Summer Notes (Remix)

Series
The Other Side
Original Broadcast Date
January 2, 2000
Cast
Tim Jerome, Beth Dixon, Arthur Miller, Lester Nafzger, Rosemary Foley, Paul Mantell, Fran Dorn, David St. James, Joe Frank
Format
58 minutes
Chronology
Preceded by:	Lover Man
Followed by:	Mercy
Purchase

I notice a metal sheet here, lying beside you..

Summer Notes (Remix) is a program Joe Frank aired as part of the series The Other Side. It is an edited version of Summer Notes, which aired in 1979.

A segment from this program was turned into an animated short film.

Synopsis

Joe interviews a guy at the beach who has a reflector screen and a gun (Arthur Miller).

5:20: Dirk (Tim Jerome) and Diana (Beth Dixon) go sailing. (Dirk learnt in New Delhi.) They collide with a large ship.

11:40: Joe interviews a couple about picnics. (I think the man is Arthur Miller.)

16:34: Diana and Dirk go hiking, eat some wild berries, get sick to their stomachs.

20:40: A guy in a crowded space tries to draw attention to himself desperately, says he's going to kill a little girl and serve sandwiches made from her meat.

27:00: Actors declaim random bits of Shakespeare and fake Shakespeare. Some comes from Titus Andronicus.

27:40: A critic (David St. James?), addressing Joe, laments the separation of classical drama from normal life, is happy drama's being performed in public; the fake Shakespeare continues in the background.

30:50: The guy desperate for attention is back, talking to a guy with a Yiddish accent who was jailed in his former country.

33:20: The fake Shakespeare is back, the critic and Joe, too.

35:10: The desperate guy and the guy with the accent are back; the guy with the accent worries about his heart.

36:30: Diana & Dirk make a campfire which, predictably, starts a forest fire.

40:50: 4 people promote their areas: a guy in Woodstock promotes Woodstock 2; others promote the Cook Islands, Montauk, and Georgia.

45:50: Diana & Dirk are at home, dealing with mundane affairs, such as buying the soap, fixing the air conditioner, disagreeing about what they're watching on television. They sound not in love.

54:20: The guy on the beach with the reflector and gun is back, shows Joe more of his stuff.

Legacy Synopsis

• Interview with an armed guy (Arthur Miller) on the beach.
• Scenes in which a sugary couple encounters disaster, interspersed by a panel discussion.
• A sailing trip that ends lost in the fog.
• The history of picnics and picnic etiquette. A hike that ends in berry picking and poisoning.
• A man in the street tries to get attention - offers little girl sandwiches and sings "you are my sunshine."
• Outdoor theater, performing scenes according to the time of day.
• The street performer fights with passers-by, threatens them, then apologizes.
• The history of theater.
• The couple builds a fire and catches the forest.
• Joe interviews people about resort communities - Woodstock, a nature resort in the Cook islands, and some sort of retirement community.
• The couple argues, watches multiple televisions.
• Animated monologue describing scenes of summer: a man on the subway shouts, "I'm not dead"; an idyllic neighboring family man goes mad; Houdini's act as the ultimate form of protest; a blind man carries a cripple on his back; shooting people at the beach as art; Joe repeats lines from the street performer and the acted dialog; "the sun shines from one place in the sky."
• Beach technology: radios, beach scanners, seismographs.

Music

• "Prix Choc" - Etienne De Crécy (from Super Discount, 1996) | YouTube [1:42]

• "Drumming (Pt 2)" - Steve Reich (from Drumming, 1974) | YouTube [20:00]

Shared material

• Summer Notes
• Joe Frank In Concert

Miscellanea

• This version is not available at joefrank.com, where the named program is identical to the original with a brief spoken introduction.