Adam Savage: My obsession with objects and the stories they tell

Translator: dardan sylaj Reviewer: Helena Bedalli

About four years ago, the New Yorker published an article

Rreth 4 vjet me pare, gazeta "New Yorker" publikoi artikullin

about a cache of dodo bones that was found

per vendin e fshehtë te kockave te zogut dodo

in a pit on the island of Mauritius.

ne nje grope ne ishullin e Mauritius.

Now, the island of Mauritius is a small island

Tani, ishulli i Mauritiusit eshte nje ishull i vogel

off the east coast of Madagascar

ne bregdetin lindor te Madagaskarit.

in the Indian Ocean, and it is the place

ne Oqeani Indian, dhe eshte vendi

where the dodo bird was discovered

ku eshte zbuluar zogu "dodo"

and extinguished, all within about 150 years.

dhe eshte zhdukur, pergjat 150 viteve.

Everyone was very excited about this archaeological find,

Te gjithe ishin te entuziasmuar per kete zbulim arkeologjik

because it meant that they might finally be able

sepse menduan qe ata me ne fund do te mund

to assemble a single dodo skeleton.

te mblidhnin nje skelet komplet te zogut dodo.

See, while museums all over the world

e

have dodo skeletons in their collection, nobody --

kane skelete te dodo-s ne koleksionet e tyre, asnje

not even the actual Natural History Museum

bile as edhe Muzeu Historik i Natyres i tanishem

on the island of Mauritius -- has a skeleton that's made

ne ishullin e Mauritiusit-- ka skeletin i cili eshte bere

from the bones of a single dodo.

nga kockat e nje dodo te vetme.

Well, this isn't exactly true.

Mirepo, kjo nuk eshte krejt e vertete

The fact is, is that the British Museum

e verteta eshte se Muzeu Britanik

had a complete specimen of a dodo in their collection

kishte nje specie komplete te dodos ne koleksionin e vet

up until the 18th century --

deri në shekullin e 18te

it was actually mummified, skin and all --

i cili ishte i teri i balsamuar

but in a fit of space-saving zeal,

por nga zelli per te hapur vend te lire,

they actually cut off the head and they cut off the feet

ata ia kan keputur koken dhe kembet,

and they burned the rest in a bonfire.

dhe ia dogjen pjeset e tjera te kockave.

If you go look at their website today,

Nese e shikoni faqen e tyre te internetit sot,

they'll actually list these specimens, saying,

ata listojme faktikisht 3 speciet, duke thene,

the rest was lost in a fire.

pjesa tjeter ka humbur ne nje zjarr.

Not quite the whole truth. Anyway.

Jo e gjitha eshte e vertete. Gjithsesi

The frontispiece of this article was this photo,

ne ballinen e ketij artikulli ishte kjo foto,

and I'm one of the people that thinks that Tina Brown

dhe une jam nje nga njerzit qe mendojne qe Tina Brown

was great for bringing photos to the New Yorker,

ishte e madhe qe pruri fotot ne New Yorker,

because this photo completely rocked my world.

sepse kjo foto krejtesisht ka shkundur boten time.

I became obsessed with the object --

U fiksova me kete projekt--

not just the beautiful photograph itself,

jo vetem nga vet bukuria e fotos,

and the color, the shallow depth of field, the detail that's visible,

dhe ngjyra, thellesia e ceket e fushës, hollësi që është e dukshme,

the wire you can see on the beak there

teli qe mund ta shikoni ne sqep

that the conservator used to put this skeleton together --

qe ruajtesi i ka perdorur per te lidhur këtë skelet sebashku,

there's an entire story here.

ka një histori të tërë këtu.

And I thought to myself,

Dhe mendova me vete,

wouldn't it be great

a nuk do te ishte e mrekullueshme

if I had my own dodo skeleton?

po te kisha nje skelet personal te zogut dodo?

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

I want to point out here at this point that

Dhe kështu - unë dua të theksoj këtu në këtë pikë që

I've spent my life obsessed

Kam kaluar jetën me fiksimin ndaj

by objects and the stories that they tell,

objekteve dhe historitë qe ata tregojnë,

and this was the very latest one.

dhe kjo ishte me e reja.

So I began looking around for --

Pra fillova te shikoj rreth e rrotull

to see if anyone sold a kit,

nese ndonjeri shet ndonje komplet

some kind of model that I could get,

ndonje lloj modeli qe do te mund te gjeja,

and I found lots of reference material, lots of lovely pictures.

dhe kam gjetur mjaft informacione adresimi, plot piktura te kendshme.

No dice: no dodo skeleton for me. But the damage had been done.

pa shans: asnje skelet i dodo's per mua. Por demi ishte bere

I had saved a few hundred photos of dodo skeletons

kisha shpëtuar disa qindra fotografi te skeleteve te dodo's

into my "Creative Projects" folder --

ne dosjen time "Projektet Krijuese"

it's a repository for my brain, everything that I could possibly be interested in.

kjo është një depo për trurit tim, çdo gjë që unë ndoshta mund të jem i interesuar

Any time I have an internet connection,

Sa here qe kam lidhje interneti,

there's a sluice of stuff moving into there,

fus gjera te reja aty,

everything from beautiful rings to cockpit photos.

gjithshka nga unazat e bukura e deri tek fotot e kabinave.

The key that the Marquis du Lafayette sent to George Washington

celesi qe Marquis du Lafayette i dergoi George Washington-it

to celebrate the storming of the Bastille.

per te festuar sulmin e Bastille-s.

Russian nuclear launch key:

Celesi Rus per leshimin e nukleares.

The one on the top is the picture of the one I found on eBay;

ajo lart eshte nje foto qe e kam gjetur ne eBay;

the one on the bottom is the one I made for myself,

kete ketu poshte e bëra për veten time,

because I couldn't afford the one on eBay.

sepse nuk mund te blija ate ne eBay.

Storm trooper costumes. Maps of Middle Earth --

Kostumet e kaloresve te stuhise, hartat e Tokës së Mesme--

that's one I hand-drew myself. There's the dodo skeleton folder.

kjo eshte nje qe e vizatova vet. Ja dhe dosja e skeletonit te dodos.

This folder has 17,000 photos --

Kjo dosje permban 17000 foto--

over 20 gigabytes of information --

mbi 20 gigabytes informacion

and it's growing constantly.

dhe kjo është në rritje të vazhdueshme.

And one day, a couple of weeks later, it might have been

Dhe nje dite, duhet te ishte disa jave me vone,

maybe a year later, I was in the art store with my kids,

ndoshta nje vit me vone, isha ne nje dyqan arti me femijet e mi

and I was buying some clay tools -- we were going to have a craft day.

po blija disa mjete balte - do të benim artizanat ate ditë.

I bought some Super Sculpeys, some armature wire, some various materials.

bleva disa lloj argjilash, disa me tela armature, e disa materiale te ndryshme.

And I looked down at this Sculpey, and I thought,

E shikova argjilen dhe mendova,

maybe,

ndoshta,

yeah, maybe I could make my own dodo skull.

po, ndoshta mund te bej vet nje kafke të dodos

I should point out at this time -- I'm not a sculptor;

me duhet te theksoj tashme -- se nuk jam gdhendes

I'm a hard-edged model maker.

jam nje krijues i modeleve me viza te drejta.

You give me a drawing, you give me a prop to replicate,

Me jep nje vizatim, nje objekt skene ta kopjoj,

you give me a crane, scaffolding, parts from "Star Wars" --

me jep nje vinç, skelë, pjese nga "Star Wars"--

especially parts from "Star Wars" --

veçanërisht pjese nga filmi "Star Wars"--

I can do this stuff all day long.

mund te bejë kete gjë gjat gjithë dites.

It's exactly how I made my living for 15 years.

ajo eshte menyra qe kam bere jetesen per 15 vite.

But you give me something like this --

Por po me japesh dicka si kjo--

my friend Mike Murnane sculpted this;

nje shok imi Mike Murnane ka gdhendur kete;

it's a maquette for "Star Wars, Episode Two" --

eshte nje maket per Star Wars, pjesa e dyte--

this is not my thing --

Kjo s'eshte puna ime,

this is something other people do -- dragons, soft things.

kjo eshte dicka qe bejne njerzit e tjere -- dragonj, linja te buta.

However, I felt like I had looked at enough photos of dodo skulls

megjithatë, ndjeva qe kisha pare mjaft foto skeletesh te dodos

to actually be able to

që të jem në gjendje të

understand the topology and perhaps replicate it --

te kuptoj topologjine dhe ndoshta edhe te kopjoj atë --

I mean, it couldn't be that difficult.

mendoj, nuk do te ishte edhe aq veshtire.

So, I started looking at the best photos I could find.

pra fillova te kerkoj fotot me te mira qe mund ti gjeja.

I grabbed all the reference,

mblodha te gjitha referencat,

and I found this lovely piece of reference.

kam gjetur kete pjese te bukur te references.

This is someone selling this on eBay;

kjo eshte qe dikush e shet ne eBay;

it was clearly a woman’s hand, hopefully a woman's hand.

ishte qarte nje dore femre, shpresojme qe eshte dora e nje femre.

Assuming it was roughly the size of my wife's hand,

duke shpresuar qe ishte perafersisht madhesia e dores se gruas sime,

I made some measurements of her thumb, and I scaled them out to the size of the skull.

i kam bere disa matje te thonjeve te saj, dhe morra masen e kockave.

I blew it up to the actual size, and I began using that,

e zmadhova atë deri ne madhesine aktuale, dhe fillova ta perdor atë,

along with all the other reference that I had, comparing it to it

bashkë me referencat tjera qe pata, fillova te bej krahasimet ne mes tyre

as size reference for figuring out exactly how big the beak should be,

si madhesia e references per te gjetur me saktesi se sa i madh duhet te ishte sqepi,

exactly how long, etc.

saktësisht sa i gjatë, e te tjera e te tjera.

And over a few hours, I eventually achieved

Pas disa orëve, une perfundimisht arrita

what was actually a pretty reasonable dodo skull. And I didn't mean to continue, I --

nje kafke te dodos te bukur dhe te arsyeshme. Dhe nuk mendoja qe te vazhdoja, Une--

it's kind of like, you know, you can only clean a super messy room

eshte si nje lloj deshire, e di, si te pastrosh nje dhome e cila eshte shum rrëmuje

by picking up one thing at a time; you can't think about the totality.

duke kapur gjerat nje nga nje; nuk mundesh te mendosh te gjithen pernjehere.

I wasn't thinking about a dodo skeleton;

Nuk po mendoja per skeletin e dodos;

I just noticed that as I finished this skull,

sapo verejta qe kisha perfunduar kafkën,

the armature wire that I had been used to holding it up

teli i armatures te cilin e kisha perdorur per ta mbajtur lart

was sticking out of the back just where a spine would be.

ishte ngjitur mbrapa saktesish atjet ku do te ishte shpina.

And one of the other things I'd been interested in and obsessed with over the years

Dhe njera nga gjerat qe isha i interesuar dhe fiksuar gjate ketyre viteve

is spines and skeletons, having collected a couple of hundred.

eshte shpina dhe skeleti, duke mbledhur disa qindra.

I actually understood the mechanics

faktikisht une kuptova mekaniken

of vertebrae enough to kind of start to imitate them.

e rruazës aq sa te filloj kopjimin e tyre.

And so button by button,

pra nga butoni ne buton,

vertebrae by vertebrae, I built my way down.

rruaze ne rruaze, une ndertova timin.

And actually, by the end of the day, I had a reasonable skull,

Faktikisht, gjate fundit te dites, une kisha nje kafkë te arsyeshme,

a moderately good vertebrae and half of a pelvis.

nje pjese te mire te rruazave dhe gjysmen e legenit

And again, I kept on going, looking for more reference,

Dhe prape, vazhdova punen, duke kerkuar sa me shume referime,

every bit of reference I could find -- drawings, beautiful photos.

cdo copëz te referimit qe munda ta gjej-- vizatime, foto te bukura.

This guy -- I love this guy! He put a dodo leg bones on a scanner

Ky djali -- me pelqen se ka skanuar nje kembe te dodos --

with a ruler.

ne vizore.

This is the kind of accuracy that I wanted,

Kjo ishte nje nga saktesite qe une doja,

and I

dhe une vetem

replicated every last bone and put it in.

kopjova qdo kocke të fundit dhe e vendosa në të

And after about six weeks,

dhe afersisht pas-- do te thosha gjashtë javëve,

I finished, painted, mounted

e perfundova, e pikturova, e montova

my own dodo skeleton.

skeletin e dodos tim.

You can see that I even made a museum label for it

Ju mund te shihni qe kam bere po ashtu nje etikete muzeumi per te

that includes a brief history of the dodo.

e cila permban nje histori te permbledhur te dodos

And TAP Plastics made me -- although I didn't photograph it --

dhe TAP Plastika me beri-- edhe pse une nuk e kisha fotografuar ate--

a museum vitrine.

nje vitrine muzeumi.

I don't have the room for this in my house,

Une nuk kam hapsire ne dhomen time per këtë.

but I had to finish what I had started.

por me duhej te perfundoja ate qe kisha filluar.

And this actually represented kind of a sea change to me.

Dhe kjo faktikisht me beri qe te shoh nje ndryshim tek une.

Again, like I said, my life has been about

Prap, sic e ceka, jeta ime eshte bere

being fascinated by objects and the stories that they tell,

e hipnotizuar nga objektet dhe tregimet qe ata tregojne,

and also making them for myself, obtaining them,

po ashtu kur i bej ato per vete, kur i marr ato,

appreciating them and diving into them.

duke i cmuar, dhe duke u zhytur ne to.

And in this folder, "Creative Projects,"

Dhe ne kete dosje, "Projekte Kreative,"

there are tons of projects that I'm currently working on,

qe jane projekte me tonelata qe jam duke punuar tani,

projects that I've already worked on, things that I might want to work on some day,

projekte qe kam punuar deri me tani, gjera qe do te mund te kisha dashur te punoj ndonje dite,

and things that I may just want to find and buy and have

dhe gjerat qe une do te doja ti gjeja dhe ti bleja dhe ti kisha dhe --

and look at and touch.

ti shoh e ti prek.

But now there was potentially this new category of things

Por tani ketu ishte nje kategorise se re gjerash

that I could sculpt

qe mund te skulpturoja

that was different, that I -- you know,

kjo ishte e ndryshme, qe une --

I have my own R2D2, but that's --

une kam nje R2D2, por ajo--

honestly, relative to sculpting, to me, that's easy.

sinqerisht, lidhur me skulpturimin, per mua, kjo eshte e lehtë.

And so I went back and looked through my "Creative Projects" folder,

Keshtuqe shkova prap dhe pashe ne doset e mia "Projekte Kreative",

and I happened across the Maltese Falcon.

dhe u ndodha perballe Falkonit Maltez.

Now, this is funny for me:

Tanime kjo eshte qesharake per mua:

to fall in love with an object from a Hammett novel,

te bie ne dashuri me objektet e noveles te Hammett,

because if it's true that the world is divided into two types of people,

sepse eshte e vertet qe bota eshte e ndare ne dy lloje te njerzve

Chandler people and Hammett people, I am absolutely a Chandler person.

njerezit Chandler-dashes dhe njerezit Hammett-dashes, une definitivisht jam Chandler-dashes.

But in this case,

Por ne kete rast, nuk eshte per --

it's not about the author, it's not about the book or the movie or the story,

nuk eshte per autorin, nuk eshte per librin apo film, apo historine.

it's about the object in and of itself.

eshte lidhur me objektin perbrenda dhe jashte tij.

And in this case, this object is --

Dhe ne kete rast, ky objekt eshte--

plays on a host of levels.

luan prezantuesin-- ne disa nivele.

First of all, there's the object in the world.

Se pari, eshte nje objekt ne bote.

This is the "Kniphausen Hawk."

kjo eshte "Fajkoi i Kniphausenit."

It is a ceremonial pouring vessel

Eshte nje ene ceremoniale zbrazjeje

made around 1700 for a Swedish Count,

e bërë rreth 1700 për një Kont suedez,

and it is very likely the object from which

dhe eshte shume e mundshme qe objekti prej te cilit

Hammett drew his inspiration for the Maltese Falcon.

Hammett u frymezua per Skifterin Maltez.

Then there is the fictional bird, the one that Hammett created for the book.

Ketu eshte nje zog i trilluar, te cilin Hammetti e krijoi per Librin e tij.

Built out of words, it is the engine

I ndertuar nga fjalet, eshte nje motorr

that drives the plot of his book and also the movie,

qe e shtyn komplotin per librin e tij duke perfshire edhe filmin,

in which another object is created:

ne te cilin eshte krijuar nje karakter tjeter :

a prop that has to represent the thing that Hammett created out of words,

replika qe paraqet gjene qe Hammett e ka krijuar me fjale,

inspired by the Kniphausen Hawk, and this represents the falcon in the movie.

i inspiruar nga Fajkoi i Kniphauserit, dhe kjo paraqet skifterin ne film.

And then there is this fourth level, which is

Dhe pastaj ja tek eshte niveli i katert, i cili eshte

a whole new object in the world:

nje objekt teresisht i ri ne botë

the prop made for the movie, the representative of the thing,

replike e bere per film, paraqitese i saj,

becomes, in its own right,

behet, ne te drejten e tij

a whole other thing,

nje gje kretesisht tjeter,

a whole new object of desire.

nje objekt teresisht tjeter i deshires.

And so now it was time to do some research.

Dhe tani qe erdhi koha per te bere pak kerkime.

I actually had done some research

Une ne te vertet kam bere disa kerkime

a few years before -- it's why the folder was there.

disa vite me pare -- ja pse dosja egziston.

I'd bought a replica, a really crappy replica,

Une do te kisha blere nje kopje, nje kopje plehrë,

of the Maltese Falcon on eBay,

te Skifterit Maltez ne eBay,

and had downloaded enough pictures to actually

dhe kisha shkarkuar mjaft piktura qe aktualisht

have some reasonable reference.

te kisha nje reference te arsyeshme.

But I discovered,

Pro une e zbulova,

in researching further,

ne kerkimet e metejshme,

really wanting precise reference, that

duke dashur nje referim te sakte, qe zogu kishte --

one of the original lead birds

nje origjinal te ketij zogu

had been sold at Christie's in 1994,

ishte shitur ne ankandin Christie ne vitin 1994,

and so I contacted an antiquarian bookseller

keshtuqe kontaktova nje shites antikash

who had the original Christie's catalogue,

i cili kishte katalogun origjinal te Christie-s,

and in it I found this magnificent picture,

dhe aty une gjeta kete pikture te mrekullueshme,

which included a size reference.

e cila përfshinte referencë per madhesine.

I was able to scan the picture, blow it up to exactly full size.

une e skanova foton, e zmadhova saktesish ne madhesine reale.

I found other reference. Avi [Ara] Chekmayan,

Kam gjetur nje reference tjeter .Avi Chekmayan,

a New Jersey editor, actually found this

nje botues nga Nju Gjersi, i cili faktikisht gjeti kete

resin Maltese Falcon

Skifter Maltez prej rrëshire

at a flea market in 1991,

tek nje treg vjetersirash ne vitin 1991,

although it took him five years

edhe pse iu deshen 5 vite

to authenticate this bird to

qe ta vertetonte origjinalitetin e tij-

the auctioneers' specifications,

tek drejtuesit e ankandit duke bere specifikime,

because there was a lot of controversy about it.

sepse kishte mjaft polimika per kete.

It was made out of resin, which wasn't a common material for movie props

Ishte bere prej rreshire, i cila nuk ishte nje material i zakonshem per replikat e filmave

about the time the movie was made.

ne kohen qe eshte bere filmi.

It's funny to me that it took a while to authenticate it,

me duket qesharake qe mori kaq shume kohe per te vertetuar atë,

because I can see it compared to this thing,

sepse duke krahasuar me kete gje,

and I can tell you -- it's real, it's the real thing,

mund t' ju them-- eshte e vertete, eshte gjeja e vertete,

it's made from the exact same mold that this one is.

eshte e bere nga saktesisht i njejti model si ky.

In this one, because the auction was actually so controversial,

Ne kete, pasi ankandi ishte kaq i diskutueshëm,

Profiles in History, the auction house that sold this --

Profilet ne histori, shtepija e ankandit qe e shiti kete--

I think in 1995 for about 100,000 dollars --

mendoj qe ne vitin 1995 perafersisht 100,000 dollare --

they actually included -- you can see here on the bottom --

ata ne te vertete perfshine - ju mund te shifni ne pjesen e poshtme--

not just a front elevation, but also

jo vetem pamjen frontale, por po ashtu

a side, rear

anen, pjesen mbrapa

and other side elevation.

dhe pamjen e anes tjeter.

So now, I had all the topology I needed

pra tani, une kisha te gjitha topologjite e duhura

to replicate the Maltese Falcon.

per te kopjuar Skifterin Maltez.

What do they do, how do you start something like that? I really don't know.

Por si behet, si fillon dicka e tille? Une me te vertet nuk e di

So what I did was, again, like I did with the dodo skull,

Keshtu bera, prap, sikurse me kafken e dodos

I blew all my reference up to full size,

i rrita te gjitha referencat ne madhesine reale,

and then I began cutting out the negatives and using

dhe pastaj fillova te kepus pjeset negative duke perdorur

those templates as shape references.

keto shabllone si referencat e formave.

So I took Sculpey, and I built a big block of it,

pra morra argjilen, dhe ndertova nje blok te madh me te,

and I passed it through until, you know, I got the right profiles.

dhe e kalova ate ne disa forma, deri sa fitova profilet e sakta.

And then slowly, feather by feather, detail by detail,

Dhe dalengadale, pupel ne pupel, detaj ne detaj,

I worked out and achieved --

kam punuar dhe arritur --

working in front of the television and Super Sculpey --

duke punuar perballe televizorit-- dhe super argjila--

here's me sitting next to my wife --

ketu jam i ulur afer gruas sime--

it's the only picture I took of the entire process.

eshte e vetmja fotografi qe kam bere ne tere procesin.

As I moved through, I achieved

duke e cuar me tej, une arrita

a very reasonable facsimile of the Maltese Falcon.

nje kopjim te arsyeshem te Skifterit Maltez.

But again, I am not a sculptor,

Por prape, une nuk jam skulptor.

and so I don't know a lot of the tricks, like,

dhe nuk di shume nga truket, e dini,

I don't know how my friend Mike gets beautiful, shiny surfaces with his Sculpey;

nuk e di sesi shoku im Mike arrin kaq siperfaqe te bukura, te shkelqyera me argjilen e tij;

I certainly wasn't able to get it.

une pa dyshim nuk e kuptoja.

So, I went down to my shop,

Pra shkova poshte ne punishte,

and I molded it and I cast it in resin,

dhe e modelova ate ne rreshire,

because in the resin, then, I could absolutely get the glass smooth finished.

sepse ne rreshire, do te kisha mundur absolutisht ta bej te lemuar si xham.

Now there's a lot of ways to fill and get yourself a nice smooth finish.

tani, ka disa menyra qe te mund te arrish siperfaqe te lemuar.

My preference is about 70 coats of this --

preferenca ime eshte perafersisht 70 shtresa te kesaj --

matte black auto primer.

auto mbushes me ngjyre te zeze mat.

I spray it on for about three or four days, it drips to hell,

e kam bere me spray perafersisht 3-4 here ne dite, dhe pikon shume,

but it allows me a really, really nice gentle sanding surface

por qe me lejon me te vertet te arrij nje siperfaqe te lemuar mire.

and I can get it glass-smooth.

dhe mund ta bej ate te lemuar si xham.

Oh, finishing up with triple-zero steel wool.

Oh, duke perfunduar me nji ferkues shume te holle.

Now, the great thing about getting it to this point was that

Tani, gjë e madhe për të mbaruar atë në këtë pikë ishte se

because in the movie, when they finally bring out the bird at the end,

sepse ne film, kur ata e sjellin zogun ne fund,

and they place it on the table, they actually spin it.

dhe e vendosin ate ne tryeze, ata faktikisht e rrotullojne ate.

So I was able to actually

Pra une aktualisht mund

screen-shot and freeze-frame to make sure.

te bej screen-shot dhe ngrirjen e figures qe te sigurohem.

And I'm following all the light kicks on this thing and making sure that as I'm holding the light

dhe po ndjek te gjitha dredhite e drites ne kete gje dhe po sigurohem ndersa e mbaj driten

in the same position, I'm getting the same type of reflection on it --

ne te njejten pozicion, po marr te njejten tip te reflektimin ne te--

that's the level of detail I'm going into this thing.

kjo eshte niveli i detajeve qe po kerkoj.

I ended up with this: my Maltese Falcon.

arrita me kete: skifterin tim Maltez.

And it's beautiful. And I can state with authority

dhe eshte i bukur. Dhe mund ta shpall me autoritet

at this point in time, when I'd finished it,

ne kete kohe, kur e kam perfunduar,

of all of the replicas out there -- and there is a few --

te gjitha kopjet e gjendura -- dhe jane vetem disa

this is by far the most accurate

kjo eshte më e ngjashmja.

representation of the original Maltese Falcon

prezantuesi i Skifterit origjinal Maltez

than anyone has sculpted. Now the original one, I should tell you,

sesa kushdo qe e ka skulpturuar. Tani origjinali, me duhet te ju them,

is sculpted by a guy named Fred Sexton.

eshte skulpturuar nga nje djale qe quhet Fred Sexton.

This is where it gets weird.

kjo eshte ku -- behet cuditshem.

Fred Sexton was a friend of this guy, George Hodel.

Fred Sexton ishte shok i ketij djaloshit qe quhej George Hodel.

Terrifying guy -- agreed by many to be the killer

Djale i tmerrshem -- pranuar nga shume njereze qe eshte vrases

of the Black Dahlia.

i Black Dahlia.

Now, James Ellroy believes

Tani, James Ellroy beson

that Fred Sexton, the sculptor of the Maltese Falcon,

qe Fred Sexton, skulptori i skifterit Maltez,

killed James Elroy's mother.

ka vrare nenen e James Elroy-it.

I'll go you one stranger than that: In 1974,

une do te shkoj ne nje me te panjohur sesa ky, ne vitin 1974,

during the production of a weird comedy sequel to "The Maltese Falcon,"

gjate prodhimit te komedise se cuditshme vazhdimit te "Skifterit Maltez,"

called "The Black Bird," starring George Segal,

e thirrur "zogu i zi," me aktor George Segal,

the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Muze i qarkut te artit ne Los Angeles

had a plaster original of the Maltese Falcon --

ka pasur nje origjinal allcie te Skifterit Maltez--

one of the original six plasters, I think, made for the movie --

nje nga 6 allcite origjinale. mendoj, te bera per filmin --

stolen out of the museum. A lot of people thought

te vjedhura nga muzeu, Shume njerez menduan

it was a publicity stunt for the movie.

qe ishte nje marifet publiciteti per filmin.

John's Grill, which actually

John's Grill i cili faktikisht

is seen briefly in "The Maltese Falcon,"

eshte dukur shkurt ne "Skifterin Maltez,"

is still a viable San Francisco eatery,

eshte nje restaurant qe punon ende ne San Francisco,

counted amongst its regular customers Elisha Cook,

Elisha Cook llogaritet ndër klientët e rregullt

who played Wilmer Cook in the movie,

i cili ka luajtur Willmer Cook ne film,

and he gave them

ai i kishte dhene restorantit

one of his original plasters of the Maltese Falcon.

nje nga allcite origjinale te Skifterit Maltez.

And they had it in their cabinet for about 15 years,

ata e kishin në kabinetin e tyre për rreth 15 vjet,

until it got stolen

derisa dikush e vodhi prej aty

in January of 2007.

ne janar te vitit 2007

It would seem that the object of desire

mund te shihet qe deshira per kete objekt

only comes into its own by disappearing repeatedly.

vjen vetvetiu me zhdukjen e perseritur.

So here I had this Falcon,

pra ja ku e pata kete Skifter

and it was lovely. It looked really great,

qe ishte i bukur. Dukej me te vertete i shkëlqyer

the light worked on it really well,

ai -- drita reflektonte me te vertet bukur ne te,

it was better than anything that I could achieve

ishte me i mire sesa çdo gje qe kisha mundur te beja

or obtain out in the world.

apo te arrija ne kete bote.

But there was a problem. And the problem was that:

Mirepo kishte nje problem. Dhe problemi ishte, qe :

I wanted the entirety of the object,

une e doja kete objekt ne teresi,

I wanted the weight behind the object.

doja qe te kishte peshen e vertete te tij.

This thing was made of resin and it was too light.

ai eshte bere me rreshire dhe ishte shume i lehte.

There's this group online that I frequent.

Une mbaj lidhje me nje grup online.

It's a group of prop crazies just like me

eshte nje grup maniak konstruksionesh si puna ime

called the Replica Props Forum, and it's people who trade,

i quajtur Forumi i Props Replika, njerzet bejne tregeti aty,

make and travel in information about movie props.

marrin e japin informacione per props te filmave.

And it turned out that one of the guys there,

Dhe doli se një nga djemtë aty,

a friend of mine that I never actually met,

një mik i imi që kurrë nuk e kam takuar në të vërtetë,

but befriended through some prop deals, was the manager of a local foundry.

por e bera shok permes disa detajeve te props, ishte manager i fonderise lokale.

He took my master Falcon pattern,

Ai mori modelin e Skifterit,

he actually did lost wax casting

ai në fakt bëri derdhjen e dyllit

in bronze for me,

per mua ne bronz,

and this is the bronze I got back.

dhe ky eshte bronzi te cilin morra.

And this is, after some acid etching, the one that I ended up with.

Dhe kjo eshte, pas disa gervishjeve me acid, ky eshte i perfunduari.

And this thing, it's deeply, deeply satisfying to me.

Dhe kjo -- me jep kenaqesi te thelle

Here, I'm going to put it out there,

Po e vendos ketu,

later on tonight, and

me vone sonte, ju mundeni...

I want you to pick it up and handle it.

dua që ju të vini ta merrni e ta peshoni ne dore

You want to know

Doni te dini --

how obsessed I am. This project's only for me,

sa i fiksuar qe jam. Ky projekt eshte vetem per mua,

and yet I went so far as to buy on eBay

dhe ende I shkova deri aty sa të blija në eBay

a 1941 Chinese San Francisco-based newspaper,

nje gazete kineze te San Francisco-s te vitit 1941

in order so that the bird could properly be wrapped ...

ne menyre qe ta mbeshtillja zogun ashtu sic duhet...

like it is in the movie.

sic eshte ne film.

(Laughter)

te qeshura

Yeah, I know!

Po, e di!

(Laughter) (Applause)

(te qeshura) (Duartrokitje)

There you can see, it's weighing in at 27 and a half pounds.

ja sic mund ta shikoni, ai peshon 27 pound e gjysem.

That's half the weight of my dog, Huxley.

kjo eshte vetem gjysma e peshes se qenit tim, Huxley.

But there's a problem.

Por ketu ka nje problem.

Now, here's the most recent progression of Falcons.

Tani, ky eshte perparimi me i fundit i Skiftereve.

On the far left is a piece of crap -- a replica I bought on eBay.

ne anen e majte eshte nje plehre -- nje kopje te cilen e kam ble ne eBay.

There's my somewhat ruined Sculpey Falcon,

ketu eshte Skifteri prej argjile qe e prisha,

because I had to get it back out of the mold. There's my first casting,

sepse duhet ta merrja perseri nga forma. Kjo ishte hedhja ime e pare,

there's my master and there's my bronze.

kjo eshte vepra ime, dhe ky eshte bronzi im

There's a thing that happens when you mold and cast things,

Ndodh dicka kur ben formen dhe derdhjen,

which is that every time you throw it into silicone and cast it in resin,

cdo here qe e hedh ne silikon dhe derdh ne rreshire,

you lose a little bit of volume, you lose a little bit of size.

humbet nje pjese te volumit, nje pjese te madhesise.

And when I held my bronze one up against my Sculpey one,

Kur e mbajta bronzin perkunder argjiles,

it was shorter by three-quarters of an inch.

ishte me e shkurter 3/4 inc.

Yeah, no, really, this was like aah --

Po, jo, me te vertet, kjo ishte si ahhh--

why didn't I remember this?

pse nuk e mbajta ne mend kete?

Why didn't I start and make it bigger?

Pse nuk fillova ta bej me te madhe?

So what do I do? I figure I have two options.

Pra cfare te bej? Mendoj qe kam 2 zgjedhje.

One, I can fire a freaking laser at it,

nje, ta godas me laser,

which I have already done,

gje te cilen e kam bere,

to do a 3D scan -- there's a 3D scan of this Falcon.

te bej nje skanim 3D- kam nje skanim 3D te Skifterit.

I had figured out the exact amount of shrinkage I achieved

Kuptova peshen e sakte qe eshte tkurrur

going from a wax master to a bronze master

duke shkuar nga forma e dyllit ne ate te bronzit.

and blown this up big enough to make

dhe e zmadhova ate mjaft saqe te bej

a 3D lithography master of this,

nje kopje 3D litiografi te kesaj,

which I will polish, then I will send to the mold maker

te cilit do ti jap shkelqim, pastaj do ta dergoj tek mjeshtri i formes

and then I will have it done in bronze. Or:

dhe do ta kem ate ne bronz. Apo ...

There are several people who own originals,

jane disa njerez te cilet zoterojne origjinalet,

and I have been attempting to contact them and reach them,

dhe kam tentuar qe te flas me ta

hoping that they will let me spend a few minutes

duke shpresuar qe ata do te me lejojne qe ti shpenzoj disa minuta

in the presence of one of the real birds, maybe to take a picture,

ne prezencen e zogut te vertete, ndoshta t'i beja ndonje foto,

or even to pull out the hand-held laser scanner

apo ndoshta te nxirrja nje skaner dore lazer

that I happen to own that fits inside a cereal box,

qe e kam i cili futet ne nje kuti ushqimi,

and could maybe, without even touching their bird, I swear,

dhe do te mundja, pa e prekur zogun fare, ju betohem,

get a perfect 3D scan. And I'm even willing to sign pages

te kisha nje skanim perfekt 3D. Poashtu jam i gatshem te nenshkruaj kontrate

saying that I'll never let anyone else have it, except for me in my office, I promise.

duke thene qe nuk do le asnje tjeter qe ta ket, pervecse une ne zyren time, premtoj.

I'll give them one if they want it.

Do tia kisha dhene nje atyre po ta donin.

And then, maybe, then I'll achieve the end of this exercise.

dhe pastaj, ndoshta, do te kisha mundur te arrija me perfundu kete detyre.

But really, if we're all going to be honest with ourselves,

Por me te vertet, nese te gjithe do te jemi te sinqerte me veteveten,

I have to admit that achieving the end of the exercise

me duhet ta pranoj qe ti dilja ne fund ketij ushtrimi

was never the point of the exercise to begin with, was it.

nuk ishte kurre piknisja e kesaj detyre.

Thank you.

Ju falemnderit