Original subtitles

(distant traffic noises)

- [Gringo] Everybody has some kind of jones

here in New York City.

Everybody has something that they need to do

in order to get through the day.

And if you're like me,

you don't want to really hurt anybody,

but sure, we'd like somebody to come by

you could hustle out of a few bucks.

And you're sitting here, you're sick,

you don't know where the fuck to get some bread.

It's like a chill you can't shake.

Like an ache. You don't know where it comes from.

It's like a good love affair, it's nice when it starts.

Then it becomes fucked, just like everything else.

(water splashes)

(John grunts)

- You know, you could stop.

I don't know, it's just the best part.

I enjoy it. I want it to last another minute.

Okay?

(distant traffic rumbling)

(police sirens wailing)

(car horn honks)

(woman speaking indistinctly)

(muffled music)

- [Announcer] Executive Brand.

(eerie music)

(dogs barking)

(water splashing)

- [Dealer] Works, works, works, works, works, works.

You need some works? Works, works, works, works, works.

- Man, that stuff must be good.

- You copping?

- Yeah. Why don't you throw me with a bag, bro?

- Bro, man, you crazy man? I just got you a bag.

- Yo man, I'm sick like a motherfucker, bro.

- If I could do it, I would do it. I just got you back.

- Come on, man. Yo, man.

- You know me, man. if I could do it, I would do it, man.

- Yo, man. Bag, man.

Bag ain't gonna do nothing to you, man.

(dogs barking)

(eerie music)

- Hey.

- Hey. What do you want?

- You got D?

- I got stuff. What do you want?

- Two dimes.

- Two dimes. Two dimes or one?

Go on. Go.

(water splashing)

(distant police sirens wailing)

(eerie music)

(intense dance music)

♪ Your mouth is dry, your hands are wet ♪

♪ You boogied all night ♪

♪ You're not dead yet ♪

♪ It's C&D at two and one ♪

♪ Get five more, you're gonna have some fun ♪

♪ Your money's low, your habit's high ♪

♪ You got a nickel, I got a dime ♪

♪ Get one-on-one for smoking time ♪

♪ But you love it ♪

♪ Chill out there, Johnny ♪

♪ Chill out ♪

♪ Gringo, hey gringo ♪

♪ Do you think it's seven, 816 ♪

♪ Super eight natural Dean ♪

♪ What's on today, what's on today ♪

♪ (indistinct) nothing, T and T ♪

♪ What's on today, what's on today ♪

♪ Red devil, love C and D ♪

(man cackles)

(indistinct conversation)

- [Man] The fucking batteries, man.

- Don't want beef shots, bro.

(Gringo coughs)

- [Man] The fucking batteries, man.

Give him his fucking beef shot, bro.

You make sure the motherfucker don't move, man.

- [Gringo] All right, wait. And one of these fudge bars.

(eerie music)

- Hey, listen. Get over here. Come on.

- [Gringo] All right, all right, all right.

- Get your hands in your pocket

and put it right in my mine.

- [Gringo] What?

- Drop that board. Now.

- [Gringo] Can I do -- - Shut up.

You see that? Keep walking.

- [Gringo] All right. - [Mugger] Turn around.

- [Gringo] Okay.

- [Mugger] I'm gonna hurt you. - All right.

- Get the hell out of here.

- [Man] Everybody's bragging, man. Everybody's bragging.

- Oh, he had a fight today. Not him, Sharkie.

And it was about this guy

that had this old pit bull.

It was a pit bull.

- Hey, Cisco. - Hey.

- What's up, Gringo? How you been, man?

- Don't call that Gringo shit.

- What's up with you, brother?

- Oh, man. This guy taking off everything I had.

- That's too bad.

- Oh gee, he got ripped off.

- [Gringo] Fuck you.

- [Cisco] What is it with you guys?

When you people get ripped off,

you don't go back and kick ass?

I mean, what the fuck is wrong with you guys?

- [Gringo] Go back and kick ass.

- [Cisco] What's wrong with you?

You don't go over there and fight? I don't understand.

- I got a seven inch knife wound on my stomach.

I lost this eye.

I had two sides of my jaw broken

from fighting 15 dudes.

And you know, I bit one motherfucker's ear off

and spit it in his face,

'cause four of them were jumping on me.

If I'm right there and I'm fighting, I don't mind fighting,

but going back for fucking $20, $30, you know?

You say you and they.

"You guys, you whiteys never fight back." Shit.

- I mean, you gotta show them.

He's playing with your man.

If he take your shit away,

you gonna just stand there and go and you not coming back?

He sees you the next day, he's gonna do it again.

- [Gringo] Screw you guys. Fucking Dear Abby or something?

- [Cisco] Oh, come on. - "Dear Chico.

What should I do?"

- We're not keeping your --

(indistinct conversation)

- All right. - Go with somebody, man.

- I know that. I usually do. You know that, Jimbo.

What am I gonna do?

Fight back? You usually do, but today --

- Yeah, right.

(indistinct conversation)

- If you wouldn't be getting high, none of this would be happening.

He's stupid, man. I don't understand.

These people are dumb, man.

And by people, he thought I meant just white people, man.

I don't mean just white people.

I'm talking about people that get high and shit.

It's no fucking good, man. Look at him.

- Without nothing.

(muffled upbeat music)

(indistinct shouting)

- [Gringo] Oh, fuck.

Got a cigarette you can spare?

Could you spare a cigarette?

Thanks.

(indistinct shouting)

(car horn blares)

- [Gringo] You know, I can always get $10 together

to panhandle a few bucks.

Hit up a friend, collect on a debt,

and there's always some way of getting 10 bucks together.

You got the punk rock special joints here.

(singing) I was a lonely soul.

I had nobody 'til I met you.

But you keep me.

Maybe sometimes, you sell your clothes

out on the street. Or everything.

Anything you can get your hands on, you sell it.

Or you help a friend sell something he's got,

and he gives you some of the money from it.

But you don't have to hurt nobody

to keep a drug habit in this city.

This is Chuck. Yeah, right here.

What do you want?

I got nickels.

I mean, shit.

We all do something we wouldn't do

to keep our habit together.

Jose, man, don't kill my business.

Come here. I got joints.

- You got joints? - Yeah, I got joints.

Come here. I got joints. Come here.

Give me a paper, Jose.

- I thought you were gonna smoke.

- Yeah, but can I have a paper for this guy?

Come on. - To hell with it.

- Jose, come on. Jose, gimme two papers.

One for you and me. Hey.

(Gringo blows raspberry)

Assholes.

You know what they'll do?

They'll find somebody that's clean,

you know they ain't got high yet that day,

and they'll have them test the dope.

Sometimes, that's real nice.

'Cause they don't know it's really strong

and you get real fucked up.

(plastic rattling)

- [Dealer] So, how you been?

- I've been doing all day man.

You know, can't complain, really.

Start complaining, nobody don't want to hear about it.

- [Dealer] Ain't seen you in a while.

You still living down here?

- [Gringo] I'm sure more than one dope tester

has wound up on the rooftop

with the rats eating at his balls,

because so and so didn't cut it right.

- [Woman] They don't like it.

How'd it go?

- Let's find out in a minute, ladies.

- It's hard as hell, though.

- [Woman] it don't look like it's coming too fast, though.

- No, not really, because it's getting cold now.

Summertime's all right.

And now, it's getting kind of cold.

It might be kind of hard.

- [Woman] Mhmm.

(bags rustling)

(indistinct mumbling)

- [Woman] That's kind of full.

- [Dealer] Just bag. Just bag.

Yeah, just bag it. Just bag.

- [Woman] Okay.

- Get one more pull

and come on out of this joint.

This here what you call a midnight snack.

- Nine, 10. That's a bundle.

- [Gringo] And it's one apartment.

There's $100,000 worth of drugs going down.

And they got these chicks bagging up dope,

and running it up to the corners.

There's really a quality control.

(woman hums)

- I got nice and deep. So far, so good, man.

Dope tastes pretty nice.

- [Dealer] Yeah?

- Yeah, yeah. Nice paper hit too.

- He said it's all right.

- [Dealer] Enjoy.

- [Man] Okay. I appreciate that.

- [Woman] Would he be paying cash?

(indistinct conversation)

Couple of lines. Yeah.

- [Woman] Yeah.

Well, this is good stuff, so it can hold a decent cut.

(indistinct conversation)

(eerie ringing)

- [Woman] Put a two on it.

Oh, no, you can put more in that one, it's Iranian.

It's Iranian, you can put more.

- [Woman] Three or four.

- [Woman] Yeah, definitely.

- It took me an hour.

First of all, I had to wait an hour in line to cop.

It was like a million people.

- One hour? - Well, come on.

And it was a long time.

I finally cop and all of a sudden, La Hondo, red light.

So they make us sit there.

They say, "Everybody crouch down, don't say a word."

So we're sitting there. - I'm glad I didn't go.

- Well, I know. That's why I never want you to go, baby.

You know that. You know I always cop for you.

But anyways, so we're all crouched down, waiting,

and it's about seriously at least 15 minutes waiting,

while they said, "The police are right out front,

don't nobody move."

And so, we're sitting there,

and then I said, finally, "Fuck it,

I'm gonna try to get outta here,

'cause I already had the dope on me, stashed in my pants."

So then, there's this guy up on the second floor

and there's no steps going up.

So he had to pull me up

and there was a hole going down to the basement.

All this broken glass and tin cans and racks.

So he's pulling me up.

I'm scared of heights and shit anyway.

So he pulls me up, I run through the building,

go out a window, have to hop over an air shaft,

right through another abandoned building,

down a fire escape, over three fucking barbed wire fences.

And on the third fence, these dogs were chasing me

and biting at my legs, man.

I fucking hop over, right?

Go around through, come out the other end.

I know, totally fucking destroyed my body.

All banged and scratched up.

I come out and the police are gone.

The police are gone

and people are going back in the place again.

- Already? - Right.

- Two seconds. - Right, right.

In two minutes, if I had waited two more minutes,

I wouldn't have had to go through all this fucking bullshit.

(muffled pop music)

- [Dealer] Any works? See through blue. Any works? Works?

- [Man] You got that (indistinct).

- See through.

- See through?

- Come on.

- Yeah, let me get a new set.

(men negotiating in Spanish)

- Works, works. Any works?

- Excuse me, you can't hang out here.

- I'm waiting for somebody.

- I'm sorry, but

you gotta hang out across the street somewhere. I'm sorry.

- Across the street? - Yeah, I'm sorry.

You know, we're conducting business here.

You gotta hang out down there.

- Your business is inside

and I'm waiting for my man to come out.

- I'm sorry, you cannot.

- Excuse me? - Go ahead.

- Can I hang out in back?

(muffled music)

- [Woman] Go ahead.

- [Man] Give us a minute, man.

It wasn't all that hot. It wasn't all that hot.

- No hanging out here.

- [Man] Excuse me? - No hanging out.

- [Man] Yo, babe, we're done. We're done.

(indistinct conversation)

- [Woman] Brother, you know.

- [Man] None of that bullshit.

- [Woman] Take your time. You getting it, that's all.

- [Man] Everybody waiting in fucking line.

- [Woman] And who's working that line?

(indistinct conversation)

- [Man] Everybody straight up.

(muffled pop music)

(knocking)

- Money straight out if you want to cop. C and D.

Toke and dope.

(muffled conversation)

- Okay. Go ahead.

(indistinct conversation)

- Yo, yo, yo. Move the line up, move the line up.

Three in one?

- [Man] Sometimes, I think, like, what would be like this

if we didn't have dope?

I don't think there would be a Lower East Side.

I don't think that we would survive,

'cause everybody would be on welfare.

The city would go down the drain.

The dope money has a lot to do with the economy of the city.

'Cause it does bring in a lot of money

from different states.

A lot of people come up from Connecticut, Pennsylvania,

Jersey and all what have you.

And they leave a lot of money down here.

- [Dealer] Okay. It's a hot night right here.

I ain't feeling that good. Come on, next.

Make that snappy.

- Yo, man. Got people waiting. Move.

- Come on, come on.

(indistinct conversation)

- [Man] Stay right there.

- Yo, have your money straight out.

- [Man] A lot of kids will go out

and they try to get a job.

There's too many kids and too little jobs.

So gotta come along all from a job in a dope spot

making $200, $300 a week at a young age.

As they get older, salary goes up,

they start wearing nice clothes, jewelry.

They see that they could get

just about anything they want in the neighborhood.

Maybe they'll shoot a guy, get a little respect.

But for them, that's it.

Just some kids, they're smart.

They'll work their way from watching to bodyguard,

where they bodyguard the person selling.

And to manager.

Once they become a manager, they could branch off

and boss will open up another spot,

and they'll receive a percent, like maybe 50%, 75%.

Someone who lives out in the suburbs

will never see the money that we see.

You could sell 20 bundles, 100 bags in a bundle.

That's like 20,000 a day.

- [Dealer] Yeah. What you want?

- Two coke.

- [Dealer] Next.

- Can I get two in one?

- [Dealer] Yo. - Frederico.

- [Man] You have people come in here

with $400 or $500.

Every day, the same people.

- Ten dope.

- [Man] That means that they're spending

like $3,000 a week.

Some kids start off as early as 20,

thinking about retiring by the time they're 29, 30.

I know a few guys that have gone to Puerto Rico

with half a million, a million dollars.

A lot of them don't make it.

A lot of them get hooked. Spend most the money they save.

And if they don't have anyone that'll back them up,

or care for them, they'll just wind up in the gutter.

- How many bags you got left?

- Some of them have been millionaires twice, three times,

and lost it all

'til they got to the point where they don't care anymore.

They lost it all, so just resort to shooting drugs

and shooting drugs and shooting drugs.

- Hey.

(man whistles)

(car horns beeping)

- [Gringo] You know, the brand names are funny.

They're usually from hip movies at the time.

Like Black Sunday and ET, and Mr. T Dope brand.

And say, Paco or Flaco, or whatever,

the head dope guy

for such and such a label.

He buys it at the same place as the other guys.

And they all may go to the same factory

and say, "Put my stamp on this

and put a one and a half step on it."

And that means that for every gram of heroin,

there's a gram and a half cut.

And that's how you get the different grade of dope

on the street.

And then all of a sudden, boom,

they'll say, "Put a three on it,"

and then they'll put it out on the street.

It sucks, it ain't beef,

but it takes you three bags to get straight

instead of one and a half, or two.

- [Dealer] C and D.

(indistinct conversation)

C and D. You want -- - [Dealer] Homeboy,

I got some blue, blue.

C and D.

- [Dealer] Let's go. Come on.

Come on, let's go.

(indistinct conversation)

- [Man] You the one that stuck out

the first national fight, man.

- [Dealer] C and D.

- [Man] You in for the re-run?

- [Man] What's up, man? - [Dealer] C and D.

- [Man] What's up, man? What's happening?

(indistinct conversation)

- [Dealer] C and D, C and D.

C and D.

- [Dealer] That good, right? Take care, homeboy.

- [Man] What's up, Jesus Christ? Yellow tape, yellow tape.

(indistinct conversation)

(car horn beeps)

- Hey, que paso?

- What's happening?

Listen, man, we been hearing some shit

about you selling some dummies out here.

- No, man. - Beating customers?

- I don't play that shit, man. I don't play that shit.

- What about putting your shit on the street

instead of ours?

- Man, you're talking outta your fucking face, man.

I don't fuck with nobody's product, man.

- Fuck you, Freddy.

- Hey, fuck you too, man.

What the fuck does he got to do with us, man?

- Listen, man.

- He's getting greedy is what it is, man.

- You're the the one who's getting greedy.

- I ain't getting greedy, man.

He don't got nothing to do with us, man.

He's just coming out of his face.

- We don't want you here. We don't want you in the spot.

We don't want you at all.

(gun fires)

(tires screech)

(ominous music)

- Got a cigarette?

- Sure. - Thanks.

(dog barking)

(knocking)

- [Gringo] Suzanne. Suzanne.

- Suzanne.

- [Gringo] Hey, Suzanne. It's me. It's baby.

- [Suzanne] Shit.

- [Gringo] Open the door.

- [Suzanne] Four o'clock in the morning.

- [Gringo] I gotta talk to you, okay?

Just come here for a minute?

- Shut up, you're waking everybody up.

- [Gringo] I need to hold onto a few bucks.

- I already lent you money, you never paid me back.

- [Gringo] Come on, I've done you plenty.

- Damn it. Go take a walk.

- [Man] Check this out, I want to talk to you.

Mad like a motherfucker, man. Check this out.

The other day, I came here, man, I bought some dope,

and the shit was called Meat Tenderizer, man.

Hey, I bought it right here, man.

I don't want no money back.

(indistinct conversation)

(man groans)

- Oh, shit.

(eerie, dramatic music)

(police sirens wailing)

- [Dispatch] St. George. Six dead.

95, 7848. 8th and Eddie. 840986.

(gurney rattles)

- [Man] Okay. He is my brother-in-Law.

And if he's involved with drugs,

we will find out about it.

But we would like to know who the fuck did it.

Excuse my language, man,

but that's the way it is, you know?

When you living in Lower East Side, man,

that's the way it is.

- Eventually, you find out.

- Everybody out here fucked up with everything.

You know what I'm saying?

The best thing you do is you gotta be cool.

But when it comes to brothers, man,

and they know that he got to my brother-in-law.

They know who we are.

We don't fuck with nobody,

they shouldn't be messing with us.

Now, whatever he did, it's between him,

we would like to find out who did it.

And if it's for drugs, then we would like to know.

Now, the best thing I did was get in touch with the family.

And once the family said, "Yo, we gotta do this,"

we gotta do it.

I wish I knew who did it,

but like they say, drugs lead you to your death.

Know what I'm saying?

Sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't.

You don't have it, you find a way to get it.

(ominous music)

- [Gringo] Heroin is a cruel mistress,

a brutal overseer, man.

It wakes you up early in the morning, takes you out,

makes you do things you would never do.

And, well, you just don't have the time

to worry about other things.

Things that maybe you should be worrying about,

facing reality, sometimes

it's a hard thing to do.

What's really sad is a lot of the kids

that come down to cop,

they got nothing shaking their lives up.

- [Woman] Hate the cops. You know that now, but --

- [Woman] The cops --

- [Gringo] But it's amazing, you know,

these young white chicks.

They go into this building with $100

and they're straight.

They don't want to go out on the street and cop.

You can get your throat slit out there.

They'll come down, buy the guy some dope for himself

and some dope for them, and send him out.

And then they'll sit there and they'll get high.

The guys will have the works and everything.

- [Woman] Yeah?

- [Woman] Up it, puppet.

(women speaking Spanish)

I tell you, you always get loose

when there's girls around you, girl.

- [Gringo] So the kids wind up using these shitty works.

Who knows who's used these things, man?

That's how these diseases get transmitted.

- [Woman] I'm going in this vein too much lately.

- [Woman] This is really hectic.

It's come up slow.

- [Woman] Bella, You can smoke a Marlboro, right?

- [Woman] Yeah.

- [Woman] Oh, man, what am I doing?

When I got a vein right here.

- [Woman] I'm having a hard time hitting my slip,

but Dean kept me off.

(indistinct conversation)

My veins are shallow veins.

I used to get off an awful lot.

I was hooked for a couple days, man.

- [Woman] This is really --

- [Woman] Suzanne, you got --

- Now, I just get high like once, twice a week.

And I'm having a hard time, as you can see.

I've been making --

- [Woman] We might have to take a ride down there,

'cause his boss doesn't usually put phone calls through.

I seen one day, a girlfriend of mine and her old man.

They were arguing over drugs.

It's crazy. - [Woman] It's stupid.

- [Woman] Who's doing more?

And who's holding this, and who's holding that?

You know what I mean? Suenta.

In other words, let go.

- [Woman] I love it.

- And really, getting sick of it.

- You can't feel with --

- Even when my man tells me, he hates --

- Sometimes, you'd be arguing over the stupidest shit.

- [Woman] It's really shitty, man.

- I know, it's a drag. - [Woman] No good, man.

Just wanna just clean up the shit --

- Like I said, we used to do same thing.

It's like we used to fight over who was gonna get off first.

- [Woman] You know what saying?

You always saying, "I'm right, I'm right, I'm right."

And you're gonna stop and you're gonna stop.

- That's good.

- [Woman] First thing you think of when you get up in the morning

is where you gonna get your first shot?

- [Woman] No, not really, but I feel this way if I --

- [Woman] Sick every morning --

- You get through about 15, 20 minutes, half an hour.

And then you-

(indistinct conversation)

You get jobs, you know?

Hey, hey, (indistinct) a start, you know? A start.

- [Woman] No, no. That's bullshit.

- Everybody's gotta start somewhere.

- That's bullshit.

- [Woman] Now, the first step, man,

if you don't have -- every day you get --

- Say, "Where am I going to eat today?

Where am I going get the money to eat?"

Know how many days we've gone hungry?

All we've worried about is getting off, getting our fix?

- [Woman] Because we were sick.

- How many times do I say to her, "Fuck the dope,

buy a pack of cigarettes."

- [Woman] Miss Perfect.

- [Woman] Oh, far from it.

- [Woman] Miss Perfect.

- [Woman] Far from it, that's for sure.

- Baby. Another one.

- [Woman] But at least I buy cigarettes and shit.

- [Woman] At least I buy cigarettes, too,

and I'll eat, too, when I have it --

- [Woman] At the point, because she's --

- [Woman] You might don't be here.

- How much money do you have on you now?

- [Woman] You understand? How much money what I got on me?

- Were you ever at the point she's at now?

- [Woman] He has money.

What he has, I got.

- Excuse me?

- [Woman] No. - No?

Never in your life?

- [Woman] Cigarettes are very important to me, no.

- You never got to the point

where you'd leave yourself short of cigarettes

to go get some dope?

- [Woman] No.

- Well, I'm happy for you.

- Yo, let me get two dopes, man.

- You got tracks?

- Yeah. Yeah, I got tracks. You wanna see my tracks?

- Yeah. Lemme see your tracks.

- You wanna see it? - Yeah.

All right, gimme one.

- [Man] It's good, huh? Tell me it's good.

- [Man] Yeah. It's good. It's the best.

- [Man] I see both of them nice, huh?

- Oh, yeah, you'll like that.

- [Man] All right, thanks a lot.

- Okay, don't OD now.

- I won't.

- Got that D, got that D. Holding.

- [Gringo] Oh, we got something.

What you want? What you want?

What you want? - Some of both.

- Some of both?

- We only got D.

- Only got some D left?

- Got D? - You see some tracks?

You got some tracks, man?

- Got tracks all over the fucking place.

The fuck is...?

You seen me around when I was with you. Huh?

- [Man] Yes. I seen you around.

How many you want to get?

- [Gringo] Gimme two D.

- [Man] Two Ds. You got it.

Okey dokey. All right.

Mm. Don't OD, now. All right?

- Shit. Yeah.

I don't OD on this cheap fucking dope you got.

For all the fucking rice in China.

- [Man] Watch that guy. He don't look right.

Mm.

- [Gringo] Heroin is like,

well, first of all, it's a treasure hunt.

You gotta find the money.

And then it's the adventure,

going through the jungle, or the war zone,

and then it's finding the drugs, and finding good drugs.

It's dodging the cops

and the thrill of the chase,

the thrill of the hunt for the dope.

It's the satisfaction,

the relief once you get something good.

That's always the end result match.

Then it's the satisfaction and the relief of getting high.

(arcade machines bleeping)

- [Man] Everybody needs drugs. Everybody live on drugs.

Main basic thing.

Everybody can't stop messing with drugs.

I like drugs. I like to deal with drugs.

I sell works to get my drugs.

And mainly, I love drugs. Mainly cocaine.

Cocaine's a beautiful thing when you getting high off it.

And mainly, when you getting high off it

and it's beautiful.

I love it. I like it and I would never stop using it.

It is always beautiful to deal with drugs.

Cocaine is my main hobby.

I would never deal with nothing else but cocaine,

and believe me, it's beautiful.

I can never stop using it

and I will always keep using it as long as I can.

It's like a lovely, beautiful thing to me.

I'm not sorry that I've started messing with drugs

and I always will mess with drugs, as long as I like to.

Very much so.

Cocaine is a beautiful drug. I like it and I love it.

I will always stick by it, I will always deal with it.

Mainly, I have sold works for it.

For so many period of months to get my drugs.

To build my habit up and my needs.

My needs for that bag of coke that everybody love and like.

Mainly, I love it. I can never stop using it.

I will always use it. I will always need it.

- [Gringo] You know, for most of the people down here,

it's a pretty shitty place.

They're living on fruit loops and pizza.

When you're high on dope, it's like,

I don't know, I guess...

I hope someday I get out of this fucking hell hole.

I'll tell you, I never thought about death so much,

but it's really become a part of my life

and nothing matters.

The only thing that matters is feeling good.

The only time I feel good is when I'm really stoned.

And most of the time these motherfuckers

won't let you feel good.

They'll just give you enough to get you straight.

You get beat. It's just part of the game.

You gotta take it with a grain of salt.

If I'd gotten an upper for every time I got beat,

I'd be dead a long time ago.

Maybe someday, I'll get off this merry-go-round

and I'll find something else to do.

Dang. Have space.

Listen, I'm gonna stop by for a minute, okay?

Thanks, I'll be right by.

A couple of more here.

Oh.

Gosh.

Anyway, this chick at the pit, she's a weird number.

She's got this necklace around her neck,

it's like a heart with a skull on it.

And inside of it is cyanide.

That's weird.

- Yeah, I was reading up on these tarantulas,

and they got eight eyes,

and if they lose legs, they can regenerate them.

They shed their skins every year.

They just come right out of it

and they leave skins that are exactly like the tarantulas.

You wake up in the morning

and the next thing you know,

it looks like you got two of them in there.

Mice are really aware of what you're doing for them,

but tarantulas...

'Cause the fuckers are really boring.

They have no emotions or response.

They don't even know you're feeding them.

They have no idea what's going on at all.

Yeah, the best thing about having spiders

is that you feed them crickets

and for a couple of days,

you get to listen to the crickets.

You sound like you're in the country.

It's the only really good thing.

Come here, you know what you are?

Come on, don't go in there.

All right, do go in there. Come out this way.

This little mouse thinks he's a rat still.

- [Gringo] I've got to get some new works.

- [Woman] Yeah.

- [Gringo] These things like a nail.

- [Woman] Yeah.

- [Gringo] Typical.

- I've been feeding the rats beans and peas and stuff.

And the mice. I really like them.

You don't have to just buy this food

if you give them dried vegetables.

They eat that just as much.

It's pretty interesting. Wow. Good stuff. Rat pellets.

- [Gringo] They'll still be here when we're all gone.

- No, rats don't live long.

- [Gringo] Yeah, but during the Cuban Crisis,

when I was 10 years old, I had all these nightmares

of atomic war.

- [Woman] Sure.

Those were the days of, "Hide under your desk."

Like, that's gonna do some good

when they drop an atomic bomb.

- [Gringo] And there's nothing that's really stimulating

to kids today, except for the fear of out and out war.

- [Woman] Ratsos.

See, these guys are much more intelligent.

They know what's happening. Come on, Ratso.

See, this one's all fat. See?

One skinny one and one fat one.

- [Gringo] Yeah. Right.

- [Woman] It's like, I went to the nuclear demonstration

on June 12th and there's all kinds of people there,

and there's even punks, you know?

It's really good to see that the young people

that are interested will occasionally come out

and do actions.

Because seems to be an incredible waste of time.

That guys go around with shirts that say, "New York rules,"

and "DC rules," and "LA rules."

Where it's at is that no one rules.

People are conditioned to look for the differences

between people and not to realize

that they should be working together.

- [Gringo] Well, the only thing that's gonna wake them up

is if the youth of America is threatened.

And if they're threatened,

like the youth was threatened during the Vietnam War,

then there will be an overall consciousness again.

- [Woman] if you go to school

and you realize that you're gonna come out,

and you're gonna make $3 an hour

and it's not gonna pay your rent,

and it's not gonna buy you food,

that's a distinct threat on your consciousness.

- [Gringo] The poor kids go into service.

It's not contained to poor Blacks anymore.

It's all the poor people.

They go into the service,

just like in an underdeveloped country.

- [Woman] It's not that many kids

going into the Army.

- [Gringo] There's plenty of them.

Poor kids are all going into the Army.

It's the best thing they could do.

It gives them experience,

it gives them training, it gives them money,

it gives them everything when they come out.

They can get any kind of fucking loan they want to.

They're covered medically.

Everything is covered for them

after they get out of the fucking service.

Me, I'm stuck. I never went into the Army --

- [Woman] How many people have you met

that have recently gone into the service?

- Never talked about nothing, man. I'm an anarchist.

I never fucking filed income tax.

I ain't did shit with these motherfuckers.

I don't want to talk to them about

when they said I had amnesty, I had to do is go down --

- [Woman] How are you gonna get married?

- Salute the flag, you know? I didn't do it.

I don't want nothing to do with them.

- [Woman] How are you gonna get married

without identification?

- I have identification now.

- [Woman] Oh, that's good.

- I just sent for my birth certificate.

But it's the first time I've had ID in 12 years.

("Stray Cats - Wild Saxophone" plays)

♪ I wanna mumbo jumbo, do my number ♪

♪ Hold my baby all the summer ♪

♪ Every time I hear that wild saxophone ♪

♪ I wanna beep, beep bop it, really rock it ♪

♪ Ooh, Davy Crockett ♪

♪ Every time I hear that wild saxophone ♪

♪ I wanna rock, rock, rock ♪

♪ Roll, roll, roll ♪

♪ Bop, bop, bop ♪

♪ I wanna rip it, rock it, really bop it ♪

♪ Ooh, Davy Crockett ♪

♪ Every time I hear that wild saxophone ♪

♪ I wanna rock, rock, rock ♪

♪ Roll, roll, roll ♪

♪ Bop, man, bop ♪

- [Gringo] When I was 15,

I picked up this 31 year-old hooker.

She told me,

"if a woman makes too much noise

while you're making love with her, she's faking you,

and they're either trying to get you to come fast,

or trying to get you to tip them more."

I think it's a little bit of both if it's a whore.

Personally, I haven't had a woman like her a long time.

She was really good in bed.

At first, I really dug it,

'cause what 14, 15 year-old boy gets enough sex?

But I stayed with her, like, two, three years

and then I grew tired of her,

and I wanted a girl a little bit younger.

And this is about a year before Hendrix and Joplin,

all them people died.

I met JC and John the same time together.

I was walking down Haight Street, I was about 17.

And me and JC just right away,

we took to each other, you know?

We both kind of looked alike

and we both had long brown hair,

and wore the same kind of hippie shit.

Patches everywhere. Patches on our patches.

It was all during the Vietnam War era.

And we're all radicals, or hippies,

or riot fanatics, or something.

I wasn't going to no fucking Vietnam War.

So we all had an affinity.

We were all against the government.

Us, the Indians.

Cesar Chavez.

Everybody was kind of together,

even though we had different causes.

It's the same cause all in all. Smash the state.

Anyway, STP John was the leader of the gang.

He got shot while taking a piss

behind this speed freak's house.

And on the one year anniversary of his death,

me and JC went out there and we took a couple of chicks,

and a bunch of booze,

and got real drunk and fucked the chicks on his grave,

threw up, did everything, pissed on the gravestone.

He's dead now too.

He got blown away in a $5,000 heroin deal

about five or six years ago.

They found him floating in a lake, in LA,

and I was drunk and wanted to see my old girlfriend.

I got there and she was there with her new boyfriend.

He had all his friends there.

And so we're there for about five minutes,

and the guy said, "Well, I think it's time you leave now."

And I said, "Well, yeah? Well, fuck you.

I'll stay as long as I want. This is my ex-girlfriend.

I came to visit."

All of a sudden, one dude flew at me,

I think it was her boyfriend,

and then his friends jumped in, too,

and they were jacking me up in the fireplace,

and this one guy was hitting me and it felt real hard.

I grabbed his fist, I said, "Oh my god,

fucking brass knuckles?"

So I grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head down,

and all of a sudden, his ear popped into my mouth.

So I bit as hard as I could and pulled his head back,

and spit his ear in his face.

All this blood came out and everything.

And so, detectives came and everything with the ambulance.

Started asking me, "Who did this to you?

Who did this to you?"

And I said, "Get the fuck out here."

I spit on one of their faces.

And they took me to the hospital

and put me into emergency operation.

And the cocksucker said, "Well, he's too high."

So they didn't give me no anesthetic, nothing.

They did two layers of stitches,

fished all around in my stomach and everything.

See if anything was broken.

Man, you could hear me screaming for three city blocks.

No fucking shit.

That was some of the most pain I ever felt in my life.

It had to be as bad as having a baby, at least.

It was actually two slices. The guy had sliced me twice.

So there was a little piece of meat in between both slices.

So they had to cut that slice of meat off

before sewing me up.

And they cut that piece of meat off,

and they sewed me up finally.

Two layers of stitches, mind you, with no anesthetic.

And after the whole thing, I said,

can I have the piece of meat that was laying there

on the little tray that they put at the side of the bed?

Looks like you're going to a drive in diner.

And they said no. And I said, "How come?"

They said, "Well, it's not hygienic."

And I said, "What the fuck you talking about? That's me.

You're gonna tell me I can't take me with me?"

So the doctors all stepped outta the room for a minute

and when they did, I hopped up off the operating table,

grabbed the hunk of meat and stuck it in my pocket.

(jaunty harmonica sounds)

- [Man] Thanks, little man.

- Okay. - Take care, baby.

- All right, bye, babe. Take it easy.

- [Gringo] Hi.

- What's up?

How you been?

- Hopefully me in a minute.

(woman singing)

- Good every day. Every day.

- Hey, man. That's a nice board.

- I had it hanging around, man.

Took it out to see if I could sell it.

- You're gonna sell it?

- All right.

I took it the house to get some money for it.

Don't be too long, man. What's happening, man?

- [Woman] Hi.

What's up, baby?

- [Man] Hey, you're good at that, man.

- How much you want for it?

- Twenty bucks, man. - Yeah?

Listen, I tell you what --

- The man's getting uptight. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you can wait like 15 minutes for me to get it,

'cause I just copped,

and you know that I can take the money back.

I want definitely.

(distant police sirens wailing)

- Hi, is mom there?

Hi, mom. Hi, mom. How are you? Good.

Everything's been going good with me.

Listen, mom, it's been a while since I asked you

and I'm really put out.

I've gotta come up with my rent.

I got some money coming to me next week,

but I need to have some cash now.

Even 100 to make it, you know?

I love you. You're so sweet.

You always come through when I need you.

Three or four guys, one of them was a drag queen,

and I spit on the street,

and one of them got all indignant

and said, "Oh you tried to spit on me."

I said, "I did not, you fucking drag queen."

And words were exchanged,

and then a couple shoves happened,

and all of a sudden, they whipped out chains

and started kicking the shit out of me.

They beat me over my head.

Just kept beating me and beating me.

And the cops came, and they stopped everything.

But what it is, it's just a scar over the lens.

If you can see, it's like a white cloud.

Can you see it? Do you see it?

It's like a $5,000 operation.

And what they do, they use a laser

with a small little vacuum,

and they go in with the laser

and they cut away the scar tissue,

and then they got this little vacuum that sucks it up.

(eerie music)

- [Man] It's $6.00 if you wanna come in.

- [Gringo] Come on, man. - [Man] Money or leave.

- [Gringo] Fuck you then, man. I'm getting outta this --

- Right. Right. You're leaving now.

- [Gringo] All right. All right.

- I don't know what the fuck

you'd be knocking on my door early in the morning for,

asking for a spike and all that dumb shit.

- I'm sorry. Goddamn. You got a cigarette?

("The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five)

You got a cigarette?

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

♪ Broken glass everywhere ♪

♪ People pissing on the stairs ♪

♪ You know they just don't care ♪

♪ I can't take the smell, can't take the noise ♪

♪ Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice ♪

♪ Rats in the front room, roaches in the back ♪

♪ Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat ♪

♪ I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far ♪

♪ 'Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car ♪

♪ Don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the edge ♪

♪ I'm trying not to lose my head ♪

♪ A-huh, huh, huh ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

♪ My brother's doing bad, stole my mother's TV ♪

♪ Says she watches too much, it's just not healthy ♪

♪ All My Children in the daytime ♪

♪ Dallas at night ♪

♪ Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight ♪

♪ The bill collectors, they ring my phone ♪

♪ And scare my wife when I'm not home ♪

♪ Got a bum education ♪

♪ Double digit inflation ♪

♪ Can't take the train to the job ♪

♪ There's a strike at the station ♪

♪ Neon King Kong standing on my back ♪

♪ Can't stop and turn around ♪

♪ Broke my sacroiliac ♪

♪ A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane ♪

- [Gringo] Oh, shit.

♪ I might hijack a plane ♪

♪ Don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the edge ♪

♪ I'm trying not to lose my head ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

(child laughing)

- Hey, Larry.

I didn't have the money to get all of them at once,

but I brought you two of these.

The ones you saw that you liked.

And this is the style I was telling you about.

They have the little red stone in the back

and it's the same thing.

Five each. - Okay.

- So take these three for now

and I'll bring you the other nine.

- Okay. - Money.

♪ My son said, Daddy, I don't want to go to school ♪

♪ 'Cause the teacher's a jerk ♪

♪ He must think I'm a fool ♪

♪ And all the kids smoke reefer, ♪

♪ I think it'd be cheaper if I just got a job ♪

♪ Learned to be a street sweeper ♪

♪ I dance to the beat, shuffle my feet ♪

♪ Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps ♪

♪ 'Cause it's all about money, ain't a damn thing funny ♪

♪ You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey ♪

♪ Push that girl in front of the train ♪

♪ Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again ♪

♪ Stabbed that man right in his heart ♪

♪ Gave him a transplant for a brand new start ♪

♪ I can't walk through the park ♪

♪ 'Cause it's crazy after dark ♪

♪ Keep my hand on my gun, 'cause they got me on the run ♪

♪ I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw ♪

♪ Hear them say, "You want some more?" Living on a seesaw ♪

♪ Don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the edge ♪

♪ I'm trying not to lose my head ♪

♪ Say what? ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

♪ A child is born with no state of mind ♪

♪ Blind to the ways of mankind ♪

♪ God is smiling on you, but he's frowning too ♪

♪ Because only God knows what you'll go through ♪

♪ You'll grow in the ghetto, living second rate ♪

♪ And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate ♪

♪ The places you play and where you stay ♪

♪ Looks like one great, big alleyway ♪

♪ You'll admire all the number book makers ♪

♪ Thugs, pimps and pushers, and the big money makers ♪

♪ Driving big cars, spending 20s and 10s ♪

♪ And you want to grow up to be just like them ♪

♪ Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers ♪

♪ Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers ♪

♪ You say I'm cool, I'm no fool ♪

♪ But then you wind up dropping outta high school ♪

♪ Now you're unemployed, all non-void ♪

♪ Walking round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd ♪

♪ Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did ♪

♪ Got sent up for an eight year bid ♪

♪ Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag ♪

♪ Spend the next two years as an undercover fag ♪

♪ Being used and abused to serve like hell ♪

♪ 'Til one day you was found hung dead in a cell ♪

♪ it was plain to see that your life was lost ♪

♪ You was cold and your body swung back and forth ♪

♪ But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song ♪

♪ Of how you lived so fast and died so young ♪

♪ So don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the edge ♪

♪ I'm trying not to lose my head ♪

♪ A-Huh, huh, huh ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

♪ it makes me wonder how I keep from going under ♪

♪ Huh a-huh, huh, huh, huh ♪

♪ It's like a jungle, sometimes ♪

- Well, I knew Cindy since she was 11 years old.

She was in this gang in Berkeley, called the Red Rockets.

And I was really in love with her.

And she was very cute when she was really young.

We decided to get married,

which was, at the time, a good idea,

'cause I was drunk.

And one morning, it was about 5:30, six in the morning,

she woke up and complained of stomach pains.

I was a little worried,

'cause she was pregnant.

All of a sudden, she just aborted.

My only son and heir came popping out, covered in blood.

It was gross. It was the grossest thing I ever saw.

I didn't know what to do.

It looked like a little rat fetus or something.

It was just about this big, you know?

She was only about three months pregnant, I guess.

And it's really disgusting.

I know it's illegal,

because you're supposed to report those sort of things.

But I just took the fetus

and I threw it in a plastic trash bag.

Put it out in the garbage.

I didn't know what to do with it.

What are you gonna do with this little thing?

Nothing more than a huge period. It was weird.

But then after that happened,

then I sent her back to her mom in Washington state.

A couple weeks later, her mom called me up

and said that Cindy had been run over

by a logger truck while riding on the back of a motorcycle

with this other guy.

Then I started shooting heroin,

'cause I had all these nightmares about the baby,

about her,

about how things could have been different, I guess.

But I don't know, maybe it was just never supposed to be.

I guess it wasn't, was it?

But I don't know. I always kind of blame myself.

I had horrible nightmares for at least a couple years.

Pretty much over the nightmares.

(ominous music)

(bell rings)

- This is brown dope.

In other words, made with Nestle's Quik. Bastards.

God damn, it's so obviously Nestle Quik.

You can smell the chocolate.

Ain't that funny?

(needle scratches)

(child shouts)

- [Gringo] It's sometimes a lot of fun.

I mean, if you can imagine a movie in your mind,

that's what it's like when you're really high.

And you could be with somebody that you love that's dead

and long gone.

But you're so high right now

that they're right there next to you,

and they're kissing you like they used to,

laughing like they used to.

And you can see them. It's right there.

'Cause for some reason,

opium lets you create whatever you want in your mind.

(ominous music)

- I'm trying, I'm a bit nervous.

(Gringo groans)

(Gringo groans)

(Gringo coughs)

(Gringo spits)

- [Gringo] You want me to tell you what it's like to be sick?

Like the worst flu you ever had.

You're tired. You got no energy.

You sweat a lot when you're under the covers.

When you're not under the covers,

then you freeze and you're chilling.

(Gringo groans)

It's the worst.

That's why it's better to quit gradually

than just stop all at once.

Cold turkey.

Cut back down to two bags a day,

then one bag a day, then do methadone for a few days,

and then do Valiums.

That's it. I'll be off.

(Gringo vomits)

(vomit splashes)

(Gringo retches)

(eerie music)

(muffled pop music)

♪ T and T, it has got to be ♪

♪ The way of life for me ♪

"Since I Don't Have You" by Don McLean plays)

♪ Do, do, do, do, do ♪

♪ Do, do ♪

♪ Do, do, do, do, do ♪

♪ I don't have plans and schemes ♪

♪ And I don't have hopes and dreams ♪

♪ I don't have anything ♪

♪ Since I don't have you ♪

♪ Do, do, do, do, do ♪

♪ I don't have fond desires ♪

♪ I don't happy hours ♪

♪ I don't have anything ♪

♪ Since I don't have you ♪

♪ I don't have happiness ♪

♪ And I guess ♪

♪ I never will again ♪

♪ When you walked out on me ♪

♪ Then came old misery ♪

♪ And he's been here since then ♪

♪ Now, I don't have a lot to share ♪

♪ And I don't have one who cares ♪

♪ I don't have anything ♪

♪ Since I don't ♪

♪ Have you ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ You ♪

(upbeat music)