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To The Bar Life: Difference between revisions

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To The Bar Life (view source)

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== Synopsis ==
== Synopsis ==
Bud ([[Larry Block]]), a customer at a bar, wants drinks that Ray
([[Ryan Cutrona]]), the bartender, doesn't have.<ref>I take the names
from [[In The Middle Of Nowhere (Part 1) | 'In the middle of nowhere']];
they mention the towns of Paisley and Kimball, which also appear in
it; Block and Cutrona played the same characters in it.  Block's car
is broken in both.</ref>
1:50: Joe recites a prayer, some parts taken from the Tridentine mass.
2:10: Bud and Ray return, arguing about drinks.
4:50: Joe describes the appearance and behavior of a homeless man on
Venice Beach.
7:00: Johnny (the homeless man) was born in NYC in August 1921.  His
mother, Blanche, 23, died in childbirth; she designed clothes for
Broadway shows.  His father, Arthur, ran a family cooperage in
Hoboken.  Arthur gave Johnny to Blanche's mother, a widow, to raise.
8:30: Grandmother and Johnny sailed to Brittany, where the
grandmother's family lived, when Johnny was 4.  A French boy 4 or 5
years older kissed him on the ship; Johnny avoided him after that.
9:40: They lived on a farm near Rostrenen; they visited Lourdes.
10:50: Joe invites us to drink holy water (perhaps an allophemism for
alcohol) in memory of Bernadette.<ref>the patron saint of
Lourdes</ref>
11:10: They returned to NYC in 1926 (a year later).  They had a daily
routine on the town: shopping, church, movies.
12:50: Grandmother began taking Johnny to visit his father in
Englewood, New Jersey.  The grandmother and Arthur argued.  Arthur
married Anne Stevens, who came to take Johnny home with her after
school one day after fighting over him.
13:40: Joe invites us to drink to the wisdom of Solomon.
14:00: Johnny moves in with his father and stepmother.  Arthur tries
to make a man of him.
15:30: Joe invites us to drink to the mouse Arthur made Johnny
incinerate in 1927.
16:00: Joe tells us how pretty Anne was; she looked like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Astor Mary Astor].
16:30: Arthur disciplined Johnny with beatings.
17:50: Joe invites us to drink to Blanche.
18:00: Arthur, hopeful at the repeal of Prohibition, invested all his
money in up-to-date equipment for the cooperage, but wooden barrels
became out-of-date what with bottles and steel barrels, so he went
bankrupt, lost everything.
19:40: They moved in with Anne's parents, Charles and Ida Stevens in
1937.  Charles Stevens worked for the Hudson River Day Line, which ran
ferries on the river.  They'd ride them on the weekends.
21:10: Joe drinks to afternoons on the river.
21:40: Hudson River let Charles Stevens go.  Arthur begins to drink
too much, gets violent.
22:40: Johnny stood up to Arthur for the first time when he came home
drunk.
23:20: Ida Stevens died.  They held a big wake.
24:40: Arthur got fat and sickly, lost his teeth.
25:30: 1939 September 1, the war started.
26:30: Anne kissed Johnny.
26:40: Johnny took a train to Montreal to join the RCAF, hoping to
die.
27:30: 'As time goes by' - Dooley Wilson
29:00: A woman, who sounds like she's in a club, talks about how much
he likes love and kisses; Dooley Wilson's 'As time goes by' plays in
the background.<ref>re-used in [[Love Is]] and [[Where Will It End?]].)
30:00: Bud and Ray are back; Ray still can't make any drink Bud wants.
31:00: Joe talks about liquors (Kessler, Johnny Walker, Old
Bushmill...) as though they were people.  He quotes 'A Shropshire
Lad', 'Malt has done more than Milton can...'.
32:10: Bud and Ray return, arguing about drinks.
33:20: Johnny arrived in Montreal, joined the RCAF.
34:40: Joe invites us to drink to fond farewells.
35:00: After training in Toronto, they shipped out of Halifax to
Liverpool.
36:20: Johnny's plane, Wellington bomber AG725L of the 165th
bomber command, had its engines fail over the Channel, into which it
crashed.  Johnny, a turret gunner, was the only survivor.  He spent
the rest of the war at a desk job.  He loved the bar life, drinking
from 9 PM to 4 AM.
39:10: Joe invites us to drink to the bar life.
39:30: Johnny returned after the war.
40:20: Johnny went to Villanova on the GI Bill.
41:00: Inspired by Thomas Merton's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Storey_Mountain <i>The Seven-Storey Mountain</i>],
Johnny found god and became passionate about his faith.
42:10: Someone (George Murdoch?) recites Merton's eulogy to his
brother, who died in the war, [https://www.poemist.com/thomas-merton/for-my-brother-missing-in-action-1943 'For my brother, missing in action 1943'].
45:00: The poem 'pierced Johnny's heart'; he joined [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_of_Our_Lady_of_Gethsemani the monastery at Gethsemani, Kentucky],
where Merton lived.  Joe describes monastery life.  The abbot became
increasingly familiar at their weekly conferences.  When the abbot
kissed him, Johnny left, drifted west, ended up in Venice.
48:40: Joe quotes 'Matthew' 26:48-49 on the betrayal of Jesus.
49:00: Bud and Ray return, this time Bud unhappy that Ray has
none of the bar snacks he wants.
50:30: Joe recites a poem in praise of drinking.
55:20: Bud and Ray return, arguing about bar snacks.
<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">
A narrative monologue, cut with acted scenes and Joe toasting characters in the narrative and reading a poem praising liquor.   
A narrative monologue, cut with acted scenes and Joe toasting characters in the narrative and reading a poem praising liquor.   


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*He returns from Europe, finds religion in a Thomas Merton poem and joins the monastery in Gethsemani.   
*He returns from Europe, finds religion in a Thomas Merton poem and joins the monastery in Gethsemani.   
*When the abbot makes a pass at him, he heads west, eventually becoming a homeless person in Venice Beach.
*When the abbot makes a pass at him, he heads west, eventually becoming a homeless person in Venice Beach.
 
</div></div>
== Music ==  
== Music ==  
{{Sketch (Penguin Cafe Orchestra)}} [Intro]
{{Sketch (Penguin Cafe Orchestra)}} [Intro]
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*The bar room dialog may have originally been recorded as part of [[In The Middle Of Nowhere (Part 1)|In The Middle Of Nowhere]].  It features the same actors (Larry Block & Ryan Cutrona), the style seems consistent, and the customer makes references to needing to unwind from a traumatic experience and not having a working car, both of which are consistent with an early scene in which Bud and Ray meet.  Both programs also feature a prominent reference to Lourdes.   
*The bar room dialog may have originally been recorded as part of [[In The Middle Of Nowhere (Part 1)|In The Middle Of Nowhere]].  It features the same actors (Larry Block & Ryan Cutrona), the style seems consistent, and the customer makes references to needing to unwind from a traumatic experience and not having a working car, both of which are consistent with an early scene in which Bud and Ray meet.  Both programs also feature a prominent reference to Lourdes.   


 
== Footnotes ==


[[Category:Serious_Monologue]]
[[Category:Serious_Monologue]]
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