'll take care of everything.

Now, the restrooms are located at the north end of the building in the lobby.

Also at the north end of the building, way up high on the wall, is a big solar

clock.

As the day goes on, keep your eye on that clock and be sure that when the

time comes that you're supposed to meet your bus and go back to school.

that you'll be ready and not be late. So everyone stick together, have fun.

If you have any questions whatsoever about anything, feel free to ask me.

That's what I'm there for. I can explain everything.

Well, what do you think?

Well, well, that was okay.

Really knocked you out, huh?

Yeah, it was a little condescending to the kids. You know, these are human

beings, and you've got to treat them like people. They can read that right

away. They're very quick. And you've got to remember, a lot of this little friend

business and little this and little that, they don't like that. So just

watch that. But otherwise, I think you're there.

Ready to take out a group today, maybe?

Oh, I don't know. I felt pretty good about it right at the very end. Yeah?

What happened?

I don't know. That's hard.

I think the very last thing I said was that I could explain everything.

Well, we've been over all these divots, and you know where all the bathrooms

are. That's the most important thing.

So what's the problem?

I don't know. The problem is, what am I going to do if one of them asks me a

really serious question?

Like what?

Like, what's the meaning of life?

This feels so awkward.

I, um...

I

was expecting Rod.

So, um... I don't know, uh...

I don't know what we should do. I don't know

how much time we have to wait for him.

Well...

It was unavoidable. He had to... He had a number of appointments, and some of

them were really projects he'd been working on.

And there'd be his baby.

But we're going to meet him early evening.

Had a nice restaurant.

One of the new ones down in Washington.

Do you know what time it is now?

Um,

what time do we have to meet him?

Well, I think maybe we'll try to call him in case he can't get away earlier,

but we were talking about he's pretty sure he'll be done by 6.

Um...

Claire, um...

Would

it be all right if we just went someplace to, um, find me a watch?

I don't know. I left mine at home, I guess. I always wear it. I didn't bring

it so long.

Well, sure.

I know it sounds crazy.

It's a cheap watch. I don't care.

It's a cheap watch?

Yeah. Just something so I could look at it.

Okay. There.

I feel a lot better now. Well, great.

That's a start.

You want to walk up to North Beach?

a lot of people around here. Is there any place I don't need to go?

Sure.

Yeah, let's go. Let's go back to the car.

You don't mind?

Not at all. Sure.

No? Not at all.

I love having the day off to look around.

Should we go this way? Yeah.

You know, this is one of the oldest, actually, forms of architecture.

In nature, you'd find it, water, wind, all things out of the

earth in a way.

I think it feels so comforting.

You can actually, well, you can see.

how they lean against each other.

I think we feel supported.

to do with our sense of danger.

Get up high on something and touch it.

Get on back down to the ground, we're safe.

Beautiful place for a city.

Michael.

I'm sorry, Claire.

I'm sorry.

I wanted Roger to meet me here before he would understand this.

I don't know.

I don't know what happened.

I'm sorry.

I've been dragging you around all afternoon.

It's just my husband left.

I don't know. He just...

Went somewhere else? Oh, Sue.

I'm so sorry.

Uh, geez, I don't know what the deal is. He's in jail here across the street. I

think it's some kind of, uh... I don't want to incriminate the guy, but I think

it's some kind of dope thing. I mean, he called me up. He was incoherent, you

know. I don't know for sure.

What do I do?

How long ago was he busted?

Must have been about a half an hour, an hour ago.

He might not be down here, but he might go over there and check. What's his

name?

Daniel Dorfman.

D-O-R-F-1-F-M-A-N.

And one ant dead.

One ant. Yeah.

Okay. I'm going to call up there and see if I can find out something.

Yeah, sure. You can help him. His luck.

You never know what happens to a guy like that.

How could he be so stupid?

Because normally it takes about 40 rings over there.

Sometimes. Yeah.

The light.

We don't want to get caught between the shoes or something.

Were you with him when he got busted?

Who, me?

No, I was at home.

Watching some stupid movie. He just called me up.

One phone call, you know?

Isn't that right? They only give them one phone call, I think.

Well, we got a new shipment.

We'll have decks.

Pieces of decks, broads, the usual fare.

Did you pick up the new numbers today?

Yeah, paradise six and a half.

The king bonds out.

The king needs deep counseling.

Why don't you give Jesse a call later?

Yeah, I seen Jesse.

He said he's got a new set of books, the usual.

The skin jobs, the nova jobs.

How about the facet card? You straighten it out?

Taking care of, you know, every account has two sets of books.

Is that all he has?

All local warrants?

Firewood.

No other town.

Okay, thank you very much.

We have credited the investment for one joint, which they cited him out on,

which is not a real problem. His problem is that he has $3,000 worth of parking

tickets that are unpaid.

$3,000 in parking and a joint? And they got him in jail for this?

What can

I do?

I don't know where I'm going to come up with that kind of money.

What luck this guy has. I can't believe it. $3,000.

You know, you've heard about people who get lost in jail, you know, who go into

jail for one night and they don't hear from them again for 10, 15 years. This

is the kind of guy we're talking about. I've got to do something to get him out

of there.

It's a disaster.

You don't hear about them. That's the thing. They're lost.

I mean, I know this kind of thing happens.

No,

this is serious. You don't know this guy. I mean, he's... That'll

give you some idea of what we're talking about.

Irresponsible and in the face of authority.

He could have some kind of breakdown.

He's out there.

I don't know what to tell you. I mean, $3,000 is a lot of money.

He will go to court tomorrow, no, tomorrow's Saturday. He'll go to court

Monday morning. There's no court on Saturday. Monday morning, the whole

weekend, this guy will sit in jail. That's not right for a few minutes.

$3,000, that's some kind of a record, I'll tell you. I've never had a call in

20 years for that many tickets.

I can't believe it.

Do you have any credit cards or anything? Because they will take a

credit card over there for you.

He's got no credit, and I've got a card, but I'm afraid if I use my card, he'd

have to bail me out.

I don't know what to tell you. I think your son's going to be in there for the

whole weekend.

Give me the Kipper numbers.

Kipper's in trouble.

He falls into blue.

That's his problem. No lifeguard.

I hate his eyes anyway.

How about the Adams family?

Steady. Four, six, eight.

Eyes are blue.

Tony, you know this code can't be discussed with anyone.

Not even your old lady.

Only you and I know the codes from the heart. You and I.

Like this, I mean, the streets are full of them. Did you see that guy? What if

he gets thrown in a cell with a loony like this?

They'd eat him alive.

I mean, it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous.

Well, maybe nothing's going to happen to your friend. That's easy to say, but

we're not the ones who are in jail.

He's worth more alive than he is dead. He's worth $3,000 more than most he's

ever been worth in his life.

Yeah, with his luck. I mean, he was born under a bed, a star or something.

I'm telling you.

He could be killed. Yeah, I know. I told you everything I could do. I can't do

anything for you. You'll either have to pay the $3,000 or it's going to be money

when you go to the court.

I have other people waiting for me. I've got problems over

here. I'm ready to eat.

Yeah, good job.

Pizza's out.

Burrito's out.

Let's have some chink food.

Some wine time too.

And sweetened sour spirits.

How's that sound, partner?

Sounds fine.

It reminds me, you seen our little slanty-eyed friend Chan lately?

Yeah, I seen him coming out of that greasy slop joint he's got a piece of.

I said, surprised to see me, Chan?

I shoved him against the wall.

I said, I got to fuck you up real soon.

You always hung.

You should have bagged him long ago and hung him with the rest of the shit.

He started squirming and squealing, talking about his sick mother.

His creepy friends. I said, shut up and listen.

He said, shut up and listen to the truth of life on Earth.

Yeah, the truth.

I grabbed his ball and started squeezing him, watching the pain in his eyes.

I said, you owe us, you owe us, you owe us, you owe us, you owe us. Are you

talking to us?

Yeah, I'm talking to you. I'm trying to operate a business here. Now shut up.

He didn't say please. He no longer exists.

Fingers. He just say, please, relax.

We've done this many times before. You're my partner.

Mr. Bonds said you need to stay clean.

What is... Do you like fish eggs?

No. No? I'll have to candidly... No, I...

We're only here because you wanted to come here.

I'm allergic to all this stuff.

You don't eat sushi?

No, I hate sushi.

Oh, well, why didn't you tell me?

We could eat spaghetti.

Well, I wanted to impress you.

Well, that's all right.

And once I had a date with this guy, he took me to a sushi bar and he wouldn't

eat sushi.

Okay, it's good for my diet.

Although I guess sushi's good for your diet also, huh?

Damn.

I think it's pretty tasty stuff.

What kind of fish egg? Do you even know? I mean, are they generic fish egg?

It's tobiko.

Stehiko? Tobiko.

Tobiko. I'm turning Japanese.

Well,

they're not here. Swinefish.

Are you a plastic surgeon on the side?

Oh, no. Did you miss that piece of slang?

It was a tune called I'm Turning Japanese. Yeah.

I one time spent two or three weeks trying to get someone to translate it

into Japanese for me for an art layout.

And nobody, they'd just look at me. I kept explaining the concept, explaining

the concept. They didn't understand. They didn't understand. Well, you can't

translate that into Japanese. It doesn't make sense.

Excuse me.

Well, it's an English expression, right?

Yeah. I guess so. That's where I first heard it. Yeah, I've spent a long time

puzzling over how they managed to get from onanism to some kind of weird

ethnic inversion, slur, or whatever that is.

I don't know what it is.

Do you eat pickled ginger?

No, you don't eat that either.

You're allergic to it. Well, I figured if it's in a sushi bar, I'm not going to

eat it.

But...

Hello?

Hello?

Roger.

Yes,

I am.

Yes.

I did.

I did.

Yes, I did.

Roger, don't stop. I have to tell you something.

Roger, don't listen to me.

This is very important.

Roger.

I'm getting married.

East and west.

What else is he doing?

Stacy.

What about Jesse?

Stacy.

Well,

I've been asleep, poor Stacy.

Long enough.

What are you doing, counting money?

Yep. You all there?

Sure is.

Why don't you tell me about your dream?

You won't believe what I dreamt about believing.

Try me.

I won the lotto.

You never won a bingo game. What are you talking about?

Well, you know how lonely I've been since my old lady's been locked up.

Yeah, yeah.

The judge gave her six months for stealing a candy bar.

Can you imagine that, a candy bar?

She would have left that candy bar alone. She would have got out of there

with the ice, and we both know that.

What else did you dream about?

I jumped about the chic, and Captain Sid, they were chasing me.

Why would they be chasing you?

Because I've got the winning ticket.

The winning lotto ticket.

You're back to this lotto again, huh?

Well, here's the winning ticket.

Tony, I don't want to talk about the lotto. I want to talk about Jesse.

Fuck Jesse!

Don't you want to watch me on the big spin?

and order a ridiculously heavy box.

Oh, you'll see. Where can I put this thing?

Hey, Jim.

Looking a lot better since you're working out.

Yeah, if you'd have bought two boxes, I'd have helped you.

How you doing?

How am I doing? I nearly broke my back carrying this thing up, but I'll be

doing a little better when I get this off.

I guess you recognize that, don't you?

Well, I just figured you were... Who knew what you were doing?

I believe this is yours, too.

Is it not? I know you didn't recognize it. It looked so great on me.

Here, like that. There you go.

I think the outfit will be quite a bit better on you than it was on me.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. You found the silver at Daniel's, right?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I left it over there.

Yeah, I was going through the stuff.

That doesn't explain me.

You don't remember that?

I'll give you a hint.

It was Halloween.

Halloween? Uh-huh.

Oh, I know.

God, that was years ago.

Mm-hmm.

Because it looked better on Daniel than it does on me. I thought so, too.

What is it?

Coffee? Forest juice?

Anybody?

Sure, I do.

Yeah, me too. I'll have both.

Make that separate cups, will you?

This is it. This is the portable beach project in a box. You've got everything

you need right here. You've got Greece.

Why? You've got Hawaii. Why?

Why? He wanted you to have it. I have so much clutter in this place already.

I don't even know. Clutter? What do you mean clutter? Look at this. India, you

call that clutter?

Look.

This stuff is beautiful. Japan?

I dusted these things for six years, and now you're trying to tell me I'm going

to dust them for the rest of my life?

You need to dust them right now, in fact.

Here, take this.

You can start right on those.

No.

Come on.

California is not too exotic, but still beautiful.

You could say this is where Daniel found religion.

I guess.

Oh, here's the stuff from Paris.

Paris? Yeah.

I know.

Well, you're serious. You're a collector.

Yes. I think this stuff looks great up here.

You've got plenty of room. You can get them all up here for sure.

This brings back so many times, so many people.

That's what it's for, isn't it?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, my word.

Here's that stuff.

What stuff?

Oh, they left us in... Customs wouldn't let us back in for just hours.

They wouldn't believe it was them.

Yeah, you know.

Life is boring for those guys. They're going to have something to do over

there. They can hassle you for a couple of hours.

What the heck, you know, one customer takes that much time? It's good.

What did they do to you anyway?

They ran tests on the stuff.

Daniel had to have one for a long time before they'd ever give him back his

sand.

I bet it drove him crazy trying to figure out what that stuff was.

Oh, look, Martin.

What's that?

This is where we first met.

Really?

Remember? Yeah.

You thought you were going to come spend a week in paradise, and instead you

spent a week listening to your best friend and me fight.

It's kind of like refereeing.

How could I forget? Was it?

But what a beautiful place.

Yeah.

What a beautiful, beautiful place.

Even in the midst of all that...

Chaos.

This stuff here is sand from Utah.

I gave him this, and the funny thing about it is I was dragging this sand

around for years before I ever even knew Daniel or knew that anybody collected

sand or anybody cared about sand.

I had a weird experience there. I don't think I ever told anybody about it. I

was on a camping trip all by myself.

going camping to find myself, that whole deal.

So, of course, I got lost. I went out on a hike, I got off the trail, and I wound

up in these unbelievable sand dunes. I didn't know there were sand dunes in

Utah. It must have been like Malibu for the dinosaurs.

Just endless dunes. I got totally lost, out of water, and I actually began to

hallucinate, and it was frightening.

And I didn't know what I was going to do. And then suddenly, in the middle of

this weird hallucination, I began to hear music.

And I heard a theme, and it was so clear

and perfect.

And I said to myself in that moment, I guess people do this all the

time when they're in desperate straits, if God will save me now.

I'll dedicate my life to whatever.

And in this case, I said, if only I get out of this, I'll dedicate my life to

music. This is a sign.

This has got to be an omen.

And sure enough, a couple of guys came along. I wasn't as lost as I thought. I

was just off the trail. They helped me out, gave me some water.

I got back okay, and it was really no big deal.

I saved a little pocket full of this sand. It was a crazy thing to do. I

jammed it in my pockets at the time.

So I got back home, and of course, I followed through with my plan. I'm going

to keep my promise, dedicate my life to the art of music and so forth. And I

began to work on this theme, and I composed.

music every day, hours and hours, for three or four months. I wrote every

conceivable kind of thing I could think of. I wrote an orchestra piece, a string

quartet. It was just endless.

And then one day I was absentmindedly listening to the radio, and

in the middle of this piece of classical music, I heard my theme.

I was floored. I couldn't believe it. It was...

It was a Beethoven piece.

Oh, Martin.

Yeah, you know what I did?

No, what happened? I took the whole pile of music, I took it out in the backyard,

and I had a big bonfire and burned it all up.

Whoa.

And you never told Daniel?

I was too embarrassing. I don't think I ever told anybody. And then, to top it

off, I found out later, this happens to everybody, but I just didn't know it.

Oh.

You know what?

Would you like that bottle of sand?

Yeah, sure.

Can I really have it?

I hate to break up the collection.

I think it's a great story.

I think it's your sand.

Yeah, great. Thanks.

Hey, I got to get going. I have to work.

Oh, what are you doing?

Oh, you can't believe it. I got a commission from this woman who's kind of

a performance artist.

She wants me to electronically simulate a flock of goats.

Electronically? Yes, electronic goats.

Why don't you just go get some goats?

Where am I going to get goats?

Goat Hill.

No, they don't have goats on Goat Hill.

But I do have goats in my synthesizer. Oh.

Electronic goats. Yes.

It's the hippest thing.

Right. It's happening.

I think there's something strange about that. There are goats available in this

world, and you're making... If she has a budget for electronic goats, what am I

going to say?

Why not?

It'll sound great. Well, I have a whole lot of...

opinions about electronic music.

Come on.

You've heard them before, too.

I have?

You sure have.

Pretty soon everything will be electronic.

Well, it is already.

Right, and it sounds like it.

It doesn't sound like a piano, and it doesn't sound like drums, and it doesn't

sound like goats. It sounds like an electronic.

When you hear my goats, it's going to sound like a symphony. You'll be amazed.

This one looks like?

That one what looks like?

What were you going to do?

Just go off?

What is this in there?

What is this?

Uh, I don't know.

Better have a look, I guess.

Got done.

Claire.

Hi, Claire.

I know it's kind of a funny way to get there, but you know I always did love

you.

And I always really did just want to keep on living with you.

Kind of reminds me of this poem I found in that Japanese book, A Thousand

Leaves.

Hey, I've got Yasumiko.

The one they all said was impossible to get.

I've got Yasumiko.

Oh, Daniel.