The Ordinary Extraordinary blog
The Ordinary Extraordinary blog
Joe Frank, in memoriam
Joe Frank died on January 15, 2018. He created original audio works for radio broadcast, bewitching things that could be philosophical, comical, absurdist—oftentimes all in the same program. Typically all in the same program. I (Alan) listened to his broadcasts on KCRW in Southern California through the Nineties, often taping them direct to cassette. The body of work that Joe Frank accrued proved to be greatly influential in my creative life, especially in the more experimental (and sometimes spoken word) mash-up albums I made. I don’t doubt that some of his surrealist humor may have also made its way into a few of my screenplays.
I found out about his death by chance, more than a week after it had occurred. And that, finding about his passing only by chance, highlighted part of the problem of Joe Frank’s notoriety: it was never widespread enough for those of us who loved what he did. Since his death, Ira Glass of “This American Life” has cited Mr. Frank as his greatest inspiration and Jad Abumrad of the Radiolab podcast produced a show in tribute to his memory. Mark Oppenheimer published a wonderful article over at Slate, giving the big picture of Joe Frank’s life and noting the many creative individuals who were influenced by his work.
Go to Joe’s site for whatever you need to learn more about him. And I’m not ashamed to say I blatantly appropriated Joe’s work for five tracks on my 2010 mash-up album Cripple Crab Crutch (found over at alanblack13.com), so check those out if you like. A lot of materials I’ve used in my mash-up albums I used because I didn’t think enough people had heard this artist or that rare snippet of audio. So for shit’s sake, please go seek out the work of Joe Frank. Listening to him is the only way to really get the feel.
Thursday, January 25, 2018