View source for Philosophy

{{Infobox
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|headerstyle = background:var(--infobox-header-color);
|labelstyle = background:var(--infobox-header-color); width:35%;
|header1 = Series
|header3 = Original Broadcast Date
|header5 = Cast
|header7 = Format
|label10  = Preceded by: 
|label11 = Followed by: 
|data8 = Absurd Monologue, 58 minutes
|data4  = 1/19/[[:Category:1997|1997]]
|below = [https://www.joefrank.com/?s={{#invoke:URLEncode|encode|{{PAGENAME}}}} Purchase]
|belowstyle= border-top: 1px solid #333;padding-top:5px;
|data6  = Joe Frank
|data10 = [[Blues Singer]]
|data11 = [[Journal]]
|data2  = [[Somewhere Out There]]
|
}}

''Lately I've been suffering from the compulsion to wander.''

'''Philosophy''' is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series [[Somewhere Out There]]. It was originally broadcast on January 19, [[:Category:1997|1997]].

== Synopsis ==
About 7 minutes of this episode is original.  The other 52
minutes comes from 13 different episodes - a record.

0:00: Joe tells us about his compulsion to wander.<ref>abridged from
[[At The Border]]</ref>.

2:20: Joe tells us he travels with no luggage, just an attaché case
with 'bandages, lunch meats, a hurricane lamp, geological survey maps,
a selection of Venetian glass beads, a halazone tablets, a watermelon,
organs for transplant, a field guide to identifying shrubbery, an
expanding cuff for a blood pressure meter, a tranquilizing
suppository, a strand of unwaxed mint-flavoured dental floss, a small
jar of pimentos, a toothpick, some seaweed, a cricket cage, some aloe
vera lip gloss, a stick of chewing gum, a page torn from a novel with
a smear of chocolate sauce on it, a lock of hair tied with a pink
ribbon, false Fabergé eggs, woven rattan images of Renaissance city
life, hors d'oeuvres, neatly sliced x-ray film, a set of underarm
shields, a collection of antique snuff bottles, the improbable plan
for what appears to be a medieval flying machine, a pair of eyeballs
on Slinkies, a fright wig, a ballerina's tutu, a seltzer bottle, puff
pants, size 47 shoes, some boric acid, a feather duster, fish hooks, a
pup tent, powdered snake skin, roach husks, a packet of moleskin
wipes, tooth powder, and cloves.'<ref>This is the longest of all his
lists.</ref> He recommends the book he just wrote, 'The
psychopathology of the tramp'.

4:30: Joe's in a railroad station, tries to buy a ticket to Denver;
after an absurd exchange he drives.  Many absurd events
follow.<ref>abridged from [[Thank You, You're Beautiful]]</ref>

6:40: Joe describes a recurring dream: he's at a dinner party.  A
woman is menstruating through her nose.  He starts coughing, can't
stop.

8:00: 'I recently went to Venice to buy the larynx of a famous tenor -
something new I'm into.'<ref>originally aired in [[A Landing Strip In The Jungle]]</ref>

8:20: Joe tells of a new play, 'Fist fight', that ends in a riot.<ref name=case>originally aired in [[Case Studies]]</ref>

8:50: 'This morning, I tried to read.  But the words crawled off the
pages of my book and fell into little piles at my feet&hellip;' and
more surrealness.

10:30: Joe tells of a Russian sect that worshipped holes, drills a
hole to worship.<ref name=border>Originally aired in [[At The Border]]</ref>

11:50: Joe prays to the hole.<ref name=border />

14:20: Joe tells about rich man who died, his body was taken to
Darjeeling to be burnt, but rains put the fire out, then the man
revived.<ref name=beautiful>originally aired in [[Thank You, You're Beautiful]]</ref>

15:30: 'Every day I tear pages from the Bible and take them on my boat
to pack fish.  In the evening I like to sit by the reflecting pool.
There are trees hung with small colored bulbs.  I sit at a metal
table, sipping white, Portuguese wine: aren't I having fun?

'Shantytowns, squatter settlements, unpaved dusty roads, no wind,
green mountains, fishing village, nets drying on poles along the
beach.'

16:30: Joe describes how he strains to act naturally, in
detail.<ref>originally aired in [[Iceland (Part 2)]]</ref>

17:20: Joe saw a new play at the Hollywood Bowl, scenes based on the
Bible, the actors dressed as concentration camp prisoners.<ref name=beautiful />

18:40: Joe describes his new way of filming dream sequences: having
the actors walk backwards, then reversing the film, shooting it in
negative, screening the reverse negative.<ref name=cocktails>originally aired in [[Cocktails Before Dinner]]</ref>

18:20: 'A blind power could not create an amoeba&hellip;' Joe argues
for Creationism.<ref name=beautiful />

20:00: 'Recently, I visited the Ringling Brothers' winter home for
retired animals, and I watched lions and elephants wearing bathrobes
and tattered slippers walking on the beach.'<ref>originally aired in
[[Dreamland]]</ref>

20:20: 'Do I dare disturb the universe?  When I eat a peach, wear
white flannel trousers, walk upon the beach, hear mermaids sing, "Each
to Each."  I doubt it.'<ref name=cocktails />

20:50: Joe tells a woman what he wants her to wear, to
do.<ref>originally aired in [[Words]]</ref>

22:00: 'What's important is what can't be said.  We make statements
that fail to contain our feelings and our thoughts, which can't be
described.  We can only speak around subjects.  Everything said about
something, in fact, takes away from it.'<ref name=border />

22:30: Interview on public television with Holocaust
survivor.<ref>adapted from [[When She's Asleep, She Looks Like An Angel]]</ref>

23:30: Joe talks about how putting an empty frame over wallpaper makes
us see it differently.<ref name=case />

24:30: Joe narrates some pictures from his childhood.<ref>originally
aired in [[Pretender]]</ref>

25:40: Joe talks about how we try to find meaning in life by
investigating our ancestry.  He says this is futile, because if you go
back enough generations you have more ancestors than there were
people.<ref name=case />

28:20: Joe repeats the prayer to the hole.<ref name=border />

34:20: Joe tells the story of a woman who plays like a child when her
husband, a judge, is at work.  When he catches her at it, he throws
all her dolls in the fire.  She abreacts.  Psychotherapy turns up
abuse in her childhood.  The judge steals women's nightgowns.  An
innocent man confesses, then Oedipus-es.<ref name=case />

40:40: Joe tells of a man who sits on seats from which an attractive
woman has risen, usually on buses and subways.  He ends up the
business commissioner of the transit corporation.<ref name=case />

42:20: Joe tells of a man who likes to be trod upon by women,
eventually calls in a bomb scare to a modeling agency, is trod to
death.<ref name=case />

45:50: 'Have you ever noticed a certain movement under your feet?'
Joe observes that we ignore gravity and the motion of the
Earth.<ref>originally aired in [[Questions]]</ref>

47:00: Joe talks about oil refineries and the stuff they make.<ref name=pilgrim>originally aired in [[Pilgrim]]</ref>

48:20: Joe talks about discovering that you have lost your way in
life.<ref>originally aired in [[In The Dark (Part 2)]]</ref>

49:00: Joe talks about going on pilgrimages, that they have to be hard
to be real.<ref name=pilgrim />

51:40: Joe repeats the prayer to the hole.<ref name=border />

56:00: Joe has dream in which he understands everything, forgets when
he wakes up.<ref name=beautiful />

57:10: 'A tree is no longer frightening when you name it a tree.  My
name is Joe Frank, but I'm just a living, breathing organism with a
peculiar history, wearing clothes and shoes, sitting in a studio in
front of a microphone.'<ref name=border />

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:95%; overflow:auto;">
<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Legacy Synopsis</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">


Compulsion to wander, items for traveling. Well treated concentration camp victims. Barking at a dinner party. Buying the larynx of a famous tenor. A theater production that ends in a riot. A comic bleeds to death. Hole worshipers. A rich man left for dead joins a religious sect. Struggling to appear unconcerned. Scenes from the bible presented by actors dressed as concentration camp inmates. Actors walking backwards shown in reverse in white and black. Denying the big bang and evolution. Retired animals. Describing an Asian dream woman. A childhood slide show. The geometric growth of number of ancestors and the futility of genealogy. A childish woman becomes morbid when her husband destroys her dolls, goes to psychoanalysis. Her husband the judge steals women's clothing. A man obsessed with sitting where women have sat, and on obsessed with being stepped on. Feeling the earth move beneath your feet. Discovering that you've lost your way. Finding the meaning of life in a dream and forgetting it.
</div></div>
== Music ==
* Original music, probably by the [[At The Dark End Of The Bar]] musicians, over a loop from "I Lost My Ignorance"
{{I Lost My Ignorance (And Don't Know Where To Find It) (Dream Warriors - Gang Starr)}} [0:42]

== Shared material ==
This episode uses segments from [[At The Border]], [[Thank You, You're Beautiful]], [[A Landing Strip In The Jungle]], [[Case Studies]], [[Iceland (Part 2)]], [[Cocktails Before Dinner]], [[Dreamland]], [[Words]], [[When She's Asleep, She Looks Like An Angel]],  [[Pretender]], [[Questions]], [[Pilgrim]], and [[In The Dark (Part 2)]] - a record - and it still has some original content.

== Footnotes ==


[[Category:Absurd Monologue]]
[[Category:Absurd Lists]]
[[Category:1997]]
[[Category:Somewhere Out There]]
[[Category:Show]]
[[Category:Show_by_date|19970119]]	{{Airdate|airdate=1997-01-19}}
{{Series|series=Somewhere Out There}}{{Cast|cast=Joe Frank}}