[Intro – drum machine pulse, barn drone, gavel] [Male 1, Spoken, chant, looped] Words, words, w-w-words, all lots sold as-is, sold as-is, as-is, [gavel] [Male 1, Spoken, drawl] No refunds on meaning. Let’s go. [Lot 1 – pulse, synth bass] [Male 1, Spoken, auction chant] Lot one is socialism, a fine old word, used to mean the workers own the mill, public ownership, everybody gets a share, who’ll give me what it means now, who’ll start me, who’ll start me, [Male 2, Spoken, shout] Yep! [Male 1, Spoken, chant] I got a bid from the podium, podium says it means foreign workers, podium says it means boys in girls’ sports, do I hear anything else, anything else, anybody, [Sample, clean microphone, hard cut] “—I don’t know what the term means anymore—” [Male 1, Spoken, chant] Going once, going twice, [gavel, stutter, pitch drop] Sold to the gentleman at the podium. [Lot 2 – loop stutters] [Male 1, Spoken, drawl] Lot two. This here’s the word artificial. [Male 1, Spoken, chant] Been in the family since nineteen fifty-six, used to mean made by people, now I’m told it means fake, now I’m told it won’t be acknowledged, podium’s bidding again, podium says anybody who uses it is the enemy, do I hear a counter, anybody, anybody, no, [gavel, stutter, pitch drop] Withdrawn from the catalogue. We don’t say it no more. [Tag – four-part male vocal, flat, unaccompanied] [Male Quartet, Sung] Going once, going twice, what it meant don’t matter, what it means is the price. [Lot 3 – pulse faster, loops tighter] [Male 1, Spoken, chant] Lot three is the word binding, comes in two grades, legally and morally, legally’s been withdrawn, morally’s what’s left, it don’t hold nothing but it sounds real nice, who’ll take it, podium takes it, [gavel, stutter, pitch drop] Lot four is the word worker, used to mean anybody who works, podium says it means American only, sold, [gavel, stutter, pitch drop] Lot five is the word enemy, used to mean somebody shooting at you, podium says it means somebody using the old words, sold, [gavel, stutter, pitch drop] Lot six is the word classically, podium says that’s the part we skip, sold, [gavel, stutter, pitch drop] Lot seven, lot eight, lot nine, sold, sold, s-s-sold, [gavel, gavel, gavel, stutter] [Break – pulse stops dead, barn drone only] [Male 1, Spoken, drawl, quiet] Now folks, I been doing this thirty years. Usually the buyer tells you what he’s gonna do with the lot. Fella at the podium don’t say. He just says, [Sample, clean microphone, hard cut] “—it’s a hard term to define these days—” [Male 1, Spoken, drawl] Well. It is now. [Lot 14 – pulse returns, fastest, loops piling up] [Male 1, Spoken, chant] Lot fourteen, the big one, this here is the word define, the one you use on all the other words, sell this and you don’t need the rest, who’ll start me, podium, podium, p-p-podium, podium’s the only one in the barn, podium’s been the only one in the barn all day, do I hear anybody, anybody at all, [dead air, one beat] [Male 2, Spoken, shout] Yep! [Male 1, Spoken, chant] Going once, going twice, [gavel, stutter, pitch drop, loud] Sold. Everything after this means what he says. Means what he says. What he says. He says. [Tag – four-part male vocal, slower] [Male Quartet, Sung] Going once, going twice, what it meant don’t matter, what it means is the price. [Outro – crowd filing out, cattle drone, PA click] [Male 1, Spoken, drawl] That’s the sale, folks. Thank y’all for coming. Same barn next week. Bring your dictionaries. We take trade-ins. [gavel, once, distant]
