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== Synopsis == | == Synopsis == | ||
Joe recalls a childhood memory, he in a nightgown, holding a candle in | |||
a dish,<ref>this reminds me of [https://media.gettyimages.com/illustrations/vintage-illustration-of-a-sleepy-young-boy-in-pajamas-holding-a-tire-illustration-id583877468 an old Fisk tire ad]</ref> | |||
walks down the staircase, sees a fancy dress ball, dancing to a waltz | |||
orchestra. 'It looked like a turn of the century <i>fin de siecle</i> | |||
affair, a diplomatic ball, or perhaps a gala evening in a high-class | |||
brothel.' | |||
4:00: The musicians stop playing but the people keep dancing. Joe | |||
notices a large swing in the middle of the room, a man and a woman | |||
swinging in it. A lady takes Joe into the center of the room, talks | |||
about him in a 'Germanic Slavic language' he doesn't understand. The | |||
dancers are now sitting in the steeply-tiered seats of a lecture hall, | |||
watching. A draft blows out Joe's candle, darkening the room. A shot | |||
rings out. When others light candles, they see the lady has been shot | |||
in the head; she holds something in her hand. A man who claims to be | |||
a doctor examines her, surreptitiously takes the thing from her hand. | |||
A man who acts like a detective enters the room, questions Joe. The | |||
doctor ends up dead on the side of the room. Joe falls to the floor, | |||
paralyzed. The detective takes his pulse. He thinks Joe's dead. | |||
9:00: Joe describes making trouble in school: saying the vaccines they | |||
are going to get will be shots in the eyeball, placing a roller skate | |||
at the top of the stairs Natalie falls on, severing the Hofstadter's | |||
brake cables, stealing the school's PA system, compulsive borrowing | |||
('a cigarette, a shirt, the cover for a card table, plastic bags, | |||
plumbing fixtures, coat hangers, catheters, eye cups, detachable | |||
collars, sets of formal studs, poultry shears, Mylanta bottles,'), | |||
dropping lawn statuary from overpasses onto cars, stealing lunch money | |||
from divinity students, robbing graves, recycling medical supplies. | |||
12:00: 'And now I own a huge publishing empire, radio and television | |||
stations, railroads, rental car agencies, immense tracts of real | |||
estate in the southwest, food manufacturing concerns.…' Joe | |||
describes his vast businesses. He abducts teenagers to force them | |||
into show business, blackmails people for their shameful acts. | |||
14:50: He calls upon god but finds him absent, speculates on where he | |||
could be. | |||
17:00: | |||
`Hey, honey, what's that hanging off the wall.<br> | |||
`It sure smells funny and it's eight feet tall.<br> | |||
`I got me a gun, but don't be afraid - I just have it for protection.<ref name=goodbye>Joe re-uses this in [[Blues Singer]] and [[Goodbye]].</ref><br> | |||
`Oh night, great shade that covers one side of the world.<br> | |||
`Oh lovers, deep in your passion, let your cries not reach my | |||
ears, lest I be made more wistful.<br> | |||
`Oh dreamers, sleepers, children of Morpheus, wanderers among | |||
the great plains of that other world, the place where those who are | |||
dead are alive.<br> | |||
`Oh deep purple.<br> | |||
`I know a man who, having lost his telephone service because of | |||
an astronomical, unpaid bill, haunts a telephone booth with a shopping | |||
bag full of quarters.<br> | |||
`There is no way to smile from the back of my head, and yet I persist.<br> | |||
Girl: `Hi, how are you? How you doing? Having a good time?<br> | |||
(Joe coughs.) | |||
19:10: | |||
`Hey honey, in the closet area, close the door.<br> | |||
`I don't want to see you anymore.<br> | |||
`Let my fingers do the walking, let my eyeballs rest.<br> | |||
`We'll snuggle by the golf clubs, you know I'm the best.<br> | |||
`Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.<br> | |||
`If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.<br> | |||
`God bless mommy and daddy.'<ref name=goodbye /><br> | |||
(Laughing - the girl?) | |||
20:40: 'I have danced spinning madly among the sacred cowgirls. I | |||
have spun in wide circles encompassing all of human existence, stars | |||
spinning from my fingertips as I move through space in great French | |||
curves of ecstasy. I have danced with death. I have jitterbugged | |||
with Baryshnikov. I have held tightly in my arms in a highly-erotic | |||
waltz the long-dead body of Marie Antoinette. I have danced a stately | |||
minuet among the mannequins of a long-ago closed department store. I | |||
have won the limbo contest at the Vatican.'<ref>Joe re-uses this in | |||
[[Blues Singer]] and [[Predator]].</ref> | |||
21:10: Joe tells us all he's lost. | |||
22:00: 'In overcoming depression, the first rule is be happy. But | |||
how? Well, first, plant hedgerows. Attend as many circumcisions as | |||
possible. Wax all surfaces. Buy a set of impossibly-small dinnerware | |||
and throw a huge party. And go for a long, long drive.' | |||
23:00: Joe delivers an ode to the highway. | |||
30:20: Joe says he's an insomniac, tells us all the things he's done | |||
to get to sleep. Watching the sex channel at 1:30 AM he calls a | |||
service that advertises perfect partners. He describes an impossible | |||
woman. Instead 'an overweight heavily made-up middle-aged woman with | |||
a kerchief pulled over her head, glasses askew, the smell of cheap | |||
bourbon on her breath, her teeth capped.' arrives. Joe complains. | |||
They make love anyway, fall in love, get married immediately. They | |||
adopt destitute children overseas, send them inappropriate gifts. | |||
44:30: 'My beautiful life with Maureen ends when, tragically, | |||
while she's leaning over a mechanized potato peeler that we bought at | |||
a garage sale, her housecoat is pulled into the rotating knives, and | |||
she follows, sliced into the shape of julienne potatoes. Placed in | |||
the flash freezer, she becomes forever icons of my lost love.' | |||
45:20: Joe tells us all the things he's seen, 'the glory of | |||
the coming of our Lord', 'Stephen Foster's ghost', 'tickertape | |||
parades', 'legions of saffron-robed Buddhist monks', 'entire highways | |||
locked in gridded immobility'… | |||
47:50: A childish voice scat sings to piano and drum, tells someone | |||
how much she (he?) hates him/her. | |||
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%; overflow:auto;"> | |||
<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Legacy Synopsis</div> | |||
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> | |||
* Scenes from a fancy party: Joe can only look downwards, he is a specimen in a lecture hall, people begin dying. | * Scenes from a fancy party: Joe can only look downwards, he is a specimen in a lecture hall, people begin dying. | ||
* Joe as a childhood troublemaker. | * Joe as a childhood troublemaker. | ||
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* "I have seen. . . " monologue. | * "I have seen. . . " monologue. | ||
* Rhythmic singing in a child's voice. | * Rhythmic singing in a child's voice. | ||
</div></div> | |||
== Music == | == Music == | ||
{{Über Den Wolken (Hans-Joachim Roedelius)}} [Intro] | {{Über Den Wolken (Hans-Joachim Roedelius)}} [Intro] | ||
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== Additional credits == | == Additional credits == | ||
The original broadcast credits state: "Recorded by Bob Carlson and Jeff Sykes, and mixed by Jeff Sykes. Sleep was created in collaboration with [[Arthur Miller]] and [[David Rapkin]]." | The original broadcast credits state: "Recorded by Bob Carlson and Jeff Sykes, and mixed by Jeff Sykes. Sleep was created in collaboration with [[Arthur Miller]] and [[David Rapkin]]." | ||
== Footnotes == | |||
[[Category:Absurd_Monologue]] | [[Category:Absurd_Monologue]] | ||
[[Category:Singing]] | [[Category:Singing]] | ||
[[Category:Arthur Miller]] | |||
[[Category:David Rapkin]] | |||
[[Category:1988]] | [[Category:1988]] | ||
[[Category:Work In Progress]] | [[Category:Work In Progress]] |