Rain

Rain[1]

Series
Work In Progress
Original Broadcast Date
1986
Cast
Angel, Shawn, Dinah, Chantell, Lester Nafzger, Larry Massett, Scott Carrier, Joe Frank
Format
Real People, Telephone, 1 hour
Preceded by:	Photography
Followed by:	Talking About Love

"Rain is very sexual to me..."

Rain is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Work In Progress. It was originally broadcast in 1986.

Synopsis

• A group of women talking about stuff. Water and rain, day and night. "I love my body." What makes them happy: sex, motorcycles, dancing, birthdays, friends, pets. What makes them unhappy: meat eaters, the news, death. Pain.
• We hear Joe being given a bath by Chantal, a professional bather, at the radio station. They chat about some of the same stuff the women were discussing. Joe calls a porno line during the bath.
• Wise, accented, enlightened-sounding voice: on the road to fulfillment.
• A fisherman talks about his friend who fished with a plastic frog. On trout swimming upstream. What if our lives were like fish, the constant possibillity of eating something with a hook, being jerked into another dimension?
• The women: snacking noisily. They chat some more: confession and absolution. Lovemaking conversation.
• Joe's bath continues. He interviews the woman bathing him, then offers her a snack. After awhile Joe makes another phone call.
• Man on the phone: living with a woman in Ohio, her daughter constantly and inappropriately flirts with him. He eventually gives into temptation, impregnates her and flees to New York after her abortion.
• Wise man: suffering and the consequences of our actions.
• Fisherman: about flyfishing. The conditions are never right.
• Women again: riding in a stolen cab. Lovers. Motorcycles.

"Do you have a lover?" "Mm hmmm. I'm extremely mad at him." "Why?" "Cause he's too short."

• Back to the bath. Joe wants to wash Chantal's feet, she refuses. She continues washing him. They exchange a couple of french phrases and he makes another call.
• While his call is being connected, Joe suggests to his audience that we listen to this program while taking a bath ourselves. Joe reaches a random person who happens to be in Sydney, Australia. She tells a touching story of her newly difficult life while Joe's bath continues. He then asks her the mundane questions considered earlier in the program, and the call ends very cordially.
• Fisherman: mostly it's men who flyfish.

Music

• "Automatic Writing" - Steve Kindler (from Automatic Writing, 1985) | YouTube
• "Back Country" - Steve Kindler (from Automatic Writing, 1985) | YouTube

Commentary

Please see guidelines on commentary and share your personal thoughts in this section.

Spblat

While listening to this and taking notes for the synopsis, I made a few side notes. Let them suffice as my commentary for this piece.

• Weird, interesting, soothing.
• Funny and strange, smile.
• This is karma style if I ever heard it.
• Wow.
• Soothing, pleasant, odd, great