Evening Sky

Series
The Other Side
Original Broadcast Date
7/16/2000
Cast
Larry Block, Gregory Poe, David Rapkin, Jack Kornfield, Jack Cheeseborough, Henry Dennis, Joe Frank
Format
Karma Style, 59 minutes
Preceded by:	Bad Karma
Followed by:	Karma For Dollars
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"Have you heard the one about the guy who goes sailing on the weekend with his dog?"

Evening Sky is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side. It was originally broadcast on July 16, 2000.

Synopsis

Jack Cheeseborough tells a 'joke' about a sailor and his dog stranded on a desert island; the fellow hankers for one of the sheep.

2:10: Larry tells about auditioning for a role as the older brother of a character being played by Lewis Stadlen. Larry identifies Stadlen as an 'archenemy' who called him a 'putz and a moron'. Larry describes his poor performance as an understudy in a previous play Mizlansky/Zilinsky in which Stadlen had a role, got into an argument with the cast about it. Larry says that, perhaps, he should commit suicide, which kicks off a discussion of suicide by Joe and Larry.

10:40: David Rapkin recommends to Joe that Joe and Larry drive cross-country, have a head-on collision in the middle of the country.

11:40: Jack Kornfield talks about the sacred, transcending the smallness of the personal world.

18:10: Larry describes a French film about a young man who decides he can love two women. This drives his wife insane: she kills herself.

19:40: Rapkin says we can have only so much love in life, that the fellow in the film's mistake was telling others about his love. He says we all lie all the time. He and Joe expatiate on lying.

23:40: Gregory Poe tells of interviewing famous costume designers. He interviewed one at his home in Montecito while his wife was dying. He designed Marilyn Monroe's famous dress in The seven year itch, claims he dressed her corpse, that some of her body parts were missing - stolen, Poe guessed, by the coroner.

27:10: Gregory Poe tells of interviewing Bette Davis late in her life, claims that ears grow with age, Davis's were enormous; he designed special earrings to hide them.

29:20: Larry answers the phone, yells at Zak for throwing used tissues from the balcony. Larry complains to Joe about Zak's behavior: he hangs out with his friends, smokes up his dope, doesn't work in school, spits on the floor.

33:10: A voice-mail message from Danny about his inflamed testicle.

35:10: Gregory Poe says he loves his dad but he never grew up.

35:50: Kornfield reads the poem 'Reverse living', talks about recovering the innocence at birth.

37:50: Kornfield tells of Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He wanted a vision of the divine, got it. Then Kornfield teaches that we should accept the world as it is.

43:00: Henry Dennis tells Joe about a vision he had of Jesus carrying the cross in Jerusalem at the time - then he saw him on a truck. He thought he was crazy.

43:50: Rapkin tells Joe that he treats life as an acting job. He says he hates what he's doing, that he wanted to be an artist and a musician all his life. He ran up debts (buying an expensive house, his daughter's tuition) that he had to pay.

47:50: Larry says that physical intimacy with a woman seems to have become impossible - he can't even imagine it.

49:10: Rapkin tells Joe where he's seen Christ: an auto shop, a gym, a folded paper hat...

52:20: Larry's lying on his couch on the balcony, watching the sun set, complains about a construction crane blocking the view.

57:10: Rapkin says he will sail to Thailand, have sex with beautiful Thai women, smoke opium, eat lotus flowers, walk to Chiang Mai to visit Doi Suthep, its most famous Buddhist temple.

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Legacy Synopsis

• Larry Block: he fights with a fellow actor during the intermission after a particularly good performance, tries out for the man's brother later.
• Larry and Joe: dignified suicide, driving into a stanchion at high speed, a coordinated cross country suicide game of chicken after having taking out life insurance policies.
• David Rapkin and Joe: David suggests a suicide in which the two drive across the country while talking on mobile phones and crash in the middle.
• Jack Kornfield: small and vast worlds
• Larry: Describes a film (probably Le Bonheur) in which a man has an affair, loves two people at once, tells his wife.
• David Rapkin and Joe: Loving more than one person, needing to lie, lying about mountain climbing.
• Gregory Poe: interviewing an aging fashion designed while his wife is receiving last rights in the next room. Souvenirs cut from Marilyn Monroe's body. Hiding Betty Davis' huge ears.
• Larry: he's furious with Zak, fed up with Zak's behavior.
• Unknown man: an answering machine message about a flash light testicular exam.
• Gregory: relationship with his father
• Kornfield: Reverse Living poem
• David: Visions of Jesus. His life at work seems like an acting job. Wanting to make music.
• Larry: physical intimacy is bizarre and repulsive, de-mystifying sex.
• David: "I've seen Christ..." in an auto shop, in a gym, etc. Redemption through gastrointestinal release.
• Joe and Larry: Scenes from his balcony, planting a flag on a newly constructed building as on a mountain, opportunities for voyeurism. Meditations on the beauty of the sky, cut with cursing a bad telephone connection.
• David: A rambling spiritual trip across Asia.

Music

• "Epominomous, Where Are You?" - Mike Richmond (from Basic Tendencies, 1996) | Soundhound [1:48]

• "Sex" - The Necks (from Sex, 1989) | YouTube [17:46]
• "Romantic Love" - DJ Cam (from Mad Blunted Jazz, 1996) | YouTube [42:31]

Additional credits

From the broadcast:

'You've been listening to Joe Frank "The other side". This program was called "Evening sky" with Larry Block, David Rapkin, Gregory Poe, Henry D., Jack Cheeseborough, Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, and Joe Frank; production: Ray Guarna; production assistance: Esmé Gregson; music consultant: Thomas Golubić.'

Shared material

• Pledge Drive Rough Cuts