MAYDAY MAYDAY: A Quarantine PUPPET SHOW
05/16/20
By Hereaclitus “Here” Vernon
WATCH: Live Puppet Show Opera, 7pm CST on Saturday May 16, 2020 via twitch.tv/lumpenradio
STORY ARC: When Professor Crows’ bird contraption, CROWCRAFTER 1900, crashes, their radiotelegraph picks up a strange frequency that conjures 3 tran/switches that are on a mission, and now our professor Crow is sick with an unknown virus.
Radio pitches:
WHERE IS THE THIRD MAYDAY?
WAIT A MINUTE, THE 3 TRAN/SWITCHES ARE, CO, RO, AND NA?
WHY DO PLANES LOOK LIKE BIRDS?
WHY DO WE SAY MAYDAY WHEN THAT MEANS HELP ME, IN FRENCH?
WHY IS PROFESSOR CROW STUDYING CROWS?
*******DISTRESS SIGNAL FOR RADIO BROADCAST POSTED ON LIVE SOCIAL MEDIA on SATURDAY MAY 16 EVERY HOUR on the HOUR*******"
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LIVE STREAM PUPPET SHOW on
SATURDAY MAY 16, 2020
At 1900 or 1900 hours (military time) or 7pm (CST)
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(1)
Those Birds up high
hold a message on their wings
A secret poem of flight
Only they know
Where the roots, word
A thought
Like an idea, in motion
I only don't know
But It's my science, day
Time To fly, to soar, to dip, to dive
And to crash
AND BREAKDOWN
Can I catch up to them
not catch, a cold
but really take, a hold
Like those birds in the sky
I might just try, to fly
A poem by Professor Crow.
I am flipping the script. Putting on a one-person post-post vaudevillian puppet show. Professor CROW studied the neuroscience of corvids, but quickly became enamored and wants to join them in the sky. They fashion the CROWCRAFTER 1900, which allows our modern-day absent-minded Icarus to take to the sky. But unfortunately, our hero crashes, and appears confused.
Professor CROW can barely put words together but manages to send out a distress call: MAYDAY MAYDAY… the third mayday is thwarted by a distorted signal. Three witches, CO, RO, and NA pick up the frequency and surround the Professor. The witches assure us they are merely trickster tran/switches and they offer weird herbs to help with memory. The professor wakes up as if from a dream, but suddenly he coughs. A strange virus has caught up with them and the three tran/switches are suddenly gone. Professor calls out again… HELP ME (cough) break HELLO, out HELP ME (cough) over ANYBODY, HELP ME break CATCH UP WITH THE CROWS (cough) CROWCRAFTER 1900 over (cough).
(3)
The following is Professor CROWs’ exact MAYDAY MAYDAY transmission:
PC-MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY...THIS IS PROFESSOR CROW... IS THIS THE AVANT COAST GUARD OVER
US ACG-YES THIS IS THE US NAVY COAST GUARD. I REPEAT SIR CROW DO NOT SHIFT TO ANOTHER FREQUENCY OVER
PC-JUST CALL ME PROFESSOR CROW I AM A ZE, NEITHER HE NOR SHE COPY OVER
US ACG-WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR VESSEL OVER
PC-MY AIRCRAFT IS CALLED CROWCRAFTER 1900 OVER
US ACG-WHAT'S THE NATURE OF YOUR EMERGENCY OVER
PC-CRASH LANDING AND ILLNESS OVER
US ACG-WHAT IS THE WEATHER COPY OVER
PC-CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, HEE HEE I MEAN IT'S SUNNY OVER
US ACG-WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS OR REQUEST COPY OVER
BREAK
PC-IM LOOKING FOR A DOCTOR IM QUITE ILL OVER
US ACG-WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT POSITION COPY OVER
PC-103.7 OVER
US ACG-NO YOUR POSITION ARE YOU IN THE CROWCRAFTER 1900 OR AT SEA OR ON LAND COPY THAT OVER
PC-I'M NOT SURE, UM IM AT LANDOVER
BREAK
PC-MY CROWCRAFTER 1900 IS MISSING OVER
US ACG-WHAT IS THE TIME COPY OVER
BREAK
PC-TIME TIME TIME I HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD… OVER...I HAVE A DRY COUGH(COUGH), CROWS CHEST TIGHTNESS(COUGH), AND IT’S HARD TO BREATHE CAW… COPY CAW OVER AND CAW OUT
US ACG-WHAT ARE THE NUMBER OF SOULS UNBOARD COPY OVER
PAN PAN PAN
BREAK BREAK BREAK
OVER OVER OVER
OUT OUT OUT
PC-THAT'S THE PROBLEM COPY I CAN'T RECALL ANYTHING REPEAT URGENT
REPEAT COPY OVER 3 TRAN/SWITCHES CO-RO-NA, CORONA CORONA COPY
FREUD DEFINED MENTAL HEALTH AS THE ABILITY TO LOVE AND WORK OVER
US ACG-ARE YOU NEED OF RESCUE...COPY THAT OVER
BREAK
BREAK
BREAK
US ACG-PROFESSOR CROW ARE YOU STILL THERE...
OVER AND OUT
(4)
The cast of MAYDAY MAYDAY
Are we Responsible?
Do we have a “Response Ability”?
Can we Respond with Agility?
I thought I was responsible but I contracted the coronavirus in March. I was sick and in distress for 27 days. In self quarantine with high fevers, body aches, pains, and chills I laid in bed. When the coronavirus spread to my lungs I developed a dry painful cough. I experienced weeks of chest tightness, pressure, and shallow breathing. It felt like someone was constantly sitting on my chest. I felt like I might be having a heart attack. After years of playing over 1,900 characters in videos, performances, and cast in numerous films, this was definitely the role of a lifetime. The role you were silently preparing for at the sidelines. When I grasped my chest afraid I might just die. I would suddenly discover this was no comedic drama. It is very hard to wrap your head around the concept that you might die alone. You ask yourself who you are, what you came here to do. What is the nature of matter and what is spirit. You just get really woo. It’s “practical magic” applied. You have to change. You have to change how you respond. It is a “metaphysical shift” in your perception of reality and suddenly you feel so alive. But it changes everything.
Pema Chodrun says that we need to lean into the places that scare us the most. I just wanted to breathe. I leaned into an animal like intensity that I didn’t know was in me. My fever was so high I was hallucinating on the daily. In the book the Tell-Tale Brain: Unlocking the Mystery of Human Nature, Neuroscientist versus Ramachandran questions, “It’s as if each of us is hallucinating all the time and what we call perception involves merely selecting the one hallucination that best matches the current input.”
Metaphysics have always interested me. My parents followed Guru Maharaji, I grew up in a cult. We read Black Elk Speaks and BE HERE NOW. My parents named me Little Moon, because I would stare at the moon at night for hours. But the really cool thing is I learned ™ (TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION) at age 11.
Flash forward to March 15 in my living room staring up at the moon. I was in my own private ICU. An Intimate Caring Unit. I had soft lighting, a sunlamp near my bed, eucalyptus steam, and a blowdryer; so I could blow dry my nostrils hoping to kill the virus. My friend dropped off CHAGA harvested by an adventurer in Alaska that drank everyday all day long, combined with ginger and licorice root.
I watched Pandemic (2016), and Virus(1980), this amazing Japanese post-apocalyptic science fiction film, directed by Kinji Fukasaku . I looked at these films for prophetic nuggets that I could use to cure myself. I started taking Forsythia, Rhodalia, Vitamin K, D, NAC, Heros Blend, CBD, Vitamin C, Olive extract, C-90, and this german medication that basically had myrtle tree.
Friends dropped off homemade soups in my lobby and I waved from the window. Delicious lemongrass curry broths. I made fresh juices daily. I called my concoctions Corvid 99 bombs, I drank them every two hours in raids and in military time. My homemade bomb was aloe vera, ACV Apple cider vinegar, the juice of entire pineapple, cayenne, 2 whole jalapenos (with the seeds), parsely, cilantro, fresh grapefruit, and maple syrup.
Michel Foucault said, “self care is a sign of freedom” So each day I played characters; a Marine, a NAVY seal, a molecular biologist, a herbal witch, and an urban avant guard shaman. I was also my doctor, my nurse, the hospital cleaning staff, my best friend, my partner, and most importantly the patient. When I would meta check in on myself, “How's the patient today” I would say out loud, “I made it through another night, I am alive”. Each day was a strange blessing, a new moment in time, like my lifetime was just one moment. It is when we say something is unreal, are we really seeing reality, for all its complex realities.
When I called the ER, The doctor said, “We can’t fix you... We are scared... we don’t know what to do... we have to protect our staff... It sounds like you are managing... If you can’t manage your symptoms, please don’t hesitate to call.” After that call something just clicked in me, like Foucault saying that Western medicine is about power, control, cutting to understand the body, and about regulation.
When your prison wardens tell you they are scared you have to ask , what is fear. Timothy O’Leary talks about the message when experimenting with LSD. He says you trip and then the phone rings, you pick up the phone and you get the message. You stop calling. You stop looking for the phone, for answers, or anything, or anyone. You got the message. You see the light switch and you turn on the light. You look in the mirror and see yourself, clearly. There is no fear. It was then I realized I was in the most wonderful love filled, conscious, intentional, bio-dynamic, holistic hospital ever. Our governmentally regulated hospital system was not safe, but I was having a spiritual experience from a coronavirus.
From that moment on I surrendered to Covid-19. I laid in bed and turned off the news. My lungs became a divine motor. I called them a lungboat. My breath was deep, slow, controlled and only through my nostrils. I basically became a monk. I meditated all day long. My movements were soft, slow, considered and focused. I realized every thought I had in my mind had a physiological response in my body.
With this new understanding of my body and mind in call in response like blackbirds intwit echo location, I found a new calm. Every thought would either hurt were it felt like my lungs were concrete. Or I would think of something positive and I would exhale and feel sweet relief. Naturally I made time to listen to the birds outside my window. Through a high fever I would open my eyes to see fog and seagulls slowly circling in swirls near my window. They looked like they were looking in at me, like silent nurses swiftly checking in to make sure I was healing. A crow’s piercing caw would wake me up every morning. From my window I saw the trees smiling at me. The pair of doves, a gaggle of grackles, squirrels, and a boisterous red cardinal all became my friends. I was in my own post-jungian dream world, tapping into an inner world where everything was spirit. Schopenhauer would be proud.
Marcel Duchamp was asked what kind of art he made. He said coyly, “Le Reniflard, I'm a breather, and I do it very well”. When Joseph Beuys lectured outside of the Duesseldorf academy he was a meta teacher, a professor at the borders. He said the studio is in my breath. I knew one thing and one thing only, I knew my breath, intimately. I was a breather.
Since I recovered I have begun a new morning breathwork and meditation practice. I have also launched a new project, THETA BREATHWAVE.
My mission is twofold. I want to demystify meditation and breathwork for individuals and groups through daily group practice, weekly videos and private instruction. My larger goal is to make breathwork accessible to all through a global public art project. Breathwork and meditation don’t only bring calm and relaxation, but they also reinforce our immune system. My focus now is on spiritual immunity and global unity. I feel we all have the ability to respond with care, unity, and respect for mankind. It is our RESPONSE ability. It begins with how well we take care of ourselves.
"From the idea that the self is not given to us, I think there is only one practical consequence: we have to create ourselves as a work of art." –Michel Foucault
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – C.G. Jung
HEREACLITUS “HERE” VERNON IS AN ARTIST, CREATRIX, BREATHWORKER, PERFORMER, ENERGYWORKER AND PUPPETEER. THEY HAVE BEEN CULTIVATING A BIODYNAMIC ART/LIFE PRAXIS FOR 25 YEARS.
Here worked on this piece with Nick Wylie, the Quarantine Times interim Saturday editor. Every week, Nick selects a Chicagoan to share a commissioned creative response to the pandemic.