Faces Places Page #4

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I'm Pony, that's my stage name.

I'm 75.

I'll be 76 next April.

I don't get much of a pension,

but I manage.

Old people don't eat as much.

None of that morning,

noon and night stuff.

You eat when you're hungry.

Least I do.

What'd you retire from,

if you never worked?

I get that pension...

The maximum... What is it?

Maximum or minimum something?

For people who never worked.

I'm afraid it's the minimum.

That's it.

Your turn.

Good luck!

3, 2, 1...

Great picture!

So handsome.

So expressive.

So handsome!

Pony has invited us to visit his realm.

He's very proud of it.

Nice here, isn't it?

You can do your thing

and nobody bugs you.

You're on the planet.

People threw out these caps.

I picked 'em up

and made stuff with 'em.

You can make stuff with anything.

All it takes is an idea.

Pony tells us

he has hammered 1,300 caps.

And the clock works.

I was born in the shadow of a star.

My mother, the moon,

gave me her coolness.

My father, the sun,

gave me his warmth

and the universe to live in.

Imagine that.

I have so much in this life.

We met an artist

who loves words.

Every new person I meet

feels like my last one.

Your last one, your last one...

You keep saying that.

But we bounce back like cats.

A perching cat makes us wise.

You're playing the wise grandma.

And you're playing

the spirited young man.

Watch and learn

from the sheep instead.

I'm forced to admit

the young lambs on the outside

are leading the dance.

Look Agns,

an animal eating a tree.

They're goats.

Goats without horns?

Is there such a thing?

Let's investigate.

Follow me.

The goats are in here.

I've got 240 goats in production.

In high season

we make about 800 cheeses a day.

Why don't they have horns?

When they're little,

we burn off their horns.

That wasn't done in the past.

Does it hurt them?

No, it takes just 20 seconds.

Why do it?

If they have horns, they fight.

They can break

each other's legs and ribs.

Goats are dominant animals.

They compete for dominance.

They're always at war.

Well, they seem very docile

and obedient for the milking machines.

They head right in.

They love to play,

jump up on the logs.

It's their playground.

They're free to come and go.

They have many acres

all to themselves.

You have one of the only herds

where the goats have horns.

To my mind,

if a goat has horns,

she keeps them.

I'm not going to remove them.

That just seems...

I can find no logical explanation,

unless you see them

as a product...

required to attain

a certain rate of return,

so you eliminate any parameters

that might make them less profitable

and cut off their horns.

You burn them off.

But if you want to do this

in a way that respects the animals,

you have to leave them intact.

If they have horns, they keep them.

Sure, they fight.

Human beings fight too.

So...

Goats on the road, no doubt.

Excuse me.

I know what that car honk means.

We went back the next day.

I like this principled woman.

We wanted to know more about her.

And about this mare.

Fanfan?

Fanfan guards the property.

And she guards the goats.

If something happens,

if some goats wander off,

she whinnies to alert us.

She's extremely sweet to visitors.

With my daughter

and me, she's a bit aloof.

But she's warming up.

How many of you work here?

There are two of us.

I handle

most of the dairy production.

I use traditional methods,

no preservatives.

He tends to the animals,

taking them to pasture

and milking them.

- How many goats do you have?

- About 60.

You have no milking machines.

We used to.

Mechanical ones, electric ones.

But actually,

the noise of the machines

and all the hassle of cleaning them

made it not worth it.

We came to realize

milking is such a peaceful moment.

Agns loves cats and goats.

So I figured she'd like it

if I put up a big goat

with horns.

Nice surprise,

at the end of my workday,

to see the goat, all finished.

It's cool, it's great.

But why this goat?

For fun, and other reasons.

Well it's cool, it's great.

Let me explain it to you.

JR and I are investigating.

I see.

Goat farmers want hornless herds,

so they're removing them.

I didn't know about that

until you told me just now.

This horn thing.

Most people who see the photo

won't have heard about it.

Well, I'll tell them.

Once again,

it's the same old problem

here on the planet.

Always producing

more, more, more.

That's why they remove

the goats' horns?

Goats were born to have horns,

not to be hornless.

I say keep 'em

and put balls on the tips,

like With bulls.

Rubber balls.

Could be funny. Or clown noses.

Rubber ones.

It'll look cute,

and you can use different colors

to tell them apart.

Purple, multicolor, zebra,

whatever you like.

Great idea, I love it.

Very imaginative.

We're glad we met you.

I enjoyed meeting you, too.

Your cause is great, Madam.

Keep up the fight.

And I'll keep your goat.

All right?

Me and the heavens.

See you around.

We wanted

our usual souvenir photos.

This'd look great

on little porcelain plates.

Dessert plates!

My turn to take your picture.

Those blasted glasses!

It's not friendly.

You're putting

a black screen between us.

I've had it. Enough, enough!

Stop busting my chops

over my glasses.

Busting your chops? How rude!

We're trying to work

and you're hassling me.

Cut it out. Let's move on.

Go take a hike!

He made me lose

the thread of my transition

from the goats

to a photograph I took in my youth.

It was in Normandy.

A white goat had fallen off a cliff.

She inspired this composition

of a naked man gazing at the sea,

a child, and the goat.

The year was 1954.

The place was Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer.

A beach I know well.

I've often roamed the region.

I love this coastline,

with its deserted beaches.

Once,

during a long motorcycle ride

between Saint-Aubin

and Sainte-Marguerite,

I discovered this bunker.

It had fallen from the cliff

to the beach,

and was sticking up.

It was a blockhouse

the Germans had built on the cliff

to defend the coastline.

I thought,

"What could I paste on this?"

I'm always asking myself

that question.

But this project

is close to my heart.

Agns must be part of it.

Step 1.

As with every pasting project, Agns,

we scout our location

and figure out

how to bring in our equipment.

Etienne takes measurements.

Better find out about the tides.

This morning

I checked the level at high tide.

The water came up

about 2.6 meters from the ground.

It came up to about there.

- What time was that, 11:30?

- Yes.

On pasting day,

we'll need to know

how long we have at low tide,

and what image

we're going to paste.

I was wondering

if we could put this on the bunker.

It won't look good.

You can't have the man

and the goat

and still be within...

What else have you got?

Photos you took there back then.

How about this one?

Another composition.

In the ruins.

You got everyone naked.

Nudes are beautiful.

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