Original subtitles

Hey.

The space between projects is hard.

Time becomes unstructured.

You settle into some of your worst habits

and every day's main activity is just calculating

how many hours are left until you're allowed to fall asleep.

You had a show on HBO for a few years.

That's me.

That's nice, man.

Thanks, man.

And you weren't really prepared for the level

of exposure that your little movies got.

And they even suggested

that you were a celebrity on Jeopardy.

Celebs, 1,000.

His HBO series teaches viewers how to do things.

You were spoiled by having a team of people

and a big budget to do fun stuff

that takes a lot of planning.

- Is that better? - Yeah, that's good.

But now that your show is over

you have to do everything by yourself again

and rebuild your whole archive of street footage

from the bottom... from the bottom up.

But the royalty checks from your reruns

are getting smaller and smaller every month

and you might need to get money from elsewhere

if you wanna fund a new production.

You've been getting requests to make advertisements recently

from some of your least favorite brands.

You even got an offer to make a commercial

for Depend diapers, and they wanted you to film

with the Naked Cowboy.

But unfortunately that fell through

because he was in D.C. on January 6th

and said some other bad stuff.

You had a hard time believing that

because you guys go way back

and now it seems like both of you guys are outta work.

You wanna sing?

Someone sent you an ad recently

that used an AI-generated imitation of your voice

to sell gutters.

People can't believe it when I tell them this.

I've worked in construction for ten years now

and it shocks me how many people pay a fortune

to upgrade their gutters when there are services

like this nationwide service that savings-conscious

homeowners can't stop talking about.

It's scary to think how good it's getting.

You used to think that you were unique

but if anyone can recreate a voice

then what value does the original have?

You always wanted to take the road less traveled

where nobody else would ever dare to voyage.

But it's hard to stay motivated

when no one is telling you what to do.

Sometimes the best idea is to just

put the instrument in your hands

and then you'll have no choice but to make art with it.

The world is filled with beautiful poetry

and maybe you just need to find a way

to uncork your potential.

You're part of the Writers Guild

and they went on strike over the looming threat of AI

among other things.

But the only class they offered members

during the strike was how to write

and sell a Hallmark movie.

Thankfully, your afternoon was wide open

uh, so you decided to just go check it out.

Let's talk about the formula

and talk about what actually makes a Hallmark rom-com

specifically a Hallmark rom-com.

The core of this brand is aspiration

and I cannot stress that enough.

Escapism.

Hallmark movies are pretty settings

even when they shouldn't be pretty settings.

Love interests.

These have to be characters that you want to be

and want to be with.

And it's inspirational.

Trauma is fine if it ends on a high note,

if we've learned from the trauma,

and that is because people come to these movies

to escape their realities,

and a lot of those realities,

especially in this audience, are financial.

They don't really wanna see people

struggling financially in these movies.

These movies are a balm.

They are the possibility of what you could be.

Your leads should feel like they are on the cusp

of an incredible life, if only they could

figure this one thing out that's holding them back.

You get bonus points for dead relatives,

a gala or big party or town event that needs planning.

Tradition.

They hate this so much.

They hate the almost interrupted kiss so much.

They are so tired of it.

The big city girl comes home. This one is truly outdated.

We're now in the throes of burnout culture.

It's not cool to be a girl boss anymore.

We have overcorrected on this.

Um, this plot line gets a lot of flak for being anti-feminist,

but it's not inherently anti-feminist.

This is very serious.

There is no reference to Jesus or Christianity

in any Christmas Hallmark movie.

They will be shot in small towns or mid-size cities

and more often than not, in Canada.

These movies will do better than HBO will

in terms of viewership.

Now is not the time for Ken Burns or The Sopranos.

Now is the time to remember that things have been

in the past and can get better.

A lot of the rules seemed pretty strict

but it was a proven formula.

And if you could promise that a new movie

of yours would get viewers,

then you'd probably have an easier time

getting money to make it.

It seems like the love stories in Hallmark movies

usually begin with two people who have very little in common.

And the old cliché that opposites attract

gives people the illusion that love

can help overcome any personal or political conflict.

In the meantime, you tried watching some Hallmark movies

to get some character inspiration

and one of the ones you watched was about a lady

that starts dating an affordable housing developer

and brings him home to her family for a

Christmas surprise.

The love interest has been given orders from his boss

to vacate a property before the New Year

so that they can build a high-rise in the place

of a beloved community candle shop.

But it turns out that the person he's trying to evict

is actually his date's sister-in-law

which leads to a bit of tension as he

tries to coerce her into selling.

You ever consider pivoting to online only?

Face-to-face interaction is the whole point, Brian.

After all, you cannot smell a candle

over the internet, right?

Right.

The love interest eventually feels bad,

and he tricks his boss into coming over

to the family's house for Christmas dinner

to propose something more humane.

We will just find you a temporary pop-up location

at one of our commercial properties

and as soon as the building is done

you will have the first right of refusal

for the same square footage

of your current place at the same price.

It's gonna increase appeal across the board.

Well, it's definitely good optics.

I like it. I can make this work.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

And once everything is all tied up,

they finally kiss under the

watchful gaze of Old Saint Nick.

It was ambitious to try to fit a romance

inside of a topic as unromantic as affordable housing.

Real estate developers

usually aren't the romantic leads in movies

because they're often portrayed

as heartless opportunists,

desperately trying to augment a neighborhood

that they don't understand the complexity of.

But they have tried to remain hip despite their reputation.

You went on the Hallmark Reddit to see how the fans felt,

and you found them explaining the concept

of a NIMBY to one another.

A NIMBY will traditionally reject efforts

to build affordable housing in their neighborhood

and suggest that it should be built someplace else

far away.

But it seems like they're already building

a lot around New York

and you're occasionally completely surrounded

on all sides by cement trucks when traveling.

But for some reason,

most of these houses aren't affordable

and you can't even be certain

that most of them are actually even occupied.

And you wish you knew what was really going on

in some of these places.

In a stroke of luck, you were able to buy your building

from your landlord when she moved away a few years ago,

and now you rent out the apartments below

to good friends that you've known for a while.

The first floor is occupied by a couple with a baby

and you charge them $1,700 a month for rent.

Thankfully, you live upstairs, so you're able

to fix any problems that come up almost immediately.

This putty has been here for a long time,

and then Sesame peed on it, and this started happening.

Your good friend Nellie lives in the basement apartment

and she pays you $600 a month for rent for the entire unit.

But the foundation to your house is cracked

and it makes it so there's a leak into your basement

whenever it rains really, really hard

causing intermittent flooding during the spring

and the fall.

You never felt so helpless to stop bad things

from happening to your friends.

But it seems like this is happening to a lot

of other property all over the city, like your gym.

Which is making people really upset

because the city doesn't seem to acknowledge the problem.

You tried to fix the crack yourself

by just getting a bag from Home Depot

and fixing it up like a good boy should.

But not only did that not solve the problem

when you called your neighbor to get some advice

he criticized your craftsmanship without realizing

that you were the one that did it.

Yeah, is that a bad job?

Yeah, it's terrible.

Because you're not, I mean

you're not like, you know...

If you're gonna do this

you gotta do it with like hydraulic cement

not like gravel mix or whatever the fuck this is.

Oh, okay.

- So I mean... - Yeah, I don't think

that they knew what was going on.

Yeah.

It's embarrassing to know so little about

something that occupies so much of your visual environment.

So you got a couple great books on the subject

and got your new movie underway.

But you've never tried to finance something yourself

and you realized you needed a little help.

So you called up a few good friends that worked with you

on your show and set up a call with your agency

to try to secure financing.

You know, you want a reason why this subject matter

for you is a feature-length film

and the places you wanna go.

I mean, I think you could sort of...

We can all sell that a little bit to, you know

justify the budget ask.

And tell us about the sizzle you have in mind.

You know, are you...

Did you have a sense of how you wanna put that together

as sort of a sales tape?

Um... I have,

it's about two and a half, three minutes right now.

What's the working title again?

The History of Concrete.

Okay.

Aside from water

concrete is the second most used material on the planet.

People often think cement and concrete are the same thing

but this couldn't be further from the truth.

So cement is the gray powder that's produced in a kiln.

Concrete is a mixture of cement, water, sand, and stone

uh, and we mix all that together to make concrete.

Here you can see all the coarse aggregate

the big stone pieces

and then the cement paste matrix around it.

Wow, it looks like a...

It looks like a fruit cake.

Yeah, a little bit.

What we're standing in front of right now

is what's known as a universal testing machine.

It's used to test both compression

and tensile strength.

You ever put anything fun in there?

Um...

This is very satisfying cranberry jelly.

So, you know, we have a little bit of fun in here.

Cool, yeah, I try to...

Yeah, I'm trying to have a little fun, too.

Wow.

One of the first applications of concrete

was in ancient Rome

and a lot of it is still standing today.

It's rumored that the first concrete

had self-healing properties because of the stuff

that they used to make it with.

But unfortunately, the locals seem to be pretty tight-lipped

about their secret formula.

Yeah, yeah, the material.

Like concrete, it's made of concrete?

- No. - No? Okay.

Do you know anything

about the concrete of the building?

- Il cemento? - Yeah, cemento?

Can you repeat in English, please?

Oh, I heard that this was early Roman concrete.

Yeah, it's Pantheon.

- Oh, yeah, yeah. - It's the Pantheon, this one.

I was wondering why it lasted so long.

Ah.

It's video?

- Uh... - No, no.

I'm making a movie about concrete.

- Concrete? - Yeah.

- No. - Like, I'm making a movie

about concrete.

- I'm sorry. - A cinema of concrete.

- No, thanks. - Okay.

Rome looks very similar to the way it used to

because it was built by craftspeople with material

that lasts a long time.

And at one point they decided to leave it

at this exact level of fucked up.

They even sacrificed valuable seating space

inside the McDonald's to preserve a bunch of old rocks.

There's also a wax museum in Rome where they preserve

some of our most beloved historical figures

and they even have a feature where you can watch a video

of them speaking with what seems to be

an AI-generated mouth.

I am Jack Nicholson,

born in 1937 in Neptune City, New Jersey, USA.

Known for intense roles in films like

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Shining

of Hollywood's most respected actors.

I'm Anthony Hopkins, born in 1937 in Port Talbot, Wales.

It's always interesting at what point in time

historians decide to freeze the memory of something

and who gets to decide which time period

is better than another.

I am Elvis Prezzle

born in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA.

Known as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll"

I revolutionized popular music

with songs like "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog."

You unfortunately ended up blowing

a 100 percent of your film's budget

on your trip to Rome

and even though you were getting some really cool stuff

your agent was getting harder and harder to get a hold of.

So, you flew back to New York

and tried to get some advice on how to fundraise

from a local Italian.

What kind of advice would you give to someone

who's struggling to get something financed?

To try to make it as inexpensive as they can

and to make, you know, and to get it done.

Do you ever think about concrete?

No, no. And you just brought it up,

and it made me think of it, you know?

Um, how is the concrete outside here?

Oh, it's pretty nice.

It's pretty solid.

That ain't goin' anywhere.

Each square of sidewalk

is usually five feet by five feet.

You're not allowed to put a fridge on the sidewalk

without taking its doors off or securing them

so children don't hide inside and have so much fun.

It seems like money can't touch the sidewalk either

which is why all the ATMs in New York are just hovering

right above the street outside.

But mailboxes can be on the sidewalk no problem.

A sidewalk is usually poured by a contractor

employed by the local municipality

and they do everything they can to keep it smooth.

But after the city pours it

the property owners are responsible for maintaining it

which is why the repairs are often imperfect

and patchwork across the city

just doing the bare minimum to cover up any mistakes

leading to unforeseen hazards

that might emerge from bad craftsmanship.

People will also add rogue mounds to preexisting stuff

in order to optimize their environment

because concrete is a continuous surface

that can be added to or subtracted from

without much attention paid.

Every now and then as it's drying

a vandal will appear and try to make their mark.

It is often a name,

a declaration of love

or a common phrase that everybody knows.

This is a huge diss to property owners

but one can understand the temptation

to defile something so flat, so level.

So when it's drying

there's usually always a local guy watching it

because you know the cops won't do anything about it.

Someone even put a compass

in the middle of Queens Boulevard

claiming that

it's the geographical center of New York City.

This is not even close to being true

but nobody seems to care.

Because nature can be hard to maintain

people cover up entire tree plots

making it nearly impossible for the plant to get water.

And they also fill in any other voids

that happen to be nearby.

This also makes flooding worse

because the stormwater can no longer drain into the earth.

Gum is like the bird shit of people.

Wherever people congregate, there is gum.

The highest concentration of gum deposits

are at transition points for some reason

like a subway entrance or the front of a deli.

You always thought that people spit out their gum

when the flavor was gone, but that doesn't explain

why so many people toss it out at the exact same moment

before they enter a new space.

At drive-thrus, you notice that the driver

usually spits out their gum as they're ordering

while the passenger waits to spit out their gum

until the last possible second at the pickup window

where a new flavor is presented to them.

But nobody knows more about this stuff than the only guy

in the city that gets rid of it.

People spit out their gum no matter what.

They don't care where they are.

But have you ever actually seen anyone spit out their gum?

No.

So what we do is we come and we vaporize that gum

and I'll show you later in the segment how we do that.

The segment? The segment...

Do you think this problem will ever go away?

I don't think chewing gum is ever going to go away.

Keep an eye on Mars stocks

because if chewing gum goes away

the stock on Mars and a few other companies

will take a big dip.

Oh, Mars like the candy company.

Correct.

Right. There is no stock on the planet.

Ah, here, so this is Gum Buster wine.

- Wow. - And we private label this wine

for our good customers

for Christmas, Hanukkah, during the holidays.

It's actually very good wine.

- Yeah? - And when I hand it out

I say, "It's great wine.

It doesn't taste like chewing gum."

And people smile and thank me for the wine.

Lotta gum here.

- Great spot, right? - Yeah.

Right in front of Mr. Happy Deli.

These are the tubes

and this is the famous brass brush.

So we're gonna just pop that in. Pop this in.

Here goes. Ready?

And that gum is busted.

That gum is busted.

You wanna try?

- Me? - Yeah.

Where did the gum go?

It's busted.

Whose car is that?

Is that your car?

- No. - John:

Why do people chew gum?

I think to stop cigarette smoking.

Probably.

You landed a few pitch meetings

but the material you had so far

wasn't really exciting anybody

and they doubted your ability

to turn it into a feature film.

Getting it to a certain place in development

and it sounds like you guys are just ready to go

so development isn't really something

that you're interested in.

And the couple people that were helping you out

would only get paid if the movie got sold somehow.

And the guilt you feel for asking friends

for such a huge favor is so heavy

that it makes it nearly impossible to function

the way that you're used to.

But when you look around New York

it seems like there are movies getting financed

but only if they take you to a different time and place.

And you could feel the industry laughing at you

for not having a script or a plot

or actors in funny costumes.

It's comforting to watch nostalgic visions

of a city that no longer exists

but it seems like we often spend more money

recreating the stuff that we miss

than actually trying to preserve

what's currently disappearing.

Most Hallmark movies are set in fictional environments

that viewers fantasize about inhabiting one day.

But this is where Hallmark movies are actually filmed.

On a sound stage in the middle of an industrial park

right over the U.S. border in Canada.

Hallmark employee:

The hallways are lined with posters of productions

that were filmed here over the years.

A lot of them are Christmas but...

it seems like they're expanding to other holidays, too.

Supposedly a turkey drop is when you break up

with your boyfriend during Thanksgiving break from school.

The team in there was between productions

but thankfully the assistant director

uh, had a moment to speak with you.

If you kind of look up and down this whole hallway

almost all of this signage

is used in Hallmarks or thrillers.

I've worked on at least two

where the holiday hunk is a widow

and learning to love again is part of his arc.

Are you making a big tree?

- Yeah. - Wow. Cool.

Hallmark is interesting.

They're the only cable network that it continues

to grow in viewership

whereas the rest of cable is kind of dying.

What we do is we tell the same story over and over and over.

It's like a rinse, repeat.

We, all of us in this building

just continue to tell the same boy-meets-girl story.

- In a cycle. - Over and over.

There's a race in New York where runners

circle the same block in Jamaica, Queens

for 3,100 miles and it lasts for 52 days straight.

They run from 6 a.m. to midnight every single day

and sleep in camper vans nearby.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 28th edition

of The Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence

3100 Mile Race.

This year we have 12 runners from 11 different countries

to try and go to 5,000

laps beyond beyond.

Before the race, they have a moment of silence

to honor the late Sri Chinmoy,

the spiritualist who came up with this idea to begin with.

Three, two, one. Go!

They have an army of disciples

that record every single lap

and a chef producing a constant supply of homemade food.

They even mark all of the parts of the sidewalk

that are damaged or uneven with bright yellow tape.

Even the smallest patch job.

This is mostly all you see for 52 days

and they even have a chorus to cheer them on.

There's a belief here that if you spend enough time

on this material, you will achieve

some sort of self-transcendence.

But it's still unclear why concrete

was the preferred surface.

What do you think of it?

Well, running is good, it's a good exercise

but I wanna know if they're getting paid.

I don't think they're getting paid.

The question I would like to ask how would they pay their rent?

How would they eat?

You know, you gotta pay rent in America, you know

and if you have a house, you gotta pay mortgage.

So how would they survive?

There gotta be some benefit up there.

Let's go over there and find out.

Maybe it's spiritual?

It could be spiritual, but again, like he says

you're out here from 6 in the morning to 12 midnight

so in between, there is no in between for work, you know?

Do you ever think

there's too much concrete in the city?

No! No.

I think there's a lot of buildings,

I tell you that much.

- No. - A lot of high-rises.

We got too many people here, that's what happened.

Mm-hmm. A lotta people.

You could understand being suspicious

of someone without a job walking in circles

around a high school for two months.

But it must be nice to have a spiritual leader

to tell you what to do

because otherwise you'd just have to figure out

how to fill the days by yourself.

And its hard not to get discouraged

when you're trying out something new.

The oldest concrete street in America

is actually in Ohio.

It was built in 1891

which means that throughout almost all of human history

there has not been any concrete

up until about a 100 years ago.

Well, the street was built in 1891, 1893.

Uh, about 60% of it is still the original concrete.

George Bartholomew, who the statue is behind me

he came up with a formula that he thought could hold up

to horse-and-buggy traffic.

A few years ago we added the arch 'cause again

this is a tourist attraction

but we're also proud of the history.

Despite the pride they feel

the concrete was in terrible shape.

It seems like it had been patched up a lot over the years

and it looks more like a monument to how poorly

this material holds up than anything else.

There's even a driving school

that uses the oldest concrete street as a training ground.

1891, first concrete street in America.

It needs to be redone.

Yeah, it doesn't look too good.

- Mm-mm, yeah, all these shops-- - What's on this street?

- and stuff are here. - There's a Bigfoot

on the street.

Bellefontaine is growing by leaps and bounds.

- Oh, really? - They're putting

a whole new subdivision of nice homes

in there and everything.

Okay, just before you get to the railroad track

you're gonna turn to the right

and that is the shortest street in America.

It's the highest point in Ohio.

- Yes. - Oh, really?

That's the highest point in Ohio?

- Yes. - Yes, it is.

I can't believe it.

I got a steering wheel.

I got a little old fake battery here.

How to hook up your battery if you're jumping somebody off.

- Oh... - All that kind of stuff.

And then this is basically, right here

is where we do most of our training.

Teenagers represent 10% of the U.S. population

but account for 14% of traffic deaths.

Blah, blah, blah, right?

Yeah. It's tough.

I'm kinda immune to it 'cause I see it every month.

On top of the videos

they even have people come to the class

to talk about the dangers of highway traffic.

My husband, Frank

got in a really serious motorcycle accident.

He was on his way to a friend's shop

and a car crossed the center line

and he was at the exact spot where this car did that

and hit him head on.

Was he a musician?

He was, yes.

That tattoo, it was on his left calf.

It's his skin.

And if you look close, you can see like pores.

It looks like it's like skin ripping open.

You could see the inside and it's like bionic

Terminator kind of thing.

You know, it's just nice because you get

this literal piece of this person.

It's just really an awesome gift.

So my name's Kyle Sherwood.

I am one of the founders of the company Save My Ink Forever

that specializes in preserving

your loved one's tattoos after you pass away.

Every single piece has its own unique story attached to it,

and it's just kind of fun

to share the stories of the tattoos.

Did you get into this business

from the funeral industry or the tattoo industry?

So it was a combination of my love for art

my love for tattoos, as well as kind of recognizing

the trends in the funeral industry.

Wow.

So what you're looking at here

is we have the back piece and the arms.

We have two leg pieces here.

So what part of the body was this tattoo on?

I believe it was part of a forearm.

Where was this little devil from?

You know, that I do not know.

This guy here, he is the original...

- Senior senior? - Yes.

He was known as "Mean Gene the Embalming Machine."

This is "Mean Gene the Embalming Machine?"

"Mean Gene the Embalming Machine." That--

He doesn't look too mean.

No, he's not.

It's just I think one of those things where it rhymed.

He actually embalmed Chef Boyardee.

Chef Boyardee was a real guy?

Yeah, so my granddad got to embalm him.

Wait, where is Chef Boyardee buried?

He might be at Lakeview, hold on.

Hey.

Do you know where Chef Boyardee's buried?

Are there any tattoos you won't preserve?

Who's got the most famous tattoo

the most simplistic tattoo on the planet

but if you see it, everybody knows it?

- Charles Manson. - There you go.

Right there.

Whoa. Wait, someone asked you

to preserve Charles Manson's tattoo?

- We were talking about-- - In a roundabout way.

We were at a tattoo convention.

But that also puts you in an interesting position

because, again, the historical significance

of the tattoo itself.

However, what the tattoo is that you would be preserving

- is obviously a tough thing. - Charles Manson.

Maybe preserving things is more complicated

than it seems, and what exactly should be preserved

is always a subjective decision.

There was a patch of dirt under a fire hydrant in Bed-Stuy

that the locals decided to turn into an aquarium

for everyone to enjoy.

We did something--

we took something from nothing into something

to improve where we live at.

But then one day, the city came in

and filled the hole with concrete.

And people wore black clothing to grieve the loss

of the fish that died in the process.

There's a garden in SoHo

that was under threat of eviction recently

because the city wanted the land

to build affordable housing for seniors.

And despite the good intentions of the proposal

people still showed up to protest

and speed preserve the garden

using whatever materials they had.

We're in an intense time for the garden.

We're gonna do everything that we can

to the last moment.

Save the garden.

Save the garden!

And there's another green space in Brooklyn

that Tony Hawk has been trying

to turn into a skate park for years

which caused people to protest outside of an event

that he was having with Rodney Mullen.

You can't come into a community, and you know

do your white boy thing, and you know, pave it over

and good luck with us and you hope us the best.

I hope him the best because I hope he hopes the best for me.

Skate parks have these half shells, which is like a pipe

I guess they call it a half-pipe.

And I guess that's made out of ceramic tiles, perhaps.

- No, no, no. - Or maybe it's made

out of concrete.

I don't know what it's made out of.

Our son is a skateboarder. We are for the park

but not pouring 40,000 square feet of cement

over our little green park, which is not very big.

You know, there are a lot of other places in Brooklyn

where you could do that.

The protestors were very passionate

but it seems like this issue could not be further

from any of the skaters' minds.

Like, do you ever think

there's too much concrete in the city?

I mean, I don't really think about the concrete like that.

You live in a

historically designated neighborhood

which is why all the street signs are brown.

Recently they tore up most of the sidewalk

outside your apartment to install a new gas line.

But when they poured all the new stuff

they accidentally used white concrete

which isn't historically accurate.

So they had to come back a week later

to tear it all up again and replace it with gray concrete.

And even though your block looks more accurate now

the entire charade just felt like a huge waste of material.

A summer ago we had what they called a cement shortage.

They couldn't make enough cement fast enough--

- Nationwide. - as it was being used up.

- Really? - Yes.

You might get some concrete one day

and then you might not be able to get it

for four or five days.

And this was not just in our area

this was all over the place.

This was all over the United States.

They were shipping a lot of cement overseas

and China I think got a lot of it.

It seems like the older concrete is stronger

than the new concrete, I will say that.

Yeah. Right.

What do you think contributes to that?

I think they used more cement

back when stuff used to be cheaper.

I think they would put more cement per.

And then it was also handmade a lot of times.

Like, stuff that we tear out that was poured

in like the '60s and '50s was stronger.

I look at it like this.

They don't want that car to last 50 years.

They want it to wear out and redo it.

It's just the way that things are.

They wanna keep things going and building

and keep things in a circle, you know?

I don't know of anything that lasts forever, do you?

Maybe a tombstone. That's it.

Easy money is what we say. There you go.

Now we just gotta pull the forms.

This looks stupendous.

Now will you sell this to somebody

this presentation to somebody?

- We're gonna try to. - Yeah.

But...uh...

It's kinda hard to get people excited

about concrete, I'm finding.

- Is it? - Yeah.

Well people don't realize...

We'd be up a creek without concrete.

It's used for everything.

Can you think of anybody

that would wanna buy a movie about concrete?

Well, maybe your big time concrete suppliers?

Every June, the entire concrete industry reunites

for a handful of different conventions to network

and talk about new innovations in the industry.

They even hold competitions with big prizes

and contestants that fly in from all over the globe.

You're gonna catch 'em layin' brick!

Good luck, Team Australia!

G'day, mate!

Thank you, appreciate it.

You guys have fun out there. Enjoy it.

May I draw your attention

to the far end of the arena where our main stage is?

Our beautiful Chevy Silverado truck.

Let's start things off as we bring in

the Nellis Air Force Color Guard.

Colors.

Halt!

Wow!

We'll put 60 minutes on the jumbotron.

The question will be answered in about an hour

as to who is the world's best bricklayer.

These guys are awesome.

Let's go, Johnny! Move it!

Why didn't I bring a camera up here?

Bring me that camera.

This is an absolutely incredible shot.

Count it down with me, everybody in the audience.

Ten, nine, eight, seven

six, five, four, three, two, one...

Trowels down! Let's give a--

Wow.

What a finish.

What the fuck?

And in just a few minutes

we're gonna get the junior bricklayer underway.

I will introduce our teams

and see who's gonna drop $500 into their pockets.

Don't go anywhere.

Let's check out the walls and see how they're doing.

Cool.

There's also competitions for students

to see who can make the best stuff

with materials from their home country.

And if their sand is too dense

they need to take it out into the hallway

and remove all the moisture with a hairdryer

that they bought at Walgreens.

Our sand is too wet.

- So now we're- - John: Oh, really?

Yeah.

They also have a special event

devoted to the women of concrete.

Good evening, Women in ACI.

This is our 30th anniversary of Women in ACI.

And we have a step and repeat in the corner

for those who would like to take advantage

and get a picture, and ACI is not only a place

where we come to do good work

but we also come for fun.

They have a silent auction

where you can bid on really cool stuff.

And it seems like the concrete industry

has finally caught up with the "Me Too" movement.

They even have a seminar on the logistical problems

of how to produce concrete on the moon one day.

We have a project at Marshall Space Flight Center

called MMPACT, it's Moon-to-Mars

Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology.

It's a mouthful, but the goal is to develop lunar

and Martian surface infrastructure

using in situ materials.

As many of you know

it costs just over a million dollars per kilogram

to put materials on the lunar surface.

It's not enough just to build a big empty concrete shell

and be able to pressurize it.

You have to be able to live in it.

So you need furniture and knives and forks and switch plates

and, you know, walk through your house.

Anything you have in your house

you're gonna need some kind of equivalent

on the lunar surface.

It's gonna be 50 years before we ever

go to Mars from the moon.

We need that water for construction now.

We need it for oxygen, for life support

binders for some of our lunar concretes.

We need to learn how to live on the moon

before we go all the way to Mars.

The moon is the satellite you cannot destroy.

So, this is all gonna be part of the second Cold War

because it will help us put a base on the moon

and beat the Chinese to the moon

or the Chinese-Russian consortium to the moon.

You walked around the convention

and you saw a lot of vendors trying to offer alternatives

to the original formula

because it seems to be widely understood in the industry

that the carbon emissions from cement production

are the third biggest contributor to global warming.

One of the ideas was even to use human urine

to make concrete in space

because water up there will be so scarce.

But the industry seems reluctant to fully adopt

any of these ideas,

because once you're used to something

it becomes kind of hard to change your lifestyle

without external pressure.

The most popular booth...

...was the 3D-printed concrete demonstration

which seems to be where the industry is heading fast.

One could picture a future with a whole new species

of autonomous construction robots

constantly modifying our environment in the background

while the rest of us just lurk for artificial romance.

You have never once questioned this material before

but everything you learned so far

made you feel like we were in danger somehow.

But everyone here just seemed to be in a state of bliss

enjoying the lifestyle that the concrete business

provides for them.

When you left one of the conventions

you took a look at the contract that you signed with them

and the fine print said that you agreed

to not portray concrete in a negative light.

You're still not sure what that means

but you're not lovin' it.

Because without something to criticize

a documentarian is powerless

and it's taking every ounce of strength you have to continue.

Someone at the convention told you

that the first Starbucks made of 3D-printed concrete

was in Texas, but you didn't really wanna go there

so you paid a local videographer

to film it in your style

which for some reason consisted mostly of drone photography.

There's a good chance most buildings will end up

looking like this in the future

if the concrete industry has its way

and you're afraid if we're not careful

most documentaries will look like this, too.

Back in Queens, the first person dropped out of the race

after running 2,000 miles

because the terrain was too punishing.

On nice open black road, you can just run for, you know

you can run in a really smooth, pain-free way.

Concrete is, it's a different surface.

This came as a surprise to me. There's just not the--

I think it's the energy return and the give.

It's a really unforgiving, a very unforgiving surface.

I'm, um-- Even now as a lover of hard surfaces

I'm really a bit shocked by how brutal

this ended up being on my left foot.

The entire race is positioned around a tree

that their guru planted on the lawn

of a high school decades ago

which provides shade for all the students'

after-school military programs.

- Alpha Company! - Platoon!

Attention!

Present arms!

Company Commander, knock out a pushup.

Tell me why.

We covered it. Why?

You were at a concert recently

but you were too far in the back to see anything

and you ended up breaking your beer glass

all over the ground.

And miraculously the guy who helped you clean it up

told you that he actually worked in sales

for a concrete company

and he agreed to meet up with you a couple days later.

- Wow. - Yeah, I sell concrete.

It's pretty cutthroat because it's so relationship-based.

Do you do any work

outside of the concrete industry?

Uh, I act.

Everything now, especially for an actor, is a self-tape.

So you can't even go in and be personal with someone

and show 'em what you've got.

You just have to kind of film yourself, send it out

and then thousands of other people do it

and you're just in a deck of other people.

Are you working on any projects right now?

Yeah, I'm doing a short film called The Last Guest.

Yeah, so now we're gonna, I think we're ready to block.

Are you mic'd up?

- No. Where's Jordan? - Jesus.

So what is this about?

This guy is like renting his apartment like illegally

and his landlord doesn't know basically

through, we'll call it "Airbnb"

but we're trying to not mention it.

Was this movie inspired at all

by the housing crisis?

Not, well, I don't know.

Oh wait, what is that?

Oh, it's a Photoshop of the two actors.

Yeah, they graduated from realtor's school.

We also created this magazine, too.

It's about realtors' minds.

- Oh, really? - Yeah.

All of this has to fly to the next room.

I need this whole room cleared.

Oh yeah. Sure, you got it.

- Do you do this a lot? - DP:

Okay.

- Are you doing sound? - Yes, I am.

I'm looking around the space.

I'm gonna have to move around.

You'll say the lines and you come.

Hey, they left you some chicken!

You see the bathroom?

Reset. Reset.

Leave it there. Don't take it out from the fridge.

- Okay. - Let's try one opening

from the top and the next one from here.

Hey, they left you some chicken!

Hey, they left you some chicken!

Hey! They left you some chicken!

What are you drinking there?

Vodka Red Bull.

Just vodka and Red Bull.

We can't do that. You can't bring the cops into it.

If you're really my friend

we're not bringing the cops into it, okay?

Why not?

Because I'm gonna lose everything.

My job, my apartment

everything I've worked so hard for!

Oh my God.

"Oh, they left you some chicken," you know?

You look like Ari Aster.

- Ari Aster? - Yeah. You look like him.

Don't you think he looks like Ari Aster a bit?

Oh, yeah.

That's fucking you, dude.

- That's me? - That's you.

Okay, yeah.

Same style. See what I mean?

Has it become more difficult

to get like funding for passion projects?

Yeah, I think like, it's always difficult

to get like funding.

Like, this is like, I'm funding it

out of my own pocket, basically.

It's just like, just like us, you know,

like finding people that wanna collaborate and all.

It's not like, you know, a Hollywood film.

It's just more like a-- let's call it like

I don't know, like independent, you know?

Where's it gonna be?

Well, my hope at the beginning, you know

I was thinking just to do it for myself, you know

to show it to friends and all but then like, I don't know

people started liking the script and all

and then they were like, "Maybe you can put it like

you know, in like festivals and stuff like that,"

so maybe that's a goal.

Depending on how, you know, we end up doing this.

So far, it's cool.

Yeah, so far it's looking great.

Maybe it's nice to make something

even if you don't know what it's for.

And the simple act of making art

is the thing that gives you purpose.

Los Angeles might have the most pornographic relationship

with concrete.

They constantly have celebrities penetrate it

to cement their legacy for future generations to see.

But anything over 60 years old is covered in cracks

and will probably need to be replaced eventually.

There's something impossible to describe

about the experience of being on the sidewalk here.

There's just a constant stream

of automobiles in every direction.

Thousands of eyes looking directly at you

just hungry for something to stare at.

They can look at you

but you're not supposed to look at them.

In New York City, drivers are a punished class

but in Los Angeles, the pedestrian is the fool.

A lot of people here end up taking cabs

where the passengers

are always offered wisdom by the drivers.

There's always cats and dogs who needs love

and who needs a home and needs to be loved.

Well, the mob companies

used to run construction, concrete companies.

- That's true. - Think about that.

- Instead of concrete, they're using...

uh left over...

I wanna say peanut shells or something like that, weird.

Oh, really?

To subsidize the strength of like, you know, concrete.

So I made this for my car.

Oh my God, this is your car?

I glued this

- and I made like a little- - John: Wow, so this is concrete

- on your car? - Yeah.

- So this design, too. - Oh my God.

The various functions at different venues in L.A.

fuel the economy, and it's hard to know

how to entertain yourself here as an outsider

unless you're invited to one.

They usually have them at fancy hotels

like the Chateau Marmont

where the penthouse looks directly

onto the most well-lit billboard you've ever seen.

At this particular event

Kim Kardashian was being named as GQ's Man of the Year

and you were invited for some strange reason.

I already said like quite a bit about Tom Ford

in the magazine, and he said quite a bit back

but I was thinking about what I could say about him tonight.

And I just thought, oh, one thing that I didn't get to

in the piece was that I think Tom has this unique ability

to combine sex and money.

Like, sex that's just sex is kind of boring

and money, like, money's the most boring thing on Earth.

Not really.

- Really? - Not really.

We're gonna hash this out afterwards.

But all jokes aside

I think all of us at this table

there's a lot of things that we admire about you

and the first thing that comes to mind would be family.

I don't know if anybody have been on the other side

of the wrath of fuckin' with Kim's family

but she don't play around.

So I just want everybody to grab their glass,

whatever they have in front of them.

We're gonna toast to someone who is living at the same time

that we all are, but is living in her purpose.

The philosopher Guy Debord once said

that when enough capital accumulates

it will eventually just become an image.

You went to the Emmys recently

because you were nominated for something.

A lot of the Emmys ended up going to the Oscars

which can't happen the other way around for some reason.

And when you lost your category

you were staring directly at Lucy Liu.

But one of the big winners of the night

was a documentary about Billy Joel.

And it seems like music documentaries

were really lucrative for the studios right now.

You got a call from your agent that you finally got an offer

for someone to finance your documentary

but it seems like they might have gotten the same memo.

The contract stated that the deal would only go through

if your movie included a musician

of "elevated visibility, relevance, and notoriety."

During the pitch you joked about this being a rockumentary

but unfortunately they took you seriously

and now it's your only available option

to finish your movie.

Most rockumentaries rely on cliches

about the unlikely rise of a struggling musician.

And then at the height of their career

something tragic usually happens.

One of the better ones you saw recently

was the one about DMX.

It followed him after his release from prison

as he was trying to rebuild his life.

And the only way he could secure future album deals

would be if he made a Christmas album

for the record company.

But sadly, he passed away

before he was able to finish his Christmas album.

If you were to make a rockumentary

you would wanna follow someone

at the beginning of their career

but it's getting harder and harder

to discover emerging talent in New York City.

You used to go see a lot of shows

shows at non-commercial venues

because that's just the kind of guy you are.

But a lot of these spaces are designed to be temporary

and usually only exist until the landlord wants

to use the property for something more lucrative.

And now some of the only places that are left

to see smaller shows are skinny apartments

that a bunch of people live in that also double as a venue.

How's that can staying up there?

Somebody put that there like two years ago

and it never fell, and I never touched it once.

- It's really-- - I was like, it's impressive

that it's never, like, fallen on my head or anything.

It just stayed there.

That's crazy.

And sometimes the basements musicians perform

in are so hot

that people pass out before the show even begins.

Or to beat the heat, they often just play outside

with generators until someone comes to stop them.

The place that you used to live in has concerts, too.

It was originally a tombstone factory

that got turned into residential units

but the landlords did such a bad job converting it

that when the fire department

finally inspected the property, they found fake sprinklers

and a bunch of other code violations.

I used to have, you could put an air conditioner in there.

So, the city shut off the heat and hot water indefinitely.

And now everyone that lives there has been on rent strike

ever since you moved out.

I mean, Simpsons is like fully cemented

- in my brain. - Yeah, me too, man.

That's like what I grew up with.

SpongeBob was like I caught it when I could, you know?

SpongeBob was a-

You're still technically

the only person on the lease

and the landlords have been sending you invoices

every month

for the past seven years.

And the current grand total rivals the cost

of a private island.

Unfortunately, the financiers didn't really

approve of any of the musicians you filmed with

because it wouldn't get enough viewers

to make their investment worth it.

But maybe you don't need anybody else

because all your friends are right here.

Josh.

André.

Mr. Boston.

And Alizé.

You want some Silver?

Yeah, sure.

Really? Oh, what kind of band?

- Really? - Sure.

My name is Jack Macco.

I'm a guitar player and singer

and the name of the band is called Nebulus.

Cool.

Never forget why you're doin' it, because you love it.

That feeling that you get from playing a gig

even if it's terrible,

it's one of the greatest feelings of magic in reality.

And never lose that.

And it doesn't matter how many clicks you get online

or anything like that.

There's a million people online

who get like half a million clicks

and they can't perform for shit.

- Yeah. - Be a great performer.

Be a high skill level.

You wanna join us? Um...

Film our performance next week?

I'm... What time, what day next week?

Gotta have the key.

To what?

Ah. Set list.

Hey!

- Hello, man. - Thanks for having us.

This is a song, hopefully you know it.

The state of music is fine

the state of operating it for capital is in question.

Everybody wants to see a cover band, you know

so trying to make a stand in the original part of this

the creativity hasn't been stifled

only the ability for guys to, you know

make a dollar out of it.

We're gonna do "Addicted" right now, an original song.

All right, that was an original song.

I think that's all we got.

We got another band coming on after us.

No, you don't.

- We don't? - No.

Oh.

I said, that was pretty good for no rehearsal.

- Yeah, you guys ripped. - Right?

Hold on, I gotta get to the--

Thanks so much everybody for coming out

and happy new year.

When I was a kid, I did a lot of original music.

We were the original Chainsmokers.

And yeah, so they stole the name of our band

and they went on, but we were-

- Wait, really? - Yeah.

We were doing all original songs at the time, and yeah.

And the name of your band was The Chainsmokers?

Chainsmokers. Yep, yep.

- How do you know that th- - So we have a suit

but it never went anywhere.

I think that Jack has a good formula

of introducing a few songs, a few of his original songs

between the cover band songs that everybody knows.

Right.

So, you know, they'll give it more of a chance

to listen to good original music when they heard

a couple of songs that they could sing

the lyric with in between, yeah.

Maybe it's better to put the stuff that you like

in between the stuff that other people like

as a way to get them familiar with something

that they don't really wanna think about.

Like sand.

Sand is one of the most important parts

of any batch of concrete.

We use 50 billion tons of it every year

because sand actually makes up

most of what you see every day.

The glass in your windows

the chips in your phones

the porcelain in your thrones.

But you can only use certain kinds of sand for construction

because the grains need to be jagged

and irregular in order to form a bond with cement

and help it lock into place.

There's even a monument for sand miners in Long Island

which demonstrates how critical this resource was

in the formation of our beloved metropolis.

And because our appetite for sand has increased so much

we have to continuously find new places to extract it from.

This includes a lot of shorelines and riverbeds

which accelerates coastal erosion

and habitat destruction.

And while environmental experts try to sound the alarm

the rest of us live blissfully unaware

of the impending shortage.

The more we take sand out of the environment

the more it changes the environment, right?

China used as much concrete, which is a proxy for sand

because sand goes into concrete

they used as much concrete between 2011 and 2014

so just three years, as the entire U.S. did

over the last century.

And that just shows that we need so much sand

to the point where it's maybe even unfathomable.

At the Tibet Center on 17th Street

they have a public ceremony that anyone can come and watch

where they spend day after day carefully crafting

an intricate design out of colored sand

only to brush it away once they're finally done with it.

It seems like they really honor the substance

in a way that concrete never could

although you're sure the industry will

ah, come for them eventually, too.

Have you tried Jefferson's Bourbon?

- No. - Oh, it's delicious.

Wait, let me see. Hold on.

Inspired by Thomas Jefferson.

- Oh really? - Yeah.

We were supposed to have rehearsal at 12.

- And it was canceled. - Why?

Because bass and drums really don't wanna rehearse.

It seems to be like they don't wanna spend the time

working on new material or getting the old material right.

It's hard to keep a band together

when everyone has to make a living somehow.

Even on your own project

your collaborators sometimes miss calls

because they have to take other work.

So you just end up hanging out by yourself in Zoom rooms

testing out new backgrounds

just worrying that stubbornly pursuing this project

has permanently disfigured your professional

and personal life.

All the pools in the city are made of concrete, too

but a lot of the times they get so crowded

that the lines stretch far beyond the horizon.

The line can be really, really long.

- Yeah? - We had it

when the pool was open to capacity

it went all the way straight up past the basketball courts.

- Oh, really? - Yes.

So we have opened every single day this summer

with the exception of maybe a Category One

or a Category Two where we have to close.

Category One is if someone has an accident in the water

maybe a number two, but a solid one,

or if they vomit.

So we have to close the pool for a half an hour.

This is where they come in, they regenerate

they make sure that water is clean.

We get a Category Two, which is diarrhea

we have to close the pool for 25 and half hours

and we have to shock it at a 10.0.

Because it spreads.

It's like liquid. It's liquid.

So being that it's liquid

it's really...

It'll spread faster in the water.

Mm. How long does that take to clean up?

25 and a half hours.

Wow. Why "and a half?"

Yes.

These are our chlorinators.

- Oh, that's the chlorine? - Yes.

What is leak flang?

- That's the hair catcher. - Oh, okay.

Does anyone maintain the concrete here?

No.

They try to, but you would have to do a overhaul

because it's so old.

There's leaks all over.

They try to fix it, but it's unrepairable

unless you take everything out

and then redo it all over from the structure up.

You've been seeing a lot of different examples

of New York City falling apart.

There's a building in Midtown that's been held together

with ratchet straps for a few years now.

The Salt Shed in Chelsea is held together

at certain joints with packing tape.

There are cracks everywhere you look

on the bridges and highways

and different varieties of corrosion.

And a skyscraper in Midtown that was only finished

ten years ago is reportedly falling apart

because the designers wanted the concrete to be white

which makes it crack easier

and causes big chunks to fall on the street below.

And they may need to demolish this entire building

in order to save Midtown.

Recently a historic awning above a subway entrance

spontaneously collapsed,

but thankfully nobody was under it.

It was over 120 years old and it looked like the stuff

that held it together was in pretty bad condition.

Was it the steel or was it the concrete?

Concrete worker:

Yeah.

Concrete worker:

It's hard when you're aware of a flaw

but incapable to stop it

and you shudder to think of the condition

of the rest of the stuff around the city.

So, you met up with a former

Department of Transportation Commissioner

who is also known as the

inventor of the word "gridlock."

So, this is a very unusual structure

called a triple cantilever.

I don't know of any others in the world.

There may be.

But you could see the beginning

of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

which is a cherished park-like area for Brooklyn Heights

followed by the northbound BQE directly under it

the southbound BQE and Furman.

I believe the lifespan of any concrete deck

is around 40 years.

After that you begin to see spalling concrete

exposed reinforcing bars.

There are screens that are holding the concrete

from raining down on cars and on people's heads.

This is what's supporting the roadway.

You could see that the rebars

are really just fossils or imprints.

The byproduct of corrosion, which we call rust

is larger than the rebar itself.

So it pushes the concrete, creates a void

the concrete has nothing to hold onto

and begins to fall to the ground.

I've seen pieces of concrete weighing more than 600 pounds

fall to the ground and crush a motorist below.

So, there is a real concern

that you could have something catastrophic happen

in this area over the next few years.

That would not surprise me.

When concrete fails

it is often brought to the concrete recycling facility

to offset the environmental impact of production.

But even something designed to make a positive change

ends up hurting its neighbors in such a dense city.

In the last year

this toxicity has changed everything we know.

I usually have to wear my mask everywhere.

I'm a professional singer and I get sick all the time

so my engagements have not been working out

and we want things to go back to the way they were

'cause it's a great place to live and raise a family.

You're a professional singer?

Yes.

But this is sort of the typical soot.

The bedroom window is even worse.

You know, you're never gonna not have dust

but this is a whole different kind of dust.

It's just everywhere.

For my voice and my age and where I'm at

I mean, I could be working pretty regularly and-

But yet you don't have like decades more, you know

I don't have decades more to do this

so I would really like to be performing now.

Yeah.

Shut it down, shut it down!

The protests lasted for weeks

and the only way the mayor would allow it to shut down

is if he could build a new high-rise in its place.

Shut it down!

This was part of a larger push from the mayor

to build affordable housing

and his grand plan to accelerate development

was a zoning amendment called the City of Yes.

This proposal would

potentially add 80,000 new homes to the city

and allow additional units

to be built in unused airspace.

The bill would also promise close to $2 billion

in infrastructure improvement

potentially solving some of the flooding issues

everyone's been having

and hopefully make it so that your power lines

don't catch on fire anymore

disabling the power grid for days

forcing the pizzeria to move all their mozzarella

to another fridge across the street.

But despite some of the positive aspects

the City of Yes started to worry a lot of local homeowners

and they had a community meeting

to talk about it in your neighborhood

that you were invited to.

This was designed for the building industry

by the building industry

and if we don't stop it, our communities are toast.

We're all for affordable housing

because you are the people who give affordable housing

to your neighborhood.

I mean, most of the owners I know

they have long-term tenants

and they wrestle over raising the rent

of the good tenant that they have.

Think about it, when a developer comes in

and now he has looser rules

he thinks about, "How can I even make more money?"

It's not just because we don't like change.

I mean, there's always good change

and there can be bad change.

There's an idea in Buddhism called Samsara

which suggests that all suffering

comes from the refusal to accept that

change is inevitable

and that the only constant is impermanence.

Eventually all the city council members

met one day to finally take a vote

on whether or not to pass the City of Yes

and a lot of the more conservative council members

seemed to immediately oppose it.

This is something that threatens

the very character of our neighborhoods

and it's really...

It's really egregious that we're turning over

many of the decisions to developers.

Infrastructure experts tell us

that we can barely sustain housing as it currently exists.

Flooding is a major problem in this city

sewers are overwhelmed as it is

and the electrical grid is at a breaking point.

Despite all the opposition

most of the progressive council members

saw this as a step in the right direction.

We need to build in this city.

We need to build affordability in this city.

We need rent stabilization in this city.

We need so much more to protect

the working class New Yorkers

that exist within the five boroughs.

This council cannot be the body that says no

to people that need a place to live.

You're a bullshitter, that's what you are!

You're bullshitting the people!

Bullshitter!

- Bullshitter! - Sergeants,

please remove him from the gallery.

Just say no to City of Yes!

There will be no interruptions...

You're selling out

- people of color! - ...from the gallery.

You are selling out

- people of color! - Please be quiet

as you are moving out.

Say no to the City of Yes!

Take back New York City!

Speaker Adams, you're a bullshitter!

At the end of the comment portion

they all took a vote

and the City of Yes passed 31 to 28

and they immediately had a celebration downstairs

as if they all knew this was coming.

It seems like a lot of people were confused

about how to feel about this happening

and you're really starting to worry

that all this new stuff won't last longer than 40 years.

At this point, all the conversation

about funding your film had completely dried up

and you finally started to feel like

you weren't the only one this was happening to.

You read in the news that all the old media companies

were continuing to aggregate into a single behemoth.

But when you treat cultural artifacts like poker chips

it's hard to know what will happen

when the casino shuts down.

Did you see the Billy Joel doc?

No, I didn't.

Hey, you wanna try some mezcal?

Oh, no thank you. But thanks for asking.

Would you like some mezcal?

- No, thank you. - No dog today?

No.

Pourquoi, mademoiselle?

She usually comes in with a dog.

- Same color hair. - Yeah.

Oh, she has the same color hair as her dog?

Yeah.

As you followed your musician friend more

his band seemed to be doing really well.

He was performing at a lot of different venues

and he was able to keep his band together long enough

to record some original music.

And he even made a music video.

But then one night before a gig at an Irish bar in Astoria

he called you with some really bad news.

His fiancée, who you didn't even know existed

had just passed away in the middle of the night

under mysterious circumstances.

The hospital's saying that she died of natural causes.

It's like nobody dies from irritable bowel syndrome.

Nobody.

We were together at least 15 years.

- Really? - Yeah.

- So sorry. - Yeah.

How'd you meet her?

Well...

I read tarot cards and I'm into that esoteric stuff

and so I used to read her cards initially.

Is everybody happy to see this month finished with?

- Good God, yeah. - Yeah.

- Hopefully the next month is gonna be better than this one.

Don't bet on it.

When you lose somebody you love

that's so close to you

it's almost like a part of you has died

and the only way to deal with it...

if you have that creative ability

it's the only thing that gets you through the day sometimes.

When you got home, you looked online

to see if there was anything about his late fiancée

and you discovered a New York Times obituary

that was published a couple days earlier.

Her name was Dorothy Chin Brandt

and she was actually

a trailblazing Asian American judge.

It says that her cause of death was sepsis

and from the looks of it, they had been in love

for a very long time.

And they even had a memorial for her

at a Chinese cultural center in Flushing.

She had the greatest sense of humor in the world

and it was very understated, but it was hysterical.

You were looking around for Jack

but you couldn't find him anywhere.

So, you decided to leave because you quickly

ran out of questions to ask people there.

So what advice would you give

to an aspiring young Asian judge?

You called Jack and asked him what was going on

and he told you that he had an upcoming performance

at the Montauk Music Festival.

This was one of the biggest opportunities

for musicians on Long Island

but unfortunately Jack came down with a cold

right before he was about to start

a long string of performances.

I think this is gonna be the big show

and I hope I don't mess up at all.

All right, everybody, we are Nebulus.

We're very excited to be here

for the Montauk Music Festival.

Thank you for having us.

We're gonna play some originals and some covers.

This first song is an original called "Hit the Highway."

Can you hear me out there?

What happened to the sound guy?

Afterward he brought you

to his beachfront motel room to offer you

a little leftover liquor from another promotion.

Vinny's actually crashing there.

Oh, wait, your bassist?

Yeah, Vinny's brand new.

Oh, okay.

- He is not very skilled. - Yeah.

That's about an ounce and a half, maybe two.

I saw your fiancée's obituary before we came out

and I didn't know she was a judge.

Yeah.

Uh, a very accomplished judge.

She's a very prominent person.

She was a trailblazer in her own way

and she was always behind me seeing things in me

that I didn't even see in myself or I didn't wanna see.

Was it at all complicated being engaged

to a judge

with, like, your lifestyle?

Not at all. Because I think in a lot of ways

we were just kindred spirits

but on the outside, we seemed to have circles that never fit

you know, or worlds that would never collide.

I guess we had that indescribable love

that opposites attract, I guess.

Did she preside over any famous cases?

Uh... A number of mob racketeering busts.

- Oh, really? - I think the one

that seems to pop out the most is DMX

the rapper, who's deceased now.

She was the judge in a case against DMX?

Yeah, and he went to jail because of her.

What was DMX on trial for?

I think he was impersonating a police officer.

- Really? - Yeah.

Now, I didn't know this until her best friend

found the last will and testament

that I was the executor and the beneficiary.

So you didn't know

- that you were in the will? - I had no idea.

I had no idea that she had a will.

Wow.

She wasn't supposed to--

She's not supposed to be dead.

- She's supposed to be alive. - Hmm.

Do you feel like it's good to have trauma

lead towards a positive arc?

Making lemonade?

Yeah.

I think that's probably the best thing you can do

is to make lemonade.

Oceanfront.

So what's next for you?

What's next is...

Don't lose my voice.

Get back to the city.

Take care of all the things I left behind.

There's a lot to take care of.

If you could watch a documentary about anything

what would it be about?

Documentary about anything?

How to build a house.

Milk, milk, lemonade.

Some people just wanna see a house get made.

I guess if you run around in circles for long enough

you'll eventually just get somewhere new.

Way to go.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Running on the worst possible surface

an uneven concrete surface, dodging students

scooters, and strollers day after day

that these runners were able to accomplish what they have.

Do you believe in miracles?

And even though it feels good

to finally finish something

don't get too comfortable at the finish line

because everyone knows that the real reward

is being able to start all over again.

Because at the end of the day

nothing lasts forever.

Except maybe a...

Maybe a tombstone.

And that's it.