[joe-frank-list] 'Karma crash'

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	Although Joe has broken up with Kate, hasn't spoken or
e-mailed in 3 weeks, she still wants to see him.  She calls, desperate
to see him right now.  She comes over to Joe's; they hug and kiss.
	2:40: Late Friday afternoon, while Joe's at the station
working on the show, Kate shows up, summoned by an e-mail that Joe
insists he didn't send.  She proves that she received the e-mail.
They're both exhausted.  They fight.
	7:50: Joe has re-injured his left foot, has trouble getting
around; his house is a mess.
	8:30: Joe recounts his dream of a white rabbit with its throat
slit, bleeding to death.
	9:10: Larry recounts his e-mail correspondence with Rosalie.
She doesn't answer him enough.  They have an '8-year history'.  Joe
thinks Larry's treating her badly.
	16:00: Kate has 2 growths, which she calls tumors, named them
'Joe' and 'Frank'.
	16:50: Joe talks about Kate's gay friend Glendon, who moved
files from Joe's old computer to his new one.  Glendon gave Kate
excerpts of Joe's journal about his relationship with another woman
years before.
	19:00: Joe drives east on San Vincente, between 26th and
Bundy.  (26th is the Santa Monica/Los Angeles border; this stretch is
about a mile long, in the expensive Brentwood neighborhood; Brentwood
country club is on the southern side of San Vincente here.  San
Vincente goes through Santa Monica's wealthiest neighborhood.)  Joe
says motorcycle cops wait with radar guns to bust speeders.  Joe
fantasizes pushing one of them over, fighting.  He hopes it will end
up with someone taking care of him.
	20:50: In his next fantasy he drives to the ER at
Cedars-Sinai, tells them that he's going crazy, imagines that someone
will take care of him.  'You know LA: it's a lonely town.'  (I lived
there for 20 years, didn't find it lonelier than anywhere else.  Joe
seems to have a lot of friends.)
	21:40: Rosalie's parents were death-camp survivors.  Rosalie
and Larry met acting together 8 years ago.
	22:40: Joe and Kate are at Wolfgang Puck's on Montana
(https://m.yelp.com/biz/wolfgang-puck-cafe-santa-monica Yelp gives it
2.5 stars) (Montana divides the wealthy people from the trash - such
as me) Friday night.  She drinks her and Joe's wine.  She reminds Joe
of all her grievances with him.  Joe hits her, they leave.  They sit
in his car to stay warm.  She recounts her childhood trauma, her
infancy in a foster-home, more.  Joe feels blamed.  She gets mad
because Joe is insufficiently sympathetic.  Joe wants to go home, get
some sleep; Kate wants to keep talking.  He tries to kick her out of
his car.  Joe tries to drive off.  She falls, but isn't hurt, wanted
to scare him.  Now she's ready to go home but can't find her keys.
Joe has to decide what to do: he doesn't want her to spend the night
at his home.
	29:50: Joe recalls eating in a restaurant in Manhattan years
ago when a car drove into it.  The driver was dead; a woman, his
passenger, was distraught.  Only Joe went out to look at what
happened; everyone else went on as though nothing had happened.
	32:10: Larry recalls his earlier correspondence (at minute
9:10) with Rosalie.  He sent her a poem he wrote.  He uses a line from
'The runaway bunny', which Joe has to describe to Joe.  (Larry reads
'The runaway bunny' at birthday party for his mother in 'Bitter
pill'.)  Larry writes her, 'Today, I am 50 years old.'  (Larry was
born in 1942; this show was released in 2000.)
	36:30: Joe drives around, trying to figure out what to do.
Kate won't stay in a hotel.  She pulls the keys out of the ignition,
throws them onto a lawn.  They fight to get them first; Joe wins.  She
walks; Joe won't leave her on the street so follows in her car.  She
walks towards Joe's home - Kate expects Eva (Joe's uncle Ben's eldest
daughter, Eva, born in 1934, thus 4 years older than Joe, is visiting
for a week.) will let her in.  Joe drives home to warn Eva, but Kate
doesn't show.  Joe drives around looking for her, then returns home,
finds Kate there.  She undresses and gets into his bed.  Joe gives her
a valium; she sleeps.  Joe sits, watching her.
	42:40: Joe recalls the night, over 20 years ago, when his wife
left him.  They lived on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan.  She told Joe
she wanted to leave, dressed, packed her stuff, cried, left.  Joe had
been longing and fearing her departure.
	46:30: Jack Kornfield tells about the difficulties that even
Zen masters (lamas, monks, etc.) have: troubled relationships,
imperfections.  Women in the community tell of their problems as
women.  He quotes Sylvia Wetzel
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Wetzel) on the difficulties of
women in the Buddhist community, how men and male images dominate.
	51:10: Joe tells of driving in rural upstate New York years
ago, stopping because an injured dog is howling in pain in the middle
of the road, won't let anyone get near him.  Someone shoots the dog.
The experience haunts Joe for years.
	52:20: Years after this incident, Joe's therapist, tells Joe
he's like that dog: in pain but won't let anyone near.  Joe finds this
useless.
	52:40: Joe says that 'they' say that god will not give anyone
more pain than they can endure - Joe thinks this nonsense.  Joe points
out that the nature channels are full of pain.
	53:20: Kornfield talks about why people enter spiritual life,
quotes Rumi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi).  He quotes 'the
Hindus', 'The child in the womb sings, "Do not let me forget who I
am!", but the song after birth becomes, "Oh!  I've forgotten
already."'  The true seeker admits how little s/he knows, how vast the
universe is.

	From the broadcast, 'You've been listening to Joe Frank "The
other side".  This program was called "Karma crash" with Larry Block,
Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, and Joe Frank; production by
J. C. Swiatek and Bob Carlson; music coordinator: Thomas Golubic;
production assistance: Esme Gregson'

russell bell