Original subtitles

Leave a message, and we'll call you back.

Hey. It's Kurt.

I am calling you.

I'm in town. Just hoping you're around.

I don't know if you're there or what.

Pick it up, man. You will not regret it.

Hey, Kurt.

So you're here? Where are you staying?

Yeah. Thanks. The rumors are true.

Nah, we didn't want to know.

Oh, yeah? What you got? Lay it on me.

Sure. I could be into that.

I could use some time in the woods. Absolutely.

Yeah. I think that could be cool. Let me just ‒

Let me just run it by Tania.

Yeah.

I'll call you in ten. Right on.

What?

Don't ask for my permission.

I said I'd run it by you.

He wants to check out some hot springs near Estacada.

Camp out tonight. Get an early start tomorrow.

Be home by noon, I'd say.

If it's gonna be a problem, I'll call back and tell him I can't go.

Hey. You should come too. You're totally welcome.

You know that. It'd be fun.

Well, I'm not exactly up for camping.

Hmm.

It's probably gonna rain anyway.

Not gonna rain all day.

Look, you're just waiting for me to tell you to go.

We know you're going,

so I don't know why we have to go through this thing of me letting you off the hook.

I'm not gonna enjoy myself if you're miserable about it.

Go on. Lucy, go on.

...1190. Hugh, how are you?

- Very good. How are you today? - Good, thanks.

I'm calling in ‒ I never could understand

why Lyndon Johnson became the champion

of the civil rights movement.

I mean, the Voting Rights Act was a great thing.

- Oh, yes, but ‒ - It was the ‒

It was the beginning, literally the beginning of American democracy.

Yes, but it also became the foundation of the Southern strategy.

He said, "We've delivered the South

to the Republican Party for a long time" when he signed ‒

- Exactly. - Is that what you're talking about?

- He said it with regret ‒ - They were all wedge issues.

When Reagan talked about ‒ When Reagan talked about,

he's for states' rights, all it was,

it was just a veiled way of saying he's a racist.

When Nixon talked about law and order, that's what he was talking about.

He was talking about the ‒ Think about this.

You had ‒ You had, uh, Lee Atwater kicking around

when all these guys were devising the Southern strategy.

Including ‒ Including Karl Rove,

who's taken the Southern strategy to the next step,

and that's to divide us by way of religion.

So I don't think you're insane.

Bobby was joking when he said you're insane.

- Not really. - Okay.

But, Hugh, I'll tell you this. I agree with the fact that ‒

- May I interject here? - Yeah.

I didn't call up and assert that Lyndon Johnson did this.

I asked the question.

But Bobby reacted as if I was asserting it.

And then he starts calling names.

It was a bad question. You know, it was ‒

Bobby, there's no such thing as a bad question.

Now, I used to know ‒

Kurt.

Hello?

Hello?

Hey, man.

Hey, Kurt.

Hey.

I borrowed a cooler. Take it.

And a wagon. And a TV.

- You're looking good. - Really? I wish.

So Pete hasn't sold the house yet?

No, not yet. But my days are numbered here.

I'm really glad you could come.

I didn't know if you could make it on such short notice. Everyone's so busy now.

You know, I had a dream about you the other night

where you were in, like, a hospital or something.

It was really weird. But you were the best thing about it by far.

That's cool.

- How was Ashland? - Ashland?

Amazing. Transformative.

I'm at a whole new place now, really.

- Wow. You really got it all goin' on. - Hell, yeah. Where's your shit?

It's in the car. I've got the dog too.

Really? Why don't we take your ride? What do you think?

'Cause this thing is just a slug in the mountains.

Um, sure. Yeah, I can drive.

All right. Let's load it up.

And the Democrats are sitting on their damn hands.

What do you make of that?

First of all, the Democrats in Congress have made a tragic mistake,

and that is, they seem to think that they're a part of the government.

- Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. - That they're relevant somehow or other.

Rather than going to the people.

Opportunity is not just knocking at the door, it's pounding at the door.

- Yeah. - And there's the Democratic donkey,

sitting there sipping tea, saying,

"I don't know if I should get up and answer the door or not."

- Yeah. - It is there.

And we saw the same thing in last year's presidential election,

when our party's nominee did not pick up the cudgel...

- This'll just take two seconds. - ...and go after the corporate crooks.

- Hope Matt's home. - ...that doesn't understand

that the fight is not about them.

It's not a fight for them.

It's a fight to hold on to the very soul of democracy ‒

Yo, you got ten bucks?

- Yeah. - ...completely hijacked

by the Exxons, by the Coors, by the Murdochs, by Richard Mellon Scaife.

It's a fight that we can't win by removing ourselves...

- Thanks. - ...and standing on the sidelines.

Some say we need a third party. I wish we had a second one.

- Yeah. - And I'm gonna fight

for that to be the Democratic Party.

But I certainly understand people ‒

- Hey, what's up? - What's goin' on?

- Thirty dollars? - Thirty dollars.

...Working Families Party and other folks,

- because our party's not been standing up. - Take it easy.

If we do not stand up for working folks ‒

The one good thing about Dean

is that he is trying to flip the party back to the grassroots level.

Investment ‒

Does this thing go back any further?

Oh, yeah.

Ahh.

How's your dad?

He's all right. You know, all things considered.

Last I heard, he was living in a new place.

- Yeah, right. - Yeah.

For some reason, he decided at age 70

that he didn't want to be married anymore, so he moved out.

Yeah, that's what I heard.

Then he ended up with these...

fuckin' blood clots on his brain.

Oh, fuck.

Yeah, they just showed up out of nowhere.

He was really weak for a while. Nobody knew what to do.

Then they dissolved. Just went away.

That's heavy.

Really put my mom through the wringer.

Yeah, I bet. I bet.

It's kind of like when an old Eskimo goes off to die alone.

Who knows?

You still have this.

- Didn't this used to be Noah's? - Yeah.

Found it behind Kruger's. There's ‒

There's crumbs in there, but you can add it.

And then it was mine for a while.

Man, Mark, you really hold on to shit.

Not that I should talk.

I've still got crates of records in the garage on Ankeny Street,

stuff I haven't even listened to in ten years.

I'm gonna have to take the whole load down to Sid's, I think,

and see what I can get for it.

- Sid's is gone, man. - No way.

The rent got to be too heavy. Now it's a smoothie place.

- Rejuicenation. - Oh, no.

Sid sells on eBay now.

Oh, that makes sense.

I should be doing that.

Tania went by on the last day, said the only records left in the bins

were our friends'.

No more Sid's.

End of an era.

Come on.

"That boy's a hero!"

That was amazing. Were you catching that?

- "That young soldier got a raw deal." - "And everybody knows it."

- Do you know where we're going? - Oh, yeah.

Koozie, from downtown!

- You take this one ‒ - Bob Cousy!

No, you take this one.

No, you take this one.

These aren't even funny.

Back to you, Lucy.

Chew it up.

♪ Sunshine ♪

This is a great spot, man.

You're gonna love it.

I was here two summers ago.

Totally private. No one around. And most of all...

it has this otherworldly peacefulness about it.

You can really think.

Sounds awesome.

'Cause you can't ‒ You can't get real quiet anymore.

I visited this hot spring in Arizona last summer...

where no one is allowed to talk at all.

Total silence. It was fuckin' amazing.

They want me to come back and work as a chef sometime.

Ah, I've got a whole menu worked out for 'em.

Right. I think I read about that place in a magazine.

Do you remember Yogi?

Sure. He stiffed us on the rent when he left town.

Really? I forgot about that.

Well, I ran into him in Big Sur last month.

We had the most incredible night together.

We were out under the stars, dancing to these drums.

Everyone was jumping over these huge bonfires.

I'd never seen anything like it.

Everyone there... was just so joyful that night.

Beautiful women,

singing and dancing.

I don't know. Just a really, really amazing group of people.

No shit?

Yeah.

You should've been there.

Mmm. I think Yogi got laid.

Mmm.

Slow down.

Slow down. You want to go left.

Really?

Yeah.

Trust me, Mark.

Okay.

I'm in your hands.

I remember that.

I think we're somewhere...

in this area.

Yeah.

I need a little space.

Mmm! Yo!

- It's the mother of your child. - Thank you.

Hey.

I have no idea.

No, it's fine. We just have no idea where we are.

I can sort of hear you. Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

No. What was that?

No. I mean, we're looking for it.

I can't ‒ I can't hear you. I'm gonna have to go.

I'll call you when I have reception.

Yeah.

Well, I love you.

I love you.

That sign up there is literally blank.

We've entered a whole other zone.

Far out.

Up or down?

Up.

Getting dark.

What do you think, Kurt?

I spotted a turnoff where we can camp for the night.

Just a few miles back down that road we passed.

We can camp there and find the river in the morning.

Do you know how to get there?

Yeah, I know how to get there, but you got to turn around.

Mmm.

Well, might as well stay here, I guess, right?

Still get a good start in the morning.

Looks fine to me.

Lucy, stay here.

It's good to get out of the city.

I forget all this is out here sometimes.

No shit.

It's not like there's any big difference between the forest and the city though.

Know what I mean?

It's all one huge thing now.

There's trees in the city and garbage in the forest.

What's the big difference, you know?

I see what you mean.

So are you looking forward to fatherhood?

Yeah.

Sure. I mean ‒

We're both stretched so thin with work, it's almost impossible to imagine, but...

it'll have to work itself out.

We'll just...find another rhythm.

Do whatever it is people do.

So fuckin' brave, man.

I've never gotten myself into anything that I couldn't get myself out of.

It's just, having a kid is so fuckin' for real.

Yeah.

Watch out, Hamm's cans.

- Did you ‒ Are you pumping these for me? - I pumped it.

It's easier to aim with one hand than with two hands.

Really?

Why do you think on TV they do it with two hands?

Everything's about looking cool.

But I looked pretty cool with one hand, right?

Two hands is the responsible shooting. One hand is renegade shooting.

Yeah. Renegade.

I'll try lefty.

Switch ‒ Switch ‒ Switch-hit shooting.

I think one more shot ‒ Let me take one more shot,

and I'm gonna have it.

You know, I was gonna sleep out, but...

is it cool to sleep in?

- Sleep in the tent with you? - That's fine.

- Is Lucy gonna sleep in the tent? - It's a two-man tent.

Two men and a doggie.

- That's cool. - Two-men-and-a-doggie tent.

That's pretty cool.

Sleeping with the dog's pretty cool. She's a girl.

- Keeps you warm. - Mm-hmm.

I took some night classes.

Anything good?

It was all right. Some physics classes.

But here's the thing about that, is that I knew more than they did.

All this quark and super-string shit, I know all about that,

and it makes sense.

And don't get me wrong.

I understand it, but that's not the final answer.

Wow. You think you understand it?

Basically.

It's like this, see.

Sometimes things look like they don't have any order,

and then, from a different level, you realize that it does have order.

It's like climbing a mountain.

Look around, you see trees and rocks

and bushes pressing around you,

and then you get above the tree line, you see everything you just went through,

and it all, like, comes together.

You know, you see that it has a shape after all.

Sometimes it takes a long time to get high enough to see it, but it's there.

It's ‒

It's all about space and time and how it ‒

How they change the rules sometimes.

Makes perfect sense to me.

It's like...

two mirrors moving through space,

and there's a single atom moving between them.

Fuck.

I forget ‒

Whatever. But I-I ‒ The thing is, I get it.

I get it on a fundamental level.

The thing is...

is that I have my own theory.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah. It's that the universe is falling, man.

That's what explains it all.

The entire universe is in the shape of a falling tear

dropping down through space.

I'm telling you man, I don't know how it happened,

but that's just the way that it works.

It's this tear that's been dropping down forever.

It just doesn't stop.

So did you tell them that?

Your theory about the tear-shaped universe?

Did I tell them?

You know, who the hell am I?

They don't care about my theory. Doesn't mean shit to them.

I don't have any numbers for it.

God.

I miss you, Mark.

I miss you really, really bad.

I want us to be real friends again.

There's something between us, and I don't like it,

and I want it to go away.

Hey, man, what are you talking about? We're fine.

Are you serious? Do you really think that?

Of course.

Of course I do. We're fine. We're totally fine.

I don't know.

God!

God, I'm sorry.

I'm just being crazy.

I'm sorry.

I'm just being crazy. I know.

Don't pay any attention to me, okay?

We're fine.

Everything's totally fine.

I feel a lot better now.

- Your dog's in distress. - Yeah.

Tania calls it separation anxiety.

She does hate to be left out.

- Hi. - Mmm.

- Thanks. - Mm-hmm.

Hey, how far are we from Bagby Hot Springs?

Oh, you're real close. I think.

I've never been there, but it's around here somewhere.

Maybe ten miles away. We might have a little map printout in the back.

- I'll check for you. - Great.

And I'll bring you some coffee while you're looking at the menus?

Great.

This is better anyway.

Now we won't be rushed. We can take our sweet time.

- Need more time? - Nope.

All right.

Hey. Can you hang on a sec?

Could I get two scrambled eggs...

dry toast, and sausage?

Um, yeah, before my call comes,

could I get the same as my friend, please?

- Mm-hmm. - Except bacon instead of sausage...

- Uh-huh. - ...and no dry toast.

- All right. - Wet toast, please.

Very good.

Not too wet. Just make it damp. Make it ‒

I know. I know. I'm sorry.

Well, he thought he knew where it was, but, you know,

remember who we're dealing with.

I don't know. Apparently we're...closing in on it.

Did you do anything last night?

She's fine.

Okay.

We're super close.

I never doubted you, man.

This is where we're going.

This is where we are? Awesome.

Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo.

There.

On the tree.

- I don't know how we could've missed that. - I'm tellin' you, man,

this is a very special place.

If you can't see the little arrows at night, you can't get in.

Lucy. Lucy, come on.

Come on.

- You grew a pickle? - Yeah.

So you grew a pickle. A dill or, like, a half-sour?

It was ‒ I guess it's called half-sour,

where they're sort of salty and don't have a lot of flavor.

Mm-hmm.

How are you feeling?

Good.

I feel good. How about you?

Feel good too.

Watch these sticks.

Yeah, over here!

Oh, my God! Lucy, look!

Good girl!

Drop it.

It's only one day a week,

but it really pulls me out of myself.

The kids are cool.

They're really into it,

and it's fun thinking about carpentry and woodworking

in a way I haven't for a long time.

Makes you realize how long ago 16 was.

So now this ‒ what was basically a dumping ground

is this really happening community garden.

I'm so proud of you, Mark.

I'm serious.

You've really done something.

You've really given something back to the community.

Oh, I don't know.

No, really.

I'm serious.

It's really something.

It's not that big a deal. It's not that much time out of my life.

It's nothing you couldn't do if you felt like it too.

Not that you don't give to the community. I mean...

It's just a different community.

- This is it, Mark. - Cool. This looks fantastic.

I hope you like it.

This is awesome.

All right.

Let's start these flowing.

Plug it up, and then ‒

Oh, yeah.

What's this for?

Just grab it.

Come on.

Fill up here.

And then we'll use this to make the tubs

cool enough to get our bodies in.

Just dump it in.

You might want to ‒

- The whole thing? - Yeah.

We'll probably want to refill.

That water will scald the skin off.

Man.

Yesterday...

I wanted to get a notebook for my journal...

so I borrowed Pete's bike,

and, first, when I took off riding...

and where I was on the sidewalk,

there was this old man on the sidewalk too.

And I ‒

You know, he was walkin', walkin', walkin', so I thought, "Oh, I'm clear."

I took off to the left, around him, and just then he stepped to the left,

and I didn't ring the bell or anything.

And when I got past him, he yelled at me.

He was like, "Hey! Thanks for the warning!"

And I just felt so bad all of a sudden.

I felt so guilty.

But it was fine, you know? Never gonna see this guy again.

But I realized I forgot something at the house, so I rode back.

Had to ride back by him. Looked at his face, like ‒

I felt like, "Oh, he's so angry at me. He totally hates me."

Whatever. Can forget him again.

So, then I want to go,

you know, get something to drink.

And I go into a little store, stop the bike.

When I come back out, I get on the bike, I'm riding ‒

I'm riding down the same street, 'cause it's a hill,

and I pass the guy again.

And again, I'm just like, feeling more and more tense, like...

Then I've got a stretch, you know, before I get to the notebook store.

So I'm like, "Okay. I can finally move on with my life.

Not have this guy..."

Go down to the notebook store, look for my notebook.

It's, like, 20 blocks. Look for my notebook.

Come up to the cash register.

I'm buyin' the notebook,

and the automatic doors open, and I look up,

and the guy is, like, walking right into the store,

right in front of me.

And I just can't believe it.

And then the cashier woman, I hear her talk to me all of a sudden.

She's like, "Superstar."

"What?"

And I look at her.

And she's this Indian woman, maybe like 50-year-old Indian woman,

with glasses and a dot on her forehead.

And I was like, "What?" And she said, "Jesus Christ Superstar.

You said, 'Jesus Christ."'

I was like, "No, I didn't say, 'Jesus Christ."'

You know? And I looked at the bagging guy

and was like, "Did I say, 'Jesus Christ'?"

He, like, just shrugs.

And she's like, "It's okay, it's okay."

But I feel like I would've known if I'd said, "Jesus Christ," you know?

I would've heard my voice in my memory, like,

"Jesus Christ." "Jesus Christ." "Kurt said, 'Jesus Christ."'

So I was still shaking my head. I was like, "I feel like I'm going crazy."

Uh, and I'm still sort of tense and everything.

"I feel like I'm going crazy."

She's like, "It's okay. You're not crazy. It's okay."

And she was really nice.

And right when she said that, I ‒

This dream that I'd had just ‒ just yesterday morning

just flashed on me,

because the same lady, the cashier lady, was in the dream...

doing the same thing, basically.

Uh, I mean, I wasn't in a store,

but I was really upset about something,

really totally depressed about something.

And she just put her arms around me and said...

"It's okay. You're okay.

Sorrow is nothing but worn-out joy."

I see all kinds of shit out there, man.

Most people don't see it.

They don't want to.

Hey, what's goin' on?

Just relax, man.

Just settle in.

All right.

Lucy, come on.

All righty.

Yep.

That was ‒ That was awesome, Kurt.

I'll call you soon, man.

Hold on a sec.

Later, Lu. See ya.

See ya, Kurt.

It's not enough to take care of the new people

who come along every year

to join the labor force or to re-join it.

And it doesn't take care of the sharply higher cost of necessities.

It's one thing to say inflation appears under control in the aggregate,

but when you notice that housing costs, health-care costs,

and energy costs are exploding,

you're talking about things that make up the overwhelming share

of the budget of an ordinary family.

And so the combination of uncertainty about the future

and the pressures on the present create this mood.

Now, the White House is well aware of this.

You hear the word "recovery" all the time

because they don't dare use the word "prosperity."

Um, you also see things like these photo opportunities this week

from the, uh, so-called working vacation in Texas.

You think you might be able to help me out with a little change?

Ah, I'm sorry, man.

- Hey, man. - Right on. Thanks, man.

- Have a good night. - You too.