Walkabout Thoughts #64.5

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…

Walkabout Thoughts #64.5

.5?

Yes. Well? Here's the deal.

I had a minor accident. Three weeks ago. I tripped over something that caught my foot. Slammed my ankle into something which it then slipped down on, leading to a blister from a kind of "rug burn". That was doing well until it broke open and got infected. I was taking care of it, but apparently something got into it.

It's pretty bad. I thought I may have broken my leg. Yeah, that bad. I had it looked at for a third time in three weeks yesterday and indeed, it's not broken (finally got x-rays taken), but definitely infected. the wound was cleaned up, antibiotics administered, and next Tuesday I'm seeing a "wound clinic". So, no more 5 mile walks for a bit.

Yeah, that bad. I was told it's superficial though, I won't lose my ankle (oh, gooood). But it needs some serious attention and may take months to finally heal. 

Damn.

First I'll say one political thing today that I'm borrowing from a "Tweet" of mine yesterday, just because this is so aggravating

Considering continuing Republican rogue actions, the Insurrection "Freedom" Caucus in the US House of Reps, illiberal "Republican Party" laws, illiberal "Republican" Gerrymandering, "Republican" coup attempts, an insurrection, ongoing voter suppression, anti-pro-choice crap, electing of all people, life long criminal Donald Trump...only ONE NAME now fits for the once GOP: GOVP. The Grand Old #igilante Party. Because these are ALL Vigilante actions.

Considering how anti-governmental Republicans are, esp., MAGA, hating government, always trying to disable it, defund it, destroy, cripple it, then blame Democrats for it...I'd also settle for the name: "Grand Old Vigilantes". The G.O.V.

There is little more dangerous than a religious leader shunned by his flock, for another. Or a conservative cult divested of their self-infatuated leader. Beware MAGA, once Trump has fallen. For lost, they will need purpose, other repositories for their hate, and ignorance.

Right. OK. Moving on...I'd been using a crutch to walk with (tried a cane but it wasn't enough). Now that it's been cleaned by a medical professional (thing was, it's on my outer left ankle and hard to get close to by myself), antibiotics administered, 2x daily Epsom salt soaking, so it's doing better. Now that I know the leg bone isn't fractured, and with the infection more local to just the wound area, I can walk (limping a bit) without a walking aid.

And that's why there is no "Walkabout Thoughts" lately these past three weeks. I know I'm a bit intermittent on them normally anyway, but this time will be a bit longer... apparently.

I've gotten a lot of work done on my new film companion book on "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero" (not a simple book to write), but as the infection got worse, I'd not been in a state of mind where I can maintain writing a book for very long. While the film continues to garner international awards at film festivals. Which is always nice.

In fact, in the past three weeks I had entered two different film festivals, the Tabriz Cinema Awards (İstanbul, turkey) and, the Brandenburg International Film Festival in Germany. I had entered two films, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero" and my film noir, "Gumdrop", a short horror, as well as my already award winning screenplay, a true crime biopic, "The Teenage Bodyguard. I won for all three, at both festivals, within a week of one another.

The first win of three was a surprise. The second was a big surprise!

In other good news is, my book "Suffering Long Covid" is selling well at the regional health food chain a few counties over (long story). I just had to send them another shipment of ten as the Covid season approaches.

So, I'll end with that and...that's what's going on. 

Not a lot, but kind of a lot. 

I wish you all great success and health! Until next time!

Cheers! Sláinte!

Pvt. Ravel's Bolero - an antiwar, filmic poem, historical documentary film

In 2022 I produced a film, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero", based on a poem I wrote of the same name, some years previous. It seems to be a well-received endeavor. To date I've received over 30 international film festival awards.

[9/12/23 update: Pvt. Ravel's Bolero now has 43 international awards!]

You can see it now, free, if you sign up for a free trial subscription on ThrilzTV.com. It's a safe site, you can watch the film free, then unsubscribe. No worry. I built most of the site myself with a few others and we're not trying to cause anyone problems. In January we're shifting into a large endeavor of which ThrilzTV will be a part of, with much more to come. So maybe get in on the beginning?

It's a serious film. But if you're a classical music, or if you're a history buff, especially of WWI, France, trench warfare, Maurice Ravel, Bolero, War...or a variety of other things...do check it out! I didn't get all these awards because it's not worth checking out. This isn't the kind of film that gets a standing ovation. It's about serious issues. But done in a way that is innovative and affecting. 

Documentary, Biography, War, Music, Independent, V (Violence), D (Suggestive Dialogue), 14-Jul-2023

The international multi-award winning, antiwar "filmic poem" and historical documentary, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero". Experience WWI as told through music (played by Ravel), actual documentary footage and a poem that proposes a question:

"What if the composer of Ravel's Bolero, Joseph Maurice Ravel, had not simply been a truck driver in WWI, but had actually been the trenches?" What if he had drawn the French and German enemies lining both sides of their deadly "no man's land", to enter the deadly, horrific space between the soldier's trenches, and played his new song? A ghostly meeting of soldier musicians and the dead...all among the horrors of their shared zone of death which laid horrifically between them.

Forty-Two International Awards, including:

BEST WAR SHORT - Arthouse Festival of Beverly Hills.

BEST DIRECTOR EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM, Indiefest Film Awards

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY - New Orleans Film Festival.

BEST HUMAN RIGHTS & SOCIAL FILM - RunDoc Film Talent Award, Hong Kong.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM - World Film Carnival, Singapore.

DOCUMENTARY-BEST FILM - Grand Jury Prize Bronze Award - Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival.

EXCEPTIONAL MERIT - Docs Without Borders Film Festival.

And over many more...

Cast

Brel Martínez "Adelaide", Ravel's Truck

Jey Martin, Narrator

Joseph Maurice Ravel Pianist/Conductor

Crew

JZ Murdock, Director

For Memorial Day Weekend 2021 - Pvt. Ravel's Bolero

In thinking of what I wanted to do for Memorial Day this year, I thought of this poem. Allow me to say first and foremost that I am a human being FIRST, then an American (before political party), and finally, a progressively, critical thinking person.

HOW WE SHOULD ALL BE!

[Note: The film has now won some awards and continues to do so, 3/6/2022. The published poem below is different from the one in the film that evolved through the production of the film I'm also working on a new blog article on the history of this film, and a detailed examination of its meaning and format.]

It is a sad Memorial Day this year. A day gravely besmirched by the lack of action by Congressional "leaders" Mitch McConnell and Keven McCarthy in their (that is, Donald Trump's) Republican Party, by voting against a sorely necessary bipartisan investigation into the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Let's face it, the "Trump Insurrection". THIS is an American issue. 

IF Republicans were in charge, IF this were a Democratic issue, IF this had been a Democratic POTUS, not Donald Trump, there'd ALREADY be a commission. There were TEN Benghazi investigations over something that wasn't as Republicans contended and they knew that, as they used it as political fodder, anyway.

When America is attacked, we investigate that attack. It's a "no brainer", really. Making the Republican's views on this, very curious.

So more than usual, this is a Memorial Day we ALL truly need to reflect on. Not just for our fallen heroes in war, but for in those in Congress who refuse to be heroes. Or actual members of our US Congress.

After 10 years of writing over 1400 blogs, I had stopped. I wrote my last blog about the last two books I published in October 2020. I wrote this some years ago and finally included it in the first sequel to my first book, in two volumes as, "Anthology of Evil II Vol. I". The second book is, "Anthology of Evil II Vol. II - The Unwritten".

This is my first blog since then. Wishing you all a reflective but safe and healthy 2021 Memorial Day.

Maurice Ravel, 1912, musician/composer

“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.”

Maurice Ravel

Writing at the time, Ravel recalled: “For a whole week I have been driving days and nights—without lights—on unbelievable roads, often with a load double what my truck should carry. And even so I had to hurry because all this was within range of the guns. Adélaïde and I—Adélaïde is my truck—escaped the shrapnel, but the poor dear couldn’t keep going and after losing her number plate in a danger zone where parking was forbidden, in despair she shed a wheel in a forest, where I did a Robinson Crusoe for 10 days until someone came to rescue me.” 

Maurice Ravel, 1917, Ambulance Driver

Below I have included the music of Ravel's "Bolero", actually conducted by him (it's nearly 17 minutes long). 

Ravel, because of his health, like Ernest Hemingway's even more remarkable experience, was a WWI ambulance driver. 

Here, we find our hero in the trenches...

Note: This poem is the original but it has changed in the filmic poem I am producing.

 Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero

In No Man’s Land, Verdun, France 30 June 1916

JZ Murdock

Moonlit dark...Verdun, France.

War Zone. Theatre of Horrors.

“No Man’s Land” rifts rival trenches.

Fog drifts over cold explorers.

WWI Trenches

Devastation gorging.

Chilled steam rising off fresh corpses.

Viscous drops dripping...in silence,

Dripping into crimson black pools.

Dark shiny, bloody pools.

Mirrors that pepper dark lands that

Glower from a slivered moonlight.

Drawing down dying breath and sight.

WWI in the Trenches

Suddenly, one ascends

One soldier’s Hell seeking amends

In No Man’s Land, gently playing,

Chilled silver flute lilting, singing.

Pvt. Maurice Ravel

Pvt. Ravel misses

His ambulance truck Adélaïde.

Standing fast, one among them all

He shouts: “All Together Now!”

Meanwhile, Hemingway drives

His ambulance in Italy.

For advancing Americans.

Ignorant of Ravel’s own plight.

WWI Ambulance & Drivers

“Papa’s” ambulance hit!

An Austrian mortar fire blast!

Machine gunned: he carries wounded.

While Ravel bravely plays his flute.

Ravel’s song? “Bolero”,

Starting well before it begins.

Nervously, our musician spies,

His uneven enemy’s lines.

Then ever so softly,

A drummer beats his staid rhythm,

Catching up to and surpassing,

His friend waiting, now so relieved.

He plays his flute until,

Another stands near No Man’s Land.

To then follow Ravel’s brave lead,

One more flute in their darkness,

The same sad clothes hang worn,

All uniforms dirty and torn,

Each Bloody, Disgusting and Wet,

They all walk bravely playing on.

Together as one, all

Nervously eyeing enemies,

With their side, hunched in their trenches,

Watching dumb, all incredulous.

Suddenly then, one more!

Slowly standing, instrument high,

Another: “Enemy” soldier!

Approaches their shared No Man’s Land.

He joins in their playing,

Music swelling louder in time,

In tempo, In volume. On “stage”.

Their musical bonding expands.

As their song progresses,

Again and again, another

Intermittently, from both sides,

Plays their song, along with Ravel.

And then, even the dead,

Play the climax, together stand,

This great full orchestra of Men,

Standing among their No Man’s Land.

One soldier aside them,

Walks along his filthy trenches,

Anger brewing, rifle in hand,

Finds, “The Spot”, for his final shot.

Yet still the band plays on,

Till finally they finished strong,

With an echoing crescendo,

Ravel’s ascent and fairest Air.

Then it’s over. And yet…

Fearfully they stop, suspended.

Feeling an old, new thing, again.

Strange among them: Humanity?

Their confidence bursting!

A camaraderie brimming!

Believing for one proud moment,

Human! A Person once again!

Both sides lined the trenches,

Carefully watching, listening,

Slowly, they begin applauding.

One at a time. Two at a time.

Applauding until it is a

Growing cacophony, rising

Above them to its crescendo

Thicker, sweeter, now not Ravel’s.

It is this time though, quite

Not music. As one at a time,

All the players slowly melting

Into the fog, into the ground.

Fading into darkness.

Until only silence remains.

Save one, the one who started it.

For himself, and yet for them all.

Realizing all at once,

He is quite alone and shouldn’t

Have been quite so much enjoying,

Not, quite so much, their reverie.

He too then melts back down,

To disappear. Leaving merely

Silence in the loss of what was.

What could have been. For what might be.

That last soldier rises.

Reappears and clambers over,

The berm back into his own trench.

Enemy...taking careful aim.

His fellows, horrified.

Aiming just where he wants to strike.

Over at, “That dark cold bastard.”

The Enemy. The Other Side.

His Officer leans down.

Slaps him hard in his sallow head

Unsettling such careful aiming,

Fouling so, his sullen black mood.

He misses! Blind Anger!

Turning upon his Officer.

This Officer, this man who eyes

Him deeply back. Intensely so.

Then he looks around him.

All angry red eyes upon HIM.

Carefully, he puts down his gun.

Relinquishing his anger...cold.

Only then do they all,

Return sad about their business.

Shitting, drinking, staring, dying,

sleeping, cooking. Fear, in the dark.

No Man’s Land again lies,

Fallow, silent, wet. Except for

Sounds of still darkly, dripping pools,

Mirroring their reality.

There now is but a stout

Difference. A lightness where the

Sounds and attitudes in both trench.

Lines, lie still, humble in Silence.

For Humanity to

Continue, to cope. Yet again,

To feel alive once more with these

Others, these Brothers. Lifelong Friends.

WWI Soldiers' Graves

Continuing to cope.

Once again, Humanity. Hope!

Ravel’s alternate ending to:

His No Man’s Land, in Verdun, France.

10 November, 1919.

Maurice Ravel, conducting "Bolero" in 1923