Ext. bugs, distant cars, Distant party drunk sidewalk group? Guy is walking (whistling grapes “doo doo” part?)… walks right by Wesley W: Evening Sir… I wonder if I might bother you for a cigarette? G: sure man… mind if I sit down there… (sits down)… (deep breath, clears throat) This is a nice stoop. W: yeah… and a good view… look at that group over there.. they’ve been there for a while… the couple near the street is kind of quietly, but not so quietly having an argument about some girl he was talking to back at wherever they came from, and everybody’s kind of swaying back and forth… I love this town… G: You live downtown? W: nah, just passing through… but I used to work on a farm by Davis… these nights, man… Warm, but just dry enough and with the breeze… perfect. (sound of opening beer Can) Want a Beer? G: sure!, thanks… ooh Heineken… Cold, Nice.. thanks Man… My name’s Aaron… W: Wesley, good to meet you, thanks for the smoke… you been having fun?... the town’s bumping tonight!... a bit less sleepy than I remember… G: yeah, these second Saturday art walk nights, it’s pretty jumpin… but it’s a mixed bag… lotta suburb people come out… some lame-asses… but lots of cool cats too… I just came from the bike kitchen down the street, this bike repair co-op and there were lots of downtown peeps and friends… good beer… borrowed a friend’s bass to play a set, and just thought I’d walk the streets… there is an electricity when there’s this many people downtown… W: yeah, man, it’s a good good thing to get people out of their houses, get the urban center social and active… I’ve noticed the light rail expanded, and I’ve heard some smart conversations while sitting here… I’m feeling good about the humanity in this town tonight… G: yeah, I like how you put that… sometimes I can get down on this place… W: yeah, me too …it’s a Hard World sometimes … people are so set in their ways, and those ways happen to revolve around this closed off fast paced mass paranoia… people are too busy working and watching TV to grow their own food, so they eat the shitty food the industries feed them, and then they go out lacking proper sleep and nutrition, much less a feeling of accomplishment, driving around with these pop culture notions of fashion and friendliness… we’re more worried about how we look than actually expressing ourselves to the fewer and fewer people we come into contact with… THE INDIVIDUAL… owner of things… with this sense of self-importance that makes us all more vulnerable feeling than anything ever could… nobody wants to touch anything not wrapped in plastic, you know… fucking plastic… we’ll end up full of plastic… I’m tired and ranty, sorry G: NO, I get it man, I get it… it’s all enough to just make me drop out, you know… a local songwriter friend says in a song, “I’m moving out to the woods where I belong”.. W: Ha… that’s a good line… yeah, I did that, got out, got away… it helps, it’s fun… get out to that nature while it’s still there… I imagine the population is gonna keep growing, and those trails and the wilderness will just keep getting more and more crowded… I’ve lived on a bunch of farms, and got to know some pretty small rural communities, and it’s nice, and peaceful… but I keep coming back… to the city, to the people… you can’t escape it, really… maybe I just got bored… but, heck, even in those small communities, a fucking wal mart would come in, and it would just remind me of the rest of the world and… I don’t know. I’m addicted to being around the people.. for better or for worse.. see it all go whatever way it’s gonna go… G: yeah, I know what you mean.. it’s much less stressful to just be mindful of doing what you can in the way of the right thing, and trying to influence anybody who will listen… but beyond that, worrying about it will just kill ya… I should get into politics… W: man, it’s pretty hard to get into politics… you need tons of money, and it takes up all your time.. I’ve known a couple good small town politicians, and even those guys were a bit weird, and self centered… their marriages went to shit… G: yeah, that’s what I hear… ugh.. there’re so many smart forward thinking people who could do it, but they just don’t have the money and connections…ahhh well… can I have another beer? W: yea… (can opening sound) yeah, man, it’s a machine, and it takes tons of work to change it… makes for a good argument for some of the more drastic sentiments of our anarchistic revolutionary brothers… it’ll almost take an army of people, doing stuff like blowing up factories and stuff to influence anything outside of our current fucked up political climate… God Dammit… you just gotta keep yourself happy, and be nice to people on the whole… I guess I’ve found peace in some pretty simple living… G: hnh… so, yeah, what do you do for say, money?.. you staying with your friends in Davis?.. W: I did visit those guys the other day, but I’m staying at the hostel up on H street… it’s pretty cheap… I’m actually specifically in town to do a job.. I’ll probably take off soon to do it… catch a guy at his house… I will tell you that I throw grapes at people, for money… I know it sounds pretty weird, but yeah… ummm, several years ago, I was in france, working at a vineyard, with a couple other intern type guys, and we would play baseball and have target practice with the bad grapes, and I just got really really good at it… like really good. I can throw them hard and accurate… so, the vineyard master, my boss, real nice guy, super interesting… ahh, the Europeans… he got ripped off by his partner… I guess they were friends, and the guy just took a bunch of their savings fund and stopped talking to him… G: dang, that’s messed up W: I know! …he took the guy to court and won later… but check it out—I was pissed, so one night --I had found out where the guy lived… he didn’t even try to move away from the small town we were near… I went to his house and followed him… I knew he always wore really expensive clothing.. real priss face, and he was always going out on the town, sleezy barfly guy… so I followed him to this bar, with a bag of grapes, and right before he was about to go in, I unloaded on him… he didn’t even know where it was coming from at first, I was in this dark alley.. it was hilarious!... and man, it felt good… he was covered in grape stains and it was in his hair, and I got his eye, and he seemed in a bit of pain… but nothing too bad, and he totally deserved it… but he never recognized me, and he probably didn’t even remember who I was, such a douche… Europeans… so I went and told my farmer friend, and he was happy I did it, really, but feared he might be implicated… but no repercussions, and word spread quick about his cheating parter’s bad business ethics, and that guy totally left the small town like a few weeks later… it was awesome… and the farmer guy gave me a hundred bucks or so, and hooked me up with a job on a larger farm near Paris... those were good times… and I started telling people that I could do some damage in a non-violent way… and people totally took me up on their offers… often I’d get people in fancy clothing on their way out, I’d be hired by a scorned lover… one time a guy wanted me to ruin the computer servers at his office… that was weird… he blocked the back door partly open, and I snuck in, and just poured grapes all into the servers in the computer room…

Growing up, I never had a room of my own But now, the coop has been flown I go to school, and I got a kinda nice job Got some pretty good roommates and mom doesn’t call so much The other day, I was in the basement There was a door I had never seen before. I thought good thoughts, pushed it and the light shown in. It alighted on a letter, that read: Dearest Violet Edison: This is a Love Poem. I just wanted to Say, if the world were to end today, and I was the only one left, the first headstone that I’d erect, of the millions, would be yours. And it would read ( she had a book that changes lives on the back of her toilet. And she saw what once was wise in the eyes of everyone she met. And she never pointed fingers, and she kept her pallet wet. Thus she died, self applied, absent of regret )