Dreams Of The River

The river is a winding tunnel through the jungle.

Series
Work In Progress
Original Broadcast Date
1986
Cast
Joe Frank
Format
54 minutes
Preceded by:	A Kiss Is Just A Kiss
Followed by:	Photography
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Dreams Of The River is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Work In Progress. It was originally broadcast in 1986.

Synopsis

Joe describes a journey down a jungle river, including an odd assortment of things on the shore ('ukuleles, credit cards, partly-eaten cupcakes, autumn leaves, genealogical charts, telephones, and blood-soaked underwear'), in the third person. The captain, a woman, dozing in a hammock on the bridge, speaks in German.

1:30: 'He tries to sleep as long as possible…' Joe describes a man's efforts to avoid waking up because he doesn't want to face the day - he shoots for noon. He feels badly that others are doing things, he's not.

5:50: 'He went to a small college in Ohio - he was a music major' Joe tells the story of his college career, in the '60s. He drives home to NYC for vacation, stops at Howard Johnson's. He steals brownies, eventually accumulating 2 steamer trunks' worth, then returns them stale.

12:50: We're back to the journey on a jungle river. He sees a house, an old whore in a negligee lounges in the doorway, whispers in German.

13:40: He turns on the TV to watch the 1 PM movie, often watches until dark. If a friend is going to drop by he sets up his guitar and letters in hope he will look busy. Sometimes he takes a walk; he hasn't shaven or showered; he sometimes envies the homeless on the street.

17:30: He smokes dope in the evening, which makes him stop caring about the failure of his life.

18:10: He tells of his dealer Maury, a serious smoker, who dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.

19:50: 'After dropping out of college he came back to New York', moves into the Village, takes courses at Columbia, takes a janitorial job at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; his father pays tuition and helps out. He steals snacks from the kitchenette refrigerator.

22:30: After work he hangs out at the Gold Rail, a campus hangout. He meets Greta, 'a tall blonde German woman in her mid-30s with a thick accent who waited on tables.' One morning, after spending the night with her, he takes her to St. John, where they make out on a table in the library, are seen by a priest. She talks to him in German while they make love - 'she always does'.

25:50: We're back on the river. He sees men in purple robes and hoods, carrying a glass coffin that holds a statue of Christ. He remembers when he played Christ in a passion play in college.

27: The church fires him for stealing food, doesn't mention his encounter with Greta in the library. Greta leaves without saying a word.

27:30: He stops in a drug store, window-shops. He steals a pair of sunglasses, a pair of jeans at The Gap, sneaks out of busy luncheonettes without paying, finds a purse in the gutter, tries to sell the credit cards.

29: He sings promotions of a new product at a department store chain, steals stuff from the gift shop.

29:30: He fundraises for a major opera company, calls a woman who can't speak.

35: Joe describes going into the subway like entering an alternate state of consciousness; the people behave like animals; it used to be better-appointed. He thinks about living in an underground city, that ancient Christians did in Rome.

39:10: 'A few years ago he had a job singing and playing the guitar at a small ratty Upper West Side neighborhood bar' - he comes on at midnight, when the audienceis mostly drunks, the kitchen closing. He figures out that few listen to him. He gets a free meal, drinks, and $15. The manager was a Colombian who looked like an ex-prizefighter. A wealthy woman who loves him funds the bar. The place deteriorates, closes down.

46:20: A woman talks in German.

49:30: When he was younger, he had a strong stomach; in his mid to late 30s, his stomach began to hurt. He eats junk food at fast food joints. He gets morbidly obese. He bleeds after having sex.

54:30: 'The river is a winding tunnel through the jungle' - Joe repeats some of the beginning, except the German the captain says changes.

Legacy Synopsis

A washed-up musician tries to fill time. As a college student, he steals brownies from Howard Johnson's restaurants. In New York he gets a job as a janitor at a church and dates a German waitress. Stealing sunglasses, cafe meals. Telemarketing for an opera company. Subway stations as an underground world. Playing music in a bar. Hiring prostitutes. Imagining oneself as a character in a novel.

Music

• This program contains no music other than drones

Commentary

This show has 3 parts: the dreamscape journey on a jungle river, a middle-aged would-be musician (about 40) who has wasted his life and is trying to avoid feeling badly about it, a woman speaking in German (first the ship's captain, then a whore in a negligee in a house by the river, then Greta, the waitress at the Gold Rail he has a relationship with, then the ship's captain again - all the same voice.).

The German sounds like soft-core porn to my ear. A German acquaintance and a German Redditor both say it reads like a Groschenroman (a dime novel). 2 German Redditors say the accent is definitely Austrian; 2 say it sounds like a man, not a woman.

Joe re-uses the failed musician's story in Fat Man Down, with some differences; Fat Man Down ends with the German that appears at 46:20 in this episode.

Thanks to Professor Ned of the Joe Frank Mailing List for the transcription and translation.