Stoner

Series
The Other Side
Original Broadcast Date
7/22/2001
Cast
Larry Block, David Rapkin, Debi Mae West, Zachary Block, Jack Kornfield, Joe Frank
Format
Karma Style, 58 minutes
Preceded by:	Margarita
Followed by:	Men Of The Cloth
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"I stepped into a gob of spit on the floor of his room last night."

Stoner is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side. It was originally broadcast on July 22, 2001.

Synopsis

Larry tells Joe that Zachary spat on the floor of his bedroom.

0:30: Larry tells Joe that he and Zachary spent the day together. Zachary had had a long conversation with his aunt (Bev, Jolly's sister) in the morning; the aunt told Zachary that Larry wanted Zachary to fail because he's a failure. Jolly was unsympathetic.

2:40: Joe tells Larry continuing to live at home is cowardice; Larry agrees.

3:20: Larry recounts Zachary's (non)-performance in softball and soccer as a kid.

4:00: Jack Kornfield recounts how Japanese soldiers abandoned on Pacific islands for years after the war, how the Japanese welcomed them back: thanked, given a hero's welcome.

7:00: Larry tells Joe about a job he got delivering a car to a body shop then picking it up, how he took payment in dope.

8:40: Joe asks David Rapkin about an alternative career he had fantasized about. Rapkin recounts imagining being a foreign correspondent, spins a tale about covering a battle in drag.

14:50: Jack Kornfield talks about how we can fail in our efforts to be mindful, let fear or appetites take over.

16:50: Debi tells Joe about the visit of Malcolm's kids. She objects to the junk food they eat. The kids are unhappy, want to stay with his wife. This, along with her PMS, makes her feel terrible.

22:10: Kornfield says Zen master Dogen said that a Zen master's life is one mistake after another, that the point is to accept things as they are.

24:00: Debi tries to reconcile with Malcolm's children.

29:50: Larry tells Joe that he asked Zachary to stay around home that day. Zachary wants to smoke Larry's dope. Larry tells Joe he doesn't like grass that much. Joe points out that Larry's behavior contradicts this claim. Larry and Zachary smoke dope; Larry eats too much, feels bloated. Larry remembers his youth, that he just wanted to feel good, can see that Zachary's behavior is alike.

37:00: Jack Kornfield tells about Jon Kabat-Zinn, who started his practice in the basement of a hospital in Massachusetts, seeing the patients the physicians could do no more for, teaching them mindfulness.

39:20: Larry tells Joe that he doesn't want to get a job, wants to retire. He wrote a poem inspired by (Pierre) Bonnard's 'Terrace at Vernon'

42:10: David Rapkin recounts imagining being a merchant seaman in an alternate life, the fantastic adventures he had.

45:00: Kornfield talks about Thích Nhat Hanh's new book. Hanh wrote about giving a talk, when he started talking about a nun he fell in love with, people perked up. Kornfield then tells a Lewis Thomas story about how a female moth's pheromones make the male moth feel like flying.

48:50: Larry tells Joe about Doris Peterson, who owns a loft in Soho. Her husband, Dick, did little. His wife came to hate him, kicked him out. He moved in with his mother, then, after she died, a room in a run-down house. Larry says that Jolly began to compare him to Dick.

54:50: Kornfield recommends letting go of fear, living in the present, accepting the world as it is.

55:50: Larry talks about driving his old MG as far as he can, living where it dies.

56:40: Kornfield says that when we realize that everything changes and accept that, we're in nirvana.

Legacy Synopsis

• Jack Kornfield: Accounts of Japanese solders left behind in WWII. Struggles of the self and being lost.
• Larry: Odd jobs - alternative payments.
• David Rapkin: arriving into a war torn town.
• Kornfield: Sitting and falling in love and an upwelling of emotions.
• Debi Mae West: Sodas are bad, relationship with a man married to get another women a green card.
• Kornfield: "A Zen master's life is a continous mistake."
• Debi: Controlling herself to keep the relationship.
• Kornfield: Awareness/mindfulness as medicine
• David: Might have chosen to be a merchant marine.
• Kornfield: Alternating stories of loving kindness and beauty with teachings of Dharma.

Music

• "Romantic Love" - DJ Cam (from Mad Blunted Jazz, 1996) | YouTube [0:20]

• "Sex" - The Necks (from Sex, 1989) | YouTube [16:34]

• "Spiritual Healing" - Toots Hibbert (from Spiritual Healing, 1983) | YouTube [29:34]

Miscellanea

• Larry writes a poem about a Bonnard painting, The Terrace at Vernonnet, in this episode. You can see it here at The Met's website. - Brandonnn

I recommend a trip to Vernon when you're in Paris. It's a nice little town accessible by commuter train. Monet lived at Giverny, a village about 2 km away, a pleasant walk. It has his lily pond. It's a little museum now.Arthur Peabody (talk) 23:14, 19 February 2022 (EST)