Higher Learning
| Series | |
|---|---|
| The Other Side | |
| Original Broadcast Date | |
| 11/14/1999 | |
| Cast | |
| Friederike Frank, Joe Frank | |
| Format | |
| Absurd Monologue, 1 hour | |
| Preceded by: | The Box |
| Followed by: | Holy Land |
"I just, just turned eighteen in November."
Higher Learning is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side (Series). It was originally broadcast on November 14, 1999.[1]
Synopsis
This show is 100% re-used:
Joe's mother (Friederike Frank) tells the story of her marriage. [2] [3]
17:40: A beautiful woman invites Joe to a performance of a play in which she has a role. Concerned that she watches him, Joe is self-conscious, puts so much effort into his role that he pays no attention to the play. He thinks about the roles we play, the performances we put on, in life. [4]
21:00: Humans compensate for their inferiority to animals with tools: clothes, cars, makeup … [4]
25:50: When he was a boy, falling asleep, Joe tortured himself with fantasies of making awful decisions. [5]
28:30: Joe tells of his job teaching at a private school in NYC[6] , including Kim and their unfortunate date.[7]
48:10: 'The Earth is 1 of 9 planets that revolve around the sun …' - Joe describes the vastness of space. [4]
49:30: Joe observes how small things look from an airplane, contrasts that perspective with how the city appears at ground level, comments on the ephemerality of life. [8]
52:40: Joe's mother laments the poor health of her husband. [9]
- His mom tells of her early adulthood, her marriage to an older man.
- Straining to appear likeable, the audience at a play as performers.
- Humans making up for our physical inferiority
- A child falling asleep imagines being offered hideous decisions: torture of himself or others.
- Joe Frank the schoolteacher, dating coworker Kim with capped teeth, premature ejaculation
- Defending against students' intellectual attacks
- The insignificance of humans in the universe. A city viewed from an airplane.
- Joe's mother talks about her sick husband, hospitals, nurse revenge.
Interesting Facts
- Joe's story of life as a schoolteacher also appears in Pretender.
- This program shares material with Cocktails Before Dinner, and it shares text with God Only Knows
- This program may have aired in 1992, and as part of KCRW's Flashback series.
Music
- "Sex" - The Necks (from Sex, 1989) | YouTube
- "A Mother (For Your Mind)" - The Herbaliser (from Blow Your Headphones, 1997) | YouTube
- "The Beast (Autechre Mix)" - Palmskin Productions (from The Beast Remix, 1995) | YouTube
Commentary
Please see guidelines on commentary and share your personal thoughts in this section.
Spblat
I love the opening musical loop. Nice and mellow. I also particularly enjoy when Joe talks about the vastness of the universe and our apparent insignificance in it. Add his commentary about how frail we truly are, and this is a winner for me. I ranted about this once on my web site.
Footnotes
- ↑ Two shows share this air date on joefrank.com; this and Holy Land.
- ↑ originally in God Only Knows
- ↑ Joe's mother was born Friederike Passweg, 1910 December 7. 1929 January 2 she married Meier Langermann. On their naturalization papers they changed the spelling of their names: Friederike to Frederica, Langermann to Langerman, Meier to Meyer.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 originally in Cocktails Before Dinner
- ↑ originally in When She's Asleep, She Looks Like An Angel
- ↑ Joe taught at Dalton school
- ↑ originally in Pretender, in which it was interspersed with Monmouth's story
- ↑ originally in He Hesitated
- ↑ originally in Road To Calvary, The.
