Subj: The Genius 2000 Video First Edition Transcript: Albos
Date: 1/19/2000
To: [email protected]
Scene 1: Driving across the San Francisco Bay Bridge, day.
Narrator: Genius, 1. A. Exceptional or transcendent intellectual and
creative power: "True genius rearranges old material in a way never seen
before." B. One who possesses such power. 2. A. A natural talent or
inclination, used with to or for: "She has a genius for acting." B. One
who has has such a talent or inclination: "He is a genius at diplomacy." 3.
The prevailing spirit or character as of a place, person, time, or group:
"The genius of the Elizabethan poets." 4. Roman Mythology. A tutelary
deity or guardian spirit allotted to a person from birth.
Millennium. 1. A span of one thousand years; a millennary. 2. A thousand
year period of holiness during which Christ is to rule the earth (Revelation
20:1-5). 3. A hoped-for period of joy, serenity, prosperity, and justice.
Scene 2: "Genius 2000." Beethoven's Eroica playing, over Bay Bridge and
City streets at night.
Scene 3: Narrator.
Albos: Golden good fortune.
Scene 4: University of California at Berkeley campus. Genius 2000 street
sign with Max Herman passing out Project literature.
Max Herman: Yeah, this is my major film. (Gives Lesson Two to interested
passerby. She looks at it, walks away.) It's not religious; I guarantee,
it's not religious.
Scene 5: Polk Street, San Francisco, evening, dogs in Max's car.
Carter Herman: Good girl. You want to answer the questions on that sheet?
Carah Balkman: No.
Carter: You don't feel like it?
Carah: No, I have to think about 'em for awhile.
Carter: What are they again anyway?
Carah: I can't remember, I just read 'em once.
Carter: You wanna hold that? (Gives Carah the camera.)
Carah: Do you wanna answer 'em? Have you answered 'em?
Carter: Nah. I haven't yet. (Takes Contribution One from car.) "What does
it take to be a genius? Do you have it? Does anyone you know personally
have it? What does the year 2000 mean? Does it mean this to you, or other
people? How are the concepts of genius and the year 2000 connected?" I feel
I haven't had enough sleep yet to contemplate the answers--
Scene 6: Late night party in San Francisco.
Ralph: --San Francisco. Hi, I'm Ralph. I'm, ah, head of security at
Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems. I'm also a student doctor of
acupuncture, teacher of (inaudible) t'ai chi; retired chef for the New York
Racing Association, four stars; chef of Cafe Mondo, on Polk Street, Pacific,
by Johnny Love's, formerly. Um, I don't know what else I can tell you; I do
a lot of harm reduction. Sorry, we had such a, a little bit of negative
energy tonight. I also used to be the leading trainer of horses at New York
Racing Association, and I won all the races by putting high-heeled shoes on
the horses, chiropractic, acupuncture, heating up the oats and putting
crushed vitamins....
Max: You guys think he deserves a hundred bucks?
Party guest: Yeah.
Max: I have it in my hand, I'll give him a hundred dollars, just say yes or
no.
Ralph: I won a lot of races. Matter of fact the jockeys followed me to the
west coast.
Max: (Hands Ralph Lesson Two.) Here you go. Nobody said yes or no. Here.
Can you talk about that? Can you read that?
Ralph: Sure. Lesson Two. Christianity is a battle in the discussion of
media control.
Max: Try to read it as loud as you can--read it as loud as you can.
Ralph: Crucifixion is an act of protest demanding access.
Scene 7: Ted Sawyer at Christmas party, 1998.
Ted: These questions written by the Genius 2000 Project. (Carolers in
background sing "Angels We Have Heard on High." Ted grins.)
Max: Oh my god. (Coughs.) So what do you think dude?
Ted: Starting with question number one? (Closes door.)
Max: Yeah. Get rid of those god damn Christmas carolers.
Ted: What does it take to be a genius? I don't know. I don't think that
geniuses are necessarily doing anything to exceed their own capacity. Which
is kind of what a lot of people seem to think, because they're able to think
or see things differently than other people. You know? It's just like that
idea, somebody being able to see a musical instrument that's never seen it
before, and play it, because it makes sense to them, that doesn't make them a
genius, does it?
Max: So nobody's a genius?
Ted: Well, maybe nobody is a genius. What do you think, Richard?
Richard Rose: I think that nobody's a genius all the time. You can have a
thought that can be--
Ted: Is anybody anything all the time?
Max: Did you, did you see that Howard Stern thing? There was a--
Richard: No. No.
Scene 8: Max at his computer, looking at website and smoking.
Max: This guy's fuckin' advertising his fuckin' website. He pretends like
he's talking about art, and he, and he just says, "It does however share some
aspects with my own Project Tumbleweed. Create a museum of me. I'll fuckin'
write this guy a letter. It says museum of me. (Max typing.)
Scene 9: Michael Warton at Liquid, Rick Tolden talking in background.
Michael: "Lesson Two. Christianity is a battle in the discussion of media
control. Crucifixion is an act of protest demanding access. The Second
Coming is god's final messenger. God is the ineffable union of history and
individual cognition: Genius 2000."
Scene 10: Outdoor hockey rink at Bryant Park, Minneapolis. Max skating in a
pickup game.
John Keller: I didn't hear a whistle, did you? (Laughs.) I didn't hear a
whistle, did you?
Pat Mountain: Puck is in play! (Laughs. Max gets puck at blue line.) Okay
here we are--
John: Okay here you go Max, pump it home baby, pump it home--
Pat: He could choke-- (Max loses puck, falls down.)
John: Oop--ooh, oh, well it looks like he might be hurt. I didn't hear a
whistle! (Max fighting for puck on the boards.)
Pat: That Herman's a fighter, he's a scrapper--Yeah! (Max gets the assist
on an open-net goal.)
John: Beautiful. Beautiful goal. (Max does a pumpernickel.)
Max: That's about it.
Pat: You shoot that? (Max nods.) Okay, then we're done. Let's go.
Scene 11: Alan Hooper's office at the University of Minnesota College of
Biological Science.
Hooper: Well, let's see, you asked me--
Max: Maybe you could introduce yourself though, that's good.
Hooper: That's im--oh, that could take hours. Ah, my name is Alan Hooper,
and my job, my work, is to teach biochemistry at the University of Minnesota,
which I have been doing for about thirty-five years. And ah, I also enjoy
being out in nature, quietly (Max closes door) and I see we had to close the
door in order to get it quiet in here. Yeah, that's better. Now Max asked
me to think about this concept of the millennium and the second coming, the
second millennium, and the second coming of Christ, whatever that means. So
I did a little bit. Also I have to deal with the concept of genius, or
geniuses. So in terms of the millennium, and it is interesting to see the
attention that it's getting; it's a little scary sometimes....I mean, you
remember that this, it happened that Christ was born, or, they just decided
that he had been--was going to be born, in their mythology, on the, ah, the
latter part of December which is the winter solstice. So you're going from
the, the days have gotten shorter and shorter and shorter, and now the days
are going to finally get longer again. So it's a period of optimism. Hence
all of these festivities we're observing, be they Muslim or Christian or
almost anything, have to do with that rebirth. So you have mythology of
something new coming to help us out of our dilemma. Now our dilemmas
include, in the old days, the idea that the sun just might not come back and
we would be really in tough shape as far as growing some food, having
wildlife running in the forests as game, et cetera. But then, ah, it evolved
that it was going to be somebody who would take care of everything for us;
a--in fact you could almost say it was going to be a genius that was going to
take care of everything for us. So obviously I'm coming to the down side of
this, of this concept. We've got to then talk about what is genius. I mean,
as I understand it, this fellow Christ, ah,was a genius of sorts, in the
sense that he knew how to get attention and he knew how to sort of put into
words a communal ethic that really resonated with some community in the, ah,
Eastern Mediterranean. So I guess that's what we're looking for again.
Scene 12: Ted Sawyer at Christmas party.
Ted: (Clears throat.)
Max: Okay, so anyway ah--
Ted: So it--essentially, Christianity had a superior form of dissemination.
Max: But see, I'm not saying that Christianity is a form of media control;
that's pretty much, no one can dispute that. I'm saying Christianity is a
battle in the discussion of media control--
Ted: One battle. What are the other battles?
Max: It's a battle. I'm--there's billions.
Ted: Well let's hear one more, just to kind of shed some light for me.
Max: Fuckin' NBC.
Ted: NBC? Is a battle?
Max: Yeah.
Ted: Okay.
Max: That's not a good example.
Ted: What do you mean, I guess, by Christianity is a battle? I mean, I know
Christianity is media, but are you talking about contemporary Christianity
right now, as it exists, or are you talking about historically and
contemporary?
Max: Well here, here's what I think, is that um, is that Christianity--I got
this 'cause I saw this show on Frontline, it was called "From Jesus to
Christ," and it was about, like, how Christianity went from this dude walkin'
around to like the biggest religion in the world. Right? And what they said
was, um, was that basically what happened was that he was walkin' around, and
doin' all this shit, and, ah, the Romans said it's like, "as long as you do
the Roman rituals, then you can do your other Christian shit as well. But if
you refuse to do the Roman rituals, we're gonna kick your ass, right? We'll
fuckin' kill you, right? So, what happened was, is the Christian people
started refusing to do the Roman shit. You know, they didn't want to just do
both; they wanted to like openly refuse to do the Roman rituals. You know,
they want to openly attack the Roman system of media control, okay? So what
happened was, is these people would become celebrities, you know? They would
say, "I'm St. Judith, the Martyr," you know, "and I will not do the Roman
ritual because I love Jesus Christ and he will save me, and you can not
defeat me and I'm gonna go to heaven." So she'd go around and scream and
yell and they'd have trials, and they'd put her in a stadium, and let lions
out to fuckin' rip her apart, and all these people are watchin' it and they
fall in love with her. Right? So it's an attack on this, this kind of
regime of media control, right? And I think that's really the essence of
Christianity. It's about martyrdom, and it's about, (noise as door opens)
it's about this, it's about tryin' to um like, predict this one day far off
in the future when the battle will be won. You know, but Christianity,
Christianity, the reason I say it's a battle, um--(door closes, quiet again)
I don't know, have I said enough?
Ted: No, I think you've said enough. Um, is--does that need to be discussed
more? I mean, "Crucifixion is an act of protest demanding access,"
Max: Yeah.
Ted: I think you've just covered that, by discussing martyrdom in general.
Scene 13: A chess game in a coffee shop.
Pat: Don't listen to him Johnny, he's kind of a bullshitter.
John: Is he? (John takes black bishop.)
Pat: I don't know. (Ezekiel Bakal takes pawn for checkmate.) Ah, he was
bullshittin' ya. (Laughs.) Oh John made a mistake.
Zeke: I learned that from you.
Pat: Oh yeah?
Scene 14: Same coffee shop.
Pat: I think ah, I think it's a, it's a genuine problem that people, ah, now
this isn't related but maybe--
Zeke: Can I sit here?
Max: Sure. I'm just gonna go hand-held boys, 'cause I'm gettin' kinda--
Pat: I thought like, you hear people talk, and then you can tell they're
real creative and interesting but they get too excited about their own
intuitions, (close pan of dictionary) and having an intuition is a very very
exciting thing, right? The inspiration or whatever. But in my experience,
most inspirations are wrong, and the perspiration comes from sorting them
out. They're the raw material to try to--well that's--
Zeke: But you don't find it's an elitist concept?
Pat: Yeah, that's what we were sayin'. But on the other hand, it's true
that some people are smarter than others.
Max: Yeah but I mean--
Justin Pickens: In different ways--
Zeke: I can give you, I can give you an example--
Pat: In different ways, that's diplomatic but on the other hand it's
certainly true in other cases. I mean you can't really even argue with it.
Zeke: If we put it on a large scale I can give you an example. Like like,
you find in the Jewish, the Jewish population, the percent of the Jewish
population--
Max: Hey ah, Pat do me a favor--
Zeke: It's maybe zero, zero, ten perce--zero one ten percent of the whole
population of the world right?
Pat: Mmm hmm.
Zeke: Have only ten Jews compared to--but on the Nobel Prize, okay,
considering on the Nobel Prize, they are twenty-five percent. How could you,
how could you explain that?
Pat: It's the worldwide Jewish conspiracy. (Laughs.)
Zeke: No, (inaudible) besides being racist, (laughs). Besides being racist,
can you give me, can you give me a logical, rational explanation for that?
Max: (Camera lands on "genius") For genius?
Zeke: You think they are genius, or what? How could you explain that? They
are only--you have to have a rational explanation for that, are they the
Chosen People, or what--
Pat: Well I don't have to.
Max: Of Jews, of Jews winning--
Zeke: They are only zero zero one percent (inaudible) how could they have
twenty-five percent--
Pat: Are you--can I ask you--are you like an orthodox Jew--
Zeke: No, I'm not.
Pat: --do you really feel there's evidence of a, of a chosen people, or,
what's your, what's your opinion?
Zeke: Okay, I can give you a rational explanation for that, okay?
Pat: Okay.
Zeke: The rational explanation for that, that the Jews, during the two
thousand years, they had the Torah, the Talmud, which is basically what was
them studying like a test, you know, you give a question, I'm going to try to
give a question--
Pat: Well, free societies as a whole value--
Max: Let him talk Pat, shut the fuck up, he's still fuckin' talkin'--
Zeke: --for two thousand years. It's a very interesting problem, because
most people say, it's because they're smart or something, but it's not, it's
two thousand years, all the core, of the status, and all the core of this,
was basically logic and rational. That's the Jewish tradition, right? So,
when, let's say, when the sixteenth century came, and the industrial
revolution came, most of the people, most of the people think about
Christianity and this, it's not based on rational method, it's based on
image, and all those things, and they don't have the same, the same,
principles as religious Jews, which is questioning, and questioning all the
thought--
Pat: Yes, can I bring up something, can I speak? I mean--
Max: You guys decide.
Pat: The arabs, during the medieval times, for a long time were, ah, you
know, ahead of the whole world in science; but then their, their religion
started to rein 'em in, and wouldn't let 'em pursue certain lines of
questioning, and then eventually--
Zeke: And all those people, they weren't geniuses because-
Scene 15: Same coffee shop. Justin reading dictionary.
Justin: Genius. Definition one. An attendant spirit or tutular deity.
Number two. Hence: A spirit presiding over the destiny of a person or
place. A nature spirit, especially a spirit of fire or air; (inaudible) a
genie. Number three: By extension, a person who influences another in
character, behavior, or the like, as is "his evil genius." Four: The mental
dominant peculiar to an individual bent. Number five: Peculiar nature,
especially a spirit, as of a nation, as "the genius of the eighteenth
century;" number six, extraordinary power of invention or origination of any
kind, as "a man of genius;" also a man endowed with transcendent ability.
Number seven: The association of influences of, as "the genius of
Edinburgh." That's it.
Scene 16: Max and Rick Tolden in Max's car. "I'm Gonna Win" on the stereo.
Max: Oh these are terrible dude.
Rick: Give it to me, I'll eat it.
Max: I'm gonna eat it, but they're not very good quality.
Rick: They're warm.
Max: I know, but this one's all dried out and hard.
Rick: Oh, man. They're not too hard.
Max: That one I had was pretty fuckin' dried up.
Rick: Yeah, this one's fucked up a little.
Max: Yeah--
Rick: It tastes good, for some reason when you get--
Max: That's the DJ from tonight man!
Rick: That ain't him.
Max: That one dude who was a DJ tonight with the beard? Fuck, I didn't
think it was a DJ until I saw him tonight--
Rick: Uh huh--
Max: 'Cause he just looks like a bum when he hangs around--
Rick: Scruffly man.
Max: Like he never talks to anybody, he's all run-down lookin'--
Rick: I almost didn't let him in once.
Max: Then he turns out to be a fat-ass DJ. (Singing) "I'm gonna win."
(Laughs.) Why is he sayin' that?
Rick: 'Cause he's gonna win.
Max: (Singing) "I'm gonna win."
Rick: I believe in him.
Scene 17: Matias' apartment. Shot of a PC with "Open Letter to
Governor-Elect Ventura" on screen.
Max: But you know what this is? This is like, this is like the sword of
God. Jesus said, "I bring not peace, but a sword." This is the sword of
God, the sword of the galaxy. I'm like Luke Skywalker. This is my
light-sabre, and it's the whole galaxy.
Matias: (Laughs) Light-sabre.
Max: It's the One Ring. Do you like J.R.R. Tolkien?
Matias: Do I like who?
Max: J.R.R.R. Tolkien?
Matias: Oh yes.
Max: Really?
Matias: Oh yes. I read Bilbo the Hobbit, I read all the Lords of the
Ring....
Max: Do you think I--whoa dude what happened--Do you think I have the One
Ring? Do you think I'm Sauron?
Matias: No, I think you still need to find the Ring, but--
Max: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring
them all and in the darkness bind them, in the Land of Mordor where the
shadows lie.
Matias: (Laughs) Gollum gollum.
Max: Yeah, but you know what happened?
Matias: To?
Max: Oh I need a smoke too. See, in the Lord of the Rings, there's twenty
rings. There's nineteen held by the good people; there's one held by the
evil man. And he controls 'em.
Matias: He controls all the other ones.
Max: Yes. But when I made my ring, I made twenty. And then I kept one for
myself. So there's twenty-one.
Matias: Hmm. So you changed the--
Max: And I kept the One Ring.
Matias: The extra one.
Max: The extra ring. And then, the question is, who's gonna control that
ring?
Matias: Well if you have it, you're controlling it, right?
Max: But what should I do with it? You can decide for the people of France
if you want.
Matias: You put it on.
Max: You should say, "the people of France should put it in the Louvre."
Just say that, and it'll happen.
Matias: Is there any purpose to that?
Max: Yeah.
Matias: Yeah; make it art?
Max: Ah, I'm the champion of the world.
Matias: Uh huh?
Max: I'm Napoleon, and I'm gonna conquer Russia. I love--I like Napoleon.
He was a showman. But just say that you'll do it. And this--
Matias: I'll do the French web?
Max: This footage will be incredible.
Matias: I'll do the French version of Genius 2000?
Max: No. You will take the One Ring.
Matias: And put it in the Louvre?
Max: Yes. You will own it; you will carry it.
Matias: Can I put it on my finger?
Max: You can keep it in your house. You can keep it in your wallet. You'll
own it.
Matias: Aui?
Max: I gave it to you.
Matias: And you want me to messenger it and take, bring it to the Louvre.
Max: I think you should do what you think is right.
Matias: Alright. I don't think the Louvre is in my schedule, but--
Max: It is now.
Scene 18: Max reading with headphones.
Max: "Religion forgets that its own existence is a result of man's tragic
estrangement from his true being. It forgets its own emergency character."
Paul Tillich, "Theology of Culture," page nine.
Scene 19: Max reading from a DJ platform with flashing lights; TV monitor
with static on left side of screen.
Max: "--Enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then came he which had
received the one talent, and said, 'Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard
man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not
strawed: And I was afraid, and I went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo,
there thou hast that is thine.' His lord answered and said unto him, 'Thou
wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and
gather where I have not strawed; thou oughtest therefore to have put my money
to the exchangers and then at my coming I should have received my own with
usury. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which has ten
talents.' For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have
abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he
hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Scene 20: Max with his guitar.
Max: So I think, in other words, you have to say "I'm the Messiah." Because
on the one hand if you say that, people will think number one, he's just
being silly, you know, like, he's trying to get attention; he says he's the
Messiah, it's like a lame-ass little joke. Then on the other hand, they'll
say "Well he's crazy, if he thinks he's the Messiah, fuckin' koo-koo, 'cause
there is no Messiah." But then what if you just say like, "I'm not fuckin'
crazy, I'm not just trying to get a little attention, you know, be weird; you
know, I mean it. I'm the Messiah, because I have the idea; I'm incarnating
the idea." I mean what is the Messiah anyway?
(End of Albos section.)
Copyright 1999 the Genius 2000 Project
Please forward where welcome or needed.
