[joe-frank-list] 'Why I don't love you anymore'

russellbell at gmail.com russellbell at gmail.com
Wed Mar 24 07:43:22 PDT 2021


	Joe complains about people who befoul public toilets, imagines
punishing them, then people who play their records too loud, those
with boomboxes, the mess in subway platforms, movie theatres,
panhandlers.
	10: Joe tells of going to the Childe Harold (a tavern in DC -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/06/AR2007110602370_pf.html
) with his friend Mike (Mike Fremuth -
http://jfwiki.org/index.php?title=Mike_Fremuth).  They pick up a young
dancer, Rachel, go to Joe's apartment.  Mike gets handsy with Rachel,
starts taking off her clothes despite her complaints, while Joe plays
the piano; Joe breaks it up, sends Rachel home.
	13:30: Joe talks about freedom, that we imagine ourselves free
but, in practice, are enslaved by jobs, family, social expectations...
	18:10: Joe tells us about Dave.  He's writing 'How to identify
a roadkill'.  He printed up bumper stickers that look like DC's
license plate but bear the legend, 'Washington DC: we be a capitol
city', (in 1986 the real plate bore the legend, 'Washington DC: a
capitol city').  He works as a courier.
	22:30: After work Dave drives to the 'Goldrush', DC's last
strip club.  The dancers work for money, but Dave never pays; somehow
he gets others to pay for his drinks.  Dave's taking notes for a novel
about it.  He's going to run for mayor.  He comes from a large redneck
family.  ('Redneck Rounder''s?)
	27:40: Dave shows up at Joe's apartment drunk and tearful: he
says he's cracking up.  Joe tries to comfort him.
	30:40: Joe tells of working in a gas station in a desert.  One
night a fellow arrived, driving backwards, who had driven hundreds of
miles that way because his headlights were broken; another fellow
arrived driving on 2 tires, not having had the time to replace them.
The 2 men got into a fight.
	32:20: The next day a man with a car full of beavers (he bred
them) arrived; most of they were dead.
	32:40: 'A while ago' a young couple with a child argue about
which is the better parent, leave without the boy, who wanders off
into the desert without his shoes.
	33:30: Joe got a letter from his wife (Kathleen), who used to
live with him at the gas station, had left 12 years ago.  Despite the
decline in business because the new freeway bypassed him, Joe stays,
confident she will return.
	34:40: A bus-full of mutes arrived late in the summer.  They
passed notes to each other.
	35:40: One November a few years ago a nervous man stayed all
day and night.  He seemed to age 15 years overnight.  Joe called the
hospital, which took him.
	37: The area has suffered a number of natural disasters, but
all have bypassed Joe's gas station.  Joe met a man in a sand funnel
who looked like him, had similar stories; the next day Joe wondered if
it hadn't been a dream.  (Ray from 'In the middle of nowhere'?)
	38:50: Joe sees a stretch limousine; he resents them, imagines
making their owners hurt, organizing a pie corps to pie them.
	44:40: Joe wonders how to define quality of life; we hear the
sounds of writing on a chalkboard.  He remembers a lecture by a
sociologist to his whole high school class about their life goals.
	48:20: Joe speculates about the broke song-writer who writes a
hit song; now he has to deal with his success and fame, becomes
captive to living up to his image, a 24/7 job, which can end any
moment.
	51: Joe speculates about an heir to a great fortune.  He cites
the example of 'Billy Marx', son of a real-estate magnate who died
young from over-work.  Billy is a 'gentleman' who wastes his time; his
sister imagines herself an artist, has affairs with artists, plays at
painting but never takes it seriously.
	55:30: Joe says the unemployed poor have all the free time
they want; he observes that they live empty meaningless lives.

http://jfwiki.org/index.php?title=Why_I_Don't_Love_You_Anymore

russell bell


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