Journal

Series
Somewhere Out There
Original Broadcast Date
3/1/1997
Cast
Friederike Frank, Joe Frank
Format
Absurd Monologue, Telephone, Serious Monologue 61 minutes
Preceded by:	Philosophy
Followed by:	The Other Side (Show)
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So I promised you that I was going to present a journal of my daily life.

Journal is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Somewhere Out There. It was originally broadcast on March 1, 1997.

Synopsis

Joe tells us that he won't read from his journal, that, despite popular demand, he didn't want to keep a journal.

4:30: Joe plays a promo for the show in which a redneck, asked by a friend what he intends to do on the upcoming weekend, says that he intends to get drunk and beat up Terry (apparently his wife or girlfriend). The friend tells him he can beat up Terry anytime, that he should come over to his place to listen to Joe Frank on the radio. KCRW won't air the promo. Joe calls others, including his mother, to get their opinions.

15:20 The redneck and Terry argue about whether the redneck should wear a seatbelt.

17:30: Joe gets angry with a fellow who has a license plate border that claims he knows Jesus, imagines confronting him.

19:20: Joe attends a play in which a friend performs. He pays so much attention to his performance as an audience member he doesn't to the play. Then he speculates about how we're all performing.

22:40: Joe ruminates on how one is the star of one's own life but a bit player in the lives of others.

24:50: He compares human abilities with those of animals.

29:50: When he was a boy, falling asleep, Joe tortured himself with fantasies of making awful decisions.

32:00: Story of his job teaching at a private school in NYC, including Kim and their unfortunate date.

51:40: 'The Earth is 1 of 9 planets that revolve around the sun...' Joe describes the vastness of space.

53:30: A drunk harasses Joe's date.

56:40: Joe observes how small things look from an airplane, contrasts that perspective from how the city appears on the land, goes on to comment on the ephemerality of life.

Legacy Synopsis

Joe explains that the show will not be a radio journal of his daily life. A celebrating of changing one's mind. Joe repeatedly airs a spousal abuse promo deemed offensive by the management and solicits comments from people on the phone, including his mother. ("Just get stinking drunk and kick the piss out of terry.") The actors from the promo fight about wearing seat belts. Being infuriated and interrogating someone with a bumper sticker that says "I know Jesus." Feeling the need to perform as a member of the audience at a friend's play. The audience, everyone, as actors. Everyone as a star of their own life; life as recognition. Tonight's program from the viewpoint of his life, the audience's life. Making up for our inferiority to animals with technology. Our relationship to our bodies. Lying in bed and fantasizing about horrible choices involving torture of others. Joe's past as a teacher: experiencing department meetings in the manner of a student. He dates a fellow teacher with capped teeth, worries about his appearance, fears defiant Marxist students in the classroom. He spontaneously ejaculates while cuddling the fellow teacher, disguises it by splashing himself with water, loses touch with her, and eventually tells the story at a party. Joe fails to confront a drunk who harasses his date. Man's inability to contemplate the dimensions of the universe.

Music

• "A Mother (For Your Mind)" - The Herbaliser (from Blow Your Headphones, 1997) | YouTube [Intro]
• "Isa Lei" - Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt (from A Meeting by the River, 1993) | YouTube [4:59]

• "The Beast (Autechre Mix)" - Palmskin Productions (from The Beast Remix, 1995) | YouTube [32:17]

Shared material

• Cocktails Before Dinner
• When She's Asleep, She Looks Like An Angel
• Higher Learning
• He Hesitated
• Pretender

Miscellanea

• The promo spot features the tune 'Isa Lei' which is also used in Three Shingles
• After the first 19:20, all re-used material