The Sweet East

[CHILDREN RECITING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE]

Wanna hang on to it?

Oh, my God! -

Never know. Might be worth something if I blow up.

You good, girl?

Yeah, sure,

Hell, I'll go again if you want.

That's okay.

Hmm?

- What? -

No, I was just thinking about the end of that movie.

What about it?

She was funny, right?

I mean, I thought it was kind of retarded.

Oh, Lillian...

They were all from different planets,

and they spoke the same language.

- Oh... - Doesn't make sense.

Come on, it's just a movie.

Hey, you fucking rank bitches.

We're in fucking Washington, D.C.

What do you have to say to your fans?

Oh, shit!

A lot of this city was built up from scratch.

But Rock Creek was already a cemetery,

and this was still the province of Maryland.

Now, almost 300 years later,

many famous Americans are buried there.

Upton Sinclair. Anybody know who that is?

Nobody knows who Upton Sinclair is.

Uh, oh, it's The Jungle. It's a book about labor.

Hey, I got something for you, Annabel.

Troy you're fucking rank.

[INDISTINCT CHATTER AND LAUGHTER]

- Ew. -

On my left here, across that body of water,

that's the campus of Howard University.

Some of the famous alumni from there,

Thurgood Marshall, Phylicia Rashad

from the show The Cosby Show.

This is a big day for the west front of the building,

which may have previously been considered the rear.

Explaining this breach from protocol,

President Reagan, who had been the governor of California,

explained that he wanted to look west

to the rest of the country.

So I'll leave you with that. And when we reconvene,

we'll see what's going on inside.

Annabel, I've got something to show the president.

Come back. We're doing Bible study at 6:00 p.m.

What the fuck?

- You fucking redneck... -

- Scared the shit out of them, boy! - Where are they from?

Ohio. Showed 'em how we do it down in South Cackalacky.

Oh, we leaving soon?

I could eat the shit out of a dead goat's asshole!

Ew! Don't be disgusting, Troy.

"Ew! Don't be disgusting, Troy."

Okay. I'm gonna get ready.

Bye, haters.

Annabel, wait up.

You're just gonna be pissed at me this whole entire trip?

Mmm-mmm.

I hate this.

It was your idea.

I know. That's the worst part.

Say hi, Max.

Better drop some beats.

Take the mic, Annabel.

This is for the Capital Steps whiteys.

Yes, whitey.

You're just afraid to let them in.

Excuse me.

[SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

- -

Calm the fuck down.

Calm down!

I need to speak to the manager. He knows why I'm here.

You. I'm gonna say this once and only once.

Little creepy motherfucker.

I need to know what's going on down in that basement now.

Basement?

Give me the keys to the basement!

I assure you, sir, we do not have a basement.

You're gonna look at me in the eyes and tell me

that you're not raping kids down there?

He's raping kids down there!

Any of you guys get raped?

I'm getting out of here. Are you coming?

It seemed so much bigger when I was a kid.

Anyway, the emails were written in code,

"CP" which was supposed to be for "cheese pizza,"

and some genius in this board decided

it was child pornography,

and they basically Rosetta Stoned it from there.

I just realized I don't know who you are.

I'm no one, really.

Oh, hi, nobody. I'm Caleb.

Lillian. I'm just a student.

Hey, you go to college here?

- Yeah. - Whereabouts?

Um, Howard.

No. Really?

Really, why?

No reason.

Where the fuck are you guys, huh?

Well, fucking hurry up, then, you pussy.

Bring the van around.

Sweet green on D? All right, I'll be there.

[SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

Fancy a trip to Charm City?

It's really pretty.

Not if you know what's in it.

[AUTOMATED VOICE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

[FEMALE AUTOMATED VOICE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

[AUTOMATED VOICE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

[AUTOMATED VOICE CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY]

Whoo! Hey!

- Hey. You hungry? - Hey, get in there.

You know, this is mostly dumpster stuff.

We never pay for food or anything here

in restaurants or, you know, supermarkets, whatever.

I'm kind of full, though.

What do you guys, like, do for work?

We run things here on a collective model.

We've got three adjunct professors,

a public defender, a flight attendant.

For everybody here it's very important

to be as mobile as possible to facilitate political activity, protest,

other direct action type activity,

which is the essential aspect of what we do.

Like that thing in Trenton tomorrow that I was talking about.

Cool.

Are you an artist, too?

I say artivist.

What I had to ask was,

how do you render browsing as a performance?

Because that's what I wanted to do.

I wanted to take this everyday activity

that shapes people's perceptions

to a far greater degree than they're even aware of.

De-familiarize it. So take what happened today.

Whatever it was that happened today.

The sound manipulation

gives the experience a whole different dimension.

There's a layer of distortion on the distortion,

so you can really feel the process.

- -

- - Wait.