[joe-frank-list] 'Cocktails before dinner'

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	0:20: Joe compares human abilities with those of animals.
Humans compensate for their inferiority to animals with tools
(clothes, cars, makeup...)
	4:40: Breakfast at Charlie's, on the boardwalk (Venice?).  Joe
is unhappy that the plate and table are too small.  He pays and walks
down the promenade, tries to read the paper, but it's too cold to sit
still.  Joe's unhappy with the day.
	6:00: Joe enjoys washing dishes.
	6:20: One afternoon in September, Joe takes a cab to the
hospital.  On the way they pass a small park, Joe sees 2 female
students; Joe remembers when he was their age.  Joe gets examined at
the hospital.
	8:10: Joe talks about the 22 caliber pistol in a shoebox in
the back of his closet; he bought it as a young married student in
Iowa, during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, to protect
himself and his wife from the aftermath of a nuclear war.  (This is
the only mention of his first marriage, and the other mention of his
life in Iowa, along with 'The 80-yard run') Joe liked practicing
shooting it, the way it felt; he still likes the way it feels.
	10:10: 'The Earth is 1 of 9 planets that revolve around the
sun...'  Joe describes the vastness of space, how small our lives are
compared to it.
	12:00: Joe tells story of Alexander the Great at the gates of
paradise.  They won't let him in, but they give him a human eye.  A
wise man weighs the eye, finds it has infinite weight open, an eye's
normal weight closed.
	13:40: Joe asks which is sadder: a jukebox or a coffin.  Joe
asks whether time is linear or circular. (a question he asked the
panel in 'Great lives'.)
	15:20: Joe asks if you've attended a play in which an actor is
in the audience, how he dislikes this.  On his way home after such a
play, he imagines that all the audience is acting in a play.
	17:10: A beautiful woman invites Joe to a performance of a
play in which she has a role.  Concerned that she watches him, Joe is
self-conscious, puts so much effort into his role that he pays no
attention to the play.  He thinks about the roles we play, the
performances we put on, in life.
	20:00: Each person is a star in his/her own life, a bit player
in everyone else's.
	24:40: 'The Earth is 1 of 9 planets that revolve around the
sun...'  Joe describes the vastness of space, how small our lives are
compared to it.
	25:30: Joe asks what the obsession of the week is, how we lose
interest so quickly.
	26:20: Houdini was the greatest escape artist.  He was the son
of a rabbi.  (Joe mentions Houdini in 'Summer notes'.)
	27:40: Joe asks which is sadder: a jukebox or a coffin.
	28:00: Joe quotes some lines from 'The love song of J Alfred
Prufrock' (He also does in 'Silent sea').
	30:30: Joe talks about teaching at a private school, how he
doesn't pay attention at meetings. (The Dalton school; he talks about
this in 'Pretender' also.)  The school supplied him with women.  He
was attracted to female students, and they to him, but he didn't have
a relationship with any of them.  He catches students making love.
	35:50: John Painter was chairman of the history department,
the Don Juan of the faculty.  He seduced more women at the school than
anyone.  His wife left him for another woman.  Joe played chess and
baseball with him.  He was fired for sleeping with a student, later
died in a motorcycle accident.
	39:30: Joe likes doing the laundry, describes the process.  He
uses Wisk.
	42:00: At the Moldavian film festival Joe gives a seminar with
Polanski.  Joe talks about all the recognition his films have gotten,
all the offers he's been made.  He's going to make a movie about Saint
Florence.
	48:50: 'The Earth is 1 of 9 planets that revolve around the
sun...'  Joe describes the vastness of space, how small our lives are
compared to it.
	49:20: Joe hates going to hospitals.  He imitates the behavior
of others.
	50:40: Joe describes unlikely dance moves with a partner.
	51:40: Joe describes the distance between stars, how many
Palomar has identified, how small we are compared to the size of the
galaxy.
	53:50: Each person is a star in his/her own life, a bit player
in everyone else's.  Your body is the house you live in.  Houdini was
the greatest escape artist.  What is the obsession of the week?  His
gun feels like a natural appendage.

https://jfwiki.org/index.php?title=Cocktails_Before_Dinner

	I have no record of WBEZ, WNYC, or KPFA airing this episode.