Note: Typically before Mark and I do an interview we go to a store and we get some beers and snacks and I pick up the tab, in addition to paying Mark for his time. This time we went to a store on Saint Mark’s Place and Mark grabbed a Four Loko for himself, one for Mary, and, unbeknownst to me at the time, a second one for himself which he stuck in his jacket. The store clerk was aware, however, and made Mark give up the booze and leave the store.
MARK CLEMENTE, COOPER UNION
WORD ON THE STREET: Why did you steal that Four Loco, Mark? You got caught. Let’s recount this, please.
MARK: Just because I wanted two instead of one.
Did you consider asking me for a second one?
No, ’cause you were already buying me one.
So you would have felt greedy?
Yeah, I don’t like asking people for things period. You are already doing something for me, if I was to ask for more, that’s greedy.
I might have said yes, and then you wouldn’t have gotten caught by the guy who watched you steal the third Four Loko on camera.
Nothing really bad happened.
That’s to his credit.
Yeah, usually if you steal from a bodega, they won’t call the police.
When the clerk confronted you, your lie was terrible. You said, “Dude, I had already brought it in with me.”
[chuckles] I know. He saw me from the beginning.
[Arman and I] stayed there for five minutes afterward watching the surveillance footage. I took a picture of it. Want to see?
How did I know you were going to do that? Let’s see it.
It’s a lot of reflection happening with the glass, but that’s you with the Four Loko. See your hat right there?
[Chuckles] Yeah, I see it.
That clerk was really nice, though. He showed us the footage very calmly like it was a part of a TV show we missed. I feel like this episode lends some insightful into you, Mark.
Maaan, you can’t base that on who I am.
Dude, I think it’s fair to say you’re kind of a shithead. I think Mary might agree that’s one of your flaws: shitheadedness.
I used to be very bad, but now I never really steal from stores. The only thing I steal is beer. I won’t go into a store and steal clothes or people’s cameras and shit, like a lot of people who boost and do that as their everyday thing. I go in and steal a beer, but that’s the most I’ll steal. I don’t steal money, but I used to rip people off. I’d cop for them, and then I would burn them. People think I’m bad now. I used to be a scumbag.
That’s how you lost your backpack for a day last summer.
Yeah, Dee Dee took my backpack. Fucking thought that I ripped her off, and I didn’t. My reputation is bad and it’s really hard to get a good reputation again once you have a bad one. Even when someone gives me a lot of money I’ll get them their shit. They’ll at least end up hooking me up with something.I agree there’s karma and all that bullshit, but a lot of the times a lot of people who do the right thing get shat on anyway. I realized doing the right thing always makes you finish last. You don’t feel really good about yourself. It’s just weird how it works. A lot of times when I do things right and try to not be a scumbag, it ends up biting me in the ass. People take advantage, man.
Where is Mary? This was supposed to be a three-person interview.
She’s still in a bathroom at Bellevue Hospital, and she’s probably a bloody mess right now. The poor thing. She has been having a lot of trouble.
…With finding veins?
Yeah, it’s hell for her. Do you know women’s veins are different? They are below the muscles and fat, ours are above, and that’s why their veins don’t pop out like ours do. This is what Mary explained to me. That’s why a lot of women lose their veins first. You just can’t hit in the same spots because they won’t register. It’s like the veins dry up and no blood will come out.
You have that one small hole in the crook of your arm above your Steel Reserve tattoo.
That one recently stopped working.
Is it healing up okay?
I guess, I used it the other day, but I just started using the other one. I’ve been using that one for nine-ten years. I’ve never had an abscess.
Have you seen Requiem for a Dream?
Yeah.
Remember that scene when Harry and Ty are in the car…
Yeah, they’re going to Florida and his arm is super infected? Yeah, it’s fucked up, but it was a little far fetched.
Harry says he has to keep using that arm because if he didn’t he might “miss it” shooting somewhere else.
No, he could have used something else.
Hmm. The movie is good, but in the book by Hubert Selby, Jr., you really get into these characters heads; you really get to know them. You share Harry and Miriam’s excitement of copping this pound of pure heroin and what they could do with the money. Miriam is a clothing designer who wants to open up a boutique—although she’s a visual artist in the book—and Harry wants to manage it. They do want to go legit, and they want to stop using, but you see how their world starts corroding. It’s so painful to watch because you become really attached to these two. The idea of self-delusion is not something exclusive to people addicted to heroin of course. We are constantly lying to each other and to ourselves. I mean, I personally am kind of scared in terms of the ways I lie to myself on a daily basis.
Yeah no matter what, people do that, they lie to themselves. Whether it’s drinking or drugs, just like Arman [Ed. Arman stopped by and met Mark] was saying, everyone’s got their own things. Mine’s drugs, other peoples is shopping, money, food, sex.
Ego.
Yeah.
That’s a strong fucking high.
Pride and ego is bad though. Pride and ego I think are bad.
When things start going good for a person, it’s easy to be like “Yeah! Of course things start going good for me, I’m fucking great! Before, others didn’t think I was great and I kind of believed them, but now this new success shows how great I really am!” I’ve been trying to trim my ego. I catch myself being arrogant sometimes. It’s a pretty ugly thing to be.
Arrogant and conceited, yeah it’s definitely not a good quality. But I think everyone has it in one way or another, at some point. I don’t think it’s a trait you either have or you don’t, I think in time you act a certain way. Being humble is really hard.
When things are tough I find it easier to be humbler.
I see what you are saying, ’cause when things are going good, you’re like, I did this, and look at what I have done for myself. Look at me. I see what you are saying. A lot of kids on the street here are some cocky motherfuckers, dude. It’s like kids who ride trains and shit, they are very cocky kids. It’s like, “Who gives a fuck that you rode 800 trains.” …There’s nothing better than meeting somebody who is the shit at what they do, and you are interested in what they do, and you meet them and they are very humble and willing to talk to you and give you information. Just to shoot the shit instead of being just “Yeah,” and brush you off, like actors.
Who’s the last actor you met?
Alec Baldwin. Right on University Place. He was walking around in sweatpants and a shirt.
I think he lives over there.
Yeah, he does. He’s got to. He was just cruising.
Did you talk to him?
No, Mary had said hello and stuff. I think he did say hello to her. She met Julia Stiles, who was one of her idols when she was a kid. She had pictures of her on her wall and stuff. Julia wasn’t mean to Mary, but she was just kind of short and distant, but I am sure they get all that shit all the time and it’s annoying. It was just her and her boyfriend. Mary is someone who looked up to this girl—the least she could do is talk to her for a second.
How did you get your black eye?
I got punched in the face on the L-train.
Why?
Because I was telling Mary that I didn’t want to ask for money on the train because nobody ever gives me money on trains. Then this dude goes, “Why don’t you get a job and shut the fuck up.” ‘Cause he was black I said, “It’s easy to say that when you are on fucking welfare and the government gives you everything.”
[Laughter] Shit dude, these are fighting words! What did he say to that?
He didn’t say anything; he just had a look on his face. That just snapped him into, “Yo, I’m going to hit this kid.” He stood up and his boy was there, told me, “Motherfucker I am going to wipe you up.” The Graham stop is where I was getting off, and of course he was getting off there, too. He was at this door, and I was at that door, and when the doors opened, he swung around to my door and just blasted me. I got off the train and I walked up the steps and now we are on a street where nobody is on and I see them two coming up on Mary and me. I’m like, “Yo, I’m about to get fucking stomped right now.” I’m not fighting two people—the first dude alone could have whipped my ass. He just told us, “Get the fuck out of here.” I said I don’t want any fucking problems.
There’s value in taking one on the chin, or on the eye, as it were.
The thing about me is I just don’t fight at all.
