(explosions and other hallmarks of pandemonium)

(silence)

eyes wide open, dear:
time to live without fear
within nature
lacking monarchical aspirations
together
as one

remember the promise as a kid you made
the singer offers
but that kid's eyes aren't fearful like mine
ive plumbed my coffers
for a shred of him
but the light from those moments
hasn't reached my planet yet

i can't see
what allowed him to be
and why this curtain follows me
how he could see so clearly
that The Good Life needs
ignorance:

a precisely willed hand full of tar
blacking out the inane,
the Not Worth Your Time, Buddy
so that light may reach the sun-starved people
who each can see the forest for the trees
but cant look at a
beautiful
little
leaf
glistening with dew
with chemical potential
with us

Finding My Own Art

[no vacancy sign in the wilderness
the woods are filled to the hilt
with vermin and wolves and deer and badgers
and me

i'm bitter
a breathing Beast Ice
i'm bitter
i'm bitter
i'm bitter
i'm

(alone)]

people:
look up at towers in full orange ball of fury blaze
smiling
watching their world disintegrate

ashes litter their hair
but they see a child's glitter


their breathing st-

The End of Shot Clocks (and The Beginning of Injury Time); Or, Contemplations in Surmounting the High School of Human Evolution; Or, Utopia (Really?)

[Two Short Remarks

(One) Each occurrence of "(silence)" represents ~5 seconds passing.

(Two) In place of objective instructions for actors to follow to the letter, there are more subjective, emotional templates.]

EXT. SKY AFTERNOON; June 24, 2007

the blazing sun.


Broken Social Scene's Hotel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxgJKhrG3N0)

But from Earth and daytime. And just cut off,just a bit of sky exposed in the screen's four corners.

It is on the screen for approximately 3-4 seconds.

A massive cloud like a freight liner to those lost at sea, juts into view. it shields but also obscures.


we work our way down, out of the clouds, and into the city.

EXT. CITY - AFTERNOON

About 50 feet up, descending on a busy intersection in a commercial epicenter with stores, restaurants, and offices. there is a steady stream in all directions. slowly make our way to our guy. he is stoic. nothing particularly distinguishable from his face, except the complete and utter lack of expression. not sad, not bored but impassive. he does not stare straight-ahead. he glances at people, takes them in, but there is no facial acknowledgment of this and especially no indication of his thoughts.

the steady stream is composed of your standard city fare: men and women in dark suits with briefcases; tight jeaned, sweater wearing hipsters; anonymous college kids with backpacks, iPods, and flip flops; a dude screaming on his blue tooth; a couple arguing; two young men having a very intense but civil conversation; and homeless people begging. one homeless woman who wears such agony that it pains to imagine not only the infrequency with which she must smile, but the bare fact that this very same face could possibly smile. and had smiled many times. perhaps under these very same conditions..the same squalor that on this occasion leads to her despair.

there's people in freshly cleaned aprons, aboard white button down shirts/green polos and black pants, handing out flyer-coupons in complete earnestness outside restaurants. neither self-loathing nor ignorant, they simply work and do their best because they must.

He stays on the same street, walking. everyone from the once mass, diverges at different points, slowly dissipating in correspondence with the exit of what was a popular, commercial downtown area. he is stoic. nothing particularly distinguishable from his face, except the complete and utter lack of expression. not sad, not bored.

He passes a little park area that is a part of a larger park containing running paths and lies up against a sea. There’s a girl sitting, reading and smoking a cigarette. She is reading The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir. She has a red pen in her hair. She does not move her head, or even appear to be moving her eyes, though we are not close enough to know for certain. She does not look up or appear to notice as he approaches. Eyes go to cigarette as he advances, then horizontally to the other hand holding the book: feels pocket, no cigarettes, looks back to the girl (book , face, cigarette), breaks her plane slightly and pulls back as if on a fishing rod's hook. Sheepishly, he looks back, pulls out his headphones (bss' hotel stops), and asks for cigarette. Camera is back, 15 feet up to the rear of girl's seat, back and to the left.


Boy: "Hey... Can I bum one of those?"

(silence: she doesn't respond right away. she does not look up until a moment after he finishes)

Girl: "Hello. (pause) A book or a cigarette?" (demonstrates the options in each hand)

B: (laugh) "A cigarette."

(she hands him one. he lingers post-lighting, smiles, looks at her. she is looking at him looking at her. he looks down and away, then tears himself back to her.)

B: "Hi."

G: "Hi. (bemusement of 1/8'' grin)

B: “H-…”

(camera: front, zoom to her)

G: "Ok. I think we've covered greetings already. Is that all you've got? Are you going to stand there and say 'Hi' to me?"

B: "Well. No. hopefully, no. i just can't decide what I want to say next."

G: "Oh."

B: "Yeah." (he has the body movement of someone imaginarily kicking imaginary dirt)

G: "What's the first thing that came to mind?

B: "Heh...Yeah...To be honest (looks her over, beat): I don't know...."

G: "You just say 'Hi' and begin speaking without having any idea where you’re headed. Weird."

B: yes i had no idea where I was going and yes I think it’s weird too."

G: "Why do you think it's weird?"

B: "Because this happens all the time."

G: "Well...if it happens all the time, then why is it weird??"

B: "This is the best it's ever gone."

G: "Oh."

(silence)

(silence)

(silence)

(silence)

B: "It was…the sound of your voice." (complete earnestness, sincerity to overcome the natural cheesiness it would be easy for a part of the self to criticize, as if he needed the extra wind from the large exhale to propel himself to finish the sentence, or like a diver taking a deep breath before going under)

(unembarrassed and neither comfortable nor uncomfortable; she looks at him, he's looking out somewhere slightly to the left of her, as if in a waiting room. two evaluative but stoic expressions and then the moment she finds his eyes, she laughs like a child at play. but a furrow reaches her brow.)

G: (perplexed, bemused amusement) “What was?”

B: "The first thing that came to my mind...(she looks quizzical) I don't mean a singing voice or something. Haha. I haven't heard you singing in the shower..."

G: "I hope not."

B: " (half-laugh: the kernel of real confidence. he takes the final drag, stamps it out, and exhales as he speaks) Yeah, that'd be a bad way to start off a conversation: "Hey, you didn't know me prior to 60 seconds ago, but I heard you singing in the shower and you have a really gorgeous soprano."
(laughter on his part, a 1/5'' smile; she smiles, more re: him than the "joke")

(silence)

(silence)

(silence)

(silence)

(she puts her book in her bag and stands up. he remains seated. he is uncertain if the conversation is over. she pulls out her pack of cigarettes and offers him another one which he accepts. she lights both cigarettes and begins walking.  he walks beside her.  )

(silence)

(silence)

G: (this has an almost soliliquoy feel. tho, she acknowledges his presence intermittently, she mainly looks Around, not directly at him. he is rapt. his eyes smiling the smile his mouth and brow cannot yet form.) I've always been uncomfortable with this infatuation with a woman's physical beauty. It's such an empty compliment really. What part did I play in my looks? Very little...I can maintain...I can style...put on makeup...wear fashionable, flattering clothes, but how much do my.... customizations.. really matter? We’re glorified janitors, in all honesty. no artist: more like a restorer. at best. And the real object of the compliment is something I had nothing to do with! I'm just dabbling on nature's canvas! it's pure luck..

(large cigarette drag, the collection of thoughts and the regathering of an ethusiasm that sputtered out from post-conclusion stress disorder)

They might as well say just that...: ‘what luck you had to stumble upon some facial symmetry, a nice skin tone and hair color ... and a lack of disfigurement (?!): (robotically) this set of features pleases me.’ I'd appreciate that a lot more than a standard (drawled) "You sure are beautiful, missy." Or at the very least show me some creativity if you're gonna focus on something that isnt really the result of me. I mean, a good metaphor or four would be just fine. But, "ya know, you're beautiful" is just...sad. I don't want it. So, I guess what im saying...is..thanks. thanks for not being trite. you and your voice compliment. (chuckles, almost to herself, looks down, then immediately looks at him with concentration.)
B: (sincerely, he's profoundly affected) "you're welcome."

(maintains look out towards X, not him. He is matter of fact. not without emotion but not exuberant per se; as though realizing something which is known to be new but feels so familiar and right that it is perceived as anything but new. He maintains his look outward, completely at ease. no desire to sneak glimpses commissioned by his long-term memory, no fear of never seeing her again. he is able to see her only how and what she is this instant.)

(silence.)

(silence.)

G: (looks to him) "I haven't been that honest with anyone, given from my core being since...i can remember, since i knew i had a core being. since i knew i could choose.

(silence)

And to a “stranger." That's a weird thing to know. Now that I have accepted it...(no longer looking at him, looking out at water, deep exhale) But I guess I've always known it.

B: "Acceptance is good."

G: "It is."

(silence and they look at one another.)

(drunk on passion) People....they don't want it though. And it's just so much easier to give them what they want rather than what you think they need. Even if it is the acknowledged, Right Thing. even if it is the best thing for you...Why is Easy so dynastic?"

B: I'm not exactly sure either, but you're right. I know that much.

G: (grins) Well, that’s good.

B: (smiling, of course) It's probably as simple as it sounds. "Easy" is so pervasive...exactly because of itself - it's the simplest, least contingency-ridden option. Occam’s Razor. You know Occam?

G: (faux solemn) I do.

B: Oh...and its warm and fuzzy and snuggles close with you at night. Whispers in your ear that it’s the right choice while it’s jerking you off..(looks mildly apologetic for going “blue.”)

G: " (laughs) So, who are you, Mysterious Cigarette Bummer? You don't seem a full-on cynical misanthrope yet; are ya? What drags you out from underneath the covers?" (The girl recognizes one who has given themselves as fervently, with as much passion, even if it is in the complete opposite fashion, and against the current, thus, unsuccessfully.)

B: "Ha…Well… (looks to the sky, looks around, looks to her, obviously thinking, over a period of maybe 5 seconds…a tad bit of sheepishness) This."

G: "this?"

B: "Yes. This. Or... the possibility of this… talking with earnest girls who... don't hide who they are and... aren't afraid. of me, themselves..fate, chance.."

(She demurs. blushes. looks to the ground. raises eyes to his, who have not left her. She's uncertain and a heretofore barely seen version of the girl enters. She is sad and unsure. Like Annie Clark at 3:38 of this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vxQs84FMWQ ). the whole thing is needed for context, but the look on her face as her eyes lower, break away from the shield, the absolute stare, and embraces the uncertainty of her suffering, of who she is.)

But that goes for men too, minus the romantic connotations. Earnestness, sincerity..autonomy (rights himself; at least in his own mind; tho it remains definitely up for debate whether or not either one is Off the Rail)

..sounds like some 'sweet guy line', but it's also the truth ("open" eyes/ raised brows)...so it's got that...(a
facial appeal of concurrence, as in: "Touche?? Eh? Eh? Eh?...")

(she gives ambiguous skepticism..he continues since he does not know if it was faux or genuine)
But really what motivates me, what keeps me out of the... dark recesses of depression and a life of solitude in the thick labyrinthine forest, is learning and loving...for the sake of themselves but not for sheer...accumulation of knowledge or massive adulation...or...as a means of anything else but it is my - and our - human essence to be conscious, reflect, reason, and love! to become, to become, and to become some more..leaving these impossibly private heavens behind!

(beat)

(zoom to him, from the shoulders up..blazing sun in background, partially obscured by his passionately vibrating head, partially blinding.)

..to feel happiness and suffering...laugh at our folly or wit... living every instant with as much fervor as the last, living for the sake of the best possible world, of the best possible me... and everyone else i know...and...interacting with friends and really anyone who cares about these things...that's my iron lung, my respirator for the day-to-day disappointments that must be endured...and rationalized...."

(enthusiasm undulating much like a plot diagram, crescendo at the climax, sputter into the ending with resolution absent, all that remains are pieces of what seemed like knowledge, that now are no longer intelligible and do not have a trusted place in reality; resentment and disgust outlined in despair; the sun is beating down on them prominently. the camera is behind them a bit, the sun is the background to their foreground)

(silence)

(silence)

Erm…How bout you? What's your food?

G: (looking at him, but breaking intermittently) “…Not nearly as clear as yours. I guess some days I’m not even sure what it is I’m eating. (no longer looking at him) But it keeps me alive… (an almost scientifically sterile tone, she stares out into the sea) I've been passive to the difference between myself and the world around me. The world has given to me. I haven't given to the world. Except in passivity, my acquiescence. I've accepted the limitations of the time. My historical particulars. Haven’t expected much from anyone…. isn't it torturous expecting people to be like you? I don't know how you do it…I mean, I gave up almost immediately…but I usually like to call it “adaptation.”

B: (laughs) Well…that’s the difficult question, isn’t it? To adapt or not to adapt? Should the behavior and beliefs of others affect our conception of our core self, what we value?

(silence)

(laughs)
…I don’t know of course..but it's easier to live with myself if I just go out into the world, with my pieces for a different puzzle, and be the best person I can be, try to put together the puzzle i'm in. not want to be in... Be conscientious. And courageous in my convictions. Compassionate. Reasonable. Loving passionately but not indiscriminately. You’re right, (no longer looking at her) disappointment will surely come…and it has. (oscillating emotions: looks back at her ) but let it be some other ingredient of the equation. Not me. I'm putting forth the effort…

(silence)

So, I guess I just ignore it. As much as possible."

(silence)

(a quickly emerging wide grin on her face; if the rate of acceleration with which her mouth moved from neutral to smile were to be graphed it would be an incredibly steep, ascending, exponential curve)

G: "So, ignorance is bliss??"

B: (big laugh but not long - not cracking up, a slight scoff) not at all. That would require bliss! there is perpetual disappointment in this stance. Warring standards with no bridge… I didn't mean to imply I was motivated by pleasure. It's an ethical issue and my standard views pleasure maintenance as…well…a disgusting waste of my freedom... if pleasure was the end for which i acted in most situations.. (a sort of mutter:) but i do believe in willed ignorance..and sensual pleasure..to some degree.."

(now she is the one observing intently..while he is somewhat unnerved..not by the release of some big secret or bottled up thought, but from her question's power, his convoluted answer, and from the sheer power of her gaze: it startles and in so doing confounds. her face is conflicting and complicated. it is almost an evaluative bemused amusement look; as if: "Ok. Sweet sensitive, neurotic routine but:)

G: I see. I see...So, how does all this relate to my beautiful voice? Is it a soaring violin accompanying the final step onto Everest's peak or a... gentle harp, comforting as a slight breeze on a muggy summer night???

B: "Haha. Damn it, I committed! I left the matzoball hanging. Is there no return from here? (exaggerated look to the heavens) Can't I just leave the pinata hanging with all the kids revved up expecti-"

G: (impatient) (clears throat) "nope. you can't. stop with the verbal rain delay already!"

B: "-Candy..Wow. (narrating) She’s on to me so soon, he thought with an inaudible chuckle.”

G: " (laughs) others are more than willing to let you ramble?"

B: "Yeah. Usually. That whole "give em enough rope to hang himself', i suppose..."

G: " Yeah I can really see that being continuously entertaining. (assesses him) Ok. So...my voice: beautiful...could start wars..."

B: "Hey! I never promised warfare...I clearly remember that."

G: "Ok. Well, I suppose I can concede the bloodshed. It's not a deal-breaker. I guess I can take the subjective musings of what seems to be a fairly sensible dude. (sizes up)

B: "Why, thank you, my dear!"

(silence)

(silence)

Ooooh. Too soon? Too soon with the affectionate generic name substitution? I've always suspected that to be some sort of flaw…"he was too familiar, too soon." (put on anchorman, stone phillips gravitas)

(laughter)

(silence)

(silence)

(silence)

(silence)

"It’s a huge gust of warm wind in the Arctic. A beautifully realigning slap in the face. It's the sound that satisfies an unspoken, intangible...inchoate desire I've felt for the better part of a decade...or more.. Mischievous. Curious. Refreshing. That "shining" spine Jeff Tweedy sang about...'No automaton present here, General. House is clear.' (a kind of half salute)

(silence)

(she goes to speak, attempts to clear throat: bone dry. she passionately grabs his head and kisses him as if the force herein will deter even Custer at Big Horn)
G: "(eyes darting, making her way from sea to sky to him to ground to him)Yeah...(clears throat)..(mumbles unintelligibly).. I was really parched...and there was no water handy...the saliva in your mouth seemed the most appropriate place to quench my thirst." (mildly awkward since of course, these people have just met. Intense connection or not, time still must have its way) (she wears a 1/2" grin. the boy, purely metaphorically, has appeared to pissed himself. and reached nirvana, or its base, truly been eye-to-eye for the first time with everything he imagined must/should be true which is very, very different than actually experiencing, knowing)

…(laughing in an attempt to make light of something that is anything but light) that was literally my thought process there..

B: "Oh...no judgment here... (Gives the "Don't shoot!" hand expression)"

(silence)

(silence)

G: (stunned) "So all that in the first 30 seconds you knew me?!?!"

B: "Well, no, most were from difficult to distinguish language/voice reads later on, but... two were there at that point: the autonomy, the strength of character...and the knowledge... that your voice was so....in tune.. with a set of internal, intangible standards I have felt and battled for years...and just recently been able to articulate and understand on even the most fundamental level.

G: How can this exist, this ability to judge and accurately feel my truth through my voice? Or anything so ethereal?

B: (medium-sized self-deprecating belly laugh) I don't claim that answer. I don't claim many answers. My only claims are rational argument, theory, synthesized with a spattering of feeling and experience. I believe they call it The Gut.

G: Haha. Well, what's your theory then?

B: My theory on this feeling borne of my incredible dearth of experience?

G: Yeah. Give it to me. Why such faith??

B: (chuckle) "Language and reason have tremendous power in identifying truth... but there are areas outside their jurisdiction requiring resolution from a sister court... in the forum of Emotion and Intuition where language, reason, science are unable to discern reality with any kind of the accuracy they achieve within their natural homes. It's like...instead of being run through just the reason filter or just the emotion filter..the thought runs through some hybrid filter, encompassing all thought."

G: "So, its not an abandonment of reason; its just good ole highly calibrated and refined intuition, the product of a fully assimilated "I?" But what is so special to you about the voice? What separates it from..

(silence)

B: "Voices are like eyes...and hands…they are windows...extensions of the words we utter and the actions we take...the themes and motivations that lie beneath and extend through our actions like vertebrae. however much words or action may serve as a curtain...the sun, or darkness, from an eye, a hand, or... a voice.. shines through..and is clearly evident to the person willingly to look ...Truth in Action, in Words, Logic, or in subconscious physical mannerisms? I'll take the truth from my voice read.. here today, up against Einstein's relativity, Ghandi's hunger, Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, Hendrix's Red House: none is more real than the others.

G: I'd say you're putting quite a bit more pure faith into that conclusion than all of them..

B: (laughs) Yeah..maybe. This is a form of faith. Acknowledged. I'm not afraid to say it. But what doesn't require some extension of hope, some constructed sun. even science is built on a foundation of faith, and mine isn't completely unregulated, tyrannical dogmatic faith. It comes from a purer place, much more empirical and reflective…open to change..I assure you. (funny looks exchanged at mini cop out.)

…And it's faith in you. And people like you. That I'm not alone, we're not alone, and maybe the future isn't partly cloudy with a strong chance of thunderstorms and golf ball hail. That maybe our conversation here today isn't a dream, an aberration, a sick reminder of squandered possibilities..."

(camera begins a slow pan back amid silence. circles. zoomed in on: the nearby tide coming in, somewhat violently against apparently the same pier but much further down. it fills the screen: the variable wave crashing its will into the fixed and determined pier. the waves are crashing furiously from the middle of the sea into the side of the pier. the pier appears to extend miles out, remote. The crashing is the only background sound to speak of. Outside of the opening walking tune.)

[the scene moves from the sea to blackness to the boys eyes and eyes alone. camera moves to his mouth, a grin resides. camera pans out, the boy's head swivels, looks around in the darkness. his face twists in anguish, fury, bitter disappointment. the conversation is a dream, the boy's dream,  a dream in framework he has dreamed far, far too many nights; in the darkness he stumbles furthering his misery (kind of a play on radiohead's there there: in pitch dark/ i go walking through your landscape/broken branches trip me as i speed); he cries out while continuing his path to the bathroom as he falls into his computer, exposing a computer screen with itunes open. the artist: the beatles; the song: happiness is a warm gun; it is on repeat. (in a perfect world this would be playing as he woke up, starting just around the title refrain) he is huddled above the toilet bowl. he is vomiting, sweating profusely, and spitting, drooling a long continuous globule of 1/3 saliva, 1/3 bile, and 1/3 food chunks. he attempts to compose himself, gets up, looks in the mirror, hovering, shaking above the sink. he gives an exasperated exhale, followed by muttering: "pfftsh: (spits loogie, sees his pale-faced, sweaty-haired, blood-eyed, tear-stained reflection) the good dream is the real nightmare."]

(black)

"Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk -- real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious." - Jack Kerouac

i want
to be
in the universe of possibility
between my shirt and body
where i'm not me
im becoming me