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.