[joe-frank-list] 'The wire'

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	This show has 3 components: Larry's story of living in Seattle
while acting in a new play; Joe's childhood reminiscences (some of
which have to be fictional; I suspect they all are); Jack Kornfield
with his usual shtick.
	Joe's story about breaking a pane of glass, at 16:30, includes
a comment about Jewish law, which I think is incorrect.  I'm no
expert.  I'd appreciate an opinion from a more knowledgable person.


	Larry tells Joe he's in Seattle acting in 'God of vengeance',
a play written by Donald Margulies
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Margulies), an adaptation of
Sholem Asch's (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholem_Asch) play of
the same name.  (http://www.filmreference.com/film/55/Larry-Block.html
has only this entry, 'Reb Eli, God of Vengeance, Adams Memorial
Theater, Williamstown, MA, 2002', which was after 'The wire'.  I
figure it's incomplete.)  Larry summarizes the play.
	7:10: Joe tells us his family used to summer-vacation in
Amenia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenia_(town)%2C_New_York).  The
neighbors bred chinchillas.  One died, they buried it, Joe's dog dug
it up; his parent thought their dog had killed it, so they cleaned it
up and put it back.
	9:10: Joe remembers when he spilled auto battery acid onto his
pants.
	9:40: Joe tells story of his childhood, which includes his
sister Naomi and his crude grandfather, including when he pushed a
piano off the roof of the apartment building.
	12:00: Joe remembers a bully holding his face against a subway
grating.  Joe smacked the bully's trumpet into his teeth.
	13:40: Joe remembers a dog stealing his sandwich.
	14:10: Joe, 8, remembers a girl from a wealthy family visiting
Joe at his home.  She vomits when she sees Joe's father cutting up a
bloody piece of stewing beef.  The experience makes them closer.
	16:30: Joe remembers attending junior congregation when he was
11 or 12.  Because the cantor had such a powerful voice, it was said
that it could break glass.  Joe brought a window pane, broke it during
his performance, cutting his hand.  (Joe says the janitor, a gentile,
had to help him because the Jews couldn't break the sabbath.  I'm not
Jewish, but I think this is wrong, that in matters that threaten death
or serious injury the rule doesn't apply - so I've read.)
	19:50: Joe tells of stealing a ribbon of magnesium from the
science lab, to burn it in the park.  They replace it with a beef
lung.
	22:50: Jack Kornfield reads a poem of Rumi about a man with a
jealous wife and beautiful maid servant, as an illustration of the
difference between fear and love.  He points out the problem grasping
causes.  He tells the story of the old Zen master and the thief.
	30:20: Larry tells about Lorin Hollander
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorin_Hollander); Larry claims he was a
friend of Hollander's older sister, grew up in the same neighborhood.
Hollander's playing a concert.  (Larry calls it a Gershwin symphony;
it was his 'Concerto in F').  Larry attends, meets him afterwards.
Hollander is nice to him, but Larry wonders if he really remembers
him.
	40:10: Joe got a job in the garment district when he was 13
working for a friend of his father.  Nora got a job at the same time,
fell in love with the boss, Sol, because of his knowledge of
Restoration poetry.  Joe sees them making love.
	42:40: Joe remembers 'the year of beatniks' (1955?  Joe says
he was 16.)  He would hang out at cafes, trying to be hip.  (He
remembers listening to Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Ted Joans
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Joans).  One night, at the Cafe
Noir, a pimp sets him up with a 'housewife' from Morris county, New
Jersey.  They park next to the Staten Island ferry; she gropes him.
	46:00: Joe remembers being 19, in Santa Barbara; he's borrowed
his boss's car.  He set the seat on fire by lighting a match to find
some marijuana he'd hidden under it.  He says it's the '60s.  (Joe was
born in 1938, thus 19 in 1957/1958.)  The seat was destroyed; Joe
replaced them with some folding bridge chairs taped to the floor.
	48:40: Kornfield tells about his teaching partner Joseph
Goldstein.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goldstein_(writer))
He tells about Goldstein's mother visiting Goldstein in the monastery
in India, how much she liked the simplicity of it.  This leads into
more slanging of grasping.  He talks about the different kinds of
giving.  He quotes Epictetus, 'Never suppress a generous impulse.'
	57:00: Larry tells of walking along the beach, thought of
writing Karl Wallenda's, 'The wire is life; the rest is waiting.', on
a piece of drift wood.  As an actor, he's on-stage 2 hours at a time;
the rest is waiting.  Then he decided against it, that it'd be litter.

        'You've been listening to Joe Frank "The other side" created
in collaboration with David Rapkin, with Larry Block, Buddhist teacher
Jack Kornfield, and Joe Frank; edited by Scott Fritz; mixed by Bob
Carlson'

	This is the only time I've heard of Ted Joans.

	http://jfwiki.org/index.php?title=The_Wire


russell bell