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Medieoperatørene presents
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A film by Charlotte Thiis-Evensen
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Perhaps you could play that song you gave me?
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- Now?
- Yes.
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St. Jørgen's Square
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(NEWS JINGLE)
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...riots and general strike in Athens...
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...good morning everyone...
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(MORNING RADIO SHOW JINGLE)
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Jørgen is head of the equipment storage
at the NRK for the past ten years.
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I am going on a shoot today, but I
forgot the memory cards for the P2-camera.
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- That’s not exactly my problem, is it?
- No.
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- And then there's a collection afterwards.
- I'll bring them back.
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You can have one, but there will
be a collection afterwards,
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- A collection?
- I'll hassle you with phonecalls.
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These cards are just trouble, really.
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You should shape up, not just
make a muddle. Don't you agree?
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- Yes, yes...
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- An order has been placed?
- Yes, but things take time.
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- Must nag, you know.
- Can't nag. It takes time.
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They don’t work any faster down there.
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- In Germany?
- Yes, they don't.
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The “I-must-have” people...
then I get pissed off.
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They don’t get any particular service.
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- I need sound.
- You'll need some mikes, then?
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All people are different,
some people you like, some you don't
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Of course, I offer more
serviceto people I like.
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Some people... I instantly
pick up on a bad vibration.
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People are very self-absorbed here.
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No one thinks about the next man.
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"I need, I need..."
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- Haven't you completed the smile-program, Jørgen?
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No, I haven't.
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- Why should I?
- Service course...
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- Should I run around smiling when you come then?
- Yes.
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– Yeah, right.
- You should.
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I'm not working for an airline, you know.
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You don’t have to come here, you know.
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You don’t have to come here.
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You can stay down in the News-department
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- That’s going out again tomorrow.
- Have a nice day!
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"Chapter 23"
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"Establishing a power base through terror."
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"For the next ten years, Mao’s home was on
the Yellow Earth Plateau in northwestern China,"
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"near the Yellow River"
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"the next largest river in
China after the Yangtze,"
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"and the cradle of Chinese civilization."
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The Mao book, "The Unknown Mao"
is a 78 hours long audio book.
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I listen to it at work now and then,
but mostly when I go to bed at night, or after work.
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The book is very fascinating.
How crazy it all was.
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"The advancing communist army
took over all civil institutions"
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"recruiting young people with education,
urban men and women, to fill the positions."
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I need a camera, I am going on a trip.
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It's not like a shop here, you know.
"Need this, need that"
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- Can I get a camera then?
- Where are you going?
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Somalia. Or no, I am going to Kenya.
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- Then you definitely won’t get one.
It will get ruined. Sand and shit.
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I talked to Gunnar Grønlund,
and we'll bring this air spray.
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I’m not that keen on it.
It’s all the same to me where you are going.
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But I can’t go back to my boss and say
I can’t go because I can’t get a camera.
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- Allright, do you need a tripod then?
- A monopod and a small camera.
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- Can't you do without a camera stand?
- Yeah, but the camera is heavy.
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You get one battery.
To keep the program short.
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Good lord, this is like pulling teeth now.
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Now you owe me a cigarette.
I had to stub mine.
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- I don’t smoke anymore.
- Then you can buy me some duty-free.
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- Bye. Have a good trip.
- Thanks!
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There's something wrong with power people.
Communism and power is not the same.
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- But I’m not really a communist.
- A little?
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No. Maybe... Aren't we all?
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Maybe. A hobby communist.
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"Chapter 14. The Long March, III."
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"When the two red armies joined forces in June, 1935,"
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"Mao’s powerbase, the Central Red Army,
was completely destroyed."
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"The long march started out with 80,000 soldiers"
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"Now it was reduced to around 10,000,
on the verge of collapse."
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- Have you got it?
- Just.
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Replace the transmitter.
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There.
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This drives me totally,
completely crazy, really.
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Damn, where did it go? There, yes.
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Jørgen used to be one of
NRK's best Lighting technicians.
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Before he became partially sighted.
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- Are things allright or what?
- No.
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- No?
- No.
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- It’s absolute hell. Everything is just a fog.
- Really?
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I am barely able to make it to work.
To find the way.
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I know from memory, but driving...
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But walking is not bad. I need some exercise.
And I pass the beer-shop on the way.
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You drink red wine, right,
I drink beer. Different tastes.
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Are you having a new operation now?
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I was at the hospital,
then I was at the borderline.
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But the conclusion is, I can't be
bothered anymore. It’s over. I can't.
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Clearly, it's game over if anything happens.
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- You would like a camera.
- If you have one tucked away.
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I do.
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... then there's Top 20,
but does he need sound equipment?
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...Isn't that just a kind of streaming thing?
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(mimicking a Northern dialect).
- "You should be able to hold it then".
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"Otherwise you won't be able to film."
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- We’re talking about a monitor for...
- Can you pull focus with this?
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- No...
- Is it the same one that we used in the sound...?
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- Yes.
- Then it won't work.
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Bad luck if someone cleans up
around here when I’m on holiday.
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I wouldn’t find anything when I came back.
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- You have your own system?
- It looks like a mess, but it isn't.
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I know where things are. When people
ask me, I find it for them right away.
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I remember I was lighting
Maria McKee for an interview
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I wanted to really go for it,
with lots of lamps and soft lighting.
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She was pretty, and then I liked
her in Lone Justice and other stuff.
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I was a bit anxious if she wanted so much
lighting, it was really hot in there.
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It was an awesome,
big lighting design, but...
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It’s fun to meet celebrities.
I’m not that blasé.
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There is a hierarchy. The interviewer talks
to them, the lighting people do the lighting.
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Lighting people don’t talk to celebrities.
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Hi, this is Jørgen.
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Huh? This is...? What? Ok.
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Which DV-camera, the whole set,
or just the camera, or what?
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A lot of people have no idea what
we do down here. It's just a warehouse.
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But without us, you couldn't make TV-programmes.
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Some come here just to talk.
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A daily routine to come down here
to talk, and to have a smoke and...
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...talk rubbish. People like it here.
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Some places in NRK no bosses
know about. Important places.
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- Isn’t that quite nice?
- Red wine and coke?
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- It’s refreshing in the summer.
- I’ve never tried. I mix white wine and seltzer.
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Are you connected to the program-bank and such?
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I have managed to create
a bit of an atmosphere here.
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Now there are chairs, people sit
there... it's a gathering point.
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I was actually going to
call it King Jørgen's Ramp.
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But my boss had made a sign with
St. Jørgen's Square, so he beat me to it.
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So it is now called St. Jørgen's Square.
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It was presented to me on my 50th birthday.
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"He greatly enjoyed a poem from the sixth century called,"
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“'The withered trees,'”
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"an elegy about a copse of unique trees"
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"ending their days dried-up and lifeless."
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"The poet Yo Xin attributed the trees' sad fate"
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"to the fact that they had been pulled
up from the roots and transplanted."
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It was my... boyhood dream...
A Harley Davidson Soft Tail custom.
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It's the closest one gets to the dream of “Easy Rider”.
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It is very difficult to describe that
feeling of having wind in your face, and...
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...air and smells, and...
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...you sit outside, it’s a...
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...it’s a bit..."top of the world" feeling in a way.
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(Private footage from 1994)
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You can accelerate on the uphill slopes
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and then you notice a kind of slow pull backwards.
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Then it’s kind of fun to sing
“Born to be Wild” driving over the mountain.
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Just throttle it and head on.
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The best trip I had, I think was when
I had been in Western-Norway for work.
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I had my bike and rode over Valdres plateau
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in fantastic weather, late summer.
It was really warm.
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The mountains lay in the background
and there was willowherb along the road
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and you could just stop and lie
down along the river and sunbathe.
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"...also outside NRK. It is known that NRK
wishes to free up about a hundred million kroner..."
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"...There has been much unrest about
the plans for NRK’s future these past..."
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"...and that we, confronted with the rapid changes in media, need"
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"need to have greater economic flexibility..."
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"...today, we received word that NRK will
cut 100 positions in the course of the year..."
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Perhaps you could play that song that you gave me?
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- Now?
- Yes.
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It must be melodic.
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I am melancholic and often dream.
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I am not aggressive at all.
I don’t have any violent genes at all.
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No, I am actually pretty kind. Maybe a
little strange, and a little... individualistic.
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Music can only be played when
you’re alone, otherwise it becomes annoying.
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No one has the same taste,
so it must be played when you’re alone.
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But of course I am mostly on my own,
so then you play it alone.
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I have become kind of melancholic
over the years, a bit calmer.
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So I play more and more calm music.
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But when in a bad mood, it's better
to play an intense song and just dance.
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I grew up with alternative clubs...
so of course it's the solo dance.
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Doing the airguitar, and yeah, all that.
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What the hell should I use my head
for if I can’t dream and fantasize?
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Actually, you haven’t been very much alone, have you?
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No, I have though, really... What the hell
am I supposed to say to that, then? Alone...
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The last five years I have lived alone.
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From when I was 36 and until I was
almost 50, I was in a long relationship.
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We had a good time together, and had fun together.
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Perhaps we were both just
as strange, and individualistic.
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We slid away from each other,
my sight became worse and worse.
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Our interests changed, both of ours...
We rode bikes and she started sailing.
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We just slid away from each other.
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I can’t decide that other people
should fancy me. Or fall in love with me.
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That is not something I can decide.
Of course, I can fall in love. Theoretically.
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I am actually.
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But I don’t think it's realistic really.
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Hell, who wants to be together with a cripple?
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I am an old man and a cripple, right?
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No, I must admit that I don’t have any
positive aspects right now, really.
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I have basically given up because of my sight
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and going home to hang around
in the fog, and not see a damn shit.
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It's not often I laugh much anymore,
or get very excited, really.
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If you are down of course you dream about
having another person to lean on, or hold.
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Someone who thinks about me
and takes... thinks about me.
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Not being completely alone here on earth.
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But that’s not something I can do anything about.
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But not at all costs. I can happily
do it a bit... on the weekends and things.
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Not everyday, right?
But to live alone all the time...
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No...
(There's a knock on the door)
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There's this superior looking guy
here. He is taking some batteries.
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- Who is it?
- I’m Henrik.
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- What job is it for?
- The Children's show. Our camera just eats batteries.
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- It's the DV-batteries?
- Yes. Can I take three?
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- Yes.
- Brilliant!
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Just check that I have brought
the right ones. There should be one 305.
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- If it is the three... let’s see...
- Three, zero, five.
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There are five of those, and then there is one 305 camera.
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Have you thought about what you
would do if you didn’t work here?
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I have. Honestly, when I can’t
handle it anymore, I’ll call it a day.
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- Call it a day?
- When I don’t function anymore, I'll call it a day.
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That’s just how it is. It’s no
loss for humanity that I die.
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It’s a loss for NRK, but not for humanity.
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So, it’s a loss for NRK?
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Oh yes.
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"Zhu De apologised to Zhang Guotao, who was an old friend"
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"and said that the army had been
a giant, but now it was just a skeleton."
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"It can no longer fight."
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If you want to understand how crazy Mao actually was...
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...of course, it is very difficult
to know, to find out, isn’t it?
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"But Mao needed Jiang Ching at
this turning point in his career."
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"She was, as she said herself,
his most loyal lieutenant"
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"Because without Mao she was nothing."
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It’s OK to stand out as a character,
during a long life at a workplace.
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Then at least people know...
Then you haven’t been a grey mouse.
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No, that’s for sure.
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- But it sounds as if you like your job?
- Yes, I do.
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Yes, I think it's totally ok,
because I'm free here, really.
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I'm a free man... you have to
be here from half eight to four...
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...but then you are in a way free anyway, right?
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You can choose your own tempo throughout the day.
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That way it’s a pretty good
workplace actually. It is.
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- Can you see me now?
- No.
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No. You are a sort of gray,
or a sort of black mass.
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You might look pretty,
I don’t know, but it's possible.
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That’s straightforward.
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An advantage for you maybe?
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The equipment storage is to be moved,
expanded and reorganized, for better efficiency.
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I’m very uncertain if I want to move. With my
eyes I probably have no business being there.
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But time will tell.