jack of spades-vivaldi of the coin laundry-wearing a hipster's dictionary-we see him brownnosing around the blackbelts & horny racing car drivers-dashing to & fro like a frightened uncle remus ...on days that he gets no mail, he rises early, sticks paper up the pay phones & cons the bubble gum machines ..."the world owes me a living" he says to his half-hawaiian cousin, the half-wit, joe the head who is also planning to marry a folksinger next month-"round & round, old joe clark" is being recited from the steps of the water & light building as jack ambles by with a case full of plastic bubbles-things look well for him: he can imitate cary grant pretty good. he knows all the facts why mabel from utah walked out on horace, the lightingman from Theatre Altitude. he has even stumble onto a few hairy secrets of mrs. Cunk, who sells fake blisters at the world's fair-plus being able to play a few foreign legion songs on the yoyo & always managing to look like a grapefruit in case of emergency ...he brags about his collection of bruises & corks & the fact that h pays no attention to the business world. he would rather show his fear of the bomb & say what have you done for freedom than to praise an escaped mental patient who pissed on the floor of junior's delicatessen-jack of spades, wit his axe, the record player. with his companion, the menu & his destination, a piece of kleenex-never touches the cracks on the sidewalk-"jack" says his other cousin, Bode guard, half danish & half surfer, "how come you always act like Crazy, jackie gleason's friend? i mean wow! aint there enough sadness in the world?" jack walks by in a flash-he wears ear plugs-from the steps of the water & light building, the band, after knocking all the juice out of their horns, begin to play on my papa ...jack, shocked, takes a second look, raises his hand in a nazi salute. a woodsman, walking by with an axe, drops it. a D.A.R. woman flies off the handle. looks at jack. says "in some places, you'd be arrested for obscenity" she doesn't even hear the band ...she falls down a sidewalk crack/ the band leader, paying no attention, does a slight curtsy, sneezes. points his wand at the classical guitar ...a street cleaner bumps into jack & says & i quote "o.k. so i bumped into you. i dont even care. i got me a little woman at home. i know a good radiator down the block. man, i aint never gonna starve. would you like to buy a pail?" jack, amazed, rearranges his collar & heads off to the bell telephone hour. which is located beyond the next cop car ...he passes a hot dog stand. a sauerkraut hits him in the face ... the band is playing malaguena salerosa-the D.A.R. woman pops out of the sidewalk, hears the band, screams, starts doing the jerk. the street cleaner steps on her ...jack hasnt eaten all day. his mouth tastes funny-he has his unpublished novel in his hand-he wants to be a star-but he gets arrested anyway