Maurice Ravel Meets the SWAT Team

The other night found me working once again on the lovely Minuet from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin.   This is a neo-classical work by the great French composer.  There is a beautiful melody part that I’ve been learning, always trying to make it a little better.  Meanwhile, outside 20 squad cars, a mobile van, two helicopters and the LAPD SWAT team were mobilizing.  There had been a report of two gunmen atop the building next door.  SWAT snipers were actually going up on top of my building.

I shut my windows to block out the tumult outside and continued to practice.  Funny–what a difference between inner and outer reality.    I continued practicing, occasionally looking out at the crowd which had formed on the street corner outside.  I heard the P.A. system of the “ghetto bird”  calling out for the gunmen to surrender.  I kept playing.

The noise abated and I sat down to a quiet dinner and a nice glass of wine.  Just another night of excitement in the big city.  Venice Patch, a good source of local news,  wrote about the incident the next day.  The gunmen were never caught.