Václav Girsa
- My uncle was a teacher of Spanish guitar and even before that00:00:40.135
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- I had attended Mr. Balcar's recorder lessons00:00:44.525
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- at an elementary art school. Then I have swapped to guitar00:00:48.884
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- and started to learn the classical guitar.00:00:53.158
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- I have been attending the lessons for some five or seven years00:00:57.502
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- and probably because I had had short fingers00:01:01.973
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- or maybe I hadn't been studious enough, so I dropped out.00:01:06.175
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- And then, at the elementary school... well I had probably never fallen for00:01:10.381
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- the fiddling of all those masters and whatnot,00:01:14.686
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- but because I have been starting to listen to a different music00:01:18.942
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- and I wanted to have a rock band, so I founded with Honza Jukl00:01:23.287
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- a band called Cement, as it was supposed to be hardcore.00:01:27.431
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- We began by spraying 'Cement' all over Střešovice,00:01:31.742
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- like a kick off of our activities.00:01:35.974
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- And, there was actually still the communist regime.00:01:40.239
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- We have been rehearsing in his basement.00:01:44.151
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- I think I... I have never had any ambitions to apply for (art) academy,00:01:54.926
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- it would have never occurred to me, even though I have,00:01:59.233
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- just like any child, doodled since early years,00:02:03.579
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- doing drawings, painting devils, and nobody saw in it00:02:07.784
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- anything of importance. But then I came to it00:02:11.899
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- because there was a shift in my life,00:02:15.995
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- when I was working here at Wenceslas Square in a real estate agency.00:02:20.193
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- I was doing investor's technical oversight, but I got fired later,00:02:24.241
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- and being angry and disoriented about it I started to draw00:02:28.538
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- and paint more, some abstractions with neither any knowledge00:02:32.810
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- of art history nor skill training. But back then, a girl, Gabriela Hejná,00:02:37.079
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- a graduate of Hollarka (art high school) told me that what I do is good00:02:41.167
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- and I should see Jirka David, that he would like it.00:02:45.303
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- So I said to myself that I will go there.00:02:49.488
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- So I went there and after second try he accepted my application.00:02:53.632
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- While still being at school,00:03:12.904
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- when I had earned some money I bought a combo and a guitar.00:03:17.368
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- I wanted to get back to doing music. But nothing happened for a long time.00:03:21.537
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- And when I was preparing a show for Ferdinand Baumann Gallery00:03:25.735
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- curated by Dan Vlček, it was time of advent,00:03:34.184
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- I have exhibited there, in a reaction to the space, a punctured exhaust00:03:38.317
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- and stuff like that.00:03:42.595
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- Then I was telling myself...00:03:46.735
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- because Dan was an active musician in Guma Guar art group,00:03:50.985
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- so we agreed we could try and do something together.00:03:55.186
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- We have rehearsed a few songs00:03:59.373
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- I have composed, I don't know,00:04:03.562
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- between elementary and high school.00:04:07.928
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- It was meant as a performance for the purpose of one vernissage,00:04:12.107
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- so we didn't expect it to have a follow-up.00:04:16.413
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- But it went on for three more years.00:04:20.742
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- The house was built in 193000:05:00.979
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- by my grand grandfather who worked as an envoy00:05:05.024
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- in Masaryk's administration and who was legionnaire.00:05:09.172
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- He had brought some of the Czechoslovak Legions from Russia,00:05:13.407
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- so he had earned some merit. His son was an architect, Václav Girsa as well,00:05:17.785
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- and he was the one who had built the functionalist house.00:05:21.907
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- The whole family lives here, and because they thrived and multiplied,00:05:25.965
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- there are six parties to it that lives here, including us,00:05:30.307
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- in rooms for a chauffeur and maids, where we make art, as well.00:05:34.592
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- I will let Ducha out now, so don't get alarmed.00:05:38.576
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- Come slowly, come, come here, this is Honza.00:05:42.637
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- She probably doesn't like the camera.00:05:46.680
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- So, here we live... here there were made most of the paintings.00:05:54.832
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- Here on this wall there were painted the largest formats,00:05:59.009
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- two by three meters. Then I was... I had studio at Trafačka00:06:03.419
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- for a year or so and in Bubeneč also probably a year,00:06:07.688
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- and then I was in some garage, otherwise everything else I did00:06:11.896
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- had been done her and in the country house.00:06:15.952
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- I don't really care if the painting gets scuffed or not.00:06:20.053
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- This is 3D Spiderman... I had found some 500 or so 3D glasses00:06:24.101
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- and I wanted to do a painting that would be 3D.00:06:33.343
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- So I was trying to get it done,00:06:40.612
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- but the fact is, it's not working really.00:06:44.804
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- The history of this is that I had a show in Zlín00:06:48.711
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- at Lenka Tutschová and she wanted to have some painting.00:06:52.969
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- She wanted a painting of a vampire with a cat, but I couldn't give it to her,00:06:57.133
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- so I have promised her to make her own portrait.00:07:01.264
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- And using a photograph she had sent me it ended up being so terrible00:07:05.546
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- that I couldn't even show it to her. So I have remade it in the garage00:07:09.704
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- into a Shiva-biker of sorts, but I have no idea what it means.00:07:13.867
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- Only hands are what's left from the Lenka Tutschová's portrait.00:07:18.086
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- This is actually an en plein air painting.00:07:24.603
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- Because when I open the gate in attic I look directly at a feeding rack.00:07:28.939
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- And while working there it kept on staring at me.00:07:33.281
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- So I decided to paint it. And in his case I knew immediately00:07:37.561
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- it came off as pretty good.00:07:41.818
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- I guess this is no different, at all.00:08:09.907
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- I always try to make the most of the colours,00:08:16.634
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- I don't know why, like, to use them up completely,00:08:20.955
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- so even the dirty brushes I rub off a canvas00:08:25.221
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- to make use also of the dirty water.00:08:29.469
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- And I sometimes do paint it over of course, but more like...00:08:35.849
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- sometimes it stays there as a background.00:08:40.028
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- I am not still sure whether I won't repaint it or something.00:08:44.105
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- I have to wait a bit to see it afresh.00:08:48.429
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- Not everyone is there, of course, this is my sister, mom, dad, uncle00:08:52.737
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- whose guitar lessons I attended.00:08:56.917
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- Actually, I have a beef with some of the relatives living here,00:09:00.471
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- because they would love to chop down the trees here00:09:04.667
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- and that worries me much.00:09:08.831
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- I have some flowers here I like in front of my windows,00:09:12.961
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- and now I came and found it cut by them, so I got angry.00:09:17.054
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- I went to garden and cut there the flower belonging to my aunt00:09:23.162
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- because I have no idea how to tell it to those people.00:09:27.457
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- Maybe she hasn't even noticed that. And when I had done this to her00:09:31.623
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- I noticed it's quite weird a flower, so I have painted it,00:09:35.896
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- and you can see how weird it is, I guess.00:09:40.073
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- I like the landscape for it's kind of lightly shaped00:10:10.370
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- and, like, very agreeable. Truth is, the first time00:10:14.679
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- I had come here I didn't like the house very much,00:10:18.920
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- because it was very shoddy. I was saying it should be sold.00:10:23.110
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- I liked the area,00:10:27.455
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- though I saw it as quite crude.00:10:31.714
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- But over time I got used to being here and I like it here,00:10:35.636
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- I don't know why. Here we have planted trees00:10:39.824
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- because it is the highest point of the meadow.00:10:44.135
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- One of them is a cherry-tree; there is this idea of a bench there.00:10:48.342
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- When you take a seat there between the trees00:10:52.430
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- you will gaze about.00:10:56.485
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- This serves as a studio. Here you close the trapdoor.00:11:08.697
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- Mostly, I have the canvas00:11:12.861
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- propped against the beam where there are those flies swarming,00:11:17.035
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- or whatever it is, with a light falling down.00:11:21.308
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- And here or on the floor I paint. Here I have made this thing...00:11:25.597
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- it's a special system... it can be opened00:11:29.706
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- I have cut it out using power saw.00:11:33.976
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- It's opened most of the time in summer00:11:38.048
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- and it's very pleasant, first because of light,00:11:42.146
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- and second... you can see the feeding rack there,00:11:46.251
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- and when it's evening and you sit here drinking00:11:50.412
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- a cocoa or whatever and waiting for deer to come,00:11:54.515
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- but they don't, because they don't feed on the straw,00:11:58.658
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- but it's nice... it's kind of a television.00:12:02.748
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- There are also bats here, they are quite small,00:12:06.720
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- and they shit here. I came up with this thing here00:12:10.723
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- where you just lift up a bit this board00:12:15.022
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- and you don't have to00:12:19.206
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- use a scoop for sweeping of all that garbage.00:12:23.474
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- You just sweep it there and it all falls down out to Edita's garden00:12:27.762
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- and she gets mad then. I am quite proud of it.00:12:31.848
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- Actually, I enjoy the DIY very much.00:12:36.125
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- I am not sure how to sum it up, but I don't like the...00:12:45.930
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- the world today is quite confused and fast,00:12:52.769
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- and I don't like it really,00:12:57.012
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- and here there are no technologies,00:13:01.300
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- so it's great, a computer isn't picking up any signal,00:13:05.691
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- you have to go to one particular spot in attic to get it.00:13:09.785
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- There is no power here so we make do with car accumulators.00:13:13.849
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- The house is imbued with mystery, for example the sunken floor00:13:18.126
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- you can see here, there was probably a cellar there00:13:22.423
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- that is earthed up now but we have no idea00:13:26.712
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- how did one get down there, what was stored there00:13:31.016
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- and what's underneath. I know that under the floor00:13:35.542
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- there lives a lot of snakes, therefore it happens at times00:13:39.787
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- that some small snake climbs out of this small crevice;00:13:43.964
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- or some big spider.00:13:48.061
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- I guess I am something like a social introvert.00:13:55.888
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- Of course, I have always been social,00:14:04.471
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- but often it was quite the opposite - people disturb me sometimes,00:14:08.661
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- mostly those whom I don't know, I guess.00:14:14.420
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- I assume people do think I am very radical in some ways.00:14:18.773
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- And I probably am a bit radical but I tend to think00:14:22.949
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- it is still not enough. So when I plead for some trees00:14:27.145
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- there by our house people think I am nuts00:14:31.480
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- and a troublemaker, but if I was truly radical00:14:35.800
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- I would chain myself to them, or whatever.00:14:41.667
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- Is it shit? It is shit! Get up!00:14:48.578