It's All In A Name - Part One - An Epic Poem Poem by Mark Nichols

Are you with me?
Names say a lot

There's a lot in a name.
There is a point where the roads knot
You might call it a crossroads
We have a way of stringing our words into a big long word
Straßenknotenpunkt which literally means 'the Road-knot-point'

Worgl has been as a crossroads
Travelers would cross here
Ideas would cross
Kings and queens would stay at the Tyrolean Valley Inn

We have a river or a brook a bach
Just like Johann Sebastian the famous organist
The musician with all those kids
This is a small brook but it's name is far from tiny
It is down near the orchard the green the meadow the anger
It is called Unterkrumbacherhofes

Unter is under or among
Krum mean crooked yes of course
Brooks are crooked and deformed
When did you last see a perfectly straight brook?
And this is my favorite part
Hofes which means justice
So anyone who tells you Austrians are not funny people
Doesn't appreciate their appreciation of great irony
And has not dipped his or her toes in the
Unterkrumbacherhofes
Or as we like to call it
The intertwistedcrookedjusticecreek

This sort of irony is just what a mean needs to dip his toes in to feel better

Did you know that Worgl is made of two communities. That the wings on our crest symbolize the two communities coming together and flying out of debt and deparation. Economic recovery. Ech. Boring right? Wrong.

Are the 'specific buidings in the moonlight' big, rich or modest? What is he thinking?

Meet our town council!
Sort of a beer drinking chorus, right?
Beers!
Beers!
Siebenrock
Meaning Seven Rock also Kilt
Klaus means Victory of the people
Seven Victories of the people or more precisely
People of victory
Very auspicious
Maybe the town council is made of seven people?

Annika means sweet-faced favored by god
Grace or Favor so she is grace of the seven rocks. Or favored by the seven rocks. Sensitive, Intellectual pondering likes to feel needed. Sticks nose into other people's business. Wants luxury. Is perfectionist and demanding. Is allergic. Profound sense of justice.She's an aesthete. Lover of symmetry.

Gerta is Spear Maiden
Ivan is God is Gracious
Bier Bier
Lovely bier!
The brewhaus is closed
But we've still got some bier here
Hops and schnaps!

All German people should have funny long names
Thekla is Glory of God
Sittenhaler is sitten
Meaning manners or morals
And haler (Hæle) is hero
Glory of God Morals and Mannershero

George Stawa is Earthworker
Also meaning Stay or Ssense of Remain

Beautiful long names
Like American Indian names
A sort of clever numerology for characters
Make their names mean something
Names mean so much
All you need to know is in a name.

Walking down BAHNHOFFstrasse
Is walking down arailwaystationstreet

Michael Unterguggenberger
The hero of this story
Is broken into bits & Unter = among
Guggen = brass band of a wild thrilling syncopated nature
As in Guggenmusik or Guggen band
With a bit of burger or berger meaning Citizen

Even the first name Mich is Me
And the longer version Who is like God?
Who resembles God? (*note question-mark!)
MeWhoIsLikeGodCitizen?

But let's go back to Guggen
For this where it gets complicated
And really interesting
As in it's most visceral utilization: Guggenmusik
Guggen, derives from a really old Alemannic word
Sack/Tute meaning Bag

Guggemusic
Wearing carnival masks on the Basler Fasnacht
Luzerner Fasnacht
Eis-zwei-Geissebei in Rapperswil
And many others.

As a child
He dreamed of this and the sound thrilled him
He dreamed it so much he thought he could write it
And fancied himself to be a 'composer'
Of this fabulous imagination music
It was all there in his name
Guggenmusic is first mentioned in 16th century AD
It is said that in the Carnival season
The 'spirits of winter' were 'blown away'
By frightening music and sounds

He may have seen or heard this as a child
But it is not for sure
Came to him easily as both nightmare and fantasy
What he heard when he pounded on pots and pans
What he dreamed
A band of rattles, tin pails, drums, cow bells & whistles
Dreams of a music that was weird, loud and pitiful

He build towns in his mind
Filled the streets with musical bands
Think of the imagination it took
To dress them all up sufficiently
So as to frighten away the spirits
His townspeople wear masks and costumes
Towels and old rags and things stuck on
Like monsters
Like mummers of ancient days
He'd never seen nor heard of a mummer
but he'd dreamed it all
Like most of us
Creativity comes from nowhere and everywhere

He dreamed of A false play of
Brass instruments
Pipes and drums
An almost-nightmare
Where the melody was recognizable
But slanted or twisted
Nightmarish and playful
Always driven by a frightfully rhythmic
Almost cacophony
Almost being the fun part
Give them just enough to hold and laugh over

He dreamed of his creatures dancing
Sometimes his parents
Sometimes other children
Always dressed to frighten the spirits of course!

These were the wild days of Carnival
So wild in his head
Days and nights of loud imagination
Dreams that stayed with him and woke with him
Day after day

Until he went to work in the sawmill
And that work that made him free
And gave him a place
But it took those dreams from him nonetheless

Though I'm guessing this is a really modern version of it, influenced by US marching bands and drum core, the spirit is there,

Carnival or Fastnacht

On this night much later
A bit of a spare tire now
Despite the depression
He hrips and falls into a pothole
It's sort of the opposite of singin' in the rain

But there's been an accident
He begins walking
Almost importantly
Someone's killed himself!
Let's make him RUN to the death scene
Make it PHYSICAL
On the way he sees poverty
As if for the first time
The activist, trade unionist becomes Human i
It's a blur of poverty

No more beer swilling philosophy
It's let's fight for the common man now!
This is the real thing
But as he runs he gets congratulations
Long live the new mayor!
Or he sees signs of abject poverty
And even then, running to his destiny
He sees signs or billboards with empty worker slogans
This is real
He doesn't know who it is
But by the time he gets there he knows

As he runs he sings this song as he runs

A man is dead.
He hung himself from the head
Now look at the mayor running
With greater urgency he runs now
Past grief, past hope, past sorrow
Through alleys of decay and despair
This is real now

This is the dark night of the soul
This is Michael's reckoning time

Fink is finch
And Werner is who
Is anyone who is
Is who is anyone who is
Werner is warming his hands
On the fire of
Werner the finch
The warm finch fire

Anyone got a light?
Sure is cold
A light's worth gold
Finch's fire is far from ferocious

And one Vogel
One Steven
And Vogel is bird
Stephen is prow
Like the prow of a boat
Which in German means Bug
Both A bug and a bird.
Are you with me?
Names say a lot.
There's a lot in a name.

Anyone who's ever felt
Should be able to feel for him now.
The great one
The loved one
The defender of the common little man

Cruel world
Cruel fate
Cruel irony

And stay with me on this because
The fate of the story
Boils down only to one math problem
And one math problem alone

And ironically Wolf
I don't have to tell you why two birds and a wolf is
Funny do I?
Wolf Schmuckler
Dieter Becker
Not a dieter at all
But a giant in Wolf's clothing
Wolf...'give me back my shirt! ' Schmuckler

Dieter Becker
His name means Warrior of the People
Becker meaning a cup or cupmaker
Dweller at a brook

Can we now do a reprise of
The Brewhaus is Closed

What might be funnier is if they're arguing the argument
We hear today
Poor people who are against welfare
In other compound words
Freeloaders want the government to do everything for them
But you knowc all long-snake-word German

Another thing that would be really funny
Is if these guys are really goofy intellectual
Like Brecht's Azdak

Peter means Stone or Rock
Fritz = peacekeeper
Maybe very funny that he is the exact opposite
Shies away from conflict
Fears any sort of antagonism
Why is he the dude who flies off the handle

Rainer Keller
Decider or deciding fighter
Keller is Master of the Cellar

Andreas means manly
Or Male Human Being
Rossl means Soot Black
Grimey and smokey
Possibly ruddy or red
Man of the moors or Darker Man
Darkskinned redheaded man

Dortee means God's Gift
Wedding rings
Pretty things
Versus a hole in your belly
And death from starvation

Before Michael drops the 'plan'
Frustration and guilt all come to a head

Oswald = Divine Power
Koller = Rage and Madness
Who is this Oswald Divine Power Rage and Madness?
What a character!

Meeting Hans Stumf
Means God is gracious and Stump

Joseph Gollner Göldner
Someone who works with gold
Joseph means he will add or god will increase

I think Hans Stumpf should literally be stumped
'I'm stumped! '
Says Hans Stumpf

Establishing shot of Unterguggenberger
Michael unning up the steps of the bank building
I think he should trip again
'Sheisse! ' or whatever
People hurrying is a great time for exposition
Like Brecht's Barefoot Girl
Storytelling while she's running, you know

Bank owners:
Keinboch is Boech
Nickname for a man who Resembles a he-goat
Sign of the goat
Kien is either Pine or Wooden
Like Kuhn meaning Daring
Victor is of course He who Conquers

Maybe the goat man eats the contract
Yes, why not?

Still smarting carries loaf of bread
Michael goes down to the Unterkrumbacherhofes
Krum = Crooked Deformed
Unter = Inter
Bach = Creek
Hofes = (wait for it)
Justice.
UnderCrookedJusticeCreek
Narrator notes how Michael did not consider the irony
He gives the bread away

Alois is Famous Warrior
Lia is Tired or Weary
Rosa is Rose Flower

Let's have a song
A song to reinforce Michael's brilliance
As imaginer of musical worlds
The Notebook should be magical

Every day I would writeWriting saved my life
I put so much lead on the page
That that lead
Slowed down the bullet from the Russian sharpshooter

It went through my coat
It went through my uniform
It went through my shirt
Kids..'Through your undershirt? '

'No Not through my undershirt! '
Because why?
Because this little notebook was in my pocket
And the bullet stopped before it got to my heart
Show us!

And inside it I've written my deapest thoughts
And all the things I love from my favorite books

An idea isn't alive
And neither is an idea

But THAT'S where you're wrong!
An idea can live forever and change
And grow
And become sick
And become well
And can find other ideas
And change them
And transform minds of the future!
It's all right here in this notebook

Ideas make us who we are
Look at these books
(He refers to his wonderful little library
So precious to him)
Filled with ideas
Ideas about peace
He is obsessed with peace
Every action I take is rooted the desire for peace
That is why
Work
And struggle for peace
The kind of peace that is based on the
Eternal basis of freedom and justice
Is repeated so many time
In these books

To his son 'Like this man... He....
To his daughter 'Like this man... She...

She: But papa, there are no books by women
There you are quite wrong
In fact the bravest of them all is this woman
She was awarded the Nobel peace prize
Bertha Von Suttner
Die Waffen Nieder!
Lay Down Your Arms!
Would you like me to read you that book sometime?
'Yes please'.

Look, I've outlined it:
So lange wir uns an die Vergangenheit klammern,
werden wir Wilde bleiben. Aber schon stehen wir an der Pforte einer neuen Zeit - die Blicke sind nach vorwärts gerichtet, alles drängt mächtig zu anderer, zu höherer Gestaltung...'

As long as we cling to the past, we will remain Wild
But already we are at the gate of a new era
The views are directed forward
Everything pushes mightily to greater design

What does it mean, papa?
It means that things have to change
And that we can't stop them

He sees the Gesell book.
And even this man
Even though his ideas
Really never amounted to much
He stops
I read this
I loved this
During the war
Look I've written something about it here

He opens his little book
It's about money
How do you like that?
It's about money
Sitting in a foxhole
All I could think about was money
It saved me, it did

Isn't it a little Bourgeois?
Shouldn't he be in the pub
Or studying by candlelight?

The young man says 'It has to be possible'
This is a moment
With a capital M
This is the moment of classic songs of hope
We recall his childhood thrills of composing
It should be visually about risk
It should be his only hope
And as such be something that we feel deeply
With him
Even though it is all economic theory

Marchesani = woman who delivers Hotdish
Literally means Marked or Named
Anna meaning Favored With
So Favored-With-A-Name

Should Michael try to describe this
Boring stuff
He tries to describe it
And falls on his face completely
It is so boring
And so over people's heads
The math problem
That has everyone enslaved
Is just complicated enough to work on people

Through simple storytelling & metephor
He is able to convince some
Maybe the daughter says
I believe you daddy.

There should be a moment
As in all genius
Where the genius gets laughed at
And really humiliated
This is a necessary moment
In the life of each genius