On The Edge (Remix)

Series
The Other Side
Original Broadcast Date
11/28/1999
Cast
Joe Frank
Format
Absurd Monologue, 60 minutes
Preceded by:	Holy Land
Followed by:	Predator
Purchase

A few years ago Lucille began to date Vietnam War veterans men who still appeared at shopping malls dressed in battle fatigues in camouflage gear…

On The Edge (Remix) is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side. It was originally broadcast on November 28, 1999.

Synopsis

This episode if 100% re-used material: the first 15 minutes, Lucille's story, from I'm Not Crazy, then the story of the May Day protest from Lies, the duel between the hippie and the trucker from Warheads, the last 32 minutes from On The Edge.

Joe tells of Lucille, a woman who dates veterans, first from the Vietnam War, then the Korean War, then WW2, then WW1, dressing appropriately, for each era, decorating her home and playing the music of their era. She makes each night the last night to heighten the drama. Eventually she visits military cemeteries, finds the dead more worthy of her love, sleeps on their graves.

11:10: 'So here's to the snappy salute, to spit and polish, the clicking of booted heels, the singing of martial odes; here's to the officers' club and a swaggering commandant, to the loving but abusive drill sergeant': Joe salutes those going off to war.

15:30: Sounds of artillery firing.

16:10: A fellow remembers covering the big anti-war Mayday demonstration in DC. A woman threw them her key so they (he and his photographer) could escape a police sweep.

20:50: Joe tells of hitchhiking to the East coast, getting picked up by a hippie in a Land Rover who gets into an argument with a truck-driver who later tries to run them off the road.

26:50: Joe speculates about the nature of death, imagines 'bought the farm', which goes awry when foreclosed upon.

34:00: Joe lambastes people who pay with checks at the supermarket, then laments the long waits at the post office, selfish football players, teenage dance shows.

38:20: A guy yells exasperatedly, 'I must add an ounce of love to everything I do...' imagines how he can control his anger and treat others more respectfully.

40:40: Joe speculates about the nature of death, imagines 'gone fishing', which goes awry when an ash from his corncob pipe sparks a destructive fire, for which he is arrested, ends with a lynch mob calling for his blood.

44:50: Joe laments dirty public toilets, imagines organizing a hit squad to punish perpetrators by dumping a bucket of shit over their heads.

46:30: Joe laments the filth in movie theatres.

47: Joe complains about beggars.

47:50: A guy yells exasperatedly, 'I must add an ounce of love to everything I do...' imagines how he can control his anger and treat others more respectfully.

50:20: Joe speculates about the nature of death, imagines 'going to the Hotel Paradise', which goes awry when guerrillas destroy the regime that protects the hotel.

56: Joe talks about death, 'Death is a dancing mirage...', describes it with many images, all the things it will do.

Legacy Synopsis

• A woman who dates veterans from successively earlier wars.
• A toast to war. Contempt for peace. Sounds of war.
• A man talks about covering May Day peace demonstrations as a journalist. His photographer goes nuts when he sees feminist protesters. Getting trapped by cops, rescued by a woman in an apartment above. Sounds of protest.
• Joe is picked up by a hippie wearing bells while hitchhiking across the country, argues with truck drivers, gets into a chase.
• What is death; what if the expression "bought the farm" were literally true?
• Annoyances: waiting in line at supermarkets and post offices, athletes today, teenage dance shows. "What's the point of freedom if you don't let it debase you?"
• Reading positive, self-help style advice in a desperate shouting voice.
• What if "gone fishing" were true?
• Annoyances: messes in public bathrooms, litter in movies, pan-handlers.
• Death as hotel paradise.
• "Death is..."

Music

• "Evening Tango" - Roger Eno (from Voices, 1985) | YouTube [Intro]
• "Rejoicing" - Oregon (from Moon And Mind, 1979) | YouTube [20:47]
• "Paradise" - Sade (from Paradise, 1988) | YouTube [30:12]
• "Caso" - Ambitious Lovers (from Greed, 1988) | YouTube [38:10]
• "Can't Run But" - Paul Simon (from Rhythm Of The Saints, 1990) | YouTube [41:57]

Shared material

• I'm Not Crazy
• Warheads
• On The Edge
• Lies

Miscellanea

This program is different from the original On The Edge.